Would it put you off a name if a high profile news case involving someone with the same name was in the news around the time your child was born?

I think it depends on how popular the name is generally. So agree that Myra will always be Myra Hindley, but names like Holly, Jessica, Ian, Fred, Rose are all quite standard and would not ring those bells to most people. Even if it's big news at the time it will die down and if it's a popular name that won't be the first thing people think.

Ghislaine just gives me awful goosebumps, for me it's worse if they are the perpetrator and she is just an all round terrible human being with a unique name. Myra vibes for sure.

I agree with another PP who has said that this hasn’t been as high-profile when you compare it to some other cases but the whole idea of it is so distressing and they are right, it might become a big, talked-about thing depending on how the sentencing goes? Would you consider Lucia? xx

We inadvertently named our DD after two Tory prime ministers. We are very much not conservative voters, but she was born before the second PM came to power. It's just one of those things (and I think - hope - that people mostly don't notice?!)

If we'd realised I suspect we would have made a difference choice!

Lucy is a very common name, I don't think the case will be remembered for years to come, unlike Myra, or Madeline.

Lucy is a pretty common name. (In a good way!) I don't think people will associate with it.

And despite the horrific nature of that case, it doesn't seem that high profile. Maybe around the verdict it will be.

Lucy is such a popular, classic name, it won't be associated with Lucy Letsby.

DH and I had agreed on "Amy" to morning of the day Amy Winehouse's death was announced in the afternoon. It's such an "ordinary" name that no one has ever linked it to Amy W. I think you're fine with Lucy.

I think Lucy is fine, it’s a classic and popular name, so I’d think of Lucy in Lion Witch Wardrobe before the other one.

Well I called my baby Lucy despite the Letsby situation.

Yes

Yes exactly!! And I also feel so much for those who existed with the names beforehand - Ian Huntley/Maxine Carr as an example. You’re so right, you never really know what cases will stick around with people forever and which ones will not but these are so vivid for me because, like I said, I was a year or so younger than these girls and loved man united too and so when I saw two little girls on the telly dressed in their shirts who in many ways were just like me and my little friends at the time coupled with our parents sudden worries (they’d otherwise been so carefree as we all really were as the last generation of kids to really go playing out on the street) it has just really stuck with me.

@fairycupcakes

My DD is called April.

I also feel the same about the names Holly & Jessica as a sibset for example but not independently if the surname is not Wells or Chapman. Because, again I was a young child (a little younger I think than those girls when they went missing) and I remember vividly how parents became so much more weary about letting us all out to play and how it was literally everywhere on TV but alone the names don’t bring anything up the same way unless the surnames are the same as those girls. In a similar way if my surname was Payne I wouldn’t name my baby girl Sarah because again I remember so vividly the change in parents around this time when we wanted to go play outside. I guess it totally totally depends but if first name and surname are the same as a case that was ever so high-profile as the above two then I wouldn’t.

Oh it’s tricky isn’t it! Especially if it’s a name you love or has some family meaning etc. I think it would put me off, personally. But then again like PPs have said, if it’s an already popular/classic name perhaps not as much as if it was unusual (like your use of Ghislaine for example where I think people will always associate Maxwell) However, in saying that, I was a young teen when Madeleine went missing and whenever I hear Madeleine/Maddie I always think of that poor little girl so I guess it really depends on what your brain conjures up in association to the names xx

I called my daughter her name and a week later the news broke in England of a very high profile murder on a little girl so it was too late. Loved the name though, no regrets, couldn’t have any anyway as didn’t know that would happen.

Very much depend on the story and the name.

If it was as widely used as e.g. Thomas, then potentially not.
If it was as unusual as your example of Ghislaine then yes.

Depending on the story then I might end up swerving even a common name due to my own mental association.

Eldest DD was going to be Madeline, but she was born during the time they were still looking for Madeleine McCann in the resort so I changed my mind. Had she been born now I'd use it. Even though Madeline is still in the minds of many, it is not on the news every hour of every day like it was when I had my DD.

Depends how popular the name is.
I wouldn’t use Myra as I automatically think Hindley but as Fred is such a common name don’t have the same association.

no it wouldn’t put me off. The churn of news is so fast most names will be forgotten in a couple of years.

Absolutely depends on a case by case basis.

I probably would if it was something like Myra but not if it was Meghan.

3 days, not doors..

Well I named my DD Jade, three doors before Miss Goody went into the Big Brother House.. so was a bit gutted. But people forget!

Lots of things put you off names when my Ds was born I liked the name Samson however Samson dingle was “born” on emerdale so was crossed off the list a name my now exh liked was the name of an ex boyfriend so that went too. Lots of names are dismissed for many reasons