Why are Albert, Stanley and Violet OK but.....

All of the ones piscesmoon listed and Bob for Robert.

And yes Jack is John

harry for henry.. if you pretend you are a chinless wonder they sound very much the same (in the manner of one of those snape cartoon characters!)

A lot of nicknames don't make sense. Dick short for Richard, and Dickon. Peggy short for Margaret.
Hal short for Harold or Henry. Jack for John. Kitty for Catriona, Betty short for Elizabeth. It is tradition. You have to look at history.
Harry was a very common short names, as in 'Tom, Dick and Harry' (Thomas, Richard and Henry).

Why is Harry a nickname for Henry when it is not shorter than Henry? Doesn't make any sense to me!!

I can see Liz is short for Elizabeth because it actually is a shorter form...

But Harry for Henry???? and is it also Jack short for John?

I think you may as well say Richard is short for Robert or Ronald...I think they are all completely different names from each other!

I know a Barnaby which reminds me of grampas (and also, of course, Barnaby the bear's my name, never call me Jack or Jane!)

I also know a young Malcolm, but his mum had 14 children before him, so I guess she must have ran out of names she liked.....

Uuuuuuuuurgh Stanley and Albert are both on DHs list for boys. I don't know what to do about it (apart from praying for a girl).

An american friend of mine has a 3 year old Colin...pronounced like the Colin Powell (bit like Colon with an "i") - I wondered if a relation was called the same name as it isn't a popular choice amongst the baby naming generation. For me it conjures up images of pringle jumpers and farah trousers in beige.

I know of a 12 year old Malcolm.

Elsie is very popular now - my mum says it reminds her of a 70 year old with a fag in her mouth at the Bingo. We just think it's trendy.

The lady who registered DD's birth a couple of weeks ago was called Kim which I quite like although she says at 52 she reckons she is the oldest Kim around and that most people use it as a dogs name .

Anyone see Dickon making a comeback?

I wouldn't have thought Ruby could possibly be a cool name so I think Pauline stands a good chance!

I'll take that bet Botbot - no way Pauline will ever be a cool name!

One of dd's middle names is Pauline (named after a family member who died the year before she was born) and I'm taking bets that it'll be a cool name by the time she's in her twenties.

Harry has always been popular because it is a shortened form of a classic name. In the same way Jack is popular in its own right, but used to be a pet name for John.

I know around of 15 little girls all under 10 with the name margeret or deriratives of.(Maggie, Megan). Where I live there is a large traveller community and they tend to name their kids after relatives ie the granny was Margeret. I think it is a nice tradition but confusing all the same!

sorry i stick with harry not being historical. no historical figure has ever been christened harry. and we have no proof they were actually called harry by anyone at the time, so its probably just retrospective. no harry's in shakespeare either.

i dont know why i am getting so obsessed with this !!!! anyway, my orginal point was that its amusing that harry is popular, barry isnt, and theres only one letter difference. neither for that matter is gary, which is sort of similar...
god i need to get back to work.

I love the name Richard/Richie.

I will be so upset if I end up grandchildren called Barbara and Trevor. omg. So ugly.

cyclical. Names come around every 90 yrs. Give these names another 45.

I know 2 toddler Margarets (Maggie)
A preschool Erik (ok, maybe the K makes it cooler, I dunno)
And an 8 year old Mabel.

The Harry short for Henry thing is Shakespearean I think.

oh eric is so on the comeback (met two)

met my first toddler David today, what a great name I thought after years of thinking it was a dull as the 10 Daves I knew!

my neighbour is a lillian and is about 55 she hated her name growing up but kepts having neices named after her!

agree about Lucy not dating

i think the boring safest thing to do is look for a name which is already spanning a few generations, ie Catherine or Elizabeth and that's pretty much guaranteed to be in style forever.

that's really playing it safe though... where's the fun in that?

I thought Harry was short for Harrold which is a historic name - I don't get the Harry/ Henry thing.

How is Harry not historical? King Henry V was known as Prince Harry and he was born in 1387!

I met a baby eric today....have to admit it didn't strike me as a name in use at the moment...

Agree with the idea that naming your baby is foolish...cutesy names just don't last very long at all

Actually, I retract what I said about Welsh names not dating - I've now thought of a whole load. Eg., if you're Welsh, Gwyneth is an older woman's name. Gwyneth Paltrow is like the Welsh equivalent of Edna.