My partner and I are expecting a baby girl and we both like the name Myra. She would be named after my grandmother. My mother also used to listen to Myra Hess.
However, will the name cause some negative comments by older folk because of Myra Hindley who with her partner Ian Brady carried out the Moors Murders in the 1960s?
Myra was a common name in the UK years ago, but after 1966 when Hindley was convicted the popularity of it rapidly declined.
“In the early hours of the morning, Nellie gave birth to a healthy daughter whom she called Myra, a name that had been popular since the mid nineteenth century. A hundred years after it came into common usage, ‘Myra’ fell into sharp obscurity, a phenomenon entirely due to the deeds of the girl born that stifling night in the red-brick Victorian building in north Manchester.”
Carol Ann Lee, One of Your Own: The Life and Death of Myra Hindley
Mumsnet was mentioned in another book about the name Myra.
“A telling example of the vehemence and longevity public hatred of Myra Hindley is the following: the girl’s name “Myra,” relatively common in England prior to 1966, declined sharply in popularity thereafter. Such is the continuing infamy associated with the case that in 2008, on the well-known website for parents www.mumsnet.com, a thread was devoted to the topic: “I love the name Myra but does it have too many negative connotations?” The majority of the 75 responses said that the name was still too intimately linked to Hindley to be an appropriate choice for a new baby.”
Lisa Downing, The Subject of Murder: Gender, Exceptionality, and the Modern Killer, page 217.
There are few other lesser known Myras. Samantha Fox’s former partner was named Myra, Gok Wan’s mother is named Myra, etc. There’s also a Myra in Hollyoaks.
Although Myra was a common name prior to the 1960s, because there weren’t many famous people with the name, after Hindley gained press attention and was convicted, the name became associated with her which is why fewer babies were named Myra after the 1960s.
But it’s now the 2020s and we both love the sound of the name and it’s a name that has a family connection.
What does everyone think?