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?

@MirandaBlu Chad is the main pejorative male name

In terms of names that can't be used I was also going to say Isis - a shame because I always liked the name!

And Alexa has had a hard time - it was a female condom before it was what it is now

I met an American called Dykeman once.

Also a friend with thebsurne sidebottom which was pronounced see-day-bow-TEM

Fanny is still a popular name in France, they don't care what anglophones call their privates - gotta love that gallic insouciance !

Eileen, Mabel, Gertrude

I know a couple of little Mabels. I think it might even be back in the top 100 now?

I'd never call a kid Kevin, Sharon or Tracey because I grew up in the 80s and the names acquired negative connotations.

Americans love the name Kevin!

As for Mary I'm Midlands and I've heard it used to refer to vagina as well but not enough to make me associate the name with that. It's usually 'twinkle' here!

@BikeRunSki sorry for not being on topic but what does Forbes-mining-community mean? Not after specifics just not heard that before.

One that always surprises me is Minnie.
Where I work (in healthcare) that's the commonest term for vulva/vagina amongst patients. I was quite shocked when an acquaintance used it for her daughter as I assumed that it was a more common thing than maybe it is. I've never heard the term Mary though (for that).
There was a girl a year or so below me at school whose first name was Gaye and whose surname was Les.Lie. I'm pretty Sure that, when her parents named her in the early 70s, gay didn't have the same meaning as it does now but by the 80s when we were at school it definitely did. She was teased badly I think (I never saw it but in retrospect she had the demeanor of someone bullied and it was a school where bullying was rife). I always wondered if she changed her name.

Growing up in the 70s in vair -posh village in south east (think set of Miss Marple) there was a man who sang in the village choir called Aeneas Perkins. I was a in the children's choir and we spent a lot of time sniggering every time he was addressed.

All the adults appeared oblivious that this mans name was a very rude word however you pronounce it. The VERY posh called him Anus, from everyone else it came out Enis..

A case of a parents with a classical education having not one iota of common sense and despite Aeneas meaning 'worthy of praise' .. they really should have gone for something else.

Can't imagine how this poor man got through boarding school (he would definitely of gone to one !)

@Pixxie7

Eileen, Mabel, Gertrude.

I know a baby Mabel.

@ottermadness, sorry, my typo/autocorrect - should read “former mining community”. There is still a lot of distrust of the police and conservative politics here. We were the epicentre of the miner’s strike in Yorkshire.

@Pixxie7

Eileen, Mabel, Gertrude.

I know a few baby and toddler Mabels - it’s one of those old fashioned names that are cool again.

*babies and toddlers!

I've never pronounced Aeneas like that or even considered it's like Anus. I pronounce it like the opera so eye - NEE - uss.

I went to school with a girl called Hamble. Her parents had gone out of their way to try and resurrect old names. She changed it to Anna.

Ah, that makes sense @BikeRunSki! Thank you. I thought you were in a Scottish mining town 😂

It's interesting that Myra fell out of favour but Ian didn't / hasn't.

Ian Brady, Ian Huntley, Ian Watkins.

A friend of my mother's called her daughter Lenore, then they brought out the fabric conditioner.

I had a book as a child with a main character called Lettice! Always thought it was v pretty.

I met one once, she was lovely.

I know an Osama but he pronounces it with the stress on the O so the connotations sound less obvious. I think a lot of names live on if they are family names, I know a guy called Dunluce, every first born male in his family gets the same name and middle name, and they alternate which they use by generation. His dad got the fairly normal middle name usage so he was saddled with the first name!
You don't hear St John much either but I knew a guy with it as a middle name (pronounced Sinjin).
A friend had a baby Jolyon which I thought was fairly unusual. Meanwhile I know 3 baby Ediths born in the last few months!

It's interesting that Myra fell out of favour but Ian didn't / hasn't.

Myra was never a particularly common name. Unlike Ian which was, so people had many other associations with it besides Ian Brady.

Not a person, but the Australian ice cream bar called Golden Gaytime makes me chuckle.

@AnnaBegins your comment about the stress on the ‘O’ reminds me of this scene from Gavin and Stacey

I forgot! (Duh!) My uncle and brother have been saddled with the bloody awful family middle name of Borrodell. God knows why!!! (Thank god I’m a girl, as I’m the eldest and would have been slapped with it!)

Wendy has a bit of a negative meaning now, on Mumsnet at least.

I know of two baby Mabels!

Fanny is a pretty common ‘English name’ for Hong Kongers to adopt. Doesn’t have the same connotations.

I once saw a gravestone for a Fanny Pong. Also somebody with the surname Poupu.

Borrodell sounds like somewhere in The Shire, to which everybody has to make an epic, perilous voyage!