Traditional names that used to be normal but couldn't be used now!

[CoalCraft]

So I was thinking of that old film Meet the Parents and was inspired to look for first names that historically were seen as normal or classic but absolutely could not be used today... At least not without raising many eyebrows!!

Of course the Meet the Parents example is Gaylord... A real name of Norman origin meaning "joyful" (yes I googled it nerd ), but one that wouldn't be top of many parents' shortlists today

Anyone have other examples?

I think Myra could make a comeback sometime soon. I'm youngish (27), and I hadn't heard of Myra Hindley until a couple of years ago when I saw mumsnetters saying the name couldn't be used and googled it.

Why people still name boys Frederick and we have Fred West

Myra is a relatively uncommon name that instantly brings to mind a murderer if you are of an old to be aware of that

Rose West doesn't because Rose is a more popular name. That's understandable.

@EssentialHummus

Afaik Mary is a term for vagina/vulva in parts of the UK - my daughter had a Scouse key worker at nursery one year and came home talking about her mary . I’m not sure that would stop me using the name if I liked it.

Oh no, 47 years of having Mary as my middle name, blissfully unaware of its connotations...

I'm from liverpool
Never heard mary for vagina

Birdie, I know someone who’s just called their baby Birdie and it sounds so odd to me but I know it was popular in the 1800s

Kermit

I think Mary is lovely. I think my mother uses it for private parts but I don't think it's common or even remotely appropriate.

What's wrong with Kermit? It's one of my absolute favourite names. I know you'd get intensely irritated by everybody thinking they're quite the first to think of calling you Kermit the Frog (although much better that than alluding to a serial killer).

It's a popular name in the USA, though In the UK, we only think of the famous frog, but to Americans, it's just a normal name - the equivalent of calling the character James or Daniel the Frog, just because he needed a name.

Mary isn't a term that I'd ever use but a friend when I was a child did once refer to a "hairy Mary" so I have heard it used this way...

Then again I also have a friend called Mary and it's never crossed my mind that it's a word for vagina. I think more of the religious element

@GameSetMatch

Birdie, I know someone who’s just called their baby Birdie and it sounds so odd to me but I know it was popular in the 1800s

Birdie? No Bridie?

I'm from Liverpool and have heard Mary used before. More common to hear something like fanny though

I did once meet an elderly lady who told me that her real bc name was Alison, but she had always been known by everybody as Twinnie - because she was a twin.

Leaving aside the issue of a serious lack of imagination on the part of the adults when she was young, I wonder how you'd decide which twin to refer to as Twinnie and which one to just use their normal name?!

I'm not from liverpool and have heard people use mary for vagina before - i also saw the episode of OBEM where one of the women said it

Isis was popular for a while, can't see that working these days.

I doubt Myra will come back in the UK, not for years. It's too distinctive.

I’m a Londoner, never been to Liverpool in my life, it’s used here.

I've heard Mary used to mean that, but I think it's considered one possible understanding of an otherwise common, normal name, without being the only meaning that anybody would think of, like they would with Dick or Fanny.

I suppose a bit like Johnson is sometimes used as a slang term to mean penis, but people don't all immediately fall about with aching sides when you tell them that it's your (very common) surname unless you happen to be a particularly unpopular prime minister.

I think it's because Fred or Frederick is a fairly common name and Myra is quite unusual.

If someone said Myra I would immediately think Hindley, but Fred wouldn't make me think of Fred West straight away.

Sorry that was to this:

Why people still name boys Frederick and we have Fred West

@CrouchEndTiger12

Randy

Americans still use that I think

In an American magazine I once read something about a bloke called Randy Ponce. May well be pronounced ‘Ponthay’ in Spanish, but cue much hilarity anyway.

I think most people think Boris Johnson is a dick though.

Are kids still regularly called Fred(erick), though? To me, it's the stereotypical old man name - and one that hasn't really come back in, like Gladys for girls.

I think it's one of those 'everyday' names that people use as an byword for a very common name, without it actually being that common a name any more - like the surname Bloggs: when did you ever actually meet a real person with the genuine surname of Bloggs?!

I worked with a lady called Randi Barstadt for a while.....

Alexa

Elsa

Mary comes from Hairy Mary.

Anyone remember the little song about Aunty Mary and her canary ? 🤣

@GameSetMatch

Birdie, I know someone who’s just called their baby Birdie and it sounds so odd to me but I know it was popular in the 1800s

Sandra Bullock plays a character called Birdie in Hope Floats.