What names will define this generation?

I think names like Olivia and Amelia and Isabelle etc will span a few generations though…so not necessarily as specific as names like ‘willow, Ivy, Evie’ which seem much more of a trend (and one which might not last as long?) a bit like Joanna, Amy, Gemma of my generation (80s) which seemed to be popular for a much shorter space of time and therefor much easier to guess an age!

Emily has been in the top 100 since the late 70s so a modern classic and not really tied to a particular generation.
www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc363/babyindex.html#1,Emily

However I agree that it shares characteristics with a lot of the on trend names starting with E or ending with Ie!

I think double barreled, full of vowels and shorts (nicknames?) Is a good shout.

There was a smaller pool of names in the past, so a small number became generation-defining. Thanks to social media, the name pool has widened.

It’ll be funny to be an old lady and see all the little babies called Emma, Gemma, Michelle, Rachel, Nicola, Sarah (late 70s baby).

I was talking to a Londoner the other day called Kylie (on the phone, work related) and I could almost guarantee you she was born late 89s and named after Charlene from Neighbours .

Er

Maybe Evie and Alfie.

Darkergreener is great for visualising what names will likely date (at least in England and Wales) - any name that has shot up in popularity from barely used to top 20/30 or so in the last couple of decades is likely to date imo (so yes - Noah, Arlo, Archie, Finley, Isla, Ava, Mia, Ivy etc....there are so many).

I disagree that most popular names will date though - if you go super timeless ie. never left the top 100 historically, you likely won't have to worry about that. So Elizabeth for girls (or maybe Alice or Maria which have also rarely left), or the 11 timeless boys names (including George which was mentioned earlier- yes, it's very popular now but has always been well used statistically).

Names like Jack or Charlie are interesting - they are very popular now but since John and Charles have always been very well used (and many of those older John's and Charles's were known as "Jack" or "Charlie"), I'm not sure they will date as much as people might think.

Obviously the alternative to picking a timeless name would be to avoid the top 50/100 names totally. But as others have mentioned you still risk the name rising - especially if it's part of the current trends ("vintage/retro", "boys name ending in an O", "2 syllable girls name ending in "A" , "traditional nickname ending in an "y/ie", "surname as first name" - this basically covers about 80 -90% of the most popular names!)

I had an Emma in my year at school (would be 60 now) but no Emily as far as I can recall.

Finlay (that spelling) has been a common if not super-popular first name in Scotland for a very long time. I had a great-uncle of that name born before WW1.

One huge change in my lifetime has been putting an abbreviated name/nickname version of a name on the birth certificate, not the formal name to which it relates. There were plenty of people around when I was growing up who were known as Liz, Debbie, Jack, Mandy, Ronnie, Alfie etc but the names on their birth certificates would usually have been Elizabeth, Deborah, Amanda, John, Ronald, Alfred and so on. I wonder if we'll ever go back to that. Pros and cons.

Definitely Arlo, that was relatively unknown before

Cutesy names for boys like Teddy, Freddie, Alfie

Double barrelled names like Lily-May, Amelia-Rose, Alfie-Jay etc

Not sure about Emily. I’m 45 and there were multiple girls called Emily throughout my infant, junior and secondary schools.

@MrsFin, most boy's names aren't surnames, or not common surnames. A lot of surnames are a boy's name followed by s or son.V

Names like Jenson, Harrison, Riley, Finley etc weren't popular a few decades ago

Most boys' names are also surnames though: Thomas, Anthony, James, John, David, Oliver, Christian, Christopher, Andrew, Peter, Paul, Robert, Adam, Joseph, Alexander, Benjamin
Only because it was traditional to use a male ancestor’s forename as a surname when surnames became commonplace
It’s a bit different to using an occupational surname like Carter or Cooper as a first name for a baby

Any name ending in -ia or -ie / -y or -o

Rose, Grace and May as middle names.

Emily was terribly old fashioned for ages. But if it's a royal name or a Brontë it's a classic I suppose. Excepting poor old Branwell ( or Bramwell?)

Stoat,😂
Noah took a while to get popular where I am. Theo too but it's here now.
Eden I first heard a couple of years back, Aria I heard for the first time in the park just after lockdown ended.

Willow is one of those names that never really existed until it popped up about ten (?) years ago. Ditto all those Bear/Fox/Wren/Stoat nature names.

Unfortunately I think everyone on mumsnet has a very bad idea about what names are proper classics, for example I’ve seen comments about Emily being classic and deep down I think everyone knows it’s very dated to the 2000s🥴it will be the Karen of 2040 and to me it sounds like an American blonde girls name, I mean it was the top name there for 12 years.

Alfie
Archie
Teddy
Lily
Ivy
Evie
Anything-May
Anything-Rose

If this interests you then go to jetpunk.com, it's a quiz site. They have quizzes where you guess the top 10 baby names per decade for the last 100 years. Fascinating

Ava
Ella
Isla
Evie
Amelia
Olivia
Lily
Evelyn
Ivy

With Rose/Grace/May/Mae/Mai/Rae as a middle name, generally hyphenated.

Alfie
Finlay
Oliver
Jack
Harry
Charlie

Evie
Isobel
Imogen
Freya

Alfie
Albie
Archie
Otto

Eva, Ava, Evie, Ivy
Evelyn
Lila, Layla, Lela
Olivia
Ella, Ellie
Isabella
Sophia

Theo - feels to me like every single boy that is born these days is called Theo or Ted or Teddy!