General Chat

It is so nice to see people choosing older names for their new-borns. In the last couple of days, we have had an Amelia born on here, and now Pier's Emily
I had two biblical first names for my two eldest daughters, but more modern ones for the later two children.
Did you choose 'older' names, or more modern.

Julia in Derbyshire

I agree with you Julia and love the names Emily and Amelia. We chose 'Catherine' for our daughter - which she loves. Some names seem so obscure - such as Apple - parents might love it - not sure about the child when they grow up :-)

I am pleased your daughter liked her name, Family Searcher, it is so lovely.
I agree with about the more obscure ones. I immediately bring to mind the children of Sir Bob Geldof and Paula Yates. But, then I think the children are as eccentric as their parents.
It is so nice that we have such a wide choice of names these days.As we have seen from geneology, there were generation after generation with the names, William, George, and John, and for the females, Mary, Ann and Elizabeth et al.making things very difficult for us that followed them, trying to find which generation they belonged to.

Julia in Derbyshire

My children were born in the sixties and I chose the names 'Sarah' and 'James' . with no family history of these two names.

It was only when I started my family tree that I discovered that way back in the 1800s that these two names came up several times for my ancestors ! :-)

I chose quite 'ordinary' names when my children were born in the 70's. The names have grown with them and suited them both as children and now as adults. They've also called their children suitable names that will carry through all their lives. Amelia, Emily and Catherine are such feminine names.

I have to agree 2 of my children have older biblical names (Mark and Joanna) - they are tireless and never seem to go out of fashion - the youngest was destined to be the same (Susannah) till my eldest intervened and changed it to a modern version (Georgia) of an older classic name. Having had plenty of nieces amongst them called Kaileigh, Keeleigh, Haileigh, Nataleigh and Marleigh all in one household I was happier when my niece announced her son was to me called Matthew James a name that would never loose its popularity and I could spell it first time! What bugs me more is the new spellings for old classic names - when I had my eldest 18 years ago I was bombarded with 'are you going to spell it with a "c"' -no - ''will it have "us" or "o" on the end' -no- I just want it spelt as it should be.

My one and only child is called Philip - on hearing his name my delightful mother in law said "What did you go and call him a name like that for" Lovely woman!! Doing the family tree I discovered her father's name was Philip - gather she didn't like him!

I actually like the older names infact I think older names are more on trend than ever.......

I was away for the weekend and heard the name "Starlight May" being shouted *Truth*......... :-S

On my mothers side of the family,the eldest girl was always named Hannah Georgina. Both (I Think) lovely names. :-D

My eldest has a name which has been around in the US and Australia for many years but is less popular in the UK. It's not way out there but it's different enough that when I shout for her I don't get 4 children looking to see who is calling them lol.

Youngest has a traditional name and there are 2 others with the same name in her class lolololol.....luckily she doesn't mind whether she's called the full version or the shortened so she's known by the shortened version mostly now so as not to get mixed up with the others x

Called my daughter Alison and she hates the name,friends call her Ali
Family call her Doll or Bongo
Grand Boys names are Noah and Ethan

I gave all my children (adults now) modern names, i was the only one to change the tradition. Didnt even use them as middle names :-)

Our 3 all have traditional 'ordinary' names, which they seem to think are OK, although our son generally uses a shortened version these days.

We didn't name them after anyone, but after announcing their names, we found that we'd named the youngest after my husband's aunt, although she was known to everyone by a different name.

I like most of the older names, but not sure that I'd name any children after some of my aunts, - Hilda, Ethel or Minnie.

Gwyn

Do not think that there has been a resurgance in 'older' names, just that we notice the faddy names more when they pop up.

ie Kylie, Channel, Chantel etc.

in years to come more different names will come in and out of fashion but traditional naming will almost always remain the same.

When you look at the lists of the most popular boy/girl names they rarely change over the years.

I was given the name David.
An old name that goes way back.

But my Father's name was Samuel,even older.
My nephew named his son Jonah,older still.



Incidently,my Mother's name was Ella Doreen.You never hear those names now.

Both of my sons have traditional names.

When I was expecting my third child we couldn't make our mind up between two names if it was a girl. When my daughter was born we just joined up both names, both tradional,

David, I think your Mum's first name is lovely :-)

i gave my little man a modern name, now every other child seems to be called the same lol,

i wanted to call my son Bram
but the registrar wouldn't let me
she said Bramwell or nothing
so called in Christopher at the last minute

and my daughter got a modern name
with a unusual spelling and a hyphen
diffrent reistrar thank god ;-)

Thinking of two families I know - ages range from 14 - 3 yrs, Rebecca, Matthew, Samuel, Benjamin and Isabella.

One of my Granddaughters has the name Ella, which I have come across during my family research. Her Middle name is Annie after her great gran.