I have one of those naff names. In actual fact, o was named after my mother’s then American Jewish friend whose father was a major bank executive and very posh. As it was, I went to a private school of sorts and was the only one with that name. I met one other person of similar name who was at Kings College I think studying theology. I was studying at what is now part of UCL.
Neither of us conformed with the image of the name both in terms of social status, accents, image and educational achievements. I was the daughter of a pretty successful man and came from a very posh part of the city in which I lived.
My name was an act of love by my mother for a women who had failed desperately in love with my dads then best friend who struggled to pass his law finals. She went back to the States broken hearted as he really did not want to marry her and was deliberately failing his exams to avoid the wedding date.
My second name was Lizabetta ( my mother was foreign) but my dad rebelled and wrote it as Elizabeth on the birth certificate.
I think that people place too much value on things like this. It’s as petty as judging people by whether they call a toilet a WC or loo. It’s as judgemental as whether they call the evening meal tea, dinner or supper. Naturally we all know that it’s preferred to say ‘supper’ but to me it’s a ridiculous affectation. The whole thing is ripe for parody.
in some top jobs, people have very naff names and you have to admire not only that achievement but the fact they managed to overcome their name.
In other countries they don’t have this class war based on use of names or key words. Maybe they’d partly why we have such a brain drain and my in laws with their wonderful qualifications/ highly advanced scientific knowledge took their naff names abroad where they could be hugely successful.
Only the British ….: