Renley / Renly for a girl?

Renley's really gone downhill if you ask me. Started when they built that out of town supermarket.

Phoebe a totally normal classic name, surely? Or are you saying Chandler and Phoebe were siblings?
Skyler a pretty run of the mill name. I wouldn’t assume it was after Breaking Bad.
Im with you on Khaleesi.

Sounds like a TK Maxx knockoff brand of epillator, sorry!

Weirdly that (Dracula) is the exact first association I had on reading the name, and it’s not that obvious really!

Somewhere, little Glurzabog Jenkins is reading this and dying a little inside. For shame.

Depending where you look, Renley also comes up as a male name meaning warrior , half these sites don't have the correct meanings

This. ^ 💯

Babies called Renley in England & Wales since 1996
Babies called Renly in England & Wales since 1996

I did what you suggested and typed "Renley" into FB. The most popular entries are all about a greyhound rescue dog.

Names like Rebecca have been popular for centuries for a reason. Please remember you're naming a baby which will live with the name for decades, not a pet.

Awful. Really awful.

Agree it reads like a town or a company name that makes electrical appliances or hardware/rubber gloves.

The name Renley is a girl's name meaning "clearing, meadow".

No, it isn't. It really isn't. These daft websites that claim meanings and historical contexts to names that no-one was using until five minutes ago just make shit up to fill space on the internet.

I mean look at this. Have you ever seen a flimsier, more tenuous connection to the apparent 'meaning' of a name in your life?

I have capitalised some words here for emphasis:

Origin, Meaning, And History of Renley
Renley is a stunning English gender-neutral name. Etymologically, the name is BELIEVED to be a transferred use from the rare Jewish and English surname Renley. The surname is POSSIBLY derived from the Old English word rim, implying ‘edge,’ or rinc, referring to a ‘man’ or ‘warrior.’ The surname COULD also be a COMBINATION of TWO Old English ELEMENTS – WRAENNA and LEAH –meaning ‘wren’ and ‘field’ or ‘clearing.’

In other words they have no fucking idea and are clutching at straws by referencing names that share a couple of similar sounding phonemes.

The name has not made a significant appearance in the world of arts, entertainment, and media. However, the Canadian police procedural drama television series Hudson and Rex features a character with Renley as a surname. In the series, Sergeant Jan Renley is the main character’s police trainer.
Renley has a pleasant sound and a CONTEMPORARY feel, making it a solid name choice for parents looking for a subtly UNCONVENTIONAL name for their little munchkin.

By 'contemporary' and 'unconventional' they mean it's a newly emerging name, only very recently used as a first name as far as they can tell. Perhaps no-one has used it at all yet, and they just pluck surnames out of the ether and put them out there as suggestions for first names, to pad out their content. And the only cuultural reference is a popular culture one, in that it's been used in a couple of TV shows, but for a man, or as a surname.

Look, if you like it then use it. But just admit that it's a surname with no solidly reliable or traceable meaning, being repurposed as a first name. There is no shame in that. All names were made up once and fashions change. Just don't embarrass yourself by telling people it's an established girl's name meaning meadow.

I think of a cross between Rentokil and Henley on Thames

I think it's a nice sound. Ren/Wren is nice, and Ley is nice. And I cannot remember the character from GoT despite watching it all. Most of the characters are pretty short-lived!

I don't think their classmates will find the name odd at all, there is such variety of names these days. But maybe teachers/grandparents/some parents might think as per above commenters.

It's very much not one of the 'classic, timeless' names favoured on here though (Alice, Charlotte, Phoebe et al). And I would assume a boy.

GLURZABOG! Don't give people ideas! 😆

If this board is anything to go by, there will be many a teacher rolling their eyes at some of the batshit names that are suggested on this page! 😆 As I said, why is it never 'would I be unreasonable to call my daughter Rebecca, or Lily, or Charlotte?' It's never normal names! Always batshit/often made up names. Or names from popular TV shows.

I actually know some children under 15 called Khaleesi, (Game of Thrones,) Skyler, (Breaking Bad,) Danai (Walking Dead,) and even a Chandler and a Phoebe (now around 28-30.) I also know a Cullen (Twilight,) and quite a few Macauleys!

That's the tip of the iceberg!

It's not objectively horrible. Objectively horrible would be something like, I dunno, Glurzabog. Sounds awful. The sounds in Renly are fine and commonly used in names.

I agree it isn't great because the only association is Game Of Thrones, which is an excellent series that will still be excellent in 20 years, but is still a TV show/book series and therefore just not a very classy naming source.

I much prefer it to Wren tbh
Have heard a lot worse!

I think it's absolutely terrible. But if you must have it then please spell it with the E. It looks really odd without it.

It feels like an old outdated fuel station brand to me. I see it in red. The station is in an isolated town that's seen better days. Not sure why it conjured such an image for me

Sorry op

I have t heard of it as a name.
agree it sounds like a town name but I also really like it as a name, for either sex.
Ren is a nice shortening- no one of her generation will have heard of Ren and Stimpy

I can just imagine the eye rolling by the teacher who sees that name in their register...

Balonz

I also thought type for Henley, which looks like a surname anyway.

I would advise you to choose something easy and natural to use. My parents gave me a name with a stupid spelling and I get mistakes with it even on legal documents 50 years later. It's so fucking irritating and stupid - and so easily avoided.

If you like the meadow meaning or whatever, you could use Lily or Violet.

Which appears from the graphs to have started being used as a first name in 2012. Just after GoT. It was a surname before.

So it does look made up. And like you're a fan. If you don't mind that, and the fact that GoT is very violent and misogynistic and she'll be watching it in 20 years with very different eyes to yours, go for it.