How ‘old lady’ is Iris?

[Sunday4]

As a general rule, I’m not a fan of vintage sounding, ‘old people’ names.

But I do like Iris. For some reason, I feel like Iris has a bit of an edge to it, and I like names with an edge (not edge as in edgy-trendy, more that the sound has an edge. I don’t know how to explain what I mean here!)

Now I know Iris IS an old name - and it’s on all the vintage name idea lists - but when you hear the name, do you immediately think ‘old lady’?

I think it's very pretty and not at all old lady. A baby Iris would be precious but it's also a name that will "grow" with her.

As an alternative, can I also offer Irena, after the amazing war heroine Irena Sendler? I wish I'd heard of her before I named DD, or she'd be Irena.

It's lovely: rainbows and Iris Murdoch

I like it

I know a teenage Iris. I like it.

I think it’s lovely. Not common nor wildly unusual

I think goo goo dolls, but that is no bad thing! It is a beautiful name. I would go for it.

I think it's beautiful! I do think of it as being currently an older person's name, but a fairly rare one, that I've always thought of as being due a revival.

The only one I know is four, so I don’t really think of it as an old lady name. I don’t think it was ever popular enough to really associate with any one time period if you know what I mean. But it’s lovely. I like the song too!

I suspect the reason there are so many teenage Iris' is because of the love of the Goo Goo Dolls song for their 40-something parents.

As most parents of newborns are going to be much younger I would expect the popularity of the name to start to decline again now.

It’s in the top 100 girls names now, 70th in 2021, and it’s been rising steadily in popularity in recent years.
Looking at the way it’s been trending upwards, I don’t think it’s reached the peak of it’s popularity yet either.

So it’s not going to feel like an old lady name to your baby’s contemporaries!

names.darkgreener.com/#iris

The only Iris I know is 93.

I know a couple of baby Iriss

When I hear Iris I think of a little girl under 10. It's very popular nowdays.

If anything I’d say it was really common. I don’t like it personally as I don’t like ‘vintage’ names.

I work with children and have met loads of little Iris’s so it’s certainly not an unusual name.

I know of a couple of teens and a few littlies with this name.
It was on my long list of girls names. I think it's very pretty.

I think old lady, then bit of an eyeball

As like anything that's been fashionable at one stage - its so old its back to being new and "in". I believe Lily and Rose/Rosa are "in" too, as is Holly 😉

Lovely name, it was my Grandma's.

It’s a lovely name. I do know an aged Iris but have also encountered a toddler Iris in Costa. It suits all ages.

You know there are thousands of teen and little Irises don’t you?! It’s been very popular for years.

I like it and agree it has a sharp edge

If you were hoping for something less overused then

Lois
Ines / Inez
Aster
Stella
Aphra
Annis
Astrid
Merryn
Meredith

all have a similar-ish vibe to me - Rowan too but that’s also very popular

My daughter is called Iris. She's two.

When she was born I had never met another one but now I've met quite a few, it's certainly quite popular where I live and I think getting more so, so if that bothers you then it's something to think about. It's nowhere near the Eva/Ava/Evie level of common though.

I love the name. Its feminine but it also, as you say OP, has a bit of a edge. It's not frilly but it's pretty, it's simple and easy to spell and pronounce. It's the perfect girls name!

Another dd middle name here. Put off as a first name because a woman I don’t like much used it for her daughter, and it lost its shine a bit. But I’m slightly regretting it now! Because of the rainbow thing it’s sometimes used for “rainbow babies”.

Yes of course it’s ‘old lady’ like Ivy, Violet, Ada, Elsie etc. None of those names are to my taste but Iris is ok. I’ve never met one.

I think it’s a lovely name-now if you’d said Doris…

I think Doris is cute. Doris Day.

I like it - my immediate thought is the film The Holiday and I love that film.