Sorry if I repeat anything -
Elizabeth
Georgina
Jessie
Gina
Jean
Betty
Agnes
June
Shelagh
Margaret
Beryl
Gladys
Hilda
Silvia
Sophia
Dorothy
Blanche
Rose
Violet
Dotty
Im out… for now!
My grandmothers were named Ethel and Helen. Both solid old lady names, and both noted earlier in this thread. 
Missed the edit box!
The revised version -
Elizabeth (a near retirement woman whom I have business with)
Georgina (My grandmothers name and also my middle name)
Jessie (My grannys name)
Gina (My friends nanas name)
Jean (My Grandmas nickname)
Betty (Old woman who used to work in Woolies)
Agnes (Old lady from The Simpsons)
June (Old woman who lives on my mum and dads street)
Shelagh (Old woman I work with)
Margaret (Sister in laws mothers name)
Beryl (General old lady name)
Gladys (Old woman who used to live down the road)
Grace (Old lady who used to live on my mum and dads street)
Hilda (My friends nanas name)
Silvia (My friends nanas name)
Sophia (From the Golden Girls)
Dorothy (From the Golden Girls)
Blanche (From the Golden Girls - I love this name)
Rose (From the Golden Girls - I love this name)
Violet (General old lady name)
Dotty (General old lady name)
This is my 2 year old’s name. Granted, she’s named after my mother, but I get a lot of comments from older women who tell me they love the name and that no one has “normal” names anymore. I take “normal” to mean “old-fashioned”, but that’s okay with me. With everyone naming their kids something unusual (which in turn becomes fashionable when the unusual names catch on), I feel quite confident that she won’t have several other Susans in her classes.
We call her Susie anyway. I’m not sure she’ll want to be called that when she’s older, but that’s her choice.
I’m an old lady, named after my great-grandmother, Mary. Luckily, I avoided her middle name: Winifred.
Well they are “black widows” (ten of them in a club) so I wanted to stereotype them
This site Baby Names Social Security USA was great. Thanks again maggenpye
One thing I wanted to do was avoid any names that could be popular in an alternate form. Like Allyson is another form of Alice, or Claire is another form of Clara. Both the alternate forms are common
One thing I found interesting is I know a lot of African Americans and they have a lot more “old lady” names. Like I know a lot of African Americans under 30 named Doris, and Myra and Gretchen and Jean.
Thanks for the ideas you’ve all been helpful. And it is interesting to see the differences
I read this, and thought, “Really?” and then thought about how -chen is used as a diminutive suffix (Brot = bread, Brötchen = bread roll, “little bread”), so I can see Margarethe = garethe-chen, Gretchen. Awesome!
All of the names mentioned started out as baby names and will all, eventually, be old ladies’ names. Always blows my mind to think of it that way.
It always cracks me up when someone says, "Who would name a baby “fill in the blank.” Well, he/she will grow up someday. I guess it just makes sense to give a baby a name that doesn’t have obvious “age” connotations to it…which would be nearly impossible because it changes so much, doesn’t it? I think that “Sarah” is a good example.
Until I read this I had totally forgotten that my mom used to call me Prunella as a kid. If I was being silly it was Prunella, and naughty/silly it was Lizzy. My name is Cathy…so go figure. And now she wonders why I have so many nicknames for my son.
BTW my mom is Ruby and is 75. Lots of Ruby’s making a comeback again, however.
Also in my family and much older than her, were:
Violet
Bertha
Minnie
Eda
Esther
Amanda
Sylvia
Florence
Elizabeth(Betts)
Mabel
and her daughter Maybelle
My wife’s grandmothers were named Thelma and Adla Mae. Neither were remotely in the running when considering family names to give our daughter.
Oh God yes.
As this is my name and there is a Florence on the list, which is my middle name, I am doubly farked.
Thanks MOM!
I need therapy.
My mother (Della, 79) and her four sisters:
Willie Marie (90)
Elsie May (86)
Della Frances (79)
Nancy Elizabeth (77)
Mary Louise (73)
When I was going to high school at Redondo High in California, there were teachers and administrators named Florence, Aleta, Althea, Lorietta, Ethel, Mabel, Doris, Beatrice, Elizabeth, Inez, Edna, Helen and L’Cena (younger than the others, but she was vice-principal when I graduated in June 1967).
I have a character in one of my books named Mehetabel. Her brother is Nethaniah. Their father is a cruel, cruel man. (He’s a cult leader, if you’re wondering). I never actually expected anyone to have that name outside of the bible.
http://www.donmarquis.com/archy/
Archy (cockroach) and Mehitabel (alley cat) are written about by Don Marquis.
Courtesy of my family:
Nell (maternal grandma)
Claudia (paternal grandma–who also had the marvelous middle name Eutencie)
Ruby
Valley
Martha
Sue
Evelyn
Shirley
Mattie Lou
Irene
Thelma AND Selma
Loree (pronounced low-REE)
Ellen
And some others:
Gertrude
Adele
Blanche
Genevieve
Vivian
Lucille
Elsa
Glenda
Elvira - great grandmother born approx 1870
“Patty Melissa” was one of my great great grandmothers (b 1841). Not particularly an old-lady-ish name.
In my family tree there is a “Maude” a “Beulah” and a “Bertha”
Not an old lady name now, but it will be in a maybe 50 years, since it’s been the top baby girls’ name for about a decade running. I guess that’ll be true of Caitlyn and Jennifer too.
My wife and I intentionally chose old-lady names for our daughters: Sylvia and Ellen. I think that two of my sisters had the same idea when they chose Opal and Clara for their daughters.
Clara is an old family name, but the other three are not. (However, my mother’s name has the same root as Ellen.)
I don’t think my grandmother Beverly has been mentioned yet…
Just remembered a great-grandmother named Kitsy.