Poem

I don't think your DC will thank you sadling her with that name.

I know a grown up Sonnet! It's a lovely name

Elegy
Dirge

That would say more about your biases than them.

I'm not so struck on the sound of Poem as a name, but the Greek word Poiema - which means largely the same kind of thing: poem, masterpiece etc. - would be a beautiful name imho. It's pronounced POY-eh-muh.

Also allows her to go by (what sounds like) Emma as a legitimate abbreviation, if ever she just wants a common-sounding name.

OP - the point I am making is less specifically about any name - and more about getting of of ‘me-focused’ mindset and trying to not think of the child as an extension of you.
I have teenagers and a young adult, and this became increasingly obvious as they were growing up.

You are romanticising the choice of a name for a yet-non-existent child. And many considerations need to go into the choice, not only if YOU’d have liked being called the name. Or what signalling you would like to send to the people around you. Which seems to be the only criteria you go by atm.

It is all nice and well to say - world should be this or that - and kids shouldn’t bully, for eg. As the pregnant woman on another thread was trying to argue for the ‘beautiful’ (to her) name Whyborn (nn Whybe). She kept saying - he won’t be bullied, and not see the name questioning his existence as anything but the beautiful name SHE sees it as.

Which is what you are doing - you like the name and think everybody around should see it as you do.
But they dont, as is obvious. But accepting that is hard. I get it.

You can’t call a child poem! Imagine if they got a high flying corporate job with that name. Would be hard to take them seriously.

I agree, @josuk .

@ResusciAnnie , we gave names we like. What we liked was influenced by our lives. The names were quite 'neutral' and popular.
We may have liked names that were a bit out there, but we didn't pick them because we wanted names that we'd always like.

Imagine if “Poem” grows up to be a kick-ass rugby-player who hates music and books? The same applies for the other ludicrous “musical” names you mentioned. Who wants to be called Lyric? - that’s terrible.

What can you do with a name like Poem? I guess you could be an “Em” if you hated your name. You could be a Po-Po, that’s kind of cute. But it’s limiting.

I think you’re saddling her with a beautiful name that imposes far too many “girly girl” expectations.

Just call her something normal like Elizabeth. It is a beautiful name and she can be Liz, Eliza, Bettie, Lizzie, Beth, Liza.

So you took yourself and your partner and all the influences you’ve had over your lives, all your cultural touchstones and social associations out of it when choosing your children’s names, and gave them totally neutral names?

If so, I’m sorry to say that a truly neutral name is impossible as everyone hearing the name will have their own set of associations and references and therefore there is no neutral. You’re overthinking it somewhat! Sometimes things can just be nice and fun and work out well. Usually kids take after their parents.

If pronounced "po-em" it sounds more like the nickname "Em" for Emily and thus more proximate to a sound we associate with a name.

But the pronunciation is inconsistent, which may be annoying to you/her in future - see on this very site, a thread from 2008!

www.mumsnet.com/talk/culture_vultures/512098-how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-poem

It’s awful. Why ask the question if you’re just going to dismiss the comments of anyone who disagrees with you?

This is such a typical thread about a ‘unique’ name:

OP: Isn’f [insert ‘unique’ name] beautiful

People: awful

OP: well - Banana, Whyborn, etc ARE awful, but my ‘Unique’ name will signal I am educated, quirky, and special. I’d love to have that name.

People: You are not your child. They will
be bullied for the name you chose, and they won’t care if people think YOU are cool. Naming the child is NOT about you.

OP: don’t care. I am going to use my child’s name to signal the world about myself…

As someone said - people do use names to signal heritage, and class (at least historically). Those are historical conventions - and were used with the best interest of the CHILD - to confer privilege, etc.

In other cultures - names were chosen to have meaning, or confer good luck. Again - thinking of the CHILD.

The ‘unique’ name trend in the west these days is purely PARENT focused - it’a all about …look at how smart, unique, quirky I am… It gives very little thought to the actual child and treats them as an accessory to the parent.

If you poll most of the kids with those unique names - i wonder what they’ll say.

Just as an idea - OP says she’d like to be called that name - why not just change hers?..🤔🤔

I think Poetry would be nice than Poem

Mm, not sure. I was a sensitive/daydreamy type of child who loved books and poetry, but i was also one who liked to blend in. I'd have hated to be called Poem and still would as an adult.

I've got one of the "classic" names in the William/Charlotte vein, and while I've never particularly liked it, I liked that it was normal and never had to be explained or commented on. The point of those type of names is that they can be anything, any class, job, personality type and won't raise a laugh or an eyebrow.

Doesn't mean we all have to pick one, of course. You can be a bit out there naming your child, it's just a bit more of a gamble as to whether they're going to be happy about it or not. It can also go the other way - one of my siblings has a normal, classic name but renamed himself something very unusual to go along with his lifestyle.

It does say a lot about the parents, names usually do. If you name your kid Poem, they’re unlikely to grow up with the creativity of a house brick, because the people who named the kid Poem are more likely to be a bit more adventurous and have more creative or alternative households. Just like people who want common/classic names for their kids are very likely to have ordinary/classic lives.

But, to be honest, that is the answer to every single question in the Baby Names thread. 'Call you child whatever you like and they can always change it.' Which isn't really the debate at hand.

I'm an english teacher and can just imagine the jibes 'we're going to study Poem today'

And what if sensible middle class William and Charlotte grow up to be anarchic, hut dwelling hippies in a remote Welsh woodland?

They’ll do what counterculture types have done for decades and change their names to Faery and Moon or whatever and crack on.

If Poem grows up to be an eminently practical electrical engineer who’d rather have six pints at the rugby, than go to an open mic night, they can change their name to Patrick or Penelope and have a lovely life.

Really it’s not that deep.