I think every country has them: first names that immediately make you think of an old person because they sound really old-fashioned. Can you name a few examples?

12 comments

  1. Here where I live (Sicily)…Gaspare would be a good choice for boys.It used to be very common here but I have never met a young Gaspare 😉

    For females maybe Giuseppina,though it still exists in abbreviated form (Giusi).Or Rosalia..that used to be very common in Palermo for girls,but very rare these days I think (at least I rarely meet young people called Rosalia).

  2. Bep, Alie/Aaltje, Mien, Trijntje, Grietje for women. Arie, Gerrit, Jan, Piet, Henk for men. Yes these names include the names of two of my grandparents.

    Most of the men’s got extended into boomer territory as well and aren’t completely gone today, I know people in their 20s with all of those men’s names except for Gerrit. The women’s are more closely tied to the time period. I don’t know anybody under, like, 50 with these names.

  3. There are so many names that are falling into disuse its difficult to choose. Some of the most obvious:

    F: Sagrario, Benigna, Isabelina, Consolación

    M: Secundino, Rogelio, Abelino, Eustaquio

    Off topic: my neighbours are a young Belgian-Danish couple and they have recently adopted a cat they have named “Alonso”, which is a name that my grandfather or my father could have had lol. Idk, it’s like if I adopt a dog and call him “Peter”. It’s hilarious every time I hear them talk to the cat

  4. In 1942 ten most popular Finnish names for women were (number at end is number of persons):

    1.Ritva,1 178 kpl
    2.Pirkko,837
    3.Tuula,821
    4.Anja,700
    5.Sirkka,697
    6.Marja,697
    7.Eila,689
    8.Leena,673
    9.Liisa,669
    10.Seija,616

    And for men:

    1.Matti,1 224 kpl
    2.Pentti,1 029
    3.Seppo,997
    4.Erkki,906
    5.Raimo,824
    6.Veikko,750
    7.Martti,702
    8.Jorma,680
    9.Pekka,678
    10.Heikki,674

    Source: [Finnish Broadcast Company’s article](https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-9418798). There is a section (*Katso syntymävuotesi suosituimmat nimet*) where you can select the year (*Valitse vuosi:*) and it tells you top 20 names on that year and to how many persons it was given.

    Edit: Those don’t feel that old names. Probably because they are, at least some of them, fairly common names even with younger generations.

  5. For women: Maude, Doris, Eustace, Nora, Carol.

    For men: Ernest, Alfred, Charles, Wilfrid, Alan

    Especially for boys but in general, there is a bit of a revival of “old fashioned” names in the last 5 years or so. It’s quite common to hear about baby Ernie, Alfie, Charlie. Though not sure if they are actually given the full version of the name.

  6. Any name with two names feels old. Like Sven-Bertil, Per-Arne and Klas-Göran. All of those names alone also sounds really old. Those are male names.

    For females I’d say names like Berit, Gunnel, Ingrid, Anita and of course many more.

  7. According to [this](https://www.beliebte-vornamen.de/jahrgang/j1942), Karin and Peter were the most common names for 1942’s babies, followed by Renate, Elke, Monika and Hans, Klaus and Jürgen, respectively.

    Some of the names were still in favor in later years but Renate and Hans are people who are at least in their late 70s.

  9. For women: a lot of names finishing with “-ette” (Paulette, Claudette, Lucette, Georgette, Josette), or “-ine” (Martine, Nadine, Claudine, Corinne), as well as compound names (Marie-Pierre, Marie-Claude, Marie-Paul). There are also of course some outlyers like Marguerite, Louise, Jeanne, Simone… An interesting note is that the vast majority of these names are feminised men’s names (these names were feminised by adding a suffixe, or simply an “e” at the end, like in the case of Jeanne or Simone).

    For men: it seems there were less defined trends with men’s names. Most “classical” French men’s names would make the list: Pierre, Jacques, Roger, Maurice, Robert, Jean, Georges, Charles… Men can also have compound names such as Jean-Luc, Jean-Pierre, Jean-Louis, Léo-Paul, Jean-David, etc. Most of mens’ classical compound names have Jean as the first name.

  10. Couldn’t find the list for 1942 but here’s the top 5 for 1950:

    Boys: John, James, William, Robert, David

    Girls: Margaret, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine, Ann

    Which in themselves barely changed from 1950:

    Boys: John, James, William, Robert, Alexander

    Girls: Mary, Margaret, Elizabeth, Annie, Jane

    Note that these are the names on their birth certificates and not necessarily the names they went by (for example, a lot of those Johns would have gone by Iain).

    James and David in particular are still pretty common names.

  11. Women: Any “ette” name except Juliette, so: Josette, Lucette, Paulette, Hugette, Colette, etc, Solange, Geneviève, Monique, Josiane, Germaine, Françoise, Marie-Noëlle, Susanne, Jeannine, Gisèle, Lucienne, Simone, Yvonne, Jacqueline, Thérèse, Micheline, Renée…

    Men: Robert, Georges, Jean, Marcel, Maurice, Benoît, Bernard, Gérard, Germain, Fernand, Hubert, Jacques, Claude, Raymond, Gilbert, René, André…

    Vintage names are coming back here but those are still seen as to old for kids, except maybe Marcel (more and more popular) and I’ve met 2 young André (and was really surprised, even as a old names fan).

  12. Female: Maria, Stanisława, Katarzyna, Józefa, Jadwiga, Róża, Zofia, Bronisława, Janina, Teresa, Irena, Bogusława, Anna, Genowefa

    Male: Jan, Stanisław, Antoni, Józef, Henryk, Bronisław, Wojciech, Tadeusz, Bolesław, Bogusław, Lucjan, Zdzisław, Eugeniusz, Mieczysław, Stefan, Zbigniew, Włodzimierz

    Some of those names never lost popularity, ex. Jan, Katarzyna (Kasia) Anna or Wojciech, others became very popular recently, like Antoni and Zofia which are now in top given names.

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