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Baby names

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

Original poster

Ready for everyone to come at me, but...

112 replies

Tucancrossing · 21/12/2021 20:08

...why on earth do some people not understand that they're naming a person who will be a child for a decade but an adult for the vast majority of their life?!

A friend of a friend just named her baby Ralphie... full name on birth certificate. I actually think it's a very cute nickname for a little one, but real name Ralph, surely?! Imagine being a 45 year old man trying to be taken seriously with a child's nickname 😬

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CatherinedeBourgh · 21/12/2021 23:15

I know a Ralphie in his 70s...never ocurred to me that it wasn’t a suitable name for an adult!

Meowwwwwww · 21/12/2021 23:10

@toastofthetown I can’t tell if you are kidding. Are you actually under the impression that people name their baby Harrison because they don’t know you prefer something else? At first I thought you meant that they used Harrison because they wanted to call the baby Harry but clearly if that were the case clearly they’d be yelling Harry on the playground, not Harrison. I know a few Harrisons of various ages but I don’t understand your point.

BulldogDrummondBass · 21/12/2021 22:25

@IKissedSantaClaus

Harrison is a very normal and not ridiculous name Confused
It’s not specially ridiculous, but I agree that it’s awful.
wingsofabird · 21/12/2021 21:52

@statetrooperstacey

Well they don’t suit a grown man now, but in 20/30 years they will, because huge numbers of them will be called ‘cutsie’ names.
Exactly
OrangeAndYellowAndBlue · 21/12/2021 21:47

The top 100 names for 1904 and 1914 include names like Harry, Minnie, Jessie, Annie (higher than Anne), Elsie (higher than Elizabeth), Nellie (higher than Eleanor or Helen), Bessie, and so on.

In 1954, Tony, Terry and Harry were all top 50.

These kinds of names were more common for girls in some eras and boys in others, but it's nothing new to register a baby with a "nickname" form of a name. Some of these names, like Jack or Sally or Nancy, started as short forms but have kind of become standalone names now, because so many people used them as their children's official names.

Basically, I think sometimes people make this into more of a new and problematic thing than it really is.

TuftyMarmoset · 21/12/2021 21:45

@headintheproverbial his given name was Theodore though, not Teddy.

WhoppingBigBackside · 21/12/2021 21:44

Isn't a rolfie a puke?

headintheproverbial · 21/12/2021 21:42

You do realise that a president of the United States was called Teddy, right?!

Onlinedilema · 21/12/2021 21:40

I was going to agree with you but then I thought of my colleague's husband, Archie, real name Arthur. He will be retired now so men do get Archie.
I also agree that it will be very common in say 10, 20 years to hear men called Teddy, Freddie etc.

Lifeisnteasy · 21/12/2021 21:33

I broadly agree OP, but I also think MN posters go too far the other way in thinking the only names that will stop their children falling into a life of crime are Sophie or Jonathan.

Stokey · 21/12/2021 21:28

Actually I think if you go back 100 years, you'll find that there were loads of adults called these names. Certainly Archie, Alfie, Reggie, Ronnie, Charlie, Teddy, Bobby were all pretty common. And for the girls Elsie, Lizzie, Daisy, Rosie. We've just gone back round. I guess the difference is that then they were given the full names but no-one ever called them it. My grandad was Reggie & my husband's grandad was Ronnie.

QuitMoaning · 21/12/2021 21:27

Katie ends with ‘ie’ and doesn’t ever seem to go out of fashion.

I know four Katie’s very well. One is in their early 60’s, on early 50’s, one aged 21 and one aged 4.

I am not a fan of cutsie names nor am I a fan of random spellings or made up names.

Lou98 · 21/12/2021 21:21

@Blubells

I agree. All these cutesy names like Archie, Alfie, Charlie, Teddie, Ralphie may suit a toddler but not necessarily a grown man.

The majority of Archie's I know are men in their 60's - it's a common name where I am (Scotland)

I agree though OP! I have a god daughter that we call Gracie but her actual name is Grace Marie.

I think it can be nice to give them a cute nickname when they're wee but it's ridiculous making it their full name

dittheringdoldrums · 21/12/2021 21:15

I all also dislike the -ie names, but posters are right when they say they'll he totally run of the mill adult names in 20-30yrs as they're so popular now!

floatinginmyhomie · 21/12/2021 21:14

Names like Archie, Harry, Alfie, Reggie etc are all quite popular now so they will end up suiting adults because it will just become an adult name.

TuftyMarmoset · 21/12/2021 21:11

Totally agree.

And I wouldn’t know how to pronounce Ralphie either - Raffie? Ray-fee? To rhyme with Alfie? All around a terrible choice imo!

IKissedSantaClaus · 21/12/2021 21:04

Harrison is a very normal and not ridiculous name Confused

IKissedSantaClaus · 21/12/2021 21:03

Don't disagree on Ralphie. That sounds like a nickname.

Archie I don't agree with as it's always been used in Scotland and the majority of the Archies I know are men in their 50s/60s.

HalfShrunkMoreToGo · 21/12/2021 21:01

Yep, we deliberately went for a long name that could be shortened into lots of different variations to suit whatever kind of adult DD ends up being.

Worst name I ever encountered in real life was Theone, pronounced The One. Imagine the poor man as a solicitor or MP or Teacher being called The One Smith (last name made up)

toastofthetown · 21/12/2021 20:57

@TheRedTowel

I agree that children should be given the full name and then the choice of their nickname. We have done this with our kids.

My pet peeve is when people clearly don't know the full/formal name and call their kid something ridiculous like Harrison. Everytime I hear Harrison shouted in the park it grinds my gears.

Why is Harrison a ridiculous name? For reference it's currently more popular than Daniel and David. Why do you assume that parents of Harrisons name their child that because they didn't know another variant of the name?
Original poster
Tucancrossing · 21/12/2021 20:56

@LadyWithLapdog no, that would be better. This is ral-fee.

OP posts:
lovelychops · 21/12/2021 20:56

But an adult (or child) can use the 'proper and grown up' version of their name regardless of it being on the birth certificate or not !
But yes Ralphie is terrible and Ralph isn't much better to be fair!

TheRedTowel · 21/12/2021 20:53

@KeyErro

Agree with you, but better a cutesy name than a dreadful one.. Hunni-Crimplene or whatever doesn't work at any age.
🤣🤣🤣 I actually encountered a Mable-Ene in real life.
TheRedTowel · 21/12/2021 20:52

I agree that children should be given the full name and then the choice of their nickname. We have done this with our kids.

My pet peeve is when people clearly don't know the full/formal name and call their kid something ridiculous like Harrison. Everytime I hear Harrison shouted in the park it grinds my gears.

Trixiethewhore · 21/12/2021 20:51

I hate all these wet fluffy names too.

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