Boring vs trendy name?

I'd choose Alice, as I'm usually not particularly fond of trendy names like Edith. While obviously all names go in cycles to some extent, choosing a name like Elizabeth, Alice, Sarah, Maria, Catherine etc which has generally stayed in the top 100 for a very long time (the last 3 admittedly have dropped out in the last 20 years), means she hopefully won't have an "old lady" name when she's elderly herself - which she might appreciate.

An alternative might be to choose a name that has rarely or never been in the top 100 but which still feels fairly classic/traditional anyway - something like Rosalind, Antonia, Helena, Cecily, Claudia, Verity etc which also shouldn't date her.

I way prefer Alice. Don't like the th ending in Edith or any other names.
Also love Phoebe which is popular but not boring

All the Edies I know (who are all really Ediths) are very cool. They are all London teenagers and were named ahead of any popularity surge.
I'm really surprised by people saying it still sounds "old lady" - I guess there are still significant regional variations.

I absolutely love the name Nancy

Aw yes, bless.

Edie is from Edith, surely? An ancient, Anglo Saxon name. From memory (not always 100%), there was a queen Edith, the wife of Edward the Confessor.

Poor old Edie Sedgwick.

Can you imagine a cool Edie?

Surely you can’t get much cooler than Andy Warhol’s muse?

Also Pearl.

I like them both
Other possibilities could be
Marianne, Honor, Vita and Gloria.
I love Gloria and don’t know why it’s not more popular! Very granny chic.

Of the two I prefer Alice. Alison was quite popular when I was young.

I would pick an 'ordinary' - not necessarily boring, depends on your perception - name over a trendy one any day.

Alice is really boring reminds me of Anne
Just a nothing name

Both are lovely and traditional.

I gave my dd an old lady's name 25 years ago. Everyone thought it was most odd. It's now in the top 15. I don't think old lady's names will date, but neither of those are that sort of name.

I love the name Alice-think classic and will age well.

Perfect!!

Interesting though because dd, now 23, had an Edith in her primary class and one at secondary. Funnily enough the other name on here was relatively uncommon until the late 90s when it seemed to explode. I think some of it is about demographics. DD's third name is Mabel which was not on anyone's radar in 1998 and mine is May. Who'd have thought that would take off for this generation.

There's a gardener called Alys Fowler. I quite like that spelling. Mind you, I'm guessing that it has the same pronunciation as Alice, could be quite different I guess

I really like Alice because I know Alices of all ages, whereas Edith does seem to be having a spike in popularity at the moment. If I heard of somebody called Edith, I'd guess she was either an elderly lady or under five. (I know there are exceptions, like Edith Bowman...)

I'd say any name that is easy to spell correctly on being first heard is fine.
Can you imagine the number of Rosey-Maes having to say that's spelt Rosey with ey on the end, hyphen,may spelt Mae.

they're not there

I think they are both great but I think there both classics. My 18 year old has a friend called Edith (Edie) and I think it was a bit interesting/trendy then but very mainstream now.
I prefer Edith to Alice personally.

Edith is absolutely not a classic name. I think people are saying "classic" on here as a sort of synonym for "lovely." I actually think Edith IS lovely, but it's not remotely classic. A classic name is one that is never massively in or out of fashion, like Elizabeth or Charlotte or Lucy or Julia or something like that. Edith was a very popular name in the 19th through early 20th century, and fell right out after that. If you'd called your child "Edith" when I was a kid, people would have thought you were a bit odd---it would have been like calling your child "Brenda" or "Maureen" right now.

Alice is genuinely classic---it's been used relatively steadily for decades. I don't think it's a boring name at all. I'd say it's conventional.

OP, if you want to avoid both "boring" and "trendy," go for something which is a known name but has never been particularly common, like Rosaline or Paloma or something like that.

@Mugsen dd tried that with her middle name when she changed schools for 6th form but kept not answering to her middle name and anyone she knew already used her original name so she reverted.

[quote RosesAndHellebores]@Mugsen I think the grass is always greener. I have a very unusual name (Cressida genre). DD has a very simple, classic name. I wanted simple and classic; dd would like something much more unusual.[/quote]
Yes I guess having the opposite kind of middle name might help. So that you could choose through different phases of life. I do know an adult with a common birth name who has changed to a much fancier one. A bit like Cressida. I guess it makes her more interesting to those who don't know. Exotic almost.

Alice is a more consistent classic. Edith is very on trend at the moment.

@Mugsen I think the grass is always greener. I have a very unusual name (Cressida genre). DD has a very simple, classic name. I wanted simple and classic; dd would like something much more unusual.

Funny isn't it, people's views are so different. Alice I like. I like Ava, Evie type names but not so much Edith. It's on a par with Hilda for me. I don't think it's great being a teenager with an old lady name. There's a Margaret in dd's year and she hates it. They're all trying to be cool. Can you imagine a cool Edie? Maybe.