Chronologically incongruous names in books

[CormoranStrike]

Anyone ever bemused by this?

I’m reading a crime novel, set in Edinburgh in 2018.

There are three 11-year-olds in it, called Alan, Jimmy and Rick. Are any kids of that age Calle debate these days?

I expect 11-year-old boys to be Jack, Lewis and Jayden.

Any other examples?

My 14 year old is in school with (at least) two Alan's (though even more Alannah's!), a Jimmy, a Jim, and a Kevin. No Rick's that I know of.

They do exist!

My dd was in kindergarten in 1992, with 4 Emma's

It was clearly popular 5 years before that

I know a young Kevin!

I think it's having three rather unusual names together.

Lewis, Cameron and Alan would work!

My DCs are in their 20s and there were several Emmas at school with them. One of my neighbour's DC is called Emma. I think it has never gone out of fashion completely.

Brenda is a name for someone of my age or older. (I'm 50s). 'Trendy' names such as Archie and Alfie, Effie etc are all old people's names, yet they are hideously popular for kids right now. Olivia is very common and in my day, it was a posh name.

All names have cycles. I do remember researching for an unusual name for a story and found out that Dawn is much older than most people expect.

I had no idea Emma was so dated. It's not wildly popular here, but there's quite a few ranging between 8-27. I know multiple baby Johns too though, and a baby Karen and toddler Victor. Also the farmer names... Think I'm from the same neck of the woods as treaclesoda....

My dd's boyfriend is 16 and is Alan. He's Polish, apparently it's quite common.

Making myself look a right nerd here but as far as Outlander goes, the baby was to be called Brian. Claire promises Jamie that she’ll name the baby for his (Jamie’s) Father. The baby was a girl though so claire may have just feminised it herself by making it sound girly in anyway she could. Also, although Claire is English, Brianna was born in Boston. Claire lives in America for most of her pregnancy so could have heard the name there too.

Also, I believe that when Jamie learns of this (trying to avoid spoilers), he tells Claire that she mispronounces the name.

I know a 10 year old Jimmy but no Alan or Rick.

There's an Emma in ds1's class (yr6) but most I know are my age (30)

The outlander explanation is interesting. It seems rather incongruous that a 17th Century Scotsman would be called Brian!

The in-universe explanation for Karen in Outnumbered is that she’s named after a deceased female relative. IRL yes it was the actress girl’s pick and 5 year olds can be a bit random. Jake, Ben and Karen is the classic example of names that don’t match - although I seem to remember one poster on the other thread getting very cross with us for pointing that out because it made us snobby judgemental bitches or something

One of Amazon's Kindle First books a few months back was The Lioness of Morocco - great book, but it's obviously been translated into English by an American translator and it's very jarring to have members of a 19th century London family talking about 'pants' and 'fall' instead of 'trousers' and 'autumn'.

I tend to think of Brianne as an Australian name.

I’m nearly 50 and had at least one Emma in nearly every class I was in all through school. In the past though, I think people were less bothered about unique names and were perfectly happy to be one of the Kaths or Traceys.

It seems particularly clumsy to try to give a character a unique name retrospectively, when statistically they would have been called Barry or Freda.

No one would believe that a woman in the Middle Ages could be named Tiffany, yet it was a real medieval name.

Really! Gosh. I reckoned it was a made up name after the jewellers!

I’ve just finished that book.
There is a 9 year old Alan in ds2’s class but like the po said he is polish.
The Brianna thing is quite common in Scotland anyway lots of elderly/older women called Brianna, Willemian, Thomasina. I also know a few Emma’s. My gran was Emma would have been in her 90’s now I’ve always loved the name. Know an Emma around 40 and a teenage Emma May have been different in the USA but I’ve known a few Emma’s of varying ages over the years.

I wonder if the odd names in books is deliberate though like the Biff, Chip and Kipper names so that there was little chance of having a child with the same name. Little chance then of accusations of basing a character on a real person.

Was about to mention Karen I’m Outnumbered, but see that someone has already mentioned it.

I’ve wondered about Karen from Outnumbered too, especially as in a few episodes from when Karen is 10/11 she talks about her classmates “Megan, Molly and Maisie”, which shows the writers absolutely do know the popular girls’ names of the time. The actress picking her own character name makes sense.

I always thought Rachel naming her baby Emma was odd because Ross married a woman called Emily, it’s almost the same name.

There’s a Tiffany in The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer, written in 1962, set in 1816. Explained as short for Theophrania in that case though I think it might have been used on its own as an anglicisation as well.

Cattenberg and Azelma - thank you for the explanation - sets my mind at rest!
Namaste - yes I worry about Roy and Brenda as well!

I understand why authors have difficulties researching names for historical fiction, but less so for modern work. Name popularity by year is available online and it only takes a few minutes to check -though I suppose it doesn't get around the Ricky/Richie issue.

Full list of forenames for scottish children born in 2007 (ie 11 in 2018).

www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/statistics/pop-names-07-t4.pdf

(And it’s only just occurred to me that Heyer would have been influenced by the release of Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1961 - which was probably the cause of the Great Tiffany Explosion in the second half of the 20th century)

Names like Karen, Michelle, Susan, Janet, Claire, Linda, Julie sounding so dated now are the reason I avoided names like Isla, Amelie, Freya, Ava, Sophia for my daughter. Lovely names but the future might not be so kind.

I imagine that friends caused a surge in popularity of the name Emma.