Having taught for forty years, I can safely say I've never come across an Elvis or a Duane. Aaron pronounced Arran, after Elvis, but not the King himself.

When I started teaching, boys had boring standard names, John, Peter and so on, and girls had pretty names, Natalie and Gemma. Boys then got a little more different, and girls became very American. One year we had four Alicias, all spelled differently. Elysha (It began with E anyway), Alisha, and I can't rememeber the other one. Life has got hard for teachers, because this children are a) insulted if it's their name, and b) think the teacher's daft if the teacher can't pronounce it.

There has been a class difference in names abservable until recently. Posh families have fancier boys names, and especially those names which the lower classes think are girls' names. Evelyn, Jocelyn, Hilary, Vivian, and a few others which escape me for the moment. Their girls tended to be more ordinary. Apart from the odd Penelope.

In the days of service for young women, there would be renaming of young women who were thought to be bearing names above their station. I have heard of it in my own family, but can't remember who - perhaps my grandmother Rhoda, and it also happened to a friend's relative. I would certainly have been renamed.

Penny (short for?)