To think Barbara is a lovely name.

[Misscromwellrocks]

A friend's daughter has just called her new daughter Barbara. A few people have wrinkled their noses, but I think it's a lovely vintage Enid Blytonish name.

AIBU?

Bleh. Terribly old and just not nice. Some names (Barbara, Maureen, Doris, Susan, Dorothy to name some) should die with their generation. They're just not names you'd call anyone under 60 and the ones that are (young adult etc) are very rare.

To look at a newborn baby and willingly call her Doris ...I can't understand the mentality. Is not cool, or vintage or old fashioned. It's just ugly and sets the kid up for a lifetime of bullying. Same with those special snowflakes who call their sprogs Nevaeh or 'Boss' because they think they're fucking special.

Norbert/Nobby isn’t one that I expect to see again

A friend from my home city knows someone who did actually want to call their DS Norbert. His DW put a stop to it and they finally agreed on Kenneth.

Some names are recycled, but others are left on the trash heap of civilization: Bertha, Doris, Eustace, Gladys, Winston ...

Barbara is a hideous name and should be rejected outright

Really like it.

Makes a nice change from Emily, Olivia and Ava 😴

It sounds like the name of a pensioner.

I know people who have named their children Maude and Josie. They are definitely names that are more fitting to older people.

Other dc are Norma Joan and Shelia Fanny.

Others might find them hideous but our main criteria for names was unusual, rather than anything we loved or the dc might like to be called. We think it makes us sound edgy and cool.
Edgy and cool? You are kidding, right? They are extremely old-fashioned names and not suitable to call a baby. They make me think of a baby's body with an adult head on it. Those poor children.

prettybaby I think she was kidding

It's literally barbaric. I loathe it

At a farm park last month there was a chap running about after a pair of toddlers and over the course of the afternoon I heard him call them Malcolm and Graham which surprised me

Barbara is a bit old fashioned imho I do know a young woman who is called Barbara and she likes to be called Babs instead.

I have a friend who is called Julie and in her 50s which I think sounds strange now but it did suit her when she was younger. I have named my 2 children names that will suit a young person and a old person imho. Jolie is not my real name before anyone asks.

I have an Auntie Barbara and she's lovely. I'm in my 50s and she's in her 80s - definitely a name popular in my parents generation and one I associate with friends of my parents - I still think it's a lovely name though as I can see past its cultural associations.
Also like Shirley - another name that was part of my parents' generation.

Some harsh comments here. I know an extremely intelligent, kind, funny, sassy woman called Barbara. She's not fat or old!

No from me.

I'd rate Barbara similarly to names like Agatha, Bertha, Ethel, and Joyce — that is to say, not very highly at all. Something like Dorothy, Gertrude, Josephine, and Wilhelmina, OTOH, would fall into the category of 'granny chic' IMO!

I just think of Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques. 😂

It's think its cute..

The thing to remember with baby names is the parent should always go with what THEY like ....because there are lways going to be friends, family, neighbours, people online etc who are going to love it, hate it or think it's so-so no matter what the name is....

*always

Nope don't like it at all. Especially when it's shortened to Barrrrb

Someone mentioned that it stands out amongst the Amelias,, Mias, and Emilys.
It is quite a strong name imv compared to the pretty, girly ones which are more popular today. Surprising really in this time of #metoo.

Boys names are quite 'tough' Zak, Jack, Rory. A few Brians and Grahams is probably a good thing.

My mum was called Barbara and she hated it and though it was outdated even then.

Barbara’s also get a lot of Barbie, Babs and Barb, none of which are great.

No. Some of these names from our parents/grandparents generation became unfashionable for a reason.

Us all liking the old, pretty ones at the same time is not a reason to saddle your baby now with an ugly old name.

What I find more hilarious is how a huge number of middle class parents flock to the same kind of names that they consider aspirational.

It's like some kind of mafia where everyone agrees on the same names being the kind of "society" names they would have heard growing up - therefore it somehow leapfrogs being a Sarah or a John in terms of class.

Some examples are :

Oliver (then immediately start calling him Olly like we're on MIC)
Harry (they don't even give him the full name Harold, just go straight to the diminutive on the birth certificate!)
Oscar
Noah
Theo
Leo
Charlie
Jasper

Etc...

And for girls it's

Amelia
Arabella
Sophia
Isabelle

Etc..

So in a world of all that, I'd happily congratulate anyone who had the individuality to call their kid Barbara, hats off to them.

I wonder if the dislike of this name is connected how a people/language feel about the letter 'r'. Barbara is popular in countries with a strong 'r' sound such as Spain, France, Germany and Italy where the rotating r makes it a thing of beauty whereas in English speaking country where the rotating r does not exist the double r sound gets shortened to one or even eliminated to the prevalence of the labial b.