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?

Oh well, there you go, it's just not popular in that age group near me.

I’d expect them to be called Lewis Callum and Kieran.

Dean Thomas was muggle-born wasn’t he? but Dean seems a reasonable name for a boy born in 1980 - I think he’s implied to have more working class parents isn’t he?

He was originally going to be called Gary, according to that exhibition at the British Museum last year. Also very fitting with muggle names of that era.

I think it is just that the Wizarding world is a bit behind on these things. They still use quills for no apparent reason!

I used to think Stephen King character names were a bit odd too, til I moved to America and found real people’s names even odder. Our next door neighbour has two kids under 5 called Randall and Desmond.

I'm in my 40s and don't know any Emmas my age. All the Emmas I know are girls who are of school age now, mostly aged between 10 and 18.

I know two Emmas, one is 42, the other is 21.

Back in the 1990a I worked with an Australian nurse called Tracy, apparently it was quite posh in Oz.

I hate when American writers (and documentaries) don't do their research. Has anyone in the UK EVER said they are walking two blocks?

The poster who mentioned the documentary, I saw one of Harold Shipman, his 'doctor's office' was nothing like an NHS surgery.

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.

Didn't JK say she didn't want any child to be bullied because of their name so picked unusual ones. The baddies all seem to have the most unusual names.

Has anyone in the UK EVER said they are walking two blocks?

What would you say in the UK?

Harry is not rare. I am 37 and has three in my class growing up.

Alan seems a bit old fashioned though maybe not in Scotland but Jimmy (James) and Rick (Richard, Eric or Patrick), aren't.

Has anyone in the UK EVER said they are walking two blocks?

What would you say in the UK?

Walking for half a mile/for ten minutes/to the end of the road/as far as [insert specific location].

UK towns aren't laid out in grid patterns, so we don't have blocks in the same way as US towns. For a UK person, saying 'two blocks' doesn't give any indication of how far it is or how long it takes to walk.

Tracy/Tracey has never ever been a posh name in Australia.

I'm in Scotland and know am 11 year old Alan. My DH actually wanted to call our son Jimmy - he was talked out of that!! But never met a Rick either adult or child, a Richard would most likely get called Richie.

As for Brianna in Outlander this would be definitely be used. I actually live in the Highlands and there are a certain generation of ladies who were called after their Dads - think Thomasina, Jamesina, Roberta. I'm not sure if it was because they were the oldest or because there no boys in the families.

I know a 41 year old Rick in Scotland can’t imagine him being a Richie.
Was actually reading this again this morning and realised I know a couple more Emma’s so actually know an Emma in several generations from toddler to my Gran. It’s never seemed old fashioned to me more classic. I wanted to call dd Emma she will be 16 this year.

The ONS name tool is quite fun for plotting the popularity of names either on their own or against each other. Incidentally it shows Emma leaping into a high spot in the early 1970s, apparently out of nowhere, which fits with my memory of its going from sporadic to fashionable virtually overnight. There was only one Emma (b 1967) in my school year, and then loads just a few years younger. I wonder why?

I am a contemporary of Harry Potter and there was a Hermione at school in my class. And nobody could pronounce her name first time.

MartaHallard - I agree that we wouldn’t normally say ‘walking two blocks’ in the UK but I would talk about ‘walking round the block’ as in ‘I’m just going to pop the dog round the block’. Maybe it is just because the blocks aren’t regular.

Emma may be the same as Chloe more recently, LarkDescending - came out of nowhere and hit the top spot for girl's names for a number of years in the 00s, but there's no particular celebrity, event or character it can be linked to.

I knew the name Hermione growing up because we read A Winter's Tale for GCSE, but it never struck me as old-fashioned probably because it had never been popular enough to be fashionable. I don't know if post-Harry Potter the children who were fans of it while they werw growing up are now naming their daughters Hermione.

I am mid 40s and my friends and classmates were Sarahs, Clare's, Emmas, Amandas and Rebeccas. About 75% had Louise as a middle name.

My kids as 8/9 and I very very nearly called dd2 Emma which was considered a bit old fashioned. I often wish I had as I don't LOVE her name. Mind you, I also want to call her Clover but dh wouldn't let me.

2 of those boys names are the same as my brother and uncle so strike me as fairly out of date. If it were Charlie then maybe - 5 in dds y4 class alone.

@Threehoursfromhome One explanation I heard about Chloe’s stratospheric rise was the fact that it was the name of Richard & Judy’s daughter, and often mentioned by them on This Morning at the height of its popularity (likewise Jack, their son’s name). I don’t know whether this stacks up, timing-wise.

I have a Robin Hood book which belonged to my dad in the 1950s (first printed in 1937). In one of the stories Robin and his men help a French noblewoman called Dame Tiphanie, it took me years to get “Tiffany” from that

There is a baby Leanne at my DD’s nursery, which I always find rather incongruous. Her sister ages about 3 has a similar 80s-vintage name.

I wonder if the Mum held on to her “what I will call my children” ideas from childhood.

As an 80’s teen I declared that my children would be Jennifer, Rebecca or Ben. By the time I actually had children the only one of those we considered was Ben and that got rejected as it didn’t work with our surname.

The ONS link above shows Harry as popular in 1905. Then declining rapidly until 1955.

It disappears from the top 100 for 40 years until the mid 90s where it suddenly appears in the top 30 and then climbs very quickly.

I was born in ‘72, half the girls in my class at secondary were called either Claire, Sarah or Emma, and everyone seemed to have Louise as a middle name. I think the modern equivalent of the Emma and Chloe boom is Isla. For a the last couple of years every baby girl I’ve come across seems to be named Isla.

Lark - that would definitely fit timewise. Richard and Judy left in 2001.

Anyone remember Titty in Swallows and Amazons? She was unsurprisingly renamed Tatty in the (dire) recent film adaptation.