"Old Lady" names which should never see the light of day ever again

[MrsSchadenfreude]

In my opinion. I give you:

Ethel
Enid
Edna
Doris
Maud(e)
Hilda
Ena
Elsie
Gladys

I know a little Effie actually

I know a baby Olive, a Mabel and an Ivy and isn't Denise Van O's baby called Betty. Or did you just mean normal people?

Pleased to see my DD has an apparently 'cool' ol lady name (Thanks ElephantsandMiasmas and PoshPaws).

Also v cool Joan from Mad Men might be trendifying that name. get in QUICK and you can say you started it tigermoth!

"Rita is not and 'old lady' name "

Quite. For those of you that immediately conjour up "old lady" may I remind you of the gorgeous Rita Hayworth claudia79.tripod.com/

Likewise Doris Day, Betty Grable, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford. For me a lot of these "old lady" names are associated with some of the worlds most glamorous women.

And I adore the name Hetty

Joan is awful old lady name, don't use it anyone please.
It's one of mine and everyone loathes it.

Gotta admit though that rita heyworth is not young

someone i know has called here dd Elsie, i like it.

I love betty.

The name Maude will forever mean a beautifull little girl and pink balloons to me and i suspect a great number of other MNers so very unhappy about that being included.

My gran was called Wilhemina (eek!) shortened to Mina (nice).

My name is Michelle, and i agree, i don't see it coming back anytime soon... I only know a handful of people called it. . I do like the name Georgina/Georgia, a little older but still nice. :)

My dd is a Pearl! I love it (obviously). She has friends Betty, Florence, Agnes and Elsie!

Mine too, charliegal. I was not happy to read on this thread that it is now considered 'ubiquitous' - I don't know any other Pearls, apart from mine. Do you? I think Mabel, Ivy, Iris, Agnes, Florence and Constance all great. :)

how can you only know a few Michelle's?

I am Michelle and i know hundreds. Almost everyone born within 5 years of me awas called Michelle.

I was at school with one or two Michelles but I don't think I know any at the moment. I do work in a very male-dominated industry, though, and there are relatively few blokes named Michelle about...

Oh MotherofPearl, I did see you on another thread and wonder if you were really one!

Lots of people commented that the name is unusual. However, I have met another baby Pearl and her mother told me that she knows a few.

I don't mind at all what people think (as long as they are not rude and tell me!) because we just LOVE the name. She is our little Pearl.

I am a fan of Persephone books and love the knids of names you might read in their novels. I agree with a previous comment, some posters have limited cultural references

Beryl
Doris
Velma
Maud
Quennie
Gertrude

Well charliegal, glad to come across another mother of Pearl, but hope there aren't too many of us out there :)

I am a grandmother and in my class there wre:

Joan
Jean
June
Jane
Maureen
Doreen
Audrey
Sybil
Evelyn
Brenda
Daphne
Pamela
Sheila

As a child, we used to laugh at our relations called Flo, Sarah, Ruby, Lily,Violet - these are all back, as will the list above - it goes round and round!

My mum remembers being sorry for a nice girl with the dreadful old-lady name Emily. Must have been c 1945.
Also there were 5 Marys and 3 Joans in her class.
Her BF was called Shirley and this was thought very pretty.

Hilarious thread!
Nothing against any of the names on my huge list btw, just that I think they are not about to come back into fashion anytime soon!

So if you wanted to be sure of an unusual name for your baby its worth checking out these lists!

aww poor baby called nora it reminds me of the nit nurse we used to call her nitty nora

my friend called her baby mona after her late grandma i didnt like it at first still think she will get picked on at school. but it does grow on u after a while

I suspect our grand daughters will be adding:

Scarlett
Tiffany
Kylie
Chardonnay
Ruby
Poppy
Grace

which are so prevalent right now.