Val's day

[tabouli.livejournal.com]

It being Valentine’s Day and all, I feel the time has come to muse on Val Longstreet, and AF names in general. I was taken aback to learn Val’s full name was Valentine, partly because it’s comically incongruous with her character, and partly because I’ve never met or even heard of a real person called Valentine. I’d assumed her name was Valerie (rare but not unheard of). Was (or is) there a particular time and/or demographic in the UK where 'Valentine' was a reasonably common name?

The names of ongoing characters were an aspect of her books that AF couldn't shift to suit the different timeframes of her books, which must make for some interesting clashes in fashion. Being Australian, I don't know that much about what names would have been popular in schools like Kingscote in the eras when the books are set, but I'd guess, for example, that having two Margarets in a small class of girls might have been likely at the time of Autumn Term, but would have been unlikely by Attic Term.

It's also interesting to look at which names seem dated and which don't. 'Nicola', 'Rebecca', 'Karen' and 'Jenny' are as current as ever, at least to my Australian eye, but 'Erica', 'Lois', 'Virginia' and 'Barbara' seem of an earlier generation. I also suspect (again, without much knowledge of the context in posh UK circles at the time) that by Attic Term, AF chose names for new minor characters (e.g. the 'infants' in Ann's dorm) which were fashionable at the time when the novel was set. Then there's ones like 'Thalia', 'Pomona' and 'Unity', where I suspect AF was deliberately picking offbeat names.

Any thoughts from people who know more than me about UK naming fashions through the ages?

Comments

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Maybe with the latest fad for giving girls boys' names, Lawrence will come into fashion too?

I remember thinking it odd that Tim found Nicola's name unusual in Autumn Term, 'not like Joan or Peggy or Betty' as Joan and Peggy and Betty were names I associated with my grandmother's generation, and I was somewhere under ten and hadn't really worked out how old the book was.

All the youngish Margarets I've met have been Scottish, so maybe it stayed popular there longer than in England?

I was in classes with multiple Joannas and Fionas (not that I am at all posh) so I think AF's instincts were right there.

I think of Valentine as a boy's name, possibly due to Valentine Pelka (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0670893/). *wipes brow in relief that AF fandom was spared any kind of Blaise Zabini-like fandom flare-ups about Val Longstreet's gender*

[ex-lizzzar998.livejournal.com]

I wonder if AF was deliberately going for unusual, and possibly somewhat gender ambiguous names. Remembering that Nicola is happy to be called Nick, but hates Nicky (except when used by her mother, presumably from early childhood.) Obviously Lawrence and Lawrie also gender ambiguous, as is Rowan. Ginty also does appear an unusual short form of Virginia, as I thought it was an Irish surname and Ginny is the usual abbreviation. Perhaps unusual name means that Ginty is redeemable after all - I'd quite like this, as some of the time it does seem like she is being condemned for being a relatively conventionally feminine teenage girl, although she is dishonest to Patrick in Attic Term. Poor Ann does seem stuck with the most boring name in Marlow terms - glad there was an Annis ancestor. Interesting that AF's real first name was Patricia.