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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Are any 1930s baby names due a comeback?

61 replies

Firebird83 · 11/08/2026 10:57

After the thread about Joan, I was wondering what people think of some of the other names that were popular in the 1930s. Names are supposed to come around in roughly 100-year cycles, and we’re nearly in the 2030s now! Do you think any of these 1930s names are ready for a comeback yet? And are there any others you’d suggest?

Jean
Margaret
Sheila
June
Mary
Irene
Sylvia
Marjorie
Rita
Joy
Valerie
Hilda
Daphne
Mavis
Gloria
Enid
Freda
Peggy

Peter
Hugh
Edwin
Philip
Lawrence
Timothy
Walter
Raymond
Douglas
Eric
Bernard
Leonard

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Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain · 12/08/2026 17:44

Gwenhwyfar · 11/08/2026 13:53

Sheila and June are names for women in their 60s or 70s for me so not 1930s names. Not yet due for a come back.

I know a child under 10 called June.

FullOfMomsense · 12/08/2026 17:46

I know of recently born twins Bernard and Leonard- Bernie and Lennie for short

Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain · 12/08/2026 17:46

rubywho12 · 11/08/2026 14:26

I think Peggy is going to make the comeback

I know a French Peggy in her 40s.

khaa2091 · 12/08/2026 17:50

I have delivered more than a thousand babies and have NEVER come across a baby with name John (anywhere, not just first name) - definitely due a revival.

suburburban · 12/08/2026 18:14

khaa2091 · 12/08/2026 17:50

I have delivered more than a thousand babies and have NEVER come across a baby with name John (anywhere, not just first name) - definitely due a revival.

I know one with it as a middle name

Firsttimebabymummy · 13/08/2026 10:40

My little girl was almost a Joy!

Have a boy on the way now and our list is Laurence, Edwin, Charles, Ernest, Maxwell and Cedric so perhaps need to look at 30's names.

RustyBear · 13/08/2026 10:54

My great-nephew, who is 8, is Leonard Peter, though he is always known as Leo, which is now a top 5 name.

Triflingjelly · 13/08/2026 11:11

I adore Lydia

BatshitCrazyWoman · 13/08/2026 11:17

I know of an Edith who must be in her late twenties now (she is the younger sister of a classmate of my younger son, who is 31). I think it was an old family name. Her older brother was called Oliver, which was more of a usual name in the mid-90s. I remember no one was allowed to call her Edie, which I think is prettier!

The biblical names are always around - Mary, Peter etc and the others may come around. Florence did!

MyPeachBiscuit · 14/08/2026 13:47

I wouldn't connect of all these names to the early 20th century. I was born in the 1990s and had classmates at school named Peter (multiple), Hugh, Philip and Timothy, and I've met 1960s/70s-born Leonards, Raymonds, Valeries, Marys, Irenes etc.

Daphne is definitely already back. I think Lawrence, Joy, June and Sylvia have a lot of potential. Some of the others just need more time.

Pearlstillsinging · 14/08/2026 13:49

Scrubwren · 11/08/2026 13:03

Enid has been comparatively popular for donkey’ years. The rest — it’s too soon. The people naming their babies need to have no living memory of grandparents, elderly neighbours called Bernard and Marjorie.

Or they name their babies after great/grand parents

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