What were your peers called?

[Justinripley]

Following on from another thread where a poster is the same age as myself but didn’t know anyone called Phoebe (yet I know of loads my age)

I thought it would be interesting to see what the most popular names in your year groups/friends were, depending on peoples locations.

So for example: I was born in the mid 90’s, South London and I grew up with loads of:

Sophia
Grace
Phoebe
Molly
Lily

Jack
Tom
Joe
Sam
Max

[SophiaLarsen]

East Midlands born in late 70s:
Girls
Claire
Rebecca
Catherine/Katherine (Katy/Katie)
Rachel
Alison
Mary
Kirsty
Joanna
(With smattering of more unusual)

Boys
Andrew
Simon
Craig
Jake
Shane
Robert
Christopher
Phillip
David
Richard
Michael
Again a smattering of more unusual ones too.

[Newjumper2023]

1970s, Yorkshire.
Sarah, Claire, Hannah, Catherine, Jennifer.
James, Jonathan, Andrew, David, Richard, Paul.

[User6761]

Scotland, born 1980
In my year at secondary there were multiple:

Emma
Fiona
Jennifer
Laura
Karen
Mairi
Nicola
Emma
Alison
Claire
Cheryl
Donna
Joanne/Joanna

Matthew
David
Alasdair/Alistair
Jamie
John/Jonathan
Richard
Kevin
Ross

[IJustHadToLookHavingReadTheBook]

East London, born in the mid-eighties. My peers were named:

Emma
Sarah
Kayleigh
Jenny
Laura
Louise
Carly
Katie/Katherine

Michael
Andrew
David
James
Philip
Christopher

[Mammyloveswine]

Born in the north late 80s...

Girls:

Laura
Sarah
Katherine (Katie)
Charlotte
Samantha
Kirsty
Leah
Leanne
Louise
Rebecca

Boys:

Lee
Daniel (Dan/Danny)
Matt
Mark
Luke
Liam
Joe
Kyle
James

[CoffeeChocolateWine]

Late 70s and southeast England.

Girls
Sarah
Claire
Emma
Catherine/Katy
Helen
Louise

Boys
John
James
Peter
Daniel
Steven
Andrew

[BridaBrida]

Early 90s

Ashleigh/Ashley
Stacey
Laura
Lauren
Emma
Kerry
Lindsey/Linzi
Lisa
Nicole
Kayleigh
Jenna
Danielle

Jordan
Jamie
Scott
Ross
Callum
Greg
Darren

[FineThings]

Mid 70s, East of England
All girls, by law, were called Sarah, Rebecca, Cla(i)re, Jane, Nicola or Louise. Everyone had Louise as a middle name, unless their first name was already Louise and/or they had Jane instead.
All boys were called Andrew, David, Mark, Matthew, Steven, Richard or Paul. Unless they were called Scott, Christopher or Nicholas. I didn't ask any boys what their middle names were, so couldn't tell you.

[goodnightmrtom]

90s, Suffolk:

Rachel, Beth, Noelle, Beth, Ashley, Ella, Ella, Ellie, Alicia, Alysha, Sophie, Rhiannon, Alana, Megan, Chloe, Megan, Sophia.

William, Jamie, Jack, John, John, Luke, David, Oliver (Oli), Rhys, Matthew, Matthew (Matty), Andrew.

[goodnightmrtom]

Lots of biblical boy names. No Rivers back then.

[goodnightmrtom]

Michael, Adam.
Isabelle (Izzy).
Mica. Liam. Ethan. Nathan.

[goodnightmrtom]

Ryan

[NormanSicily]

Darn Sarf, b mid 70s
Melissa
Sara/Sarah
Emma
Polly
Joanne
Sharon
Kate
Sophie
Amy
Jane
Kirsty

Darren
Oliver
Jonathan
Nicholas
Christopher
Andrew
Steven
Paul
Daniel
Martin
Sam
Simon
Daryl
Robert

[Findyourneutralspace]

Mid 70s, northern England:

Sarah, Emma, Rachel, Laura, Helen, Nicola, Michelle

Mark, David, John, Andrew, Simon, Paul, Michael

[Bobshhh]

Late 80s

girls - Sarah, Jessica, Rebecca, Emma, Laura

boys - Simon, Tom, Alex, Ben

[midsomermurderess]

Fiona was quite common and quite a few Janes.

[GBoucher]

South, mid-'70s

Catherine
Rachel
Zoe
Jessica
Gabriela/Gabrielle
Tamara
Elizabeth
Anna
Deborah
Helen
Victoria


Richard
James
Christopher
Piers
Jeremy
Stephen
Mark/Marc

[GBoucher]

Lots of Philippas too.

[lanadelgrey]

Born late 60s in south-east
Multiple Emma’s and Emily’s
Lisa, Rachel’s and Sarah’s,
Boys Michael, Graham/Graeme, Robert, John and Jonathan, David

[SquigglePigs]

Early 80's

Claire/Clare
Laura
Gemma
Louise
Sarah
Emily
Emma
Aimee/Amy
Katie
Michelle
Rachel
Rebecca

Mark
Carl
James
Daniel
Paul
John/Jonathan
David/Dave
Luke
Lee
Phillip
William
Matthew
Gareth

[waterlego]

I was born in the late 70s, SE England if that’s relevant.

In my peer group, the most popular girls’ names were Rachel, Rebecca, Nicola, Vicky, Claire, Sarah, Emma, Andrea, Samantha

The boys were mostly called Chris, David, Dan or Ben

[waterlego]

Everyone had Louise as a middle name, unless their first name was already Louise and/or they had Jane instead.

Yes, definitely this. I didn’t know many with Louise as a first name but it was everyone’s middle name (except the boys’ probably). It also wasn’t my middle name because I wasn’t given one.

[waterlego]

Duh. I wrote my location and said ‘if that’s relevant’ and have now noticed that you specifically mentioned location in your OP, and that most posters have mentioned location. I’m blaming brain fog. 😶‍🌫️

[sendbackaletterfromamerica]

Mid 1970s, north
Louise, Nicola, Joanne, Susan, Vicky, Lisa, Karen, Mary, Claire, Kirsty, Jane, Anne
Ryan, Ian, Alistair, Jim, Alan, Andy, Chris, Gary, Barry, Robert

[RuthW]

Born 1968

Paula
Sharon
Tracey
Susan
Alison
Lisa

Steven
Mark
David
Andrew
Neil
Simon
Robert