A colleague has two (young, under 3) grandchildren who are Alfie and Stanley.
A few years ago I was walking through town and a mother trying to get her child under control rather than enthusiastically running about addressed her - Esme.

There are just some names that go through phases and some that don't. I've known four Eileens in my life, and they were all born within three years of one another

Bag's name is unusual, yes . And LOL did you realise that 'lyrical' is an anagram of Cyrilla ?? (As is my alter ego, Racy Lil ).

Both Bag and I are very pleased to have names that are a) unusual and b) don't date. As others have pointed out, it's very easy to know how old certain people are just by their names!

I have an idea!

If Liverpool can market Beatles tours, then I can market Rolling Stones tours in their home town.

Dartford.

It can't fail.

Tell me about it...I have one of those names My name was all the rage for a decade and faded out pretty sharply after that.
The only good thing is that I was one of the earlier ones and so on average people are likely to underestimate my age by about 5 years

Ooh I might prefer Racy Lil !! Yes I did realise when I typed the previous thread that you are a metamorphosis of Lyrical !

Another girls name that seems to have died the death is Carol(e). I love the name and if there are girls being named Carla Carlie Charlotte and even Caroline and boys called Charlie then why can't we have more Carols? Its a lovely name! Big up the Carols!!

There at least one forumite who will like that post ! She will want to meet you now !

A well known East European male name is Karol (and variants of it) . Wasnt the last Pope but one Karol Wojtila, and of course we have composer Szymanowski

...and Karel Fialka ('Hey Matthew' from the 1980s)

I want to have a baby girl now just so I can name her Carol now! Though if its a boy I like Paul. Sadly that'll never happen to me...

And I dont know any lads under 20 or so called Alan (Allan). Again we had loads at school, and Kenneths.
Are baby girls called Barbara these days (like my sister)?. And Marjorie, like two of her friends (we do have a senior forumites wife with that name). I even think Patricia is a rather rare name these days (like my wife).... and Janet.
The unisex name Leslie/Lesley was common in our generation too. (Here we do have a forumite)

supposed to hear from them on Monday, so maybe collect it on Tuesday *excited*

You all probably realise this already but Carol/Karol = Charles

Mine is similar but is very unusual in France - it took me a while to get used to being the only one but now I quite like it
Unlike you, however, mine is a very old-fashioned name here so I get cold callers asking me if I am over 75 (and then deciding either I've got dementia or I'm ashamed to admit my age, when I tell them that I'm nowhere near as old as that ).

I have a friend who's turning eighteen next week who's called Hector. His middle names also happen to be names you don't hear very often either (eugene and peter), especially when it's about college students.

all my other friends just seem to have normal names for our generation

Where have all the Lydia's gone?? Such a lovely name IMO.

My first name is (fairly) unusual for it's initial letter, and my surname is very unusual...and can be embarassing..

Mmmm, if I wanted to work out twice my circumference would the formula be 2 Bagpi r??



Formula-Bag x

Or would my singular circumference be 2 Bagpi r?

Is confused by self and concept of multiple Bags.

And I haven't even had any wine yet.

Sigh-Bag x

... and I have, and I'm thinking the squaw on the hippapotamus is equal to the son of the squaws on the other two hides.

Ah, some INTELLIGENT response from maggiemay *nods sagely* Apologies for going off on a tangent!!!! SNORT.

Titty-Boom.

Pythagoras-Bag x

??hippopotamus??

Oh, I think 'hippapotamus' has a certain charm...

Hhhippypoppypotty * gives up*

Mags!!!!!! How much wine have you HAD?????????!!!!!

Hishpylottimouse is better

I-Have-Wine-Bag x

They're still around - I taught one last year ( a sixth former).

One of my daughter's best friends at school was a Lydia, but I've known very few others.


Well I had food with it. Nice home-cooked not-quite-hot-enough-to -be-called-chilli with a jacket baked spud.

Same problem with my name - it was popular pre-war but is almost extinct now. I've only ever met one other person in my age group with my name, and that was at school! I've never met anyone younger than me with my name.

I know two. One is about 24 years old and the other is 15 months. I have to admit that they know each other, so the second may well have been influenced by the first!

It's interesting how names go in and out of fashion. When I first met my husband-to-be and discovered that his grandmothers were named Gertrude and Amelia, I thought those names so old-fashioned. Yet my great-niece, who is now 4, was christened Amelia. Names like Matthew, Sarah, Emily and Daniel seemed very old-fashioned to me in my schooldays, yet they became very popular in my daughter's generation.

There is nothing wrong with the name Gertrude!

I have a niece that is called Amelia, too.

I know a 17-year-old Lydia And I agree, it's a lovely name.

Does anyone know any young/youngish Janes or Jaynes?? That's another name that seems to have fallen out of fashion sadly (like my favourite Carol(e)).

I know a Jane who is 30-ish and a Carol whose about 20!

I know 2 Ja(y)nes in the age range 25-35.

I know a Sharon who's just turned 30!

I also know of a, not Carol or Carole but Carola. And she doesn't pronounce it as rhyming with Coca Cola but just like Carol with an a on the end!

My treble recorder is called Gertrude.

A work colleague named his baby daughter Lydia last year.

the backs of my knees hurt where's my wheat bag?

How have you done that Louise, strained hamstrings or what ?

No, it's the damp weather getting into my old bones have had these 'growing pains' on and off ever since I can remember, haven't grown much though....

My #2 daughter is Lydia, now aged 34. My older daughter, age 35, now that's more interesting.

I had this boyfriend when I was at school in the 1960s. I loved him loads but somehow we drifted apart when we'd left and both married other people. In 1999, with both of our marriages amicably behind us, I contacted him out of the blue and it was an almost intantaneous reunion; we moved in together six months later and married about two years after that (both now aged 64). It turned out that we had both called our first child Chloe.

It's been at the top of the little girls' name charts for several years now, but it was almost unknown back in the mid 70s. People couldn't pronounce it (I had something sounding like Schloer more than once) and the certainly couldn't spell it (Clowey, Chole, Cleo). And somehow both of us had chosen that name.

(He also has a son called Sam, which was what I'd been going to call both of mine had they been boys. Well, not both of them - oh, you know what I meant!)

I have that too and have had since my teens.

I have a two-week old niece named Chloe.

Congratulations.

Thanks Except I misremembered her date of birth so it's actually two weeks.

Are you both G&S fans? I first came across "Chloe" circa 1976 when in the chorus of a school production of Patience, I think. Somehow, the line, "Come Amaryllis, come Chloe and Phyllis!" has always stuck in my memory and Chloe is forever associated with the other two!

I am, he wasn't. But your post has just made me laugh and cringe at the same time because for some reason (well, no, I know the reason, I was working with a chorus doing this song the first time round, and it kind of stuck every time I found myself in this situation) "that" chorus from Ruddigore is what I'm always silently singing to keep myself quiet and still during any of the many times when I've sat at the slit lamp in the eye hospital whie this dreaded blue circle, used for emasuring the pressure inside the eye, comes nearer and nearer while you keep your eye open.

My Chloe was actually named for the heroine of L'ecume des Jours (Froth on the Daydream) by Boris Vian. Anyone know it?

Lydia was named for (1)My Nan's youngest sister (2)Lydia in South Riding (3)a Lydia in Narziss und Goldmund by Hermann Hesse (4) The song Lydia by Gabriel Faure. NOT for the naughtiest member of the Bennett Family in Pride and Prejudice.

Ah, Ruddigore! Thanks. We did Patience one year and Ruddigore the next, hence my uncertainty!

Basingstoke!

Anyone else caught the recent Opera North production of Ruddigore? saw it in Salford last November.