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Retired First Names in Soaps?


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Old 05-06-2016, 13:33
Corrie_Fan2
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Do soaps retire character first names in recognition of iconic characters, the way some football clubs retire numbers?

I.e are Diedre, Ken, Emily, Rita, Blanche unlikely to ever be used for other characters given the historic status of their characters in the show?

Similarly are Phil, Grant, Peggy, Pat etc unlikely to be use in EE?
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Old 05-06-2016, 13:43
emma daily
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Do soaps retire character first names in recognition of iconic characters, the way some football clubs retire numbers?

I.e are Diedre, Ken, Emily, Rita, Blanche unlikely to ever be used for other characters given the historic status of their characters in the show?

Similarly are Phil, Grant, Peggy, Pat etc unlikely to be use in EE?
Depends on how it is pronouced, there hasnt been a mike on corrie since mike baldwin but there is a michael. So maybe a kenneth... Phillip, margret... Etc
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Old 05-06-2016, 13:44
Mr Angie
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Great point. As long as that iconic character has a child, grandchild or saves them from a burning building then no I guess.

We had Billy Jackson and Billy Mitchell on Eastenders at the same time and it was annoying as Billy Jacksons name was changed to Billie Jackson and people would say "Billy Mitchell" instead of just saying Billy.
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Old 05-06-2016, 13:48
Cool_mate
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Nah soaps probably wouldn't use the same first names cos it's too confusing for viewers

Might get away with different spellings though
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Old 05-06-2016, 13:49
spikewoman
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Interesting thought.

Where names tend to be "of a generation" like Deidre, Blanche, Rita etc I don't think this would be such a problem. I can't see there being another Ken in CS unless it is a child deliberately linked in his family named after him. I could imagine a Kenny though maybe in that context or as a relatively minor character.

Similarly in EE with "dated" names like Peggy it wouldn't be a problem and unlikely to occur but I could imagine Patty/Patti/Pattie or even a masculine Pat as in short for Patrick. Grant isn't a particularly common name it is the more common names like Phil where it could become an issue.

Fortunately in this day and age we use a bigger variety of names than we did decades ago so this is less likely to be a problem. I think the trick is not to use very common names for characters that could become iconic but then when they introduce characters how can they necessarily predict long term who will stick and make an impact and who won't?
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Old 05-06-2016, 13:57
Lady Voldemort
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Great point. As long as that iconic character has a child, grandchild or saves them from a burning building then no I guess.

We had Billy Jackson and Billy Mitchell on Eastenders at the same time and it was annoying as Billy Jacksons name was changed to Billie Jackson and people would say "Billy Mitchell" instead of just saying Billy.
Yes, Jackie Dixon in Brookside got changed to Jacqui when Jackie Corkhill arrived. Because that made a world of difference to the spoken name on screen
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Old 05-06-2016, 13:59
CPW4EVER
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EastEnders have played with this a bit in that we've had three variations of Den Watts on the show now - the original Den, his son Dennis Rickman and currently Denny Rickman. Similarly, Billy's son is called William or Will after him. So we might get a Margaret being named after Peggy at some point or a variant of Patricia in memory of Pat.
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Old 05-06-2016, 14:06
emma daily
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There has been a few andys on eastenders, pete/peter, steve/stephen.

On corrie there was variations of elizabeth on corrie.. Bet, betty, liz, beth..
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Old 05-06-2016, 14:18
Glendarroch
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ED have done this across generations, with Sarah and Jack Sugden having namesakes in Andy Sugden' s kids. The original Jack was one of ED' s icons.
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Old 05-06-2016, 14:44
spikewoman
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Let's not forget we had a Bet and a Betty behind the bar at the Rovers at the same time not forgetting Liz if we want the Elizabeth link.

I recall Jim referring to Liz as Elizabeth a few times (so he did ) and I'm sure Bet was referred to as Elizabeth on the odd maybe official occasion but I'm not sure I ever heard Betty referred to as being an Elizabeth?
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Old 05-06-2016, 15:24
emma daily
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Let's not forget we had a Bet and a Betty behind the bar at the Rovers at the same time not forgetting Liz if we want the Elizabeth link.

I recall Jim referring to Liz as Elizabeth a few times (so he did ) and I'm sure Bet was referred to as Elizabeth on the odd maybe official occasion but I'm not sure I ever heard Betty referred to as being an Elizabeth?
Im sure i said that two post up.. 😏
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Old 05-06-2016, 15:37
vald
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EastEnders have played with this a bit in that we've had three variations of Den Watts on the show now - the original Den, his son Dennis Rickman and currently Denny Rickman. Similarly, Billy's son is called William or Will after him. So we might get a Margaret being named after Peggy at some point or a variant of Patricia in memory of Pat.
Scarlette's middle name is Patricia (I'm sure she'll be back at some point). We also have two Lou's, an Arthur ,and a Mark Fowler knocking around somewhere.
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Old 05-06-2016, 16:35
spikewoman
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Im sure i said that two post up.. 😏
But the Bet, Betty and Liz thing was of particular note because they were there at the same time not with gaps in between. Bet and Betty I think could be classed as Corrie "icons", less so Liz although she was still a notable character
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Old 05-06-2016, 16:59
Scrabbler
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Do soaps retire character first names in recognition of iconic characters, the way some football clubs retire numbers?

I.e are Diedre, Ken, Emily, Rita, Blanche unlikely to ever be used for other characters given the historic status of their characters in the show?

Similarly are Phil, Grant, Peggy, Pat etc unlikely to be use in EE?
Peggy's real name is Margaret and she has a sister called Sal. Gavin Sullivan has two sisters, called Margaret and Sally. No doubt just a coincidence, but the writers didn't pick up on it.

Names do go out of fashion, so I think it's unlikely you'd get another Norris, Rita, Deidre or Blanche.

Saying that, we did get two more Arthur's in EastEnders so you never know
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Old 05-06-2016, 17:01
Mr Angie
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The most used name in each show?
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Old 05-06-2016, 17:09
Scrabbler
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The most used name in each show?
For EastEnders Dan or Danny has been used a few times

Dan Sullivan
Danny Pennant
Danny Mitchell
Danny Moon
Dan Feirrera

We even had a Danielle Jones and Franks secret son was also called Danny
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Old 05-06-2016, 17:29
Nebworth90
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We'll never have a Pauline, Peggy, Dot, Deirdre or Blanche again imo in their respective soaps. The names r too synonymous.
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Old 05-06-2016, 17:34
Corrie_Fan2
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We'll never have a Pauline, Peggy, Dot, Deirdre or Blanche again imo in their respective soaps. The names r too synonymous.
Wasn't one of Dot's grandkids called Dotty?
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Old 05-06-2016, 17:35
Scrabbler
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We'll never have a Pauline, Peggy, Dot, Deirdre or Blanche again imo in their respective soaps. The names r too synonymous.
I reckon we will see Peggy Fox-Mitchell before the year ends
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Old 05-06-2016, 17:36
Scrabbler
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Wasn't one of Dot's grandkids called Dotty?
Her real name is Kirsty, Nick made her pretend she was called Dotty as he thought Dot would take to her more quickly.
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Old 05-06-2016, 18:06
vald
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We'll never have a Pauline, Peggy, Dot, Deirdre or Blanche again imo in their respective soaps. The names r too synonymous.
Peggy is short for Margaret, and we've had one recently. Pauline and Dorothy are a bit too old fashioned to give to young characters.
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Old 05-06-2016, 18:08
spikewoman
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Peggy's real name is Margaret and she has a sister called Sal. Gavin Sullivan has two sisters, called Margaret and Sally. No doubt just a coincidence, but the writers didn't pick up on it.

Names do go out of fashion, so I think it's unlikely you'd get another Norris, Rita, Deidre or Blanche.

Saying that, we did get two more Arthur's in EastEnders so you never know
That's a very good point but I'm wondering now if we, me included, are dwelling too much on variants of names.

Margaret for example has a huge number of variants and pet forms eg Maggie, Mags, Peg, Peggy, Meg, Madge, Maisie. Same with Elizabeth harking back to the Corrie theme. The thing is it is the name we know the character by that matters most I suppose, if we talk about Peggy from EE we all know who is meant and the question is would any future Margarets be known as Peggy or indeed people with Peggy as their given name (as somebody in my family was).

Backtracking on my comment about Bet and Betty being behind the bar of The Rovers at the same time it really didn't matter because there was no confusion over who was who. I suppose my point really was they were very close sounding as opposed to Liz who although also an Elizabeth, had a very different sounding name.
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Old 05-06-2016, 18:20
David the Wavid
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Let's not forget we had a Bet and a Betty behind the bar at the Rovers at the same time not forgetting Liz if we want the Elizabeth link.

I recall Jim referring to Liz as Elizabeth a few times (so he did ) and I'm sure Bet was referred to as Elizabeth on the odd maybe official occasion but I'm not sure I ever heard Betty referred to as being an Elizabeth?
Annie always referred to Betty as Elizabeth but Bet was simply Bet, showing how she regarded each of them.

Betty's husband Cyril called her Lizzie!
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Old 05-06-2016, 18:24
spikewoman
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Annie always referred to Betty as Elizabeth but Bet was simply Bet, showing how she regarded each of them.

Betty's husband Cyril called her Lizzie!
YES! you're so right thanks for reminding me How could I forget the great Annie Walker?
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Old 05-06-2016, 19:25
CPW4EVER
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For EastEnders Dan or Danny has been used a few times

Dan Sullivan
Danny Pennant
Danny Mitchell
Danny Moon
Dan Feirrera

We even had a Danielle Jones and Franks secret son was also called Danny
EastEnders has been partial to using Michael and it's variants over the years too.

Michael Rose
Mick McFarlane
Mickey Miller
Michael Moon
Mick Carter
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