What names will define this generation?

[Buddhabowl]

I'm fascinated by names and how trends come and go and names become associated with a certain type of person, age etc.
My DM is late 60s and all her friends are called Sue, Linda/Lynne, Brenda, Jackie.
If you see the name Brenda, the chances are that person is of that age range and you naturally just assume that they are before meeting them. I have a name that is dated to my generation too and will one day become a 'Sue' type name.
What names will define this generation do you think? Names like Isabella rocketed in popularity but I feel like it is classic enough to maintain popularity for long enough not to be too pidgeon-holed, same possibly for Florence.
I think maybe Evie, Ava, Isla for girls, I'm really not sure for boys...
Most of my dad's friends are Mike Dave or John or Bob (Robert), but they are all fairly classic names that you also meet on younger men. The Keiths, Barrys, Brians are more pidgeon-holed I guess and not sure what their equivalents would be.

This isn't knocking any particular name, I think some of these names are really nice despite their popularity but just interested to see views from other name nerds

Vowel-heavy names for girls with few consonants other than l, v, and m

For boys, surnames as first names and Old Testament names

For girls and boys - twee nicknamey names like Alfie and Evie

@popcorndiva

For girls anything ia on the end and the ubiquitous rose added as a middle name with the parent always saying it was their grandma's name

For boys definitely nicknames instead of full names and surnames as names. I have noticed the surname trend already declining

Haha this made me laugh. Like for real, how many grandparents were called Rose?! I’m utterly sick and tired of hearing it now!!

Noah, Archie, Theo and Arthur for boys.
Bella, Evie and Ava for girls. Or pretty much any girls name that begins with a vowel E.g. Isla, Amelia, Ellie, Ella, Olivia, Ivy

Evie
Mia
Ava
Grace

Harry
Oliver

Grace, Lily, Ella

Freddie, Alfie, Arthur

Old Testament names like Elijah, Isaac, Noah, Asa, Ezra,

[quote weekend2021]@MrsFin

“Most boys' names are also surnames though: Thomas, Anthony, James, John, David, Oliver, Christian, Christopher, Andrew, Peter, Paul, Robert, Adam, Joseph, Alexander, Benjamin.........”

So they are! Although some are more acceptable than others IMHO [/quote]
I always feel terribly sorry for boys/men with a surname that sounds like a first name and a first name that sounds like a surname. They must get reversed all the time.

One example that comes to mind is Paterson Joseph, who is an actor.

Anyway, as many have already said, all the very girly names ending in -ie, -ia, -lle, will soon seem very dated. Hopefully there will be a trend towards 'strong' sounding names for girls.

I think my DDs swimming class today is definitely very 2010s... Isla, Isabella, Annabelle and Oliver.

Girls names beginning with E

Eva, Ava, Evie, Ivy
Evelyn
Lila, Layla, Lela
Olivia
Ella, Ellie
Isabella
Sophia

Theo - feels to me like every single boy that is born these days is called Theo or Ted or Teddy!

Evie
Isobel
Imogen
Freya

Alfie
Albie
Archie
Otto

Ava
Ella
Isla
Evie
Amelia
Olivia
Lily
Evelyn
Ivy

With Rose/Grace/May/Mae/Mai/Rae as a middle name, generally hyphenated.

Alfie
Finlay
Oliver
Jack
Harry
Charlie

If this interests you then go to jetpunk.com, it's a quiz site. They have quizzes where you guess the top 10 baby names per decade for the last 100 years. Fascinating

Alfie
Archie
Teddy
Lily
Ivy
Evie
Anything-May
Anything-Rose

Unfortunately I think everyone on mumsnet has a very bad idea about what names are proper classics, for example I’ve seen comments about Emily being classic and deep down I think everyone knows it’s very dated to the 2000s🥴it will be the Karen of 2040 and to me it sounds like an American blonde girls name, I mean it was the top name there for 12 years.

Willow is one of those names that never really existed until it popped up about ten (?) years ago. Ditto all those Bear/Fox/Wren/Stoat nature names.

Stoat,😂
Noah took a while to get popular where I am. Theo too but it's here now.
Eden I first heard a couple of years back, Aria I heard for the first time in the park just after lockdown ended.

Emily was terribly old fashioned for ages. But if it's a royal name or a Brontë it's a classic I suppose. Excepting poor old Branwell ( or Bramwell?)

Any name ending in -ia or -ie / -y or -o

Rose, Grace and May as middle names.

Most boys' names are also surnames though: Thomas, Anthony, James, John, David, Oliver, Christian, Christopher, Andrew, Peter, Paul, Robert, Adam, Joseph, Alexander, Benjamin
Only because it was traditional to use a male ancestor’s forename as a surname when surnames became commonplace
It’s a bit different to using an occupational surname like Carter or Cooper as a first name for a baby

@MrsFin, most boy's names aren't surnames, or not common surnames. A lot of surnames are a boy's name followed by s or son.V

Names like Jenson, Harrison, Riley, Finley etc weren't popular a few decades ago

Not sure about Emily. I’m 45 and there were multiple girls called Emily throughout my infant, junior and secondary schools.

Definitely Arlo, that was relatively unknown before

Cutesy names for boys like Teddy, Freddie, Alfie

Double barrelled names like Lily-May, Amelia-Rose, Alfie-Jay etc

I had an Emma in my year at school (would be 60 now) but no Emily as far as I can recall.

Finlay (that spelling) has been a common if not super-popular first name in Scotland for a very long time. I had a great-uncle of that name born before WW1.

One huge change in my lifetime has been putting an abbreviated name/nickname version of a name on the birth certificate, not the formal name to which it relates. There were plenty of people around when I was growing up who were known as Liz, Debbie, Jack, Mandy, Ronnie, Alfie etc but the names on their birth certificates would usually have been Elizabeth, Deborah, Amanda, John, Ronald, Alfred and so on. I wonder if we'll ever go back to that. Pros and cons.

@Paddingtonthebear

Not sure about Emily. I’m 45 and there were multiple girls called Emily throughout my infant, junior and secondary schools.

I have a great grabd parent called Emily