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?

[lizzie1970a]

As someone else said Emma was no. 4 most popular girl's name in 2002 and since 2003 has been the number one name in loads of states according to this interactive map:

msbarry.github.io/babymap/#F2015

[BadlyAgedMemes]

The "how many kids in same school with the same name" measure can be quite misleading.

In my country, my name was given to 77 girls in the year I was born. Somehow FIVE of us ended up in the same secondary school!

[thaegumathteth]

I have an 11 year old Scottish boy. All his friends are called Jack, Lewis, Brodie, Euan Calum, Ryan, Fraser.

However he does also have friends called Peter, William, David etc too.

[Cookit]

Tracey Beaker! Unless that book was written in the 1970s, but I read it in the 90s and it didn’t feel dated other than the name not making any sense at all.

[IHaveBrilloHair]

Yes theagumahteth
Dd's friends too and she's 17.
Her boyfriend is Harry which is very familiar and popular now but probably wasn't when his parents named him 18 years ago.

[TootTootPeanutbutter]

Tracey Beaker was written in 1991 and the character was supposed to be ten years old. It doesn't seem odd to me because I knew three Tracy's all born between '81-'84 but again this likely varies by area.

[TootTootPeanutbutter]

I can't type today.

[BitOutOfPractice]

I'm in my 50s and I know a few Emmas around my age

Rather than "dated" *ArtisanPopcorn" I'd say they are "of their time". That doesn't sound quite so rude!

[onceandneveragain]

Ihavebrillohair - why on earth wouldn't Harry have been popular c.2001? ONS suggests it was in the top 5 boys names.
www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc363/babyindex.html#0,Harry

Four out of the seven HP books were published by then and very popular, and obviously Prince Harry was around.

[tabulahrasa]

“It seems rather incongruous that a 17th Century Scotsman would be called Brian!“

It’s not a modern name... no clue how popular or not it would have been, but it’s from Irish mythology and there’s an Irish King named Brian Boru...

[lljkk]

I wanted to say the gals in Jacq Wilson books. Not just Tracy Beaker, but many of the books, the names are out of 1950s for kids born (I guess) 1980-1999.

[lljkk]

Ahem, Harry Potter was born 31 July 1980. Few yrs b4 Prince Harry.

[onceandneveragain]

never mentioned when Harry Potter was born - how would the date of birth of a fictional character sixteen years before the novels featuring him were published have any bearing on the naming of Ihavebrillohair's dd's (real life) 18 y/o bf? I mentioned when Prince Harry was born and the HP books published as they were real life events that could conceivably have influenced the popularity of the name Harry at the same time

[Birdsgottafly]

When I had my DD in 1985, Claire-Louise and Emma-Louise was popular, where I lived. I know Emma's of all ages.

My DD works with a 23 year old Ricky, named after his Grandad. She works with an Allan in his 20's, but I don't know if he's from UK origin.

Gemma and Jenna seemed to take over from Emma, slightly, though.

Most of the Lewis's under 30, are spelt Louis, that I know.

Harry is a classic name and will always be acceptable for all ages.

[UterusUterusGhali]

I met a teenage Brenda recently! She was/is an Irish traveller though and their names don't follow popular themes so much. She was probably named after a granny.

I meet lots of european migrant families giving their dc "old fashioned" names which are just British names they like e.g. Diana, Simon etc

Does annoy me in books tho.

[treaclesoda]

I was a child when Prince Harry was born and I remember feeling sorry for him that he was a baby with an old man's name! I didn't know any Harry's then. Plenty of them now though.

[HopeGarden]

I know a couple of Tracy’s who were born in the early 1980’s, so Tracy Beaker’s name never really struck me as odd.

[BalloonSlayer]

I was surprised Ross and Rachel called their baby Emma because of its similarity to Emily.

And when Rachel's sister keeps calling the baby Emily Rachel doesn't erupt with rage either.

[BalloonSlayer]

The ABBA song "Our last summer" has the line "And your name is Harry" in the last verse to signify how dull the guy is in the present day. Yet now Harry is a young man's name. In my head I replace it with Gary.

[ChodeofChodeHall]

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

This always bothered me, too! My sister suggested one of DH's ex's names for the baby when I was pregnant and we had a good laugh about that.

[lljkk]

Given how weird so many HP-world names are, Harry is positively boring. And What about Ron & Hermione for old-fashioned names to choose in 1980?... honestly. Equally so in (?) 1992 when JKR started writing the books.

In my family history there are lots of made-up & bizarre names & names out of place for the era. Many oddities plucked straight out of the bible too.

[amusedbush]

lljkk

But I think that was just a thing in the wizarding world. The kids are all called things like Ernie, Neville, Percy, Vincent, Terence... I think they’re in a different era culture-wise.

[secondhanddreamsdealer]

@ourweeschool I'm a Scottish teacher- quite a lot of young Alans but they're all Polish.

Yes!! I went to Poland this summer and I had to double take on the number of Alans being called out in playground. Partridge came to mind immediately

[PavlovianLunge]

My grandmother, who was born in 1903 hated her middle name because she said it was old-fashioned... it was Emma.

[MadisonAvenue]

As a PP said earlier, names in the US date differently.
My son is 18 and I’m part of an online group who ‘met’ on a forum when we were all pregnant and due in Spring 2000 and among the American boys born were Derek, Trevor and Colin who are all 18 now.