A True classic

[greencat23]

Have been thinking about classic names those that stand the test of time and never date a person . I think they are few my list as follows anyone think off any more.
Catherine
Elizabeth
Charlotte
Anne/Anna

William
James
Thomas

Emma
Emily
Sarah
Rebecca
Caroline
Jane

Nicholas
Alexander
James
William

Emma
Sophie
Anne
Rose
Mary
Jessica

Mathew
James
Luke
Steven
Andrew

Josephine
Amelia
Lucy
Victoria
Hannah
Georgina

Samuel
David
John
George
Peter
Luke

Alice
Claudia
Isobel
Grace
Emily
Amelia
Elizabeth

John
Mark
Matthew
Benjimin
David
Andrew
Christopher
Paul

William for a boy. Love it! I have a William. He is cute, serious, naughty, mischeivious, loving, etc depending on how you say it! My 4 year old DD calls him Wee-yum. So cute.

I disagree with quite a few of these. Some of them are very old names, yes, but they're quite cyclical and therefore go in and out of fashion.

How many people, for example, do you know called Ann/Anne? Mostly women our Mums' age? It's a little bit old-fashioned. Anna is more current right now.

Likewise, Mary (DD's middle name, for the record) is only just coming out of middle-aged connotations.

Lots of people called Caroline, Stephen/Steven, David, Victoria, Andrew, Christopher, Nicholas, etc from my generation, but not very popular right now. Very few baby Johns around.

Amelia?! Hmm, I don't think so. Very 'now'.

My own name is Isobel and it's fashionable right now, but was desperately old-lady (and not in a good way) when I was given it in the 70s - named after my grandmother reflecting its popular back in the early 1900s when she had it. As I say, cyclical - going in and out of fashion, as opposed to being completely timeless.

I think there's only a very small handful of names which are truly timeless, BUT, having said that, I do think that there are loads and loads of names which won't date per se, if you simply choose names which aren't overly popular and therefore too associated with a certain era.

Agree with slinking. There aren't many names which aren't mostly associated with a particular age group. Every other girl in my year at school was called Sarah but there are very few little Sarahs around now. Jessica is going through an extended "popular" phase, but there are almost no Jessicas older than me.

I think for girls, Elizabeth and Hannah
For boys, Peter and Michael

Alexander is timeless; we know Alexanders of all ages. Not only is it not tied to one age group, it's not tied to one country either.

Jessica is thought to have been invented by Shakespeare as a name for Shylock's daughter. It's been around a while.

Alexander and Nicholas - I have a 4yo Nicholas :) and we considered Alexander. Our choice for a girl was Rebecca - guess we like classical names :)

baby-names.familyeducation.com/nametracker

and

www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#

Graphs of the rise and fall in popularity of any name you type in :)

Christopher
Thomas

Emily
Laura

That was really interesting filter coffee - although neither Poppy nor Alfie were accepted as names in the top 1,000 names, yet they accepted Kaylee and Nevaeh. My daughter's name also didn't register.

FilterCoffee, I love the voyager site. It bears out what I said about Jessica too; Shakespeare may have invented it, but it was barely used prior to the 70s. Elizabeth on the other hand shows steady use right through the decades. Just before anyone thinks I'm too smug, was wrong about Hannah; i thought there were more around prior to 70s than there were!

I'm guessing they are American sites - anyone know of a UK equivalent? :)

Timeless doesn't mean names that are always "in fashion", but they're names that have been used almost since the dawn of time, and are always there or thereabouts.

For that very reason names like Anne, Mary and Sarah are timeless. They might not as popular now, but they're names that have weathered the storm of fashion.

For example, Sarah is one of only two names that has been in the Top 100 girl's names ever year since the lists began in the 1890s, the other is Elizabeth.

That's timeless to me!

It depends on how you define timeless imo. Just like fashion, some things are classic/timeless (e.g. a navy poloshirt) - they never become super popular and therefore never fall out of fashion again.

Names like Peter, Mark, Quentin, Christopher, Elisabeth, Mary all have a 'classic' feel to them - I don't think any of them have ever been in the top 5 or so (could be wrong though).

I think a true classic is a name that when seeing it written down or hearing it you would not be able to say what age the person was. Very few names like this.

Agree with Greencat about this. If you had said you were naming your DD, Sarah, in the 1950s, your gran would probably have asked you why you were giving your baby a servant's name.

Maryanna, the names Mary and Elizabeth weren't just in the top 5 but in the top 2 for most of the 19th century. About 25% of girls were called just these 2 names. Peter was the 3rd most popular in 1950, and could probably be regarded as a classic because, while not so common before, was not unusual either. Mark was the 2nd most popular in 1970. Christopher was unusual before the 1950s but has remained popular ever since. Quentin, OTOH, has never been a popular name.

Helen? That's my name and I've always felt it to be quite timeless- I think it passes the 'can't tell what age the person is' test.

I agree with ButterPecanMuffin that different classics may be more or less popular at different times, but they will never sound really odd or faddy.

Thomas for a boy - has always been popular. Even eg William would have been unusual in the '70s, whereas I have known loads of Tom's of all ages.

Helen - I don't know a single Helen under the age of 20, but loads of Helens over the age 35, so I wouldnt' consider it 'timeless'.

Interesting charts, but not representative of the UK. Try putting in "Nicola"