Golden Oldies

[hotchpot.livejournal.com]

Five years ago, Olivia was a fairly unpopular, old fashioned,  "old lady" name.  A year or so ago, no one would have considered naming their child Virginia but now I see it increasing in popularity so that I think it will be the next  Olivia.  Below find a poll based on other "Old People" names that  I took from the  Social Security Records of the 1880s-1930s.  Which would you name your child? [Poll #980621]

Comments

[mandy-23.livejournal.com]

I had to laugh while I was reading through these names. Maude, Edith, Hazel, Ruth, Doris, Dolores, Walter, George, and Raymond are all names of residents I worked with in a nursing home. I like a lot of the names but those already have personalities behind them. :)

We also had an Eva Mae. She was adorable and I really liked her name.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_x_blackroses_x/]

I voted for a lot. XD I like "old people" names!

[hotchpot.livejournal.com]

me too!

[heyitsrebecca.livejournal.com]

A lot of these I associate with people in my age group: 20-29 or even younger:
Margaret, Frances, Dorothy, Virginia, Irene, Barbara, Marjorie, Joan.. all of these are names of girls I know, but not any old women so they don't seem too 'old lady' to me.
Same with the boys.. Howard, George, Arthur, Donald, Ronald, Lawrence and Dennis all seems like young men to me.
My 21 year old brother in law is Howard Ralph, and I can't even picture that easily on an older man. LOL

[turn-it-upp.livejournal.com]

i was amused at how many of these names are names of my family members. most of them are from my mom's side, they're very southern and old-fashioned. i have a florence, lois, delores, ruth, agnes(we call her angie), ida, mabel, george, albert, and lawrence.

[batting0.livejournal.com]

Another "old lady" name I'm in love with right now is Eleanor.

[pythianlegume7.livejournal.com]

I think "Arthur" is going to get popular for boys. I LOVE that name now.

[starlight613.livejournal.com]

I love Margaret, Alice, Ruth, Evelyn, and Virginia. I only really like George and Albert from the guys' list.

[godmod.livejournal.com]

I was surprised at how many votes Cora got. I think that's a beautiful name. I've heard Coraline before, as well.

[skudge.livejournal.com]

Eep, I didn't know Dennis was an "old-fashioned" name...I know a boy named Dennis. He's in 7th grade, but he's taller than me (I'm 16).

[fleckerbug.livejournal.com]

I feel like justifying/expanding on some of my answers.

I chose Margaret as it's my grandmother's name and it's tradition in my family to carry on women's names in some fashion.

Alice I chose because my husband loves it; although I'm not to hot about it we will probably use it as a middle name.

I like Edith because my name is Meredith and it would be a way of naming a daughter after me. Still not sure if I don't think it's too fuddy-duddy.

Virginia, Dorothy, Hazel, and Evelyn I just like.


The only boys names I picked are Albert and Edward because that's my husband's name. We'll either name our son after him (my husband is a third) or, more likely, use Edward as a middle name. It took awhile for that name to grow on me, I still don't care for Albert. I picked Ralph, but I would pronounce it Rafe. I don't like Ronald, but my FSIL does and in my first month of substitute teaching, I've come across at least 5 Ronalds.

[breathbox.livejournal.com]

i love henry and charlie and oliver and gretchen and albert and jane and iris and agatha and mary jean

[sashajohnston.livejournal.com]

Evelyn is an old family name on my fathers side of my family and I love it, it will definitely be the name of my first born daughter one day.

I've never really thought of it as "old lady" so much as sort of "old world charming".

[celtic--punk.livejournal.com]

i love evelyn and hazel, but not as much as evelyn. i think its timeless.

my dad's name is harold; also his father's name. he used to hate it b/c he thought it was "old fashioned"

ive always considered albert an odd name for an old guy but over the summer i hooked up with a REALLY hot guy named albert haha

so i guess i do have associations with some of the names as well. but others i just hear them and immediately i think of someone old.

[hotmaildt.livejournal.com]

me too!

[hotchpot.livejournal.com]

The same way people thought about Olivia a while ago. Evelyn peaked in the 1920s (Rank #12) and then went all the way down to #239 before going back up in 2003 (#89).

[hotchpot.livejournal.com]

I like Gretchen a lot, but mostly as a nn for Margaret.

As for Agatha, I prefer Agnes...but ONLY because it is a family name.

[hotchpot.livejournal.com]

You know, I don't like it for myself, but I can imagine a little boy named Arthur and going by Artie. Too cute.

[hotchpot.livejournal.com]

I didn't include that one because I personally don't think of it as an old name. So I just forget to include it! But I love it, too.

[daveandmonika.livejournal.com]

I don't care for it myself, but I have heard that my paternal grandmother's name is slowly creeping back on the charts...Harriet.

(Other Grandparents on my and my husbands sides: Elizabeth, Ruth, Faye, Rose Marie, and Evelyn (which is definitely growing on the charts, but because of the association my husband can't stand it) and John, Lowell, Gene and Clifton.

[omgzits--tam.livejournal.com]

I love Evelyn.
Loooove. It's one of my top favourites.
Alice is nice.
I think Cora is really pretty, if a little harsh.
Dolores I only like because of Dolores O'Riordan, ahahaha.

[young-forever.livejournal.com]

I like Alice, Cora, Mabel (my grandma's name), Gladys, Irene, and Virginia. (especially that last one)

As for male "old names", I'm fond of Oliver (this was my dog's name), Lawrence and Gerald. (Gerald is my boyfriend's name... or Jerry for short)

[ladydiddymus.livejournal.com]

It's really funny how popular Olivia got. I know someone who named her daughters Sierra and Olivia because she thought they were really uncommon and by the time they got to middle school (now) they knew several of each!
Other "old" names I know of are family names from my step dad, Ira (male) and Iran (female). I'm not particularly fond of those because they sound backward to me though.

[crzydimond.livejournal.com]

I love Hazel..
and i LOVE George [I'm a beatles freak lol]
but Ralph....gah i just think of vomit lol.

[crzydimond.livejournal.com]

My best friends name growing up was called Harriet. I always loved her name actually.

just out of interest

[crzydimond.livejournal.com]

Also...
My grandmother's names:
Helen Claire [My name is Claire...is that such an old name?]
Anne Helen

My grandfathers names:
Roy Jeffery [one of my brothers is Jeffery]
Kenneth Ian Garner [My cousin is Ian]

Great grandmothers in my family:
Pearl Louise [Louise is my middle name]
Annie Adelaide [Annie is one of my favourite name ever]
Madeline ..unsure of middle name.
Eileen Margaret

Great grandfathers:
Derek Glynn [Woah grey's anatomy connection! lol]
George John [I really love George..it goes all the way through my mothers side]
Ian ...unsure of middle name

Just scanning a family tree on my mothers side at the moment, i find all this family name stuff really interesting!
A few names i've seen back through the generations:
Anne
Janet
Jane [which i love]
Agnes
Margery
Jean
Marco
Mary
Marion
Rosina
Maggie
Karen
David
Klara [this became Claire eventually]
Nancy
Trevor
Jack

My brothers are Cameron and Jeffery
And my cousins are:
Girls:
Tara-Renee [due to her being the oldest, this got shortened by the young cousins who couldnt say her name properly..and she often gets called 'Ta-renee'. Which is kind of bad lol]
Dale
Michelle
Brittany
Elyse
Miriam
Madelyn

Boys:
Kieran
Logan
Ian
Alexander
Lachlan
Liam
Elijah
Gaibriel
Jonah [the last three here...all brothers, parents love biblical names]

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

I really like Hazel & Florence. They're great =). And I actually always loved 'Walter'. Here (=in Holland) old fashioned names are really getting popular again as well. Examples -->
Female: Lot, Cato, Marie, Fenna
Male: Teun, Willem, Olivier, Arend

Interesting

[dancingpiratess.livejournal.com]

Most of these names are not actually considered 'Old Folk' names in the UK. Alot of these are old English names and are still popular today.

Particulary things like Alfred (Alfie), George, Edward, Laurence, Ruth, Joan, Alice Hazel and Margaret.

Alfie was one of the UKs most popular names in the last few years.

I like Elspeth and Sylvina they remind me of 'old dear's I use to know. My gran is 'Mary - Rose' and her sister 'Phyllis Euphemia'!!

[sonneta.livejournal.com]

Naomi seems to be making a comeback. That's my grandma's name.

[toppled.livejournal.com]

My full first name is Elaine, which may or may not be an old lady name. All I know is that the only other Elaines I have ever met are at least 50 years older than me. I'm 20, and usually go by Lani. It sounds happier to me.

I also really love the old lady name Gloria, although that's because it was my grandma who I was named after's name. She was Gloria Elaine. :)