Why are there a number of white British women of a certain age named « India »? Was it a trend in the 1970s-1980s?

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TooMuchBrightness@reddit

It’s not popular unless you hang around with Milly, Minty and Allegra.

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Wells_93@reddit

Bit late but my mum planned to name 4 of my brothers India if they had been girls, excluding me and maybe the older one who I'm not sure about

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qualityvote2@reddit

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Flaky-Class7213@reddit

yeah votes be glitchy ngl ur post rlly prolly solid

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smoulderstoat@reddit

I used to have an old Etonian MP who called his daughter India. She went on to do the narration on Masterchef. I think it was quite a popular name among those circles.

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CicadaSlight7603@reddit

Still quite a popular name in girls’ private schools in England today

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Illustrious_Store115@reddit

People just started naming their children after places

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There was a bridesmaid named India in Charles & Diana’s wedding (1981) which was a huge event and massively popularised the name - I knew at girl at school whose parents named her India specifically after that wedding (I don’t think it was anything particular about the bridesmaid herself, just lots of people suddenly heard the name and liked it, and it had upper/upper-middle class connotations). No idea where the bridesmaid’s name came from, but lots of posh girls have unusual names from classical antiquity or sometimes from imperial stuff.

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HungryFinding7089@reddit

India Hicks, granddaughter of Louis Mountbatten

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LemonQuirky865@reddit

Randomly happened to see India Hicks interviewed by Gyles Brandreth for his Rosebud podcast the other day. She is called India as her grandfather Louis Mountbatten was the last Viceroy of India. It was suggested that her parents pretty much invented it as a first name (à la Wendy from Peter Pan). However, a quick search on Free BMD shows she (born 1967) wasn’t the first. It was, however, a very a rare name and does seem to have had a surge in popularity after she was bridesmaid.

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No-Taro-6953@reddit

I don't think they invented it, on the basis that a character in Gone With The Wind has a character called India Wilkes, and both the novel and movie date to the 1930s and were both popular across the English speaking world.

I think it was fashionable among elite circles in the 18th and 19th century due to its links with imperialism and exorcism, but I agree it probably enjoyed a surge in popularity because of India Hicks being a bridesmaid.

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Minskdhaka@reddit

Exorcism? Or *exoticism?

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No-Taro-6953@reddit

Exoticism, auto correct

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twospoons11@reddit

Not where I live, most people I know born in the 70’s were called Sharon or Tracey or Nicola or Joanne or Julie…..

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Snowy_Sasquatch@reddit

Most I know were called Catherine (with a variety of spellings), Elizabeth, Claire, Sarah, Emma and Gemma.

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Minskdhaka@reddit

I think you grew up in slightly posher surroundings than the previous person, then.

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AuroraDF@reddit

I'm a teacher with 26 years under my belt. I've only ever taught one India, who would have been born in about 2001. I don't know any adult Indias either!

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Temporary_Ad_986@reddit

Wait U in UK?

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Minskdhaka@reddit

That's why she's responding on this sub.

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AuroraDF@reddit

Yes

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scouseb@reddit

There were 3 in my daughter’s class in primary school.

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markusparkus75@reddit

I have never met anyone called India. Maybe I am not posh enough.

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thelivsterette1@reddit

I don't know any India's (mid 20s) but neither do my siblings (30 & 31)

Katie Hopkins' daughter (22) is an India, despite her hating names from countries (she got owned by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby lol)

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PureDeidBrilliant@reddit

It was quite a trend with the middling classes of the 1960s-1980s. It's like a M&S version of calling your child Skye or Iona or whatever-Scottish-placename's currently in vogue with the chavs. I never went to school with any girls called India, mind you. I know that my sister was bullied by a frightful little witch in ringlets called Libya. Awful child.

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WanderingAlbertRoss@reddit

I know a woman named India born around 2006

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bibipbapbap@reddit

Woman and 2006 in the same sentence, I feel old

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JessicaVictoria2001@reddit

I was born on 911 and it makes people feel old when I tell them I’m a quarter of a century old this year,those that remember the attacks certainly feel old

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Oh-reality-come-back@reddit

They’re only like 10 at this point aren’t they? Aren’t they….?

Okay I was typing that as a joke but I’m genuinely a bit shocked that they’d now be about 20. Also I KNOW I’m old now because I refer to people around that age as “young man” or “young woman”. They’re like adults but starter adults in my mind. I could’ve sworn I was 22 only 10 years ago but time flies faster than that damn

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JustJoshwaa@reddit

Ask Katie Hopkins.

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JessicaVictoria2001@reddit

Katie Who?

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linerva@reddit

Let's not. We should let some people die out in obscurity.

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Fine-State8014@reddit

It's not like the kid was named after the place though 🤣

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JustJoshwaa@reddit

Only because she hates people that do that, it’s chavvy.

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smartfellerayi@reddit

I choose to believe she named her India as a tribute to colonialism and the East India Trading Company.

That, and she's a dunce.

Incidentally India is a lovely name, in my opinion.

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Particular-Quit-630@reddit

I suspect she alone has made the name unpopular.

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Foundation_Wrong@reddit

India Hicks was named after her Grandfather Lord Mountbatten’s stint as the last Viceroy of the Raj. It was copied, by some as all unique names tend to be.

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Oh-reality-come-back@reddit

I’ve seen teens and younger adults with the name too. I’m mixed Indian so me and my family have a small chuckle if we hear someone shout out the name India to someone. Not in a mean way but in a “hey that’s us!” way. I’ve met maybe 2 people called India and both times their parents were kinda upper middle class, somewhat out of touch , faux hippies . So I’m thinking it popular for those spiritually woke sorta people.

That’s not to insult them as they were perfectly pleasant people and I’m glad to have met them!

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Amazing-Jury-6886@reddit

I do know of indian people called " Vellati ",[not which means foreigner , but particularly british in punjabi and is the origin of the term Blighty.

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Fibro-Mite@reddit

I did not know that. Or, if I did, I forgot (paternal grandfather was posted to India with the British Army - with family - after WW2, so may have mentioned it when I was a kid, along with a bunch of other terms).

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TheMegaCity@reddit

Ooh thank you TIL

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Amazing-Jury-6886@reddit

I also know of Indian guys called Angrez , which means 'English' in Punjabi.

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Snowy_Sasquatch@reddit

I think that for some parents it signified their ties to colonial India but it as also popularised by Charles and Diana’s wedding, due to one of their flower girls, and the film/book Gone With The Wind.

It’s not particularly exclusive for British parents to use it though, as there was a member of the Afghanistan royal family called India and George W Bush named his cat India. Chris Hemsworth has probably made it better known more recently as well.

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Wretched_Colin@reddit

It always tends to be quite posh ladies.

I think it might be some form of colonial admiration.

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Single-Position-4194@reddit

There was a nurse at the hospital I was in before Christmas with that name and who wasn't particularly posh (she was from Sheffield). I wish I'd asked her at the time why her parents gave her that name.

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Kingh82@reddit

There parents probably spent years either on or wanting to go on the hippy trail or totally bought in to the Beatles trip to India.

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Top_Barnacle9669@reddit

Her grandfather was the last viceroy of India

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Clit_Master69420@reddit

😅😆😆😆

bollywood fans

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h3r0inXgirl@reddit

My step sister is 24 and named India, other than her i only know one other india who is also 24. Weird

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Random-Name303@reddit

My cousin has a Welsh Springer Spaniel called India.

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CosetElement-Ape71@reddit

Wait ... you telling me names can trend?

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LilacRose32@reddit

I’ve also met a few born in the 80/90s.

One was of mixed south Asian and white British descent so a bit different from the others.

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Front-Pomelo-4367@reddit

I only know two girls named India, and one of them is my mixed-race (black Caribbean/white British) cousin! Born in the 2010s

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OkWing5717@reddit

I know a girl called Indica which I think is nicer than India, her mum was a stoner, obviously!

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TSC-99@reddit

Why not

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Flibertygibbert@reddit

A colleague named her daughter India after her first visit there.

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AmbitiousAd543@reddit

There’s a character in Gone with the wind called India.

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pebbley2@reddit

One of the Royal Family named there child India, in respect to Earl Mountbatten of India. Lineage history, and all that stuff. So India as a Christian name, became popular among the middle classes.

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Opposite-Ad8208@reddit

Tends to be posh people. I think many of their parents were born and or raised in British Raj, like Joanna Lumley. Imperial nostalgia is my guess.

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quite_acceptable_man@reddit

Yes, it was a way for middle-class types to show everyone how bohemian they are.

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Plasticman328@reddit

Pal of mine is called India; just a fashion thing.

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Barghist@reddit

Just had a snout through the birth records for England and Wales since 1837. There are over 13000 Indias recorded. The earliest I've found so far was born in the 1880s.

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Tsarinya@reddit

I know of someone born in the early 90’s called India. It’s still a popular name.

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PM-me-your-cuppa-tea@reddit

I know what you meant, but upon first read the way you've written this is like the early 90s is a recent baby rather than a mid 30s person

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Tsarinya@reddit

Haha in my defence last time I saw her was 20 years ago when she was a child!

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ProfessorChaos213@reddit

I do and she definitely isn't posh either

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self-conscious_s@reddit

Middle class Britain

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International_Goat31@reddit

It sounded exotic. Stories of foreign gods, "strange" music, and unfamiliar foods made it seem grand. Things like postcards and biscuit tins with the Taj Mahal on them were everywhere in the 50s. A lot of these people's parents will also have grown up with just endless empire nostalgia around them too.

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Muted-Direction1566@reddit

That snobby blonde bitch (forget her name) was having a debate with someone about naming babies after places when it was revealed she had a daughter called India, I also know a stuck up bitch who called there daughter India as well.

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PM-me-your-cuppa-tea@reddit

And Poppy

Katie Hopkins

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Muted-Direction1566@reddit

Yes that's it's name.

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chez2202@reddit

You would have to contact the parents of each one of them to find out. Because they are the only people who know.

I can tell you that it wasn’t a common thing in the 1970’s. I was born then and I don’t know a single person named India.

I even googled it and it google said that it actually goes way further back than the 1970’s and is probably due to colonial times.

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FancyAd3942@reddit

I had a friend called info once- I was 3/4 at the time so honestly could not tell you what race she is but that was early 2010s

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Belle_TainSummer@reddit

Hippies were having a moment again. The old hippie trail had just been closed due to the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet Afghani war, and people looking for that touch of the exotic and magic were trying to keep the flame alive through their children.

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