Ordinary names I've never seen suggested on MN

[ZaZathecat]

I don't think I've ever seen Nicola mentioned. There were lots in my generation. Maybe it will be back in 5-10 years when we start to become grannies.

In my job as a midwife I've come across in the last few years:

Nicola, Kenneth, Malcolm, Kevin, Rachel, Gemma, Leonard, Gary

Must admit, I was surprised when the parents proudly announced baby Malcolm. Think they could tell by my stunned silence I didn't like it..

Duckponds I was going to be called Claire but then that was 36 years ago though... I think baby names in fashion have moved on since then...

I quite like the name Claire, but I don’t think I would call my baby that name.

Claire is a beautiful name, definitely due a revival in my view.

I like Claire too. I know loads of them but they're all 40/50 odd. I think it would be lovely for a baby girl.

Beverley - what a horrible name. Malcolm is awful too. I did laugh at the poor toddler called Brian. These names were awful even when I was young.

My mum had friends called Thelma, Brenda and Hillary.

I'm a Clare Everyone always says. It's a lovely name, but I loath it. I've never forgave my parents for naming me Clare.

Mind you my neighbour used to call Gertrude so I suppose I got off ridiculously lightly with Clare.

I know a lady called Claire who is in her 80s. She says she was very embarassed by it as a child because it was so strange. She really wanted to be called Margaret or Jean like her friends at school. Not Amy or Emma though, those were old lady names

Where did all the Stuarts go?

DD has a friend called Nicola (7.)

You don’t hear of many little Dawns, Deans or Darrens nowadays.

DC4 was nearly Nicola! Or Rachel. Was a boy instead. Not Stuart or Stephen, but thought about them.
My name is regularly slagged off as horrid. We were 3 a class when I was a teen.

How about Donna? Not heard of it in years. Also Richard, Matthew, Michael

Brian
Janet
Beryl
Phil

Apparently, there wasn't a single baby named Ian born in the UK last year!

The only people I meet with my name are around the same age as me. And according to that Mirror link, only 54 were born in 2016. Wow!

Beryl was suggested on here recently.

I haven't heard Fiona lately, or Tamsin.

I know a baby Jane born in December 2017

Martin/Martyn - 4 in my junior school class.
Gary - very popular in the 70's.
Richard - unpopular perhaps due to being shortened to Dick?
Lee - again I had a few in my class.
Michael, Nigel and Paul too.

54 girls born in a year (2016) is quite a lot actually. Of course not as many as the top 100 names but still enough for it to be well known

My ds name had less than 30 boys named in his birth year and we sometimes meet others his age.

I wonder which of the trendy names today will become the unfashionable names in 30 years?

I wonder which of the trendy names today will become the unfashionable names in 30 years?

Almost all of them, surely? Isn't this how not just names but all fashions work - no one wants something that was super popular recently enough that it looks like you might not have noticed the shift? Like how 90s stuff is incredibly in now, but 10 years ago no one would touch it, because it looked like you might actually still be wearing clothes from the 90s? Names seem to have an even longer half-life where they're 'tainted' by their previous popularity. In 30/40 years people will be saying 'Imagine calling a BABY Olivia?!' because they'll be surrounded by Olivias approaching middle age.

Yes that's true. But does it mainly affect top 10 names or even names but hat rapidly became super popular?

Russel.

Actually, almost all names suggested on baby name threads are either top 20 for a decade or extremely, erm, unusual.

It’s probably because they seem ‘old fashioned’ like Mable, Martha, etc did when our (my) generation were young. Probably become fashionable in 30 years or so. Please don’t name your baby Barry or Keith