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Original poster

Are we due a revival of obscure Victorian names?

273 replies

Delphigirl · 04/09/2024 09:36

Just reading something where the protagonist is Alfrida. Her brother is Kenelm. I am really feeling both of them. I tried to persuade a niece to call her new son Sylvester a few months ago and I’m still feeling cross she didn’t leap on it. Is the zeitgeist moving towards these long-ignored names? Or maybe it is just me.
Let me know what names you would revive and please please if anyone has used a name like this recently would you share? I would LOVE to know.

OP posts:
OnlyFrench · 04/09/2024 10:16

We had a Sleightholme, Fanny and Hepzibah

OnlyFrench · 04/09/2024 10:17

@maslinpan Liz for short?

ExpressCheckout · 04/09/2024 10:17

maslinpan · 04/09/2024 10:09

Lettice is surely due a revival.

^ Yes, I love this don't tell anyone

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Families
casapenguin · 04/09/2024 10:17

Ermingard - love it

thenightsky · 04/09/2024 10:17

maslinpan · 04/09/2024 10:09

Lettice is surely due a revival.

Oh thank you. I just came on to add that. I love it.

MidYearDiary · 04/09/2024 10:20

Underlig · 04/09/2024 10:16

Victorian flouncy names are well on the way out. It’s more the simpler names of the ‘20s and ‘30s now.

Yes, which is why I think the 40s and 50s are just around the corner... Wait for the resurgence of Pams!

goingtohellinahandcart · 04/09/2024 10:20

I had 3 great uncles called Creswell, Ithel and Sephariah/riah. Certainly an usual combination in one family

stickybear · 04/09/2024 10:20

We have a Victorian Thirza in the family tree

stevienicksismyfairygodmother · 04/09/2024 10:23

My great niece (6) has a lovely boy in her class called Capability which I think is great but we all agree that he will probably be known as Billy/Bill by his teens

WheresMySupportCat · 04/09/2024 10:24

I am assuming that Lettice is a version of Laetitia. Which I adore. Way back in the day I used to teach a Laetitia who was just such a lovely girl. Lord- 30 odd years ago!!

DragonInAmber · 04/09/2024 10:24

We had a Titus, a Demelza, and a Fionnlagh!

Tuesdayhermit · 04/09/2024 10:31

I don't think the class distinctions showed so clearly in victorian times. John was popular throughout society. I think religious splits did show though. Catholic ancestors family tree included a Mary and a Joseph in three successive generations.

Fink · 04/09/2024 10:33

Latenightreader · 04/09/2024 09:52

I was surprised how many Rosinas I came across when doing research using the census. Maybe that should have a come back? I also came across a Keziah (my 4x great grandmother) and a Kerenhappuch (who called her daughter Ann).

Keziah is not particularly uncommon in certain circles (Reformed Christians who eschew saints' names but like biblical names), I know several. Kerenhappuch was her sister in the Bible, so you sometimes see them together in a family (along with Jemima). Kerenhappuch is usually shortened.

Edited because I accidentally posted mid-sentence!

thecrossIambearing · 04/09/2024 10:35

WheresMySupportCat · 04/09/2024 10:24

I am assuming that Lettice is a version of Laetitia. Which I adore. Way back in the day I used to teach a Laetitia who was just such a lovely girl. Lord- 30 odd years ago!!

Sharon from Eastenders 😳

housethatbuiltme · 04/09/2024 10:38

HauntedBungalow · 04/09/2024 09:59

All names are made up.

Show quote history

Except they are not, historic names where based on combinations of words and descriptors. That is why proper names have meanings.

For random instance taking a more obvious one: Caroline = Carol (meaning Sing/Song) and 'ine' Latin suffix meaning 'like' so Caroline means 'Song like' etc...

Misspellings of these word combinations occurred historically due to rampant illiteracy not on purpose.

They didn't just say lets stick some random letters together. Just because spread across the world/language barriers and some historic misspelling became common to the point many don't recognize the original words doesn't change that they where based in actual language not 'made up'.

housethatbuiltme · 04/09/2024 10:41

casapenguin · 04/09/2024 10:17

Ermingard - love it

All I can think

Are we due a revival of obscure Victorian names?
HauntedBungalow · 04/09/2024 10:41

@Sonolanona that's awful. Who would want to give their tiny baby the name of a brutal colonist slave trader?

Elisheva · 04/09/2024 10:47

Misthios · 04/09/2024 09:42

There are some excellent Victorian names out there and I would argue far better than calling your child after the latest pop star or something like Maddyson-Dyamonte. Many of them have already made a comeback, things like Theodora, Adelaide or Ezra.

Hepzibah is a good name. Heppie for short. (Although a bit close to hepatitis, maybe).

I do a lot of research in this period and there was a much smaller pool of names which parents regularly chose from - Mary, Janet/Jane, Elizabeth and Ann/Anna for girls, George, William, John, James for boys.

I know an 11 year old Hephzibah. Her friends call her Pepsi!

halava · 04/09/2024 10:49

These are the names of the ten Burke children from Co. Mayo in Ireland. One of the children Enoch, is the subject of much legal wrangling regarding his stance on transgenderism at the school he taught at, amongst other things. Infamous family, of the fundamentalist Christian variety.

Ammi, Elijah, Enoch, Esther, Isaac, Jemima, Josiah, Keren, Kezia, and Simeon.

SirSidneyRuffDiamond · 04/09/2024 10:52

My great grandparents were Hester and Ephraim. Love both names. My grandmother was Myrtle (she was just Victorian, born in April 1900). More fabulously my great great grandfather had the middle name Godsend. His sister's middle name was Godsgift.

OtherS · 04/09/2024 10:53

Not Victorian, but still wishing Iago would come back. Probably my favourite name, but I think it might still be too soon :(

1984Winston · 04/09/2024 10:56

I absolutely would have loved a Sylvester but my DH was having none of it and had girls anyway! There is an Ebenezer in my ancestry and quite keen on that too!

halava · 04/09/2024 11:00

OtherS · 04/09/2024 10:53

Not Victorian, but still wishing Iago would come back. Probably my favourite name, but I think it might still be too soon :(

T(iago) is a very popular name in Portugal and Brazil, similarly Sant(iago) de Compostela in Spain is the same. Iago is a derivative of James and Jacob. But you might know this already!

PhoebeFeels · 04/09/2024 11:02

I met an Olive in Mayfair. Only one I know.

YesIReallyDoLikeRootBeer · 04/09/2024 11:04

housethatbuiltme · 04/09/2024 10:38

Except they are not, historic names where based on combinations of words and descriptors. That is why proper names have meanings.

For random instance taking a more obvious one: Caroline = Carol (meaning Sing/Song) and 'ine' Latin suffix meaning 'like' so Caroline means 'Song like' etc...

Misspellings of these word combinations occurred historically due to rampant illiteracy not on purpose.

They didn't just say lets stick some random letters together. Just because spread across the world/language barriers and some historic misspelling became common to the point many don't recognize the original words doesn't change that they where based in actual language not 'made up'.

Show quote history

But ALL words are made up. And just because at some point people decided to put a couple words together to make a name does not mean it was not "made up" Its just WHEN the names were made up that seems to matter to you.