Girls names that won't date?

[Disneydreams]

Just that really. Doesn't matter if popular. Ideas please. X

Great suggestions!

Do not like Anna unfortunately. Love antonia, that is beautiful. Also like charlotte and Freya.

Thankyou for all your ideas

Casey your number 2 options are fab, if only I had guts lol

sophie
emily
rachel
charlotte
alice
jessica

OK, Florence will definitely date to this era, so if this is your criteria, then it's out. Freya will also date. And Olivia absolutely will! Doesn't it have the number one spot at the moment?

The following are names - neither hugely well-known and classic, nor ludicrously yoonee'q - which you would be very unlikely to be able to tell the age of the owner...

Eleanor/Elinor
Mallory
Merryn
Honor
Louisa
Rosalind
Miranda
Ingrid
Astrid
Blythe
Rowan
Briony / Bryony
Celeste
Simone
Aurelia
Cara / Clara
Odette / Odile
Claudia
Ines
Rebecca
Ellen
Elena
Ida
Elspeth
Henriette...

There's loads. This is just a drop in the ocean. If you start looking, there are so, so many under-utilised names out there that won't date. It's just a matter of landing on one that captures your imagination. :)

Rose
Marriane

Rebecca?

If you like Ellie but are worried it might become a Tracey of the future, would you consider using Eleanor with Ellie as a nickname? Or Elizabeth with Ellie as a nickname?

I don't think Lily would age as such, but there are quite a lot of little Lilys at the moment so it wouldn't be unique - that doesn't bother me at all, not sure whether it would bother you?

There's no such thing IMHO.

Names that people on MN are always calling classic and timeless are always soooo of their time.

DH had a mate at school with a really odd and unusual name that he got a lot of teasing for - it was Thomas. Yes really! Because everyone else then was called Steve and Dave and Paul and Mark.

I think maybe Elizabeth fits the bill as I can think of people of all ages I know called it; and maybe Kate/Katherine. There aren't many tho. Why worry? All the Julies and Karens that I know seem to be OK even tho everyone knows from the name exactly how old they are (in their early 40s btw)

Looking at names people have posted here - Grace for instance, a lovely name, but not one that many people were called 40 years ago. I have never met a Grace born longer ago than the early 90s.

sugarandspice I love your list and it includes my DD's name! Her name is one of the less common ones you list (well I don't know any others) but a lot of them are in the mould of names that are coming back - Florence, never met any as a child, ditto Harriet, but popular 100 years ago. NAmes go in cycles, why fight it? Pick one you liek and hopefully you will still like it in years to come. I still love myDCs' names and the oldest is nearly 13

Emily - pretty and classic.

Emily you see makes my point - was anyone on MN who is in their 40s at school with an Emily? And yet my secondary school (where I work not study!!) is full of Emilys, one in most classes.

Girls called Emily are aged 5-16 IME. A fine name but not classic.

There are lots of cyclical names, yes, but there are also lots of un-dateable names.

To say otherwise is just wrong, IMO.

I would agree that Emily is cyclical name, although my neighbour growing up was one (child of the 70s).

Emily comes in and out - Emily Bishop/Corrie and Emily Bronte - two very different eras - spring to mind. It is currently experiencing a surge in popularity, so I'd agree that it will date - but it's certainly not new.

I never said it was new! Emily Bronte was hardly a child of 1960s tho .

The majority of names come in and out. That's the point really. Just now it's all about the WW1 names like Edward and Albert and William and Flora and Grace and Elsie. They would have sounded very dated 30-40 years ago.

I know this is true too - my SiL chose William for her son about 25 yrs ago and got a lot of raised eyebrows at her outlandish choice.

"Emily Bronte was hardly a child of 1960s tho ."

Huh?! I didn't say it was... I said that Emily Bishop and Emily Bronte were from two very different eras. In other words, the name has been used on and off through the ages for a very long time.

Again - I do not disagree that there are lots of cyclical names. But there are also plenty of names which will not date a person to a generation.

Sorry, didn't say you thought emily Bronte was from th 60s, but my point was (as a child of the 60s myself) that it is not a dateless name - nobody would think an Emily would be in her 40s. Everyone I knew at school was called Julie, Karen, Tracey, Sharon, Claire, Nicola, Helen...

I think we are saying the same thign actually! But honestly, the names I can think of that honestly are not dteable really I can count on the fingers of one hand. And I don't think the OP likes them

I'm not sure we are saying the same thing, really!

I mean, as I say, I agree that there are lots of cyclical names which come in and out, and I also totally agree with you that there are lots of very current names which many people are deluded enough to think will be somehow immune to dating (to say Lily, for example, won't date is ludicrous), but....

I do really think there are so many names which do not pinpoint a person to an era. The list I started above is just off the top of my head. Obviously they won't be to everyone's - or even many people's - taste, which is why they're never very popular. But the range is huge - you're bound to land on something.

Lol what a tricky subject. I wonder if I have any idea what I mean myself I think I definitely don't like the classic names then as to me they are dated. I suppose we all have different ideas, which is good because otherwise there would be 20 in each class with the same name. Maybe what I should say is that at the risk of outing myself, I need a name to go with ds Joshua. Whilst this name might not be to everyone's taste. IMO it's not new, is still popular and is a name that both my grandma and my sisters love, iykwim. I'm looking for the same sort of thing for a girl. I do think you're right thou, best just to go with something you love. Which is what I did with Joshua. Trouble is, I haven't quite found that girls name that I love

Clary, I was at school with an Emily (hi Emms if you're reading this) but I agree it was thought of as a bit old-fashioned and quaint at the time. As was Lucy, and the outlandishly named Eleanor who constantly had to say 'No, not Helen, Eleanor' to people...

I am 40 next month and was at school with a couple of Emilys. I don't actually know any younger than late 20s, although I'm aware it's a popular name.

Joshua is interesting because it took off out of almost nowhere in (I think) the 1970s, rocketed up into the top ten and has been there ever since. So it's not a "timeless" name but it's not immediately traceable to one particular decade. You get bigger swings in girls' names, so it's more difficult to find a girl's name that meets the same criteria.

As Joshua is a Hebrew name, would you like to find a Hebrew girl's name?

I agree with Baldrick, there are tons of names which have never been wildly popular, but have been given regularly throughout the decades. People just need to look outside the top 100. Even when you clear out the spelling variations, yoo-neek names and those not from your own culture, there are still hundreds to consider.

What we must remember is that we can't predict when a name is going to go from nowhere to stratospheric popularity. It can sometimes be explained by use in pop culture, but is often a mystery.

I just posted this in a thread on "pretty but not too popular names"

Here's a few I've come across in parish registers/family trees. Just names that you don't come across every day - they won't all be to everyone's taste.

Anish
Selina
Tryphena
Tryphosa
Persis
Marjorie
Christobel
Etheldra
Priscilla
Dorcas
Elvira
Darnigo

I really don't know anymore.

So far I like

Caitlin
Niamh
Ella
Freya
Eva
Lily
Isabelle
Madeleine
Lois
Florence
Maisie

Contradicting myself I know. Think you could be right that it's easier with boys. They tend to be strong names that stick around forever.

Of those I think Madeleine and Lois are least likely to seem obviously dated.