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[Opinions] Re: Mabel
It's an ugly, old-lady name that is so much so that it's stereotypical; it's the default name you might choose for an old lady in a joke or funny story where you just needed a name as a placeholder. Kind of like Vinnie is the stereotypical mobster name.
Only difference, Mabel is apparently seeing a bit of a hipster revival. I can see a couple of little Mabels showing up in a high-dollar, ten-year-waiting-list preschool in Beverly Hills or NYC, along with a couple of Harriets and Ediths. But not much more than that.
Mabel, Mabel, set the table ...I think, therefore I judge.
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Is "Mabel Mabel set the table" a common saying or did you make it up? Just asking because you're the only one I've heard "say" it.ETA: As for the level of popularity it will achieve in future, I tend to disagree. It re-entered the top thousand in 2013 with a stronger start than Hazel had when it re-entered it in 1998 (#707 and #667 in the first two years for Mabel vs. #941 and #914 in the first two years for Hazel), and Hazel is now at #107.It's one of the things that interests me about names. Their cycles of popularity, which ones come back and which ones don't, and how long it takes.

This message was edited 11/14/2015, 7:17 AM

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no, it isn't made up ...It's pretty well-known as a jump-rope rhyme. It goes something like "Mabel, Mabel, set the table. Something something something, sugar, salt and DON'T FORGET THE RED! HOT! PEPPER!"
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Oh. Just wondering. I jumped rope as a kid, but we never chanted anything.
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It's much more fun when you have something to chant.
M I crooked-letter, crooked-letter i, crooked-letter crooked-letter i, humpback humpback i!Register, register, spell my name. (Forget how that one ended)Charlie Chaplin went to France,
to teach the ladies how to dance.
First the heel and then the toe,
Something something and away you go.
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Mabel Mabel set the table
Don't forget the salt and pepper
Vinegar! Vinegar! Vinegar! (Nova Scotia variant.)also
Charlie Chaplin went to France
to teach the ladies how to dance
Curtesy to the queen, bow to the king
And turn your back on the Kaiser's Jack.That must be an old one, even I am not old enough to remember the Kaiser.
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South African variantCharlie Chaplin went to France
To teach the ladies how to dance
Bow to the king, kneel to the queen
And turn your back on the German submarineSabre-rattling stuff, and obviously pretty old. Also very difficult to achieve the third line without falling over. Amazing how children's rhymes can last, like Ring-a-ring-a rosies being about the Great Plague.
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