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Baby names

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

Original poster

Middle name Beryl

66 replies

mealplan · 31/10/2023 22:18

We have just found out we are having a girl!! Due in March.

Now we have the first name sorted. I would really love to have my Grandmothers name as her middle name, however the Name is Beryl. Very old lady and not quite chic.

Any ideas I can get around this as alternative or something that makes it more current like Beryl - rose or grey. Well I dunno, I'm stuck!

Thanks for any input!!

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Original poster
mealplan · 06/11/2023 10:13

LylaLee · 03/11/2023 16:13

Have you asked your grandma? She might hate the name. Maybe she always wanted a little girl called Alice, or something but never got to use the name. That could be a better tribute.

I doubt she doesn't like her own name. My nan has several daughters so I doubt very much she has another name.

Think we will stick with Beryl for her middle name. Imo have a few months to get used to it 🙂

OP posts:
Original poster
mealplan · 06/11/2023 10:12

megletthesecond · 01/11/2023 20:16

Beryl is awesome. I think it should be her first name.

Haha! One of my friends keeps saying the same thing. Unfortunately we will not be using Beryl as a first name.

OP posts:
LylaLee · 03/11/2023 16:13

Have you asked your grandma? She might hate the name. Maybe she always wanted a little girl called Alice, or something but never got to use the name. That could be a better tribute.

megletthesecond · 01/11/2023 20:16

Beryl is awesome. I think it should be her first name.

KirstenBlest · 01/11/2023 20:15

@mealplan , I know or knew about 10 Beryls so the name must have been popular. It's a lot more interesting than a filler middle name.

Original poster
mealplan · 01/11/2023 20:11

Thank you for all your comments.

It does seem the majority feel to go with the name! Btw my Grandma is still very much alive!! I will have to warm to the idea but I know should anything happen to my gran I will be happy to have the name so maybe I'll stick with it.

Funny that a lot of the alternative names that others have suggested find more dated I find more current than Beryl!

I'm surprised a couple of people too have suggested that baby should just have their own name! I have just a random middle name, it feels kinda pointless in all honesty! My other child has a family member middle name too!

Thanks all!

OP posts:
Longdarkcloud · 01/11/2023 15:40

Beryl has a nice rich sound about it and would be an amazing middle name and much nicer than Ruby or Pearl which are more popular than they were.
A second name has many uses and above all needs to make the entire name ‘flow’ so if it does that, OP, go with it and honour your relative

KirstenBlest · 01/11/2023 15:20

Babies called Beryl in England & Wales since 1996 (darkgreener.com)
It's just a name that isn't fashionable.
Beryl Mooney goes by Bel.

Meryl doesn't seem quite as dated.

BertieBotts · 01/11/2023 13:53

It doesn't matter if Bea is an established nickname for Beryl. Spell it Bee if you prefer. It starts with "B" so the nickname "B" can work however you spell it.

The other shortened version I could think of would be Ber - which doesn't sound like a name/Bear which sounds more like a boy's name or maybe Bev - which is equally associated with the wrong generation (Beverleys are currently mostly in their 60s)

Matildahoney · 01/11/2023 13:20

I'm pregnant with our first, we're not sure what we're having, but we're going with Beryl as a middle name, it's my nans name and she's recently passed, coincidentally it's DPs late grandmother's name too!

TheValueOfEverything · 01/11/2023 13:11

Beryl is a beautiful, quite glamorous and classic name with lovely personal meaning and connection. Don’t be ashamed to use it!

Your daughter’s and successive generations will have new and different reference points to you.

And just imagine, it only takes on Hollywood starlet, one Marvel star or new pop singer called Beryl something and it’ll become hot property 😀

RuthW · 01/11/2023 13:08

Use Beryl. It's lovely.

peaceinourtime · 01/11/2023 12:56

Beryl is a beautiful name as a first or middle name. Few people are aware of middle names away go for it.

Iliedwheniwas17 · 01/11/2023 12:28

LylaLee · 01/11/2023 10:01

If you got bullied for Margaret, then you were just on the bullies radar. It's a normal name.

Show quote history

I wasn’t bullied. Just laughed at if middle names ever came up in chat which they did a few times in primary school. I wanted a middle name like Louise or holly like my friends had. Although it’s nice for the family that I was named after a lovey family member, it wasn’t nice for me and I changed it by deed poll when I was older.

Shopgirl1 · 01/11/2023 11:24

I love the name Beryl, I’d just go with it.

Blackandwhitemakesgrey · 01/11/2023 10:58

If you want to honour your grandma, then just use her actual name Beryl. As a middle name, very few outside of your daughter’s immediate family will ever even know her middle name. It is a lovely tribute to your loved one. I have never understood why people adapt middle names to ones they prefer when they are honouring someone. Either name them after your loved one or don’t. There is no inbetween.

user1492757084 · 01/11/2023 10:17

Beryl is sweet and you should inform your little Beryl of the wonderful qualities of her great grandmother.
I would embrace Beryl unless you use her surname as a second name instead.

caringcarer · 01/11/2023 10:04

It's a middle name. Your DD will hardly ever use it. If it's to remember your Grandma I think that's a lovely thing to do.

LylaLee · 01/11/2023 10:02

GettingSickOfYourNonsense · 01/11/2023 09:54

It won't really matter, as hardly anyone ever uses their middle name.

Exactly. Only parents and grandparents care about someone's middle name.

LylaLee · 01/11/2023 10:01

Iliedwheniwas17 · 31/10/2023 23:22

I don’t love beryl. I was saddled with Margaret as a middle name and always hated it until I changed it as an adult. People used to laugh at me for it.
could you go with Bea as a pp has suggested?

If you got bullied for Margaret, then you were just on the bullies radar. It's a normal name.

CallieQ · 01/11/2023 09:58

Not keen on beryl

GettingSickOfYourNonsense · 01/11/2023 09:54

It won't really matter, as hardly anyone ever uses their middle name.

Noshowlomo · 01/11/2023 09:53

I think Beryl as a middle name is beautiful. No need to change it at all

BrimfulOfMash · 01/11/2023 09:52

My own mum hated her ‘to honour a deceased relative’ middle name her whole life, and was embarrassed by it. Not sure why she didn’t change it by Deed Poll, really.

My cousin got rid of her ‘honour a relative’ middle name the day she was legally old enough to do deed poll.

BrimfulOfMash · 01/11/2023 09:49

I know other people feel differently but for me our babies are not like park benches, to carry a plaque so that we remember someone.

They deserve their own names. Not carry all their lives a name that even their mum doesn’t like to remember someone they never knew.