Didn’t I read on a similar thread that a girl who, when asked her name, admits it is “Frances”, usually hears in response “oh, my grandmother’s name was Frances!” :)
I know I’m getting old when people have already run through ‘grandparents names’ for the kids (Emma, Max, Daisy, Violet, Charles). Coming up: younger parents naming kids for their (younger) grandparents (Debbie, Linda, Lisa, Kevin, Tom) - HEY, that’s MY generation !:eek:
I like that.
Sylvester, FWIW, is the the german word for New Year or celebrating the ringing in the new year. I just thought I would share.
I went to school with a Martha, Phylis, Felicia, Two Joans ( I am one of them) a Doris, and a buttload of Mary’s. Oh, and my middle name is Florence and my family nickname, for reasons that have never been fully understood, is Myrtle.
I am rather fond of old names.
My nieces, born in 2006 and 2008, are Hazel and Evelyn. We’re not Asian. My sister likes old-fashioned names, because she thinks they will allow her kids to have unique but not silly names. Evelyn is named after my mother’s mother, Hazel is just a name my sister likes AFAIK.
I recently knew a Letti. Not sure where it came from, though, as her actual first name is Margaretta. Definitley not an old lady!
Emmaline was my first choice for my daughter. Charlotte called Lotte was my second. My third was Cecilia.
My husband vetoed them all.
I have an Eleanor called Nell. Strangely, she is one of two Nells who will be in her graduating class, unless the other moves out of the district.
I know a Frances who is about nine. A Mattie (as in Matilida) about that age as well.
Some names (Emily twenty years ago, Ava now) are very old fashioned and when they come back they come back big. Others you don’t think will ever come back - and while you never get the “twenty Jennifers and six Jessicas” - they start creeping in as background names until they disappear again.
My nephew, Oscar, is 11 months old and an acquaintance has a daughter named Lottie who is… about 6 years old, from memory.
My daughter Annabel is in the Under 18 Months group at daycare. In her group there’s Mathilda, Ambrose, Molly, Charlotte and Imogen. My Annabel isn’t unique in the group either - there’s an Annabelle who joined recently.
At work recently a customer had three gorgeous little girls with him. The 3 year old was Theresa, the 18 month old was Esther. I didn’t get to hear him call the 6 month old by name, sadly.
My neice is an Emilena. Named after two grandma’s. It’s an UberFoofy name, IMHO.
This phenomena is discussed in a chapter of Freakonomics.
As women age, very popular names become associated with “old ladies” (such as Helen, Lily, Rose, Dorothy, Florence, Frances, Alice, Evelyn, Ada, Mildred, Ethel, Edna, Grace, Esther, Mabel, Gertrude, etc., all of which were some of the most popular names at the turn of the last century).
Because the names are associated with “old ladies,” parents stop naming their children these names, so they decline in popularity.
Eventually, the generation of women with these names age and pass away, and after some more time passes, new parents no longer associate these names with “old ladies,” because they never knew anybody with these names. So they start naming their children these names, which increases their popularity again.
This has already happened with names like Emma, Emily, Hannah, and Abigail. Parents of a generation or two ago would never have named their children these names. Today they make up some of the most popular names for girls.
The phenomenon is present, but less pronounced with boys’ names. For instance, John, William, and James have been continuously popular names for the last century. Others, such as George, Henry, and Clarence, have declined in popularity.
I know women between 15-30 with the names: Ursula, Esther, Nellie, Molly, Alice, Anneliese, and Betty. None of them are Asian. And Staud, Rosemary is beautiful. The first song that popped into my head though was Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts.
Just thought I would add that the Eunice I know is neither Asian nor Hispanic. I do know a young Hispanic girl named Judy, though.
I also just remembered that my husband’s cousin and his wife named their baby Oscar.
I know a 5-year old Clara. I always get her mixed up with her friend Cora.
We named our daughter Lucy and my wife has been disappointed to see it steadily climbing in popularity (#323 in 2000 to #112 in 2008).
One of my good friends has a 1 year old named Ursula. My youngest son’s name is Henry (but we call him Harry).
My daughter (preschool age) is named Alice. I don’t know any girls named Ethel, Florence, etc. There are a couple of Amelias, though.
We chose her name because it fit all of our criteria (classic name, not too common, easy to spell and pronounce, possibility for a nickname) and the name has some personal meaning for us. We didn’t know of any other Alices when she was born. We started a trend! 
I think I’m the friend Ms Whatsit mentioned who has a daughter named Dorothy, unless she also knows another one. I would say that when I tell adults her name, roughly 30% will say, “Oh, that was my mother’s name!” or “Oh, that was my grandmother’s name!” (depending on the age of the adult in question). My Dorothy is named after two of her great-grandmothers, in fact. I think that Dorothy was the Madison of the 1920’s - extremely popular.
I know a young adult Mildred (Asian), and a 40-ish Martha (Caucasian). Every other girl in Dorothy’s school seems to be named either Eva (or Ava) or Olivia. Oh, and there’s one Ruby, which I also think is cute.
It’s such a beautiful name. I don’t have kids yet, but I would love to name my daughter Alice. It has special meaning for me because it was my grandmother’s name. I also like the fact that it can be shortened to Allie or Ally.
In New Mexico and west Texas, a lot of Mexican-American women had extremely old-fashioned Anglo first names; Dolores, Hortense, Agnes, Esther, Mildred, Millicent, and the like. They don’t have 1950s names, though, such as Phyllis, Fay, Carol and Joan.
I think there’s hope for some of the old-fashioned names, if they sound somewhat pleasant and have enough of an intellectual bent to gain popularity among the middle-class; consider the Emma and Celia revivals. Names that sound “hard” or nasal (Agnes, Agatha, Gertrude, Hortense, etc), those with unpleasant associations that last to this day (Bertha = fat woman, etc), and feminised male names (Eugenia, Henrietta, etc) will probably stay out of the mainstream for a few more generations.
Now that you mention it, the second mate on my sailing trip was named Emmaline. She just went by Emma, but after a few weeks I heard one of the other crew mention teasing her about her name. Sailor humor.
Lucy is a beautiful, and old name. I wonder how many years before someone hears it without thinking ‘wacky redhead’. …