It's finally happened...70s and 80s names, are they back...?

[Freetodowhatiwant]

The people I was at school with in the 80s are making a come back! I have just heard of a couple (East London based and both quite arty/trendy) who are friends of friends and they have called their baby girl... Lisa.

There were several Lisas in my school so it was really popular (Lisa Marie Presley probably had something to do with that).

Now I think about it I guess it is quite a nice name; short, not too cutesy with its A ending rather than an IE or Y... What names have you heard recently that have surprised you?

I know toddlers called Samantha, Rachel, Gemma and Kate.

Loved all the comments on here, I'm actually a 90s child so I grew up with loads of Alex, Tom, Sam, Abi, Emily and Amy's. I love loads of these names that are mentioned, I really love 80s names, Roxy is my number 1!! It is so interesting how it all goes it waves and comes back being popular. my DD is in nursery with girls and they all have really old school names like Florence, Ruby, Ivy and Beatrice.

I know under 10s with quite a few of the names that are often mentioned on Mumsnet as being 1980s names. Jason, Rebecca, Rachel, Scott, Sarah, Louise, Laura, Gary, David, Gemma. With the exception of Gary, which does seem very out of sync with other current names, none of them feel particularly out of the ordinary to me for their age group.

I know a Lisa who is 19, born 2000.

I don't think Tracey or Karen will be making a comeback soon!

Other names I can think of are Lynne, Lorna and Jacqueline.

John is an ancient name but has been replaced by Jack, Steven doesn't seem to be likely to come back either.

I was at school in the 80s I remember
Caroline
Laura
Hayley
Samantha
Helen
Susan
Sarah
Jane
Nicola
Louise
Natasha
Natalie

Mark
James
Daniel
Christopher
David
Jonathan
Matthew
Ryan

Ive heard of Daniel, James, Matthew and Jonathon recently and a sarah who is about 12.

I loved the names Natasha and Nadine when I was a kid in the 80s, I thought they sounded really glamorous!

Russell was quite popular for boys. Mark, Neil, Paul, Dean and Jason.

Oh please no, Claires, Kirstys, Joannes or Helens noooooo.

rude

Touchy

I know of a Carla and a Sally. Both under 5, and both quite retro names I think.

Ha! when i first got with current OH after he rambled about his exes for a while i turned round and said,
I'm sick of hearing about your Sharons, Traceys and Debbies i have no interest in them, he stopped after that. I can't yet imagine a repeat of that era. Please no.but when we were kids we hated names like Stanley, Freddie, William but they came back..

Would like to see make a comeback:

Lisa
Rebecca
Sarah
Melanie
Christine
Hayley
Jennifer
Susan
Emma
Victoria
Alison
Stephanie
Natalie
Vanessa

Brian (groovy Magic Roundabout snail)
David
Philip
Colin
Martin
Simon
Christopher
Daniel
Julian
Richard
Peter
Raymond
Nicholas

Not due a comeback IMO...

Beverley
Donna
Kelly (prefer autocorrect suggestion of Jelly )
Wendy
Lindsay
Sandra
Dawn
Patricia
Linda
Sharon
Tracey
Paula
Fiona
Sally
Gillian

Gary
Wayne
Jeremy
Kevin
Carl
Stewart
Graham
Dean
Lee
Adrian
Damian
Nigel
Shane
Glen
Scott
Russell
Steven

This is such fun, thanks for joining in with me. Yes Linda is a lovely name too and means beautiful or pretty in Spanish I think. What about Dawn? Dawn really is a beautiful name but I can't help but hear it with a really strong Southern accent and a long vowel in the middle. Doooooooooorrrn.

I can't believe there are baby Alans! It's so funny how conversations can make you see things in a different light because Alan is always one of my most hated names but seeing it associated here with a cute little toddler...actually I can almost see how it would be quite cute.

Yes whoever said we were mixing up our decades a bit - I think the Garys and the Waynes were probably more born in the 60s than the 70s as they were the dads or the much older brothers of the Lisas.

I want more kids now just to call them a selection of these names and feel like I'm ahead of the curve.

Tsk.

Claire is quite clearly an amazing name, and any baby girl named Claire will obviously grow up to be fabulous. Not that I'm biased

On the whole I don't think 80s names were too awful, so would be happy to see a few back.

Laura is lovely, although not specifically an 80s name.

TBH I think anything would be better than the plethora of Archies, Arlos, Fleurs and Olivias we have around here...

I was at school in the 70s and 80s and, although lots of these names are nice objectively, they have connotations with people in my formative years. And some are not good.

Kirsty is a nice name objectively (maybe a bit Scottish appropriation?) but the first Kirsty I knew was very humourless and always had green snot in her nostril.

There was a Dawn (and a Jacqui) at my high school (we finished 2004), those names seemed slightly old fashioned then. Dawn is pretty and I’ve known a couple of Auroras since having my first DC 6 years ago, which I think means the same thing

I'm a late 80s baby. My school was full of K names - Kirsty/Kirstie, Kayley/Kayleigh, Kimberly, Katie/Katy and Kate.

There were also lots of Claire, Emma, Stephanie, Anna, Ashley/Ashleigh, Catherine, Laura, Rachel, Amanda and Holly/Hollie.

We also had several Stephen, David, Ashley, Tom, William, Lewis, Shane and Jordan. Strangely no James or Christopher despite those names being hugely popular in the 80s - when I went to Uni it seemed every other lad was called James.

I really like Lisa, especially as a shortening of Elisabeth.

Some of these names are still not uncommon in the secondary I work at.

I'd say we have more of these names than the Milly, Lilly, Eva, Avas that seem popular atm. But think that might start to change in the next year or so.

Realise that at secondary we start seeing names about a decade after they've started to become popular at birth

I love the names Sarah, Claire, Caroline Rachel, Jennifer, Katy, Lisa, Rebecca, Victoria.

There were no Barrys, Alans or Keiths in my 80s class, but there were seven Marks in my class, and many Robs and Andys. I remember one exotic sounding Arthur, and one George.

I'm trying to think of kids I know with 70s/80s names.
Off the top of my head - David, Michelle, Alan, Stephen, Michael, William and John all in primary school!
I quite like Lisa. I love Louise or Louisa and Nathan.
Jessica is still really popular but I always think of it as very 70s/80s.

I know a 6 year old Sarah as well actually. Love Sarah, I have a very 80s name but I always wished it was Sarah!

I know a baby Christopher, which has been mentioned a few times here as an 80s name (I was surprised when they announced the name for that reason, but don't dislike it)

We've gone with James, most of DH's friends have thanked us for naming our child after them

Ian was another one

I've recently come across a baby Joanne. I considered Rachel for my daughter.
I'm mid 80s and the most popular names around were Emma, Sarah, Alison, David, Stephen and Andrew.