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Baby names

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

Can a name be classic but not timeless?

30 replies

hcarter8 · 22/04/2025 14:40

It’s a genuine question that’s popped into my head because of how hard it seems to be for me to find a baby name that is truly timeless. I feel like there’s so many examples of this but I notice a lot that when a name has been around since the 1800s and longer people call on here it “timeless” but i don’t necessarily think that’s true.

There’s soo many old classic names that are linked to certain time periods imo.
I think the strongest example of this would be Emily, it’s obviously an old name with a few historical namesakes but it never extremely popular until the 90s/2000s when it became the top name in the country. It fell out of the top 100 in 1914 and joined again 60 years later in 1973 and gradually got higher over the years, that’s a long time of minimal use and does not make the name feel timeless at all. It was the most popular name for millennials/gen z and I do associate it a lot with that specific time period if I’m being honest.

Olivia would be a good example of this for gen alpha, it was an old Shakespeare name and wasnt popular for years and then came back around for the generation of babies born today.

They are both undoubtedly classic old names but they are certainly not timeless.
There are probably more names to use as an example but these are the ones I thought of off the top of my head.

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TallulahBetty · 22/04/2025 14:52

Debbie/Deborah. Classic but certainly not timeless

LiquoriceAllsorts2 · 22/04/2025 14:50

On boys names I think Andrew, Michael, John all fit in to this category

BarnacleBeasley · 22/04/2025 14:48

I think girls' names in the UK are less likely to feel timeless because there have been changes in fashion meaning that French or Italian versions of the same names have been popular at different times. PP's examples above are good examples: Anne is less popular now but Anna, which is essentially the same name, is quite widely used. Similarly I think Maria became more popular than Mary maybe in the 19th century, but it's the same name. If you look internationally too, then some Biblical names, or especially ones associated with more than one religious tradition are pretty timeless.

Boys' names haven't changed so much, so again if you pick common biblical names like Thomas and Daniel they never really go away. I know certain biblical names like David and Mark feel a bit 80s now, but they were also popular in the 50s and will probably come back round.

OwlBasket · 22/04/2025 14:48

Yes. Jane, Anne, Mary. I’d say Louise too

elizabeth, possibly.

FromTheFirstOldFashionedWeWereCursed · 22/04/2025 14:42

Jane. Anne. Mary. You hardly get any babies called those nowadays (just middle names) so I wouldn't say they are timeless, but they are classic.