why are people obsessed by whether names are 'chavvy' (nasty expression)..

...because I love Walter for a boy but not Wally. Is it cruel, though? Candid stepmother seems to think so (suspect she would piss on any name we suggest...)

That Francesca thing made me laugh out loud! FWIW, it's my name and I hated it for at least 15 years and now I like it. Struggling with the practicalities, though - like DH's name for a boy but how would that work? Can you really dictate how your child shortens his/her name?

mrz agree entirely - when I was wee I used to laugh at one of my mothers best friends as her name is Beatrice - Beetroot to me
am now considering it as a serious contender for dc if a girl lol

VS thank you lol have you picked your names then?!?

Come on, we are all snobs at heart! Whatever background and social 'class' we come from, we want to identify our kids as coming from too. So, I'm not working class, I wouldn't give my kid a 'working class' (chavvy?) name.
It's disingenuous to pretend that we don't think that way. There's a reason working class people tend to use a pool of names, as do middle class people, etc.
I don't like a LOT of the names I the kids I work with give their babies. I won't name any but they are typical working class names. I grew up in a mainly middle class area (village) with your Annabels, Harriets, Thomas's etc. I want a name that identifies my kids as mixed heritige but also from my social background. I am seriously just being honest here, and I think most people, being honest, would admit they feel the same!

Remember too names that would have been giggled at a generation ago have made a come back so who knows those "chavvy" names you so hate now may be your grand children's names

Two reasons to obsess:-

1. If you have ever lived through having a name that people laughed at, you would not ask this question. Nothing to do with 'chavvy', everything to do with going to school and finding either 5 other people in your class with the same name so you end up being called constantly by your surname or by some other attribute (eg 'sarah-shorty'), or (even worse) no-one in the whole town with the same name, as a consequence of which you get the rip taken out of you every day by your classmates.... do you really want that for your kids?

2. A rose by any other name does not smell as sweet. Read 'Freakonomics' - there is a whole chapter on names; your name does reflect on you, and does affect your chances in life, according to the research (although I would confess that some of the research therein is a bit light on 'cause and effect')

Whilst it would be lovely and warm and cuddly to think that the person matters and not the name, I think you have to accept that we live in a real world where such things do affect people's judgements. Just as people's weight and the style of their clothes leads to judgements too when they shouldn't.

I would rather my child go through life without preconceptions loaded upon them but it won't happen, so the best I can do is to choose what type of preconceptions my DC's get loaded with.

EJ, you are being a little silly. You are not going to get the whole of MN to agree on a name. Everyone's perceptions/associations are going to be slightly different. It doesn't matter what any else thinks FGS.

people should really just say "common" when they say "chavvy"

because, in general, that's what they mean

(wrt baby names, anyway)

in scotland the register can refuse to register a name if it's inflammatory/contentious/silly etc

"a perfectly normal (and yes I think nice) name". Exactly Clara. That's what the whole of MN have said but she knows best of course, and continues to go on and on about it, and bring it into discussion on other peoples threads!

Needspace, what do the parents of the two Francescas call them?! Presumably a nickname each?

Needpace - no, I don't think they were allowed to use it.

Can you imagine shouting it down the street to get them to come in for their supper: "Save the Whales!! Yer tea's on the table"!

belgo - just as well you are belgium (well, I hope your sister is) - in the UK or down under they'd inevitably end up being called "Fanny" and "Filly", which doesn't have great overtones.

Lol Clara! I can just picture the parents... Did the parents win?

lol Clara,
I do agree......

Finlay is fabulous - well done EJ! Great choice!

The wierdest name I ever came across was "Save the Whales".

Apparently the Registrar took the parents to court to stop them using it. I guess they were trying to make a statement

Needspace - what????

needspace - I've heard of twin girls Stephanie and Stefeuille (pronounced Ste-filly).

EllenJane and Connie - I am going to knock your heads together!

I can't believe you have turned an innocent question about a perfectly normal (and yes I think nice) name into a row which has spread between two posts!!!

Slightly changing the subject but my sister works in a hospital where twins were recently born and were named Francesca and......
Francesca . It had always been their favourite girls name and they thought it would suggest favourtism if they only gave it to one of the girls. That is weird.

i dont understand the need to ask a bunch of strangers to decide is a name suitable?would you ask random members of the public to pick your shoes- probably not

probably not so why get your drawers in atwist what someone else thinks about your baby name

i like my baby name
i hope youlike your baby name

If you are implying that my tone was offensive then it was merely in response to yours.

And as for social status, I think the ones desperate to avoid a name that is 'chav' are perhaps most concerend with that particular issue.

I was referring to this..

"perhaps considered to be verging on the poncey side by some..... "

Of course the majority of mothers are pleased by their choices.

No.. I haven't taken offence because you dislike the name we have chosen for our baby. It's the way you 'spoke' to me in the previous post. Like I said I totally understand, I too have altered perceptions by children I know.