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Baby names

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

Original poster

Hilda

40 replies

Firebird83 · 30/12/2022 10:55

I met a 3 year old Hilda the other day and it was surprisingly quite cute on her! Can you ever see it making a comeback? I suppose it’s quite similar in sound to Matilda which is popular.

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Smallonesaremorejuicy · 03/01/2023 04:55

I love the name Hilda & Maude, Dorrie rather than Doris sounds great . The only ‘ old lady’ names I’m not keen on are Nelly & Ethel . Although Lily Allen has an Ethel .

Rickandmortified100 · 03/01/2023 04:47

I know a little Hilda and a little Doris! One is 5, the other 3. They’re both adorable but even with their absolute cuteness the names still sound horrible.

CharitySchmarity · 02/01/2023 17:47

I've always thought it is rather pretty just as a collection of sounds, but it has a few too many unfortunate associations for me - some you will have heard of, but one was just a nosy neighbour. I bet if Greta Thunberg had been called Hilda it would be gaining in popularity by now.

lemmein · 01/01/2023 02:22

I don't like Maud - it's such a 'blah' name to me. Hilda with always be Ogden to me but I'm in my 40s - the generations below mine won't make that connection.

Love Doris, Ada and Evelyn - if I had my DD now though she'd 100% be an Elsie!

Pocketfullofdogtreats · 01/01/2023 00:13

Awful. As is Doris. I've always liked Maud though.

tunthebloodyalarmoff · 01/01/2023 00:10

No

Anisina · 31/12/2022 23:57

I know a Hilda in her 30s and she absolutely hates her name.

Krakenwakes · 31/12/2022 23:56

Hilde in The Last Kingdom is pretty awesome. I like it.

midsomermurderess · 31/12/2022 16:42

MerryChristmasTree · 31/12/2022 16:10

That’s the thing about names, we’re all allowed to have opinions on them. And I think it’s ugly.

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Funny isn’t it how we each hear thing so differently. No need to be so defensive, it’s nothing personal.

mathanxiety · 31/12/2022 16:13

Love it.

I also love Winifred, Greta, and Agatha.

MerryChristmasTree · 31/12/2022 16:10

midsomermurderess · 31/12/2022 14:43

The Doris I know, now in her 30s (everyone was astonished when her parents said what her name would be) is far from ugly and frumpy. She loves her name, has never met another her age, she owns it. And Doris Day was no ugly frump either.

That’s the thing about names, we’re all allowed to have opinions on them. And I think it’s ugly.

midsomermurderess · 31/12/2022 14:43

The Doris I know, now in her 30s (everyone was astonished when her parents said what her name would be) is far from ugly and frumpy. She loves her name, has never met another her age, she owns it. And Doris Day was no ugly frump either.

MerryChristmasTree · 31/12/2022 14:30

Hilda is awful. Doris is just ugly and frumpy. Edna is terrible. Call yourself it, but don’t dump some poor child with it.

TashaBasha · 31/12/2022 14:24

I don't associate it with a certain era I associate it as just being an ugly, butch sounding name.

TashaBasha · 31/12/2022 14:23

RhubarbFairy · 31/12/2022 07:21

Wouldn't surprise me to hear its coming back. I met a Maud this week.

Maud is ok, Hilda is fucking ugly.

Coxspurplepippin · 31/12/2022 14:14

St Hilda awesome woman.

Tryingtostaystrong2023 · 31/12/2022 14:11

I like it and have never really understood why it didn't rise with Matilda, Hazel and Edith.

It reminds me of my great aunt who was one of the strongest most inspirational women I knew.

midsomermurderess · 31/12/2022 14:10

And yes to Doris, big thumbs up. It’s such a positive-sounding, fun-sounding name.

midsomermurderess · 31/12/2022 14:09

I think when you separate it from Coronation Street connotations and look at it more objectively, there’s nothing wrong with Hilda. Nor eg Thora for that matter. And which peers of a child born now will know Corrie? And as other posters have said, it sits with the modern popularity of Nordic names.

KirstenBlest · 31/12/2022 13:54

@IglesiasPiggl , I think Maud is lovely (the Welsh form of it is fab). If you'd told me20 yrs ago that Elsie, Mabel, Pearl and Ivy would come back, I'd have been surprised, and yet they are very popular now.

inquisitorgeneral · 31/12/2022 12:51

I quite like it. I think of the Scandinavian-style cartoon on Netflix. Today's children almost certainly won't know about the older connotations. Let's not forget that once upon a time Amelia and Isabella were considered "old lady" names.

IglesiasPiggl · 31/12/2022 12:37

To me, Hilda is like Gladys, Maud, Mavis and Edna - not yet ready for their old lady comeback. But who knows in a decade's time?

littlemousebigcheese · 31/12/2022 12:36

I know one called hilly for short! It's lovely

Original poster
Firebird83 · 31/12/2022 12:33

Lots of names of that era are definitely coming back, I know of babies names Mavis and Peggy.

OP posts:
BCBird · 31/12/2022 10:38

It's a no from.me. Hilda Ogden was great.