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and I do not associate it with any words. Maybe because I heard it while I was young, since it's the name of my grandmother. I think it's strong and graceful and I love the Old Englishness of it. People feel it's dowdy so I didn't really consider it, but ... really, if Audrey or Edith or Molly or Dorothy or Florence or ... Pearl, for heavensake, isn't dowdy, how can Mildred really be? I don't get it. Besides, a little girl named Mildred's peers wouldn't think it was dowdy. I have wondered, if another form/spelling of it were used -- like, if it were Meldrith -- would it have totally escaped the dowdy stereotype and be on its way back "in" today.