See, I lied. Maybe you'll learn not to trust me. I said I'd try to be regular, and then didn't post again for months.



But, to my point. My next door neighbour is 89 years old and she's called Lilly; the little girl who lives in the house on the opposite side of the road will be 2 in January and she is also called Lilly along with about twenty percent of the other pre-school girls in a 2 mile radius. Doubtless Lilly junior's mum didn't look out of there window one day and see the wizzend, half-blind Lilly senior, her stooped frame wrapped in a pinny and support stockings, and think 'Aw, bless, int she a proper owd love' and shout to Lilly junior's dad 'Ere, Dave, if we're avin a girl, lets call her after Mrs Dawson'.



Names obviously drop into and out of fashion over the years, with Lilly now being extremely popular in my little corner of the world - the 8th most popular girl's name in the UK in 2008, in fact. I like to think I can spot trends far in advance so I'm going to have a punt on 'Iris' entering the fashion name charts in the next 5 years or so. I can see the trend ...floral... ...girlie... ...nod to the past... and we have the celeb endorsement because Mel B has given her second daughter Iris as a middle name. Pity http://nametrends.net/ only covers the USA, because it is good for wasting a good hour or so looking at how baby names have fallen in an out of fashion. I'm glad I have cats... Felix is timeless