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Dang, the Ladies Home Journal was just cruel!

Interesting.
It does indeed show that names come back in fashion. Abigail, for instance, really sticks out.
But it also shows that some names never do come back. And some don't seem to have gotten a whole lot of use in the living memory of ... the survey responders? The perso who just compiled the list?
I mean, has Ethelbert actually been used since medieval times?

Here are the names that I love from these lists:

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Female:
Pamela
Janet
Nancy
Abigail
Sandra
Marianne
Ellen
Suzanne
Bridget
Susan
Constance
Elizabeth
Minerva
Barbara
Carol
Joanne
Tillie
Anastasia
Agatha
Alvira
Esmeralda

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Male:
William ( ;) )
Douglas
Gregory
Richard
Paul
Kenneth
Jeffrey (I prefer Geoffrey)
Percival
Ronald (If only it weren't for the McDonald's clown mascot...)
James
Alan
Oscar
Michael
John
Peter
Algernon
Ezra
Isaac
Ulysses

Not the easiest lists to deal with! Here goes, anyway. I'll remove the ones I don't think fit that list. I'd have moved Francis from Most Disliked to Most Liked.

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Most Liked Boys' Names
Stephen, Richard, Jeffrey, Michael, Peter, David, Robert, John, James, Keith, Bruce, Kenneth, Alan, Paul, William, Douglas, Gregory
Most Disliked Boys' Names
Percival, Oscar, Algernon, Archibald, Horace, Homer, Ezekiel, Elmer, Isadore, Ezra, Aloysius, Ebenezer, Casper, Felix, Ethelbert, Hiram, Wilbur, Mortimer, Clarence, Adolph, Ulysses, Isaac, Cornelius
Most Liked Girls' Names
Karen, Linda, Suzanne, Barbara, Nancy, Janet, Pamela, Marianne, Katherine, Elizabeth
Most Disliked Girls' Names
Hepzibah, Mehitabel, Zenobia, Minerva, Mamie, Abigail, Lula, Gussie, Melvina, Eula, Fanny, Anastasia, Olive, Hortense, Purity, Pansy, Petunia, Beulah, Alvira, Esmeralda, Prudence

I love the drawings. Very funny take on beauty standards. I'd be interested in seeing more comparison charts like this one from different years. I like most of the disliked girls' names, with the exception of Abigail, Purity, Petunia, Anastasia, Olive, Bridget, and Prudence. I like boys' names from both columns.

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Edit: and what is the reasoning for disliking these particular names? Were there negative connotations at the time or were they "negative" connotations? (I'm thinking xenophobia and maybe racism, at least in Mamie's case?) Not sure.

This message was edited 8/10/2024, 2:47 PM

I like how they made the kids with the disliked names ugly, lol.

Wow, I love some of the most disliked and really don't like some of the most liked.

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I like:

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(Liked)
Nancy (retro and Stranger Things vibes)
Constance
Robert

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(Disliked)

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Zenobia
Matilda
Agatha
Esmeralda
Bridget
Oscar
Isadore
Casper
Felix
Mortimer
Isaac
Cornelius

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There's some gems in the most disliked lists!

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I dislike:
(Liked)

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Karen
Dianne
Linda
Donna
Sandra
Joanne
Lynne
Barbara
Gail
Janet
Ellen
Jacqueline
Kathleen
Katherine
Marcia
Jeffrey
Peter
Ronald
Mark
Craig
Keith
Bruce
Kenneth
Leslie
Paul
Douglas
Gregory
Clifford
Gary

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(Disliked)
Hepzibah
Mehitabel
Mamie
Abigail
Lula
Gussie
Melvina
Eula
Fanny

... Load Full Message

This message was edited 8/10/2024, 1:31 PM

Interestingly enough, I strongly prefer the most disliked boys' names to the most liked ones, while the opposite is true for girls.

This is cool! Not surprising, though. Seems like every generation prefers names associated with young children and disliked those they hear on elderly people. Trends go in cycles, so much of the lists would be other way around nowadays. It's funny that the disliked list has Adolph of course, but also many Jewish/Hebrew names. But maybe those were just too old-fashioned for the readers.

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I had to check Constance's popularity; it strikes me as a 19th century name, but it was apparently most popular in the post-war years.

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Liked names I like:
Stephen, Michael, Terry (prefer as a NN for Terrence), Clifford, Sandra, Janet, Ellen, Jacqueline, Kathleen (Wish this one got more love), Marianne, Katherine, Marcia, Marilyn, Elizabeth.

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Disliked names I like:

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Archibald, Isadore, Ezra, Casper, Clarence, Gussie (NN for Augusta), Melvina, Anastasia, Hortense (also wish this one got more love), Petunia, Bridget.

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I too dislike Homer, Ebenezer, Wilbur, Mortimer, Zenobia (I know I'm the minority here), Mamie, Eula (I somewhat like Beulah, though), Purity and Prudence.

Wow! My siblings, husband, and I are on the "good" list even though we were born about 15 years later. However, I looked more like the "disliked" girl with my glasses and freckles.

I like
Lawrence, Peter
Oscar, Horace, Oswald, Ezekiel, Isadore, Ezra, Casper, Felix, Wilbur, Clarence, Isaac, Cornelius, Aloysius
Dianne, Karen, Suzanne, Barbara, Margot
Anastasia, Alvira, Olive, Eula, Minerva, Zenobia, Abigail

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It seems they disliked the somewhat common, somewhat obscure names that had been used a couple generations prior I guess those names to them were what Janet and Linda are now, though I can't see Anastasia as an ugly name, though it's not even my favorite. I much prefer the "most disliked" boys names.

I like…

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Most liked boy names: Stephen, Richard, Michael, Peter, David, James(my favorite), Keith, Paul, William
Most disliked boy names: Oscar, Isadore, Casper(my favorite), Francis, Isaac
Most liked girl names: Margot, Marianne, Katherine, Elizabeth(my favorite)
Most disliked girl names: Zenobia, Matilda, Abigail, Lula, Tillie, Anastasia(my favorite), Olive, Bridget

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I dislike…

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Most liked boy names: Ronald, Leslie, Douglas(my least favorite), Gary
Most disliked boy names: Algernon, Horace, Ethelbert(my least favorite), Hiram, Adolph
Most liked girl names: Donna, Suzanne(my least favorite), Barbara, Gail, Nancy, Pamela, Kathleen
Most disliked girl names: Hepzibah, Gussie, Hortense(my least favorite), Purity, Agatha, Beulah, Prudence

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This was great! I’m so glad someone found this.

This message was edited 8/10/2024, 9:59 AM

Wow, what a treasure! I'm curious about how the names were chosen as well. But it still really shows how taste is cyclical - so many of the disliked names have come back into style. Matilda, Abigail!! Tillie, Anastasia, and Bridget are surprising to me. I love the idea of people turning their noses up at Abigail for being ugly and old fashioned, that's great.

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And the ugly boys list - Felix, Ezra, Casper, Isaac! See, this is proof that something we might think of as a "classic" name that nobody could ever dislike, isn't necessarily so at all. So cool!

The ones I like from each list:

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Most Liked Boys' Names:
James, Craig

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Most Disliked Boys' Names:
Ezra, Hiram, Oswald, Cornelius, Felix, Aloysius, Archibald, Percival

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Most Liked Girls' Names:
Katherine, Pamela, Susan, Linda, Kathleen, Carol

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Most Disliked Girls' Names:
Prudence, Anastasia, Lula, Petunia, Minerva, Abigail, Fanny (it’s a gp)

My heart aches for the most disliked boy and girl names. I adore Anastasia, Bridget, Casper, Isaac, Isadore, Wilbur, and Zenobia. I think Abigail, Clarence, Cornelius, Ezekiel, Felix, Matilda, Percival, and Prudence are also good names.

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Most of the liked names are either boring or horrible. People had weird taste back then.

It's funny seeing that many of the disliked names are actually liked names on this board, such as Percival, Oscar, Oswald, Ezekiel, Isadore, Ezra, Aloysius, Casper, Felix, Francis, Clarence, Ulysses, Isaac, Zenobia, Matilda, Abigail, Lula, Eula, Tillie, Anastasia, Olive, Agatha, Esmeralda, Prudence...

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On another note, some names from the liked lists strike me as pretty boring in comparison to those on the disliked lists.

The first thing I noticed is "oh my, how naming practices have changed since 1945".

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Still well liked are Michael, James, David & William for boys and Elizabeth, Katherine and maybe Margot for girls.

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Oh, how times have changed for the name Karen - once so popular now a pejorative slang term.

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Some disliked names that are now "cool" again: Oscar, Ezra, Felix & Isaac and Matilda, Abigail & Anastasia.