CRAZES IN NAMES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18832, 21 March 1931, Page 13 (Supplement)

CRAZES IN NAMES

OLD FASHIONS RETURN. » It is interesting to surmise how many baby girls will be christened Margaret or Margaret Rose this winter. Because it is, perhaps, the most popular name of the moment, just as a short while ago, there was a suddent and tremendous revival of Elizabeth. The latter, however, has been a favourite since the days of Good Queen Bess, and Margaret is a name which will never “date” its owner. On the other hand, many Christ-, ian names do “date” women. For parents seldom hesitate to give the popular names of the moment to their daughters, though bestowing upon their sons more solid and “sensible” ones. Something “out-of-the-common," or in the very latest fashion, is sought for a small girl; for the small boy is chosen a family name, or one which will not unduly distinguish him from the crowd or tend to raise his masculine wrath in days to come. While their grandmothers were christened Charlotte, Victoria, Harriet, Jessie, Kate, Constance, Priscilla, Jane, or Letitia, the mothers of the present generation are more often called Barbara, Gladys, Honor, Pamela, Paula, Eve, Beryl, Dorothy, and the like. At one time there was a rage for flower names and then nearly every | girl was Rose, Lily, Violet, Lavender, Dahlia, Daisy, Rosemary or Myrtle. To commemorate owr great victory in the Crimean War, scores of girls in that year were baptised Alma—a name which would inevitably date the bearer, who would probably dislike it for that reason. Nowadays the trend is for old-fash-ioned names like the honoured and beloved Mary, Elizabeth, or Sarah; or else for the very extraordinary ones, such as Gerda, Greta, Arbita, Ilona, Ilda, Hermia, Erika, Fleur, Dorice, Merle, Athene, etc. A vysry far-seeing woman always selects two baptismal names for each of her boys and girls. One is rather fanciful and out of the ordinary; the other of the everyday, undistinguishable kind. The child can choose either for general use when grown up, and so the practice saves much dissatisfaction.