Working class names

Usually have Rae/Mae/Grace/Leigh as a middle name too.

I know someone who named her DD Maizi. There’s reams of Jayden, Jackson/Jaxon, Kaiden, Summer, Lexi’s nowadays and I do always get a certain image when it comes to these names.

Footballers kids names would be a good start.

I find this sort of contribution bizarre (no offence babadoc)

“Our community dentists could always predict exactly which kids, in any school they visited, would have tooth decay needing treatment, without examining them. They just looked at the names in their form register.
So sadly, yes, names do seem to have a class bias.”

In the same way, a family member worked in child protection for 20 years and could immediately tell you a child protection name. So you’re totally right.

However, you seem to be mixing up WORKING CLASS with NEGLECTFUL PARENTING which is just utterly bonkers.

I’ll say it again. The vast majority of this country are working class. The vast majority of children are not called lexi-May, or Chardonnay (how fucking 1996 is that one?) or Jayden.

The most popular names, which are dominated by working class children are, by one of many lists:

Boys

Oliver - 6,259
Harry - 5,031
George - 4,929
Noah - 4,273
Jack - 4,190
Jacob - 3,968
Leo - 3,781
Oscar - 3,739
Charlie - 3,724
Muhammad - 3,691

Girls

Olivia - 5,204
Amelia - 4,358
Isla - 3,373
Ava - 3,289
Emily - 3,121
Isabella - 2,627
Mia - 2,590
Poppy - 2,527
Ella - 2,452
Lily - 2,405

These are working class names. Alright?

This discussion is probably complicated further by the number of working class people who call themselves middle class because they think it sounds respectable & they think of themselves as that, & middle class people who call themselves working class because they think of themselves as grafters etc. I know a couple - neither have parents who have a degree, neither are qualified professionals & regularly refer to themselves as middle class when they are not. It seems that all of the labels are offensive now. Politicians fall over themselves to try and appear working class.

I’d really like to see the barriers broken down - I just don’t think we’re anywhere near that yet.

@tiramisu1 I don’t understand how you can say tastes are affected by ‘experience and education’ & not class. Class is based on experience & education....

Knowing a middle class Taylor-May or Jaydeyella doesn’t mean those names don’t sound the way they do & have the strong associations they do. Knowing one Emma who is a boy doesn’t suddenly mean that the name will be heard as unisex to all who hear it - it’s the same principle.

And having had the class lists of multiple private schools (10+ schools) I can definitely see the difference & I’m surprised someone here hasn’t seen the same.

The comment about the telegraph announcements isn’t quite true either - there are lots of analytical / stats based blogs demonstrating the difference - you are significantly less likely to have an Amelia & significantly more likely to have an Alice if announcing in the telegraph for example.

Proseccofuelled yes they are genuinely my childrens names very outing thanks for the compliment

Whatareyoutalkingabout Thank you alrhough I think their names are classless being as they are are all found in the old testament, apart from Sylvie who was named for my (WC) grandmother.

I'm not going to be disingenuous and say that there aren't names which many WC parents commonly choose, there clearly are.
However most WC parents choose names other than those, commonly linked to their cultural/religious background, literary/cinematic/theatrical preferences or family heritage.

I've met a middle class Jayden. As for Kai, there's Kai Neilsen the philosopher, award-winning political journalist Kai Bird, and many, many middle class boys with a Nordic or German parent.

You'll never meet a middle class Kai or Jayden.

I know a middle class Kai. He's half German.

I don't know if I'd say 'working class' but there are definitely some names that I'd make subconscious judgements on... usually the yoonique ones like jaydn or Nevaeh. Evangeline would be another too (sorry op!)

one of the very split names seems to be Isla, horribly over used but I wouldn't always assume wc - unless it's Isla-Sofia/Mae/Rae.

Names are very personal though and what one person associates with that chavvy family who named 8 kids after perfumes (I admire the commitment) someone else might love. I'm finding it now thinking of names for dc2.

Anything hyphenated
Surnames as first names
Kai, Jayden etc. You'll never meet a middle class Kai or Jayden.

Our community dentists could always predict exactly which kids, in any school they visited, would have tooth decay needing treatment, without examining them. They just looked at the names in their form register.

So sadly, yes, names do seem to have a class bias. And they go in fashions too. In our area there was a brief fad for wc names spelled backwards, particularly Nevaeh for heaven.
Obviously you should name your DC whatever you like, but people will make subconscious judgments on it throughout their lives, rating them on a spectrum from chavvy to pretentious.
Britain is still a very class split society - just look at the high proportion of ex public school pupils in top jobs. The old grammar schools, which gave bright wc kids a chance to compete, have largely gone.

Tiramisu whether we like it or not people will always make associations with names though.

Anything male and Irish, according to Mumsnet. I always find it so strange to see Conor on these lists, because too me, it's the sort of respectable establishment name a judge would have.

And parents who like Tyler, Chardonnay, Alfie or Macie-Billie just like those names. That doesn't mean they're any 'class'.

And just because parents call their kids Sebastian, Quentin, Juliet or Antonia also doesn't mean that they're 'middle' class. They simply like the names.

I think we're reading too much into people's name preferences!

Parents choose names based on their tastes. And these tastes are affected by their education, experience, which countries they've lived in, where they work etc etc. None of this had to do with 'class'. Imo.

There's no such thing as a working class name. Even in the days where you went down the mine aged 14 typical names were John/Edward/Charles etc...pretty much the same as Royalty.

I would have said giving your child just the shortened version of a name was working class, but that seem to be a thing even in Royal circles now.

I would have said names which have come across the Atlantic were less middle class, such as Debra/Summa /Kaycee/ Jaxon etc and names taken from American TV and films - also names which suddenly became very popular seem to then be shunned by middle class but still used by working class, such as Chloe.

A few Irish names listed - Aidan, Conor, Orla. Liam always comes up on these threads too. All classless names in Ireland, the equivalent of James or Emma.

I don't think either Juliet or Evangeline are posh at all. I've known all sorts of people called Juliet. Evangeline is one of the Eve/Eva/Evie/Evelyn type names, which are too popular to be "posh".

I have literally no idea why people would think it would be pretentious to use these particular names!

I'm WC and I looked to my family history to find my dc's names. I chose one from my great grandad, and one from dp's family. They also happened to be characters off Peaky Blinders, proper working class show

You can use any name you want! Though I was nearly Sarah but my great grandmother (my mums nan) through such a strop because it was a downstairs name and they had worked their socks off from being in service to having a "proper trade" so were better than that! She did start working at 12 as a housemaid so I can understand! She died when I was little but I do remember her

I love the name Evangeline, but I don't think posh because she was the scullery maid in nanny mcphee!

Eden
Sylvie
Reuben
Delilah
Raphael

These are lovely names! Although funnily enough, if askes, id have automatically said you were quite middle class from this list!

"Any name which rises too quickly in popularity can be considered not posh."

Don't think this is true. If you look at the telegraph birth announcements, the most popular names on there are very similar to the most popular names in the country in general. A lot of them are names which have risen in popularity very quickly - Florence, Kit, Scarlett, Archie, etc.

I'd say there are names which are popular across all classes - classic names and biblical names, for example. More recently as well, are names which used to be nicknames for classic names (you know, like Elsie, Daisy, Teddy, Eliza, etc - all of these used to be nicknames but are now popular among all classes.)

I've worked in public and private schools in the UK as well as abroad and haven't seen much difference in names except that there are some you wouldn't often find in private schools - names which are looked down on by people who consider themselves 'middle class' or above. Anything hyphenated, for example. Anything made up. Any of the names that rhyme with Aiden (Jayden, Hayden, Kayden etc). Lexi, Shannon, Demi, etc are some other examples.

If I were going to generalise, I'd say that from my teaching experience I've found that a lot of the more adventurously named children are from either working class or very posh families, and middle classes seem to stick with more traditional names.

@crushedvelvetcouch
Are these genuinely your kids? Coolest list ever !
Eden
Sylvie
Reuben
Delilah
Raphael