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I've been thinking about Eileen a lot lately. I love its staid, understated beauty and its elegant simplicity. It feels a little "pedestrian" to me (whatever that means), but I still find it quite charming.

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It's fun pairing it with a jaunty, buoyant middle name, e.g.:

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Eileen Zoe
Eileen Ruby
Eileen Sadie
Eileen Xanthe
Eileen Juno
Eileen Sylvie
Eileen Chloe
Eileen Opal
Eileen Viva
Eileen Tansy
Eileen Daphne
Eileen Greta
Eileen Willa

*sings* Come on Eileen, oh I swear what he means...

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^that's what comes to mind first. Catchy tune!

I actually love the sound, but prefer the Ilene spelling.

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It fits my personal style well, and I find it no more dated than names like Evelyn and Annette, which are in hipster-vogue still.

Love the song to pieces! But the name is sadly dated, sounds dreary and - unlike the song character - totally lacks sex appeal.

I don't love it, but I don't dislike it either. The sound doesn't appeal to me and I do immediately think of Come On Eileen.

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I'm surprised at how many people think of it as old. I've know 3, all less than 30 years old.

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To me Eileen is a very practical scientifically minded girl, who is very talented at playing piano.

For some reason, I only think of Home Improvement (certainly telling my age here). One of Al's girlfriend's was Eileen, not a major character but still, it's where my brain jumps. That and "I lean".

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It's not bad, certainly wouldn't think much meeting one.

I love it, personally.

I have actually started to like this a lot. The meaning is nice and it has a nice sound as well. I think this could have a major comeback in 10-20 years when people get sick of all the -a, -ana-, -ina, -ara names. I see names ending in -ine, -een, -ette, -e etc. getting popular again soon.

I think Eileen is great, but I'm fond of -een ending dated names in general. I love Maureen and Kathleen too. It just has a lot of personality to me. So much better than drab old Helen or the everywhere Evelyn.

It is my name, so I don't hate it but I prefer to use my middle name which I still don't like. I am 14 and always saw the name as my age, but I think it was at its peak in the 40s.

I don't think it's horrible but I don't particularly like it. It's my older sister's middle name and we always figured she was named after my great-aunt, although I don't recall that ever being explicitly stated. My mother had five aunts, not counting the one she never knew because she (the aunt) died at age 11, so I never knew why only Eileen out of all them received the honor.

It's a very 'old lady' name here in the UK, and not in the vintage charm sense, in the fusty sense. I have a great-aunt Eileen, she's in her 90's, and my friend's gran is Eileen and she's almost 80. 75+ is the kind of age range I see it as.

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I also think of the song 'Come On Eileen'.

I'd expect an Eileen to be a very elderly lady - like my centenarian great-aunt Eileen - and struggle to imagine it on anyone under 70 here, like all the -een names. The sound is okay, but I prefer Irene, which has a bit more historical solidity.
Silly fact: there were 7 women in the UK records named Eileen Dover.

I've never met an Eileen, so I think of obscure character associations, like 'The fantastic tale of Eily Bergen' and Eileen Snape (both were moms in the 70s).

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It's seems a bit dated, but I prefer it to Ellen. I like names that end with the een sound, as a group.

This message was edited 4/29/2018, 12:11 PM