Will Elizabeth rocket up the charts...

[IAmFourEels]

... when the queen dies?

Slightly macabre thought, but Elizabeth is on our list of names - one of DH's top choices. I quite like it, but had always dreamed of giving my child a more unusual name, because my name is unusual and I love it. Elizabeth is currently no.56 in the charts, which I can live with (it is his baby too, after all, so I have to take his preferences into account!) but I'm worried it might have a surge in popularity in the next few years... if not sooner...

i know of a 2 year old elizabeth

you could always go with Lilibet

Elizabeth is my middle name and I really didn't like it until fairly recently.

Over 60 years later, I so wish my parents had called me Elizabeth rather than the name I do have, although one of their choices was Karen and seeing how that name has been hijacked and become something sneeringly used to put down women, I am glad they didn't call me that.

The name Elizabeth makes me taste jam like the sticky jam that’s in Jamie dodgers.

@Courtier

You want unusual but are considering Elizabeth? It will never be unusual...

I suppose by unusual the OP just doesn’t want her DD to be one of a few in a class and at every club or extra curricular she joins (I know friends with an Evie who say that there is almost always another Evie everywhere they go) ..? In which case Elizabeth is perfect but as it’s also classic and always been at least moderately popular you get the best of both worlds -

• Everyone knows how to spell and pronounce it, it’s not a controversial youneek name
• No one will ever be able to guess how old your DD is or make any assumptions on the name. An Elizabeth could easily be 2 years old, 42 or 82.
• Despite this, she’ll probably be the only Elizabeth at nursery, in her school class etc.

I only know one little Elizabeth and she gets called Lizzie
I know lots of little Isabel(le/a)s

Not a fan of ‘classic’ names as I find them dull. I have one and it’s awful.

I like them and dull is better than dated.
I have a classic name and it seemed dull compared to the Traceys, Michelles , Lynseys and Karens I was at school with.

My name is popular again now.

@KirstenBlest

I like them and dull is better than dated. I have a classic name and it seemed dull compared to the Traceys, Michelles , Lynseys and Karens I was at school with.

My name is popular again now.

I’m not sure names really do date anymore - I know so many baby Franks, Mabels etc and before you know it the 70s/80s names will come back. A classic name won’t actually make you younger so this argument confuses me!

Having a common name can also be an advantage in the internet age as more difficult to find on social media

@Glassofshloer, I'm not saying it makes you younger but some names date badly

An acquaintance has a DD called Shannon and the name firmly puts her in an age group, and you can guess her age as the name became very popular for only a few years.

Karen is another one. It says 'born in the 1960s'.

A name like Oliver or Tom doesn't say middle aged or 20-24.

@Glassofshloer I also disagree with this. Just because names that were popular 80-100 years a go are “back” doesn’t mean you can’t pretty accurately guess how old a Nigel, Angela and Gary are.
A Mabel is likely to be an old woman or a 5 year old girl.
There are some very clear current trends for cutesy and twee names and for vowel heavy girls names like Evie / Eva / Ava etc and that trend will end inevitably. I do genuinely think that in 2045 you will see a job application from Alfie or Evie and know they are around 25-30 years old.

It’s not about making you seem younger but just, I mean at work when you get an email from a Nigel you can pretty much guarantee he is approaching retirement age. The whole (sexist and ageist) point of the “Karen” thing is that Karen represents a late middle aged woman and apparently 55 year old women are apparently ok to make fun of.

Yes, I think most of us could have a good go at putting the following in order of age:

Christine
Kerry
Lisa
Doreen
Julie
Harper

Elizabeth, Anne, Katherine and Mary could be any age.

I mean at work when you get an email from a Nigel you can pretty much guarantee he is approaching retirement age. The whole (sexist and ageist) point of the “Karen” thing is that Karen represents a late middle aged woman and apparently 55 year old women are apparently ok to make fun of.

But you’re the one being ageist by saying having a name that puts you in a certain age bracket is a bad thing? What does it matter if someone rightly assumes you to be 50 ish from your name?

I think some ‘dated’ names sound a lot nicer than the plain and stale ones, whether they convey a particular decade or not.

It’s all about wanting to be seen as posh on a CV really, which is silly as names aren’t the marker of class that they once were.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Yes, I think most of us could have a good go at putting the following in order of age:

Christine
Kerry
Lisa
Doreen
Julie
Harper

Elizabeth, Anne, Katherine and Mary could be any age.

I wouldn’t assume Anne and Mary are toddlers. I would assume them to be 70s or 80s.

My name is dated to the time I was born but it's not a naff or embarrassing name so that doesn't bother me a jot. 'Classic' is overrated in my book.

@StrychnineInTheSandwiches

My name is dated to the time I was born but it's not a naff or embarrassing name so that doesn't bother me a jot. 'Classic' is overrated in my book.

My name is often called ‘strong, classic, elegant’ on here, but I didn’t give a shit about being seen as such as a teen - just wanted something relatively modern to fit in with the crowd, something pretty & cool. I found my name so embarrassing and granny compared to other girls that I hated saying it out loud it made me cringe.

Chose a pretty, top 30 name for my daughter. She’s not going to cringe telling boys (or girls!) her name like I did.

160 baby girls were called Mary in England and Wales in 2020. 261st most popular name that year.

Anne: 992nd most popular, 34 babies with that name. (Ann: 1939th, 14 babies.)

Probably not too many little ones around with those names, I agree, but they're not totally obsolete, like Nigel or Colin for boys.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

160 baby girls were called Mary in England and Wales in 2020. 261st most popular name that year.

Anne: 992nd most popular, 34 babies with that name. (Ann: 1939th, 14 babies.)

Probably not too many little ones around with those names, I agree, but they're not totally obsolete, like Nigel or Colin for boys.

I don’t think you can call a name that is out of the top 250 a well used classic tbh… let alone outside of the top 900 😂

@Glassofshloer, I have a friend called Margaret (born 1980ish) who hated her name as it seemed so old-fashioned in the 80s. It has some decent shortenings but she had the kind of parents who insisted on 'Margaret' at all times.

Yeah a few will drop off like Nigel and Colin. But others - Mark, Steven, Ian etc - are probably floating around a bit more than Ann and Mary.

[quote StrychnineInTheSandwiches]@Glassofshloer, I have a friend called Margaret (born 1980ish) who hated her name as it seemed so old-fashioned in the 80s. It has some decent shortenings but she had the kind of parents who insisted on 'Margaret' at all times. [/quote]
😱 poor her - honestly it’s one thing projecting what you want for your child onto them with such a name (demure, twee, ‘elegant’), it’s another thing actually being that child who wants to be seen as attractive and popular…

Ian is number 99 😂

@CatkinToadflax

It’s my name. I don’t particularly like it and I never, ever use the full version because it feels so long and formal. However I do like that it’s classic and pretty much timeless. No-one would see my name written down and be able to ‘age’ me immediately just from my name. My brother has a typical 1960s-70s name that indicates his age pretty much instantly!

Is your brother Gareth, Mark or Keith?

@Glassofshloer, it's not because I am ageist, it's because society is.

It's not about wanting to appear posh but names can make a statement about someone's background. People can be snobbish.

I can think of some acquaintances who have children with WTF-were-the-parents-thinking names.