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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?

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bellissima · 14/02/2010 14:56

Before I get shot down in flames, I should say Vanessa is Swift and therefore Anglo-Irish!

I also get shot down in flames for saying Fiona is anything but Scottish, but it's also Northumbian.

bellissima · 14/02/2010 14:54

Lots of these - Caroline, Eleanor, Charlotte, Emma (Bovary), Anne, even Alice, could also be French (well okay it would be Eleanore, but I think it's popularity in this country is down to Eleanor of Acquitaine).

Mary is v English spelling of Marie/a. Jane is v English. Katherine is European but Kate is very English. Wendy is from Peter Pan and ergo English, Vanessa from Swift (?non) so ditto, Imogen? Annebelle(a) a Byronic invention. Isobel is the English version of Isabelle.

Boudicca? (pre-anglo-saxon Brit ie pre Germanic)

sunshiney · 14/02/2010 14:53

Emily. Deffo!

MaggieMaeve · 14/02/2010 14:50

sofaqueen, i meant that the puritans were the first to use words like verity and charity as names!

Wolfblass · 14/02/2010 14:46

Jane
Elizabeth
Mary
Anne (or Anna)
Eleanor
Wendy
Beatrice
Charlotte
Victoria
Rebecca
Hermione
Harriet
Phillipa
Ivy
Mar agaret
Rose
Emma
Emily
Alice

foreverastudent · 14/02/2010 14:42

Olivia
Anne
Regina
Hilary
Rose
Edwina
Ashley
Eleanor
Margaret
Virginia
Afton
Audrey
Ivy
Lorna
Wendy
Edith
Milllicent
Winifred
Henrietta

RipMacWinkle · 14/02/2010 13:36

As above plus Charlotte

SofaQueen · 14/02/2010 13:35

Nope - never even heard of a Verity in America, only here in England. Same with India.

MaggieMaeve · 14/02/2010 13:33

Verity seems puritanical and American to me! I really like it though.

Hermione very English imo

India... not sure!

SofaQueen · 14/02/2010 13:30

Off the top of my head, when I think of very English names, I think of Hermione, Emma, Jemima, India, Verity, Honour.

sunburntats · 14/02/2010 13:28

victoria
elizaboeth
emily

MaggieMaeve · 14/02/2010 13:26

it's quite hard really. I was going to add Claire, but that's both French and Irish as well (Clare).

Victoria?

MaggieMaeve · 14/02/2010 13:25

Elizabeth
Jemima
Annabel
Catherine
Louise
Caroline
Stephanie
Juliet
Alice
Jane

I'm not English though, so I don't knwo how genuinely English these are more the vibe than the origin perhaps.

Lighteningbugs · 14/02/2010 13:23

Alice

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