Stance on old fashioned names

[Bluesponge]

Hi I’m 24 weeks pregnant and starting to think more deeply about names now that I know I’m having a baby girl and I really like the names Polly,Harriet,Helena( nelly for short and Maria but I’m worried their to old fashioned and won’t age particularly well my husband also likes the names but is also concerned about it to it would be great if you could help us out

Maria isn't dated and is one that will work in many countries., I know one who is British Pakistani, and a few of varying ages who are British.
It is a shakespearean name (pronounced Mar-eye-a).

I like Polly very much.
Harriet is nice but quite popular.
I also like Helena but you will get pronunciation issues - Hel-aina, Helen-a, Hel-eena. A neighbour has a little Helena and they are from eastern europe.

I can't see anything against Maria. It is lovely.
Polly - other than parrot or put the kettle on aside - easy to say.

Those are my top two. Polly is quite a strong name, so I'd not choose until I met her.

Harriet and Helena are too popular for my taste, and I prefer Helen to Helena.

They don't seem old fashioned to me. I know lots of people with those names, including some in my kids classes.

Personally, I think you should just pick a name you both like and not worry about it too much.

All lovely names. Polly would be my favourite but I don't think you could go wrong with any of them.

I like all of those.
Harriet
Helena
Polly
Maria
In that order, and I know you didn’t ask but I like Mathilda too.

Love them! We love Harriet if it's a girl ❤️

Love Harriet, Polly and Helena, but not keen on Maria. I wouldn't say any are old fashioned, just classics.

Maria and Harriet have both been in, or just outside, the top 100 girls names in England and Wales for the last 20 years, so I wouldn’t call them old-fashioned, or likely to age any worse than any other name in the top 100.

Polly and Helena are less popular, but they’re not ones I’d associate strongly with previous decades, so personally I’d not worry about them sounding old-fashioned.

Not keen on Polly but the others are very nice. Harriet is my favourite.

They are all great names. I like Maria the best.

They're all lovely names. Polly and Helena don't feature in the top 100 for England and Wales at all whereas Harriet and Maria are becoming more popular (but not within the top 50). I think they're good examples of names that are recognisable but not overused.

Harriet and Polly are probably my favourite. I know two Pollys in their 40s, an 18 year old one and a 12 year old one. I know two baby Harriets known as Hattie, a 14 year old, 16 year old and one in her 40s.

What an AMAZING LIST!
I don’t see them as old fashioned at all

LOVE both Polly and Harriet in particular ❤️❤️
Like Maria but prefer names like Martha Margot Molly or Marley

All nice names - Polly is my favourite.

Got two girls with old fashioned names. Always get compliments on them. Go for it.

Thanks so much for your advice glad they aren’t as old fashioned as we thought🙂, although not due for almost 4 months we’re thinking of Polly with Maria as a middle name as Maria is my husbands late mother’s name and we only really liked Helena and Harriet for there nick names as we really liked Hattie and Nelly

It might change but that’s what we like at the moment

Helena is beautiful

I'd read Maria as Mar-ee-a, due to a couple I know who pronounce it that way.

BrooHaHa

We’re planning on pronouncing it that way
As that’s the way my mother-in-laws name was pronounced

Also the reason we thought these names were old fashioned is because I’ve only met one Maria and One Polly and never met someone with the name Helena or Harriet
Although my great grandmother was called Helena I’d never met her

I know two people called Harriet my age (early 30s). I don't think it's old fashioned at all. It was overly common in the late 80s/early 90s in the same way Laura/Stephanie/Rachel/Rebecca and Sarah were so it doesn't feel dated.

Helena is a lovely name

Wasn't overly common rather!

I love your list of names.

Polly Maria is gorgeous.

@CaffiSaliMali I've never thought of Harriet as being that popular in the late 80s/early 90s and would never have connected it to the list you gave - I think of those as being names of the late 70s! Intrigued, I had a look at the ONS site - see picture (hopefully!).

I know loads of people aged 30 - 55 with the names Rachel, Rebecca, Sarah, Laura and Stephanie but only one Harriet in that age bracket. I expect some of it will be to do with location.