A reader pointed me to this commentary from NPR's "All Things Considered" on "names with backbone." The commentator begins by noting an odd phenomenon. Reading the obituaries he sees the same names "over and over again," names like Opal, Ethel and Hazel. He describes those names as an entire generation like "The Boy Named Sue" -- parents choosing unstylish names in order to toughen up their kids. In parallel, he suggests that baby boomers who gave their kids stylish names were coddling them. Here's an excerpt:
"There was a time when moms and dads didn't worry about whether their children were popular. They were more concerned about whether their kids had enough to eat. Parents wanted sturdy, rugged children so they gave them sturdy, rugged names. But as times got better, parenting had less to do with feeding children and more to do with nurturing their self esteem."Names like Opal and Hazel will come back, he claims, "when we decide we've spent too much time sheltering our children, and we want them to grow up resilient and ready to fend for themselves, just like the boy name Sue."
At this point you might stop to wonder: how could an entire generation have be given the same unpopular names, "over and over again"?
Fashion is a subtle, pervasive force that shapes our impressions of the world. The commentator, who like most of us lives in the present, hears names like Opal as sturdy and unfashionable. He hears this so surely and vividly that he applies it to the motivations of parents 100 years ago. They chose names that sound sturdy and rugged, thus they wanted their children to lead sturdy, rugged lives. Right?
Travel back in time with me for an exercise of the imagination: let's try to hear Opal as the parents of a century ago heard it.
In the 1880s America was a largely agricultural country, and names like Mary and Margaret, John and George still dominated America's nurseries. But a new wind was blowing. Cities were growing, waves of immigration were transforming the country, and a new generation of names grew with it. From 1890 to 1920, as modern America was born, the new names parents chose were paved with gold.
For boys, parents chose glittering dreams of aristocracy. Alongside John and George, we saw boys named with the surnames of the upper crust -- Milton, Sidney, Whitney. Germanic names were also popular for both sexes, their dense continental sound as rich as velvet. And for girls we had names like jewels, delicate symbols of nature's beauty. The botanicals: Lily, Rose, Hazel, Myrtle. The gems: Amber, Ruby, Jewel, Opal. They were an gossamer vision of femininity, ready to be put on a pedestal. Talk about "nurturing their self esteem." Just hear the grandparents of the time grumbling: "Opal? What kind of fancy-pants name is that?"
Back to the present now. Can you imagine saying that parents chose names like Amber, Lily and Jewel because they wanted their daughters to be "sturdy"? Yet the only thing that separates those names from Opal, Hazel and Myrtle is our 21st-century fashion sense. In reality, all those names were wildly trendy creations that zoomed into style and then zoomed back out again -- the Tiffanys of the 1900s.
It's a peculiar conceit, imagining that the past was immune to fashion. It fits with much of America's mythology, an image of a rough-hewn, no-nonsense land built with our own hands. But there's another American mythology that fits better when talking about name trends: the land of opportunity. Names like Opal weren't sturdy and rugged, they were they stuff dreams are made of. And every generation bestows its dreams on its children in the form of names.
Comments
My guess is that Milton and Sidney were almost always named for the poets, who were more likely to be read in 1905 than recognized in 2005. As for Whitney, every time I see Whitney as a first or middle name on a North American notable born before 1960, I do my best to hunt down that person's genealogy. In almost every case the individual's line can be traced to John and Elinor Whitney, forebears of most (surnamed) Whitneys on this continent, who arrived in Massachusetts in 1635. (E.g., it took me minutes online to find filmmaker John Whitney "Whit" Stillman's connection.) For a couple centuries, the given name Whitney signalled a relationship, usually blood, to one of America's most accomplished families. In recent decades, it signals parents who are tired of "Courtney" or "Brittany". What does that say about the direction our country is taking?
...and the typesetters of 1905 could handle a Roman ligature more easily than the blogware of 2005!
The names Milton and Sidney certainly derived from the poets (John Milton and Philip Sidney). Their U.S. popularity, though, didn't reflect a wave of poetry fans. (Nor did the rise of the name Whitney at that same time reflect a sudden baby boom in the Whitney family.) Rather, these origins established the names as emblems of Anglo sophistication -- and thus aspirational names. Milt and Sid were especially popular among poor immigrants who dreamed of social mobility for their sons. The Anglo elite, meanwhile, were more likely to stick with John and Philip.
Thank you for pointing out the inconsistency in the original article, namely (ha) that "unpopular" names were popular! There may be a few unkind parents who intentionally give their kids ugly names, but I have to believe that most parents recognize that bestowing a name upon a person is a monumental responsibility with only limited opportunities to fulfill it, and they want to do the best they can!
Interesting! The backbone quality that we now associate with these quaint, old-fangled names probably has more to do with the old people, themselves, rather than their names. In other words, we might know a crotchety old "Myrtle" or a stubborn (yet dignified) old "Ethel."
As I read that excerpt, I was thinking the exact same thing that you then commented on. Gladys was seen as just as fashionable in its day as the popular and stylish names of today.
Laura, thank you so much for sharing your perspective and common sense about American naming habits. I think our names reveal so much about us, and I never hear better sense from anyone about names than from you. This article is a perfect case in point. I look forward to your column every week, a mini history and cultural lesson, always fascinating, and always making me think about my own assumptions. Thanks again, please keep them coming!
Sounds like Lexus and Portia are the Opal and Hazel of the 2000s.
I personally believe that some of the older "outdated" names are coming back. I named my first daughter Sylvia 9 yrs ago. I remember all of the flack that I got about it. The most common comment I got was "but that's an old woman's name". I simply replied, old woman were children once, and my child will be old one day too.Over the last 9 years I have heard names such as Hazel, Opal, Gertrude given to baby girls. When I asked what made them choose their daughters names, the mothers/fathers most common response was that they felt that the names had character.And I suppose it's true.
Call me old fashioned, but I would rather see classics like Opal, Gertrude, and Guinivere (sp?) than Skyler, Ashlee, and Britney!
My aunt -- the youngest of 10 born on a ranch in 1921 -- was named Pansy at birth. That was surely a trendy name for my great grandparents (after John, Alma, Mary, Martha, Margaret, Mabel, Lucy, Thomas and Bernard were born). She legally changed her name to Diane when she became an adult, though.
I was walking through the cemetary today, and saw three little headstones. Grover was born in 1918, and died when he was 11 months old. Gertrude was born in late 1919, and died when she was 10 months old. Little Mildred came along a few years later, and only lived to be 16 months old. While Grover makes us think of a cute blue muppet, and Gertrude and Mildred sound clunky today, back then they must have been beautiful names that those poor parents picked out for their sweet little babies. I'm thinking about doing research and finding out if the family had any other children who lived.
We are going to name our daughter Mabel. I think it's a beautiful name, even though it's considered old-fashioned. It means "lovable." Nice.
Call it a generation gap, but I just CANNOT picture names like Gertrude, Eunice, or Melba on anybody under 65, much less on a chubby toddler or a curly-haired preschooler.*trying to picture the names as sweet-sounding on a 3-year-old girl*"Gertrude! Come inside and take your castor oil! Gertrude! Come inside NOW! Don't make me whip your behind!" ("Time-outs" didn't exist back then, of course.)Nope. No matter how hard I try, I just can't picture it. Pretty weird.
Ref "Justine Case" -- I understand what you mean about not being able to picture a baby named Gertrude. I have always thought that Margaret and Byron are beautiful names, but they should only be given to people who are BORN 12 years old or older and not to babies. They just seem to be too much name for babies.Susan
I have to agree with you that a lot of the names we give our kids are based on our dreams, particularly those names that mirror trends of the day. All of us who have been named for actors or characters in movies, television or books are merely bearing the name(s) of the person(s) our parents admire or would like us to be like. Upon our birth, they hoped to imbue us with the qualities of the person(s) after whom they named us by giving us their name(s). Susan (from the "named after Susan Hayward" generation)
I remember my grandmother complaining about all the "Deborahs" that were born in the 1950s, and the "Jennifers" born in the 1970s. "They're such ugly, old-fashioned names!" she said. "Why are people saddling their poor children with such horrible names?"
My grandmother is named Gertrude. She's 89 yrs old and even she thinks it's an "old lady name"! All her life she was known as Gert, but at age 80 she decided that she was now going to be called "Trudy"! :)
Our older daughter was born in 2002 and we named her Mabel after my grandmother. She's now a bright eyed toddler and the name couldn't suit her more. We liked the old-fashioned names so much that we named our second daughter Violet. Once in a while we get a negative reaction, but overwhelmingly people have loved the names---especially when they can see the kids. The names become young again when they belong to children, and I'm sure that no one Mabel's age will associate the names with old ladies.
Give your children two names - a middle name for when they are babies/children and a first name for when they are adults. My mother was always called June (second name) although she is now Edith (first name) and my friend Ruth (second name) is now a Jacqueline (first name).
I adore Violet & Mabel!My 2 daughters are Esmé and Amelia. People often say that Esmé is an old ladies name, but i havent ever heard of anyone else with the name- old or young. We call her Izzy for short a lot of the time. Never meant to, i dont quite know how that was started- most people assume she is called Isabel!Amelia was named after watching the film Amélie- i love the name but knew that as we are English, not French she would have a life time of correcting her name from Emily, which is too popular for my liking.
All those people who cannot picture a baby Gertrude (or whatever old-fashioned names), you just lack imagination. Just like the people who said the same about Olivia, Sophia, Abigail etc. Parents with more imagination started using these names, and now even unimaginative parents can use them, since they have actually seen a lot of children with these names.And so what if Margaret does not sound like "the name of a baby"? How long will she be a baby and how long an adult? Besides, Margaret has a lot of nn to use for a baby and a little girl. And for names with no obvious nn, there are always pet names.
I think the name MAISIE is very sweetand old fashioned, I'd like to see this pretty name come back in again
I have recently been looking for the origin of my name and didn't realize that Whitney was a unisex name (first, more thought of as a male name). My mother saw the name 'Whitney' in the credits of a tv show (for those of you who may know who Meredith Baxter is, her mother's name was Whitney Blake) and my mother just loved the name. I was born in '82, and didn't know another Whitney until I was at least 16 or 17. I think it's such a unique name, and I've always loved it.
I also adore old fashioned names, even though I don't have one. I love the name Asa for a boy, but there's not really an old-fashioned name for girls I'm particularly attached to. No women in my family had very fashionable names, except my mother, whose name is Donna. My grandmother's name is Dove, which I think is beautiful, and reminds me of how soft and sweet she was when I was a little girl and she was still alive.
anyway, just throwing my two cents in, I love discussing name origin.
Oh, Gertrude is such an ugly, ugly name. But it's my favourite ugly name and in a way makes it not so bad how much I strangely like it...but even if its for the wrong reason.
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