"Old Lady" names which should never see the light of day ever again

I hate Barbara, Phyllis and Jean.
Mavis and Doris are horrid.
I also strongly dislike Edna, Evelyn and Lillian.
Let's not talk about Bernice and Bertha or Roberta...
That's about it for me.

My d-i-l wanted to call dgd either Gertie or Nellie!!!! There was such outrage all round with mutters of 'dirty Gertie' and choruses of 'Nellie the elephant' that she settled on a much more 'acceptable' name that everyone loved.But you know it wasnt any of our business and dgd would be the same wonderful 9 year old no matter what her name was.Her brother is Frank........

Just seen my name up there and I hate it too-it suits Julian Clary's dog though

Queenie

I love most of the names on this thread.

I love all these names!

I think the ones which are seen as old fasionhed now are the names of people who are in middle age now:

Karen
Marie
Sheila
Shirley
Tracey
Valerie
Dawn
Vivienne

• Marjie I meant!

Some are nice / ok eg Elsie,Ruby,Lily,Violet etc

others eg Ethel,Maude are too hideous to think of a cute little newborn baby!

OMG @ anyone liking Marjorie! it's my Mums name and she never uses it! always Marj / Margie

ditto for Margot?!

I know of a little girl called Gwen,which was weird to me when I met her & her Mum ,as the only other Gwen I knew was my oooooooold great aunty! lol

True, but unfortunately Prudence is not only a dull virtue, associated with Gordon Brown no less, but Pru sounds like a combination of the not unrelated prune and poo.

Oh I know a lovely Pru(dence), it really does change the way you think about a name!

Think you're right Cortina - Black Bess wasn't it? Wasn't the kind of pedigree (thoroughbred) I was thinking of . But what about Good Queen Bess, Bess of Hardwick etc?

Oh goodness forgot Pru(dence) - I know a Pru and she is a downhearted creature and I'm sure the name doesn't help one bit.

Also as with names like Chastity, the child so-named is utterly bound by the law of sod to become the incarnation of the exact opposite.

tummytickler can I please beg you to consider Hildy (at least she's a brilliant fast talking woman in His Girl Friday), or Patience if you must have a virtue name. Love your others BTW.

Agree with you re: Bess but wait, wasn't it Dick Turpin's horse?? )

Oh no please not Joan, Jean or Sybil! Not Betty, it's awful. What's wrong with Bess? It's a cool name with a good pedigree, but no-one is called it nowadays.
Deirdre and Joy/Joyce, Yvonne, Patricia, Sheila, Janet, Berenice and Enid - they don't even sound nice, actually it sounds like a coffee morning. It took me about 15 years of hearing the name Enid Blyton to even realise she was a woman.

Cool old lady names IMO:

Bess
Ivy
Violet (but NOT Vi)
Nancy
Patience
Rosa
Gwen is cool for a teenager, there are a lot of arty old-lady Gwens where I come from.

Oh dear - I love all these names - my dd's are Iris and Pearl (age 8 and 5) and we have considered a lot of these - currently loving Ethel, Mildred, Joan, Jean, Beryl, Hilda, Myrtle, Thelma, Glenda, Prudence and Primrose. Top spot and the moment is Sybil, which I did not really think of as an 'old lady' name, as we are trying to avoid another one really, but we seem to be drawn to them!

However, Iris, who is 9 soon, said that when we have dc5, can we call it Mary (fine) or KEVIN!!!!!!!! I would rather be called any old lady name than be a boy called Kevin. She is ahead of the curve by some way, obviously!

So how do we avoid having dated childrens names? I assumed it it will be Evie, Ellie, Chloe, surely there will never be enough little Mildreds and Hildas for them to become horribly dated?

The middle classes are supposed to love the 'below stairs' names of yesteryear. Elsie, Vera, Pearl, Evie, Lilly, Ruby etc are usually the maid in 20 and 30s literature etc. No doubt we'll have very posh people choosing Chardonnay etc in 100 years!

I think Margaret will make a come back, it's growing on me as I write - suddenly it doesn't seem quite so 'old'.

I hated Maud/e as a child but this appeals more it seems. Nora/h I think is fine, especially if an abbreviation for the gorgeous, underused Leonora. Dora (on its own) is also very cool IMO and memories of our little friend the Explorer are bound to fade in time...

Mabel must be working its way up in the popularity stakes? Jools Holland's daughter is a Mabel and I've heard of a good few in certain parts of London.

I once met a very cool 20 something Joan and ever since then I've quite liked the name. Why is Joan vile and yet Arthur perfectly pleasant?

Reading this thread has made me want a DD called Olive! Love the name - it's also my great great aunt's name.
My grandmother was called Sybil which I'm in two minds about. I don't know if it's more unusual than old lady?

Dora, Deirdre, Philomena (names from the Irish side of my family which have absolutely no celt-cred!). Funnily enough though, my grandmother on that side was Evelyn Mary and hated the Evelyn bit, she always used Mary, and now Evelyn is very popular on here.

Well now you have listed my own first and middle names, my sister's, best friend's and most of my other friend's names. I suppose that they are 'old ladies' ( I am an old Woman) but surely no need to say they make you sick or remind you of wrinkled tights and smell of wee. I am off in the huff now.

Ina
Peggy
Nettie
Agatha
Fannie
Bertha
Mavis
Dot
Doris
Dottie
Trudy
Prudence
Petulia
Vir ginia
Edwina
Margot
Elspeth
Bernadette
Henrietta
Arlene
Ida
Jan
Joyce
Ophelia
Oonagh
Pau la
Patricia

houseworker is right. emily, lily, molly, emma, grace etc were all considered 'old lady names' not so long ago.

Some of these names will come back into fashion (some already are) and will seem completely normal. Honest.

Eventually when my generation is old 'old lady names' will be claire, emma, sarah, louise, helen etc and everyone will hate these names.

And then when OUR children are old emily, lily, molly, grace etc will be old lady names once again.

And so the cycle continues forever and ever.

So old lady names are just a state of mind really, depending on the current zeitgist.