How will this name date?

[newcastlecoal]

Hi, I've read a few times that some people think Lily is faddy and will date quickly. Do you think this is true considering that it's been around for years in a way that other names that pinpoint the owner to a specific decade, for example Tracy or Sharon, have not?

I have a name that was only given to doddery old ladies or the very upper class in the early 80's and is now experiencing a comeback.

When choosing my DS's names I tried to envisage a boy, a teenager, a young man, a middle aged man & an elderly man with that name. If I couldn't see it, it was instantly vetoed. DS1's is probably quite faddy really (it's a surname first name) but I loved it. DS2's is an unusual but simple name with Irish and Germanic heritage.

We compromised by using family names as middle names. Very standard saints names. That way if when they are older they dislike their unusual first name they can swap.

Ah, Sally - that's a traditional nn for Sarah anyway. More common as a standalone name in modern times, I think, although I did used to know a Sally whose name was really Sarah.

Now you would think that Sally would be sitting alongside the Millys, Tillys and Lilys at present, but apparently not so.

I agree Percy. Wonder why Sally hasn't made acome back.

Unlike Tilly, Milly, Lily, Sally hasn't made a comeback excactly because it was SO widely used in the 1970s...so the current parents find it 'dull' and 'too much like their own peers'. But Lily, Milly and all the other cutesy names sound 'fresh' to our ears as we weren't surrounded by them when we were growing up. (Our kids will probably find such names very unexciting for their own kids!).

Was it that popular, it passed me by. I can only think of a very few Sallys I've known, and one of those was my Mum's age (1930s). (I think she was really a Sarah, come to think of it.)

The Sally cycle hasn't turned enough yet. If it's a name associated with our age group, or our parents' age group (Beverley, Patricia, Janet, Anne, Barbara, Shirley, Margaret, etc, etc) then it's out for us. It has to be our grandparents or further back.

tunaday, I have to say, I really disagree with your thoughts on Lily. It's easy to say Tracey and Dawn sound dated because they have gone through their fashionable stage, exited it and now sound tired and dull.

Whereas Lily is still widely used, it's hard to imagine for some that one day it will reach that stage, too. Everyone has agreed that it'll go through peaks and troughs of use (it's doing that right now), but because it is is being so widely used right now, it is bound to fall from fashion, as anything fashionable inevitably does in the search for the new big thing. :)

I think in a generation's time it will be very easy to pick a Lily's age! It will be a 'Mum' name then and everyone will be avoiding it because tastes have moved on and yes, it will sound dated.

I keep referring back to my own name, which is a very old name going through a massive resurgence right now - but was massively dated when I was given it in the 70s. Just because a name is old, doesn't prevent it from joining the ranks of cyclical names.

Absolutely - Lily, Tilly, Evie, Archie, Alfie will all sound terribly dated and tired by the next generation. Our kids will be looking for 'new', 'fresh' names that they've not heard before - perhaps they'll love Barbara, Gertrude or Patricia - hard to imagine now, but very likely .

I wonder if one day I'll have a beautiful baby Granddaughter called Barbara. :o at the thought! Maybe we'll call her Barbie for short...

I'm sure the DDs will be on their version of MN saying AIBU to wish my mother wouldn't be so rude about the name I've chosen for my DD. There'll be echoes of "YANBU, Barbara is beautiful name - my Grandma was Barbara. Such a timeless classic!"

Robin -

It is very different in America Squoosh. For instance Dominic here in the States is very slightly-chavvy and 80's. It's on par with Brandon.

Robin I think that too! There will be pictures of our daughters in the future... "Pearl with her daughters, Tammy and Pamela..." :o

Oh, and Caroline. Very upper middle class here. Not there, I hear. :)

Interesting thread. My son is called Benjamin is this a faddy name?

I would have put Ben in the "Timeless Classic" camp. I know Bens my age, teenage Bens, child Bens, baby Bens and old Bens.

Sally will come back when Karen etc do.

(does anyone else find it totally wrong that Karen in Outnumbered is called Karen? She just wouldn't be. She'd be called Molly.

Benjamin -I would place in the cyclical group, not the timeless or faddy group. How any gazillions of late-teen Bens are there?

My dd loves the name Doris. (which worries me somewhat )

I know lots of Bens under the age of 10 do it levels quite fashionable but you'd have to look at the statistics to see whether the name gained popularity.

Sorry so (not do)

And feels (not levels)

Annoying predictive text....

Lily will sound very old fashioned in a couple of generations, in the same way it sounded very old fashioned 30 years ago when I was a child.

THat's not a reason not to use it though.

Bucharest I don't know what Outnumbered is, but I know what you mean about fictional characters having the wrong names for their ages.

Nora Roberts (whom I love, don't get me wrong :o ) has a new trilogy with brothers in their thirties called Beckett, Owen, and Ryder. No way. I can see a family of American boys ten and under with those names, definitely, but...

I often wonder if the really cool people are naming their babies Jason or Jennifer or Rachel. They are so cool that the "cool" old-man names like Arthur and Albie, Freddie etc are old news to them. So they are going back to the names from the 70s which is my generation. Imagine a baby Jason!! So uncool that it's cool!

and agree that Benjamin goes in the classic camp although I discounted it for my son because I know about 5 baby Benjamins born in the last 2 years. Lovely name though.

(CY- you've missed nothing- it was good telly for about 6 episodes and now is just cringingly awful. There is a child in it called Karen who is about 9 by now)

I almost had to not read the Karin Slaughter books because all her characters have names and surnames lifted from Wuthering Heights which for smalltown USA in the 90s/00s was just ridiculous.

I also get the outnumbered thing, there is no way she would be called Karen. It would be like Jake, Ben and Emily or something. Why do the just not look at the most popular names for the year she is supposed to be born.

Benjamin is a cyclical name imo. I don't think you'll find that many over 50.

Bucharest This annoys me too. Soaps always seem to give adult characters names like Lola, Finn and Alfie. I cannot believe there are lots of grown up Finns, Lolas and Alfies in circulation.