In your opinion, can people with names like 'Posy', 'Kitty' or 'Dotty' be taken seriously?

FWIW I personally don't think it should matter what anyone else thinks of the names chosen by you and DP for your child, because that's just it. It's YOUR CHILD. My parents wern't keen on either of my girls names (Phoebe and Kelsie) but we gave them those names anyway. Coincidentaly they loved my little boys name Dylan cos it was more 'normal' lol! I'm not particularly keen on the flowery, cutesy type names and wouldn't choose one for my next child but if you like one go for it. Can't be as bad as the name I heard recently 'made up' by a friend of a friend. They called their newborn baby boy C.O.D as his daddy is a huge Call Of Duty fan!! Poor child

me too lighthouse. Many people on here are saying absolutely ridiculous things.

That's my wee cousins name. She works hard at school and is determined to be a vet. Should I tell her now not to waste her time and buy her a pole to start practising dancing with? This thread has peed me off no end. People really are showing their true colours.

I am NCing after this but my name is Kitty, middle name Jade and I am a barrister, with a degree from Oxford. One of these is a cutsie name, and one of these is apparently a 'chavvy' name. I wonder how I ever made it in the world, my suffering is so very great.

I am really good at my job, would you reject my representation based on my name? No one has so far...

Yep, probably.

That remark is a bit unkind, do we not think?

I doubt it, mama- she did call her child Jaxon J...................

AlmostPerfect you do know that Obama is a surname, right?

Not sure where to start with that post. However it does seem to indicate that using "unusual" names and general knowledge don't go together.........

Call your baby what name you like, ive had a lot of stick over my sons name, Jaxon. An his middle name is just J. An 30 years ago the USA didnt think they'd have an Obama!

Do we actually know whether she applied to medical school as Pixie? Or any other traditional doctor jobs? I hardly think it would be a barrier to working on "embarrassing bodies" -they probably thought she was 8 inches tall with pointy ears

My point was that she clearly didn't think it was an issue to her career!

Well I don't blame her for ditching Bernadette. I'd rather be called Roger.

The point is that it was her choice! Not the choice of a parent wanting to show the world how whacky and free thinking they were.

But official work name is nonetheless Pixie.

Real name Bernadette!

I'm not keen on the cutsie names, they infantise the women who will carry them. There is also the additional current problem that they are so popular at the moment that in 30 years they will seem very dated. But in the 'bad name' hierarchy they are nowhere near the Bears, Apples, or Chardonnays.

I also don't think every name that ends in 'y' is a cutsie name, Emily or Anthony are both proper names, but Dotty or Bobby should only be used as a nn.

Not sure I agree with the PP who said no name feels like your real name if you use several versions. My brother has a good solid traditional name that he uses at university and work, he has a family nickname that is a common short form of his name, he also has a nickname that his schoolfriends call him that only loosely related to his real name. All three names belong to him. My sister has a family NN that isn't based on her name, she is actually quite protective of it and friends and acquaintances aren't allowed to use it, but all her nieces and nephews call her 'Auntie NN'.

Dr Pixie on embarrassing bodies.

Baby, very sadly when they've done blind tests with so called 'white name' cvs eg Annabelle Cordingly and identical cvs which have 'foreign' names on, many more of the foreign names get binned

I suspected as much, but thank you for the confirmation. I guess no-one can ever prove they didn't get an interview because of their name, any more than they can prove it's because of their colour - but perhaps more needs to be done to stamp out such discrimination at source. If HR staff are truly "educated" as someone claimed earlier, then they need to look at their uneducated prejudices.

I have a brother whose name is very "British" though his ancestry is Pakistani - he's adopted. He often laughs at the fact that his identity is "hidden" from prospective employers - but isn't it sad that he occasionally has to face the slightly-shocked expressions on the interviewers' faces? They presumably read his cv (which is excellent), and approve of his reassuringly middle-class British name, but then have to disguise their surprise when he comes through the door? His skin colour shouldn't matter, any more than his name...but it does.

So, our choices are to choose only interview-friendly baby names, or to train HR staff in equality legislation and continue to monitor their practices until they get it right. I know which I'd prefer.

Mind you, I do have two lovely kittens. Maybe I could call my child Cat? Not sure if it is a masculine or feminine name though...

The sad fact is that people are judged by their names - that is life and just because we don't agree with it doesn't mean we should ignore it.

I would never call my child something that might cause people to say, "What the hell was she thinking?"

Cutesie names don't bother me though, as long as they are real names I.e Poppy, Molly, Evie, Kitty etc. I don't think there is anything wrong with pretty names like that.

It is just ridiculous names I have a problem with, where children are called silly things that aren't real names - Bear being a great example

If it's true, as has been suggested, that HR departments are staffed by people so blinkered that they choose employees with the "right" names, then they need to be educated out of their discriminatory practices.

How do they cope when the name is not one they recognise? Or do they avoid the problem by binning all applications with "foreign" names, just in case it's the equivalent of Tracy or Sharon?