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They were going down in the 1970s, to be sure. But I was born in the late 1960s, and I knew plenty of all of them. Susan was #5 in 1965, Cynthia #9, Deborah #13, and Barbara #25--this is the one that had already declined the most from its peak.
Grace has had ups and downs, all names do, but I think it still deserves to be called timeless. Sure, it was down at #216 in 1955 and #256 in 1965, but that's still respectable. It's not like Matilda, which completely disappeared from the Top 1000 between 1964 and 2008.
I know no one of my age group (early Boomer) named Grace. I do remember the actress Grace Kelly, and Gracie Allen, wife of George Burns. The "Graces" I know/know of are all children.
Isn't that the case for all names? Of course there will be periods of popularity and periods of near-obscurity for many names. Region, among other factors, play a big role in naming trends as well. There are two Graces, one in her late 40s and the other would be late 50s, in my family. Both are Black women raised in the South. The few other Graces I know of were named after relatives.
It seems like my mother's generation wasn't into given their children old fashioned names, as evidenced by the top names of the mid-late 70s and early 80s. Lots of Jessicas, Jennifers, Melissas, etc. Gen X has contributed to the boom of these old fashioned names.
It seems like my mother's generation wasn't into given their children old fashioned names, as evidenced by the top names of the mid-late 70s and early 80s. Lots of Jessicas, Jennifers, Melissas, etc. Gen X has contributed to the boom of these old fashioned names.
But Jessica, Jennifer, and Melissa WERE all thought of as "old-fashioned" names by the parents who used them in the late 1970s-80s. Not that they had ever been very popular in the US, but they were old, traditional names with history that had not been much used for a long time. I was around and aware of naming trends then, and I absolutely recall that people considered them "old-fashioned." I remember overhearing someone, a woman much older than I, say that she didn't want to use one of those trendy names, like Tammy or Jodi. She wanted something old-fashioned and classic, or words to that effect. She loved Jennifer, but she had read somewhere that it was #1 that year. So she chose Jessica.
Every generation uses names that the previous generation thought were "old-fashioned." I remember my mother, who was born in 1926, saying that HER mother thought Deborah was a hideously old-fashioned and dated name, kind of like we would think of "Ethel" now. But my mom's generation loved Deborah.
Isn't that the case for all names? Of course there will be periods of popularity and periods of near-obscurity for many names. Region, among other factors, play a big role in naming trends as well. There are two Graces, one in her late 40s and the other would be late 50s, in my family. Both are Black women raised in the South. The few other Graces I know of were named after relatives.
It seems like my mother's generation wasn't into given their children old fashioned names, as evidenced by the top names of the mid-late 70s and early 80s. Lots of Jessicas, Jennifers, Melissas, etc. Gen X has contributed to the boom of these old fashioned names.
These names were popular in the forties and fifties, not so much so in the sixties and seventies. LOTS of Debbies, Barbaras, and Susans, in my age bracket, and I suppose some of those Cindys were really Cynthias. "Linda" was another hit name of that period, as was "Sherry" and its related names.
"Susan" is making a modest come-back, but I don't see the others returning quite yet.
My g-g-g-grandmother was named "Barbara", btw - she was born in the early 1700s, in Northern Ireland, and was Ulster Scots.
I don't know where you are, but in the United States at least, Susan actually is still dropping slowly in popularity. It was used as the name of just 290 girls born in 2015, down from 321 in 2014, 314 in 2013, 321 in 2012, and 353 in 2011. This is a significant drop from even ten years ago (2005), when it was given to 475 baby girls; Susan peaked in 1955 with 47,388 Susans being born that year alone. That's more than two percent of all girls born that year, and it made Susan the fifth most popular female name of that year.
This means that the usage of Susan today is 0.61% of its peak.
Last edited by Cheesehead92; 01-22-2017 at 05:06 AM..
Reason: add
Or Maria, that's timeless and cross-cultural, that's what I named my daughter so she can fit in anywhere and any time
Seems to be dropping a little lately here in the US, but still quite popular. Popular as a middle name here, also Marie. Marie was the middle name of both of my kids' grandmothers, one daughter has it for her middle name. http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/girl/maria Marie is not very common here for a first name, but if you read the comments, you'll see it's very popular for a middle. http://www.babynamewizard.com/baby-name/girl/marie
I do not like stripper names
I would like daughters to have names of some elegance
Ethnic names that aren't popular in the states, mostly because I wouldn't want my child constantly explaining where her "weird" name comes form. (my relative's name is Ailish; very Irish but the torment she endured, oy vey...
Even if I like a common name, I won't give my children those names
During my hippie years I really wanted a boy and a girl - Indigo and Sage... glad I outgrew that LOL
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I happen to like the name Elizabeth, as much s Katherine.
