What do you class as a timeless name?

[misshoney37]

For me it's names that work just as well on an old person as they do on a baby.

So for boys: Jack, Harry, William, George.
Girls: Lily, Grace, Rose, Harriet.

Personally I really like timeless names as opposed to trendy names that come and go. For example, round here there was a massive surge of Jayden's, Kadens and Harley's. But you'd never see that name on an old man.

It's strange because a lot of the timeless names are constantly in the top 10 too. So you could class them as trendy and I guess.

See I find Charlotte quite 90s. I don't know any young Charlotte's now. Maybe a few teenagers but certainly no school kids. Same with Katherine. Very pretty names though.

Timeless - Rebecca, Elizabeth, James, Jacob, Daniel.

Other biblical names are more fashion waves such as Noah (which I love), Jonah etc

In my opinion obviously!

@SE13Mummy

It depends which source is used to find out the top 100 names but ukbabynames.com has Charlotte, Hannah and Harriet constantly within the top 100 since 1904.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/babynamesenglandandwalestop100babynameshistoricaldata

I use the ONS as the source data, as that’s the data source for England and Wales. Name data before 1996 is tricky in general but they released this document with the top hundred in decade intervals, and I’ve added 2004 and 2014’s data to that and done some trending.

On that website they seems to be using E&W data that I linked to above rather than all of the UK, as Scotland and NI report separately. Also their graphs are a bit misleading to me. For example Harriet was in the top hundred in 1904, and wasn’t recorded in the top hundred again until 1994, but the graph has connected those data points, when the years 1914-1984 should be baseline.

Jack was timeless and it will be again but it's going to feel dated for the next thirty years or so until it comes back into fashion. There are just too many from the period around the turn of the century for it not to be associated with that generation. See also John and Mark for previous generations respectively.

James is the most consistently popular boys' name of the 20th century.

For me it's names which have been in use for centuries like Isabella/Isabel, Eleanor, Margaret, Catherine, Edward, William, Richard and Henry. Names of medieval royalty basically.

Plus some biblical names like James, Thomas and Elizabeth.

I think James, Thomas and Elizabeth are examples of names which have been popular for multiple generations and don't sound odd on a newborn, someone who is 100 or someone of any age between.

Some classic names come and go a bit. For example I'm a late 80s baby and knew lots of girls called Sarah, Rebecca and Laura. All classic names which aren't as well used now but not unheard of either. Isabella wasn't as popular then but is popular again now but doesn't feel overly trendy to me as the name has been well used for the last 9 centuries or so.

@SummaLuvin
My grandma is Hannah and she is 99!
I do know what you mean though.

Henry
William
George
Thomas
Joseph
James
Jack
Benjamin
Samuel
Oliver
Harry
Edward
Charles
David
Michael
Christopher

Clara
Elizabeth
Sarah
Charlotte
Alice
Anna
Julia
Emma
Emily
Helena
Eleanor
Eva
Rose

The key is a critical mass of consistent use I think - as other pps have said not tied to a particular time period and therefore ageless. The top 10 point you’ve made above doesn’t contradict this - if a name is consistently in the top 10 that’s the opposite of trendy… it’s not falling in and out of fashion (and therefore not tied to a particular time period). Popular, but not affected by trends. So timeless. James is an excellent example, as is Thomas. For girls I’d say the likes of Eleanor, Charlotte, Lucy, Elizabeth.

Names that could belong to someone of any age and don’t make it obvious how old someone is.

Charlotte
Emma
Elizabeth
James
Daniel
Matthew

@misshoney37

For me it's names that work just as well on an old person as they do on a baby.

So for boys: Jack, Harry, William, George.
Girls: Lily, Grace, Rose, Harriet.

Personally I really like timeless names as opposed to trendy names that come and go. For example, round here there was a massive surge of Jayden's, Kadens and Harley's. But you'd never see that name on an old man.

It's strange because a lot of the timeless names are constantly in the top 10 too. So you could class them as trendy and I guess.

Some of the examples you've given weren't used for babies in the 70s, so aren't really timeless. They went out of fashion then came back in again.

Sophia
Mary
Elizabeth
Hugo
Jack
James
Henry

No name is 100% timeless, but some names remain in use for decades.

Catherine
Elizabeth
Rachel
Lucy
Maria
Eleanor
Sophie
Abigail

James
Alexander
Thomas
William
Daniel
Edward

Lily and Grace are not timeless names--they are very much names that have been fashionable for the past 15-20 years. They're perfectly nice names, but they are not timeless.

I would not consider Emily a “classic” if only got popular in the late 90s/2000s so I don’t know why you would think that, it dosent fit in with any of the names on your list. In fact it reminds me of a mean girl in an American film

@Thatgirl1990

Emily makes me think of Emily Brontë! fairly classic!

The floral names came back in the nineties. They hadn't been in fashion since around the first world war. They were what my FIL called 'housemaid's names' and he refused to use my granddaughter's name. So Lily, Violet, Rose were looked upon as a bit common until their second reincarnation. Anyone read 'The Family From One-End Street'? One of the kids is called Lily-Rose Ruggles. Not posh.

according to that site linked to above, it's only Elizabeth out of girls names and James, Charles and Edward out of boys.

I’d define a name as truly timeless if it has never left the top 100.

Surely a name would also be timeless if it had been e.g. roughly 110th on the list for 100 years consistently?

It's about consistency, not popularity.

But you'd never see that name on an old man.

Well, you will in about 60-70 years ;)

Something like Emily or Elizabeth.

On another thread a poster pointed out there are technically 11 truly nameless names for boys in E and W (names that haven't let the top 100 since the 1900's - some even since the 1300's according to name lists I saw!) - Alexander, Charles, Daniel, David, Edward, George, James, Joseph, Michael, Thomas and William. Plus Elizabeth for girls (with Alice, Maria and Sarah coming close).

But there are a lot more classic names which only drop out the top 100 for a few decades, so feel quite timeless imo - like Henry, Samuel, Hannah, Emily etc.

But I agree "timeless" to me does suggest names that are so classic that when you hear them you can't be sure whether the person is 4 years old, 44 or 84 - so I guess in theory they could either be names that are always commonplace but also those that are very rarely used!

Helena is a timeless name

Emily

If you want something truly timeless, I'd suggest 'Eternity'