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Baby names

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

Original poster

Aloysius

164 replies

toastofthetown · 10/11/2021 18:31

What are your thoughts on the name Aloysius? I'm not sure if it's more expected in a devout Catholic family rather than a non-religious household. I think Ally would be cute nickname, and makes the name more accessible as it fits in with the more popular Alexander and Alastair.

OP posts:
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eggandonion · 11/11/2021 22:03

Definitely has to be said full on Cork and shortened to wishie. I like Arlo though. If you like Cork names, jeremiah shortened to Miah and Cornelius shortened to Conn or Neil are excellent.

SoftSheen · 11/11/2021 22:02

A step too far, I think.

ApplesAreTheBaneOfMyLife · 11/11/2021 21:53

Awful. It’s my Dad’s middle name. He hates it and, if anyone asks, says he has no middle name.

He does have an Irish, catholic background

NeverEndingFireworks · 11/11/2021 21:22

I have a few friends with it as their middle name - Irish & Scottish catholic families. The local catholic primary I grew up near was always called "St Ali's"

Will it make a comeback? I doubt it. I would assume you were a very devout catholic.

AuntDympna · 11/11/2021 21:16

At my school, the name was almost always pronounced A-loyz-yus. The reason was given that among a certain section of the "upper classes" spellings like these were used to deliberately trip up the unitiated, as a cruel kind of test. They included Cholmondely (Chum-lee), Featherstone-Haugh (Fan-shaw), StJohn (Sin-jun) and Aloysius (Al-ow-ish-us).
Within our very humble and downright poor school/church community St Aloysius Gonzaga was the patron saint of young people and normalising the phonetic reading of the name meant that newcomers didn't feel excluded.

Thepennysjustdropped · 11/11/2021 20:40

It's a bit of a mouthful. I'm not a fan.

Thepennysjustdropped · 11/11/2021 20:39

@BingBongToTheMoon

No he doesn’t have an Aloysius.
Give him time Wink
DuesToTheDirt · 11/11/2021 19:56

I like it, though I seem to be in the minority.

AuntDympna · 11/11/2021 19:52

I should say that I do like the name - extreme Catholic upbringing here.
I prefer it to Louis and even more so Lewis. My dad claimed St Aloysius was the patron saint of insubordination, probably why I have a good feeling about it. I'm sure it was James Joyce's middle name, and there must be a zillion great role models.

AuntDympna · 11/11/2021 19:18

@midsomermurderess

It calls to my mind the Catholic school in Glasgow. Rather different from 'pretentious'.
Same Grin
TeeTotaller1 · 11/11/2021 18:31

[quote jesusmaryjosephandtheweedonkey]@ESGdance The other siblings names are,
Cornelian
Danny Boy
Candy star
Blessing
Raven Blue
Lovely people.[/quote]
Hmm

jesusmaryjosephandtheweedonkey · 11/11/2021 17:39

@ESGdance The other siblings names are,
Cornelian
Danny Boy
Candy star
Blessing
Raven Blue
Lovely people.

MintyGreenDream · 11/11/2021 17:08

You'd get some stick round here for a name like that

TeeTotaller1 · 11/11/2021 16:03

Thats my dogs middle name

Orarewedancer · 11/11/2021 16:00

Ah, that makes sense! In fairness it's actually Aloïs but the UK seems to ignore punctuation in names in databases which doesn't help pronunciation (and most living here wouldn't know what it meant anyway).

Caspianberg · 11/11/2021 15:53

@Orarewedancer - it’s more a 2 syllable pronunciation here, maybe more like ‘ah -Lloys’ the lloys parts it like ‘Lloyd but s. Similar to ‘Alice’ pronounced with an o.

Orarewedancer · 11/11/2021 15:44

@Caspianberg

The name Alois is very common where we live. Similar style, not as long. Pronounced kind of like ‘al-llyos’.
I know a Frenchman named Alois (also goes by the spelling Aloys) and he despises being mis-called Ah-lee-os (which I think is similar to how you've explained it?). It's Ah-lo-ees. Where abouts are you?
HelenaJustina · 11/11/2021 15:33

I’m Catholic and would assume you were too if I heard the name. Love it though!

Original poster
toastofthetown · 11/11/2021 15:26

@ESGdance

Would love to hear from the OP *@toastofthetown* to see how this thread has influenced her opinion?
The poncey/pretentious/try-hard aspect was a slight concern of mine when I posted and I think this has confirmed that for my personally the name is too far over that line to be usable for me. Several Jacob Rees Mogg comments did give me pause, because I wouldn't want to give a child a name that is so polarising and potentially political. The Catholic issue wasn't so strong as I expected, it seemed quite divided with some people feeling strongly Catholic vibes and others not mentioning it at all. So probably usable for a non religious family - but anticipate a few people assuming religious background.

I think it's a bit of a shame that lots of names (more so for boys than girls) are made "unusable" by pretentious labels though. My favourite name is Lysander and I would use that (if my husband would ever agree) but I think that shares a lot of the same pretentious concerns (maybe Lysander feels more usable to me because I like it more). I loved @Lesserspottedmama's post. Mumsnet in general is very conservative with names and I feel like if you want to look beyond Edward and George, it can feel quite off-putting here, with every name being branded too something in some way. I just wish that names weren't so socially charged - both pretentious and "chavvy" which is a descriptor I hate. Ultimately names are just sounds to identify people and Jayden works as well as Aloysius for that purpose. I'd like it if everyone felt able to freely pick from the pool of available names without having to worry what other people will assume about them because of it or 'high court judge' name tests or 'naughty boy lists'. That's an issue beyond Mumsnet though and definitely out the scope of a thread on Aloysius!

But back to Aloysius: still like the name. Wouldn't use it, but would love to see it get more use.

OP posts:
Irishfarmer · 11/11/2021 15:18

I really like it. But then I am Irish R.C. (although anything but devout!).

It took me a min to recognise it written down, but I have heard it a good few times. Maybe that is from going to mass, used to go every Sunday growing up, go seldom enough now.

I think once people learn how to say it then you should be fine. Spelling is another matter but sure once it's in the ball park who cares apart from official documents. I have this issue with my name, doesn't bother me personally.

ESGdance · 11/11/2021 14:56

Would love to hear from the OP @toastofthetown to see how this thread has influenced her opinion?

ghislaine · 11/11/2021 14:42

It's a middle name. The first name was long agreed upon but we had real trouble getting any further. As the six week registration deadline was looming we were tossing up options when DH said "How about Aloysius?" and I thought "why the hell not?". and that was that. Bear in mind that some of his other (entirely serious) suggestions were Ludovic, Valentine and Tintin.

DH also vetoed Rupert for both sons, go figure.

KimDeals · 11/11/2021 14:24

@ghislaine

Five pages in and I'm still the only person who has actually used it!!
That’s a badge of honour! Did you use it as a first name?

How I came across it… I was bouncing around a name… maybe it was Rupert … I can’t quite remember - anyway, the person I was speaking to said “look it’s not like you’re suggesting something mental like … Aloysius!” and I had an instant OH MY GOD I LOVE IT reaction.

But it was vetoed ☹️

ghislaine · 11/11/2021 14:13

Five pages in and I'm still the only person who has actually used it!!

VenusClapTrap · 11/11/2021 13:46

I quite like it, but it is a bit much! I’d feel a bit sorry for a little preschooler attempting to learn to spell it, but they aren’t preschoolers for long I suppose so I doubt he’d be scarred by that in the long run.

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