FASHIONS IN NAMES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 136, 5 December 1929, Page 15

FASHIONS IN NAMES

BACK TO VICTORIAN" TITLES

It is said that we are as old as we look. It is equally true that we are as old as we are called—that is, if parents follow fashions in names and bestow the favourite cf the year on their infants. It has been observed,- says the "Manchester guardian" in an editorial, that smart people, so far from finding fantastic Christian names to suit a world of pagan pleasures, are now returning to titles which have an air of being laid un in avender. The 1929 vintage of Mayfair babies will have, for instance, on its and Sophias and Virginias. Girls' names seem to carry a period label more plainly than those of boys, and it is possible to trace the vogue down the years and assess iwLT of Dorothy ' Gmn w*an-and

Now it seems that the Dianas and lamelas are all at school, and that the nurseries are full of Marys and Anns, with Sarah and Sophy just learning to walk. It Is said that Victorian favourites are now going to be the top-price features in the -'first edition" market and that a hearty appetite for Victorian furniture is likely to replace the present passion tor Queen Anne and walnut, which in turn drove oak from the place of privilege. Accordingly, it is only suitable that a mother who has just been purchasing candelabra and wax fruits on a generous scale should have a Miss Sophia in readiness to sit beneath and among them. Whether she will persuade Miss Sophia to uiopt Victorian virtues is another matter iJut at any rate she is creating the right itmosphere in word as well as in wax