NAMES including Gertrude, Bertha, Willie and Cecil are at risk of dying out in Britain, while others such as Cyril and Mildred are becoming less popular, a new study has revealed.
An analysis of millions of birth records from 1905 revealed that some forenames have virtually disappeared, with many others being increasingly ignored.
The report, published by family history website Ancestry.co.uk showed the most "endangered" names included Gertrude, Bertha and Blodwen for girls and Willie, Cecil and Rowland for boys.
Names like Norman, Horace, Leslie, Doris, Hilda and Edna were among the most popular names in 1905, but have become much less popular over the years, said the report.
Many popular names from the early 20th century have evolved to their shorter form. The trend has seen Freddie replace Frederick, Archie overtake Archibald and Charlie become far more popular now than Charles.
The same applies to girls' names, with Lexi replacing Alexandra, Sophia making way for Sophie and Ellie overtaking Eleanor.
Miriam Silverman, UK content manager, from Ancestry.co.uk, said: "Of course, no first name can truly become extinct, as it can easily be resurrected, but it's fascinating to look at the list from 1905 and see which have thrived and which have faded into obscurity."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article