I know it was mentioned already by a previous poster but I had to mention it in honor of an old friend who died last month at the age of 85. She was someone I worked with 40 years ago and was kind to the young snot-nose that I was way back then.
Nope. It’s back in a big way. Edna and many other ‘traditional English’ names are quite popular among the Asian-Canadian population for their ‘English’ names. As a result of this, there are a lot of stylish young Torontonians with names like Edna, Laurence, William, Nora (short for Leonora), Holly, Esther, Grace, Thomas. And these are people I either have worked with personally or who are semi-famous in the local media.
My grandmothers were Sarah and Hazel. Sarah preferred the old-lady name Sally. Hazel, Julia Roberts kid notwithstanding, will always be old-lady. Her mom was also Hazel. Her husband’s mom was, get this - Jenny! Isn’t that weird? She looked like an Ida Mae or something. Her daughter had the old lady name Pearl. Sally’s mom was Victoria and some of her neices and nephews called her Aunt Vicky. So - two of my great-grandmothers had cute-chick names: Jenny and Vicky. Vicky looked like a Hagatha-Bitchdemon or something. My other great-grandmother was Augusta. Duuuude! THAT’S old lady.
The funny thing about my name - Karen-is that it’s becoming old-lady, and so is my mom’s name, Barbara. They were the Megan and Caitlin of their day. My sister Virginia’s name is more popular now. Nevertheless, that’s old-lady too.
My gramp’s sisters were Martha Pearl, Violet, Pansy, and Ettie. Their mother was Mary Susie. My gran’s sisters were Hettie and Thelma. Granny’s name, which she hated was Maedell. I don’t remember her mom’s name.
My other gran’s name was Eola, and her mother was Hassie. And my other grampa’s mom was Janie.