"Doris"s in early 1900s?

[clairec666]

"Names classified as 'endangered' include Horace, Leslie and Norman for boys and Doris, Hilda and Edna for girls."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2596522/Why-Norman-Doris-Hilda-threat-Names-placed-endangered-list.html

I was sad to see my grandmother's name (Gladys) dying out, but my grandfather's name (Gilbert) is making a bit of a comeback.

I'm fascinated by name trends. From the 1870s there seems to be more variety in names, particularly flower-related names for girls, but I can't explain the appearance of Doris...

[Barbara.H]

I think the popular novel theories are good ones; 'Doris Cheyne' and/or 'Doris Barugh' suggested by LizzieL. 

I may be burbling, but I think parents tend to choose names of fictional characters because they have their own mental picture of what the character is like. It's more personal than naming baby after a 'real' person.  In the 1980s for example, there wasn't a rush of baby girls named Diana, despite HRH's massive popularity. I think it had too strong an association with that one person. However the name Kayleigh arrived from nowhere, thanks to a (relatively) brief hit song by Marillion.

  Barbara

[LizzieL]

I have one that could only have been inspired by literature or maybe the opera based on the book. A male relative with the name Erl-King - unique as far as I can see. On his birth and death reg it was hyphenated, but on his marriage record and merchant seaman record (where he had a choice) he abbreviated it to Erl - the K (for King) as second initial. No King as maiden name in his side of the family - his mother's maiden name was Hammond. His younger brother was given quite traditional names.

I think I mentioned this on another post but can't find it now.

[ThrelfallYorky]

Oh, I really like that about the sea-slugs, Erato!
I certainly seem to have started something with what was an innocent question that, as the growing numbers of various "Doris"s built up, started to fascinate me.
All responses gratefully received and I'm trying to follow them up. Don't wait, though, for the short monograph "The Origins, Development and Decline of Doris"!

[Beeonthebay]

So strange I was reading this the other night wishing I had a Doris instead of all those Elizabeth's, Mary Ellens and Martha's    Tonight I found one with 2 r's Dorris Ducker, what a name!!   

[KGarrad]

I was looking for famous Doris's, that might have popularised the name?

Hessy Doris Lloyd (1896-1968) was an English actress who found fame in Hollywood, but not until the 1920s.
Doris Margaret Kenyon was an American actress (1897-1979) also found fame in the 1920s.

But a better bet would be the Comedy Opera "Doris" written by Alfred Cellier, previously with the D'Oyley Carte Company, in 1889.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_%28opera%29

Could this be the origin of the name's popularity?

[bykerlads]

There is a lovely florist's shop in Tooting, London called Doris's.
The florist looks too young to be a Doris, though maybe she was named after her gran?
Some names do get resurrected many years after their heyday.

[ThrelfallYorky]

Some of "my" Doris ladies seem a bit too old to have been a response to the Comic Opera, but in one line, that'd have been a very suitable source as they were into that sort of musical thingy. I'm quite glad I started this thread, now - I felt a bit silly, although it'd been nagging me for ages, but I'm now so much better informed on "Doris-ey", even if I still can't pin it down to any particular sources. Thank you all for your super ideas / researches / knowledge / interest.

[Erato]

Just one other thought.  Maybe Doris became popular because there was a general run on Greek names.  There were plenty of other Greek nymphs, muses and such, though many of them had more or less unpronounceable names.  Still, it would be interesting to see if there was a simultaneous boom in Electras, Iones, Eunices, Clios, Thalias, etc.