"Old person" names are fashionable, BUT...

[gail734]

When I was at school, there were three Gillians in my class and three Alisons! You can guess how old I am from that. I suspect that if anyone had turned up in my class with what we would have regarded as an "old man's" name, say, Archie, we would have teased the poor soul relentlessly. However, these names are all over the place now. BUT do you know of anyone who has taken it TOO far? My cousin has called her little boy Walter. It's a family name, but I think it's just TOO old-fashioned!

Susan is known as Suki rather than Sue.

But some of them just sound so ugly: Maud, Enid, Ethel, Edna, Doris. None of these sound nice at all. Gertrude, Mabel, ditto.

Some are lovely. I like Nancy, Annie, Maggie and Pearl.

But some of the others like Edna, Ethel, Enid, Maud.. not so much.

My sister once did a work placement at a school while she was in college and there was a little boy in the class named Egbert. He was born overseas but his parent's knew they were moving here and wanted to give him a "timeless english name." And came up with Egbert.....

Oh I can't believe I forgot the worst one ever: Gertrude! My gran's real name was that and she HATED it! Said if any of family named their child Gertrude after her she'd come back and haunt them! (long term illness that she went on to die from) She always went by her much nicer middle name from the day her mother died. (She didn't want to offend or upset her)

I've been thinking about this; heard Thora Hird mentioned and thought, you know, now that she has been gone for a few years, I can separate the name from Harold lady image and it is actually quite an unusual, interesting sounding name. Also ( although I don't much like it ) why is Beryl not popular when Pearl and Ruby are, also Ivy and Marigold are not liked but Rose, Lily and Poppy are very popular?

"her old" not Harold, even autocorrect is obsessed with old people names!

I love all the really old fashioned names...Maud,Mildred,Ethel,Agnes etc...I always have,
I do not like the names everyone insists are 'timeless',I think they are just massively overused,and,quite frankly,dull.

Each to their own,eh?

Some are lovely, the majority are ugly sounding IMO

I worked in nursing homes for years and many of the residents used nn or middle names because they disliked these names so much

Lynette LOL at you in your nursing home.

I am very old (born in 60s) and my secondary school register started Karen, Nicola, Tricia, Angela, Joanne - now those are names you rarely hear on a baby now.

You will, though, you will

My DCs' names except DS2's surprisingly popular one feature heavily on this thread