Talk

I don't think it's necessarily 'the name', but the perception of 'the name' by certain people ...if that makes sense!

I personally don't see Lucinda as 'posh', quite the opposite in fact. Arabella is becoming more popular due to the Isabella / Annabelle connection.

Mungo is the patron saint of Glasgow, I rather like it! ..but then I am rather eccentric!

I like the names Arabella and Lucinda however I would sway more towards Lucinda as school children can be cruel and may shorten Arabella to Arab.

Hamish

Ah I love Arabella. It was our choice for DS2 if he'd been DD2!

As Melina says, its peoples perception of the name...I was at school with a really horrible girl called Lucinda, so while the name is quite pretty I couldn't go there!

Joccasta
Tarquin
Quentin
Araminta
Loads of 'em

I like Lucinda though

The truly posh people I know all have normal names.

I have come across some real eye-openers in the "trying too hard" category (especially if alternate spellings are included, and unique names).

I wasn't allowed Cressida for DD as DH said it was nobbish.

EdithWeston,are you from Rutland?

Cosima
Cassius
Pandora
Lucien
Romilly

Would never use any of these but quite like a couple of these.

reeling: whatever gave you that idea?

Not anymore.

If you like the name I'd use it and not think it's too posh for you. I grew up in a northern inner city and went to school with kids called Neville, Horace, Lavinia, Gracia, Xenia (I kid you not) and I never thought their names were posh or anything out of the ordinary

I love the name Ptolemy. In my parallel universe I would have called the boys Ptolemy nn Tolly and Alexander nn Xander. However DH would have divorced me if I'd suggested it in RL.

Disclaimer: I had friends called Tolly and Xander at university and they were completely normal, honest. I also had a friend called Rupert.

OOh, loads of tryingtoohard to be middle clarrs names such as,

Monty
Cuthbert
Casper
Atticus
Quentin
Tarquin
Percy
Cosima
Cosimo

Proppa poshos call their kids William and Jane.

Mimi. Awful. Good for a hamster though.

Portia, Candida, Camilla, Bunty, Hermione, Jemima, Hester, India, Euphemia, Ophelia, Tabitha, Cosima, Araminta, Cordelia, Persephone, Matilda, Lucinda, Augusta

Crispin, Piers, Marmaduke, Digby, Ptolemy, Humphrey, Monty, Rafferty, Hugo, Roderick, Jonty, Pascal, Rupert, St John, Jolyon, Claude, Peregrine, Conrad

try to hard rather than posh imo would be names with greek or roman overtones eg persephone , ptolemy ,octavia .pre harry potter hermione would have been in this category . they almost feel like people are almost advertising the fact they've studied latin and greek in a look at me sort of way .

girls names with hard vowel sounds eg octavia , augusta , araminta ,georgiana . i do quite like augusta and octavia but they just don't pass the supermarket test and i'm not brave enough .

boys names that contain softer sounding constonants or unusual consonants eg tarquin ,quentin ,peregrine .

also boys names that feel more suited to a pet eg marmaduke , digby ,teddy etc

paperback i'd no longer class matilda as posh maybe 10 or 20 years but now it's well inside the top 100 and probably nudging the top 50

We know a very posh family (old money) through dh's work and their 3 kids are teddy, John and lizzie. With of course, teddy and lizzie being Edward and Elizabeth.

lockets if i really loved a name i'd use it too regardless of how it was perceived by others . two of our dd's have names mentioned on here just because we loved them not because we were trying to hard be different or are posh iyswim .
likewise jemima is imo a lovely biblical name .i'd have loved to use for dd4 ,if my dsis hadn't beaten me to . in the US it is seen i believe as a slaves name .

Leopoldina. I didn't make that up, I just met one.

Candida
Cosima
Araminta
Allegra
Electra
Arabella
Harriet
Tabitha
Belinda
Santa
Ophelia

Rufus
Peregrine
Tarquin
Cecil
Rupert
Rory
Digby
Maurice
Quentin
Toby
Bartholomew
Charles
Spencer
Columbus
Cassius
Julius
Malachi

Hester, posh? Really?

Hmm, so am I right to conclude that anything classical, whether Greek or Roman, is basically out of the question? Shame - I've always quite liked them.

What about if the namesake is a villain?

Clytemnaestra?