Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Baby names

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

Original poster

What is a quintessential English name for a girl?

39 replies

Doozie · 14/02/2010 13:20

I'm looking for a classic English name for a girl - what would your choice be?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
pranma · 16/02/2010 16:28

Rose
Constance
Mary
Jennifer
Joanna

JoeyBettany · 15/02/2010 15:14

Susan

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 15/02/2010 13:34

Joan
Alice/Alys/Alison (Chaucer is jampacked with them)
Jennifer (Cornish)
Jane
Margaret
Clarissa (made up by Richardson?)
Fanny (surely?)
Emma
Constance
Joyce
Iseult

Sunshinemummy · 15/02/2010 13:32

Rose is the most English sounding name to me.

SE13Mummy · 15/02/2010 12:56

My DD1 is Harriet - various of our non-English friends reckon that's a very English name (even though it's actually German!).

frakkinaround · 15/02/2010 12:55

Any of the ones you just mentioned (excluding Alice and Rosamund...) plus for me Frances, Cecily and Emma. I love the name Rosamund but both it and Rosalind are quite German. Rosalind less so.

For me the test is to try saying it in a French, Italian and German accent. If you can't do it then it's English (and therefore off my list, having suffered with a name no-one else can say).

Tamsin is Cornish.

Original poster
Doozie · 15/02/2010 12:38

Thanks everyone for your posts.

Frakkinaround ? I think I?m after a name that you?d go ?aha, she?s English?. You?re right, it is a challenge to find a name of English origin that is widely used and considered quintessentially English. So I'm thinking traditional English names but with Greek/Hebrew/Roman origins. Names popular in Jane Austen, Dickens or Shakespeare. Not Boudicca ? she was a thug.

I'm looking for the English version of saying?

There?s a good chance Clodagh is from Ireland, Myfanwy is from Wales and Marie-Antoinette is from France... etc.

Jane, Alice, Rosamund, Mary, Kate, Victoria, Jemima, Margaret, Anne?

OP posts:
yellowflowers · 15/02/2010 11:29

Tamsin is Welsh or Cornish isn't it?

Loved all that info Bellissima.

Not of English derivation perhaps but names I think of as English are:

Alice
Jane
Catherine
Elizabeth
Victoria
Mary
Emily
Emma
Meg
Samantha
Frances
Lydi a
Imogen
Rosalind
Diana
Polly
Holly
Charlotte
Sarah

VKschmeekay · 15/02/2010 06:29

Charlotte is of French origin.

Ann - definitely English origin
Victoria
Mary
Elizabeth
Sarah
Margaret

(The rest are traditional English names but originated from Greek and Hebrew)

gigglewitch · 15/02/2010 02:01

Also immediately thought Charlotte, Sarah, Emma.

CheerfulYank · 15/02/2010 01:48

Charlotte, Tamsin, Emily, Elizabeth, Victoria, Emma, etc. Of course am not English, but those have an English vibe to me. I've never known of a Tamsin who was anything but English.

Ziggurat · 14/02/2010 21:58

Penelope is Greek too - since when do the English pronounce single 'e's after a consonant (Hermione / Penelope) as e?

Hilda is German.

saggyhairyarse · 14/02/2010 21:57

First name that sprang to mind, Charlotte.

yama · 14/02/2010 21:52

Kate or Emma.

I'm not English by the way.

Ziggurat · 14/02/2010 21:50

Hermione - English...? It's Greek, Isn't it?

Isobel is Celtic / Scottish

Isabella is Italian

frakkinaround · 14/02/2010 17:48

Depends what you mean by English really! Many of the names mentioned are widely used in English but aren't 'originally' English, others which have a more English origin aren't common enough to be considered quintessentially English.

Do you mean a name that you look at and go "aha, she's English" like Frances, which doesn't really work in any other language, or a name that is very common in England but could be from anywhere?

JoeyBettany · 14/02/2010 17:29

Polly

mrsvwoolf · 14/02/2010 17:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PestoSnowMonster · 14/02/2010 17:17

Alice

zapostrophe · 14/02/2010 17:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

HalcyonDaze · 14/02/2010 16:54

Missed off Henrietta

HalcyonDaze · 14/02/2010 16:49

Anything a bit posh or royal....

Araminta
Penelope
Tamsin
Christabel
Amelia
Cordelia
Philippa
Verity
Daphne
Imo gen
Victoria
Beatrice/Beatrix
Eliza
Jemima
Arabella
Portia
Briony
Camilla
Felicity
Cecily
Juliet

mathanxiety · 14/02/2010 16:32

Joan
Gladys
Fenella
Cecily
Araminta
Arabella

MaggieMaeve · 14/02/2010 15:18

yes Bellissima, didn't Swift invent it for his friend, Esther Van something. or somebody Van Esleigh. something along those lines!! half a story!

bellissima · 14/02/2010 14:57

or even brian

Swipe left for the next trending thread