What “old people” names will make a comeback when children of the 80s have grandchildren?

dodgystyle@reddit

Same. It was strictly a dad/uncle name for Aussie Millennials.

I'll put money on this person being from UK or Ireland. The only two Garys my age (38) or younger were from there.

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Prior-Beach-3311@reddit

I am from the UK though. I know of one Gareth my age and that's it and I met him when I was in my early 30s and I have never met another. I'm not even sure I know anyone with uncles etc. Maybe it's not as common in the North west!

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SmokingTheBowl@reddit

I was in primary in the 80s and had one in our year, though I know of 2 Gareth's who were a bit younger than me, so maybe "Gareth" took over.

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SpudFire@reddit

I must be a few years younger than you. No Gary's at school but I think everybody had at least one friend whose dad was a Gary. There were a few other names like that which were common in the parents generation but basically extinct in mine.

Silly-Industry1527@reddit

Both Gary and Gareth could be shortened to Gaz. Like Amelia, Mildred, Millicent could all be shorted to Millie.

bill_end@reddit

I can't believe you're being so critical. I had a hamster called Gary circa 1990 (named after spurs footballer Gary linekar).

The poor little fella only lasted about 6 hours before the cat overturned his cage and murdered him in cold blood.

Poor Gary.

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Kitty_Kat_Attacks@reddit

Not from the UK, but have a question about Gary for those who are—is ‘Gaz’ or ‘Gazzer’ a common nickname? I only ever see/hear this on shows/movies from the UK. Or is it a nickname for something else?

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Super_Ground9690@reddit

Both Gary/Gareth and Gavin can be Gaz/Gazza. There was a period in the 90s to 00s (and I suppose now as well for the middle-aged among us) where every other bloke has had his name shortened and given a Z ending. Baz, Gaz, Tez, Gez, Daz… the list goes on.

Nigel! It’s Nigel that is no more:

Genghis is a title.

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um_-_no@reddit

You jest but I knew a Beryl probably born around '95, it was so ramdom. I think it's one that will be coming back too

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PipBin@reddit

I taught a Hubert a few years ago. Polish boy.

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DavidJonnsJewellery@reddit

Or Egbert and Lavinia

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Dutch_Slim@reddit

Lavinia never goes out of fashion.

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Wretched_Colin@reddit

Mr Cringeworthy and Miss the Peril?

Hey random reply but I just saw a comment of yours from 8 years ago and I like to check if people are still active. Clicked on your profile and for some reason found myself really happy to see you still alive and active hahaha.

Have a nice day!

(It was a comment you left on the left-right game on r/nosleep btw)

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princessstrawberry@reddit

Hi! Still alive and active, and still LOVE that creepypasta! I read it as it came out and I always recommend it to people. Hope you are well!

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Pepsi_E@reddit

I'm a few years younger and have known several Richards my age yeah

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StinkyBird64@reddit

I feel like Richards do exist but it’s either Ricky or Rick lol

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Shinyandsmooth8@reddit

I was born in 88 and Richard was fairly common. A bunch of names just suddenly stopped like Stephen, Daniel, Christopher

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cromagnone@reddit

independent_observe@reddit

Dick was also a popular name in the 40s, but for some reason fell out of favor

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um_-_no@reddit

I was born end of the 90s and I don't think I've met a Richard under 50. I also work with kids and definitely not met a Richard

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EffEeDee@reddit

I was born at the end of the 80s and there were quite a few Richards in my year. Also used to work with one Richard Head, yes really, who’s a couple of years younger than me.

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um_-_no@reddit

Lollllll

slogginmagoggin@reddit

I work in the civil service and you can't move for men in their late 30s and up called James! Interesting to hear it's still popular

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little_miss_alien@reddit

It was a family name in my case, but it's definitely still popular! I've just looked it up, it was the 9th most popular name that year, but has dropped to 40th now.

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Positive-Peace-3270@reddit

My son is Andrew (Drew) and he is in an online group called the league of Andrew's or something like that as there are so many of them. He was one of 3 in his class.

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SmokingTheBowl@reddit

I have a large group of friends, and if you shout Jim, Dave, and Paul into a crowd of them, approximately 90% of them will look over. The nickname, prefix, and using full names game is off the scale

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FryOneFatManic@reddit

https://names.darkgreener.com/

Kirsty

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YetAnotherLollipop@reddit

Catherine! There will be so many Catherines, and people who want to spell it "differently" so a few Kathryns.

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RogueTrooper1975@reddit

Andrew is considered an 'old name'?

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Sivear@reddit

I think if you ask that question that shows you’re old rather than the name.

Old names to be are ‘Norman’ ‘Joyce’ ‘Margaret’. Those who were named Andrew in the 80’s are around 40 now so it’s definitely an ‘old’ name to young people.

-little-spoon-@reddit

I was getting coffee with my mum last year and she always brings the dog so I can see him, somehow we realised that both the dog and the toddler of the couple on the table next to us were both named Ernie. We thought it was cute and laughed about it but the couple seemed mildly annoyed that their child had to share a name with a dog.

There’s a kid in my daughter’s class called Ronnie.

** I've just remembered she was actually called Winky Wang, which is so much better again. It was a LONG time ago, my memory isn't what it was.

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cozycrafts@reddit

Omg winky wang 💀

I’m from the UK so it was definitely diabolical

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callisstaa@reddit

Candy is also quite popular here on the mainland. I always find it wierd meetin a kid called Candy. Also Joy.

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cozycrafts@reddit

Yes! I had lots of Candys in my classes Jellyfish is actually pretty cool, I can imagine them growing up and making it work. My favourites were Mars, Cena and Caesar. All three kids had great personalities that totally suited their names.

And for some reason there were so many Jerrys and Kevins and they were usually trouble 😭

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Kibethewalrus@reddit

My youngest has two Winnie's in her class! In secondary school.

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AnnofAvonlea@reddit

I love the name Winnie! Husband vetoed it 😒

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Sponge_Like@reddit

Aw shame, my 9yo has a Winnie in her class!

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alacklustrehindu@reddit

This screams middle class girl schools' names in Hong Kong

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Rozefly@reddit

As a child of the 80s I named my first daughter Ivy Cecilia after my husband's grandmother and my own

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Shuipengyou@reddit

Adolph ❤️

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ghostlight1969@reddit

A girl I work with just had a baby. She called him called Neville…

My 7 year old nephew is called Frank.

When they first announced his name we were all a bit 'WTF?'. Then we met him. He is, without doubt, one of the Frankiest Franks I could imagine.

I've never met one until my current job, he's a whinging, moaning, angry little bellend.

NoobOfTheSquareTable@reddit

I feel like I know a few Gareth’s but that might be a Welsh thing

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RosieEmily@reddit

My husband is a Gareth. His dad is staunchly Welsh.

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vandelay1330@reddit

I knew a baby called Gareth born 2010 so he’ll be about 16 now and I suddenly feel like an OAP thinking about it 😂

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Educational_Wait_211@reddit

Rebecca/ Becca / Becky, Sarah, Emma, Clair, Katherine, Stephanie

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BorderlineWire@reddit

My grandmother’s name was Brenda Joan, but I’ve never knowingly never met a Brenda or a Joan from younger generations

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catsnstuff17@reddit

Brenda is another one actually, you never meet a young Brenda.

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BorderlineWire@reddit

I don’t think I’ve ever met another one now I think about it. I don’t really know why, bias maybe but it’s a nice name.

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I remember about 15 years ago, a 60ish year old colleague was rather disappointed his granddaughter was called Sofia. He thought that Sophie was far more normal.

I pointed out that it sounded like Sofia Loren, he suddenly came around.

I will be naming my firstborn child Frances/Francis as it’s a family name and I think it has died out quite a lot. Carol, Ruby, Jennifer, Vanessa, Mabel, and Lisette are all contenders too.

Pyjama365@reddit

Even when I was in primary school in the 90s, it seemed odd to me that out year-group's Jason was generally well-behaved and fairly quiet. Even then, I felt strongly that Jasons were usually badly behaved.

Fattydog@reddit

My dad swore that you should call your children really unfashionable names and by the time they grew up, they’d be popular

He was right. I have middle names that were THE worst as a child, lovely now - very Victorian.

So, we should be calling our kids Barbara, Patricia, Margaret, Dorothy, Shirley, Joan, Carol, Ronald, Kenneth, Frank, Gerald, etc.

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theshortlady@reddit

I was born in 1955 and all the girls had one syllable middle names like Anne or Lynn or Kay. I swear people thought you couldn't have a middle name with more than one syllable.

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Fattydog@reddit

Agreed.

I’m 1965 and by that time they were all Karen, Alison, Louise, whereas I got two middle names that were a bit like Rose and Florence.

They were so embarrassing when I was younger. Fine now!

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Jason was my first thought, definitely out of fashion now, but it is still a "classic" in that it goes back to ancient Greek times, which I'm not sure something like Barry does.

callisstaa@reddit

Hannah is another really popular 80s name that you rarely hear these days.

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WildWinterberry@reddit

Sylvia is long overdue a comeback. Such a pretty name

National-Clock3999@reddit

Adam, Paul, Marie & Lindsay

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Soggy_Detective_4737@reddit

Thinking back to school, and in no particular order:

David Christopher Lee Nicholas Mark Peter

be_sugary@reddit

Kevin

Keith

Marjorie

Dorothy

Sharon

Tracey

Janet

Michelle

I think

Tracy

Linda

Marie

Adele

Kirsty

Nicole

Sarah

Paul

Anthony

I’m Jodie, and I think that’s a very 90s name, so I can see that making a comeback. Maybe Jarrad for boys. That was really popular when I was in school. Maybe Lisa too. A bit before my time, but I can see it.

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Big_Comfortable4256@reddit

Sybil. Frederick. Maud.

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larrysbrain@reddit

Often comes from celebs, and people they like.

Also, dozens of Julies.

WillingApplication10@reddit

My daughter is a Jemma! We haven't run into any others. The Scottish baby names site seems to show it's not very common. Heather is coming up the lists which I feel is one that was more common when I was young. We have friends Sam (boy) and Skye which I feel are "coming back round" names.

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InterestedObserver48@reddit

Gary

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fractured_skyline@reddit

I was born in 83' and my daughter had a boy a couple of years ago...and she was not going with anything "old".

Simon and Stephen. I went to school with so many Stephens (& Stevens) - or Steve. I just don't hear it anymore. I know lots of kids about 8 years old ish called Edith, Arthur, Olive - just total 'old people' names like the OP says, that I still struggle with for young kids.

Donna. Tracey. Kev. Gary. Steve. Louise. Paul. Chris. Michelle. Dave. Emma. Dan. Joanne. Mark. Laura. Vicky. Samantha. Gemma. Sarah. Andrew.

All people I grew up with.

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Next-Suit-9579@reddit

My sons class (year 2) has a Poppy, Polly, Madeline (Maddy), David and John. I’ve heard some Edward’s and Alan’s in the other years too

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artfuldodger128@reddit

Arthur and Peter.

Pale-Turnover5811@reddit

this is starting to sound like a beautiful south song

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No_Application_8698@reddit

Jessica, Tiffany, Eleanor, Amanda, Joanna

Jason, Darren, Dean, Bradley, Alexander

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ProfessionalCat7640@reddit

Sylvia and Edith are NOT 80’s names, they are more like 40’s names. 😂

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gummibear853@reddit (OP)

Yes, and they are named after people born in the 40s. The question is who will people be named after 40/50 years from now.

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uberdavis@reddit

Ælfgifu was very popular around the turn of the millennium.

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Edenxwp@reddit

Mark, Darren, Paul, Andrew, Steven, David..... you know, what used to be normal names.

Brittany, Jennifer, Jessica, Sara(h), Heather, Katie.

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Spiritual_Love@reddit

I heard a mother calling their small child out shopping, Ernie isn’t a name you hear often.

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Collymonster@reddit

I'd like to see my name make a resurgence, my name is Colleen.

ive only ever met 1 person with my name and she was in her 50's at the time (this was 30+ odd years ago when I was about 3 or 4).

There are 2 UK "celebrities" with my name, (both spelled incorrectly imo) that I am aware of and then there was someone on season 5 of Hells kitchen (who was spelled correctly) but she was a disgrace to all of us and couldnt cook for shit 😂

There are apparently less than 10k of us in the uk spelled Colleen and even less spelled Coleen (though interestingly the latter spelling is the one ive come across most commonly!)

As a kid i didnt much like my name, I was bullied for it because it sounded a lot like Colin but as an adult I honestly couldnt imagine being called anything else and if I met someone else with my name I think i would find it really really weird.

Definitely way more common in the USA though still not common

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cctintwrweb@reddit

Wherever there is an Irish Diaspora, you will get Colleen, Roshin, Maeve, Marie, Sean, Fergal, Niall etc regularly.. any Irish names that use similar sounds to English. Less of the Blathnaid's and Taidg's though and some of the spellings and pronunciation can still be very left field.

Colleen/ Coleen are the English phonetic spelling of Callín the Irish word for girl . At a time when the British establishment was trying to stamp out the use of Irish , they were also writing everything down and labelling places and people with anglicised versions of their names . There are town / villages with the same name and different spellings. Only a few miles from each other and a different Royal engineer wrote them on the map And to be fair , even the Irish will now not all collectively agree on the spelling or pronunciation of every traditional name due to local dialects and the influence of the English language. ( Eoin and Eoghan as the Irish spellings of Owen )

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Collymonster@reddit

I know the history of the name and I actually prefer Callín as the pronunciation/spelling. Some of the spellings of my name over the years has been..... interesting to say the least!

swordoftruth1963@reddit

Gary will be back

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Michael, Darren, Lee, Susan, Donna, Tracy, Tony, Gary, Sharon, andddddd... Karen

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CPH3000@reddit

Gary

Boys: Thomas, Stephen, Scott, Michael, Richard, Darren, Kevin, James

Basically any name which has well-known historical origins usually survives: Jessica, Mary/Maria, Deborah, Naomi etc.

Bright_Spark_UK@reddit

Dawn! Yes!

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_artgirl@reddit

I love a good 'bog standard' (imo) name like David, Chris, Jonathan, Stephen, Gareth, Darren, Simon etc. but I just looked up the top 100 baby names in the UK in 2025 and half of them looked like people had just opened a dictionary or a map and pointed to a word or place name!

You’re skipping a few decades there! I’d expect 50s and 60s names to come back first. Probably not Karen, but maybe Carol, Caroline, Sandra, Michelle, Donna. Personally I’m hoping for Dawn. I love Dawn.

80s was the decade where popular music, movies, TV and books really started affecting baby names - there had been some effect earlier, but it really caught fire in the 80s and early 90s. So if 80s names come back I’d expect Jessica, Elizabeth, Kayleigh, Shannon, Tiffany (which is actually medieval but saw a big resurgence in the 80s), Kelly, Tori, Lisa, Melissa, Ashley - though that one’s been on and off for a while. Plus any names from modern shows set in the 80s, maybe Stranger Things. (I don’t watch much TV these days and couldn’t say what they are.)

That said, it’s not always predictable which names in the popular sphere will stay awhile. I’ve met maybe four (non-Russian/Slavic) Nikitas, named after the Elton John song, but they were all born within six months of each other, whereas Kayleigh (after the Marillion song) was popular for a good few years. I guess maybe Nikita sounded too foreign to stick around past a short period.

Boys’ names are considerably more stable and less prone to trends, though they’re not immune from them. Popular 80s boys names included Zach/Zack, Dylan, Brandon, Brendan, Chris, Luke, David, Aaron, Matt/Matthew, Michael - all of which are still relatively popular except Brandon and (to a lesser extent) Zach.

Barry.

Otherwise known as Big Baz or Bazza.

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World_wanderer12@reddit

Vivienne or Yvonne

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bfm211@reddit

Vivienne is already coming back (thanks to Angelina Jolie). It's in the top 200 in America, while Vivian is in the top 100.

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KTbluedraon@reddit

In my class we had 4 Catherines and 6 Sarahs. Laura also seemed popular.

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kendoddsdadsdeaddog@reddit

Gary, Barry, Trevor, Clive, Jason and Arthur Yvonne, Sally Linda and Pauline

Sadly I think it’s curtains for Horace, Herbert and Mildred.

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Franklin, Eustace, Cyril, Betty, Maude, Agatha

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Present-Nature-6015@reddit

If you were female and born in the 80s or 90s it was just expected your middle name would be Louise or Elizabeth

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uhhseriously@reddit

Jennifer,Jessica, Michelle, Melissa, Lisa, Tracy, Jackie, Nicole, Allison, Heather, Kristy

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Icy_Attention3413@reddit

Seems every woman 20-25 is called Milly, Molly, Emmy, Emily or Derek.

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PrinceHarming@reddit

Pearl. I can see Pearl making a come back.

Gemma.

After grandma.

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PipBin@reddit

About 15 years ago I did supply in a year 6 class. Two girls came up to introduce themselves and told me they were Pamela and Janet, and the girl sat at the front was Pauline. I assumed they were taking the piss but on taking the register I found it was true!

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Geniejc@reddit

John was popular for decades until the 90s.

Seems to have dropped right out of favour.

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Taylor_Kittenface@reddit

My (cat) daughter is called Maven, but I call her Mavis every time I speak to her. Bring back the Vera and the Mavis! I fear by the time we're old, every single male in Britain will be some variation of Jackson. I miss names like Kimberly and Laura being the norm for lasses.

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Magnus_40@reddit

I'm holding out for Euphemia or Hortense

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Jeanniejelly@reddit

Karen

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Extreme-Dream-2759@reddit

Colin.

quite_acceptable_man@reddit

Names go in cycles, so schools are full of what I (an 80s child) would consider to be old people names.

Arthur, Ted, Archie, Lily, Mabel etc.

Give it a few years and schools will be full of Malcolms, Clives, Colins, Nigels, Kevins, Stevens, Garys, Janets, Patricias, Karens, Nicolas and Deborahs

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Dutch_Slim@reddit

Seriously shocked I’ve not seen Claire on here as an 80s name!

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Stevebwrw@reddit

Gwendolyn

Winnie (Winnifred)

Sebastian

Anthony

Stephen

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ButterscotchBest8866@reddit

Ellie

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Bubbly-Wallaby-2777@reddit

Aaron, James, Richard

I’ve seen Simon and Colin in this thread already, which I think are real contenders due to Bridgerton’s influence, but you can add Gregory, Daphne, and Violet into the mix too.

Never underestimate the power of pop culture on naming conventions. See: Khaleesi, Daenerys, etc. for reference.

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Insomniacbychoice90@reddit

Keith & Nigel

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Every_Individual_25@reddit

Beryl

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R400TVR@reddit

I know a friend of a friend who has boys named Aubrey and Huxley. Poor children!

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Tricky_Ricky83@reddit

My nephew plays in a rugby team under 14s and he’s in a team with a boy called Ian.

Jessica

Brittany

Ashley

Tiffany

Amber

Christopher

Brandon

Jason

David

Rediscovered_Magpie@reddit

Jason Terrence/Terry John Stephen Ian/Iain

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Competitive_Pen7192@reddit

Ha you think we're having grandchildren?

Birth rates have nose dived even amongst us let alone younger generations.

Out of my sister, myself, the wife and her two siblings only we have children.

A generation ago we had cousins everywhere.

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