Can the name Madeleine still be used or does everyone immediately think of Madeleine McCann?

i think a surname starting with M would be a no but otherwise it’s fine. I do know a baby Myra though which makes me shudder a little.

Matilda wasn't even in the top 100 girls names at the time.

It certainly took a dive in popularity directly after Madeleine McCann went missing, so perhaps a lot of people do

https://names.darkgreener.com/#madeleine

No I wouldn’t think of her, unless it was a Mc/Mac surname maybe but even then only for a fleeting second and I wouldn’t mention it out loud. If it’s the name you love then I would not let that put you off.

@PuppyMonkey nobody said that your dd would be 'mistaken' for madelaine mccann jezus.

Just that people think of her when they hear the name. and there will be so many people that would.

I do straight away but it's a nice name

It’s a nice name but yes I would associate it with Mcann

Mandoline

I think it's fine, unless your surname is McCann or something that sounds very like it. In the Catholic community (at least), Madeleine is not an especially unusual name. So it's not like Madeleine McCann was/is the only Madeleine around.

Madeleine is a lovely name and very usable. Classic and no queries over pronunciation. I definitely would not avoid using it. I would get annoyed by people writing or pronouncing Madeline instead of Madeleine, though. Amazing that people are so obtuse and tone deaf that they refer to Madeline McCann when that wasn’t even her name.

Fred and Rose are everyday and unremarkable names. But put them together and a LOT of people will think 'West - depraved serial killers'. Not 'oh what lovely names for a brother and sister'. Pretending otherwise is silly. The West's notoriety hasn't diminished since the mid 90s.

Hardly the only person who did. And it’s really not sick to think of child killers in relation to her, it’s a very normal logical thought pattern.

And I’ve no idea who Amelia Dyer or Belle Guiness is. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I don’t think of Dahmer when I hear Jeffrey, or Bundy when I hear Ted.
rose and Fred/die are really popular names it’s entirely possible to not even think of them.

Alright, chill out. 😕I’m simply saying that if the parents are in their twenties then it’s possible they’ve never come across them. Not everyone is interested in murderers and stuff…

Quite sick of you to mention a child killer on a thread that mentions madeline mcann.

Oh come off it. As IF these parents have never heard of Fred and Rose West. Just because a murderer/murderers committed a crime, when you were just a kid, or before you were born, that doesn't mean you would not have heard of them.

Would you call your kids Ronnie and Reggie, or Myra if your name was Hindley, or Peter if your name was Sutcliffe, or Ian if your name was Brady, or Maxine if your name was Carr, or Harold if your name was Shipman? Most of them were decades ago, but everyone has heard of them.

My daughter was in the infants when the Ian Huntley/Maxine Carr thing happened with Holly and Jessica, and she wasn't born when Jamie Bulger was killed by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, but she knows all about them all. Ditto, the Kray Twins, the Yorkshire Ripper, Jeremy Bamber, Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Hindley and Brady, and many more.

Including multiple Victorian killers like Belle Gunness, Amelia Dyer, Jack The Ripper, The Lambeth Poisoner, and Mary Anne Cotton. . You don't have to have been born when something happened, to know about it. 🙄

Are you one of these people who would go on The Chase, and say to a question about something that happened 5 years before you were born 'before my time?'....... Just because something happened many years ago, or before you were born, that doesn't mean you would never have heard of it.

It was on my girls names list but I just couldn't use it for exactly this reason. Lovely name but just makes me think of that poor little girl.

I've only ever met one child called Madeleine (and the family was not British or European). I think it is a lovely name but the McCann case is just so high profile that a lot of people will think of it when they hear the name.

I think it's a common enough name, and enough time has passed, that it doesn't automatically have that connotation. A more unusual name might be different - 'Myra' (Hindley) springs to mind - but I know a teenage Maddie and have never once linked her name with Madeleine McCann.

I instantly think of those little cakes, I love them. I also associate the name with the books as a previous poster has mentioned.

It's a lovely name OP.

I've known loads of Maddies/Madeleines over the years (we probably have one in most year groups), and I never think of her when I see or hear the name. It's a totally unremarkable, relatively common name for girls, just like Evie or Isla.

As someone else said. if I heard someone was called Madeleine McClain, for example, I possibly might have a moment of thinking it sounds similar to Madeleine McCann, but otherwise not at all.

Well they are Freddie and Rosie, but yes.

It’s a beautiful name, I don’t think many people would make that connection.

It's a beautiful name and no one will make the connection other than , maybe, older folk. Her peers won't .

@VoluptuaSneezelips
YESSS!!!!