AIBU?
To ask when they started calling it a 'pram'?
Marlboroughlights1 · 17/10/2018 16:15
When did it stop being called a baby carriage?
I need the correct name for London, 1959...
If anyone knows? Middle/upper class family.
Thank you hive
x
HerculePoirotsGreyCells · 17/10/2018 16:20
I believe pram is just a shortening of perambulator but I can't help you with dates. Sorry!
AdaColeman · 17/10/2018 16:22
In 1959 London it would have been a pram.
Pram comes from perambulator, which is Victorian/Edwardian.
llangennith · 17/10/2018 16:23
My nan was very proud of having a pram for my mother born in 1928.
DSHathawayGivesMeFannyGallops · 17/10/2018 16:27
I thought "Baby Carriage" was American? It's been pram ib the uk for years.
Babdoc · 17/10/2018 16:30
I was born in the 1950’s, and my parents had a pram. I had a doll’s pram. Perambulator is such a mouthful, I expect it was shortened to pram well before the 50’s.
McT123 · 17/10/2018 16:32
If you Google something like "baby pram advert 1950s" and look at images you will see that whilst Silver Cross continued to call their products "Baby Coaches" everyone else referred to "prams"
bookmum08 · 17/10/2018 16:34
I have only heard Baby Carriage as an American phrase. I don't think they have ever been called that in the UK.
NetballHoop · 17/10/2018 16:35
Didactylos · 17/10/2018 16:36
perambulator
means one who walks around
Charles Burton 1848 used the term for the wheeled push chair style baby carrier he made: and these were the prams that became popular in uk, mostly because the royals took to using them
before that little carriages for kids that could be pulled eg by a goat or dog were occasionally used by upper classes
Babdoc · 17/10/2018 16:36
The dictionary says “pram” dates back to late 19th century as an abbreviation of perambulator.
Marlboroughlights1 · 17/10/2018 16:37
Wow, you're all amazing. I've never seen that google graph thing before. That's great.
Thanks! Pram it is
pigsDOfly · 17/10/2018 16:40
A little carriage pulled by a goat? Omg I would have loved that when I was a child.
Tahani · 17/10/2018 16:42
hmmm (wow thats a link and a half)
is it just American, as I know we used to say Senior School a lot and not say High School?
books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=high+school%2C+senior+school&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=7&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Chigh%20school%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bhigh%20school%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BHigh%20School%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BHigh%20school%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BHIGH%20SCHOOL%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Csenior%20school%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bsenior%20school%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BSenior%20School%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BSenior%20school%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BSENIOR%20SCHOOL%3B%2Cc0
TheCatFromOuterSpace · 17/10/2018 16:46
My grandmother, who had her children in the 1940s, always referred to it as a pram.
pigsDOfly · 17/10/2018 16:47
Just googled the goat and cart thing.
It wasn't just for upper class children there's a whole load of photos of goats pulling carts, a lot of them from America.
Never realized how big some goat grow.
CheesyWeez · 17/10/2018 16:53
Thanks NetballHoop that google thing is amazing.
that's made my afternoon that has
itsonlysubterfuge · 17/10/2018 16:53
In America I've only ever heard it called a stroller...
ShannonRockallMalin · 17/10/2018 16:56
This is from a book written late 1930s, so ‘pram’ was certainly in general use by then. Interesting that it offers completely contrary advice to what you’d see today in terms of how to place a baby in the pram!
ShannonRockallMalin · 17/10/2018 16:58
This reply has been deleted
Message withdrawn at poster's request.
ChimesAtMidnight · 17/10/2018 17:18
Definitely a pram in London 1959; I was pushing my baby sister around in one in London in 1959. Mum would have laughed her socks off if anyone had called it a 'baby carriage'.
AdaColeman · 17/10/2018 18:06
Shannon I love that you book advises pregnant mums to drink stout or beer! Would modern Health Visitors agree? 
ShannonRockallMalin · 17/10/2018 18:33
Ada apparently pregnant and nursing women used to be encouraged to drink Guinness because it is supposed to have lots of iron in it! The rest of the book is fascinating too, I collect old household manuals and this one is called ‘The Book of Hints and Wrinkles’!
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.