Fashionable names of people mostly in the 1970s and 1980s

[Richard1978]

Dean and Lee became popular in the 60s but lost popularity in the late 80s and late 90s respectively.



Are you referring to the names that were very common during the Edwardian era that fell out of fashion in the mid to late 20th century but have been experiencing a revival in recent years?

A bit like that, though not even as long ago as Edwardian times.

While George has become more popular in the last decade, it seemed to be rare for under 40s in the 1980s-90s.

[George 1978]

Adam and Daniel - Became popular in the 70s then peaked in the 80s and 90s but are still quite popular today. Adam is a bit interesting.

It is interesting considering that Adam comes from the bible - i.e. it is thousands of years old. A few years ago, a young mother commented that she wasn't going to call her son Tony because it was so old fashioned. So she decided to call him Adam instead - a name that is even older than Tony, I assume.

[Arran]

Adam took off as a baby name with Muslim families in Britain in the late 1980s and had become quite popular in the 1990s despite it being quite a rare name in the Middle East and Pakistan. There were a few Muslims called Adam at my schools. It sometimes caused a bit of confusion or intrigue amongst the teachers.

[Richard1978]

I've noticed a few older names have stayed popular with certain ethnic groups.

It must be confusing if you have a name like Zara Butt.

When my Brother was presented with his diploma some students on his course were from Hong Kong. I remember a few names you have expected from someone twice their age, Nancy & Irene come to mind.

[Arran]

Younger Hong Kong Chinese people often have names that were popular in England in the first half of the 20th century although it's less common amongst the Singapore Chinese community. In mainland China English names are becoming quite fashionable but it's common for parents to give names to their kids like Cinderella or Rollex that hardly anybody is called in England because they are often not aware of what is a recognised name and what isn't.

[George 1978]

As I said before, it's interesting that female names date more than male names do - watching the first series of A House Through Time, the male Faulkner Street occupants in the 19th century had the first names of Richard, James, Wilfred, John, Alfred, and William - none of them are bizarre names, and only Wilfred and Alfred feels "elderly" to me. I had in my mind that Wilfred and Alfred was at least middle-aged, but they were quite young of course.

We don't really hear the name Eliza as being short for Elizabeth these days unlike back then - it's more likely to be Liz or even Lisa. And who on earth would be called Fanny these days? (as in Snewing of the same street) - it does sound camp, and feels so much like a late 19th century music hall-alike name - I don't think that even someone in the early 20th century (Cradock excepted) would have been called like that.

[Richard1978]

As I said before, it's interesting that female names date more than male names do - watching the first series of A House Through Time, the male Faulkner Street occupants in the 19th century had the first names of Richard, James, Wilfred, John, Alfred, and William - none of them are bizarre names, and only Wilfred and Alfred feels "elderly" to me. I had in my mind that Wilfred and Alfred was at least middle-aged, but they were quite young of course.

We don't really hear the name Eliza as being short for Elizabeth these days unlike back then - it's more likely to be Liz or even Lisa. And who on earth would be called Fanny these days? (as in Snewing of the same street) - it does sound camp, and feels so much like a late 19th century music hall-alike name - I don't think that even someone in the early 20th century (Cradock excepted) would have been called like that.

There seems to be a lot of younger Alfie's around, so Alfred hasn't totally vanished. Even 20 years ago if was hard to find anyone under 50 called George.

Eliza sounds like the sort of girls name that might come back into fashion.

Fanny comes from Frances, though that's not a common name these days either.

[George 1978]

I was half expecting the swear filter to kick in when I wrote "Fanny" for some reason! I blame Julian Clary for its campness, although I assume that it had always been camp prior to his act.

In the school playground, a lot of the kids thought that I had a really old-fashioned name, and the graph on the first page proves it. I suppose things go full circle because of the "little old man" concept that new born baby boys have - my nephew was one of them.

BTW - Congratulations on your 5,000th post, Richard!

[Richard1978]

BTW - Congratulations on your 5,000th post, Richard!

Thanks I hadn't been keeping count!

[Arran]

What names were associated with black people in the 1970s and 1980s?