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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Jezebel?

164 replies

fairyteepee · 23/10/2014 18:49

I love this name its so pretty, should i use it in spite of some of its negative associations? Its seems such a shame to bin a beautiful name! Thanks guys!

OP posts:
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CrumpleHornedSnorkack · 24/10/2014 19:01

Lilith was Adam's first wife. Supposedly a witch/in league with the Devil.

ThursdayOfTheLivingDead · 24/10/2014 18:55

What connotations does Lilith have please?

FurryDogMother · 24/10/2014 18:32

Going against the flow here - I like it, and I think it's one of those names the connotations of which are only really obvious to adults - I think it's unlikely that kids would see it as a prostitute's name, and by the time her cohort are of an age to make the connection, they should be too old to use it against her.

moxon · 24/10/2014 18:32

I love Lilith. Remember Lilith from Cheers? She was great. Anyway, if I didn't already know someone with that name, it would be high on my list; I don't think the connotations are as bad nor as secular as Jezebel. And ditto on the feminist reading of Jezebel, although it would indeed take guts using it.

ShadowKat · 24/10/2014 18:08

Lilith is a bit more obscure than Jezebel though, isn't it?

HamAndPlaques · 24/10/2014 15:59

No no no.

I've always thought that Lilith is a rather pretty name but it's totally unusable for exactly the same reasons.

ShadowKat · 24/10/2014 15:28

I think the negative connotations of Jezebel are too great. If it was just the Bible story you might get away with it, but I agree with many pp that the fact it's used to mean a whore is just too much.

CeriBerry · 24/10/2014 14:37

I know a Jezebel- she always goes by her middle name. I wouldn't do it!

Mumtobenovember · 24/10/2014 14:28

Your child will be bullied at school with this name- there's also a song called jesabelle listen to that you will soon change your mind

AdoraBell · 24/10/2014 14:25

I'm not religious either OP but I wouldn't give a child a label like this unless I was able to rid the world of religion and all the inferences that have seeped into language and cultures from religion over the last few millennia before the birth.

And I do mean label as opposed to name because that's what it will be.

BogStandardOldWoman · 24/10/2014 14:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MerryMarigold · 24/10/2014 14:05

Just because you're not religious doesn't mean your kid won't want to be.

And as others said, it is not only negative to religious people. Everyone knows the name and what it represents, and it has now come to represent prostitute. I can't imagine a cute little newborn being a synonym for a prostitute.

Jez is a truly awful nn too.

Jasmine along similar lines, although they are 2 a penny round here.

Itsthiwooluff · 24/10/2014 13:24

Erm, I have 2 ponies who came to me with the names Jezabel and Floozie. My family call them Jez and Floo because we get odd looks from passing strangers if we use the full names...........and that's using them for animals.

Strongly recommend a rethink Grin

GreatAuntDinah · 24/10/2014 13:18

Actually there are sound feminist grounds for reclaiming Jezebel as a name but you'd have to be pretty brave / foolhardy.

EmilyGilmore · 24/10/2014 09:26

It's great. She might even get called Jizzy in the playground - which would be swell.

3pigsinblanketsandasausagerole · 24/10/2014 09:25

They call her jezebel
Friends call her sket behind her back
She never knew the plot
She Was born off track......

Caniaskaquestion · 24/10/2014 09:23

I have some sympathy because I also think it is a pretty name and it is a shame about the fact that it means 'whore' now. But the fact is it doesn't matter how much you insist it is just a pretty name, it means whore to everyone else. I would not in a thousand years give a girl this name.

R4roger · 24/10/2014 09:23

no way.

how about Floozy Grin?
Hussy

but not jezebel.

SurfsUp1 · 24/10/2014 09:18

If you called it across a playground people would think you were insulting your daughter! A bit like
"Come here Tart!' or "Floozy, wait your turn!"

mathanxiety · 24/10/2014 01:49

You don't have to know anything about religion or be involved in a religion to understand the (very) negative associations. You just have to speak English.

clary · 24/10/2014 00:44

Please don't call your daughter Jezebel.

I know a child called Cain which has "negative associations" (he killed his brother) and is not what I would choose but even that is not as bad. "She's a real Jezebel" - not nice.

Bewooohooove · 24/10/2014 00:37

I'm not a guy so can I still answer?

It's awful

bouncingbelle · 24/10/2014 00:31

Calling her Jezzie would lead to playground taunts of 'Jezzie the lezzie' as if Jezebel wasn't enough to put up with.

Call her jessica Isabel and use jessabel as her family nickname?

BonnieWeeJeannieMcCall · 23/10/2014 23:25

Another definitely not from me.

MrsMcRuff · 23/10/2014 22:58

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with the names Lucretia or Adolf, either, but you'd have to be a certain kind of parent to lumber your child with them.

Having said that, there is a lovely middle-aged lady on the tills in a local supermarket whose name badge proclaims her to be Jezebel. Just thought I'd mention it!

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