everyone does the cats bum face when I say Barbara...

[ikeepchachachanging]

Name changed for this as will definitely out myself. Announced baby's name as Barbara to honour relative but have got lots of . One person says dd will get bullied.

AIBU to call her this? I think it sounds lovely!

Or Pamela.

(Jean is already quite cool. It's the start of the next name wave.)

I'm waiting for Eileen, Yvonne and Sheila to become the next big thing name-wise.

Yes, Stephanie Flanders definitely has a Barbara-ness about her. As does Kate Humble. I was going to say Olivia Coleman as well but she's a teeny bit too flighty to be a Barbara. She's more of a Cynthia I'd say.

My gran (69), mum (49) and sister (29) are called Barbara.

I think I'm the only female in the family who isn't!

I like it, and if you like it that's what counts :)

I worked with a Barbara recently who was abt 30 :) she was very cool.

I like those wholesome, old fashioned boarding school names:

Barbara, Jill, Lorna, Judy, Janet.

There's something reassuring about them

I think it makes a nice change from all the Isabelle, Isabella's, Graces, Maisies, Lillies and all the flower names.

I think there are probably more safe names of that ilk though. If you're brave I'd go for it as i suspect it will be really cool by the time she's a teenager.

MrsMcColl no rudeness taken at all! My sisters name was a very popular one indeed when she was little, she was one of three in her class, now its hardly used!

Andywarholorange I agree you cannot name your child anything just because you love it, but Barbara is a proper name it's just not in 'fashion' at the moment.

If everyone shied away from using 'unpopular' names fashions would never change and evolve. For the most part we just constantly recycle names

On another note all this discussion about the name 'Barbara' affecting ones job prospects is absolute nonsense

Have just remembered that one of George W Bush's daughters is called Barbara. (I wish I hadn't made myself think about him.)

stormyboots That's what it's like here in Ireland. People are very unadventurous about names and the same few stay in fashion and are widely used for years.
People latched on to Emma about thirty years ago and it's still very popular for small children. In fact at one stage I think every new baby girl in the country was being called Emma or Sarah. Katie was added to the list about twenty five years ago. And for the last ten years or so it's been Sophie.
And it's almost mandatory to call one of your sons Jack.

So true ballet! All my friends have Sophies and Jacks. If you told people in Ireland you were thinking of giving your child a name like Sebastian or Matilda they'd look at you as though you had two heads and mutter something about 'fancy notions'.

stormyboots I totally agree that Barbara is a proper name and I think it's fine. I was thinking more about people who take the 'It's my baby and I can call it what I like' stance to the extreme and just make up some random name that the poor child has to live with.

I think it's horrible sorry. I also don't like Milicent, Deirdre, Daphne, Mabel, Maud and a bunch of other old lady names. They are not nice sounding words IMO.

I would think you were joking if you were my friend and announced this was the name you were using. But obviously it's up to you!

I'd use it as a middle name. If I had a daughter I'd like to honour my grandparents with her name. But my nanny's name was Joyce, which I wouldn't use. Joy I would.

Is Deirdre an old lady name? Here in Ireland it's very much of the same vintage as Jackie and Michelle. And as it's an Irish name to start with I would have assumed it travelled to Britain after being popular here.

Ballet i don't find anything wrong with sticking to popular names, I just don't like all the nonsense that follows if someone suggests using a 'well established name' that happens to be currently out of fashion

The whole 'affecting job prospects' is particularly grating. I'm pretty certain Barbara will get judged on merit just like Evie, Isabella and Ava will

I absolutely stunned at the extreme reaction to this. It's a perfectly normal name! It's not faddy, made up or mis-spelled. It's just a name that to our (20-40 something) ears sounds a bit old fashioned, but when your DD is old enough to care will probably be retro enough to be cool, or at least have lost its elderly aunt connotations.
One of my friend named her DD a name that has been mentioned as of the same ilk as Barbara. At first I thought it was a bit strange (although I certainly wasn't rude enough to purse my lips or roll my eyes), but in the past 6 months it's really grown on me and I can image her named anything else.

When I think of Barbara I think of 'Dogger' my favourite picture book as a child, one of the characters has a friend with this name

I remember when Samuel / Sam was a very odd name for a baby.

Ollie - "and then Bella did something very kind" Sniff.

Dogger is a great source of retro names. Other than the very 'now' Bella. The boy is called Dave isn't he. How many toddler Dave's do you hear of now?

I know a baby called David but I can't imagine parents calling a child Dave. It's a 'pals down the pub' kind of name isn't it?

David is a lovely name. If only DH hadnt had the snip, we could conceive a boy and call him Baby Dave - I love it.

Penguins oh that line brings a tear to my eye! The the beautiful illustration of Dave wide awake in bed having rejected the teddy Bella gave him because it wasn't dogger!

Bella is a very now name! Dave not so, you don't get many Dave's now at all! A friend has just named her new baby 'frank' it's weirdly adorable!

Dave's son on the Royle family was always "Baby David"!

www.thedigeratilife.com/blog/index.php/2007/07/02/name-discrimination-how-it-affects-job-and-career-choices-life-status-overall-success/