Maybe a controversial question!

[BroadcastHouse]

Interested to know your thoughts. Wondering if the mumsnet Baby Name forum users are not all parents-to-be in their 20s/30s as I would haven initially assumed? I've been really surprised by the large number of posters who seem to be very pro standard names such as Michael, James, William, Andrew - and have very strong opinions against mildly alternative names (I've recently seen extreme responses to Lawrence, Silas, Archer, Xavier) - opinions that seem similar to those of my parents in law. (Whose kids are Mike James and Chris).
Anyone who has those names lined up for their baby, please don't get me wrong, I like them very much. It just strikes me that, for those of us having our families now, these are often the names of our husbands, not our kids. So I'm wondering if this forum has a wider demographic than just my peers - and these reactions are a generational thing? Or if there really is a general swing back to names of this era? Any thoughts?

People do always complain that MN has a bias towards classic names. I think it's a fair reflection of the general consensus. Look at the top 100. The William, James, Joshua, Sophie, Olivia names are massively popular. There are then faddy names, modern and slightly inventive names, nature names etc. All liberally represented.

It's just the norm ime. The names you've seen extreme reactions to are probably notable exceptions. I think Lawrence and similar are well received here in general. Hippy or nature names are well received too.

Made up names, surnames as first names and very modern naming trends are most often derided on here and that's usually a socio-economic prejudice.

I think posters know that sometimes, you get your different name by going for something that isn't too fashionable. That's not linked to age that realisation, is it? i'm in my 40s, nto having more children but I am interested in what names come in to fashion. My children's names already sound tied to a previous decade. iT'S what happens.

I also want to add that I like names that have a lot of different possibilities for nicknames. There are a few for dds name but one very obvious one which I hate and nobody uses it.

So for example Alexander is my top choice for a boy but he'll be Sasha or Sandy and not Alex.

I didn't have very positive reactions to dds name but it didn't bother me in the slightest. But I agree about made up names.

Lawrence is on my list too incidentally.

I'm 29. My children have very 2010's names - surname first name/trendy names (names I just love and suit my children). I cant imagine that there will be a lot of Sarah's and James' in a few years but then they will roll back round into fashion... I Got an absolute pasting for my ds name on here when I dared to asked what kind of reaction it would get and my dd's name got ripped apart on the same thread (and I did find it quite hurt for my DD) but at the same time I cant expect everyone to like the same names as I do.

Age isn't going to be a big deciding factor on whether you like traditional names. They're traditional because they've succeeded at appealing to lots of people for generations.

Well I've definitely got my answer thanks all. The popularity for traditional names is stronger than I realized and I can understand why. I've been abroad for a few years and had our kids abroad so a bit out of the loop on UK naming preferences , so this is really interesting to hear.
I def didn't mean to suggest that older parents would have more traditional naming ideas (we're having our kids in our mid-late 30's so def older parents!). By 'peer group' (probably the wrong word) I only meant other people having kids right now. I thought maybe there were lots of posts from people much older than even ME (!!). But no - it sounds like those names are just incredibly popular. Which makes sense.
Interesting to hear that old British chestnut of name choices signaling the parents class rather than age. I better get my head around these much derided 'made up' names before naming a third baby in England...!

I think it's usually wrong to make assumptions about posters.

And ageist to make assumptions about people liking or disliking things because of their date of birth. For example, older parents might have the style and confidence to choose the really weird names for their children, and suggest them here (can I take it you have yet to be on a Ptolemy thread?)

'Traditional' names have become traditional because they are well liked. Top ten names are in those positions because lots of people like them enough to use them. Some names have been in the top 50 for decades.

It depends where you've been though op.

Some top 10 names are the same level of popularity throughout Europe though And I look for names that make sense across Europe because it's important to me.

We have Welsh, Austrian French and English heritage between us and live in another European country. Sophie and different versions of it are very popular in all those countries for example. And it was on our shortlist for dd. It's also traditional and classic. I didn't want anything too foreign though because they sound ridiculous with a very common English surname so that needs to be taken into consideration too.

Last year 3 of my friends the same age named their dds the same name that was very popular at the time and my 22 year old niece also went for something similar. They all sound dated already and all of them thought they were being original. They wish they'd gone for something classic.

I am beyond my 30s, I won't be having any more DC sadly, but I like the baby names threads. My DC are both top 100 names, and I 'knew' their names before they were born. So I never did the short-listing thing

I don't know why you think the names you listed are incompatible with people in their 20s and 30s outs self the four names you give are the names of my sons and two of my nephews - DSis and I named them when we were in our 20s and 30s - and still in our 30s now!

I'm 32
My children are Padraig, Jacinta, Lenny and Romilly.
My best friend of the same age has an Eden, Sylvie, Reuben and Delilah.

There aren't many Thomas' and Catherine's amongst the peer group of our progeny so I think you may have a point.

Im a Marielle and my friend is a Jennifer, both born in 1983.
Husband/DP both Chris/Kris

I'm in my 20's and would use James as my no.1 boys name were it not my awful bil's name.

Names that are fashionable can seem very dated later. When I was at school there were masses of Lindas and Christines - nowadays these almost inevitably give away your era. There's nothing wrong with them, but whoever chooses these for a baby now? I can think of quite a few that are currently very popular - excluding the classics - that will be the same 30 or 40 years on. A bit like goat's cheese and red onion tart - seen everywhere now, but it will be the prawn cocktail of the future. ;-)

I keep wondering when John will become popular again. For hundreds of years it was the most popular boy's name, yet anyone calling their son John now would very likely find he's the only one in the whole school. But at the same time it would not date him as another name might.

I am in my 30s and am not keen on names that are too different. I like classic, timeless names and disagree totally that they are "boring".

In fact, your child is more likely to be the only "John" in their class in amongst all the hundreds of Alfies and Lilys.

I'm 48 & I think names like Kyla & Jayden are fine.
But I'm also a dirty rotten furriner, so...

My DC are in their late teens & early 20s so I won't be naming any more babies.

I just happen to be fascinated by names and that's why I'm often on the Baby Names board.

I think you're right to say that a fair number of posters expressing views on the baby names threads are of an age as likely to be grandmothers as mothers and that this probably influences MN's notoriously "classic" approach to baby naming. Speaking here as someone who could perfectly easily be either grandmother or new mother.

However, if you look at the UK top 100 you'll see that MN is not exactly out of line with the general public, and the top ten boys names in particular are really really conservative.