To think its an old fashioned name!

[Mammyloveswine]

Talking with a colleague lately about common names from the 80s and 90s... the usual., Sarah, Laura, Becky, Lydia, Lindsay, Louise, Emma etc..

We then got talking about more unusual names we went to school with "Hester.. Paula..Hermione (way before Harry Potter 😂).."

I just cannot imagine a baby or small child being called Paula! I can't even imagine a person my age (30s) being called Paula!

Any other names you just cannot imagine as a baby/small child?

Paula is very common in mainland Europe. Usually pronounced like ‘pawl-la’.

my Ds name is mentioned here, both of them

Had Ds been a girl he would have been:
Rita Susanna Or Nora Susan

I'm a Paula, I'm late 40s, never liked my name. However, I've come across a fair few in my time.

I'd take any old fashioned name overJaydens and Kaydens and Chardonnays 🙄

I'm a TA.

In my scholl we have Michael and Shaun, but the ome that surprised me most of all was Kevin.

I know sisters Sylvia and Lillian. Who are around 12 and 14 now.

Alan

Joyce

Maureen is a lovely name, don't understand the bad press it gets.

I know a little Jason

I know children with both these names.

I know a baby Niall, which blows my mind

One of my grannies was called Fanny. Not Frances, Fanny. Oddly, nobody ever suggested any of us should be named after her.

All these names are better than the endless Lily May, Ellie May, etc etc

Gertrude
Agatha
Beryl
Winifred
Lettice
Eunice
Probably lots more.

OTOH there are plenty of currently fashionable names which I connect with wizened, whiskery old great-aunts, and I shudder to think of them being inflicted on a poor, innocent little baby.
But that’s fashion for you.

My DM had a name that was fashionable when she was born (1918) and loathed it, so made a point of giving us all ‘classic’ names that wouldn’t date.

Sid and Reg will ALWAYS be old man names... nearly every 80+ year old man I knew under the age of 10 seemed to be Sidney (Sid) or Reginald (Reg) but both are on the comback.

Really the names from within my own generation or the end of the generation slighly before me (older siblings of kids my age) that seem the wierdest for a baby to have.

I can't imagine baby Gary, Kevin, Paul, Gareth, Alan, Greg, Graeme, Peter, Colin or Deborah, Nicola, Tracy, Leslie, Sharon/Shannon, Mary, Kathleen etc...

Lots of names I hear regularly were laughed at and regarded as dreadful names when I was a child. Examples include Fred, Charles and Arthur.
I hear those types of names or 'unique' names were parents admit they have chosen the name so that no-one else will have the same name.

I can't imagine baby Gary, Kevin, Paul, Gareth, Alan, Greg, Graeme, Peter, Colin or Deborah, Nicola, Tracy, Leslie, Sharon/Shannon, Mary, Kathleen etc...

I personally know a young Alan, Peter, Deborah and Mary (x2). I have a friend abroad who called her baby Paul.

Not many baby Ruths around

I went through a very strong phase, when pregnant, of wanting to name ds (now 12) Colin. I absolutely loved it, I still do have a soft spot for it. We went with a completely different name in the end and he couldn’t be anything else now.

My DS class is full of several Ediths plus Rita, Maureen, Agnes... basically names that are 100+ years old are bang on trend now.

This has been the trend pattern since forever its just more noticable in modern times as the true classics which held the top 10 for centuaries (Mary, Elisabeth, James, William etc...) have massively dropped in fashion so now the trends outnumber the 'steady classics'.

I know a little Agnes and a Lauren, neither seems unusual.

I'm waiting for the 1970s names to be fashionable again- that will be so weird- Joanne, Jane, Ruth, Julie, Samantha, Rebecca, Helen, Claire, Nicola, Robert, Jason, Adrian, Julian, Richard, Michael, Matthew, Mark, Andrew etc.

My 4 year old has two Charlottes in his class

people saying they cannot imagine a baby so and so etc, well they’re not gonna be babies for ever are they? Too many people give their kids cutesy names now a days and seemingly fogey that!

That's a lovely name

@Prettypussy, several of the names you quote are classics - inc. Jane, Helen and Andrew.
They’re not 70s names in the way that Julie and Samantha are.

I’m waiting for John to make a comeback. For hundreds of years it was a top favourite in the U.K.. Any baby boy named John now could be pretty sure of being the only one in his class.

Old men’s names like Stanley and Cyril make me shudder, but that’s at least partly a generational thing - I connect them with bristly old men in ancient tweedy jackets smelling of pipe tobacco, or one of those old men’s fawn cardies with leather buttons. And very likely a knitted tie with bits of egg on it.

My ex-husband's name is Arthur, when my eldest son was born 36 years ago my MIL was insistent that I called him Arthur the name of her dead father, I was adamant that no child of mine would be saddled with that name, it caused a mini war in the family she even had the cheek to visit my parents to ask them to make me use that name. My ex was no good he sided with his mother, I had suspicions that he was going to register the child as Arthur so even though I wasn't feeling 100% I myself went to register his name to make sure the name arthur was not used. I got my own way over the name only 18 months later to have to go through it all again when I had another son. My MIL never forgave me

Daisy -mae. Very easily turned into dozy mare