Popular Victorian Names
Fashions change in Christian names as much as in any other area of life.
Many popular Victorian names now sound terribly old-fashioned and are rarely used today.
Other names seem to weather fashion trends admirably and can be found in modern generations as well as in Victorian times.
Names were associated with social class in Victorian times.
Ladies from the upper class would have names such as Ada, Beatrice and Dorothy and upper-class gentlemen were popularly called Frederick, Samuel and Cyril.
Gradually these names would be copied by middle and lower classes so the names trickled down over time and new names became popular for the aristocracy.
The 10 most popular Victorian boys names were:
- John
- William
- James
- George
- Charles
- Joseph
- Frank
- Robert
- Edward
- Henry
The 10 most popular Victorian girls names were:
- Mary
- Anna
- Margaret
- Helen
- Elizabeth
- Ruth
- Florence
- Ethel
- Emma
- Marie
There were many things that influenced the choice of Victorian names.
Royalty was a huge influence with many children been named after Queen Victoria and Albert and their nine children who were called Victoria, Edward, Alice, Alfred, Helena, Louise, Arthur, Leopold and Beatrice.
George, William and Victoria are particular royal examples.
Biblical names were most prevalent for naming children in Victorian times and included Samuel, Jacob, James, Joseph, John, Peter and Thomas for boys and Ruth, Sara, Mary (Marie), and Hannah for girls.
Biblical names remain popular even today. To a lesser extent names were copied from heroes of mythology and ancient literature, such as Achilles and Hector.
The Victorians were also big on choosing virtuous names for their offspring. Charity, Prudence, Hope, Mercy and Chastity were all virtuous names that were foisted onto unsuspecting offspring for them to live up to.
Easier to live with were girls names taken from flowers. Iris, Rose, Lily or Lillian, Daisy, Myrtle and Violet were all popular Victorian names.
Nicknames were common in Victorian times such as Hattie (for Harriet), Bessie (for Elizabeth), Peggy (for Margaret), Dick (for Richard), Frank (for Francis) and Lottie (for Charlotte).
Some names were created by running two Christian names together.
Mary Grace, Sarah Ann, Marie Louise, Henry James and Frank William are typical examples that occurred many times in census records, marriage and other public records.
A stroll around any churchyard will give a good cross-section of these names on gravestones dating back to the 19th century and early 20th century.
Families often recycled surnames as Christian names and the mother’s maiden name would often be inserted as a child’s middle name.
This applied to both boys and girls. John Butterfield Smith, Charles Stewart Parnell and Louisa Jefferson Jones are just three well-known examples.
Family names were often handed down through the generations with names such as Christopher Columbus Jones confusingly belonging to any number of generations of the same family.
Some Victorian names have now all but died out.
Gertie, Agnes, Constance, Cynthia, Edna, Fanny and Maude are rarely heard of in modern-day children whereas the names Polly, Amelia, Ellie, Lucy and Molly happily live on.
Louis, Meriweather, Gus, Frederick and Raymond are rare in modern-day infant boys but Jack, Jake, William, Tom and Harold (Harry) are as popular as ever.