New Post
Search
HelpMargaret - usable in the UK?
Do you think the name Margaret (not the nn Maggie) is still usable in the UK? Do you think a little British girl named Margaret would be assumed to have conservative/Tory parents who admire Margaret Thatcher?
I know Margaret is still usable in the US (it's more popular in America than the UK), Canada, and I assume Australia and New Zealand as well.
I know Margaret is still usable in the US (it's more popular in America than the UK), Canada, and I assume Australia and New Zealand as well.
This message was edited 10/20/2014, 3:08 PM
Archived Thread - replies disabled
1
Replies
Sort of. I think Margaret could swing back into fashion as a faux-trendy name they're all obsessed with in the upper classes; I'm thinking Penelope and Matilda here.
But I also think there is a strong enough amount of people left who are called Margaret to stop this from happening. Edith works because nobody has a Grandma Edith anymore, but plenty of people have Nanna Margaret.
My first association isn't Margaret Thatcher (and I am a Brit, though too young to remember her regime), and if I met a young Margaret in my class I wouldn't assume she's named after the PM.
But I also think there is a strong enough amount of people left who are called Margaret to stop this from happening. Edith works because nobody has a Grandma Edith anymore, but plenty of people have Nanna Margaret.
My first association isn't Margaret Thatcher (and I am a Brit, though too young to remember her regime), and if I met a young Margaret in my class I wouldn't assume she's named after the PM.
1
I'm from the UK and I think it is still usable there, but I do think the reason that it isn't very common probably is because of Thatcher. I personally do associate the name with her and definitely wouldn't use it for that reason.
1
Yes, and I doubt it. There are just so many of them here. Margaret was top 5 in England & Wales until the 1950s, and didn't start sliding from the top 100 till the 1970s. So despite its medieval history, it has the same feel to most non-name-nerd people here as, say, Patricia or Sheila or Janet - old-lady, but not old enough to be cool yet, and that's a much bigger reason why you don't see it on babies than Thatcher.
If I did see a little Margaret I'd just assume she was named after a relative, and I expect most people would.
eta: I've never met anyone named after any prime minister! - don't think that's really done here.
If I did see a little Margaret I'd just assume she was named after a relative, and I expect most people would.
eta: I've never met anyone named after any prime minister! - don't think that's really done here.
This message was edited 10/21/2014, 1:54 AM
1
Just a thought, Pie: how about John Winston Lennon? Born in 1940 ... surely the mn was Prime Ministerial? OK, it's been a long time!
Here in South Africa there was a lower-case liberal MP, Helen Suzman, who was a vocal and erudite thorn in the side of the nasty government of the day; I know of at least one journalist who named his daughter after her. Not a PM, but close.
Here in South Africa there was a lower-case liberal MP, Helen Suzman, who was a vocal and erudite thorn in the side of the nasty government of the day; I know of at least one journalist who named his daughter after her. Not a PM, but close.
1
Yes, Lennon's middle name was definitely after Churchill, I have read that. Lennon was born and named during a war in which Britain was being attacked and the Prime Minister was an inspiring voice to the populace, encouraging them and making them believe that they could stand strong. I doubt he would have been named after a Prime Minister under different historical circumstances.
1
Oops. :) I guess it's a bit more obvious with Winston. And I know of someone with the middle name Aneurin after Bevan, also an MP and not a PM. Struggling to imagine anyone unrelated being named for any modern PMs though, although obviously anything's possible. I guess my point was that Margarets would be much more likely to be named after grannies, great-aunts, etc - there being so many of those.
This message was edited 10/21/2014, 4:39 AM
1
I'm from the UK and don't think of Margaret Thatcher when I hear the name. Besides, the latest generation of parents weren't even born when Thatcher was Prime Minister.
My sister's middle name is Margaret and mine is Elizabeth and we always joke we were named after the Queen and her sister Princess Margaret. The only downside to the name (as my sister has discovered) is that people consider it an elderly ladies' name.
My sister's middle name is Margaret and mine is Elizabeth and we always joke we were named after the Queen and her sister Princess Margaret. The only downside to the name (as my sister has discovered) is that people consider it an elderly ladies' name.
1
Yes, absolutely. It's classic and historic and it would be a pity not to use it because Mrs Thatcher had it. Besides, by the time today's baby Margaret grows up the association with the late prime minister (love her or loathe her) won't be as strong. And what if it is? Your little Margaret will be accepted on her own terms, especially by her generation.
Margaret can evoke many great ladies, including Margaret of Anjou, Margaret Beaufort, Margaret Leighton, and Margaret Lockwood. In Australia it used to be almost a default girl's name, owing to the number of people with Scottish ancestry.
If I were you, I would choose a non-Maggie nn in advance, such as Meg.
It's not as if it's a less well-used and well-established name like Myra, which I would steer clear of like the plague, since it's so deeply ingrained in the public mind with a particular person, a truly evil one at that.
Margaret has a great and rich past - it's time to reclaim it for the future.
Margaret can evoke many great ladies, including Margaret of Anjou, Margaret Beaufort, Margaret Leighton, and Margaret Lockwood. In Australia it used to be almost a default girl's name, owing to the number of people with Scottish ancestry.
If I were you, I would choose a non-Maggie nn in advance, such as Meg.
It's not as if it's a less well-used and well-established name like Myra, which I would steer clear of like the plague, since it's so deeply ingrained in the public mind with a particular person, a truly evil one at that.
Margaret has a great and rich past - it's time to reclaim it for the future.
1
I don't see why it wouldn't be. Yes, I'm from the US, but Margaret is an old, traditional name. There are several saints named Margaret, the queen's late sister was Princess Margaret, writers, actresses, fictional characters etc that anyone who immediately goes to Margaret Thatcher has a problem thinking about anything other than politics, especially 80's politics.
1
Well, I'm not from the UK but I can't see how Margaret would be unusable there because of Thatcher. Ronald is usable in the US and we don't assume that the parents of a Ronald must be big admirers of Reagan. Margaret is too old and classic a name to be associated with just one person, and Ronald, while not exactly classic, is also too old and established to be associated solely with Reagan.
1
I imagine Margaret still sees a fair amount of use in UK, and that politics probably wouldn't play much into it, though of course somebody who really hated Thatcher probably would never want to use the name for fear of it being assumed they were Thatcher fans.
1