Names whose popularity mystify you

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I feel I must be showing my age because I don't understand the popularity of Fern/e. I don't hate it, I am just amazed at it's immense popularity. Why do you think it has caught the zeitgeist at the present time?

Matilda is a fabulous name and was the name of amazing women over a thousand years ago!

That's your association - mine is a string of badly behaved children. Ive never taught a well mannered one and it's really changed
my view of it This kind of thread is always gonna run into these issues!

My Oliver has a double barrelled surname so it's ok. Plus he's the only one in his school of 1000+ pupils.

There are many Oliver's in primary schools I would imagine but less so in secondary.

And for the pp that suggested Oliver would have a sibling with a name like Emily, that is my most hated girl name!

The old boy/girl names don’t feel right now, Mabel, Albert, Stanley and so on.

I’m on board with the Emily hatred. Wonder how many girls and women there are in the U.K with this name that are under 30? I’d estimate something like 500,000. Never understood why someone would give their child a very popular name.

Emily is just such a boring name! People who choose boring names always are the type too who make everyone wait for weeks before they decide what to call their new baby and it's something lame and boring like Emily or Jack. Or even worse, Amy!

I don’t like all the ‘illy’ names around atm. In ds1’s class of 20 there is a Billy, Millie, Tilly and 2 Lillies. Their poor teacher.

I agree with Emily having become so dull through overuse! Shame that people still choose a name that has already been in the top 10 for years...!

My DD is Emilie. I didn't like Emily but really liked Emilie!!

I can't stand Grace or Oliver and hate old names that have become trendy. There was a little baby in the paper the other day called Enid. I don't like that at all!

Intercom have you really met lots of babies with the names Ian, Kevin, Wayne and Nigel? I mean, that they were ever popular is admittedly sort of mystifying to me, but I'd never be remotely surprised to meet any of them in their thirties, whereas if someone announced the birth of Baby Wayne...

*AnnaAlyce

Emily is just such a boring name! People who choose boring names always are the type too who make everyone wait for weeks before they decide what to call their new baby and it's something lame and boring like Emily or Jack. Or even worse, Amy!*

I agree, someone I know kept going on about not knowing what to call her ‘princess’ after giving birth two weeks later she announced they finally decided on Emma

Really bad at this bold malarkey

Olivia

I find Lily and Ella really dull too. Whenever I hear that people have chosen them I just think, "really?"

My older DD was in a nursery group with Eve, Evie, Eva, Neve. The key worker was brilliant and never got them muddled. My daughter is Freya so didn't sound too dissimilar, but was so glad she didn't have the same!

Henry.

It's just wet and meh in a toffy chinless wonder kind of way. Don't like the sound, the way it looks written down or any of the associations it has!

Ditto George. Agree with the description of it as "podgy and red" from up thread.

I have to laugh because my Dsis has five kids and all of their names are mentioned on this thread. I wouldn't say it to her in RL but goodness me I've alway thought she chose very boring names do her babies.

The only other funky modern name I can't warm to is Astrid. Sounds so harsh to my ears.

It is odd how some people dislike 'unfashionable names' when fashions change so quickly -- my own maternal grandmother, born in the 1880s and whom I never met, was given what I though of as a beautiful first name/middle name combination - Violet Pretoria. She changed it to Geraldine!

My own name was very trendy during the 60s but is now considered more than a bit downmarket. Oh well, it had it's season in the sun. As did I.

Olivia
Lydia
Grace
Alice
Nina

Quentin
Rafe
Ralph

Just my taste though - two of my DCs' names have already appeared on this thread. It would be a boring world if we were all the same!

I've never understood the love for the name Teddy, I find it twee and cutesy. I don't like it for a girl or a boy.

Sebastian is another name I dislike, to me it sounds jumped up and pretentious.

There was a time a few years ago when every other girl seemed to have the middle name Mae/May, and i'm not keen. In fact i'm not keen on any really popular names, that's just me.

All of this is jmo of course, it'd be a boring world if we all had the same taste.

There's a lot of very Old Testament names for boys. I don't see the appeal as they sound so biblical to me. Nothing wrong with them but I would expect them only in very religious families and now they're everywhere.

Names like Jacob, Isaac, Reuben, Nathaniel, Noah, Zachary.

I don't really like names with too many spellings as it's a pain to spell them out all the time. El(l)iot(t), Fin(n)(d)la/ey, Iso/abel(l)(e/a), Eva/Ava/Evie etc. I'm always surprised to see them high in the list - and then their popularity is even greater when you combine the different spellings.

Edith has got to be the worst name of all time,

Enid is worse

Had a look at the list of recent QC's. This is a name to conjure with!

Edward Mark de Breteuil Devereux

It's MAGNIFICENT!

And I also liked

Caoifhionn Gallagher

I wondered if it's pronounced "Kevin"

I'm with you on Noah, OP - it just doesn't sound nice, as a pp mentioned, like a whingy "no"!!

And Oscar - I'm a child of the 70s, so Oscar means Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street and why would anyone call their child after that character?!

Emma, Emily, Amelia, Mia, Ava, Eva, Olivia, Sophie/a in all their variants - wet and boring.

When people make alternative spellings for names.. I have a sister of a friend who named her girl 'Alivya' and it drives me mad.

I'm from a family of 'strange' names - I'm yet to meet another person with my first name (Tamara) and whilst it's not a name I would choose, I LOVE that it's so uncommon.

Names that I just don't get though are:
Louis, Atticus, Bobby, Finley, Frank
Anything that's 'something-Mae', Layla, Evie and Lexi

And I also liked

Caoifhionn Gallagher

I wondered if it's pronounced "Kevin"

Caoilfhionn is pronounced Queelin or Keelin, depending on what part of Ireland you're from. It's a girl's name.