Are we due a revival of obscure Victorian names?

[Delphigirl]

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.

Your point is true, but I always thought Caroline came from Charles (Carolus).

Speaking of which, I came across a baby Carole recently, and an Enid aged five.

Also, one each - Duncan, Martin, Jeremy, and Steven.

Yes to this.

Also Dymphna, Fidelma, Philomena, Imelda (though from the 20th century).

Georgiana Cavendish was played by KK in "The Duchess" (of Devonshire).

GC was a great-great-great grand aunt of Diana's.

I know a 10 year old Lettuce.

Our Cissy was short for Sister I believe (Yorkshire). Very confusing when putting together the family tree

Obviously that should be Lettice!!!! ( A 10 year old lettuce makes me think of Liz Truss.)

It's time Catwallader made a come back.

Not as far as I know and they are from different sections of the tree, despite being just a few miles apart in Gloucestershire. I’d come across the name Keziah in the book Diddakoi about a gypsy, but no clues to suggest Romany in the family.

Numbers are to that point made up (more so than language as many animals have vocal communication languages its not just humans) but if you start insisting 11 is called glipnut and equivalent to 3 you haven't 'invented' or 'made up' anything you are just wrong and people think you lost your mind.

That sent me back up the thread to see where the debate about what is and what isn't 'made up' in name terms and saw a cluster of posts about Effie/Euphemia, which reminded me how annoyed I was when Murdoch Mysteries often well researched and reliable on historic detail suddenly let us know that the character Effie actually had the given name Fiona which is 'made up' and would be vanishingly unlikely to have existed in turn of the 20th century Canada - unlike Euphemia.

Though the last episode I watched (haven't got round to the most recent season yet) appeared to imply the existence of a transatlantic telephone line 30 years too early, so their reseachers may not be infallible.

Ælfgifu

David Mitchell makes this medieval name sound lovely in his history book.

Not rtft but Capability as in Brown was a nickname, his real name was Lancelot. Hope the parents know that.

You may be surprised in a few years time to find lots of little Beryls and Mavises in every nursery!

I gave my own children names that were very out of fashion at the time - and got some odd looks and comments from people, like "oh, that's an old ladies' name though isn't it?" and "why did you call him that, it makes me think of old men."

During their childhood, both DCs were the only children in the school with that name. BUT, when they were in their teens their names started to gain popularity and eventually were in the top 10 most popular baby names. DD's name reached number 1 in the name charts.

So, both DCs names are now considered to be fine, but nowadays most people with those names are at least 15 years younger than them. When they were born it was the other way around and most people with those names were at least 65 years older!

Yes, but wouldn't you far rather be called Capability than Lancelot?

And apparently the nickname wasn't because he was fantastically capable (though probably he was that too!), it was because he would tell clients that their grounds had the 'capability' to be improved/re-landscaped etc in his signature style. (He called his son Lancelot, known as Lance, which sounds waay too Falcon Crest for an early 19thc English politician...)

Ælfgifu was the given name of Æthelred the Unready's first wife. When she died, he remarried Emma of Normandy, who then became known as Ælfgifu, at least on official documents. Since I found that out, I've gone off the name. It smacks of someone who couldn't be arsed to learn two women's names so forced the second to rename herself after the first. He also had a daughter with the same name, further confirming my theory. 😅

Yes! They're such cool names. I'd love it if they made a comeback.

Sorry if someone's said this. It reminds me of 'Lettice Leaf, the greenest girl in school'.

In my family tree there was an Amelia who had another rather nice name, can't remember it at present. Always known as Sis/Aunt Sis.

I have an ancestor Bathsheba born in 1743 in Dorset.

Discovered her recently and one of my favourite novels since reading at school 50 years ago was Far from the Madding Crowd, with the main character Bathsheba

I assume it was quite common back in the day. Without googling I think it's Biblical (King David's wife?)

Yes, another man's wife before she was David's. Trouble with God over that carry-on.

Oh the victorians had ridiculous made up names too. How about Voltairine, a girl named after Voltaire?

Also a lot of terrible feminised male names - Leopoldine, Walterine, Ludwiga, Edwardina (what was wrong with Edina or Edwina?)

In my family tree they all have plain names. George, John, Ann, Francis, Robert, Mary, Ellen, Maud, Alice, Phillip, Joan, William.

Just remembered Victorine, I recently rewatched The Fall of the House of Usher and love the name.

Old fashioned name in Ireland that should be revived before people forget it was fairly common - Anastasia.

It’s Romany I think, possibly. I’ve got heavy Romany ancestry and lots of Keziah, Liberty, Freedom, Solomon etc.