What names do you think will die completely?

[Soubriquet]

I think Gary.

Ive only met one and he’s in his 50’s now. Never met a baby Gary

I don’t see Mervyn or Melvyn making much of a return - but stranger things have happened!

Names that are already properly dead and buried, six feet under and pushing up the daisies:

Eadgar
Ethelred
Aelfric
Godwin
Hildburg
Wulfsige

All Anglo-Saxon.
I reckon just about any name since the Norman conquest could make a comeback.

Merle.

Thank you. One of those is my name and I love it. Agree it’s dying out though.

The thing is it’s all cyclical isn’t it. Lots of the names suggested on this thread are ones currently associated with people in their 60s or thereabouts. So Gary, Keith, Brenda etc.

But in twenty years these will be the names of very elderly (or dead) people, and so will be equivalent to Edwardian names like Stanley, Violet, Florence etc today. And it seems as though it’s when a generation associated with a particular name is just dying out, that’s when it starts to become a popular baby name again.

And within the trend of a name coming back into fashion there’s a few steps that take place. So in five years time some hipster parents in Margate will name their daughter Brenda. A few years after there will be a few Brenda’s being born in London. A few years after that it will be widespread throughout the country, and a few years after that people on mumsnet will be saying of course they’d never call their baby an overused name like Brenda.

I know them too! The Alan is Polish I think, not sure about Colin.
These boys are good friends with several boys called Sam - and a Barry!

I don't think anything will die out. There are always people looking for unusual names, that unusual name could be Janet.

Most of those names are names for babies and young children now.

I know a teen Gary and I think Gary will become popular again, maybe not for another 20-30 years though. I could never have imagined names like Edith, Audrey, Enid, Ronald, Stanley, Arthur being popular when I was younger but I know multiple babies with these names. In a few more decades people will be naming their babies after their grandparents and Gary, Tracey, Sharon, Nigel etc will all make a comeback.

The only names I think will die out completely are those which becomes synonymous with something else; I know a woman called Isis but doubt anybody is going to use that name nowadays. I doubt anybody would call their daughter Alexa now either but it was a perfectly acceptable name a decade or so ago. Names synonymous with a notoriously bad/ evil person also tend to die out, you don’t really get people using Adolf or Myra as names for example! But otherwise names do tend to come around again and so given another generation or two names like Gary will be back in.

My DD's middle name and my dog's name are both here 😂

But this is the thing - to me ALL Gary’s are now around 17-25

(and possibly doing a YTS course)

Sandra
Carol
Sharon
Hilary
Karen
Colin
Alan

I know a toddler called Godwin! Parents are African immigrants (not sure which country though). I quite like it.

Doris
Dolores

Nigel
Gladys
Wilbur

Dawn will absolutely make a come back. It’s a lovely name

A colleague of mine just had a DD and named her Olive

I knew I'd see my DD name on this thread. She is one of only 83 born in the UK the year she was born (though actually she wasn't born here). It's a name that is v common among elderly ladies, not very common in Gen X or even I think Boomers (the ones I know are mainly 80+).
So it hasn't died but it's pretty rare. It's a name with a lot of nicknames but I don't know any with just a nickname either.

I’ve come across babies called Alan and Gary recently.

I also know kids with quite a few of the names mentioned here. Nigel, Margaret, Bob, Desmond, Barbara, Mary Ann, Colin, Jonathan, Mark, Bonnie, Olive, Kenneth, Audrey are all ones I know at least one kids with the name.

Thing is, you have to be quite old - as I am - to think that Maud is an old lady name. And it's because when we were young, there were old ladies called Maud and Dolly. Just as there were old men called Bert and Ron.

There aren't now. They're all dead. Now people's Nans and Grandads are called Tracey and Mark, Lynn and Andy, Cath and Nick.

To new parents, Maud and Albert are ancient mythical names untainted by outside lavs and endless stories about the Blitz. That's why they come back.

Wayne, Dwayne, Colin and Lee.

For some reason I expect a Gary to be wearing faded jeans, a leather jacket, DMs and in his way to the some office!

Dennis, denise, sharon,

Percy, really? That's cruel. A bit like calling your child Cecil or Nigel, sorry 😂
I have s Garry in my family and yes he's in his 50s

Wulfric - (sp?) have come across.

Clare 😢