US East Coast old money girls names?

[Mimififi]

Following on from the old money names thread. What would the US rich upper class call their girls?

Sloane is definitely a big one

I’d love to use it but too much of a surname here in the UK

Yes Sloane is a good one, Blaire perhaps?
The US & UK upper class names & general markers are very different. I find it all fascinating!

Caroline

Blair, Serena, Lily, Georgina, Olivia, Eleanor, Celia, Isobel, Katie, Penelope

My list may or may not be taken directly from gossip girl

Sophie I think is another upper class East Coast one!

Elizabeth, Katherine, Anastasia, Anna, Abigail, Helen, Frances, Harper

any name from moms maiden name

Marnie (as in the character from Girls)

Molly

Cynthia
Pearl
Diane
Blair
Evelyn

Alexandra
Charlotte
Alice
Helena
Elizabeth
Emily
Isabella
Sylvia
Margarita
Veronica
Clara
Violet
Estella
Philippa

I'm American. With all due respect to Gossip Girl, you're wrong.

Upper class and old money are not synonymous in the US. That's a UK thing. Upper class just means having a lot of $$$$ here, and rich Americans give their children any and all names. Elon Musk is upper class in the US and his kids have some odd names. Old Money, i.e., people whose ancestors got rich generations ago, also give their children all different kinds of names, although they tend to give ancestral names more often. Dh's cousin's wife is Texas old money. Her name is Hispanic.

The only determiner of class in America is how much money you have. Names, accents, race, religion, none of that give a clue. It's all about the assets.

There's definitely a UK-style class system in New England and New York/mid Atlantic, just no titles. More about if your ancestors came over on the mayflower. They even have dumb nicknames like in the UK, in this case Muffy or Bunny.

Full names similar to UK ones but never the Greek ones like Jocasta etc.

Nancy
Daisy
Daphne
Anna
Sarah
Alice
Margaret
Katherine
Hope
Martha
Edith
Dorothea
Helene
Phoebe
Emily
Flora
Blythe
Eleanor
Imogene
Grace
Cornelia
Thalia
Agatha
Arabella
Alva
Caroline
Julia
Margot
Agnes

Bryce
Carlisle
Adair
Sydney
Schuyler
Ellery

Up to the 2000s I'd say there was a Catholic/ protestant divide, but that has greatly softened now, with the surname-as-name trend.

I’m Elizabeth. My mother & grandmother & great grandmother & great great grandmother & so on back for as far as I can see were all Elizabeth.

We are definitely not upper class East Coast people.

Names are just names.
But money makes all the difference.

Can you knowledgeable ones give some insights into the East Coast middle class lifestyle? Parenting seems similar to the UK obsessed with "good" schools & the "right" extracurriculars!

@Maireanto1 This book is a little outdated but spot on. Look up WASPs too.

www.astralcodexten.com/p/book-review-fussell-on-class

One American name that always puzzles me is Tyne; as in Tyne Daly, from Cagney and Lacey. Loved the show and greatly admire the actress so it never seems weird when I come across it unless I actually think, hang on, Tyne? Why is Tyne a name? So US commentators on this thread do tell - Tyne? Normal kinda name or total outlier? Thanks! 😂

Tyne is actually her middle name (she's Ellen) so perhaps a family name, mother's maiden name, etc.?

Ellory

@LifeExperience I'm also American and I definitely think there's a class system of old money - at least on the East Coast and in the South. I thought the tv show Succession nailed it with the differences between the Roy family and the Pierce family (the ones that own the rival media company who want to buy the Roy's company). At one point the Roys visit the Pierce’s estate and are made to feel awkward and uncouth by the Pierce family for not being high brow enough (lack of cultural capital) and caring too much about the trappings of wealth like insisting on taking helicopters and private jets.

Even the name the showrunners chose for the matriarch of the old money family is spot on - Nan Pierce.

The Donna Tartt book a Secret History describes this well too - all the characters are aspiring to be a certain social class which money is required to achieve, but alone doesn't deliver.

Anyway I think names that imply old money are either New England WASP (Martha, Amy, Katherine, Betsy, Nan), surnames as first names are only for boys and they have to be WASPy ones (I knew someone once called Lowell Cabot Putnam) or nicknames (Bunny, Tallie, Muffy, Bitzi).

Thanks for replying! Just looked her up yes I'd forgotten she's Ellen Tyne Daly. Mother is/was Mary Hope Newell though. Just fascinates me a bit because it's a funny sort of name to make up, yet it somehow really suits her.

Oh Ellen and Jane are two more I'd add to the list. I was at a country club last summer where the kids camp was run by teenagers named Janey, Betsy, Chester and Will. It felt like a Hardy Boys novel.

The east coast American upper middle class is interesting, I'm going to start a new thread on chat to discuss further.