I’ve seen people recently talking about how
Irma,
Edith, and other old-fashioned names are "coming back into style", but are people aware of the current trends?
Emma and
Evelyn have come back into vogue, yes, but not because they’re old-fashioned - that might be a secondary reason, but not the main one.
The main reason they became popular is because they had very trendy attributes:
Emma was soft, simple, and feminine, while
Evelyn had the much-wanted "lyn" ending and "
Eva-" was a soft and trendy sound (as A Masked Man has said before).
Because these names are considered old-fashioned, many people here have assumed that other old names will follow suit - but this isn’t quite true.
Mabel will come into fashion because it’s soft and feminine and has the popular "bel" ending. Names like
Edna,
Edith,
Ethel, and
Irma will not, because they have nothing to them that’s trending right now.
The only dated names that I could see coming back are
Ida, because of the sound, and MAYBE
Winifred or
Dorothy, because of the Winnie/Freddie and
Dodie nicknames.
You might say "Well,
Edith and
Edna have the
Edie nickname."
Yes, they do, but they’re too old-fashioned for most parents. There is a limit that most parents will not pass because certain names feel too dated to use.
Mabel,
Ida,
Winifred and
Dorothy are old-fashioned, but not TOO old-fashioned for modern parents’s tastes.
Did any of that make sense? I feel like I’m just rambling, but I also felt like I had to say something about the popular assumption that "all old-fashioned names will come back". Yes, some will, but not all of them.