'Dated' names

Aurelia is beautiful, classic, and I would say not popular enough now to date - unless it suddenly comes into fashion for a period.

What dates a name is not so much that it's massively popular, but that it suddenly stops being popular - boom and bust.

The name that is always rare, or consistently popular, doesn't date.

Trends fluctuate so fast. It’s impossible to guess what will become popular or fall from favour. You either choose “safety in numbers” by going with a currently popular name and know it will “date” your child as belonging to their peers group., or you pick purely based on what you like and to hell with it.

Talking about names that are associated with much older generations as being “dated” doesn’t really help because Enid and Malcolm could easily become next year’s new trend.

Wren isn't mega popular yet I don't think but it feels like it's headed that way.

Most names date a bit and that's fine. The names that might date badly are the ones that have come out of nowhere, never really been used widely before, and are suddenly mega popular. I'm thinking of names like Wren and Darcy.

Yes, Mrs T has a lot to answer for! Ophelia is a bit more edgy.

I think Margaret has taken longer to cycle round again because of Mrs T. Sometimes a name will evoke negative connotations so it needs to rest for a bit longer!

I think my name was boring when my parents named me and boring now almost 50 years later 🤣
Lisa

I don’t think Aurelia will date, it’s not popular enough. Aurelia won’t be the future equivalent of Sharon or Tracy.

I don’t understand the mn obsession with this. Although I don’t have a dated name so maybe it’s easier for me to dismiss people’s concerns about having a dated name.

It's hard to know what will date. There are a couple of girls dd age 15 knows called Margaret and Pamela. They loathe their names. I don't think Aurelia is on a par but it is a tad stuffy to me. Could you use something similar but a bit more modern?

Wished people would say their names I keep trying to guess!

Unless you either go for Elizabeth or choose something totally out there (while making sure it doesn’t fit into a current trend/sound) then dating is pretty unavoidable.

@toastofthetown has it nailed. Names date, like everything, it's mostly unavoidable, and not necessarily a bad thing. Some date more intensely than others, those with a sharper and taller bell curve. But even classic names date - if I said I was seeing Hannah, Jessica, and Emily you would probably imagine I was meeting women who are around 30 years old, that doesn't mean they are bad names.

I was born in the late 70s but my name is more associated with people born in the 30s or 40s. As a child I hated having a name that was more of my parents generation... I've still only met one other my age and I'm 44 now. But I notice it is starting to come back into fashion again and I know of several under 10. Now I'm pretty ambivalent.... I don't love it but at least eg at work if someone says my first name everyone knows who they are talking about as there are so few of working age

What makes people think certain names will date while others won't?

I would have no clue whether Aurelia will date, I think it's very pretty but would never think to choose it myself as it sounds very Spanish/Italian and I don't have that heritage.

The only time I have heard it before it's recently started being mentioned on here is in Love Actually :) But she was Portuguese.

My name reached peak popularity in the 1950s, however I was born in the 1980s. I always hated it as a child and complained that "people's mums are called my name". As an adult I now go by my middle name. It hasn't come back around yet into fashion.

My name is dated to its generation but I like it. Actually, I love the names from my generation and think they are much nicer than current fashion! So no qualms here about using a dated name from the 60s, 70s or 80s.

This bothers some people but not others. Aurelia will date...it's popular now but won't be in twenty years times. Everyone will be able to guess what era she was born in.

A lot of names have been around for a long time, but have spikes of popularity and then get associated with a particular generation and date quickly.

For instance Susan is a perfectly good classic name (variations in many languages) that's been around for centuries - but it then was top-ten in the 1940s/50s/60s - it would seem dated now because it's so strongly associated with an older generation. Only 13 Susans in 2020.

People often like to name their children after grandparents/great-grandparents too, so names come around in cycles.

Think about it... there are people out there currently who want to and do name their daughters Maude and Nancy. You're safe as houses with beautiful Aurelia.

Mine is a v plain, dated 1960s name. I quite resent the fact my parents showed so little imagination.
I think of Donna, Sharon and Tracey being similarly dated.
I'd have liked a Shakespearean name - Cordelia, Rosamund....

I have a very 70s name, and it doesn't bother me in the slightest that it is now considered dated. It is of its time, and is not unusual among my peers. I really don't care that it will eventually be an "old ladies name".

Styles of names come in and out of fashion. I've seen my name discussed on this board, and it has been declared bland and boring. Yet a few weeks ago I was chatting to a lady of my mother's generation who commented that she had always thought my name was "so pretty".

I think what is harder is having a name that is not quite of its generation. I was at school with an Amelia. She hated her name as it was so old fashioned, and went by the name of Amy. Now Amelias are ten a penny!

Aurelia is a lovely name

Names have been in and out of fashion for hundreds of years!

My hobby is historical research, mostly 1200s, 1300s. Reading legal documents you see the same names over and over...Henry, Robert, Margaret, Alice etc. The other day I came across two brothers called Roger and "Reginild". My instant thought was 1940s, 1950s

I think about names less in terms of their place in time, more in terms of what "group" it places them in, in future. Because like it or not, people will judge them on their names. I'm not saying you shouldn't just go with it anyway - some kids make a name. Some people are just bumholes and shouldn't have their opinions attended to... but it's in all of us to judge. However, kids also tend to take ownership of their names, other kids create nicknames for them... you have limited control. I often wished for a less mainstream name (I was born in the 80s and my name isn't one of the absolute most popular, but there was another in my year group) but then again, I kind of like it because I know who my parents had in mind when they chose it, and they chose it for me. If it's chosen with love, maybe it doesn't matter. I also think the widening name pool reflects a lot of people's name desires growing up (eg wishing for a more elaborate, less well known name) - but then I've known people with unusual names go on to pick the same for their kids, so maybe that's not true. I'd love to see data on popularity of parents' names in relation to the popularity or out-there-ness of the names they chose for their children.

I'm an 80's baby with an 80's baby first and middle name and I love my name.
It's still popular in the US but I haven't come across a UK baby that isn't around my age with my name. 90% who have my first name also have my middle name 😂 I've never been disappointed with it.

Aurelia is top of our list for our baby girl due in April, I've liked it for 10 years but not been able to conceive until now.

I've got a very dated 60s name, think it was most popular for the year and I hate it as well.

I think there's a few things here. Some people find it annoying to have a name that's very of its time, and some don't. (Just like some people love having an unusual name and some don't)

But most people would feel a bit annoyed about having a name that makes them sound 15-20 years older than they are. So saying "this name peaked sharply c.2000 can be useful info".

Also,. completely agree with @toastofthetown about general trends. Me and almost all my female friends have names ending in consonant sounds (Danielle, Katherine, Liz, Jennifer, Louise, Claire etc). At my daughter's nursery, almost all the girls have two-syllable names ending in -a with lots of L sounds, even when the names themselves are more unusual (Thea, Zena, Zelda, Clara, Flora). Or they end in -y or -ie. I know far fewer people my age with names fitting these patterns, though obviously they existed (Lisa, Emma, Gemma, etc).

So even if people don't have a popular name, it often fits with a much more general pattern. And why not. Nothing wrong with that.