Christian name: Clifford

[Phoenix]

I know one person called Clifford. I assumed the name to be relatively rare. When I looked on freebmd, however, I could not disentangle him from the hordes of other Cliffords with his surname.

Presumably it is like Sidney and Ernest: names once popular which have lost their appeal.

But why was it popular? Was there a famous Clifford after whom the rest were named?

(Apologies to Merry: her thread jogged my memory, as the only other Clifford I know of died in WW1)

[Merry]

I just noticed I only have three Clifford's on my tree (out of 8,000 people) and they were all born in 1898!

[Sue from Southend]

There's an interesting article here http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/britains-endangered-names-nobody-wants-a-child-called-cecil-or-gertrude--but-alfie-and-joe-dodge-extinction-9236682.html about "extinct" names, Clifford being one of them!
OH's Grandfather was a Clifford (born 1899, Merry!) and OH himself is a Cliff but short for Clifton courtesy of a Canadian friend of his parents.

[kiterunner]

Some of the names that they mention in that article as "still" being popular have gone out of fashion and then come back in, such as Lily and Hannah, so they can't be sure that the names they say are dying out won't come back into fashion too.

[Phoenix]

Once a generation stops associating a name with liverspots, perms, gnarled knuckles, visible underwear etc, it can come back into its own.

I have a penchant for contemporary victorian fiction, full of Dorothys and Dorises who don't have rheumy eyes or walk with sticks.

[marquette]

I thought my mum's cousin had a fairly unique name, Thora, but when I was looking for her marriage, I found 32 Thora's married the same year, 1940, (and that was just in NSW).

That number dropped to 9 in 1963 ! There was only one Thora married 1850-1900 and 5 between 1900 and 1920.

Similarly, there were only 10 birth registrations for Thora before 1900, but 134 from then till 1913.

I just looked at freeBMD births for a comparison - a scattering of 2 or 3 every quarter or so up to 1910, then each quarter taking up the whole of my computer screen through till about 1926, then gradually dropping back to 2-3 each quarter by 1950.

So what made "Thora" popular ?

[anne fraser]

I have Clifford as a surname in my tree which it is claimed goes back to a Knight De Clifford who came over with William the Conqueror so perhaps in some cases it is a surname being used as a christian name. I came across a telegraph article on extinct British names and Clifford was one that had no babies called it last year.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10742330/Whats-that-Mary-traditional-names-are-dying-out.htm

No Fanny's or Willie's either.

[Sue from Southend]

Some of the names that they mention in that article as "still" being popular have gone out of fashion and then come back in, such as Lily and Hannah, so they can't be sure that the names they say are dying out won't come back into fashion too.


My Mother born 1920, was named Hannah and hated it as to her it was very old fashioned. All her contemporaries were named Doris, Joan, Eileen etc. When she died, acquaintances were amazed to find out that her name wasn't Ann but Hannah because she never used it. But look how popular it is now.

Similarly my youngest grand daughter is a Matilda. Twenty years ago I'm sure that would have been considered extinct too:d

[Merry]

I remember when Charles and Diana named their firstborn William and I thought it was so old fashioned - my father's name! Now there are loads of Williams around (younger than b 1982)

[Margaret in Burton]

I thought my mum's cousin had a fairly unique name, Thora, but when I was looking for her marriage, I found 32 Thora's married the same year, 1940, (and that was just in NSW).

That number dropped to 9 in 1963 ! There was only one Thora married 1850-1900 and 5 between 1900 and 1920.

Similarly, there were only 10 birth registrations for Thora before 1900, but 134 from then till 1913.

I just looked at freeBMD births for a comparison - a scattering of 2 or 3 every quarter or so up to 1910, then each quarter taking up the whole of my computer screen through till about 1926, then gradually dropping back to 2-3 each quarter by 1950.

So what made "Thora" popular ?


I knew a Thora, she was born in 1912.

Of course there was the actress Thora Hird.

[Shona]

...and the younger actress Thora Birch.

[Langley Vale Sue]

I Know/knew 3 Cliffords, all born in the late 1940s.

I don't have any in my tree though - or at least I haven't found any yet!


My Mum's name was Mollie, now a popular name again. She went through all her school life never knowing another Mollie spelt that way. My Grandad had heard the name somewhere, liked it and then gave it to his daughter.

I was watching a TV programme over the weekend where Neil Fox & his daughter Martha appeared. I love the name Martha, but it was considered much too old fashioned when I had my daughters in 1976 & 1980. I wanted to call my elder daughter Daisy, but my favourite Great Aunt (Daisy) insisted that it was a name people called their cows, like Buttercup, and that put me off a bit as I thought she must know! ;).

[anne fraser]

My mother in law wanted me to call my eldest son William as my husband was a third generation William Fraser. I rebelled as I did not like the name. His father had left home when my husband was 12 so he did not want to preserve the name.

[Kit]

Mum's cousin married a Clifford, known as Cliff though.