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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Are there any names that you don't understand why they aren't more popular?

114 replies

TheNameNerd · 06/11/2022 11:13

Which names do you think deserve more love?

I know it's very much a marmite name but I love Ambrose.

What names do you think should be used more often?

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dizzydizzydizzy · 07/11/2022 11:52

Christina
Suzannah
Joanna

Ian
Howard

Hoowhoowho · 07/11/2022 11:40

Marilla, it’s my youngest’s name. Never even manages 3 uses a year but it’s from a well known book, isn’t difficult to say or spell, doesn’t have negative associations.

I don’t understand why it is so underused. I wouldn’t expect it to be popular but I’d expect it to be one of those names with 5-10 kids a year called it. Why isn’t it?

TheBirdintheCave · 07/11/2022 11:14

Marion.

Pinkjellies · 07/11/2022 11:12

Cassia seems like it fits with Olivia, Sophia, Amelia, Aria, all names in the top 10 but I never see it used.

Jarofhoney · 07/11/2022 11:02

June, Joan and Jean are all great and unheard of now too. Joni is lovely imo.

caroleanboneparte · 07/11/2022 10:59

I was going to say marina too.

Carmen
Cara
Sylvia
Victoria
Heather
Lorraine
Lara
Tara
Alana
Alicia
Alexandra
Jennifer
Judy
April
Joy
Hope
Brooke
Caris
Davina

Ben
James
Tom
Sam
Guy
David
Richard
Shane

Jarofhoney · 07/11/2022 10:59

I think Carrie is a nice name, it fits into the Alfie, Archie, Penny, Poppy names to me. Sweet, short, nickname-y and friendly. Seems much more unusual to hear of a baby Carrie though.

TempsPerdu · 07/11/2022 10:56

Re Marina, it’s definitely a local thing. I actually know a fair few, but I live in an area that has a large Greek community and every Marina I’ve come across bar one has had Greek heritage.

Much less common in other areas. There were 64 Marinas born in England and Wales last year.

KirstenBlest · 07/11/2022 10:45

@toastofthetown , I know 2 my age, and it's popular with eastern european heritage girls where I live now. It's probably local.
I know one Clementine, and she's about my age.

GlassDeli · 07/11/2022 10:42

I've never met anyone called Clementine or Marina.

toastofthetown · 07/11/2022 08:54

Teeshirt · 07/11/2022 06:28

I know several Marinas, from young children to teens to adults. Not rare at all.

Sheila. I really like this.

Show quote history

In terms of recent usage, there haven’t been more than 70 baby Marinas per year in England and Wales since 1996 of hundreds of thousands of babies born. While I wouldn’t call it rare (and didn’t and the OP didn’t ask for rare names), Marina’s popularity level at the moment is what I would call unusual and I’m surprised there aren’t more. Often unusual names do cluster, like your experience with Marina, but nationally Marina isn’t a very popular name.

TheSproutOfWrath · 07/11/2022 08:18

Victoria. Not seen one for years.

pumpkinscoop · 07/11/2022 08:13

Jerome
Tobias
Paul
Jonathan
Christopher

Miriam
Jane
Louise/a
Caroline
Emma
Sarah

SurreyHillsMamaAndBabyOscar · 07/11/2022 08:02

PeekabooAtTheZoo · 06/11/2022 13:07

Laura
Hannah
Verity
Sarah
Evelyn for a boy
Henry
Robert
Andrew
All gorgeous traditional names that our generations seem to have chucked out of the window in favour of noises and common nouns.

Henry is super common around here

YouSoundLovely · 07/11/2022 07:58

Lisa's another one. Fits right into the current vibe but has just gone.

YouSoundLovely · 07/11/2022 07:55

John and Mary were popular for centuries, but seem to have almost completely disappeared - no comeback with the other old lady/old gent names. They're fab names, too - I like John much more than its currently ubiquitous variant Jack.

Lucy's also a lovely name that seems to have disappeared. And yes to Amanda - classic and vowel-heavy like lots of current names, but seemingly gone - possibly because of people not liking Mandy?

Emil, unlike Emily, doesn't really translate to English pronunciation-wise. It's supposed to have a longish E at the beginning (Eh-mil) and that doesn't really work in English.

I also don't really understand why names like Julia, Fiona, Victoria and Rebecca have gone so out of fashion.

SudocremOnEverything · 07/11/2022 07:51

PeekabooAtTheZoo · 06/11/2022 13:07

Laura
Hannah
Verity
Sarah
Evelyn for a boy
Henry
Robert
Andrew
All gorgeous traditional names that our generations seem to have chucked out of the window in favour of noises and common nouns.

Henry?

underused?

Are there any names that you don't understand why they aren't more popular?
KirstenBlest · 07/11/2022 07:47

@SquirrelFan , the instrument is vee-ola, the flower vigh-ola.

Emil makes me think of Emil and the Detectives too. it's probably too close to Emily to be popular, and there's the Em-ill/Em-eel? issue.

bcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyza · 07/11/2022 07:45

AmandaMirandaPanda · 06/11/2022 23:16

Gillian
Fiona
Janet
Jill
Odette
Samantha (too soon?)
Susannah
Wendy

Douglas
Duncan
Efraim
Emmett
Eric
Hugh
Lionel
Malachi

My name is on that list, and due a comeback.

In my sons school there's quite a lot of the names mentioned on this post.

KirstenBlest · 07/11/2022 07:44

@Bramblejoos , you can look at darkgreener, ONS, do an internet search, ask around, ask on here. You could think about where you heard the name, you could consider why you like it.
I was thinking of names like Jack, Harry, Noah, Olivia, Sophia, Ava, Lily, Ellie and the like, there are so many of them, you'd surely have an inkling that they were popular, wouldn't you?

YaffleYaffle · 07/11/2022 07:27

@Parmesam I thought Clementine was already popular, I know loads.

Ambrose is a great name!

DurdleSnore · 07/11/2022 07:23

Robert. Good, solid, royal name with lots of nickname options.

I’m always surprised to see Cecily and Juliet so far down the charts as they are spoken of frequently on here.

SquirrelFan · 07/11/2022 07:00

Well Ambrose has the association with Ambrose Bierce - wrote dark stories and disappeared!
@caitlinrose Viola - I can never remember how to pronounce it - which is the name, and which the instrument? I think that's why people go for Violet.
@midsomermurderess I can understand Emil not being popular in the UK, to me it would be like naming my son Jean-Paul - I'd be afraid people would think I was putting on airs! Plus Emil and the Detectives, just very specific.

LadyWithLapdog · 07/11/2022 06:39

I think many of these names look better written down than sounded out. If you could listen just to the sound, dissociated from the spelling, innocuous names like Henry, Ezra, Ethel etc sound quite strange (nasal).

Swissnotswiss · 07/11/2022 06:33

I've always loved Ethel. It has a lovely soft sound but hasn't managed to shake off its "old lady" image like other names have.

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