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Baby names

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

Original poster

How would you perceive a girl called Mabel?

104 replies

Homeontherangeuk · 28/05/2021 22:30

Ttc & Mabel was on my list the past two times? How would you picture a Mabel?

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3CCC · 30/05/2021 21:43

I love Mabel. Possibly a dogs name but I think a girl being called Mabel would be lovely

TheVamoosh · 30/05/2021 21:13

Cute.

Toilenstripes · 30/05/2021 21:01

Terrible name. Frumpy and not nice.

MinorCharacter · 30/05/2021 21:01

@TatianaBis

Is there some rule that says working class parents can’t call their kid Mabel?
Indeed, especially as they're frequently excoriated on here for making choices considered ‘chavvy’.
TatianaBis · 30/05/2021 20:59

Is there some rule that says working class parents can’t call their kid Mabel?

MinorCharacter · 30/05/2021 20:47

@GodolphinHorne

I would assume she had recently-middle-class aspirational parents who were trying to fit in with all the other vaguely left wing vegetarian professionals at their older child Wilfred’s nursery.
What an odd remark. How, from the name alone, could you be so sure Mabel’s parents weren’t established middle-class professionals who chose the name not out of aspiration, but because they liked it?
GodolphinHorne · 30/05/2021 20:31

I would assume she had recently-middle-class aspirational parents who were trying to fit in with all the other vaguely left wing vegetarian professionals at their older child Wilfred’s nursery.

Gmmllw · 30/05/2021 18:57

It's my middie name. I think it sounds like dribble. It maybe wouldn't be so bad if it was pronounced more like may-bell

EssentialHummus · 30/05/2021 09:48

Not a fan - just too twee, granny-ish, dowdy for me.

TatianaBis · 30/05/2021 09:45

Frumpy dumpy provincial.

MyMabel · 29/05/2021 23:17

I have a Mabel. I get a lot of compliments on her name. I don’t really see it as hipster though! Shock

I wanted old fashioned and something I didn’t know of any. There’s now been 3 other babies of mutual friends that had gone on to have a Mabel and it’s a bit annoying, but I should have known 😁

I’d like a Martha or even an Agatha next.

Cbeebiesrehab · 29/05/2021 23:09

Love it but becoming very popular. Know three born in the last few months.

PattyPan · 29/05/2021 17:09

It’s very frilly/extremely feminine to me - I’d picture her in a pink gingham dress with pigtails and a Barbie.

GRW · 29/05/2021 08:48

My friend has a 25 year old Mabel. It seemed really old fashioned and unusual to me when she was a child, and I wasn't keen on the name. She is clever and successful and the name has grown on me.

MitheringSunday · 29/05/2021 08:41

Tbh, if your other daughters have M names, I would go with a different initial letter for this one.

Mimsytove · 29/05/2021 07:38

As a scullery maid in downton abbey.

Amdone123 · 29/05/2021 07:18

Love Maggie, too. Classic.

lljkk · 29/05/2021 07:17

Helen MacDonald called her goshawk Mabel... because falconers have a superstition that names like Killer or Spike will make their hawk into a jinxed lazy lousy hunter. They try to call their falcons a name which is the opposite of the personality they want in the animal. The more ruthless the killer, the more benign the name given. I'd try to think of the playful powerful assertive hawk called Mabel. Not a dozy lumbering boring docile cow, which is my first prejudice.

MsTSwift · 29/05/2021 07:15

I personally think Maggie is an adorable name less try hard than Mabel

AbsolutelyPatsy · 29/05/2021 07:14

re the older mabel, i used to have great fun giving her a table and telling her, here's a table mabel Grin

Disfordarkchocolate · 29/05/2021 07:14

it's a lovely name, I think it's the sound, close to May Belle, nice and soft but not frilly. I don't have little children so I don't know if it's popular.

MsTSwift · 29/05/2021 07:14

That her parents were wannabe hipster types - sorry you did ask!

lljkk · 29/05/2021 07:13

I quite dislike this name but I would treat the unfortunate bearer as an individual. Is it more professional class parents than anything else?

AbsolutelyPatsy · 29/05/2021 07:12

great name
i looked after a mabel in her 90s, no teeth, cockney

Temp023 · 29/05/2021 07:08

“‘Tis Mabel!”
“Yes, ‘tis Mabel!”

Etc. But I am very old,.
Love the name by the way!

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