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Help[Opinions] fascinating!
in reply to a message by Cleveland Kent Evans
And Claudia and Nina surprise me, too.
The thing that struck me was the overall 'American' feel of the names (having never lived in America, maybe I shouldn't guess)- I've noticed that the details of naming trends seem to differ between the US, Canada, the UK and Australia/NZ, but I thought there was a core of anglo names that wouldn't be tied to location. I think Laura, Amy, Eva Evelyn, Caroline and Kathryn (that spelling), Emily rather than Emma and Anna rather than Anne are what make it feel that way, but I'm not sure.
It's odd that not one form of Jane/Janet/Jean/Joanne or Ellen/Helen/Eleanor makes the list- though I suppose the variety kind of answers that question.
Off the top of my head, for classic names I would rhyme off the ones you see all the time on tombstones or in the early novels- Mary, Elizabeth, Anne, Catherine, Margaret, Jane, Helen, Eleanor, Emma, Sophie/Sophia (though that's rather posh), Sarah, Lucy and maybe Frances and Dorothy.
I think my definition of classic would be a name that has been consistently in use for a long time- say 250+ years. The problem with going back just 125 years is that it's barely more than that 3-generation cycle of oral history the academics are always on about.
Do have the data to come up with a similar list for other anglophone countries?
sa
The thing that struck me was the overall 'American' feel of the names (having never lived in America, maybe I shouldn't guess)- I've noticed that the details of naming trends seem to differ between the US, Canada, the UK and Australia/NZ, but I thought there was a core of anglo names that wouldn't be tied to location. I think Laura, Amy, Eva Evelyn, Caroline and Kathryn (that spelling), Emily rather than Emma and Anna rather than Anne are what make it feel that way, but I'm not sure.
It's odd that not one form of Jane/Janet/Jean/Joanne or Ellen/Helen/Eleanor makes the list- though I suppose the variety kind of answers that question.
Off the top of my head, for classic names I would rhyme off the ones you see all the time on tombstones or in the early novels- Mary, Elizabeth, Anne, Catherine, Margaret, Jane, Helen, Eleanor, Emma, Sophie/Sophia (though that's rather posh), Sarah, Lucy and maybe Frances and Dorothy.
I think my definition of classic would be a name that has been consistently in use for a long time- say 250+ years. The problem with going back just 125 years is that it's barely more than that 3-generation cycle of oral history the academics are always on about.
Do have the data to come up with a similar list for other anglophone countries?
sa
This message was edited 4/27/2006, 2:30 PM
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