Are fifties names having a revival?

[Jusfloatingby]

In the last couple of months I've heard of a baby Jill, a baby Hilary and a baby Judy. I think of these as very fifties Enid Blytoney type names and am just wondering if the fashion for early twentieth century names like Edith, Iris and Ethel is now moving on to another stage?
I love the names Jill and Judy by the way.

I'm not either. But I love Cynthia! There aren't really any other nicknames. Cyn is even worse because of the sound! Thia? But that's practically a different name.

Re Enid Blyton type names, I think Ann must surely be due a comeback. It's been out of fashion for ages.

Here in Ireland typical 50s names were horrible: Bernie, Philomena, Patricia, Geraldine, Teresa, Marie. English names of that vintage were much, much nicer.

You could shorten Philomena to Mena and you could shorten Teresa to Tess. I like those nns. Quite like Marie.

In 40 years time all the Kayleighs, Donnas and Michelles will be in nursing homes being looked after by Lily, Rose and Esme

Jusfloatingby - you have no idea how many of those names are in my (Irish-American) family. I hope you're right about Ann - a more unfashionable name you could not imagine .

I like Tess and Tessa. In Ireland in the 50s Marie was usually pronounced Maaree as opposed to Ma-ree which isn't as nice.

Sorry mommybunny. I hope I wasn't insulting you.

Someone called Gloria could only ever be fun. She would have a throaty laugh and long red nails and all the men would fancy her.

I think Joan and Betty have been made very cool indeed by Mad Men

When Lily, Rose and Esme end up in the nursing home they will be looked after by a new generation of Jean, Joan and Junes and it will have gone full circle.

What about Jane Quadrangle?

I really love that name and want it to come back into fashion NOW.

I had Pearl, Ethal and Gwladys as options for #2 ended up with another boy.

I hate popular/trendy names.

I like Jane. I think it is quite classy. It makes me think of Henry VIII's wife Jane Seymour.

I think Pearl is very cool because of Pearl Lowe.

Like Anne of Green Gables I prefer Anne-with-an-e.

mommybunny there was a whole thread about Blanche a while back, which started with everyone hating it and then people started growing into it...

Stella anytime I hear the name Blanche I now think of that thread
People really came around to it, I think it's a brilliant name!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a1449031-I-promised-DH-he-could-name-the-baby-Now-Ive-changed-my-mind

And yes Anne must always be spelt with an E. Ann looks awful, Anne looks a trilliion times better.

Love Blance
Love Rita
Love Shirley
Love Betsey

When I was small I always wanted to be called Carol or Maggie (which is what all my mums friends were called)

Then later on Tina which to me epitomised all that was glamorous.

I would have found 50's names really frumpy

It's funny how our perception of what's glamorous changes. I now think 50s names do seem glamorous, but I suspect it has a lot to do with Mad Men.

squoosh, agree with you on Blanche, but please do go easy on Ann...

A mate recently named her girl Maggie. We were all a bit but the cuteness factor is well high.

Firstly: a plea from my 80 year old neighbour... she says ''please never call your daughter 'Winifred' or she will never forgive you!''

(If i was given just £1 for every elderly lady i meet who hates her name & uses a totally different name; then i would be very rich indeed, so beware!).

Re: 1950s names - These are the most common names of the women i know born 1945-59; quite often they seem to prefer to use nicknames based on their Christian names:

Susan (Sue)
Jacqueline (Jackie)
Julie (Jules)
Valerie (Val)
Patricia (Pat, Patsy, Tricia, Trisha, Trish)
Joyce (Joycie)
Christine (Chris, Chrissie, Chrissy, Christy, Tina
Jane / Jayne (Janey)
Ann / Anne / Annette / Annie
Barbara (Babs)
Carol / Caroline
Janet (Jan)

I think it's best to try to be original (but not eccentrically so) in name choices if possible.

For example i know lots of women named 'Sue' in the 35 - 65 age group (the younger Sues tend to be Suzanna / Suzanne or Susanne / Susanna as well as Susan.
I think Susan is a pretty name actually, but the name is so common that in conversation i have to use extra identifiers eg. give a surname / description or my relationship to the 'Sue' in question.

Not really %0s but my Grannies/ great aunts names were Ruth, Phyllis and Diana. Love Phyllis now. Can just imagine a little girl called Phyllis

Funny, I hate Phyllis but think Ruth and Diana are lovely. I could never understand why there wasn't a big revival of the name Diana in the eighties.

Peter?
Richard?
Bernhard?

I know 2 Jeans - aged 3 and 6. One known as Jeannie. DD has Jean as her middle name and sometimes gets called that in conjunction with her first name. Which makes her sound like a hill-billy. But cool! Joanie is cool too. What goes around comes around I guess.