How quickly do names come back into fashion?

[TicketToRideFan]

All the Archie, Albie, Alfie type names are massively popular right now, but for me they belong to men aged between 60 and 80.

Looking around my relatives in this age group, the next big names will be Stephen, David, Frank, Brian, Liam, James, Thomas, Allan, John or Peter.

Girls names in our family of a similar vintage include Elaine, Linda, Lynn, Claire, Julie, Jackie, Margaret, Anne, Alison, Maureen and Wendy.

it’s hard to imagine most of these making a come back soon, though of course some have never fully gone.

My money is on John, Peter, Alison and Claire coming back first.

I think those names are a bit older than that, people in their 90s. I think the next will be what the 70 year olds are called, Jean, Sheila etc. I think we’ve a way to go before the Alison and so on who are 50 now.

Some names are more timeless and repeat generations so loop around more easily than those more fixed to a particular generation.

Popular names of the 2010s were 90+ years old. Sometimes names cycle round faster. When I worked in a hospital in the early 2000s, a female with a flower name was either a toddler or an Edwardian elderly lady.

The trend for short, vowelly feminine girls names could easily give way to more distinctive, substanstial 20th century ladies names. The Barberas and Margrets are getting to their 80s and not so far off a revival.

I think naming people about deceased grandparents drives some name trends and the people called John and Nicola etc are still living so not going to trend yet.
I think that some of the examples you've given sound fresh and ready for revival (love Peter for instance) but others like James are timeless.

Im nearly 50 ,names like Arthur ,Emily etc were considered very old fashioned when i was a child buf are quite popular now ,my friend at school was called Grace ,we thought that was very dated but now there are loads of Grace,s/ Gracies
I think there are some names that were popular for a period of time but will never come back into wider fashion.

People use their great grandparents’ names. I don’t think there are many Archie / Albie / Alfies in 60-80 age range…it’s a generation at least up from that.

Names take about 80 years to come back in. IE the mum's and dad's naming the kids don't really know any Elsies, Iris's etc but the fifty plus year olds do.

I'm early fifties. I remember knowing people who were born before 1900. (IE when I was a young tween/ teen and they were 80+)

I think you've got your name generations a bit mixed up, Margaret, Maureen and Frank were the parents of Jackie, Alison, Claire and David surely? (in my late fifties, I am in the Jackie and Alison generation).

Frank has been back for a while, I see it suggested in the Baby Names threads (old man chic?) and Margaret is no doubt on the way back, after Margot. Don't know about Maureen though, I think it'll be a while before 'een' names return.

So I still think it'll be a good while before Alison, David etc are back. As names of my generation I really like a lot of them. (Well,not Tracey, Kevin, Beverley and Wayne!).

I think maybe names like Pamela, Sylvia and Barbara will be next for a revival. (David Mitchell and Victoria Coren already have a Barbara I believe). Not sure re boys names.

I think most names run on approximately a 100-year cycle, once most of the previous generation of that name have passed away.

So, by that reckoning the next crop of names should include things popular after WW1 such as:
Ernest
Harold
Edward
Douglas
Hubert
Bernard
Philip
Anthony
Martin
Geoffrey
Richard
Wilfred
Kenneth
Gordon
Vernon
John

and:
Alma
Gertrude/Gertie
Agnes
Freda
Irene
Kathleen/Kitty
Betty
Hilda
Gwendolen/Gwennie
Marjorie
Doris
Ethel
Dorothy

I reckon Bryan/Brian will revive in the next ten years. I've seen trends come and go already. George, Henry etc.

Thomas and James are fairly timeless. I can see David, John and Peter coming back (I know very young ones now).

Claire, Margaret and Anne could become fashionable. I’ll be surprised if Alison does but I could be wrong.

@vitaminC can you really see Gertrude coming back? It's hideous.

Well most of the names you listed seem most unattractive to me, but possibly that's generational and I am not being objective.

John is IMO overdue for a comeback. For hundreds of years it was one of the most popular boys’ names in the U.K.,

Some names, esp. royal and biblical ones, are classics and never really go out of fashion. In my era there were loads of e.g. Lindas, Christines and Jeans, which you never (or hardly ever) hear of now, not as baby names anyway - but Elizabeth (also popular at the time) just doesn’t date anyone in the same way.

I think they're all old-fashioned and boring, if not ugly, but that's because I'm 50 and these were my grandparents ' generation's names, so they sound dated to my ears - which they were when I was young.

To couple in their 20s who have probably never met a Bernard or an Agnes they likely sound fresh and original.

I agree that Gertrude sounds ugly to my generation's ears, but Gertie could definitely make a come-back IMO.

I think Gertrude is exceptionally ugly though. To my ears (apologies to any Gertrudes out there.) Trudy is OK I suppose.

Not all names do get revived, I had elderly aunties Elsie, Mabel, Evelyn and Gladys. All their names have been revived, but not Gladys.

@Pemba I think it's the "rude" in Gertrude that I dislike. Maybe 100 years ago that was not such a commonly used word and didn't make the name sound so harsh.

Not sure about Gladys. For some reason, in France I've met quite a few young Gladyses (or even Gwladys!). I think that one may come back eventually in the UK as well. Perhaps it sounds too Welsh and people want to avoid being accused of cultural appropriation if they're not Welsh themselves? All it would take is for a celeb to use it, though...

@vitaminC yes the 'rude' bit is the main reason I hate it too! 😁. (the 'gert' is not great either though..)

It doesn't seem to put off new parents though as I've seen Rudi or Rudolph suggested a few times in the baby names threads.

Can you imagine a baby being called Gladys or Gertrude !

Im always interested in this. I do wonder if the names that come back are often very very old traditional names, like alfie coming from alfred which is really old, and ones like colin, Denise, Elaine, Sandra, derek etc won’t come back because they were just of a short period of time with no real history behind them? I might be wrong though

I’m 59 and those names are my grandparents generation so would be at least 110 now.
Doreen, Maureen, June, Jean, Barbara, Joyce, Alan, Tony, Derek, Keith and Graham are my parents generation and mid 80s now.

I don't know about that though, there is an Elaine in the legends of King Arthur. (just an English phonetic spelling of Helene, the French form of Helen I suppose - can't type the accents). Colin was originally short for Nicholas I believe and Denise and I think Derek are traditional names in continental Europe...

So you can't really say they don't have history behind them. They are just not the most well known English classics like John, Edward, Mary etc.

Ok fair enough, I guess all names come from somewhere. I suppose I just mean that English traditional names are often the ones that come around whereas those which don’t obviously have that history behind them don’t as much. But only time will tell!
id be really surprised if Paula came back but of course paul is a very old name indeed and is very traditional, female versions of male names don’t seem to age as well

I can't believe Mary and John haven't made a strong comeback yet.

Oh and Phyllis, Gwen, Alec I think will come back soon.

Names like Alfie, Albie, Freddie, ivy, Martha, Elsie etc are much older than you say OP. They are names people born 100 years or so would have. They were old fashioned in the 60s.
Names popular for people born in the 50s and 60s were names like Susan (every other girl was called Susan!), Tracy, . Linda,. Carol,Jackie,. Patricia, Julie, Judith, Helen, Catherine and Kathleen, Elaine, Lynne,David, Ian, Michael, Antony John, Colin, Graham, Brian, Alan, Richard, Terry, Gary, Wayne
I can see some of those names coming back and some have never gone away but not many.

My 30 year old brother is Albie, not short for anything and was the only one known for years until his peers had children