Dillards 94: After Counting the Cost

[JermajestyDuggar]

9 hours ago, HeartsAFundie said:

I've been saying for a while that in a decade or so we will see Lisa, Linda, Nancy, Donna, Debra/Deborah, Christine, Patricia, Cheryl, Julie, Sharon and Susan all make a comeback-all the popular later Boomer/Early GenX names you don't hear so much anymore.  And let's not forget Barbara, especially since the "Barbie" movie was so popular.  It's only a matter of time.  Heck, Deborah is already being used by the fundies such as the Maxwells and Wallers.   

I would have included Karen, but the connotation it has now may have killed it.  

 

There are still so many boomers still alive that it might take awhile. I swear all of my parents’ friends are named the names you just listed. So many Sharons, Debs, Barbs, Donnas. Therefore people still associate it with a lot of people they know. But once people start dying with those names, the younger generation won’t have those associations. 
 

I know a little girl named Nancy. But she’s Vietnamese so her parents don’t have that boomer association. I swear it fits her perfectly. 

[HeartsAFundie]

3 hours ago, CarrotCake said:

I love oldfashioned names but somehow not all of them, plus some names might be from a different 'era' in different countries. On r/namenerds people seem to love Petra but in here in the Netherlands no one would ever think about naming their kid Petra. 

I actually graduated from high school with a Petra.  I believe her mother was German.  This was over 40 years ago.  

[fluffernutter]

I believe my granddaughter will be named Mabel, at least that's what my daughter is saying right now. They were going to name her Wendy after the character in Peter Pan, but in the throes of first trimester nausea she said it reminded her of Wendy's Baconator burger and it kept turning her stomach. 🤣

[JermajestyDuggar]

4 minutes ago, fluffernutter said:

I believe my granddaughter will be named Mabel, at least that's what my daughter is saying right now. They were going to name her Wendy after the character in Peter Pan, but in the throes of first trimester nausea she said it reminded her of Wendy's Baconator burger and it kept turning her stomach. 🤣

I like the name Mabel. I know I would end up calling her Mae. Which is definitely a name from the early 1900s. That name became way less popular when the boomers were being born. So it’s ready for it’s comeback. Along with Betty.

Edited January 28 by JermajestyDuggar

[kittykay]

I love the "flower and gem" names from the early 1900's.  My grandmother was Rose, and my aunt was Ruby.  Also knew a dear, sweet lady from my hometown named Pearl.  Love all three names.  

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

55 minutes ago, kittykay said:

I love the "flower and gem" names from the early 1900's.  My grandmother was Rose, and my aunt was Ruby.  Also knew a dear, sweet lady from my hometown named Pearl.  Love all three names.  

 

I’m surprised more Fundies don’t use Ruby as a name. Because of the Bible verse they like to repeat about women.

[Teaistheway]

Mae has been very popular in the UK for a few years now, particularly as a middle name.

I like old fashioned names but as an early Gen Xer can't imagine the names popular with my era coming back (Julie, Carol, Sue, Gill etc) but they probably will.

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, Teaistheway said:

Mae has been very popular in the UK for a few years now, particularly as a middle name.

I like old fashioned names but as an early Gen Xer can't imagine the names popular with my era coming back (Julie, Carol, Sue, Gill etc) but they probably will.

There are a lot of names that are used as middle names but not much as first names. They are mostly one syllable. Mae and Rae are two good examples. 

[Gobsmacked]

On 1/25/2024 at 12:41 AM, Inky said:

Here in Canada there are a lot of old names coming back. Mavis, Audrey, George, Stella, Frank, just to name a few that I know personally. 

My auntie Mavis is mid 70’s now. I love her name. It was old fashioned when she was born sadly. Her late sister was Rowan. My Nana loved nature names. 

[AprilQuilt]

On 1/28/2024 at 5:05 AM, HeartsAFundie said:

I've been saying for a while that in a decade or so we will see Lisa, Linda, Nancy, Donna, Debra/Deborah, Christine, Patricia, Cheryl, Julie, Sharon and Susan all make a comeback-all the popular later Boomer/Early GenX names you don't hear so much anymore.  And let's not forget Barbara, especially since the "Barbie" movie was so popular.  It's only a matter of time.  Heck, Deborah is already being used by the fundies such as the Maxwells and Wallers.   

I would have included Karen, but the connotation it has now may have killed it.  

 

I know a lot of people say the above, but I don't think it's as simple as being an eternal generational cycle. I think it's more a symptom of now. I don't know what this trend towards traditional old names is rooted in - conservatism, nostalgia, old-school glamour, I can't say. But I think it speaks more to our specific cultural moment rather than things inevitably coming round again. My daughter (4) has one of these old-lady names that I'm sure my own mother would have thought very ugly and fusty when she was naming me in the late 80s, but I don't know if it follows that she will go on to name her child Cheryl or Susan or Deborah, or that my great-grandchildren will be Jessica and Lauren and Emily.

Also, the 'old-person' names are just one trend of this current moment. You've got the trend of surnames for girls (Addison, Harper etc), yew'neek neologisms or spellings (Brynleigh, Paislee etc), and nouns-for-names (Navy, Fox, Sailor, Story etc etc - obviously leaving out animal names that have always been traditional to certain cultures). Those trends are more obviously of-the-moment phenomena, and I think it's artificial to imagine that just because we've seen Clara, Joanie and Olive before we'll necessarily see them come round again in precisely the same formation.

[LillyP]

On 1/28/2024 at 11:14 AM, fluffernutter said:

I believe my granddaughter will be named Mabel, at least that's what my daughter is saying right now. They were going to name her Wendy after the character in Peter Pan, but in the throes of first trimester nausea she said it reminded her of Wendy's Baconator burger and it kept turning her stomach. 🤣

My sister is a Mabel, and she's 25. I remember being a teenager (we have a big age gap) and bring horrified at the name selection because that was before people were naming their kids anything overly unique or crazy. To me it didn't even feel classic, it just felt old lady. Now it just feels so normal, and it's making enough of a comeback because I know 2 little girls under 5 also now named Mabel. 

[Maggie Mae]

I absolutely love the name Mabel, Gretchen, Gertrude, Alice, etc.  I don't see Linda, Karen, Jill making a comeback soon.

[Vivi_music]

11 minutes ago, Maggie Mae said:

I absolutely love the name Mabel, Gretchen, Gertrude, Alice, etc.  I don't see Linda, Karen, Jill making a comeback soon.

I mean, not for now, but who knows? It's hard to predict name trends and I feel it does come around like a circle. Maybe when all the Karens, Debras and Nancys are 90 YO, we will see a comeback. 😉😉

[viii]

I could see names like Deborah, Suzanne, Nancy etc eventually making a comeback but I think Karen has become too much of a pop culture meme to ever really be popular again. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

48 minutes ago, viii said:

I could see names like Deborah, Suzanne, Nancy etc eventually making a comeback but I think Karen has become too much of a pop culture meme to ever really be popular again. 

Yeah it’s like Dick. No one under 60 is nicknamed Dick anymore. Even though there are plenty of Richards. They just go by Rick or Rich. Names can be left behind because of a negative association. 

Oh and Fanny too. No one named Frances goes by Fanny anymore. Because it’s a butt in the US and a vagina in the UK. The only common nicknames for Frances are Fran, Frankie, or Frannie. 

[marmalade]

I know two Richards who are in their 80s. One is Dick. Tho other is simply Richard. I don't know of any Dicks younger than that. All the Richards in my age group are Rick or Rich, if they choose a nickname. 

Edited January 30 by marmalade
Autofill got me again!

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, marmalade said:

I know two Richards who are in their 80s. One is Dick. Tho other is simply Richard. I don't know of any Dicks younger than that. All the Richards in my age group are Rick or Rich, if they choose a nickname. 

There’s also a theory that people named their babies Richard less often after Richard Nixon left office in disgrace. Which I believe. But it wasn’t completely gone off of the top 1000 baby names. 

[Cam]

The character that Selena Gomez plays on “Only Murders in the Building” is named Mabel which may be a reason the name is having a resurgence. According to Wikipedia, Gomez is the most-followed woman on Instagram with over 430 million followers. (Great show, btw.)

 

Some names seem to morph into similar sounding names, making them more contemporary. 

Cindy  morphs to Sidney
Karen morphs to Cara, Cari or Camryn
Mary - Maren
Alice - Alyssa 
Beverly - Everleigh
Alexandra - Alexa
Margaret - Greta
Julie - Jolie
Christine - Kristin 
Madelynn- Adalyn

William - Liam
Teddy - Theo 
Jack - Jaxon
Alexander - Zander
Mathew - Mathias
Max - Maddox 
Tyler - Kyler
Kevin - Evan
Luke - Luca

[Antipatriarch]

5 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Yeah it’s like Dick. No one under 60 is nicknamed Dick anymore. Even though there are plenty of Richards. They just go by Rick or Rich. Names can be left behind because of a negative association. 

I have a friend who returned to the US after living a few years in the UK, and said he had switched to using his full name "Randall". He said, "Yeah, in the UK, you don't make a good first impression by extending your hand and saying, 'Hi, I'm Randy!'"

[viii]

13 minutes ago, Cam said:

The character that Selena Gomez plays on “Only Murders in the Building” is named Mabel which may be a reason the name is having a resurgence. According to Wikipedia, Gomez is the most-followed woman on Instagram with over 430 million followers. (Great show, btw.)

 

Some names seem to morph into similar sounding names, making them more contemporary. 

Cindy  morphs to Sidney
Karen morphs to Cara, Cari or Camryn
Mary - Maren
Alice - Alyssa 
Beverly - Everleigh
Alexandra - Alexa
Margaret - Greta
Julie - Jolie
Christine - Kristin 
Madelynn- Adalyn

William - Liam
Teddy - Theo 
Jack - Jaxon
Alexander - Zander
Mathew - Mathias
Max - Maddox 
Tyler - Kyler
Kevin - Evan
Luke - Luca

Except a lot of those names are names in their own right. Luca is an Italian name. Adalyn is more likely to come from Adeline. 

[BensAllergies]

58 minutes ago, Cam said:

The character that Selena Gomez plays on “Only Murders in the Building” is named Mabel which may be a reason the name is having a resurgence. According to Wikipedia, Gomez is the most-followed woman on Instagram with over 430 million followers. (Great show, btw.)

 

Some names seem to morph into similar sounding names, making them more contemporary. 

Cindy  morphs to Sidney
Karen morphs to Cara, Cari or Camryn
Mary - Maren
Alice - Alyssa 
Beverly - Everleigh
Alexandra - Alexa
Margaret - Greta
Julie - Jolie
Christine - Kristin 
Madelynn- Adalyn

William - Liam
Teddy - Theo 
Jack - Jaxon
Alexander - Zander
Mathew - Mathias
Max - Maddox 
Tyler - Kyler
Kevin - Evan
Luke - Luca

The thing is that the names in the first column are still incredibly popular, at least for baby boys in the US. We’ve spent the last few months perusing boy name lists, and I was surprised to see that Jack is now a top 20 name. That’s my FIL’s name and I definitely associate it with men in their 50’s or older. We considered Luke and Lucas, which are top names right along with Luca. And interestingly, Liam is #1 but William is still in the top 10. But Mateo is more popular than Matthew by far.

The most interesting thing I noticed is that Henry is in the top 10, but Harry is not even in the top 100. I feel like the Potter effect is making the name less popular, perhaps? I have a grandfather named Harry, and my husband has one named Herman.

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, Cam said:

The character that Selena Gomez plays on “Only Murders in the Building” is named Mabel which may be a reason the name is having a resurgence. According to Wikipedia, Gomez is the most-followed woman on Instagram with over 430 million followers. (Great show, btw.)

 

Some names seem to morph into similar sounding names, making them more contemporary. 

Cindy  morphs to Sidney
Karen morphs to Cara, Cari or Camryn
Mary - Maren
Alice - Alyssa 
Beverly - Everleigh
Alexandra - Alexa
Margaret - Greta
Julie - Jolie
Christine - Kristin 
Madelynn- Adalyn

William - Liam
Teddy - Theo 
Jack - Jaxon
Alexander - Zander
Mathew - Mathias
Max - Maddox 
Tyler - Kyler
Kevin - Evan
Luke - Luca

This probably ages me by I remember when they named their daughter Mabel on “Mad About You” over 2 decades ago. Of course it sounded very weird to most folks back then. No resurgence. But so did Emma on Friends. Yet that became quite popular. 

[Travelfan]

2 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

This probably ages me by I remember when they named their daughter Mabel on “Mad About You” over 2 decades ago. Of course it sounded very weird to most folks back then. No resurgence. But so did Emma on Friends. Yet that became quite popular. 

That’s my first thought when I hear the name Mable.  It was an acronym on the show for Mothers Always Bring Extra Love. Bruce Willis was on thar episode and they asked him for name advice and he said his kids were Rumor, Scout, and Tellulah which caused laughter as they were looking for “normal” names, but then they went with Mable…

[moreorlessnu]

5 hours ago, marmalade said:

I know two Richards who are in their 80s. One is Dick. Tho other is simply Richard. I don't know of any Dicks younger than that. All the Richards in my age group are Rick or Rich, if they choose a nickname. 

....And then there were the 3 men at work who used to walk together for exercise, Dick, Richard, and Dick. One day, only 2 of the men were out walking, and I caught myself just before I was about to yell across the parking lot, "Where is your other Dick today???". Phew! That was close....

[Kiki03910]

Mabel makes me think of the silent film star Mabel Normand, who was really wonderful and died far too young. My bf told me once that I look a bit like her and I was over the moon lol.

My niece is Vivian. I wasn't on board at first (though OBVIOUSLY I kept that to myself) but when I met her not long after she was born, it seemed like an absolutely perfect name for her lovely little self.