Classic girls names Alice? Elizabeth?

[kenandbarbie]

There are loads of boys names that are always popular, in the top 100 and don't date. William, James, Edward, Thomas etc

I can't think of many girls names. Most seem to go in and out of fashion more. Suggestions?

You can't go wrong with the classics. Congratulations!

Ok, well classic naming patterns are different in Ireland!

I think a lot of the names that have some small popularity in the uK, eg, Otillie, those names have a much smaller 'hold' here and they leave space for the names like Jane, Sarah, Anna and Rachel. Small children are still being called Rachel here! My DD had two in her class until one moved school.

This is my experience. I know Sarahs of all ages and I know a Jane of 18.

I’ve been a secondary school teacher for over 20 years. I’ve always (no matter which School) had girls called:
Emily
Rebeccca
Rachel
Catherine/Kate/Katie
Lucy
Emma

I would count all of those as “classic”

Names like Florence are classic as in old but have only recently surged in popularity again

To me, a classic name is one that has been popular across many generations and that I wouldn’t instantly be able to guess the persons age group. It could be for my grandmas generation, my mums generation, my generation or my (imaginary) kids generation.

Charlotte
Anna
Rebecca
Lucy
Elizabeth
Emma
Eleanor

I always think Jennifer/Jenny should be more popular than it is.

I have a DD called Jennie - it really suits her - I love it!

I'd say the really classic names are those that have survived from the Tudor age and are still OK to use now, like:
Elizabeth
Margaret
Anne
Mary
Agnes
Joan (probably not so common these days
Alice
Jane
Catherine
Isabel
Elinor
Cecily
Helen
Margery

I'm a secondary school teacher (UK).

Rachel, Sophie, Kate/Katie/Catherine, Emily, Hannah and Abigail continue to be VERY popular in our current generation of teenagers.

I see fewer and fewer Sarahs, Claires, Janes, Lauras and Jennifers now (and to a lesser extent Victorias) even though they were everywhere when I was at high school in the early 2000s.

A friend just named her new baby Rachel.

Anna
Lucy
Emma
Alexandra
Charlotte
Eleanor
Catherine/Katherine/Kate
Sarah
Elizabeth
Georgina
Josephine
Lydia
Alice
Louisa
Maria
Rebecca
Sophie
Hannah
Naomi

Top 25 of the last 500 years in Britain?

www.express.co.uk/news/uk/655377/most-popular-names-last-500-years-revealed-Mary-John-Smith-baby-names-children

Can anyone find a uk list like that?

For someone with the right programming skills it would be quite easy to make one using ONS data.

You can easily access the information on the ONS website, it has this...

Baby Names since 1904 - how has yours performed?

It has interactive graphs based on the top 100 and you can enter up to six names at a time, to see popularity has changed. As I said before, only two girl names have been in the top 100 every year, they are Sarah and Elizabeth. The former is on the decline now, and could very well fall out the top 100 soon.

Classic names aren't always popular, but they're always in steady use, that's why they're classic. My own name is considered a classic, yet wasn't in the top 100 from the mid 1910's to the early 1970's.

That only uses top 100 though, and the Nameberry article uses top 1000.

The darkgreener site uses ONS data for any names given to more than 2 children in a year, but only goes from 1996: names.darkgreener.com/

So perhaps the ONS don't have data for earlier years available online. I daresay she would have used it if they had as it would have been interesting.

The Nameberry article is based on US data, and Social Security Administration who produce the US data, always publish a top 1000.

The ONS only ever publish a top 100, plus since 1996 the list of all names used three times or more, which is what the Dark Greener site is based on.

It's a shame the ONS doesn't have more comprehensive data, going back further, like the SSA do. The SSA they have lists of all the names used five times or more, in order, for each year since 1880!

Royal names are pretty classic: Alexandra, Charlotte, Elizabeth, K/Catherine, Alice, Eleanor. Victoria, Beatrice, Margaret, Anne and Mary remain classic though they rise and fall in popularity.

Anna, Sophie, Lucy, Hannah, Emily, Emma, Rachel, Rosalind, Isabel, Imogen are names that I don't associate with a particular generation or fashion.

There are names which are perennially popular (or at least reasonably popular), like Emily, Eleanor, Lucy and Anna. Then there are names which don't seem to date, where you can't guess the person's age immediately - to me, both are "classics". Names like Louisa, Juliet and Madeleine.

I think Emma and Charlotte are very 80s. Sarah is very very very 70s/ 80s. Have you met a baby Sarah recently

Tbh it is hard to think of girls names that don’t date.

I agree with others. Jane Austen and royal family are good sources of classic names. Fanny may not be used much these days, but it's short for Frances which would probably still count as a classic name.

My children's names have featured in this thread quite a bit. I wanted classic names that wouldn't date them.

Yes Frances is classic! And Harriet maybe?

Emily
Alexandra
Charlotte
Victoria
Elizabeth
Sarah
Rebecca
Jane
Sophie
Mary
Lucy
Harriet
Eleanor
Rose
Catherine
Grace
Lily
Alice
Isobel and variants thereof

maybe Jessica and Rachael although they not that popular now days? I think theyd still be considered classic unlike stuff like Debbie or Alison which come in and out of fashion..
Theres lots of names like Iris, Agnes, Florence around now that seem classic but actually did go out of fashion for a long time and have just sort of come back in now

I havent met any baby Sarahs but I do know two teenage Sarahs and a teenage Sara

Louise
Juliette
Hannah
Rose
Amelia
Anne
Caroline

I'd place Old Testament names like Deborah in the same category as Rachel and Ruth. They are classic, but not hugely old classic, as they weren't used in the Tudor or medieval periods. They came in with the growth of the Protestant reform movement, say the early 17th century. Alison is classic in that it's a version of Alice - it turns up in Chaucer too, so it's very old - medieval.

Elizabeth, Charlotte, Catherine, Sarah...they're the big ones I can think of. Also Hannah, Sophie and Chloe seem to have been fairly consistent names for a while, and don't think they're going anywhere any time soon.

Fanny may not be used much these days, but it's short for Frances which would probably still count as a classic name.

Diminutives are often easier to date than the full name. All the Charlottes I know born in the 80s are Charlie/Char, whereas the little ones are Lottie. The same holds for nicknames for Elizabeth, Margaret, Catherine/Katherine etc.