As Shakespeare said 'What's in a name?'

The top names apparently this year are Muhammed, Amelia, George, Noah, Oliver, Willow and Ivy. I can see the influence of the multi-cultural society we live in, but the fact that George is still popular is interesting. It seems to be a boy’s name that has never slipped out of popular use.

Apparently, there are names that will never be given to babies again like Gary, Nigel or Graham, with Beryl, Janet, Kathleen or Dierdre also on the list. But who knows? Fashions change with the decades and so do’ in vogue’ names!

Present influences in male baby names can be seen from the football world with Ethan, Aaron, Conor, Cody, Levi. Harvey, Marcus, and Trent all making appearances.

My own name was always a bone of contention with me. I suppose in later years there may have been a trickle of Monica’s, due to the popularity of ‘Friends’ but the fact that I was apparently named after the novelist Monica Dickens, great granddaughter of Charles Dickens was no surprise given my father’s obsession with the author, but not very popular with me.

My obsession with school stories in the 1950s gave me an insight into a different world of names. How I wanted to go away to boarding school like the girls in ‘Mallory Towers’ by Enid Blyton. I wanted a tuck box full of goodies to be consumed at midnight feasts, take part in pillow fights, although no one ever explained what happened to the feathers if the fabric split! have a sympathetic matron and a French mistress we called ‘Mam’selle’, play lacrosse and hockey or simply stand at the side of the field shouting ‘Up the Lower Sixth’ or ‘What a brick Daphne!’

My friends would be called Penelope, Angela, Arabella or Cordelia. Never Margaret, Janet or Sheila like the ones I did go to school with!

When I read books by Angela Brazil, I found that her school heroines were called Ethelburga, Raymonde or Lesbia. There was also Allegra, Aurelia or Eustacia. I think I may have read too much!!

Stars of stage and screen have often changed their names. Elton John was Reginald Dwight, Adam Ant – Stuart Goddard, Bob Dylan - Robert Allen Zimmerman, Stevie Wonder – Steveland Hardaway Judkins, Cary Grant – Archibald Leach and even the great Pele was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento.

One of the more understandable name changes was that of Helen Mirren who started out as Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironov!

And it seems that Meghan Markle’s real name is Rachel.

Sometimes people are embarrassed by the name they have been given. That may have been the case with the son of David Bowie who was called Zowie, changing it to Duncan as soon as he was old enough to do so.

Some names have unfortunate connotations. Sharon, Tracey and Karen are no longer acceptable names together with Wayne. Sad for the perfectly nice people who have the names!

The Karen’s of the world haven’t been helped by the ‘Karen Diners’ which have appeared in major cities. Originating in Australia, diners pay to be verbally insulted by the staff and receive dreadful service. Unhappily there is now one in Sheffield. Apparently very popular, but sadly many people don’t actually have to pay to be verbally insulted!