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Baby names

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

Original poster

Mab for a girl

57 replies

Jooni · 03/03/2017 13:28

I know it probably won't go down well but I love short, sweet, strong names for girls and Mab is a recent discovery which is really growing on me. It's of Irish origin, pronounced just as it looks, apparently meaning "happiness". Thoughts please?

I also really love Meg but DH has vetoed because of Family Guy Angry

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Puffykins · 03/03/2017 18:46

She was known as the bringer of dreams. It is a GREAT name. I love it.

SlipperyJack · 03/03/2017 18:46

It's shorthand for monoclonal antibody. (Though I'm probably not being terribly helpful!)

picklemepopcorn · 03/03/2017 18:43

Celtic mythology, Arthurian romance, the Mabinogion .

Or to play safe, what about Meg? Megan, margaret?

picklemepopcorn · 03/03/2017 18:40

I love Mab! Isn't there a Celtic poem or collection of writing, the Mabiniog?

Oysterbabe · 03/03/2017 17:58

It's a really ugly name.

ChiefClerkDrumknott · 03/03/2017 17:07

Queen Mab was also a poem by Shelley.

Mab means son in Welsh, so I wouldn't use it for a girl as to my ear it would sound odd!

I quite like the sound of the word, though. Could you name your daughter Mabel or Mabli (I wouldn't worry about knowing a few named this) then use it a as nn?

badabeedabom · 03/03/2017 17:00

Another one with the first thought "I see Queen Mab hath been with you!" (Spoken with a suggestive leer.)

It will drive her mad with people saying that the first time they meet her.

ClaudiaApfelstrudel · 03/03/2017 16:59

it sounds weird and made up to me. Sorry OP

WhereYouLeftIt · 03/03/2017 16:57

As a big Jim Butcher fan (he writes The Dresden Files) - hmm. Mab is the Queen of the Winter Court, Queen of Air and Darkness, and she's pretty damned dark. As in totally ruthless. Not a nice person.

MrsMeeseeks · 03/03/2017 16:53

I like it. It's snappy and un-frilly.

Rockaby · 03/03/2017 16:48

cox beat me to it!

First thought was Romeo and Juliet.

Original poster
Jooni · 03/03/2017 16:06

Thought so Grin

Yes, like Queen Mab. I like the connection!

It is a weird one I suppose... I do really like Mabli, and Nell but know a couple of those unfortunately.

OP posts:
AndNoneForGretchenWieners · 03/03/2017 15:54

My great aunt Mabel was known as Mabs. It sounds like a nickname - sweet but incomplete.

miserablemolly · 03/03/2017 15:52

Sounds like a technical computing word. "Download Mab 6 for faster processing"

Bluntness100 · 03/03/2017 15:49

That isn't a nice name, no sorry, it sounds like it's short for something, i actually thought you'd misspelled it in your title.

TheOnlyLivingBoiInNewCork · 03/03/2017 15:47

Its not of Irish origin, I think you're mixing it up with Medb?

Queen Mab is a Shakesperean character, the fairy midwife, which in turn was probably from the Chaucerian Mabily.
It's also a welsh mythical male figure.

It's not a very nice sounding name.

Elbi · 03/03/2017 15:46

Ha! All us 15:44 Shakespearos cross-posting.

EssentialHummus · 03/03/2017 15:45

I'd assume it was short for Mabel, and I'd then wonder if it was "Mab" or "Mabe". No from me.

snowgirl1 · 03/03/2017 15:45

It's a no from me. Is it pronounced to rhyme with 'jab' and 'lab'?

Elbi · 03/03/2017 15:44

Makes me think of Mercutio's speech in R&J... Queen Mab is a fairy I think.

HereBeFuckery · 03/03/2017 15:44

R&J, bugger. Sorry. X-post with cox

HereBeFuckery · 03/03/2017 15:44

As in Queen Mab, mistress of mayhem (Midsummer Night's Dream, I think)?

Fine, but will be Grin when they are a tearaway toddler!

coxsorangepippin · 03/03/2017 15:44

I love it! Like in Romeo and Juliet -

MERCUTIO
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,

PutThatPomBearBack · 03/03/2017 15:41

Sounds like a name for a cat, sorry.

therealsquireofwideacre · 03/03/2017 15:38

Mabli - Mab for short? I love it personally.