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Dated and not in a good way.

Reminds me of Gladys Kravitz from Bewitched and the G and the Y don't look very nice, but I like Glenys somewhat. The A and D are also a bit harsh to me and it sounds to much like Glad.

I love the sound, but the look puts me off. I can't think of a way to spell it that makes it look as pretty as it sounds.

There's a town near where I grew up called Gladys. It also reminds me of Gladiolus flowers.

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I went through a phase last year during which I fell in love with a lot of *s names. Compared to some of those, Gladys strikes me as bright/harsh, but I still like it.

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It seems like Camellia / Camille, Glynis / Glenda, Dorcas / Doris all at once; mostly it comes across to me like a fun old-fashioned fad name.

This message was edited 3/3/2019, 5:23 PM

It has always reminded me of the Happy Butt joke.

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I was told this joke in junior high:

First day of school, little girl gets asked by teacher what her name is, she responds with Happy Butt.
Teacher does not believe her and asks again, girl keeps saying Happy Butt.
Happy Butt dies.
Mother at funeral sighs "oh my beloved Gladys."

At one time I lived in the same short street as two Gladys people, one originally Scottish and the other a Yorkshirewoman. Yorkshire Gladys's equally Yorkshire husband used to call her Glad-Eyes sometimes; the other one had no nn that I ever encountered. And both were, you had to say, elderly.

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Then there was a drought. So, no Gladyses until about 15 years ago, when I met a Francophone Congolese Gladys who must be in her early thirties by now. That seemed odd to me; certainly unexpected for all sorts of reasons.

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The problem isn't only with its long-ago popularity surge. Gloria is the only other name I can think of that starts with Gl-, and it's hubristic but not shuddered at. Maybe the -ys ending, or the sound of it, puts people off? Janice has also sunk without trace, as has Clarice - they'd do fine as a rhyming sibset!

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I don't like it or dislike it. I'd be surprised to meet a young one, as I was with Gladys from the DRC, but not unhappy. I wouldn't want to meet an Edna for instance, or a Bertha; Gladys is in a different league. But I'd never use it on a child.

I don't know what to think of Gladys. At one time it had a huge appeal to many people. I had a great-aunt named Gladys, who was born in 1902. It was the name of Marilyn Monroe's mother, also born 1902, and Elvis Presley's mother, born ten years later. It was just hugely popular. It was so fashionable. There was something about it that people really liked.

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Eventually, of course, it fell, but that happens to all popular names and it was true of other popular names that are now coming back, such as Hazel (my grandmother's, Gladys' sister, name), Mabel, Pearl. But Gladys is still nowhere to be seen. Is it really terminally, almost objectively, ugly? If so, why was it so popular from 1900 to 1920? If not, then why does everyone in 2019 seem to think so? (Ethel is just like Gladys in this regard.)

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I'll say that Gladys is a name that I don't like but it's also one that I have trouble assigning to the dustbin. I'm going to keep trying to see what the appeal was. At one time, I didn't see the appeal of Hazel, Mabel, and Pearl, but now I really appreciate them. I'll see if Gladys can join them.