Staying one generation ahead of "cool"

I cannot bear all those Linda, Yvette, Sue, Karen, Anita, Debbie type names. I do not imagine in a million years that anyone would ever like them or use them again they are just god awful (and I do have one of them sadly...)

I do love the idea of Guinevere, Isolde, Ophelia type names though.

Names really interest me. They always have, and I would be willing to bet I spend much longer thinking about other people's name choices than is natural!

I still wouldn't deem someone's name "cool" just because it was picked 20-30 years before it become popular.

I have known an Isobel, Evie, Annabelle and Nancy whose names didn't fit with their generation. I didn't really think anything of it beyond noticing that the names were a bit out of step with their generation. I didn't view them as being cooler once their names got popular.

Just pick something because you like it.

Oh yeah lots of Charlies but not Charles. Unless that's on their birth certificates...

Herod
Caecilius
Google
Ugg
Jailer
Satellite
Gobbolino
Urban
Neville

Anaconda
Terra
Doris
Priscilla
Pryce-Tagge
Gerda
Spye
Rockette
Priestesse

Plenty of boys called Charlie around. When I was at school cool girls called Charlotte was nicknamed Charlie rather than Lottie.

My husband is called Derek and he's 31. I don't exactly think that's cool! I think name a child whatever you want, whether others think it's cool or not..

Margaret/Margot are already back - I know three of them under 5.

Looking at my family tree would be no help - most people are called William or Mary!

Margaret and Susan are due comebacks I think, but probably as variations e.g. Maggie and Suzie. Maybe some forms of Lynn? Dorothy?

For boys I wonder if Charles will make a comeback, I've never met a young one. And it's been ages since I met a David under 30! Nicolas too maybe, don't come across many baby Nicks these days. Roy/ Ray / Raymond?

I think it's nice to go back in your family tree and look to names of your great grandparents. My first born I went for a modern name. After that I chose family names and they were interested to know about these people from their past. First born misses out on that.

A selection of names of young men in 1939-1945 as gleaned by me from the internet:

Gerald Reginald Lionel Leonard Vernon Geoffrey Richard Alan Ronald Roland Philip Kenneth Douglas Neil Martin
Harold Stanley Raymond Percy Derek Walter Giles Robert Arthur Gordon and many, many Peters.

I have a name which is currently fashionable for children, it doesn't make me cool to anyone, it just means people muddle me and my DD up all the time.

I always think about this when I watch 'Bob's Burgers'. The kids' names are Tina, Gene and Louise.

There are a lot of middle aged men's names (Ian, Keith, Tony etc) that I just cannot see making a comeback, I hate them!

Was it last year that not a single baby in the UK was called Ian, definitely not making a comeback anytime soon!

When we are grandparents, our names will begin to creep back, and when we are great-grandparents, they will become really popular. For me (50-something) that implies names like Cla(i)re, Jane, Alison, Karen, Michelle, David, Mark, Andrew, Robert, Stephen.

I think the very next lot of formerly "old-fashioned" names to become popular again will be names of people who are now about 70 or 80, so not quite as old-fashioned as Ada and Vera and Albert seem now, but names like Alan, Brian, Raymond, Roy, Frank, Joyce, Sheila, Pamela, Mary, Irene, etc. To me a lot of those still have a rather stuffy, stodgy feel but I'm sure they will become very interesting to young parents in about 10 years' time.

I think it'll be names that were very popular around 20-25 years ago

Natalie
Emma
Nicola
Laura
Lauren
Melissa
Gemma

slightly "older" names include: Lisa, Mandy, Tanya, Fiona, Angela

I like Beowulf but it's not going to catch on!

Thought of some more older generation grandma's: Marge, Rita, Madge, Sylvia, Joyce, Jessie, Connie, Dot, Reenie ( from all those names ending in -reen) Sometimes the full name travels better through time and sometimes the shortened form!

I also have known a few Phils who had been christened Phyllis or Philomena!

Janet and Roy haven't been mentioned have they? I know a baby Gary, and also an adult Adeline, which I love. I know several cats called Keith, it's a great cat name.

Gary, Simon, Martin, Vincent, Keith, Michael.

I like Jenny.

My toddlers are Greg and Mel ( for short) Does that make me cool?

Seriously though, we just like names popular when we were at school and like the idea their names go with ours.

Gary
Lorraine
Derek
Martin
Gillian
Susan
Caroline
John

I wouldn’t use a single one of those .

Agree with mellongoose, the Middle Ages probably provide a rich, unmined seam of names - Guinevere anyone? Cuthbert? Bede? (I know a Bede!)
My personal favourite girls name is Sharon. Beautiful name, but sadly unusable because of the connotations today.

I agree OP in theory but the problem is that the child will probably hate their name for the first 15-20 years of their life, and it will only become 'cool' once it becomes popular for newborns

I think it's only the adults who find such names boring.

Maybe the 'trend' won't go forward to the 70s at all, but will go back further into history.

Nurseries of the future might be filled with Ethelreds and Herewards