One day, I was talking to my sister and I told her that if I ever have a baby, I would like for her English name to be Agatha. She looked at me like I was crazy and told me that she would probably call the kid by her middle name if I named her Agatha.

I mentioned this to other people and they gave me the same reaction. No one likes the name Agatha. What's wrong with it? I think the name is beautiful!

My guess is that the name, Agatha, starts with the "ag" sound which usually isn't associated with beautiful or pleasant thoughts or things. That sound sort of reminds one of "ugh."

Having said all this, I might have considered naming a baby Agatha anyway--if I had thought of it. One of my favorite authors is Agatha Christie. Also, the name sounds strong to me, and strong is good. It has the ring of a very old name--I wonder how old it is.

Agatha Christie is one of my favorites as well

I really like the name Agatha. You can find out how women with the name Agatha feel about it at:

www.babynamesworld.com/meaning_of_Agatha.html

"Origin is Greek and it means 'Good'."

"Agatha and its related forms were very popular in the Middle Ages, owing in large part to the popularity of Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr. It fell out of use in Protestant countries after the Reformation, but regained some popularity in the nineteenth century. It is very unusual in English-speaking countries today."

Agatha Christie, author of English crime fictions and creator of the characters Poirot and Miss Marple, is one of my favorite authors.

Thank you for the link, Phyllis It is very helpful.

You are welcome, Heather. Often we name our children because of how we, ourselves, feel about the name. We rarely think about how the child, growing and going thru life, might feel about it and what nicknames other kids might use for that name. But, I think there would be no problems with Agatha.

I really like Agatha, personally. I don't know if I like it quite enough to use it on one of my own children, but I do like it.

Isn't it funny how some old-fashioned names come back, while others do not? I think cela is right -- it has a lot to do with sound.

Olivia, Sophia, Eva, Emma, Hannah... these names, which I'd say are pretty "flowy," have come back into fashion recently.

Ethel, Agnes, Mildred, Gertrude, Mabel... these names, which I might call sorta "clunky," have not come back into fashion.

The only currently fashionable name that doesn't fit too well with this pattern is Abigail, but I think that's because so many parents shorten it to Abby (or Abbie).

Here's another discussion that was recently started about the name Agatha --

What do you think of Agatha?