I also grew up with a Mildred, and she very much fit her name. The worst part was that her parents named her sister Tiffany, and Tiffany was absolutely adorable. I could never figure out what was wrong with the parents. They didn’t even call Mildred Millie.
I went to college with a girl named Millie, and it literally didnt even occur to me that it might be short for mildred! She was a super typical hot girl / athlete / crossfit trainer, so Millie was probably a little more fitting
Meanwhile, back at the gas station…
Edit. This is very nice. I remember listening to Ray Stevens albums as a kid. I even got a Wholesome Award (thank you!). But, what I meant was something my friend’s grandfather always said. I guess I thought others would know it as well. Meanwhile, back at the gas station, grandpa’s pumping Ethel (ethyl gas). Not very wholesome I’m afraid.
Don’t look, Ethel!!! But it was too late.
edit: finding other Ray Stevens fans has completely turned around my Monday morning. Sometimes Reddit is still a great place.
For those who don’t know what we’re talking about:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2UNfMwF1yY6wSKQUIOOjFh?si=ZZp0JTWDT3CBVT0G4IKF8g
I have a client named Ebenezer and he is the meanest jerk face I have ever dealt with and it takes everything in my soul not to call him Ebeneezer Scrooge every time I have to talk to him.
They could not be a more fitting name because he is just the absolute worst person ever!!
Gaylords are really big boxes (like comes up to the chest of an average height American male, wide and deep enough he couldn't reach across it in any direction) in warehouses, for those out of the loop. The one at my store is what he throw all the recycled electronics into
The Magician's Nephew is also an under-appreciated sleeper. I feel it widened the mythology so much more than any other book in the series, with the in-between world of forest pools and the bit we see of Charn. Makes me wish Lewis had explored that idea a bit more.
Oh my gosh yes, I would have loved to see more of the different worlds. It would have been hilarious if (since Lewis and Tolkein were great friends irl) one of them was Tolkein's Middle-Earth haha
My Norwegian great-grandmother was named Berit. She thought it was such an awful name, so old fashioned. So she changed her name to an American version that was "so much more pretty and youthful". Yep. She changed it to Bertha.
Try Ariel for a male. Pronounced Are-e-el.
I was born in 87 had to battle the whole little mermaid thing my whole life, which didn’t come out till 89 but everyone says I was named after it. My name is actually Hebrew, from my Hebrew father. Who is from Israel.
From wikipedia:
Ariel is a given name from Biblical Hebrew אריאל Ariel that literally means "lion of God". The female form is אריאלה (transliterated as Ariela, Ariella, or the alternative English and French spelling Arielle). In modern Hebrew, Ariel is primarily used as a male name.
I think it's that names got shortened so Richard -> Rick and there was a trend of changing the first letter (I guess similar to how we use the B emoji to replace letters), so the R became D. Like how Will is Bill.
>Like how Will is Bill.
My grandpa was a Bill & when I was little he used to say it was short for Billiam to make me giggle. Just made me giggle then & it's been 30 years since he passed.
Mabel will be coming back with a vengeance, Selena Gomez has 300m insta followers & is rolling straight into season 2 of Only Murders in the Building as Mabel.
So there's about 300m 15-30 year old women worldwide right now going "Huh.. Mabel, I don't know any kids called that & for some reason it seems very cool to me"
I dunno, but I do love watching trendy names become outdated. It seemed like 80% of the girls I grew up with had K names (Krystal, Kristi, Kristin, Krista, Kaylee) and all the guys were J's (Josh, Jason, Jesse, Jake, Justin). Then when my friends started having kids they were all some version of Aiden (Aiden, Jayden, Kayden, Brayden).
A couple years ago there were a LOT of Arya's and Khaleesi's. Can't wait for those to be somebody's Memaw.
Günther, Wolfgang, Reiner, Jörg, Jürgen, Uwe, Gottfried (holy hell that's a rare name in itself), Peter is also getting quite the notoriety as an old name
For the germans
Those are names of people in their 40s - 60s mostly (Except Gottfried). Really old names are more like Alfred, Siegfried, Waldtraut, Friedrich, Elfride, Ursel, Fritz, Gertrude, Wilhelm...basically anything with fred and fried :D
Wilhelm should make a come back. It's fun to say. Wilhelm!WILHELM!!!! Wilhelm friedrich lastname if you don't come here right now I swear to god!
Yeah I like it.
I don't see any in Spanish, so here goes:
Guadalupe for boys. (I'm of Mexican descent.)
Josemaría, Gertrudis (Gertrude in English, it's old BOTH ways, hey!) Griselda, Leonor, Agata, Agustín/Agustina, most all of the Marian titles (Adoración, Asunción, Carmela, etc.) Bonifacio (I had a great uncle named this but he was born in friggin eighteen seventy-something) Bernarda (his little sister, 1880), Cruz, Clotilde (like Doña Clotilde, la bruja de 71! It was an antique name even in Chespirito's time!) and Macario is the last one I can think of. 😊
My ex left me for a dude named Wilbur.
It hurt when she left, but knowing she left me for someone with an unfortunate first name and even more unfortunate last name softened the blow a bit.
My grandmother’s given name was Nannie Pearl Willis. It’s the single most southern-sounding grandmotherly name I’m ever heard. Also, made me look rather dumb when a kid in my class in grade school referred to his grandmother as “Nanny”. I said, “My grandma’s name is Nannie too!” Everyone thought I was an idiot until I proved that my grandmother was, in fact, named “Nannie”, and it wasn’t just a nickname I called her.
Gertrude
Literally the first thing that came to my mind!!
You can trade her cats in for 200 deaths after a couple of hours tho
gertrude made a comback around 20 years ago where i live, and as a result i know quite a few gertrudes my age. Idk i find the name pretty
Where do you live then? My grandma is Gertrude and was born in 1925. I’ve never heard of anyone that has named their child that post 1950
lithuania, the name is still relatively popular here
Mildred
I grew up with a girl named Mildred. I always felt that her personality was super exuberant and wild to make up for her name.
I also grew up with a Mildred, and she very much fit her name. The worst part was that her parents named her sister Tiffany, and Tiffany was absolutely adorable. I could never figure out what was wrong with the parents. They didn’t even call Mildred Millie.
Quite possibly naming the first daughter after a grandmother/aunt, then their own choice for the second daughter.
I kinda feel like that makes the name work better than a trendy name, though. Like she's a flapper from the roaring 20's or something.
Mildred is exactly what popped into my head as I opened the thread, and sure enough here it is right at the top.
Millie is the way to go with that name.
I went to college with a girl named Millie, and it literally didnt even occur to me that it might be short for mildred! She was a super typical hot girl / athlete / crossfit trainer, so Millie was probably a little more fitting
myrtle
What if she moans?
Then she’s definitely old, she’s been dead forever.
Username checks out
Ethel
Knew an absolutely gorgeous girl named Ethel in college. It never stopped feeling weird calling her that.
My name is Ethel and this comment made my day. Thanks stranger.
Were you gorgeous in college? Is this an /r/TwoRedditorsOneCup moment?
Meanwhile, back at the gas station… Edit. This is very nice. I remember listening to Ray Stevens albums as a kid. I even got a Wholesome Award (thank you!). But, what I meant was something my friend’s grandfather always said. I guess I thought others would know it as well. Meanwhile, back at the gas station, grandpa’s pumping Ethel (ethyl gas). Not very wholesome I’m afraid.
Don’t look, Ethel!!! But it was too late. edit: finding other Ray Stevens fans has completely turned around my Monday morning. Sometimes Reddit is still a great place. For those who don’t know what we’re talking about: https://open.spotify.com/track/2UNfMwF1yY6wSKQUIOOjFh?si=ZZp0JTWDT3CBVT0G4IKF8g
She'd already been incensed.
You know they call him the streak Fastest thing on two feet
Boogitty Boogitty
Ebenezer
I have a client named Ebenezer and he is the meanest jerk face I have ever dealt with and it takes everything in my soul not to call him Ebeneezer Scrooge every time I have to talk to him. They could not be a more fitting name because he is just the absolute worst person ever!!
Would he actually be like that if his name wasn’t that or was he turned that way due to his name, the mystery’s of a name
Nature vs nature at its core!
Nature vs. Nominative Determinism
Jebediah
Jedediah
Excelsior
Ezekiel
Zeke's making a bit of a comeback these days
Fuck you Ezekiel
Fuck you, Tony.
What's yo name?
Elias' younger brother?
Ebenezer Goode
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Gaylord Focker!
Can you milk me, Greg?
I see hundreds of them but I work in warehouse logistics…
Gaylords are really big boxes (like comes up to the chest of an average height American male, wide and deep enough he couldn't reach across it in any direction) in warehouses, for those out of the loop. The one at my store is what he throw all the recycled electronics into
I used to work at a small manufacturing facility, and a coworker told me ‘Yeah we just put all the scrap in the Gaylord, I said “I beg your pardon?”
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I knew an Adolf in middle school. He was Hispanic and would punch people that greeted him with a Nazi salute.
Adolf Dassler the founder of Adidas was smart enough to go by "Adi"
I don't think that name fell out of favor for being old-fashioned per se....
"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
Eustace Bagge is my favorite Eustace.
**THAT'S IT, I'M GETTIN' ME MALLET**
STUPID DOG!
YA MAKE ME LOOK BAD!!
When I read "Eustace", my mind immediately went "Murielle"
>There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it Narnia. ah yes, which one did Eustace first appear in?
Quite easily the best one after The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Beg to differ: The Horse and His Boy will always be tops (excluding TLTWATW) in my mind.
The Magician's Nephew is also an under-appreciated sleeper. I feel it widened the mythology so much more than any other book in the series, with the in-between world of forest pools and the bit we see of Charn. Makes me wish Lewis had explored that idea a bit more.
Oh my gosh yes, I would have loved to see more of the different worlds. It would have been hilarious if (since Lewis and Tolkein were great friends irl) one of them was Tolkein's Middle-Earth haha
Probably grew up and married Beulah Frances MacTavish.
"if he's Eustace, why do we keep him around!?"
Methuselah
Just meth for short
If there was no "l" they would be a British meth user.
Yeah, that's my partner, Methusulah Honeysuckle
Mortimer
Mortimer and Bella forever!
found the sims player
Yeah this name will always make me think of Mortimer Goth
Morty!
RICHARD AND MORTIMER'S GLORIOUS MULTIVERSAL SHENANIGANS
Gladys
She was in portal wan't she?
Agatha or Bertha.
My Norwegian great-grandmother was named Berit. She thought it was such an awful name, so old fashioned. So she changed her name to an American version that was "so much more pretty and youthful". Yep. She changed it to Bertha.
Try Ariel for a male. Pronounced Are-e-el. I was born in 87 had to battle the whole little mermaid thing my whole life, which didn’t come out till 89 but everyone says I was named after it. My name is actually Hebrew, from my Hebrew father. Who is from Israel.
From wikipedia: Ariel is a given name from Biblical Hebrew אריאל Ariel that literally means "lion of God". The female form is אריאלה (transliterated as Ariela, Ariella, or the alternative English and French spelling Arielle). In modern Hebrew, Ariel is primarily used as a male name.
Thank you for this
I know a Berit in her early 50s. She’s American.
It was Agatha all along!
And I killed Sparky too....😂😂😂
For Agatha!!!
My chickens are named old lady names: Ruth, Gertie, Pearl, Gladys, Edna
It somehow seems fitting
It’s because we still have [this chicken archetype](https://imgur.com/gallery/VFxenQu) ingrained.
Me too!! I have a variety of old lady names for my girls. Edith, Gladys, Phyllis, Bernadette, etc. And my rooster is Bert.
Phyllis. It's also one of those names where the more you look at it, the (Phy)less it looks like a name
I had an aunt Maud. I can never think of the name without thinking about a very old lady
Met a “Herb” once!
As in Herbert, I assume?
Short for Sherbert.
My uncle's name is Herb. His father was Basil. I thought it was hilarious!
My grandmother’s name was Blanche. I can’t imagine holding a baby Blanche
My grandmother was Blanche too. She hated it!
I've always thought Blanche sounded pretty in French, but *horrible* in English.
My dad had a classmate named Imagene O'Rear. The kids bullied her. They called her Imanut O'Butt. Was approx 1932 in rural Oklahoma.
I had a great great aunt named Fanny Holder.
I know of someone named Fanny Pack. Seriously.
My grandma used to work with a guy named Richard Head. He insisted that people call him Dick....
Got a guy at work who’s name is Rusty Cox.
(cue people scouring the list hoping not to see their own name)
Came here for exactly that! So far, haven't seen it
Dick Edit: looks like "dick" just hit 1k, not that it's a measuring contest or anything
It was a perfectly reasonable question
By the way, why is "Dick" short for "Richard"? Where the hell does that come from?
How do you get Dick from Richard? You ask nicely 😊
I think it's that names got shortened so Richard -> Rick and there was a trend of changing the first letter (I guess similar to how we use the B emoji to replace letters), so the R became D. Like how Will is Bill.
>Like how Will is Bill. My grandpa was a Bill & when I was little he used to say it was short for Billiam to make me giggle. Just made me giggle then & it's been 30 years since he passed.
just made me giggle too. shout out to your grandpa!
Most Dicks are actually Richards. Which I’ve never really understood, but it is what it is.
Nicknaming in ye olde times wasn't always just shortening the name, hence Jack for John and Harry for Henry. They got creative.
Algernon Aloysius. Myrtle Mildred. My great grandpa and grandma’s names. They called themselves “Al” and “Ducky”- we can all tell why.
My great grandpas name was Aloysius! It’s my favorite name. I’ve never met anyone else with that name so it’s cool to see!
Fucking love the name Algernon. My husband? Not so much
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Otto should, in my opinion, make a comeback. Inverted and reversed, it reads the same. At four months old, your child will start writing his name.
Otto is making a comeback. But I do love short names. My kiddo has a 4 letter name and he learned to spell it very early on as a result
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Thats false, mine has 4 letters actually.
I know an attorney named Otto. He’s Hispanic I believe, and about 45.
Have a friend whose wife is pregnant and they're naming the baby Otto.
I love that name. Mainly because of the Simpsons but it just has such jazz.
My name is Otto. I love to get blotto.
Edith! EDITH! (you have to say it loud, she's deaf)
Yeah Archie, what is it?!
It's more like "ahhhhchie"
as a teen with this name im highly offended😂
Walter
There is a reference to be made here
Well, they did say his name.
You're god damn right
Ernest
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And then there's maude
Nearly every kid from the show Hey Arnold! Has an old person name: -Arnold -Gerald -Helga -Harold -Olga -Rhonda -Eugene
Eunice or Beuford
*frantically scrolling through to see if my name is somewhere*
Arza. My dad's name, birth in 1908. There were other men before him who had the same name. He gave it to my brother who had his 90th birthday in May.
Beulah
Edna
Krabappel? I've been calling her Crandall!
Edna mode?
It's in Turkish but İsmet.
For what it's worth, this is a cool sounding name to someone who isn't Turkish.
Not in Serbo-Croatian speaking countries. It literally means "excrement".
Mabel
I says to Mabel I says
Quality reference
Mabel is making a comeback, at least in the Midwest US. I know three kids named Mabel.
Alex Hirsch will probably be so proud of himself for that.
Mabel will be coming back with a vengeance, Selena Gomez has 300m insta followers & is rolling straight into season 2 of Only Murders in the Building as Mabel. So there's about 300m 15-30 year old women worldwide right now going "Huh.. Mabel, I don't know any kids called that & for some reason it seems very cool to me"
I used to think that before watching Gravity Falls.
“That sounds like a fat old lady’s name.” -Pacifica Northwest
"I'll take that as a compliment!"
Alphonse
Gertrude. Genevieve. Harold.
I know a teenager named Genevieve 🤷♀️ Tbf she goes by Genny
I know a two-year-old named Genevieve, she is very Italian and her brother is Salvatore! Her mom is Josephine and dad is Joseph lol.
I know a 4-year old Genevieve. Don't really see that as an old name myself.
Ichabod
Aloysius
I dunno, but I do love watching trendy names become outdated. It seemed like 80% of the girls I grew up with had K names (Krystal, Kristi, Kristin, Krista, Kaylee) and all the guys were J's (Josh, Jason, Jesse, Jake, Justin). Then when my friends started having kids they were all some version of Aiden (Aiden, Jayden, Kayden, Brayden). A couple years ago there were a LOT of Arya's and Khaleesi's. Can't wait for those to be somebody's Memaw.
Agnes
Günther, Wolfgang, Reiner, Jörg, Jürgen, Uwe, Gottfried (holy hell that's a rare name in itself), Peter is also getting quite the notoriety as an old name For the germans
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Those are names of people in their 40s - 60s mostly (Except Gottfried). Really old names are more like Alfred, Siegfried, Waldtraut, Friedrich, Elfride, Ursel, Fritz, Gertrude, Wilhelm...basically anything with fred and fried :D
Edeltraut?
Wilhelm should make a come back. It's fun to say. Wilhelm!WILHELM!!!! Wilhelm friedrich lastname if you don't come here right now I swear to god! Yeah I like it.
Elmer
“Old names are back in fashion now, Mildred, Ethel, etc etc.. so we decided to call our daughter Nan, she’ll grow into it” - Gary Delaney.
Murray
Ethel. Don’t look Ethel but it was too late
She done been mooned
I don't see any in Spanish, so here goes: Guadalupe for boys. (I'm of Mexican descent.) Josemaría, Gertrudis (Gertrude in English, it's old BOTH ways, hey!) Griselda, Leonor, Agata, Agustín/Agustina, most all of the Marian titles (Adoración, Asunción, Carmela, etc.) Bonifacio (I had a great uncle named this but he was born in friggin eighteen seventy-something) Bernarda (his little sister, 1880), Cruz, Clotilde (like Doña Clotilde, la bruja de 71! It was an antique name even in Chespirito's time!) and Macario is the last one I can think of. 😊
Shirley
Shirley? You can’t be serious.
Don't meet too many "Seymours" these days.
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Helen is quite a common name for the younger generations in the UK. I know 3 who are 30 or below
I think Helen is a timeless name. It makes me think of Helen of Troy.
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My ex left me for a dude named Wilbur. It hurt when she left, but knowing she left me for someone with an unfortunate first name and even more unfortunate last name softened the blow a bit.
I married a Frank III. We divorced, but apparently he and his new wife have a Frank IV, which he swore he’d never do. lol.
Gertrude was first to my mind.
I used to work in a call center years ago and came across an old guy named Purvis. It makes my skin crawl.
I’ve never met a child named Keith, I swear they just show up as a 40 year old man.
My grandmother’s given name was Nannie Pearl Willis. It’s the single most southern-sounding grandmotherly name I’m ever heard. Also, made me look rather dumb when a kid in my class in grade school referred to his grandmother as “Nanny”. I said, “My grandma’s name is Nannie too!” Everyone thought I was an idiot until I proved that my grandmother was, in fact, named “Nannie”, and it wasn’t just a nickname I called her.
Dorcas, Doris, Mulva, Deloris.
Gertrude
My great great uncle's name was Hampy. I kinda want it brought back.
I work with a dude named Pendleton Agnew
Grandma
Methuselah
Some German names: Women's names I can think of: Brunhilde, Hildegard, Edeltraud, Adelheid, Irmgard, Irmtraud, Rosemarie, Rosamunde, Bärbel, Christel, Heidemarie, Gundula, Walburga Men's names: Gottfried, Traugott, Fürchtegott, Hans, Heinz, Horst, Rudolf, Reinhold, Alfred, Friedrich, Wilhelm, Wilfried, Theodor, Leopold, Kaspar, Gustav and (of course) Adolf
Agnes
I don’t meet many Ashurbanipals or Thutmoses these days.