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HelpRe: Darlene
in reply to a message by Billina
I would like it okay, if it didn't sound so much like "darling." I like the Dar- syllable and the -rl-, but the -lene ending isn't really my thing.
It's right in between "dated" and "old lady" to me. Technically I guess it is an old lady name now. When I was growing up, a friend's mother was named Darlene - she'd be about 70 now. So to me Darlene is not "downmarket" or "kitschy" or whatever it might seem like if I had never met anyone with that name. To me it's just a normal name for a middle class white Californian born around the 40s... my friend's mom Darlene was diminutive, softspoken, educated, Catholic, curly-haired, had a tall bearded goofy husband who I think worked as an architect? and wore distinctive small thick spectacles with octagonal wire frames. Sort of a bright nerdy girl type, I guess.
So that's my image of Darlene. But if I hadn't ever known one I'd probably think it sounded sort of midwestern-kitschy ... yeah, I can see that. It's that -rlene ending that does it, because it makes me think of Lurlene and Earlene. Another of my childhood friends' moms was called Arlene, and that doesn't seem too kitschy to me either. But Charlene kinda does. Charlene was given as a middle name to my friend's daughter, honoring a grandmother.
Darlene is too dated to use, still, IMO. By that I mean it still just sounds conspicuously dated - I don't think it sounds terribly unfashionable, the way Lurlene or Earlene would.
It's right in between "dated" and "old lady" to me. Technically I guess it is an old lady name now. When I was growing up, a friend's mother was named Darlene - she'd be about 70 now. So to me Darlene is not "downmarket" or "kitschy" or whatever it might seem like if I had never met anyone with that name. To me it's just a normal name for a middle class white Californian born around the 40s... my friend's mom Darlene was diminutive, softspoken, educated, Catholic, curly-haired, had a tall bearded goofy husband who I think worked as an architect? and wore distinctive small thick spectacles with octagonal wire frames. Sort of a bright nerdy girl type, I guess.
So that's my image of Darlene. But if I hadn't ever known one I'd probably think it sounded sort of midwestern-kitschy ... yeah, I can see that. It's that -rlene ending that does it, because it makes me think of Lurlene and Earlene. Another of my childhood friends' moms was called Arlene, and that doesn't seem too kitschy to me either. But Charlene kinda does. Charlene was given as a middle name to my friend's daughter, honoring a grandmother.
Darlene is too dated to use, still, IMO. By that I mean it still just sounds conspicuously dated - I don't think it sounds terribly unfashionable, the way Lurlene or Earlene would.
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