What causes name fashions?

I have to say when i was at school Thomas was not a cool name. My cousin s friend was a Thomas and I remember very thinking what an old-fashioned name why on earth did his parents call him that. So all names can have seasons.

I think a lot of people use names which their grandparents were called.
Names which i found old fashioned and dull are now becoming quite popular.
The same will be true of the next generation.
I think girls names might change more frequently because people are more likely to call the baby after its father, like a previous poster mentioned.
Just watching the Wright Stuff and a woman on there has called her baby Paul after its dad.
I was at school with Paul's so to me the name isn't yet old enough or young enough to be considered a nice name if that makes sense.
Sometimes people might near a name and when they become pregnant it has stayed in their mind so they like the name.

Sorry, Belgina
Agreeing about boys' classic names also

James another one, Belgian.

Interesting discussion. My dd3 already has a Suzy in her preschool. Maybe it's already on the way back?! I also know children called Claire, Peter & Catherine. All not particularly current at the moment.
I have noticed there are classic boys' names that do hang around much longer than girls' names. Thomas is the one that really springs to mind.

Names can also seem more popular .. if you have a child called 'Elodie' then you tend to notice when the same name is called/written down/ on the telly.

My parents generation were all Keith, Richard, Alan, David, Ian. I wouldn't use them as I'd associate them with fuddy duddies.
My grandparents were Milly and Pearl, both making a resurgence, so definitely skipping a generation.

Ooh, temps Gwendoline! Or Pru. (or was she St Claire's?)

2030 will be the year of the baby Colin, Neil, Denise and Karen. With their cousins Linda and Paul!

I'd noticed that reuset - lots of mentions of Daphne on here lately too. Better dig out my old Mallory Towers books for inspiration if if I ever have another DC!

Lol, Jude then.

For Arlo the only references I can think of are Arlo Guthrie (US Folk Singer born 1947), a cat character in the Bing animation on TV and a restaurant in Newcastle

Yep Mitzy, a whole new generation of Susies and Pams

Susan/Susie is great too. Brisk no nonsense names.

The Beatles name is a 'cool boys' name' so unless hipsters have started calling their sons Michelle, I doubt it!

I wonder how Hooray Henrys got their tag...

Beatles name is a Michelle, surely.

Yes, and Nancy's already on the rise, Temps.

Yep Mitzy, a whole new generation of Susies and Pams.

Top 100 doesn't mean a huge amount if the majority of people were given names from the Top 20

Like Henry Top twenty name before the current period.

Rupert's not massively popular. Matilda wouldn't be on my list of 'upper class' names, despite royal connections, though it is very fashionable and popular at present. It has been fairly popular at other periods in history also.

And Pamela. I love the name Pamela.

There are very few genuinely timeless names, where you can't accurately guess the age of the owner. Here in the UK 'royal names' probably come closest - things like Catherine, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Eleanor and Alice for girls, WIlliam, Henry, James and George for boys.

Agree with the cyclical/100 year thing, but I think you also get particular 'sound trends', where names that have a particular style or group of letters suddenly get popular. E.g. lots of people begin to choose Emily, next people might see Emily as too popular and plump for Amelia instead, then the trend moves on to include alternative spellings/versions e.g. Emilie, Emilia, Amelie as people look for 'something a bit different', and finally the trend broadens out to include names with a similar 'feel'. e.g. from Emily to Amelie to Elodie.

Recently we've had the nicknamey 'ee sound' trend for both sexes (Ellie/Lily/Milly/Tilly/Maisie; Alfie/Archie/Freddie/Charlie), the Latinate trend for girls (Olivia, Amelia, Sophia, Isabella) and Old Testament names for boys (Noah, Isaac, Joshua, Jacob). There's also a bit of a current fashion for names ending in -o, hence the rise of Arlo. Think it might have started with Leo and then Milo (Tweenies?) a few years back.

I predict mid-century/Enid Blyton names will start to make a comeback soon - things like Anne, Nancy, Susan, Daphne, Hazel, Sally for girls and Peter, Robin, Philip, Ralph and Laurence for boys.

My grandmothers generations n used family names - full of our john and your mike their Frank etc

My mothers generation was similar - all chosen after aunts or cousins

Now we chose our own names - and so many to chose!!

DD1 is one of 5
DD2 there isn't another one
DS is one of 3

It just pot luck really

Didn't know it was Freakanomics but makes sense that research has been done on this.

This thread has prompted me to have a look at the popularity lists and some are so surprising! 1000 babies named Thea for example compared to 60 twenty years ago.

As an aside, where do names such as Arlo come from? Going from never used to 620 babies in a year in the space of two decades. Is that just new names jumping on a pre-existing name trend (-o ending names) and everyone flocking to the same unused -o name?

Thinking out loud there must be more to it than that or names such as Ludo or Sholto would be wildly popular but they're scarcely used.

Top 100 doesn't mean a huge amount if the majority of people were given names from the Top 20. Henry aside, Rupert, Hugo, Matilda - all 'posh' names that have filtered down.

That's so true about names being used by the upper class and filtering down!! Tripping over Henry's and esmes round here. I couldn't care less about league tables or popularity. My 2 boys have very traditional most likely top 20 names. Chosen purely cause I love them!

No, Henry is an old classic, and not class connected. Top 100 for more than a century...just offhand.