Is The name Emily a good example of a name being a "modern classic"? What others would you put in that category?

[hcarter8]

Currently on our dds name right now and it has me wondering, is there any such thing as a modern classic name?Our second choice is Emily which my dh loves but I don't love although I definitely don't dislike it. . I don't think it's as old as a name like say Elizabeth or Sarah but I'm aware Emily is obviously an old name which has been around since the 1800s (Emily Brontë and Dickinson) so it does have a couple of historical namesakes.

Despite this i always thought if it as more of a "modern classic" in the way that it only got rediscovered and became popular in the last thirty years. According to a lot of naming websites Emily, was the number 1 name in the US/UK/Australia in the 90s/00s, it’s sliding down the charts now and will probably never be as popular as it has been over the last 25 years again. Not that it’s necessarily a bad things and it doesn't take away that it's a lovely name but I just wouldn’t class it as timeless.
I would put names like Olivia, Isabella, Lily etc in the same category, they are very old names but stopped being used for a good hundred years and now sound young again.

What other names would you class as modern classics?

Even though I followed that trial with great interest, I didn't even think of letby when I also suggested Lucy as a timeless or ageless name

I agree. I also think Lucy is far too classic popular and established to be tainted.
Its not like Myra for example where your mind would automatically go to Myra Hindley.

I@Itneverrainsitpissesitdown

Some Biblical names have vanished, presumably never to be seen again (Boaz). Some have been consistently popular throughout the ages (Elizabeth)

I actually know a little Boaz. So it hasn't disappeared altogether. Funnily enough, his sister is Elizabeth. Very Christian family.

I do think of Emily as a 'modern classic'. Alongside:
Amelia, Annabel, Charlotte, Daisy, Eleanor, Freya, Georgia, Isabella, Imogen, Jessica, Lucy, Madeleine, Matilda, Olivia, Phoebe, Sophia and Zara.

Some of those above were also classics in some of the 'non modern' lists of classics, I think. Including Emily, probably. But those are ones I think of as contemporary classics. Unlike 70s - 90s classics (Laura, Emma, Rebecca, Sarah) and 40s-60s classics (Susan, Pamela, Deborah, Jane, Anne).

I think only Elizabeth is a true classic in an 'always used' sense. Possibly Mary but not so much now.

Anna
Hannah
Lucy
Kate
Charlotte
Ella
Isobel

I think Catherine and Elizabeth are the classics.

Modern Clasics ..
Emma
Jessica
Rebecca
Emily
Lorna
Nancy
Faye
Georgia
Rose
Olivia
Diana
Matilda

A little further back in terms of the height of their popularity, but I think Alison and Amy fit the pattern.

Eva, Grace and Clara would have sounded odd when I was growing up. They are nice names, but no, they are not timeless.

Rachel, Charlotte, Julia, Lucy, Hannah, Elizabeth, Rebecca and Katherine are the only ones I can think of that have been consistently used without sounding significantly "old fashioned" at any point in the past 100 years. Even these do come and go a little, though. There are a lot fewer Katherines now than when I was growing up.

I really don’t think any name is completely timeless. I’d think it’ll be unusual to meet a baby Elizabeth or an Olivia older than 30. Both are beautiful names but it’s truly subjective.

In 200 years the timeless names will be names we deem trendy now.

I was surprised to realise how consistently popular Helen was for years and years, before it experienced its current dip in popularity.

Modern classic names in my mind are:

Emma
Lucy
Alice
Charlotte
Caroline
Katherine/Kate/Katie
Isobel
Mathilda
Sophia
Elizabeth

Yes, I would say it is classic. Though to me classic just means standard,,english , timeless, pretty but not too girly/silly and generally quite sedate and inoffensive.

Other names I would file under this banner are:
Eleanor
Charlotte
Rebecca
Isabelle
Catherine
Emma
Gemma
Helena
Laura
Victoria
Olivia

Emily is still top 10 isn’t it? So not becoming unpopular or tired by any stretch.

I only really know of Sarah’s late 20s and upwards. I’d certainly double take if I met a baby Sarah, it’s a lovely name though. Ditto Anne.

I know a Boaz too - also from a Christian family. It seems to have made a comeback amongst sort of hipster-evangelical christian - homesteader types.

Isobel and Mathilda would have been considered really weird when I was growing up. Of course they are nice names, but they are not remotely timeless.

Eleanor, mentioned above, is reasonably timeless; I know babies, ones my age and a couple of elderly ones.

I grew up in the 70s. A family near us had 3 kids, Amelia, Jacob and Chloe. We thought they were the most ridiculous and outlandish names in a sea of Sharon, Tracey, Karen, Caroline, Sarah and Claire, and the boys were Steven, Anthony, Mark, Andrew, Paul, and Stuart.

Of course they were just 20 years early and far more common nowadays than the names we all had.

Julia
Cathrine
Sophie
Elizabeth
Claire
Beatrice
Anne
Frances
Rache

Rache? That means Revenge in German

Rachel...

This is a lot of fun to play with - put names in and it shows how their popularity changes over time: https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc363/babyindex.html
If you really want a timeless classic name I give you Mohamed!

I know a Boaz! It’s a great name!

You can also put names into the Google ngram viewer - it’s not a name counter, but it shows how many times the name comes up in a gigantic body of text over centuries. It’s great for tracking the appearance and popularity of any word or phrase.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Emily%2CRebecca%2CAnna%2CLaura%2CCharlotte%2C+Helen&year_start=1500&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3

Emily is a family name for us. My great aunt, who’d be way over 100 now, my favorite aunt, who’d be 93, my sister, 60 and almost my DD who was born in the 90s! Plus multiple cousins, all born in the 60s.

Emily is not a modern classic because it is old! What is a modern classic in a name? Most names have a history.