How do names become 'fashionable'?

[scarlettlips]

How does a name be fashionable or popular?

I saw a comment yesterday about my DD's name being 'quite fashionable' which really surprised me. We picked DD's name because we didn't want as fashionable name, sods law...oh well such is life

Aaaaarrrgh this has happened to me!

I think things such as characters is films/book/tv shows can get an unusual name out there then everyone pucks it thinking ooooh that's lovely and it's unusual and before you know it your calling your DS by his first and surname at playgroup

What is your DD name? Maybe we can the work it out!

I would also say that fashionable is different to popular ...

I'm blaming MNs.. haha. I've seen it mentioned on loads of threads since she was born..god damit!

I'm sure names like Cora (Downtown Abbey) etc will grow in popularity!

DD is called Honor. Named after my great grandmother, a very strong, fun and important women in our family. My granny was delighted as were we!

How so whost? I find all this stuff really interesting

There is an interesting chapter in Freakonomics about how names 'trickle down' socially so that they move from being used by the privileged (whether wealthy / celebs or maybe both) to more general popularity.

I also think there's a difference between fashionable and popular.

DS = fashionable will probably be lots of babies born 2009-2014 with his name then not used anymore.

DD= Popular - not unusual but always commented on as it being a nice/pretty/strong/good name.

Fashionable and popular aren't always the same thing though. Some names will suddenly become fashionable due to a movie character, sleb etc., then just as quickly become unfashionable again. They seem to be mainly top 50 rather than top 10. Popular names are consistently well used, and rarely exit the top 100 names, although may move up and down the rankings over the years.

Sorry whostole posted that before the question was asked of you

Agree that fashionable and popular aren't necessarily the same.

I would say names such as Thomas/Oliver/Charlotte/Emily etc.. are popular names but Theo/Finlay/Archie/Beatrice/Ava/Eva/Amelie/Milly/Molly/Bella etc.. are currently fashionable but possibly "of the moment" but who knows?

Some names will be used by a few people and then others think "oh that's nice and original", and so do others, and others...

I think names go in cycles, particularly girls names. So currently very 'on trend' are all the old lady names like Eve, Ruby, Lily, Martha, Florence etc. Now that some of them have become more and more popular people seem to be trying to find names of that ilk that haven't been so commonly used yet.. So Ivy, Violet, Agnes, Dorothy and Honor are all names I've heard recently.

I think Honor's lovely by the way!

I agree cheese

I do very much think it's a case of hearing a name and going
'..ohhh that's nice'
It's nice to see these names being given new life. Gutted as Beatrice, Voliet and Agnes have long been on my list secretly stomps off in a huff oh well.

montsti you are bang on both my dc names are in there in the place I would have put them.

How did I get a fashionable name? tried so hard not to! Ah well still love it and the nn is cool. Also it could be worse it's not got chav connections ...... Yet!

Sorry, been out all day since I last replied. I wouldn't say Honor was a 'fashionable' name at all! I don't know any, other than Honor Blackman the actress and I have worked with newborns for 8 years. Its lovely, unusual but not unheard of. Love it.

i think others have explained why fashionable and popular aren't quite the same, I can't quite explain why myself, I just don't think they are!

I called my 3rd dd Bethan Marie and since then have found loads of Bethanys but not Bethans so cant decide if she has a really popular name or a really unpopular one!
My other dcs are Jessica, Jacob and Emily so clearly im not too bothered about a name being popular if i like it i go for it :).

Names seem to become popular suddenly and for no reason to me. I never imagined Poppy for example to be a popular name and yet it is.

Poppy is a fashionable name as opposed to popular, IF you're basically saying 'popular' is synonymous with 'timeless'. Poppy will fall out of favour In due course and, will date to this era.

But, I would disagree that the two descriptions are synonymous, as there are plenty of timeless names which aren't massively popular. Mary, for example, Anne, Charles (as opposed to the faddy Charlie), George. They're all still used, well-known, been around forever, but aren't exactly filling the ranks of the top 100 lists.

DD has a timeless name (Shakespearean) which is well-liked enough, but isn't that popular.

DS has a name which is totally out of fashion at the moment!

Oh, and Honor is a lovely name - I wouldn't describe it as fashionable, but maybe it's on the verge of a big rise.

OH FFS - The bloody dog is called Poppy..... Im off!!!!!!!!!

Names are just like fashion. A few people, the trendsetters, start using a previously unusual name (or wearing a different style of fashion) and then lots of people follow suit, thinking 'ooh that's nice and origina'.....and so it becomes fashionable/popular. Eventually such fashions fall out of favour as people search for the next trends!

I have always been fascinated by name trends.
For example, I remember reading an article about it years ago, which showed that the names Samantha and Tracy became popular after the Grace Kelly film 'High Society' in which she plays a character called Tracy Samantha Lord. (Nothing downmarket about either of those names in that film!)

Sometimes it seems impossible to know why a name is fashionable but sometimes it seems obvious (Archie = Monarch of the Glen on TV).

At other times one can hazard a guess, eg Eva/Evie - maybe the sudden, posthumous fame of Eva Cassidy helped to bring this seemingly from nowhere?

I specifically did not want popular names, yet on my first baby's girl's name list 19 years ago were ... Olivia, Eleanor and Isobel - I had no idea how popular they would become immediately afterwards. In the end I had sons but one of them still has a name which became fashionable (thanks perhaps to Eric Clapton's tragic son?)

Something to do with zeitgeist?

Any other examples of direct link with famous people anybody?

Honor perhaps will never reach the heights of popularity, simply because it sounds like "on a" or "on her", which can be awkward with many surnames. Honor Hill .... Honor Head .... Honor Todd ....

I know a few Bethanys but they're all spelled 'Bethynie' instead.

Like the name, not sure about the new spellings.

My son has a name that is neither fasionable or popular. Doubt it ever will be. Suits him though so all is good!

we gave our dd a name that was not massively popular (Phoebe) 14 years ago. then Friends happened and it was a HUGE riser. most think she is named from the char in Friends but actually she is named after JD Salingers "the Catcher in the Rye" that dh read when he was 14 and said "if he ever had a little girl he wanted to call her Phoebe as she was the coolest sister in the world" to me it was sad it became so fashionable as it will be an era name and she is right in the beginning of it. I still love the name and our reason for picking it however dd2 3 and ds all have names that do not register near the top 100 list. I like it that way.