Old names are back in Fashion
Lately I have noticed that old fashioned names for children are all the rage. With my girls, Julia and Lillian we looked to family names for inspiration and some were a definite no no, and others were just ideal, and so we settled for the ones we named the twins. Other than making sure that it was something the hubby and I both liked, we made sure that those names were no popular. We did not want our kids to be in a class with 5 other Julia and Lillian’s. I have come across a Lily but not a Lillian and not one Julia so far.
In Essential Baby today there was an article about the top baby names for England and Wales in 2011, Lily was in there, however not the way we spell it. We have it with two L’s, and the actual name is Lillian, not Lilly. We do call her Lilly for short as well.
This is not a new situation, the names of the girls classmates at pre-school are mostly all old fashioned and it is rather interesting that this trend is seen nearly everywhere, although if I was a celebrity I might have felt the pressure to come up with a more interesting and unique name.
Our position as parents is that we wanted the girls names to be easily understood, spelt, the child will not get teased for their name (no promises on this, but we spent a while thinking of all things we could call them and nothing came to mind – we will let you know if this is correct once school has started), no issue of pronunciation, and of course the initials don’t form a bad word.
Another major point for me about giving our children names was that it would be a name for when you are young and also for adulthood. I don’t want one of the girls want to be taken seriously in her profession of choice and being made fun of due to her name or worse. It can happen. Who knows, the girls might want to end up being called by their middle names, and hate our choices for them. Personally I love the old names as they are classic, stylish, and are great for young and old. Some as I have stated I think are just ones that we should not bring back, Mabel, Edna, Bertha, and Gertrude, just to name a few.
I know that some new names sound amazing and stunning and I wish I was that brave. One thing with the new names is the way some are spelt, I do understand that this makes them unique however changing a c to a k, can complicate a child’s life and make it hard to ever spell the kids name. It will always be a pain for the boy/girl. I am sure people get used to it, and then they know but for me it should be done the way it sounds as then there are less issues.
Do you prefer traditional names and spelling? Have you tried something different and has it worked? I do love some names that are more modern, like Emerson, Billie (not that modern as there was Billie Holiday), and I do like the name Sydney as I think it would be nice for kids when young and when they get older. Some of my choices are not very modern, maybe I just like the old fashioned way. Send in your comments.
