female names created after 1900

[VictoriaOKeefe]

Since some name fans don't see post-1900 pre-2000 name creations as legitimate, I'd like suggestions from Mumsnetters about post-1900 pre-2000s girl's names that you'd put on a newborn today

It's hated on here... but.. Wendy?

Maybe Amber, if that was actually first used as a name in the 20th century (I'm prepared to believe there might have been a few outliers).

(Looks through behindthename.com...)

Aisling (an Irish word, but a name only in C20th)
Glenda
Janice (1899! So close)
Ornella
Ronja

Then there's the names that technically did exist earlier, but were extremely rare before the 20th century:

Vanessa
Miranda
Jennifer
Jessica
Samantha

Similarly names like Holly, Heather, Hazel - obviously they were words already, but very rare names until C 20th.

Surely names like Miranda and Jessica were used by Shakespeare? And Vanessa was invented by Swift in the early 1700s.

Am I weird if I have no idea when names were created? I wouldn't even know where to start with putting together a list because I have no idea how old the names I like are.

@daisypond yes but they weren't much used until the C20th. Jessie was really popular for girls in the second half of the C19th, but it's either short for Janet or a name on its own - I think Jessica gained popularity on the coat-tails of Jessie.

They looooved making up yooneek girls' names in the C17th and C18th (Samantha, Pamela, Vanessa, Amanda, and one I particularly like is Brilliana - also the odd Ruby, Amber, Jewell in the c17th) but they were kind of one-offs, and weren't popularised in the late C19th and through the 20th. I'd still consider them as very 20th-century naming trends although they didn't originate then.

Thank you @ladycarlotta, that's even better than I would have put it myself!

It's basically the C20th when they are thought of as "names" and not very specific literary characters.

There's a great article somewhere about the history of the name Samantha, I must try to find it...

@AtticaRose why thanks!

I find it really interesting how names get picked up and co-opted in different eras. Eg Muriel being all obscure and misty and romantic in the 1920s, and bastardising Guinevere into Jennifer. If you find the Samantha article I'd love to read it!

Of course the kind of people who post to name forums aren't indicative of the "average person", to put it mildly.
I kind of wonder why many name fans insult names created recently - say, since 1900 (or even 1800) as "non-legit" et al and insult as trailer trash, bogans etc those that use them?

Jennifer is an old Cornish name from Guinevere.
I wouldn't use:
Darcie/Darcy/Darcey
Tracey
Sharon
Shannon

The practice of using surnames as first names has a very long history too - now well established names like Allan, Percy, etc. It began in the late 1500s where usually the child’s mother was heiress to her father’s estate, and the use of her family name as a first name for a child helped ensure that the inheritance was not lost. And then the lower orders started using these names too, which was looked down on then, much as now, it seems. So very modern first names derived from surnames like Mason, Harvey and Jenson, etc, do have naming history precedence behind them.

"Darcie/Darcy/Darcey"

which is still being used by modern parents - many Melbourne people remember the child victim Darcey Freeman from a few years ago.

That's from D'Arcy isn't it. I think Tracy was a surname.
A lot of surnames are from a first name, some are place names, some are descriptive and some are trades.

Afaik Saoirse began to be used in Ireland in the 1920s. It means freedom - makes sense as a name choice when you consider the patriotic feelings when Ireland freed itself.

Clodagh