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Retired First Names in Soaps? |
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#1 |
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Join Date: Mar 2016
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Retired First Names in Soaps?
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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#2 |
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Join Date: Jul 2010
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Quote:
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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#3 |
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Join Date: Jun 2016
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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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#4 |
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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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#5 |
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Join Date: Dec 2005
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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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#6 |
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Quote:
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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#7 |
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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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#8 |
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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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#9 |
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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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#10 |
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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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#11 |
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Quote:
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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#12 |
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Quote:
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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#13 |
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Quote:
Im sure i said that two post up.. 😏
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#14 |
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Quote:
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? 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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#15 |
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The most used name in each show?
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#16 |
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Join Date: Mar 2011
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Quote:
The most used name in each show?
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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#17 |
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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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#18 |
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Quote:
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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#19 |
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Quote:
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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#20 |
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] Quote:
Wasn't one of Dot's grandkids called Dotty?
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#21 |
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Quote:
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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#22 |
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Quote:
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 ![]() 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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#23 |
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Quote:
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?Betty's husband Cyril called her Lizzie! |
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#24 |
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Quote:
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! How could I forget the great Annie Walker?
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#25 |
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Quote:
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 Michael Rose Mick McFarlane Mickey Miller Michael Moon Mick Carter |
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) 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?
