Whats in a name?

[Booldawg]

Do you find certains names are more popular in certain social groups? I've never met a Shane or Barry that wasnt a bit of a geezer.

[joeluke]

....or a Sharon or Tracy who didn't dance round their handbags?

....or a Wayne who didn't drive a Capri?

[jake-the-peg]

I guess parents tend to favout the traditional names around them.

I doubt you'll find many Tarquins in Hackney

Even pretentious "individual" names tend to mark out celebrity families etc.

They can also date you as names go in and out of fashion - my Grandmother was a Clara - haven't seen that for a few years - bound to come back in soon.

And have you noticed how nobody uses the name Adolf any more - yet Joseph Stalin hasn't killed the name Joseph - guess it's to do with how popular a name is before it gets associated

Interesting too how there are millions of mohammed's in the world yet you only seem to find Jesus' in the Latin world

[squarebear]

If the world's most popular first name is Mohammed and the most popular surname is Chang, how come I don't know anyone called Mohammed Chang?

[rowanwitch]

An old friend from school was a Wayne....classical musician, chorister and PHD (Biochemistry.) ... most of the school called him w****r though Friend Sharon is a teacher and probablly never danced round her handbag.... there are always odd ones, usually when the name first makes an appearance, India first became popular after India Hicks was mentioned during Charles and Di's nuptials, now it appears as Indeeyah, Indya, Indear etc usually prefaced by Oi and followed by stop fcuking about you little sugar.... and TV is to blame for a lot too...Chardonnay (footballers wives) for example

[Booldawg]

I recall alot of 'Ryans' christened about the time of Ryan Giggs becoming popular at Man Utd.

[bookbinder]

I think that people tend to grow up to resemble the image that their name has. I used to know a young man called Wayne Herbert Jones. He was a typical "Wayne" (don't ask me to explain what that is), but if he had been christened "Herbert Wayne Jones" I'm sure that he would have turned out to be less of a "lad" and more of a pipe-smoking sort of man. People with unusual names grow to be people with unusual personalities. I'm thinking of people with artistic natures and brainy types.

[EngTeach]

Shane is quite popular in my school (usa). I have almost had a shane every year of my teaching career. You should hear the names.....Made up or odd spellings of a common name.

I am "Tracy"-what exactly does 'does dance around your handbag" mean? LOL

[EngTeach]

Can't find anything on Google except people literally dancing round their purse! I don't get the connotation of the expression.

[DickieBrakelight]

Dancing round handbags is or was (i don't get out to too many discos these days) practised by women who did not like to leave their handbags unattended while they danced away the evening in case they were stolen. The solution was to take the handbags onto the dancefloor and place them at the feet where it was possible to keep an eye on them. This practice was observed by most women and an array of different styles and sizes of bags would often litter the floor.

Didn't the name Jason burst into popularity in the early 70s as a direct result of that moustachioed, hirsuit ladies' man, Jason King (although he later went bald as a coot with alopecia).

[DickieBrakelight]

Find a solitary handbag on the dancefloor here

http://www.google.co....CTC_en%26tbs%3Disch:1

Bloody long linky

[DickieBrakelight]

Ignore that and try this

http://www.rugbysoulc...%20your%20handbag.jpg

(my mistake sorry)