Old lady names

[quiet-recluse.livejournal.com]

What kind of names do you think of as being 'old lady names?' My list includes:

Nora
Dot
Clara
Gertrude
Prudence
Joy
Mary
Betty
Ruth
Shirley
Olivia

One of my favourite names is Pearl - someone once told me that it was too much of an old lady name, which was interesting to me because I'd never heard it before and didn't associate it with old ladies at all.

Comments

[lipsandhips.livejournal.com]

esther
geraldine
pauline
frances
marion
rita (my grandma's name)


although i really like frances.

[serendipitous13.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHA
The only Clara I know is a stripper.
I certainly don't think of it as an old lady name. :)

[quiet-recluse.livejournal.com]

LOL.
Whereas I've only ever heard it in connection with old ladies.

[amberatcmu.livejournal.com]

I dont think of clara as an old lady name. It is on my list of girls names.

[secret-x-stars.livejournal.com]

Margaret
Marjorie
Wanda

blanking out right now. o.O

[hannallegro.livejournal.com]

Clara is one of my all time favorite names. I also really like Joy, Mary, Ruth, and Olivia. I don't think of them as old names. :)

[amberatcmu.livejournal.com]

Same here...I want to name my 1st daughter Clara Ruth...Ruth was my grandmas name and I adore clara.

[krazyhippie.livejournal.com]

I love Clara. I think of it as classic, not old-ladyish. I think of the little girl in the Nutcracker. I don't think Joy or Olivia are old ladyish either--in fact, I know several young people with those names.

My list: Ruth, Sylvia, Geraldine, Bertha, Vivian, Mary, Rose, Alice, Janet, Nancy, Carol, Susan, Pearl, Judith, Tabitha.

[quiet-recluse.livejournal.com]

I know young people called Rose and Susan.

[krazyhippie.livejournal.com]

Me too, but I think they sound old-ladyish.

[quiet-recluse.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, but I don't know any old people called Rose and Susan either, so to me I don't think of them as old names. It's interesting to see different associations!

[secret-x-stars.livejournal.com]

Susan

i always think of Guess Who (the board game thingy) when i hear that name, hahaha.

[cleddy.livejournal.com]

Winifred
Wanda
FayeNell
Vona Mae
Paulette
Doris
Francis

[http://users.livejournal.com/-glass-/]

Betty
Rose
Carol
Edna
Norma
Shirley
Cheryl
Blanche

[http://users.livejournal.com/-glass-/]

gr. i remembered one right after i sent.

Dolores.

[amberatcmu.livejournal.com]

Wanda
Wilma
Judith
Norma
Mary
Betsy
Betty
Hazel
Frances
Dorothy
Marjorie
Vivian
Susan
Donna
Jean
Daphne
Darlene
Doreen

[anapology.livejournal.com]

Olivia isnt an old ladies name, its beautiful!

old ladies i know are:
Margaret
Jean
Doris
Jill
Marie (but this one isnt so much an old lady name..)

[quiet-recluse.livejournal.com]

In my country it is, whereas Marie and Jean are young people's names.

[sadlyecstatic.livejournal.com]

So because someone is 85 years old, their name is automatically ugly?

[anapology.livejournal.com]

This post isnt about old ladies you know & their names. It's about names you consider out of fashion and old sounding.. so i gave a list of old ladies i knew with names i would put in that genre. Olivia is totally out of that genre for me, but maybe not for someone else. for example, i love the name Esmé, & my mother thinks thats a very old lady name. Personally, i wouldnt consider 'old lady names' beautiful.

[depeche810.livejournal.com]

My name is Mary and I would always ask my mom why she named me Mary since I used to think of it as an "old lady name", but now I just view it as a "classic" name.

The ones that sound "old lady-ish" to me are:

Gertrude
Prudence
Betty
Ruth
Shirley

[smasharash.livejournal.com]

Rose
Enid
Dora
Vera
Edith (although I know a 6year old will this name - they call her Edie for short, ee-dee, which is quite cute)
Margaret
Caroline
Jane
Elizabeth
Winifred
Wendy
Dorothy
umm, I can't think of anymore!
These are the ones from your list I agree with:
Gertrude
Prudence
Joy
Mary
Betty
Shirley (well, middle aged)

[nikkichan.livejournal.com]

Beatrice
Beverly
Virginia
June
Patricia
Josephine
Antoinette

just a few i thought of that remind me of old ladies lol

[mountain-nest.livejournal.com]

Mavis.
And Emerald is another cool old lady name. I know a cool old lady named Emerald.

[quiet-recluse.livejournal.com]

Emerald is a cool old lady name.

[composure.livejournal.com]

Elsie
Blythe
Helen
Margerie
Hilda
Vera

[oscillating-fan.livejournal.com]

Ethel
Gladys

I know an elderly lady named Pearl.

[thehebrewgod.livejournal.com]

some of these names were waay popular in the '20s, and i love them. and i would never associate Pearl as being an old lady name. When we get older, will our names be deemed as "old-ladyish" sounding?

I adore:
Nora
Dot i have an aunt named Dot, she goes by Dottie on occassion, it fits her personality so well. it's crazy
Clara oh my, like Clara Bow!
Gertrude Gertie. that nickname is my favorite
Betty so cute, and it's rarely used nowadays
Ruth i know a girl named Ruth, but she goes by Ruthie
Shirley like Laverne and Shirley
Olivia i have always adored this name

[babyalligator.livejournal.com]

be serious... shirley? gertrude? do you want her to hate you?

[quiet-recluse.livejournal.com]

Want who to hate me? The question was what do you think of as old lady names? I'm not having a kid, and even though this comm is called baby names it's not just for people who are having babies.

[babyalligator.livejournal.com]

oh! i thought you were considering names for your baby. i guess you know my stance on old lady names! i can be a bit harsh sometimes... sorry!!

[quiet-recluse.livejournal.com]

It's all good. I'd love to see your list of old lady names if you have one.

[babyalligator.livejournal.com]

here are some old school names in my opinion:
della (my granny)
gladys (my other granny)
sheila
shirley
mavis
olive
alice
betty

[iljjc.livejournal.com]

I pretty much agree with your list, although I'm starting to really like the name Nora. And I don't think of Olivia as an old lady name since it's popular now. Mary I think of as an anybody-of-any-age-but-more-likely-to-be-older name, lol.

My grandmother's name is Pearl. It's also my mom's best friend's middle name, after her mother.

Hmm... old lady names..
Ida
Joan
Louise
Agatha

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

old lady/adult names to me are..

audrey
bertha
betty
deborah
doris
esther
frances
gertrude
gloria
loretta
louise
marilyn
muriel
nancy
phyllis
prudence
ruth
sally
susan
thelma

[sadlyecstatic.livejournal.com]

I love every single one of those names! Dot is a nickname for Dorothy.
Isabelle, Ava, Annabelle, Emily, Emma, Julia, and Arabella were also "old lady names". Reese Witherspoon names her daughter Ava and all of a sudden every pregnant woman in the world claims "I've loved this my whole life because my best friend in pre-school was named Ava!"
My own name, Jessica, is from a Shakespearean play.
What's wrong with it being an "old lady name"? Why is it such a bad thing that someone has lived to be 85, 94, or 102? Respect your elders.

[quiet-recluse.livejournal.com]

You've missed the point of this post entirely. I don't have anything against old ladies - but there are some names that are so out of fashion that if you call your kid that people will tell you 'that's too much of an old lady name.'