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...

[quote KirstenBlest]@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.[/quote]
But in perpetuating the ‘must not use a ‘dated’ name’ you are carrying on that ageism.

If everyone just usernames they liked the sound of rather than going for a class/age angle, then names wouldn’t be an indicator of class or age or anything really.

It’s amazing how many posters on here declare themselves as against snobbery and classism yet buy right into it when it comes to choosing names.

You can genuinely over think things.

Mary has dropped off a cliff compared with its popularity for hundreds of years before around (say) 1950. I wonder it's the religious association that's done for it. Wouldn't be surprised if it was used a lot more as a middle name for a while after it fell out of favour as a first name.

Anne/Ann is one of those names that suffers from having two common spellings and nowadays Anna and Annie seem to be more popular. Then there are Annabel/Annabelle, Annette and lots of names that end in -anna or -anne.

Getting back to the subject of this thread, Elizabeth doesn't have those issues.

@Glassofshloer, not ageism, but the names are popular for a short time and only with some age groups or certain backgrounds.

If you love a name then use it but bear in mind it's not you who has to live with it.

My name was a bit of a granny name, and at work in my mid 20s, I had colleagues asking if I was much older, because they were getting my name mixed up with the name of a colleague. I didn't like being told things like 'John though you were in your late 40s' and the like.

@Glassofshloer

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.

No. That’s not what ageism is. Ageism is prejudice or discrimination based on age, not simply being able to guess someone’s age. The fact that a name like Nigel was very popular 60 or so years a go and isn’t at all now isn’t prejudice.. it’s a fact that can easily be proved by looking at government data.

“Karen” is ageism because it’s used as a sort of code for middle aged woman to attribute all sorts of negative stereotypes to. That we can all guess that a Karen was probably born in the 60s isn’t ageism until we make negative comments around it.

I wouldn’t want anyone to make any kind of assumption about me - age or socio economic background or anything like that - from my name. Some might have prejudice or unconscious bias .. others might not be prejudiced, but they would be able to guess quite a lot about me before they’d even met me and really, I prefer that not to happen. I feel I happen to have a genuinely neutral sort of name and I’ve always quite liked that. I could be 5 or 65 and I could have a working class, middle class or upper class background. I’ve always felt like it was a bit of a gift to have a name they didn’t come with any kind of assumptions attached, almost like having an extra layer of anonymity. Maybe some don’t care but I like it.

@thewhatsit

But you’re not just saying ‘a Nigel is statistically likely to be 60’ you’re saying ‘a Nigel is statistically likely to be 60 and therefore the name is worse’

Same with the names deemed ‘common’ on here or ‘trendy’ - a code word for working class.

It’s fine to be snobby but own it.

What thewhatsit said.

The wanting to appear posh on a cv might be true but names can move through the classes quite quickly

In my age group a Sophie would probably be middle class, but now it could be any background.

I know a few Jasons who were privately educated but they are older than me, and by the time I was in high school it was a bit 'common'

Margaret was ruined in the 80s by Margaret Thatcher. I can understand why the friend above wasn't happy, although I like the shortenings.

Elizabeth isn't a name like that though.

I agree that Anne and Mary, while classic, are dated. When I was little in the 80s, a Mary or Anne was without fail always running the jumble sale.

My DM was at school in the fifites and said that everyone in her class was called Mary, Anne (or Bernadette).

But Anne and Mary's kids are calling their kids Anne and Mary's parents' names at the moment.

[quote Glassofshloer]@thewhatsit

But you’re not just saying ‘a Nigel is statistically likely to be 60’ you’re saying ‘a Nigel is statistically likely to be 60 and therefore the name is worse’

Same with the names deemed ‘common’ on here or ‘trendy’ - a code word for working class.

It’s fine to be snobby but own it.[/quote]
I’m not saying I don’t like the name because it means the holder of the name is a 60 year old man because I have a problem with 60 year old men.. Just as I have no problem with early 40s women but the fact that the name Nicola points me to this age group is a short coming of the name Nicola. I have always just really, really liked that my name doesn’t point you to any information about me that I might not want to have divulged yet.

I’m certainly not alone in liking timeless names. Plenty of people on MN complain that they were given names like Claire or Nicola which just scream 70s/80s.. wherever the go (school / university / work) they are just one of a number of people with that name, names which are now basically obsolete.

If people don’t care about that, that’s fine, but I don’t there is anything wrong when people point out that a name like Evie or going to be like Julie or Claire.

How about using Effy as a nickname?

Effie is short for Euphemia.

My daughters middle name is Elizabeth. I love the name. I don't understand why it being popular would be a problem? Why do people feel the need to invent baby names or have unusual ones?

Popularity of a name doesn't put me off. My children are very traditional and it's lovely when we meet another child with the same name.

I'm an Elizabeth BUT I only use Elizabeth for Official paperwork. When I was little I was called Betty or Beth by different people, then at School I was known as Lizzie and now in my 30s I introduce myself as either Liz or Lizzie depending on the situation.
Elizabeth does give a lot of options for variation and she can decide when she's older what she would prefer.