What names never go out of fashion?

Those that I call “mayonnaise names”. Beige, bland, and unassuming.
Like John, Mark, Karl, Jake, or Stephen.

Present company excepted, of course. Lol

Andrew and Ben are timeless. :D

It seems to me there are significant trends in names. I guess boys names are more likely to have staying lower through the generations since at least some families do the jr, II, III thing. Is that still in fashion?

I feel like Michael, Thomas, Jonathon, and Timothy, will go on forever.

Where I live, let’s say the state of Florida, the wide variety of names is huge. People over 60 there are a lot of people with the names Lisa, Debbie, Michael, Larry, Bill, Sandra, Elaine, Linda, and ages 50–55 a ton of Jennifer, Melissa, Katherine, Elizabeth, Stephanie, and Christine, and still keep Michael in there for sure, Christopher, Jonathon.

Aimee/Amy and Ann/Anna are popular too for ongoing years.

However, there are also so many people born outside of the US who do not have typical names for America.

Also, some biblical names were very popular in my generation. Rachel, Adam, Mary, Zachary, Rebecca.

Michigan has a lot of Barbara’s and they all go by Barb. Also, I knew several men named Troy and Lance in Michigan. Not anywhere else I’ve lived.

Want to know all about names, patterns, trends, fads, perennials and long-gones, at least in the U.S.? Look here:

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/

Look at the old, old names topping the lists in 2020.

My son is John. My daughter Becky. His name aged better than hers.
Last year, after years of hating her name, she now says she is glad her name isn’t Karen.

My name will never go out of fashion, as it is quite unique (I have only ever met one other person that shared the name!)

The most popular boys’ names in Scotland in 2020 were:

Jack,
Noah,
James.
Leo
Oliver.

The most popular girls’ names were:

Isla,
Olivia,
Emily,
Freya,
Ava.

Lots more Scottish name information here

As for America, I think Jim, John, Jack, Joe, won’t easily get out of fashion, when it concerns make names, and Betty, Wilma, Anne, Daisy, Linda, in the female names section.

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In the Netherlands, old fashioned names, that remain used are Jan, Piet, Jaap, Wim, Cor (male), and (Ma)Ria, Bep, Wil, Jannie, Truus (female).

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Here are the most popular baby names from last year, in the Netherlands:

Top 10 most popular boys names:
Noah
Sem
Daan
Levi
Lucas
Finn
Luuk
Liam
Milan
Mees

Top 10 most popular girls names:
Tess
Julia
Milou
Mila
Sophie
Emma
Yara
Evi
Zoë
Nora

My first name is a Shakespearian character. It’s not a popular name but it’s growing in popularity in the US. I check the SS site every now and then.

For boys, it seems what will always be popular is Michael, John, Anthony, Robert. Girls’s names seem to ebb and flow with the trends. I heard that in the 50’s and 60’s, every classroom had at least one Patricia. When I hear of a woman named Linda or Barbara, I know it’s probably someone in their 50’s or 60’s. When I hear an Ashley, I know it’s likely she’s going to be someone from 30’s to younger. Same with Taylor or Madison. Beautiful names but trendy.

Any name that is based on religious figures will always be used.

Mary, Joseph, Abraham, Mohamed, etc

Yes, I think names from the Bible never go out of fashion.

@rebbel Betty? Wilma? You’ve been watching The Flintstones too much.

P.S. Except maybe Hepzibah! lol)

@janbb I was thinking about them when I wrote it down.
Wilma, I might have gotten confused with Dutch names (although we had a Wilma here), but Betty?
Betty Boop, Betty White, Black Betty…

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Bam-Ba-Lam

@rebbel Maybe in the olden days but not still popular.

Was Betty short for Elizabeth or Beatriz?

@JLeslie Elizabeth I think which is probably still popular but not, as far as I know, nowadays with Betty as a nickname.

I wonder if Elizabeth will grow in popularity again, now, along with Lilibet now that the Queen’s granddaughter has that name.

Liz was a popular nickname for Elizabeth when I was little, or it could also be shortened to Beth.

I love the name Elizabeth. Did it go completely out of fashion? Elizabeth, Stephanie, Jennifer, all these three syllable girl names were popular around the same time.

Due to the political climate, I suspect we will see a lot more Brandons.

Nicknames that I know of for Elizabeth: Beth, Betty, Betsy, Bette, Bess, Bessie, Liz, Lizzie, Libby, Elsie, Eliza, Liza. Maybe a few more that I’ll think of later.

I think commandeering the queen’s private nickname for Harry and Meghan’s baby, effectively making it public property, was a grievous offense. I hope it never gains widespread use.

Oh, and I think also Elsa and Ilse.

Elizabeth is also related to Isabel and its variants. And of course there are related versions or diminutives in other language groups, such as Elisabeth and Elspeth.

So in one form or another it’s been around for a long, long time and will probably continue. I don’t know if that means it’s in fashion, but it has staying power. Its association with royalty since at least the 16th century doesn’t hurt.

The name Margaret also has a lot of variants. Link

Yes, I worked Margaret out to be second after Elizabeth for number of variants. Maybe it actually has more.

For some reason I gave the matter a lot of thought when I was in my teens. I might have been busily naming the seven children I thought I might have one day. You have to consider nicknames when you bestow a name. So of course when I was 14 or 15 I made lists of names and considered them thoroughly.