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Baby names

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

Original poster

Tangerine nn Tangi

118 replies

LaLaLaLavaChChChChicken · 01/06/2025 04:02

Doing some family research and have come across the name Tangerine, with the nn of Tangi, for a girl.

What very unusual names have you got in your family tree?

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ARainyNightInSoho · 01/06/2025 18:36

Tangerine is a very unusual name. I have never heard it before.

In contrast, quite a lot of the names other people on this thread have mentioned are really not unusual. Maybe not that well known right now, or where you come from but really not that strange.

I was at school with a Henrietta and DS has one in his class now. There’s a Henrietta Barnett school in London. Google it, there are loads!

ARichtGoodDram · 01/06/2025 18:25

Grizel and Grizzell are the best ones on my tree. I often wonder if the spelling change caused any arguments in the family.

In years to come it'll be my name that jumps out of the tree. I have 4 siblings with ordinary 70s names along the Gary, Laura, Keith lines. My mother was as high as a kite when in labour with me so I got saddled with Starlight.

Thankfully changed when I was old enough, but I can only imagine the confusion if anyone does our tree in many years.

JaneJeffer · 01/06/2025 18:16

WrongDitton · 01/06/2025 13:11

Family folklore had someone who was born when his mother was travelling to India in the 19th century - I was delighted to discover little Hibernia in my research, named after his troopship of birth.

I also quite liked Oliver, whose middle name was Cromwell. No family link whatsoever, they apparently just liked the way it flowed.

Poor child

Original poster
LaLaLaLavaChChChChicken · 01/06/2025 18:14

SydneyCarton · 01/06/2025 17:26

Nancy Mitford’s mother was called Sydney, I think it’s nice.

A friend’s dad had a great-aunt called Mafeking. Apparently it was popular after the Relief of Mafeking in the Boer War around 1900. She was known as Aunt Maf

Mafeking is amazing!

It is always interesting to know about naming trends and inspiration.

OP posts:
SydneyCarton · 01/06/2025 17:26

Nancy Mitford’s mother was called Sydney, I think it’s nice.

A friend’s dad had a great-aunt called Mafeking. Apparently it was popular after the Relief of Mafeking in the Boer War around 1900. She was known as Aunt Maf

Judiezones · 01/06/2025 17:26

No relation unfortunately, but my sister in law's good friend is called Winsome, which I think is lovely. She's Jamaican so it may be popular there.

Judiezones · 01/06/2025 17:24

Ivytheterrible2025 · 01/06/2025 13:24

I love the name Henrietta.
Do they just call her by her full name, or Hettie/ Etta?

Show quote history

She's known as Hettie. I agree, it is a nice name.

Needmorelego · 01/06/2025 17:17

There's a Horrible Histories sketch about ridiculous Victorian names.
People think the whole "yooneek" thing is new..... it's not !

Original poster
LaLaLaLavaChChChChicken · 01/06/2025 17:13

user1476613140 · 01/06/2025 15:58

I much prefer Satsuma nn Sats.

I’d go for nn Uma. 😁

OP posts:
MrsAvocet · 01/06/2025 17:08

I found a distant relative named Armistice in my family tree. No prizes for guessing when he was born!

Firebird83 · 01/06/2025 17:04

DH has a Thirza Topliss and a Fanny Fowler

ToadRage · 01/06/2025 16:22

Dahlia1234 · 01/06/2025 15:57

We have Marmaduke on my mums side, Marmaduke Snr and Marmaduke Jr. I love it!!

'Marmaduke, put that down, we never buy dried pasta!' Sorry i had to put that in there ,it was something i heard on a comedy show about people who shop in Waitrose.

user1476613140 · 01/06/2025 15:58

I much prefer Satsuma nn Sats.

Dahlia1234 · 01/06/2025 15:57

We have Marmaduke on my mums side, Marmaduke Snr and Marmaduke Jr. I love it!!

HelloClouds · 01/06/2025 15:56

I think the most unusual names from my family tree were Jabez and Friend (he named his son Friend too!) It was quite a religious rural area with lots of very biblical names.

CatsLikeBoxes · 01/06/2025 15:47

I have a Philadelphia in my family tree too - am surprised to see it mentioned twice on the thread - it seemed a very fanciful name

Denimrules · 01/06/2025 15:43

Ketzele · 01/06/2025 11:21

We have a Pinchas, a Hedwig and a Candida.
Once met a woman called Maud-Lynne.

DC was at school with someone whose name was the tinned fruit brand with 'the man who likes to say yes' if you reversed it and said surname then first name

Denimrules · 01/06/2025 15:37

DisplayPurposesOnly · 01/06/2025 12:00

Ive known a few people called Christian, all men.

My point was that the people in question in my family tree were women. These days Christian is a man's name; in the 18th/19th centuries it was clearly recognised as a woman's name.

It's a Scottish girls name, I know 2

mummysmagicmedicine · 01/06/2025 15:35

Reginald
Opal
Laurie

HeyYouTheRockSteadyCrew · 01/06/2025 15:29

TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne · 01/06/2025 14:39

Christmas Humphreys the judge?

Show quote history

No a different surname and his occupation is listed as 'pig killer'

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · 01/06/2025 15:19

ToadRage · 01/06/2025 10:55

Tryphena (sister to Aurora and Maud) and Dolphin were a couple found in my family tree. My stepdad has a Jedediah. My Husband's Grandmother was called Queenie, (though she went by Liz for most her life) the legend was they were descended in some way for Queen Catherine Howard though this has never been proven, unlike me which has. We had an Auntie Bubbles, I don't know if that was her real name, I don't remember ever meeting her but apparently did when I was a baby and remember my Mum going to her funeral in the early 00's.

Edited

I also had an Auntie Bubbles! In my aunt's case her name was Esme, she was known as Bubbles (in the true spirit of a nick name, rather than using the word 'nickname' to just mean a short form of a name).

merryhouse · 01/06/2025 15:15

We have a Mahala too. And Euphemia.

Angelina, had a noticeable surname and married a man with my noticeable surname. That's one we can be pretty sure of, unlike Ann Powell and John Davies in a Marches village - the following year there was an Ann Powell and John Davies in the next village over Grin

Two on the very fringes called Cinderella (mother/daughter).

My 4g-grandmother's second husband was one of a line called Woolston (surname began with W too).

Ambrose and Orlando, repeated in several different combinations, though I haven't worked out how they fit with us yet (other end of the county and with a letter missing - my 4g-grandfather just appeared in banns one day and I can't find his birth).

TheBirdintheCave · 01/06/2025 15:12

Interesting names in my tree:

Ignatius David Parnell (all given names). He died as a baby :(

Coronation (nn Cora). She had two brothers with the middle names Nelson and Napoleon.

lovepets · 01/06/2025 15:06

My DH’s GM was called Almeda Bathsheba Jehu (Jehu was the surname)

IzzyHandsIsMySpiritAnimal · 01/06/2025 15:05

Way back I found someone called Cecin. She was the wife of a greatx4 uncle. The name appears several times in records so seems to be accurate.

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