The wrong era names....gaargh

I am and Andrea in my 40s, my Granny was Janet.

I’m not sure how well this will stand up as an example of surnames being used as first names, but consider Jane Austen’s name choice for Mr Darcy.

Mr Darcy’s first name is Fitzgerald, and we’re told in the novel that this was his mother’s surname. So that would suggest that it wasn’t totally unknown for a child in Regency England to be given a first name that was more usually a surname.

@KatherineSwynford1403 I think it was Sarah which jarred a bit for me. I’m in my forties and had several classmates called Sarah but I don’t know of anyone under thirty with that name.

@Pallisers . I know, right? He’s somewhat redeemed himself with Holly Gibney, but of the women in his books who do have jobs almost all of them are low paid stereotypical female roles (library assistant, kindergarten teacher etc). Bev Marsh got to be a fashion designer because she could draw, but why not be an architect like Ben Hanscom?

I am way too invested in this 🤣

I'm 52 and had an Andrea and a Janet in my year at secondary school. I have teenagers and don't know any teenaged ones. I think of Janet as a little girl though like in the Janet and John books that were popular in the 70s! I like it

I was coming on to say this about Stephen King. Drives me crazy. I would have thought he'd have a level of editorial assistance that would catch this for him.

There's a Tiffany in The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer (written in 1962 and set in 1816/17, but also scrupulously well-researched). In her case it's short for Theophania and would be a perfectly acceptable shortening at the time.

If Tiffany was used in the 10th century, you might get away with using the name for a 10th century character. But you’d need to briefly explain where the name came from in the narration or dialogue.

Connell and Carrick aren't 'wrong', they are perfectly valid choices. I don't really think that any name is wrong, and it's natural for a culture to develop independently of the origin country when people emigrate. What bothers me is when an author thinks that they are picking a common name for a country because they have heard it being used by second or third generation emigrants from that country and they don't check. It's just a bit jarring to read and often indicates that the book will be annoyingly filled with cultural misconceptions gleaned from Hollywood and tourist adverts.

Sometimes naming styles comes back from emigrants, particularly Ryan. There are tons of American and Canadian Ryans (it's the most common Irish surname so it's often used as a first name to honour the mother's family name there) but when I was young it would have been highly unusual to be named that in Ireland. Now, while it's still not common, it wouldn't be comment worthy.

There's a bit in An Audience with Billy Connolly where he talks about the habit of a certain type of Scottish people doing this.

My friend's sister has a son called Connell, spelled like that - I had no idea it was wrong. They're not Irish, come from York.

I don't think it's wrong then, just a choice.

I'd never heard of a 'Connell' in Ireland before Normal People tho. Conal is popular but can be pronounced like Connell or Cone-al, depending on where you're from.

I’m 41 and I’ve never met a Janet or an Andrea my own age.

I find this unusual - surprised to see it's the situation for so many.

I know quite a number of Andrea's in their 40s, and several children.

I know a few Janet's too - 50s, early 40s, and one child in my DS class.

I think in Ireland we tend to have a great variety of names, and less as signifiers of eras/class (tho they are some). My DC have all Irish names. Other people wouldn't call their DC Irish names if you paid them - it can be a really polarising thing!

I also have an Irish name, growing up in the 80s with lots of Laura's, Michelle's, Rebecca's and so on, I hated it. Happy with it now tho!

My friend's sister has a son called Connell, spelled like that - I had no idea it was wrong. They're not Irish, come from York.

Yes! I read the book thinking 'Conal. CONAL!', each time I saw Connell! (Would it have been a publisher choice I wonder?)

My sister is Andrea born in 60s. We all have anglicized greek names as half cypriot

To clarify my above post, I meant I don't like the use of these as first names.

I can't stand names that are both surname and occupation eg:

Parker
Cooper
Carter
Sailor
Hatcher

and so on.

I would think this is a post 2000 naming convention, mostly, anyway. Though Booker and Fletcher have been around much longer.

You might find this an interesting listen:

https://www.theallusionist.org/allusionist/tiffany#:~:text=The%20name%20Tiffany%20has%20been,believe%20the%20name%20is%20old.

As a PP said, the name Tiffany is actually very old, but we think if it as an 80s name.

Anyway that doesn't give us a year for Wayne starting as a first name.

That amused me @GrouchyKiwi. So I googled the name and Wayne apparently was a corruption of wagon driver or wagon maker. It was a surname originally and (presumably) attached to someone who worked in that line. See also Cooper - barrel maker - morphing to surname - to common first name. As are tons of others as I expect everyone is aware of.

NB most of my google results were American .

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar My (Irish) friend has a cat called Carrick.

Gracie and Sarah. I didn't think there was a problem with those though!

I also get quite wound up by (usually) American authors writing a novel set in Ireland and naming characters using American-Irish names which often don't really exist in Ireland, like Carrick. Mind you, Sally Rooney used the name Connell and if I didn't know that she was Irish I would have assumed that it was also an American-Irish name.

I read a Regency romance where the Duke of Wherever was called Wayne.

Slightly different, but I remember reading this blog post by an amateur author (no one would have heard of her, I came across her via another forum where the main point of discussion was her being religiously conservative). She was writing a book set in about 1913, where the main character (a man) was called Jaeryn!! And she did a “character interview” with him, where he talked about what “clique” he was in at school. It was so obvious she’d barely done any proper research; Jaeryn would be a weird name in 2023 let alone 1913, and the concept of “school cliques” just doesn’t exist in Britain (where the guy was supposed to be from). And by cliques I mean the kind of thing that’s always talked about in American high school films eg jocks/nerds/social outcasts etc.
If I was going to write a story set in 1913 I would google “popular 1910s names”. It’s not hard.

In my mind, a stereotypical group of Scottish women over 40 would be called Susan, Kirsty, Karen and Moira.