What causes name fashions?

[Rainatnight]

I'm really interested to know how name fashions and trends take hold. It seems to me that it can't be as simple as calling your kid something because everyone else is. It seems more that there's something in the ether.

I was really struck by this in the playground the other day. We've just named our first DD. For context, I've become a mum much later than my friends, don't know anyone with babies at the moment, so haven't at all mixing with babies, toddlers or anyone naming children. So we didn't directly get the idea for the name from somewhere else. Nor is it particularly in the media or anything.

But in the playground there were two other little girls with her name! A few years older, but still.

So what causes it?

Top 100 doesn't mean a huge amount if the majority of people were given names from the Top 20

Like Henry Top twenty name before the current period.

Rupert's not massively popular. Matilda wouldn't be on my list of 'upper class' names, despite royal connections, though it is very fashionable and popular at present. It has been fairly popular at other periods in history also.

Yep Mitzy, a whole new generation of Susies and Pams.

Yes, and Nancy's already on the rise, Temps.

Beatles name is a Michelle, surely.

I wonder how Hooray Henrys got their tag...

The Beatles name is a 'cool boys' name' so unless hipsters have started calling their sons Michelle, I doubt it!

Yep Mitzy, a whole new generation of Susies and Pams

Susan/Susie is great too. Brisk no nonsense names.

For Arlo the only references I can think of are Arlo Guthrie (US Folk Singer born 1947), a cat character in the Bing animation on TV and a restaurant in Newcastle

Lol, Jude then.

I'd noticed that reuset - lots of mentions of Daphne on here lately too. Better dig out my old Mallory Towers books for inspiration if if I ever have another DC!

2030 will be the year of the baby Colin, Neil, Denise and Karen. With their cousins Linda and Paul!

Ooh, temps Gwendoline! Or Pru. (or was she St Claire's?)

Names can also seem more popular .. if you have a child called 'Elodie' then you tend to notice when the same name is called/written down/ on the telly.

My parents generation were all Keith, Richard, Alan, David, Ian. I wouldn't use them as I'd associate them with fuddy duddies.
My grandparents were Milly and Pearl, both making a resurgence, so definitely skipping a generation.

Interesting discussion. My dd3 already has a Suzy in her preschool. Maybe it's already on the way back?! I also know children called Claire, Peter & Catherine. All not particularly current at the moment.
I have noticed there are classic boys' names that do hang around much longer than girls' names. Thomas is the one that really springs to mind.

James another one, Belgian.

Sorry, Belgina
Agreeing about boys' classic names also

I think a lot of people use names which their grandparents were called.
Names which i found old fashioned and dull are now becoming quite popular.
The same will be true of the next generation.
I think girls names might change more frequently because people are more likely to call the baby after its father, like a previous poster mentioned.
Just watching the Wright Stuff and a woman on there has called her baby Paul after its dad.
I was at school with Paul's so to me the name isn't yet old enough or young enough to be considered a nice name if that makes sense.
Sometimes people might near a name and when they become pregnant it has stayed in their mind so they like the name.

I have to say when i was at school Thomas was not a cool name. My cousin s friend was a Thomas and I remember very thinking what an old-fashioned name why on earth did his parents call him that. So all names can have seasons.