Barbara

sorry its just too old fashioned (for now)

my mum is called barbara and she is now 56 and has always hated it!! especially when people call her babs

xx

Not all names come back though. You look at the list from 90 yrs ago and Gertrude and Hilda and Ethel are on it. WHy have they not come back at all??? If it's cos they're horrible, why were they not considered horrible 90 yrs ago?

I don't think Barbara will come back. Not for a long time. I think Valerie and Belinda are coming soon, to a creche near you.

sorry it is an ugly name imho....

In another 10 years it will be popular. So you could get ahead now...

There is a Barbara at the DSs' school - she is about 8 or 9 I think. I'm pretty sure her parents weren't thinking "retro trendy" or anything but used ut as an old fashioned name.

I have an Aunt Barbara - it is a bit of an old lady's name I think and not as pretty as the other ones that have come back kinto fashion - although, ask again in ten years and it wll probably be very trendy

Please, no.

wispabars - Mabel and Elsie and Edie and Florence etc sound OK to younger ears (well mine anyway, tho not to my mum lol) because they are really old - our grannies' names. They are coming back in, following behind Emily and Victoria and Amelia and Eleanor which preceded them (and would have sounded bizarre 40 yrs ago).

Barbara h/ever, along with, yes, Maureen and Valerie and Mavis and Marjorie still sound a bit too recent (to me anyway). My mum's not my gran's generation.

In 20 years' time, no doubt very trendy, with Derek and Gordon and Barry.

And in 40 yrs we'll be back with Tracey and Sharon and Karen and Nicola and Joanne and Susan - all my contemporaries (we'll all be about 80 by then). Their small brothers will be Dave and Paul and Mike and Steve and Mark (what all my pals' husbands are called)

Oh. What Nantucket said. And staples (sorry you hate yr name tho. I'm not keen on mine either as it's also a boys' name)

I'd certainly raise an eyebrow at the name Barbara, as it's so rarely heard as a baby name these days. I knew a few Polish Barbaras - lol second time this week I've taken the Polish perspective! Diminutive is usually 'Basia' - pronounced 'Basha' which sounds pretty bad in English. 'Biba' is also another derivation of Barbara, but I do think that Babette is way better.

no sorry it's awful. It probably will come back into fashion in a few years but I just couldn't do it

It's not because it's outdated that I don't like it, it's just not very nice. I like Valerie and Belinda though.

Belinda is nice. and Caroline.

See? that other thread demonstrates that those wanting to be ahaed of the games are abdoning the now incrasingly popular old lady chic (Edith mabel etc) and the cutesy/ pretty/pretty (Poppy, Kitty, Ellie etc) and trawling the middle aged for currently unused gems.

mary and jane are good. Classic and undersued currently.

May I suggest Dilys? A bit more old lady than middle aged, but was on our list.

Margaret also good. Margo even better.

But still LOVE Babatte.

I am a Barbara I have always hated my name and never forgiven my mum (also Barbara) calling me it. As a little girl, it was an old woman's name. People assume you're boring and square just cos of the name. Now I'm approaching 40, it's seen as a middle aged name, and I guess still people think of me as being old boring & fuddy duddy.

None of the shortenings are nice - Babs, Barb, Barbie

Now my sis has had a baby I'm Aunty Barbara That is old That is my mum.

I can't say how much I hate the name. Do not do it please.

I told my dh recently I wanted to change my name. He thinks I'm being ridiculous or weird. I'll show him this thread so he can see what I mean.

Oh, and sometimes I get called Brenda by mistake. Lovely

you might like to look at this thread for more ideas.

Barbara is Janet and Maureen's trendy sister. She has a husband called Brian. (or Derek, or Keith)

Just no. In the early 70s a Barbara joined my primary school class, and it was a granny-name then.

It's my MIL's name. 'nuff said.

barack Obarbara

Barbara is a mum's name, and my mums!!

Hey back off! My Nan is called Barbara and she is a bloddy legend of her time.

Love, love, love Mabel. Very upset yeserday when I learnt there is a pet on Blue Peter called Mabel. Grrrr. Also have a secret Daphne fetish. Imo they are both much prettier than Martha or Edith but far fewer toddler Mabels and Daphnes running around.

Haven't quite got round to Barbara but I honestly don't think it is that bad. It wouldn't make my head spin if I met a baby Barbara. I would think it was quite cute and a little quirky.

Definite NO to Barbara - it's my elder sister's name and is hideous. She gets called Barb or Barbie for short.

No

No no no!!

Once a celeb has named thier child it, it would be very uncool to name your child it.

Following celebs very uncool (repeat as a mantra).

Coolness is being the first to do it. where everyone goes 'oh no, that looks/sounds crap I'd never wear/say/do that' when first seen and then 1 year later everyone is doing/wearing/saying that, but cool person has moved on.

Barbara could be cool if you can carry it off.

Babette is definitively cool though imo.

No, not cool.
Might be though if celebs start using it as someone else suggested.

x