Old fashioned names new again....

[flat-top]

My first name is Thomas, and everyone always tells me that if I ever had a son, that I HAVE to name him after me because it's a good, old fashioned name. I have a giagantic family, and I am the only one with the name, so I guess it wouldn't be a bad idea!

 

[artdecodame]

[Originally Posted by BettyValentine]
I feel like Norma is ready for another heyday.
I love that name, but probably completely because of Norma Shearer! My, my, what a movie addict am I.

My grandmother's name is Gertrude...will not name any of my girls that!

That was my great-aunt's name, too, although it was probably pronounced diffrerently as they were German. Her sister was Lucy, which is another name you don't hear anymore (as well as the full "Lucille")...Although I'm not going to have children, I always tend to like the older sounding names for pets. Even song titles from way back when are better than the "trendy" names kids tend to have these days (think "Amapola" and "Perfidia", yeees. )

 

[artdecodame]

With all the goofball kids names nowadays, do they even get teased any more? Or do kids named Mary and Robert get teased instead?

Oh, I recall knowing a girl named Mary in school who was teased a bit because of her name, whereas I with the most boring, trendy 80's name("Lindsey") was never bothered. [huh]

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

I had a Grandma named Gertrude also.
Hmmm,....could have been a trend back then?

Perfidia. Dog gone it, I like that!
(Listening to that tune right now as a matter of fact.)

 

[artdecodame]

Perfidia. Dog gone it, I like that!
(Listening to that tune right now as a matter of fact.)

The Helen Forrest/Benny Goodman version is my favorite!

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Yeah, I don't know about Gertrude either, but Trudy is cool.

 

[Zach R.]

I'm going to second Frederick, I don't think I've ever actually met someone with the name, but I like it, and it has many derivatives.

 

[scotrace]

Go Play

Since this is a revived thread...

This is from back at page four or so. Be sure to go back and play with this to see what name was trendy when:

Baby Name Wizard Thingy.

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

Whatever you name your child, for goodness sake think how he/she has to deal with it on the playground. :eusa_doh: I can think of a few names I would be hesitant to use like:
Cornelius
Tiberius
Nero
Chito
Aloe
Alvina
Damien
Manson
Adolph
and a few other that you can get the idea about. My friend just named his daughter Zsofia. [huh]

Regards,

J

Oh no, the dreaded SILENT Z! lol

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

Since this is a revived thread...

This is from back at page four or so. Be sure to go back and play with this to see what name was trendy when:

Baby Name Wizard Thingy.

WOW! Me (Heather), my mom (Joyce), my aunt (Linda), my grandmother (Doris), and my great aunt (Louise) all received our names during the height of their respective popularities. I guess I come from uncreative stock!

Now I *have* to name my son Phinnaeus! Wait a minute, didn't Julia Roberts just do that! Curses...lol

 

[HistWardrobe]

Names - long curmudgeonly rant

I'm an old stick-in-the-mud where names are concerned.

Pop culture names bug me.

I don't think children should be named after retail establishments, even if the engagement ring DID come from Tiffany's.

If I were naming a child, I'd shy away from the top 50 names, to avoid being too trendy or dated, or having the same name as everybody else. (Kindergarten roll call, 1970s -- "Jennifer? Joshua?" -- twenty little hands go up). Perfectly lovely names but SO over-used at the time.

I remember going to school with a Herschel and a Vivian and being deeply envious that they were the only ones with those splendid names whereas I was just another Kathy in a whole herd of Kathys. A good balance is to find names that aren't overly popular but also aren't singularly weird (cf. the reference to St. Polycarp posted earlier. St. Pancras is another under-appreciated saint, but his name is best left to railway stations, IMHO)

I prefer names that are either somewhat old-fashioned (Lillian, Eleanor, Olivia, Helena, Joanna, Susannah, etc) or are the sort of perennial classics that would be appropriate for royalty. (Alexander, Nicholas, Victoria, Elizabeth, etc etc)

I also like the American tradition of using surnames for first names, including the (primarily Southern) tradition of using surnames for girls' names. However, I think the surnames used should come from one's family, rather than being picked at random in an effort to sound upmarket / preppy / Anglo-Saxon.

I'd rather name a child McGillicuddy or Yablonski (if that's his heritage) than have yet another Tyler unrelated to any known Tyler ancestry.

The exception is naming children for historical figures one admires -- as did the parents of Martin Luther King, Henry Clay Work, John Wesley Harding, etc. This is AOK in my book. But how many Tylers are thus named because their parents are great fans of President John Tyler?

I don't mean to be picking on all the Tylers out there. It's just that it's so over-used -- #9 in the 1990s and still quite popular, although recently supplanted by Madison, of all things. My cousin named her baby daughter Madison (eek, #3 in 2004!) Are the Federalist Papers undergoing a huge revival in popularity or something?

Geographical names require caution as they can become pretty cliched as well. If you really must name your child after the province of Brittany, for gosh sakes spell it right, Mrs. Spears.

Self-consciously weird spellings in an effort to be different just condemn the child to a lifetime of having to spell their name out for people, which can become very tedious.

What sounds cute can rapidly become merely cutesy over time. Names that sound precious for a baby or small child might sound very silly when they are somewhat elderly adults. I have a friend named Muffin and it's not a nickname, it's her GIVEN name, poor thing.

Give a child a dignified name, in case he or she grows up to be governor or an ambassador or an archbishop. His close friends can always nickname him Booger or Stinky or whatever, but you don't want the poor lad appearing in the newspapers as the Rt. Reverend Booger Jones....

It's also a good idea to avoid names that sound like body parts or diseases. (cf. poor St Pancras noted above). Admiral Hyman Rickover and Secretary Colin Powell (pronounce it COLLIN for gosh sakes!) must have gotten a lot of razzing as children. (Perhaps it helped build their characters on the boy named Sue principle?) Candida is a very pretty name, but nowadays people just think yeast infection when they hear it, so alas, it's best avoided.

The classic names are nice because they have so many different diminutives, one for every era - a fun way to change one's name for living history purposes. Thus, Elizabeth and Margaret become Lizzie and Maggie in the 19th century, Betty and Peggy in the "Golden Era" of the 30s-40s, and Beth and Megan in the 1960s

My own name is sort of a hybrid between a classic, family name and a pop culture name. I was named after my great-great grandmother Katherine (born 1862, was #54 in popularity in the 1880s, the earliest dates on the baby name website) but my mother chose to spell it Kathryn because she admired Kathryn Grayson in "Showboat". Other mothers must have had the same idea, as this spelling hit a peak in popularity (#57) in the 1950s, thereby solidly dating me to my decade as if I were a poodle skirt.

Speaking of poodles and other critters, I tend to fit in with the current trend of giving my dogs (April, Paddy, Winston), cats (Penelope Puddycat, Victoria & Albert) and sheep (Agnes) people names rather than traditional pet animal names, but the horses have a mixture of people names (Mariah, Wilkes) and "barn names" as user-friendly alternatives to cumbersome registered names (Ranger, Coquette and Gem instead of, respectively, "Gemini Joyce", "Presidential Gem" or "Windstar MA" (MA as in the initials of the stable where he was bred, not Ma as in Ma Kettle or Ma Barker)

I DO think it would be rather rum to have a dog named Rover or Spot or Towser simply because nobody names their dog that any more. One of these days I'll go for it.

And I simply long to name a critter Peeve, so I can introduce him / her as "This is my pet, Peeve".

Speaking of which, thanks for indulging me by reading my list of pet peeves regarding the naming of humans. I wish I could discipline myself to write shorter posts. Sigh.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Those are all very valid peeves -- and they all tie into my own, simple basic rule about names:

Never name your kid something you'd be embarassed to yell out the back door at suppertime.

 

[scotrace]

I wish I could discipline myself to write shorter posts. Sigh.

Oh, please don't!

 

[Etienne]

Just read this post... and hey, Lincsong, I know a guy named Anacleto!

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

Actually I loved that rant, and it gave me the idea for the name "Lodico" which is my mother's maiden name. Pronounced LAW-dick-o. I think it would be nice for a girl but it *does* end in "o" so maybe it would be more appropriate for a boy? I don't know if that really matters to an English-speaker though.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

I am cunningly...

Named after my father....although thats supposedly not why I am Denise, but I just secretly think that he pulled the wool over my mother's eyes when it was the only name they could agree on....

My mother favored Beth, or Jo, from Little Women...


Thankfully while its a common name, Denise, its not nearly as common as most names.

 

[scotrace]

So that it could not be shortened

My sister Judith became Judy.
My brother Daniel became Dan or Danny.

Mom didn't want people messing with her kid's names anymore. So I am Scott. Only my paternal grandmother ever got away with "Scotty," because she was 90+ and in a wheelchair. Can't very well correct such a person...


You know, every knucklehead that cries out "Beam me up, Scotty!" thinks they are the very first to think of it. I usually reply with "Captain! I canna give ye more power! She's barely holdin' on as 'tis!"

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

My name, Cheryl, is a boring old name. I have only met one other in my entire life.
My grandfather was Irving, I think thats an old name. My granny is Rachel, old too I believe.
My little nephew is Isaac William. I think Isaac is becoming popular again. I love that name, and am mad my sister got to it first.
My dad, however, has the name of all names. I feel so badly for him. He has tried to change what people call him, but it just never worked. His name is Richard Glick, and I'm sad to say that his nick-name is "Dick". Just put that together with his last name, you'll see what I mean. Poor dad. Ask anyone who knows him, he's the most amazing guy I know. He just got stuck with a bad title.

 

[jamespowers]

My dad, however, has the name of all names. I feel so badly for him. He has tried to change what people call him, but it just never worked. His name is Richard Glick, and I'm sad to say that his nick-name is "Dick". Just put that together with his last name, you'll see what I mean. Poor dad. Ask anyone who knows him, he's the most amazing guy I know. He just got stuck with a bad title.

And this is why I think we need to declare some people legally incompetent to name a child. That rates up there with people who name their kid Willy although I went to school with one so named. I wouldn't want to have his name from those experiences. :eusa_doh:
A name that stands out as singular is fine, mine sure was at the time, but I really have to agree with Hist. If you pick a name spell it right. I work with a Shirlee. Every single time people spell it wrong. It is bad enough for people to spell your last name wrong but if they can't get either of them right...... The woman hasn't learned either. She named her first daughter Caryn. :eusa_doh: I wonder how many times that gets spelled right.
Then you have to remember that people make judgements about others based on their name. Take this article for instance:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4274318.stm

"In a light-hearted debate on a teachers' website, they have listed the names they associate with problematic and charming pupils.

Poppys are seen as hyperactive, Kayleighs as a pain and Ryans as hard work, according to chat on the website of the Times Educational Supplement.

Kyle, Liam, Wayne, Charmaine and Charlie are among the names teachers say they associate with problem children.

One teacher wrote: "I went through my new class list and mentally circled the ones I thought would be difficult. I reckon I have a 75% hit rate..."

It sort of makes sense in some cases because it says something about the parents who choose those names. Kyle---like the kid from South Park.

"According to the website, names which get a negative response from teacher include those with hyphens, like Bobbi-Jo, ordinary names with unusual spellings such as Kloe or K'tee, Kristopher, Jayne, Gyaike and Chevaughn, plus the various spellings of Jordon.

"Names which teachers associate with delightful children include Kate, Gregory, Sean, Charlotte, Jamie, Daniel, Lucy, Isobel, Ben, Sam, Harpreet, Imran, Asam, Alice and Joseph."

See? Now this is why I chose Daniel. I would never choose Isobel, Harpreet, Imran or Asam though. [huh]

Regards,

J

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

And this is why I think we need to declare some people legally incompetent to name a child. That rates up there with people

AGREE! I deal with a lot of lists of names since I am in event planning. Names that no child of mine will ever have include Mark, Christopher/Chris, and Michael/Mike. There's at least 3-5 on every guest list.

But I've come across completely ridiculous names too, like "Tommy Thompson" "Richard Dick" and "Harold Stankard". I mean, whattaya gonna do about Stankard as a last name, but the other two? Their parents ought to be slapped.