LEN WILL WE SEE YOU AGAIN?
Traditional boys’ name drops from charts
LEN McClusky, Len Goodman, Len Ganley. A few years ago, you couldn’t move for Lens. In fact it used to be said that wherever you were in Britain, you were never more than 20 yards from someone called Len.
But that fact may no longer be true, because the popularity of the name has been dropping in recent years, and 2019 saw the once popular moniker fall out of the top 250 boys names for the first time ever.
lennie
In the 1920s and 30s, Len was a household name, rarely out of the top ten chart. But since the war, the name declined in popularity, and 2019 saw just 3 baby boys christened Len in the UK.
“Len, is a contraction of the name Leonard, meaning lion,” said Somerset House senior registrar Hubert Battenburg. “Lenny, Lennie, Leonard, whatever variation of the name, Lens used to be two-a-penny. But not any more.”
“There was a brief increase in them during the 1970s due to the popularity of the sitcom Rising Damp starring Leonard Rossiter, but it was a short-lived resurgence,” he continued. “These days, most people will be lucky to know anybody called Len.”
And moniker experts now fear that the name, introduced to England by the Normans, could be
completely extinct by the next century. And it’s a scenario that has many of Britain’s existing Lens worried.
“I have to admit I’m a little fearful for the name,” said former TUC leader Len Murray. “I had four kids, but I didn’t call any of them after me, so I feel partly responsible for the name’s decline. I wish I’d done my bit now and called at least one or two of them Len.”
lenny
But help for the endangered name has come from other quarters, with many similarly named celebrities offering to change their names in order to save the epithet.
“I’ve decided to change my name to Len Fogle just to help out,” said broadcaster and author Ben Fogle. “I don’t know how much the deed poll costs, but it will be worth it to save this magnificent appellation from extinction,” the Castaway 2000 star added.
And porn star Ben Dover was of a similar mind. “If I was starting out in my career, I probably wouldn’t make the change, as I don’t think anyone called Len
Dover would get very far in this business,” he said. “But now I’m a familiar face, and cock, I can afford to make the gesture.”
len
But not everyone felt they could help out in a similar way. “Being called Len Dennis wouldn’t be of any detriment to my career,” said comedian and panto star Les Dennis. “But I think that the name Les could soon be under similar threat. By helping out the Lens of the world, I’d only be piling the pressure on people called Les.”
But Battenburg told reporters that whilst these celebrity offers to change their names to Len were noble gestures, the problem had to be tackled at the grass roots.
“Some of these celebrities are in their seventies and eighties. Many of them only have a few years as a Len left to them,” he said. “Young mothers should be be encouraged encouraged to to call call their sons Len. And the government should offer them financial incentives, such as £10, to do so.”