I knew an Alice that went to my college who was one year older than me (she should be around 24 right now.) She was very strange, like an eccentric grandmother who you have stay in the back room when people come to visit.
I am a young woman named Alice! I’ve only met two or three others, though, and they were all Asian–where I live, old-fashioned names seem to be more common for daughters of Chinese and Korean immigrants than anybody else.
My mom knows several people who gave their daughters old-lady names, too; she’s mentioned an Audrey and a Eunice.
Huh. I never would have named Alice as an “old lady name.” The others, yes, but not Alice. Not sure why not.
My daughter’s middle name is Claire, but in our case it’s a family name (my grandfather was Richard Claire, everyone called him R.C.).
And no, it’s not a fat girl’s name!
I know a 12YO Alice and a 15YO Daisy
I don’t see “Alice” as an old lady name: I went to high school with an Alice (now 32 or so).
Hispanic girls also often have “old lady” names: I have an Hispanic student named Edith right now, and there are a couple Hazels. “Elmer” is a not uncommon Hispanic boys name, which I like, as it was my grandmother’s name.
These days, I think the “old lady” names are more Barbara, Deborah, Candice, Janice–the distinctive names of the mid to late baby boomers.
Yeah, I suspect we’ll start to see a lot more in the way of Carol, Judy, Dorothy, Barbara, etc - people are going to start naming their kids after grandparents, and Judy is a “mom’s friend” kind of name.
I knew an Agnes in college. She was about my age, so in her early 30s now.
I have a friend who named her baby daughter Dorothy.
Some friends of ours had a baby girl last year and named her Alice.
I work with a 24 year old Marla. She’s very pretty, but some of her friends call her Hooch, as in, “Marla Hooch…what a hitter!”
Molly always struck me as an old fashioned name. I knew one in high school, and there used to be one at one of the local news stations; both definite babes.
That’s funny, I had a great-aunt named HazelNutCoffee.
Where does “Clara” (with a final “a”, not “Claire”) stand in the pantheon of old lady names? Has it ever been popular?
Ethel is 4, and lives three doors down. Her sister, Frances, is 6, and she has a brother named Sylvester who is 10. Her parents are “traditionalists”, they say.
Asian female here with an old lady name. I can’t tell you how many times old ladies with the same name told me “it’s rare to see one of us nowadays” when I was growing up. I grew up in a mostly Asian area and I encountered most of the names here growing up. In the Asian community that I grew up in, there was a good mixture of trendy names such as Jennifer and Jessica (children of the 80’s) and old-fashioned names.
As for why, I think it has a lot to do with most Asian parents being a wee out of touch with mainstream American naming practices. The kids with the trendier names typically had parents that were educated in the states or were otherwise more assimilated into the culture.
The kids with the odd names were generally named for acquaintances their parents knew (so, older folks), names that they remembered from movies and television as kids back in their home country, or at least in a few cases, were sample names that the parents had once read in some old English textbooks when they were learning the language way back in secondary school. With all those options, the parents are generally tapping into the cultural gestalt of an earlier generation.
One addendum though, the Korean kids tended to have mostly Christian names, some of which can also be pretty old-timey.
Are you Asian?
I don’t associate Alice with old lady…
My name on the other hand, well I’ve noticed more of them around recently (lots of parents yelling to get back here!). At least my middle name, my first name is still pretty uncommon though I talked to someone with the same name just the other day.
My daughter’s name is Kaeryn (pronounced Karen) and a lot of people tell me that’s an old fashioned name. I named her after my late mother.
My little daughter is named Rose, the same as her great-grandmother.
My 12-year-old daughter went to camp last year and met a Karen and an Edith. I also know a 7-year-old Alice, a preschool-age Annabelle, a 9-year-old Adeline and probably a few other outdated names. I like the old-fashioned names, especially if there’s a history to them (like Adeline was named after her great-grandmother).
My up-and-coming daughter-to-be is going to be named Rosemary. I was just told that the name is exceptionally old-fashioned.
So many of the ‘old-lady’ names mentioned here are making big comebacks. I teach preschool, and have seen all these names multiple times in recent years.
Alice, Rosemary, Molly, Frances, Audrey - all quite popular. I have an Alice, an Audrey and a Molly this year. There’s a couple other Alices in my school as well.
I had an Annabelle a few years back, and have had two Roses recently.
Olivia is getting big, too. I’ve had three (or maybe four) lately. Same for Naomi, Amelia, Charlotte and Ava.
My 13-yo son has a friend named Elmer.