Come Back Dorcas
Dorcas. Now there's a name you don't hear every day. Or at all, really, these days, though in Victorian times it was quite common.
I was reminded of it whilst watching the BBC's current adaptation of Lark Rise to Candleford, Flora Thompson's excellent account of nineteenth-century rural life. It's a fascinating book, though a bit lacking in plot: Girl from Tiny Hamlet Moves to Little Town and is Happy There is about it. But it's a fascinating book and the rather chocolate-boxy screen version doesn't really show how good it is.
One of the main characters in it is called Dorcas, and this got me thinking about other names that have gone. I once had a cat called Dinah, which I thought was a good name for a cat, and a good revival of a Victorian name. Many people, however, thought its name was Diana and thought I'd named it after the princess of the same name, which annoyed me rather.
The names of First World War soldiers are creeping back. Harry. Ted. Perhaps even Arthur. But Percy, I suspect, will take a while longer. A few Second World War names are beginning to appear: I keep coming across small children called Ruby.
It's strange how a simple name conjures up a whole era, and a whole social class. Fiona. Posh. Rupert. Posh. Daphne - - er - - yes, well, now you come to mention it - - Posh. And it is my real name, chosen only because my mother liked it. And I don't think I'm Posh at all. But it has taken me a while to work out that the name comes laden with expectations.
There are some names - and I won't quote them - which do for Common what Rupert does for Posh. Often, they are names plucked from a television show. I was surprised to find, in the television series Foyle's War, that Foyle's sidekick is called Samantha. I had never heard that name - or the name Darrin either, usually Darren with an e in the UK - until the American series Bewitched, which as a child I absolutely loved, came to Britain in the 1960s, bringing those names with it.
I tend to like traditional boys' names of the Frank, Robert, Michael, David, Stephen, John, Ian kind - - actually, this has turned out to be a list of some of my favourite friends and relatives, in the order that I met them. I think, with the best will in the world, boys with unusual names tend to have a hard time of it so I wouldn't call any son of mine Crispian, for example.
Girls don't tend to have the same problem if they have unusual names, but even so, I tend to prefer the traditional ones with their sense of history.
I quite like the name Dorcas: it's unusual, and doesn't - to me - have any negative connotations. I'm rather hoping it will come back.
I was reminded of it whilst watching the BBC's current adaptation of Lark Rise to Candleford, Flora Thompson's excellent account of nineteenth-century rural life. It's a fascinating book, though a bit lacking in plot: Girl from Tiny Hamlet Moves to Little Town and is Happy There is about it. But it's a fascinating book and the rather chocolate-boxy screen version doesn't really show how good it is.
One of the main characters in it is called Dorcas, and this got me thinking about other names that have gone. I once had a cat called Dinah, which I thought was a good name for a cat, and a good revival of a Victorian name. Many people, however, thought its name was Diana and thought I'd named it after the princess of the same name, which annoyed me rather.
The names of First World War soldiers are creeping back. Harry. Ted. Perhaps even Arthur. But Percy, I suspect, will take a while longer. A few Second World War names are beginning to appear: I keep coming across small children called Ruby.
It's strange how a simple name conjures up a whole era, and a whole social class. Fiona. Posh. Rupert. Posh. Daphne - - er - - yes, well, now you come to mention it - - Posh. And it is my real name, chosen only because my mother liked it. And I don't think I'm Posh at all. But it has taken me a while to work out that the name comes laden with expectations.
There are some names - and I won't quote them - which do for Common what Rupert does for Posh. Often, they are names plucked from a television show. I was surprised to find, in the television series Foyle's War, that Foyle's sidekick is called Samantha. I had never heard that name - or the name Darrin either, usually Darren with an e in the UK - until the American series Bewitched, which as a child I absolutely loved, came to Britain in the 1960s, bringing those names with it.
I tend to like traditional boys' names of the Frank, Robert, Michael, David, Stephen, John, Ian kind - - actually, this has turned out to be a list of some of my favourite friends and relatives, in the order that I met them. I think, with the best will in the world, boys with unusual names tend to have a hard time of it so I wouldn't call any son of mine Crispian, for example.
Girls don't tend to have the same problem if they have unusual names, but even so, I tend to prefer the traditional ones with their sense of history.
I quite like the name Dorcas: it's unusual, and doesn't - to me - have any negative connotations. I'm rather hoping it will come back.
posted by Daphne at 8:38 pm
3 Comments:
I also have a fondness for traditional names like Harry, Herbert, Elsie & Hester. I can't abide the new style of names like Chantelle, Chardonnay, Kyle and Keanu (forgive my alliteration).
They give me the shivers.
The doc you missed is on at 11.20pm tonight on BBC2.
As a big fan of the films of the 1940s (and 30s) I find it interesting that many of the glamorous stars of that era have names that we now associate with "old biddies". Betty, Ethel, Jean, Irene, Audrey, Rita ...
One day the nursing homes will be full of Britneys and Keanus shuffling round waiting to take their pills.
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