Old fashioned names

[Trishanne]

I think my family names are all old fashioned, Arthur, Dorothy, Patricia [me] My father had the middle name Cecil and his sisters were Maude and Mabel. My grandfather was called Lancelot.
Pat

[Andrew Tarr]

I suppose reflecting the steady decline in religiousness, the names which have almost vanished are the biblical ones.  Until the 1900s, apart from everyday names like William, Henry, Richard and Robert, most ordinary people turned to the bible when they had used up their usual family names.  Biblical names of disciples - Thomas, John, James, Mark, Luke - have always been fairly popular, but we no longer see Zacharias, Ezekiel, Enoch, Jehosaphat.  Elizabeth, Anne, Rachel, Sarah are still around, but Ruth is not as common now.  One of the families in the parish I am working on now seems hooked on Dionysius, which isn't even biblical as far as I know.

One name which has come and gone is Wendy.  I think it was invented for Peter Pan, but I haven't seen many recently.

But as well as fluctuations in popularity, there has always been a 'class' dimension, where ordinary working people used a small set of names like John, Tom, Bill, Sam, Fred, while those in a layer above tended towards Edward, Richard, Roger, George; while higher up we got Archibald, Reginald, Clarence and Marmaduke.  Of course when the film industry got started everything changed.

[cristeen]

I have a couple of Wiltons and Wilsons (this most likely from a spouses family maiden name) but the most old fashioned, and one I've only come across once, is Isoline Maud. My mum is a Barbara which seems very sixties now
Christine

[Rishile]

My mother's siblings were Hilda, Vera, Eileen, Harold, Reginald, Harry and Olive.  They all seem so old-fashioned now and I can't imagine any of them being used these days.

I also have Mavis (my father's sister) and Gladys (his mother).  His name was Kenneth.  All names rarely used now.

It seems to me that different names were used from about 1910.  Before that it seems there was the same names used over and over - John, Thomas, Charles, Henry, Sarah, Elizabeth and Ann (or is that just my tree  )

Rishile

[clairec666]

Names go in and out of fashion.... those which I thought were old-fashioned are now being given to babies, e.g. Elsie, Archie, Violet, Ernest (I know of babies and toddlers with all of these names).

My grandfather's name (Gilbert) is having a bit of a resurgence, but my grandmother's name (Gladys) is not.

The names which seem to have dated badly (in my opinion) are ones which peaked in the middle of the last century - Trevor, Clive, Nigel, Brenda, Jacqueline, to name but a few. Give it another 20 years or so, and I'm sure they'll be back!

[ScouseBoy]

Wendy  could be a short version of Gwendoline.

[Milliepede]

Elsie and Ernest as toddlers it just doesn't sound right somehow! 

[ScouseBoy]

I wish  I  had about five boys.  I could have called them Mark one;   Mark two;  Mark three   etc.

[groom]

My grandmother was Alice Gertrude and for some reason preferred to be known as Gertrude rather than Alice!

My great x 3 grandfather was Joshua and, without knowing this, 250 years later, his great x5 grand daughter called her son Joshua. Luckily she didn't pick the names of two of his sons - Eleazer and Ebenezer. He must have run out of biblical names after that as he called my direct ancestor Richard and a daughter Emma.