As a follow-up to last week's post about there not being a lot of boys named Gary anymore, I promised to tackle girls' names next. And Sam was once again very helpful, particularly when this song popped up on an in-car mixtape...
Still one of Paul Heaton's finest hours, that - and I love the guest appearance by George Michael in the video.
Anyway, as the song played, Sam told me, "there's none of those girls in my school."
Which means, he doesn't know any kids called...
Oh Shirley, oh Deborah, oh Julie, oh Jane...
And he doesn't go to school with anyone called...
Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue, Deborah, Annabel, too
(I had to search for that one. Not enough songs about girls called Philippa. There was a Pippa in my 6th form. I fancied her. No chance. She went out with my mate Simon.)
And for completeness' sake, here's the other name mentioned in Song For Whoever... but not in Sam's school register.
I asked Sam about a few more of the names I went to school with. He didn't know girls by any of these names either...
(Apologies if you wanted to hear Gilbert.)
Some success though - he did at least know one Sarah and one Emma. I think every other girl in my school was called Sarah or Emma...
He didn't know any Louises though. Except for his Mum!
There's a lot of good things to be said about that song, and its video - but mostly, I want a barge covered in books like the one Phil has.
I would be remiss if I didn't also feature the other great Louise song of that era...
So then, I hear you ask, if Sam doesn't go to school with any of the girls above... what are his female schoolmates called? Well, he knows at least five girls called...
And four called...
OK, that one had me stumped. If you know a song about a girl called Isla, please let me know.
He also knows two or even three different girls with each of the names below...
That last one was a stretch too.
As with the boys' names then, there's been another major shift in what parents are choosing to call their kids these days... and the most popular names are ones that would mostly have belonged to old people when I was a kid.
It's also highly unlikely that Marie will be the name of anyone's latest flame in Gen A... making all these old songs sound even more out of date.
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