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.
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.)
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.