Elsie

[Mummysalwaysright]

A close relative wants to call her DD Elsie. She asked me what I thought. Does anyone else recall "Spiteful Elsie" from the Enid Blighton books? She was a spoilt girl in one of the series of books about a private girls' school.
I think it's quite a nice name* but am always reminded of the above, and wonder if I ought to mention this as I would hate for her DD to get labelled as "spiteful" just because it was a name in a book.
Probably depends on whether anyone still reads or remembers these books of course!

*Just the Elsie part - without the "spiteful"!

I was a massive Blyton reader as a child and I would not make that connection at all. Much more likely to think of Elsie Carr, Katy's sister.
Absolutely no 21st century child will think of this.

I'm don't think you need to worry about the character connections. It's fairly common and popular nowadays, know several kids under 5 with this name if that's a concern or factor.

My mum is an Elsie as a nn for Elizabeth

Elsie is very popular at the minute so i dont think the majority of people will make the connection you have. My granny was Elsie and we only discounted it because it doesnt really work with our surname. I think lots of people will have a family connection and be using it for that reason.

My great grandmother was Elsie, it has been popular for the last decade, hyphenated with some twee additions as well but Elsie on it's on is fine imo.

That's rather a niche reference I think! I doubt any of this child's peers would think of it (and I was a massive Enid Blyton fan who named my DD Enid 😅).

Elsie is a top 20 name now so I don't think your cousin has anything to worry about (unless she's concerned by popularity that is).

It's a fab name!

Better than Elsa because of the Frozen connection.

I can't imagine anyone will make that connection at all (I certainly don't). Her peers at school definitely won't. Elsie is a very popular name now. It's not like it's an unusual choice where people will only have that one reference. Most people will know other Elsies.

If anything, she's more likely to get Elsie Tanner Coronation Street references from people of a certain generation.

I chose the name after reading an article about Elsie tanner 😆 liked the name and back then in 2006 it wasn’t even in the top 1000 girls names…. It’s quite popular now though.

Like a pp I thought of Elsie in What Katy did. I think I remember the Enid Blyton Elsie but I’m not sure and she definitely wasn’t the first one I thought of.

Love Elsie.

Ive just had a baby boy..if he had have been a girl, Elsie was top of my list

Elsie is a lovely name!

(I have never heard about "Spiteful Elsie", but I am not from the United Kingdom.)

I do remember 'Spiteful Elsie', but it's not the first thing I think of when I hear the name! I would think of Elsie from Fairytale a True Story first, or A Spoonful of Jame, or What Katy Did.
Actually now that I'm thinking about the name, I hear it in Lucy Beaumont's accent since that's her daughter's name...

Lovely.

It’s a v popular name now, so I wouldn’t worry about that

Not keen on this name, it’s always seemed a bit twee to me.