Was Emily a posh name before it became popular in the 90s/00s?

[hcarter8]

My work colleague (who is much older than me) and I were discussing names and she said Emily was seen as an old fashioned posh name up in the 70s and 80s. I’m 31 so I knew 3 Emily’s but I was born just before Emily became a really popular name so most people with the name are about 10 years younger than me, I was kind of shocked to hear this as Emily was always sooo common and definitely didn’t scream upper class to me. She also said Olivia and Charlotte were extremely posh back then.
is that true? I genuinely had a hard time believing it

The only Emily that I know went to a very highly academic college in the 90s ,she hasn’t achieved anymore than the Katie’s, Amelia of the same generation !

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray%27s_a_Laugh

I think it was this

Why the 'who is much older than me'?

FWIW, I was a teenager in the 1980s, and names like Olivia, Emily and Charlotte were names you might find in Jilly Cooper novels, or the names of privately educated girls.

When a family member named her daughter Olivia a few years ago some older family members considered it “too posh”

Yes, I agree with your colleague. Definitely old fashioned, and slightly posh. Charlotte always posh. Olivia just very very uncommon.

I was at school in the 70s and 80s, private girls school - no Emilys or Olivias but several Charlotte, Annabels (no Isabels), Lucys, Vickys.

Emily from Corrie was a good example of an old skool Emily.

Yes definitely.
I'm 50 this year and only ever came across one Emily of my age. Definitely came from an upper class family.

Same with Charlotte and Olivia.
I knew a Charlotte a year older than me who was very well spoken, and the only Olivia I knew as a child was a doctor's daughter.

I think for 90-100+ year olds it was a classless name. Plenty of girls in service had it, but also plenty of maiden aunts lol.

50-60 year olds it was definitely a posh name - in the 60s/70s only the slightly bohemian subset of upper-middles and uppers were interested in 'retro' names. I have a similar name and my working-class-made-good grandmother apparently said it was a housemaids name.

I’m late 50s. When I was growing up Emily, Olivia and Charlotte were posh/ refined/ ladylike names.

I do wonder when names like Susan, Sarah, Jane, Peter, Christopher, Simon etc will all come back.