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Original poster

Names that shouldn’t be considered classics?

65 replies

Thatgirl1990 · 14/12/2021 14:47

I’ve been having a debate about the name Emily. Emily is so early 2000s and dated now I worry it’s the Karen of 2040 especially because not many kids are being named it now.I get really confused why people call it a “classic” it was practically unheard of until it became the top name in America. For example emily doesn’t fit into the bracket of timeless names Elizabeth, Hannah, Sarah. Emily reminds me of a blonde mean girl in a American film. Does anyone else agree?

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Original poster
Thatgirl1990 · 14/12/2021 15:43

Can everyone calm down all I’m saying is it will never be in the same bracket as Elizabeth

OP posts:
woodhill · 14/12/2021 15:45

Iyo though, it's subjective

scottishnames · 14/12/2021 15:46

Emily appears in Chaucer (14th cent, with spelling to match). And it has origins in Ancient Rome.

Interesting short article here www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2014/08/emily.html

As strangevipers says, it became popular in England in the 18th cent. The above article explains why.

SummaLuvin · 14/12/2021 15:47

@Thatgirl1990

Can everyone calm down all I’m saying is it will never be in the same bracket as Elizabeth
Jack will never be in the same bracket as William, that doesn’t mean it’s not a classic.
WhoppingBigBackside · 14/12/2021 15:49

I'd add Olivia and Lily, and maybe Sophia as they have been so overused in recent decades. Not sure if Lily is classic as it was a diminutive of Elizabeth in the past.

Chloe isn't a classic name in the uk. It was hardly used until the 1990s

Bideshi · 14/12/2021 15:50

'That Emelye, that fairer was to sene
Than is the lylie upon his stalke grene,'

Chaucer: 'The Knight's Tale' 1390s

There's fashion and there's style. It's a classic name.

WhoppingBigBackside · 14/12/2021 15:57

I think the ones I mentioned are classic but have become dull because of over-popularity for the time being

Givemebackmyhulahoop · 14/12/2021 16:06

It definitely feels classic fo me but it was my grandmother's name when everyone else I knew had grandmothers called names like Agnes, Helen, Janet or Doris which always seemed a lot more dated to me.

She died when I was a child but would have been approximately 100 now.

HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule · 14/12/2021 16:14

People are being perfectly calm...as far as I can see you’re the only one getting het up about it!

I’d consider it in the same classic vein as Elizabeth, most definitely.

DontKnowWhatToThink7 · 14/12/2021 16:18

Can everyone calm down all I’m saying is it will never be in the same bracket as Elizabeth

In your opinion.

You've started several threads about this now, clearly, because you want people to agree with you. So maybe you should calm down?

Anoisagusaris · 14/12/2021 16:23

Emily Dickinson
Emily Bronte
Emily from Bagpuss 😆
Emily from Corrie 😆😆

Emily would have been a very old fashioned, traditional name when I was a child.

Aderyn21 · 14/12/2021 16:37

Emily could be 100 years old or one week old - that's what makes it classic.
Classic names can go through peaks and troughs of popularity but that doesn't make them less classic.

Classica · 14/12/2021 16:44

I think the name Emily is dreary and boring but it's classic enough as far as these things go.

I do think people go so over the top in dissecting what a 'classic' name is though.

Classica · 14/12/2021 16:56

In one of the St Trinian's films Joyce Grenfell's character who is posing as a games mistress is given the undercover name of Chloe Crawley. She protests that Chloe is hideously old-fashioned and can't she have a nice modern name like...can't think what it was, along the lines of Brenda or Marjorie, something that sounds really old-fashioned to our ears.

Chloe was clearly a (not very cool) granny name in the 1950s, so not just a 1990s name.

scottishnames · 14/12/2021 17:32

Emily and Elizabeth are both over 2000 years old. Of course OP they are 'in the same bracket'.

SummerLew · 14/12/2021 20:04

Emily is totally a classic!
It's a beautiful name - I wish it were mine!

TyrannosaurusRights · 15/12/2021 00:56

Pankhurst (you’ve probably never heard of her but you should have), Post (American), Gilmore (popular fictional character).

Any of these ringing a bell for you?

Thedogscollar · 15/12/2021 01:45

You lost me when you said it was the Karen of 2040. How rude.

Changechangychange · 15/12/2021 01:52

@TyrannosaurusRights

Pankhurst (you’ve probably never heard of her but you should have), Post (American), Gilmore (popular fictional character).

Any of these ringing a bell for you?

That was Emmeline, not Emily.
CrispAndFrosty · 15/12/2021 16:29

Maybe thinking of Emily Davison, the suffragette who threw herself under the King's horse?

thewhatsit · 15/12/2021 16:45

I don’t think you have this right at all.

Also that you don’t think it was even much heard of until it became popular in America… but from the perspective of someone in America!

LemonMuffins · 15/12/2021 16:51

It's a classic for sure. I'm mid 80's born. It's one of my middle names and I went to school with a few.

Luredbyapomegranate · 15/12/2021 17:17

Emily Dickinson, Emily Bronte, Emily Pankhurst, Emily Post.. it was a popular and well known Victorian name like Emma and Sarah, and like them became popular again from the 70s in the UK (it wasn’t as popular as Emma then but certainly not unusual for middle class girls), before as you say getting super popular in the early 2000s in US and UK, but you do still get lots of baby Emily’s now (in the UK) so it hasn’t died away here anyway.

So it qualifies as a classic I’d say, and I don’t think you can say a name held by America’s most famous woman poet was barely heard of a few decades ago..

TyrannosaurusRights · 15/12/2021 18:55

@Changechangychange you’re right. I’m muddling my Em-named women of history. My apologies.

Flutterflybutterby · 16/12/2021 22:14

I don't think it's classic either.