Mumsnet's most loved baby names

Margot… I really don’t understand the love

Jude

Alexander and Alexandra

Anything that’s safe and dull 🫣 or wet…

Rupert, Christopher, kit, Hannah, Anna

I think Ottilie divides opinion!
I'd say the most approved ones are:

Charlotte, Alice
James, Alexander

Ottilie and Sebastian

If I ever have a kid I’m tempted to name them Aibu.

Just to weed out the MNers.

Imagine the pearl clutching

@luckyelephant1 what names are popular where you are/amongst your friends? I'm honestly amazed anyone's made it this far without knowing a little Mabel/Ernest/Stanley/Elsie/Arthur - these are so common where I am! (Small northern English town)

(Someone's mentioned Loveday - I'd completely forgotten that name! I knew one at uni, 20 years ago. Also a Maurice, Kendal, and memorably, a Fedora.

Names like Magnus, Arthur, Cyril, Stanley, Olive, Clementine, Juniper.

Mumsnet adores names like Louisa even though it will likely just get shortened to Lou. A toilet.
And Diana even though it gets shortened to Di(e)

@Luckyelephant1

I know children with the names:
Mabel
Ruth
Wilbur
Agnes
Kevin
Brian
Rodney

Working in a school means I see a whole range of names and DH has family in ‘fancy’ parts of London.

It's only via MN and an occasional instahun I happen to follow that all these wartime names apparently seem to be popular. Names like Mabel, June, Earnest etc. If one of my friends told me they were naming their kid that I'd struggle to not say congrats on the birth of your 90 year old. Reminds me of the Friends episode when Ross wanted to name his and Rachel's baby Ruth!

I was going to say Ottilie. (Although there is no 'standard' European pronunciation - it's Otteel yuh if German, Oteelee if French.)

Ottilie, Elodie, Freya, Lily, Rose, Alice, Elizabeth

Boys - Freddie, Oscar, Bear, Theo, Teddy

It has already happened to Niamh and Orla. They are Neeve and Awla now.

How do Irish people pronounce them?

Isabella gets a lot of love on here. I meet so many Izzies and Bellas.

I know a little Arlo - he and his parents are lovely. The name makes me think of a clown (Harlequin/Arlecchino). I realise that’s a bit random.

people suggest some right shit on here that you'd be beaten up for round these parts.

Where do you live? In the UK?

Great idea for a thread! Have really enjoyed the lighthearted posts.

Can't believe no one has mentioned Lydia (I don't think anyway). Often mentioned with Juliet. Always Lydia, MN loves it! I always think it sounds like a name from my generation and I'm in my 30s.

The 'if I like this name, what others will I like?' threads make me laugh. OP will like say the name Caitlyn and someone will give a list like Juno, Violet, Maeve, Lydia. What do those names have in common and how are they like Caitlyn?! Or the OPs who post a list of favourite names and there are about 20 on it - how can you like that many enough to consider naming your baby them?

I disagree that Mumsnet loves classic, normal names. On the contrary, people suggest some right shit on here that you'd be beaten up for round these parts. I always wonder if they've forgotten they're naming a 21st century child and think they're having a Greek god or a middle aged jam maker in the WI.

Sometimes I like to play MN Name Bingo

Loveday, a name I never encountered before makes a surprisingly high rate of appearance on here. Usually “if I’d have had a daughter I would have named her Loveday but sadly I had all boys” or “I was desperate to use Loveday but DH vetoed it” sad face. Loveday. I think it’s awful.

I’ve noticed an increase in popularity in June and Joan. People that think Joan is a wonderful name for a girl. I completely disagree. Who, in 2021 looks at a newborn and thinks, “ah yes. She’s a Joan.”? Only MNers

Maurice is apparently a wonderful name for a boy.

Someone will inevitably pop up somewhere and say Balonz jokingly. Such an MN in joke.

Ishbel gets touted on here a lot as a wonderful name too. That’s not a typo. Ishbel. Frigging AWFUL. Sounds like something on the bottom of your shoe that disgusts you.

Marnie/Marni. Apparently it’s the best name ever. Nope. Sets my teeth on edge. Such an irritating name like smarmy and mardy having a baby.

Posters that assume EVERY name is Gaelic, otherwise it’s made up if you’ve spelled it wrong. In correcting them they will respond that it’s up to you if you want to pronounce it incorrectly but really it should be x, ignoring the fact that it’s not the same name! Ie “I really like Nieve for a girl, it means snow what do you think?”

“Without meaning to be critical, the correct Gaelic spelling is Niamh and the meaning is not snow, it means bright or radiant in Irish Gaelic.”

“Thanks but it’s not Niamh. It’s Nieve pronounced Nee-ev-ay. I’m not looking for an Irish name, DH is Spanish.”

“Whilst it’s your choice to mispronounce or misspell Niamh, might I suggest that Neve might be a better option? No criticism intended.”

And yes Persephone, Ottilie, Clara etc all very popular on here. Also Ariadne, Calliope etc

I do know real life Arlos, Margots, Laras etc

I think if you are Welsh you need to accept that people who speak English but not Welsh will pronounce your name (or your child's name) a bit differently to the way it's pronounced in Welsh.

I am also part of a bilingual family and I live in a non-English speaking country. My name is pronounced in a Japanese way when people are speaking Japanese, and even when most Japanese people speak English they still don't get the English pronunciation exactly right because most Japanese are not native speakers of English (and even if they are, it's usually North American English with a rhotic R!). My kids' names also have actually fairly different pronunciations depending on the speaker and language being spoken. It's all part of the tapestry of life etc. etc.

I know a lovely Margot, I think its such a sweet name.
I'm also a fan of Margot in Margate.

Margot, Margot and more Margot.

I can't imagine peering into a pram and 'coohing' baby Margot, I don't know any in real life and I work across many, many schools.

My only association is Margot Leadbetter in 'The Good Life'.

Elizabeth

Nina and Clara

Ophelia