CHRISTENING A DAUGHTER

Waipa Post, Volume 34, Issue 2033, 16 July 1927, Page 2

CHRISTENING A DAUGHTER

FASHION'S CHANGES IN NAMES.

Having returned recently from a christening at which the baby—a girl —was given the name of Thomasina, ■I have been giving some attention to the* subject, and gathering wHat- information I could from the newspapers and the conversation of friends. Girls' names, it would seem, are more liable than boys' names to the vagaries of fashion, probably because in the case of a female infant parents feel themselves more able to let their fancy range and their sentiment play free (writes Catherine Carswell in the Manchester Guardian). Thus we have the flower names for girls (and some forty years ago what a spate there waa of Pansies, Irises, Lilies, Violets, Violas, Roses), and we have scores of such fancy names as April, May, and June, Joy, Hope, Faith, Charity, and Prudence, some of which have become in course of time what one may call " solid " names enough. But with boys, though we may have a run of Peters and Michaels, Nicholases and Christophers, we never really stray from the beaten path for our choice. The fact is that while the plain Janes and Marys may linger for a season out of the vogue, the Johns and Jameses and Richards march steadily in full fashion and repute. During the last fifty years the wheel has turned away, not merely from the flowers and fancies (and what an exuqisite if dangerous name, by the way, for a girl, is Fancy, given by Hardy to the heroine of "Under the Greenwood Tree"!), but from the overworked Saxon names, such as Hilda and Matilda, Edith and Ethel, and from what one may call the Tennysonian names, such as, Elaine and Maud, Lilian and Evelyn (the last being another example of a name that changes its character entirely with its sex). Gone, too, are the Dorises and the Irenes (the "Ireen" of the Cockney charlady's daughter), the Mabels, the Enids, and the Doi'as. Within the last ten years or so the babies have been made to rejoice in names like Jane, Ann, Elizabeth, Mary, Bridget, or in old-fashioned doublings like Jane Ann, Anna Jane, even Elizabeth Mary. Of Anns (with or without the e) and Janes there has been a specially large crop, almost enough to date the ladies when they shall be older. Margarets and Dorothys are being given a rest. Charlottes and Emilys, on the other hand, are once more coming to the front. And now— Thomasina! Does this herald, I wonder, a return of the Robinas and Robertas that were the aunts of the women now becoming middle-aged? Shall we soon 1 be carrying little Augustus from the font, Edwinas, Davidas, Georginas, Henriettas, Albertas, Wilhelminas, Adrianas, Donaldas, and Jemimis ?