Girls names that won’t come back…..

One of my dad's aunts was called Effie, short for Evelynne. I find it surprising that it's come back into fashion, or the diminutive has - I just think it sounds a bit like 'eff off'. Another great aunt was called Ruby and I was amazed when that had a resurgence, but I just associated it with old battleaxes surrounded in B&H smoke (as she was).

I’m pretty sure David Tennant has a Doris and an Olive.

Two boys!

one of those ghastly housemaids of yesteryear names

Glorious. Did they?

I know an Eileen, a Dorcas and an Agnes. All at primary school.

Would be surprised if Marjorie and Gertrude made a come back. But Gertie might.

These threads are always hilarious to me, I think most of the names mentioned can and will come back. Maybe not to the same popularity levels they once were at, but still.

I know two women who seriously considered Barbara.

My daughter is Enid and a second DD would likely have been Agnes. Only reason Maud wasn’t in the running is that one of my best friends has one.

Sybil and Joan are already back, if only based on babies I know.

Marjorie will for sure be back… it’s giving Margaret vibes but also there’s a Taylor Swift connection!

Lisa is one that rarely pops up any more. I have been in teaching an youth work for 25 years and I have never met a Lisa

Sharryn
Rita
Edna
Desma
Doreen
Trudy
Winifred

Those three will definitely come back, if they haven’t already.

There will be future babies called Bernard and Malcolm and Brian!

I know of a 10 year old named alan

They'll be back. And will seem ghastly and frumpy and superannuated to the older generation just as Florence, Edith, Mabel, Elsie, Maud etc seemed to older people who remembered living older people with those names.

Or a friend's former debutante MIL, now in her eighties, who, when she and her husband told her they were expecting their first child, said 'I hope you're not going to give it one of those ghastly housemaids of yesteryear names?'

Sadly I know of a few Peggy’s under 5

I’ve got a Querina in my family tre - my GGGM

I agree.
I always use Emily as an example. I was teaching when the first little Emily’s arrived in school. Very cute, but very different from my only other point of reference - Emily Bishop, in Coronation Street. An old lady.

It was almost as if they were two different names - the cute little Emily and the old lady Emily.

Constance
Sybil
Wendy
Fiona
Gretel
Lynn
Tracy
Shelley
Ann
Sally
Alison
Debra
Valerie
Pauline
Justine
Yvonne
Elma

Yes Janet, Tracey, Jodie etc (the female equivalents of Gary!) I struggle to imagine. I know they aren’t completely made up names and are derived from surnames or traditional names but basically they are names that randomly appeared in the 60s/70s and then vanished. Just because names will become old people’s names (currently very middle aged names) one day, doesn’t mean they will necessary join the 100 year cycle of names.

Still, maybe I’ll be surprised and have (great) grandchildren named Gary, Jodie and Janet!

Agree with to these. But ai think many mentioned here are quite trendy in certain circles. Didn’t Lily Allen call her dd Ethel? It’s a ghastly name, but it seems to have its (rarefied) place still.

The ones I can’t see coming back are more like the above - ‘Boomer’ names like Christine, Lorraine, Phillys, Susan and Janet - more than the Silent Gen and the Greatest Gen, whereby such names like Audrey and Dorothy have made a bit of a comeback.

I think the further back, the more likely they are to become popular again. So names like Megan, Chloe, Poppy, Georgia, Mia, Amelie, Isla, Milly and Libby etc will take a long time to become fashionable again once they totally fall out of favour.

Grizel, and variant of Griselda, was quite common in Scotland once. Apparently it should be pronounced gri-ZELL which makes it slightly better, but the two I met (old ladies) pronounced it as Gristle or Grizzle...

and the more recent ‘fashion’ names - Lauren, Becky, Cheryl, Gemma are going to take a long time to be in widespread use.
But Becky is Rebecca, which is surely one of the ultimate classics?

I think Rebecca is up there with boys names such as Peter, David, Michael, Matthew etc which are 99% sure to come around again, probably not too long away, but it will take a lot for 30 somethings to get over the quite out of fashion nicknames of Becky, Pete, Dave, Mike, Matt etc which just are ubiquitous with 70s and 80s born babies.

I’m assuming nicknames like Ollie will date (for a generation or two) just as much as Pete and Becky.

I really like the name Agnes!

I think the traditional and biblical names will come back. I would guess (without the facts to back it up) that the cycle of names is slower for girls names than boys names purely because there seem to be so many more girls names than boys. Nonetheless, I still believe there is a (long) cycle and traditional names won’t ever be gone forever.

Nothing. People just can’t see that it will seem fresh and new once it’s been gone for long enough to have no associations, or ‘romantic and charmingly old-fashioned’ ones, for people naming babies. That won’t be until the Yvonnes have died, or mostly.

So many people mentioning the name Yvonne really surprises me. It’s not my favourite name but what’s so wrong with it?

Pauline, Phylis, Melissa, Yvonne,

and the more recent ‘fashion’ names - Lauren, Becky, Cheryl, Gemma are going to take a long time to be in widespread use.

If I’d had a daughter I’d have called her Jane.