old fashioned why are some cute again and others definitely not

[mumofsevenplusfour]

been wondering why some name from early 20th c late 19th eg ruby daisy ruby violet iris etc for girls or alfie archie arthur wilfred etc for boys are cool again. yet others seem destined to remain unpoular for along time to come thinking here of names such as male names stanley ernest percy etc or female names gertrude gladys emerald doris dorothy etc
any opinions as to what makes the difference ?

i don't think many people would go mad for Hilda though

Oh I do love Wodehouse...Honoria quite pretty? (And I'm not English, but whatthehell I say! )

Honoria very good. I also like Dahlia and Agatha (though agatha was bertie's evil aunt)... For boys: Bingo and Tuppy

(I love PG Wodehouse too)

Dahlia is very pretty, Bingo and Tuppy I will keep in mind for the next time I must name a puppy.

I read somewhere that Wodehouse said that every sentence should be entertaining, and his really are.

i also think agatha is great but i think of the feisty detective agatha raisin in yhe books by mc beaton .

I know a Aneurin (Nye) and several Ernests. My dds middle names are Margaret and Edith after our Grandmothers (hope she doesn't mind when she gets older!) and my ds is Laurence (quite old fashioned I suppose!).

I do love some of the flowery girls names making a comeback!

I think Percy is cool as a girls name - we would have called our girl that if we had one but we had 2 boys.....

We have a 3-yr-old Agatha and I love it! It somehow really suits her and her funny little ways. Had a few reactions when we announced it but several people also said ooh, that was on our shortlist. Yet to meet another, though...

I've always thought Agatha was pretty but that's possibly positive associations through becoming addicted to the novels of Mrs Christie at an impressionable age.

Do have a hankering after Hilda - don't see why it can't come back given Ruby and Ivy are in again. My Great-Aunt Hilda died last year and I just feel wistful and want more Hildas in the world... (She was fab, still going out dancing in her 90s - last time I saw her, the day before she died, she said 'I've had a wonderful life with lots of naughty fun. )

See, I know an Edith in her 20s and a Hilda in her 30s and they are both fab people so those names have been totally rehabilitated for me.

at naughty fun. What we all should aspire to.

Yes! Although I was a bit shocked when I heard she'd given my younger (then-teenage) sister, £10 with the immortal words "go and buy yourself some condoms". Especially as my Great-Aunt was Catholic.

She was never was particularly impressed by priests or the Pope, though. Once commented 'well, that was a boring sermon' in a VERY loud voice just as the priest was walking out of church. As he reminded us at her funeral!

Oh, she sounds lovely edam! I'm sure you must miss her very much.

I think Agatha is pretty too...quite like Aggie for a nn.

Yes, I do. But she was 95 and the last of that generation.

Aggie - not so sure about that even though I do like Agatha.

We seriously comsidered Arthur and Stanley for ds, in fact I think he would have been Stanley if dp hadn't been put off by the opinions of MIL others.

hilda great name and if mathilda can become really popular again why not hilda
love agatha butdh vetoed it because everyone will think of christie

edam I luuurve that Hilda story!

My mum has a good friend called Hilda, I think she would love to see it come back. I don't know any small ones tho...

Lots of the names on here are personal faves of mine. All my DCs' names mentioned at following trend!

DS1 has a name we loved so much and chose months before he was born - he is the only one in school and loves that (there are 3 Matts in his class, and 3 Jameses for eg), however there is now one in FS2 - he is in yr 6 and most aggrieved! Luckil it's inf and jnr school so they are not in same school as such (phew).

I too know a few small Stanleys, love Mabel and Agatha and Agnes too, don't know any tho.

I think it has very little to do with how the name sounds. Some of the names coming back into fashion are in my opinion quite horrible sounding. But obviously to the ears of the new parents they are lovely. There is no universality to the concept "pretty".

I suspect that a lot of it is about what you hear, so if a name gets into the news via a celebrity it gets much greater exposure for example. Also when you are pregnant or TTC you get very attuned to names, so pick up on the names that are going around in your area, or that you hear. dh and I used to watch film credit for inspiration for example.

I also wonder whether it's just time - there are some theories about time cycles for names (I think for girls it's about 80 years and boys 100) it might just be that the stanleys, ernests etc were popular a little later than the archies and wilfreds lat time around too.

also wondering whether lark rise to candleford and other period similar period dramas bring old fashioned names back into the limelight