Demise of the ‘chav’ name?

Well that's kind of my point. The fact that some people would class you as a chav because you live on a CH.

Me too, but there's one in my daughter's school...

So you class yourself as a 'chav' then? Because you live where the 'chavs' live.

Who are the 'lower classes'?

This thread is not interesting. It's just sneery.

I'll be damned! I've learned something today.

Babies called Nevaeh in England & Wales since 1996 (darkgreener.com)
Babies called Neveah in England & Wales since 1996 (darkgreener.com)
@Ameanstreakamilewide , apparently not, and some are boys.

I thought it was purely apocryphal.

Agreed!

I think names have got more diverse. So it is harder to associate a particular name with a particular social standing.

To me names when through a period, maybe in the early 00s where you were getting some very definitive names that were associated with lower social classes (won't mention any to avoid annoying people). But now the lower social classes have branched out and call their kids a wider variety of different names which make it more difficult to associate a particular name with that social class.

But I think the lower classes definitely do not normally use "traditionalist" names, and there has been quite a comeback in that area of older traditionalist names into the middle class naming in recent years, so for example a load of similarly named Claires being replaced with more Phoebes, Elsa, etc etc which has increased the diversity base.

Ultimately a name is supposed to be a unique identifier. When I look back at my family history there are only about 4 male names used. So the idea of having more diversity in names I think is useful so people can actually tell who they are talking about !

Alexandra sounds posh to me.

You're right that the thread is interesting, which is why I hope it won't get pulled down because some posters aren't happy with some others' posts.

When she went on Good Morning to say you shouldn't name your child after a country, but then admitted her daughter was called India or something?

@theduchessofspork , they would have been LMC/WC names in my age group. I think we only had one Julia and no Alexandras.

@Gwenhwyfar , the royal family needed the monarch's approval for the names of their children. The names of royal babies tend to become more popular in that generation.
Traditionally, surnames were patronymic or occupation. James, Duncan or Allen are first names used as surnames, as opposed to Jackson, Cooper or Hunter, which are surnames used as first names

I'm not a monarchist, but I have to admit that some of the most equal societies have monarchies, eg the Scandinavian ones.

I don't see Louise and James as upper class at all.
Henry can be any class if used as Harry.

It's possible to talk about trends in names across generations and classes without sneering and OP is talking about where she herself is from.

I do find some of the comments odd e.g. people talking of using surnames as first names when so many surnames are men's first names to begin with.

"This is fascinating, I presume this is what happened with Burberry for example?"

Doesn't happen with everything though, does it?
Millions of working and middle class men called George doesn't stop it being a royal name, for example.

I guess it depends a bit what you mean by MC, but those would generally be typically working class (or at any rate lower middle class names) from that era in the UK as a whole. But perhaps not in specific areas.

I don't know any Otillies but Otterly made me laugh

@IDoughnutKnow , I agree with you. Amelie, Elodie, Natalie, Ottile all sound fine in French, but don't sound very nice in UK accent.

Ammuhly, Elluhdy, Na'uh-ly, Oh-illy. Yuk

Very true. The French can get away with it, though, as they make it sound musical. "Otterly" is a very different matter. It's a bit like Amélie (nice name) and the British Amelie-pronounced-Ammerley (not nice).

@IDoughnutKnow , It is (or should be) Oh-tee-lee-uh. That's the german pronunciation. The french pronounce it 'ott-e-lee'.

Another Geordie over here and the charvas we used to have in the 90s/00s were called so mainly because of how they acted.
It was a complete disregard for any rules (both written and in written). So blasting music from their phones at the back of buses with their feet on the seats and taking up about 4 of them.
Before that it was smoking in the school grounds, purposely disturbing lessons, egging people's houses, starting fights if someone disagreed with them, shouting "hee-ya man, wot the fuck di yu think yu di-in?" if anyone asked them to stop or questioned them.

They could come from any background tbh so names were very varied. In my class (by this I mean class at school) alone we had Rachel, Beth, Jane, Rhonda, Charlotte, Ashley...just very normal names had by people from all sorts of backgrounds.

Depends on different areas

I grew up in west London and the typical 'chav' names were Kelly, Shelly, Hannah, Hayley, Brooke, Ryan, Scott, Russel, James.

As I got older the chav children were all Mia, Ria, Tia, raiden, kayden, jayden.

Living in Kent and older still the chav children have names like Bambi, Esme, Flossy, Binkie, Turner, Diego, Leandro