Ethel?

[Falcone]

What are your thoughts on the name Ethel?
Is it too old fashioned?

I think it's sweet though prefer other old names like Edith, Mabel, Constance, Violet. Loathe Gwendolyn and Bronwynne

Was Ethel the Worst Witch? Or am I confusing it?

Gwendolyn Mary Lacy was awful though What about Mabel?

I dobt mind it not keen on Gwen though so would stay clear of gwendolyn personally. Though I do love family names

I like Ethel.

Gwendoline not so nice as she was a nasty character in an Enid Blyton book.

Ethel is the unpleasant girl in the worst witch.

Same roll as Gwendoline Mary and Draco Malfoy.

I wouldn't choose it myself...

@BlenheimOrange

Here (London) Ethel would always be Effuw. Nice when pronounced correctly, not nice when mangled.

Yes, I like Ethel, but this mangling would kill me if I were Baby Ethel’s mother.

I’m not sold on Ethel.

Gwendolyn, I can’t imagine ever getting the full name, but I really like Gwen/Gwenny.

I know a adult called Ethel (50's) she hates her name, says it was horrible growing up with such an ugly name.
So on that basis it's a no from me

Etelya
Ethleen
Ettie
Those are nice for a girl.
But Ethel sounds like an Saxon king to me.

Sweet little old ladies name. I find it hard to imagine on a child or teenage girl. Makes me think of ethanol.

Wot Effull ? !

Nah Mate.

Ethel is a great name. I love it. Gorgeous

Gwendolyn is far too frilly and complicated for my taste. I had to copy and paste the spelling as id have no idea how to spell this name

Now fretting over why I don't like Ethel. It's the unvoiced dental fricative between two flat open vowels so if you say it in front of a mirror you see you have to stick your tongue out. Followed by the unstressed dental liquid l. It's a bunch of sounds that aren't used in many English dialects. In Estuary English the th changes to a dental-labial fricative and the unstressed dental liquid to a tight Oo vowel. The result is not a facial expression you want your darling baby seeing and it feels uncomfortable in the mouth.
For comparison, watch your mouth as you say Aideen, or Effie or even Erroll.
Is it in Wales that it's popular?

I assume you are too young to know Ethel from Eastenders?

Like Ethel
Done like Gwendolyn

What about Mabel?

I prefer Gwendoline to Ethel. Gwendoline has more options for nicknames.

@StCharlotte

Ethel is really scraping the barrel of old-lady names, second only to Edna (my mum's name which she hated). All these poor poor 21st century little girls...

You did ask, sorry.

MIL is Gwendolyn, always Gwen. Meh.

@StCharlotte -my mother is an Edna and hates it too! My grandmother was inspired to choose the name as he sister was a nursery nurse to a girl called Edna. Mind you the other child in the nursery was called Beryl...

@Garcellesaidwhaaat

Sweet little old ladies name. I find it hard to imagine on a child or teenage girl. Makes me think of ethanol.

Well, it's one of the revived old lady names, like Mabel, Edith, Ivy, Maud, Violet, Elsie, Ada etc. Not as revived as some, obviously.

I know a five year old Ethel, and one who is in her 40s, so predates the old lady chic thing. I met the 40something Ethel at a Sonic Youth concert in the dim mists of time...

I like it. We used to have a lovely neighbour Ethel when I was little, her husband called her Ettie.
DH couldn't get passed Eastenders Ethel and her little Willy though so vetoed

@SpecialWGM - no Mildred Hubble was the Worst Witch, Ethel Hallow was the arch enemy and Maud Warlock was the best friend.

You can tell that I've revisited my youth in watching 1986 version of the worst witch recently!

[quote Strokethefurrywall]@SpecialWGM - no Mildred Hubble was the Worst Witch, Ethel Hallow was the arch enemy and Maud Warlock was the best friend.

You can tell that I've revisited my youth in watching 1986 version of the worst witch recently!

[/quote]
I should have known that as I loved TWW. Jill Murphy even came to visit my school!

Oh I would have loved that!! I'm currently signing the song in my head "growing up... isn't easyyyyyy..."

Tim Curry and Diana Rigg we're bloody amazing in that movie, might be time for a rewatch.
I loved that they had random kittens everywhere too, I so desperately wanted to be a witch with stripey tights, big clunky boots and a black kitten...

Ethel and Gwendolyn are both absolutely hideous, sorry. As someone who has a name people have always said was lovely - classic, unusual but not too unusual - I've always really appreciated that my mother gave it to me, it's just made life easier for me. I can't imagine why anyone would want to call their child a name that sounds awful and is almost universally acknowledged to be ugly. It's unkind.

I wish I could tell my late great-aunt that Ethel is coming back! She would be very, very surprised, but also very chuffed.