The much maligned "Sharon", "Tracey" and "Sandra", who have been the butt of so many Essex girl jokes...

Well, this is another example of how UK culture is different than American culture. I never knew that these names were maligned. And I've never heard of "Essex girl jokes" before reading that phrase in that post.

I suppose it probably goes without saying that there are different naming traditions within the USA. A list of African American favorite names and commonly used names for females would be very different than the lists that have been shared thus far in this thread. And a lot of those names on those lists were/are hardly ever given to Black {African American} females. A list of favorite American male names would also be different than the names that African Americans give to males since the 1960s.{Though there is a bit more convergence between White and Black Americans with regard to male names}.

Fwiw, the names Sharon and Karen used to be popular names for Black twin girls in the 1950s. In my experience, the only rivals in popularly for twin names at that time were Brenda and Linda. In my experience and as a result of my informal research, I would say that since the late 1950s/mid 1960s, the female names I cited are seldom given to African American females, with the possible exception of the name "Linda".

I'm not sure what the most popular African American female twin names are nowadays. But I know that they are either rhyming names like "Kia" {also spelled Keeya, Keya, Kya} and "Breeya" {also spelled "Briya"}or they have the same first letter such Latosha and Latoya or the same ending sound such as Tiyanna and Breanna.

And whereas a name like Jennifer was popular among White and non-White Americans in the 1970s, you hardly ever see that name given to an African American girl in the early/almost mid 2000s.

I hasten to say that some of my best girl friends have what African Americans nowadays would consider to be old fashioned names like Sharon, Karen, Cynthia, Deborah, Delores, Barbara, and Brenda.

Heck, I used to have one of these names myself!