Can someone explain the term ‘try hard’ in the context of baby names.

This is my understanding

I think they mean pretentious - which can mean too unusal but often has a huge class element to it - ie sneering at lower class names.

I thought of it as trying to be unique when not needed. Spelling names unusually or wrongly.
Example Wynter Rose
Not my cup of tea but I dont really care what you call your child

I don't see it like this at all. I read it as people trying really hard to come up with 'unique' baby names. Because the worse thing that could happen to them is choosing a name that lots of people like and is therefore is 'popular'. The horror of popularity!

They seemed to have failed to realise that by choosing a 'unique' name they are following the 'popular' trend of our time.

This phenomena has coined the term ' eccentric sheep' to refer to the parents.

If someone asked me to try hard to give an opinion on a name, I would make an effort to look up the meaning of it, see whether it goes well with the surname and check if the initials spell something funny (or dodgy), that sort of thing.

It's says more about the person that says it, than it does about the child's name.

Because it is a boy's name. That has randomly (because of a couple of celebrities) been used for girls and a few fools are now copying them. It could have been Brian or Mark or Darren or John but it happened to be James. All would be silly on a girl.

Men don't have this problem. The pecking order is clearly defined by physical prowess, intelligence and money. For women, the pecking order is constantly up for debate. So to be a card carrying member of the respectable middle class you have to meet a random set of standards which all have a Goldilocks quality (eg you should be not too fat thin and not too fat, your house should be quite big but not too big etc)

So to get to the sweet spot with children's name they have to be not too popular but not too Try Hard/Out There. Try Hard/Out there means you are deemed to have been too creative and there is a risk people may laugh at your chosen name. Both of these mistakes risk social shaming, of course.

The silly thing about these rules is that the names that were in the sweet spot this year will probably become too popular. And inevitably some of the Try Hard/Out There names will be moved to the sweet spot next year.

So you can't win. Do what you want. Care not what people who have entrapped themselves in this timewasting, meaningless game say.

I tend to think of try hard as going to great lengths to be original/unique with the name or spelling. But it can mean different things to different people. My daughter's name is often mocked on here for being try-hard-posh and "too frilly" but I still like it (and so does she more importantly) so I'm not bothered.

There are names I'm less keen on but I always say "awww that's nice". It's the only polite response.

Try hard to me is deliberately going out to try and have a name only your dc will have. Often then very put out when it transpires there’s more than one ‘Otilly’ in brownies in a small village. We have multiples of several names across 100 girls and they aren’t the top 20 names.
Or trying to sound cool and edgy eg adding ‘Tiger’ or similar to name.

See, I just don't get this? I don't understand how you could think it's preposterous. It's just a nice sounding name. I don't have a daughter called James btw but one of my kids has got a bit of an out there name 🤣 luckily he's a good character so he gets away with it.

A (Brit) child we once met on holiday was called Piper.

I’d call all the Beckhams’ kids’ names ‘try hard’, too, or perhaps ‘busting a gut’ would be more like it.

I think I interpreted it as preventious maybe? Trying to hard to impress or be ‘trendy’. But like many terms like this it’s totally subjective and therefore utterly meaningless

Those names sound like Latin for some sort of medical condition or something, eg "I've had a nasty attack of Renaelia and I've got to have a scan to see if it's damaged my Oriavella".

I was agreeing with you that it was a good name!! Just pointing out when it was used for Scott it was a surname.

For me it’s the “yoonique” trend of calling kids by normal sounding names but which are an absolute ballache to spell or pronounce from the spellings. Such idiots people then get really annoyed when people don’t pronounce the names properly or spell them in a sensible fashion (like Liberteigh, Maizee, Sophya, Klowee).

Or the downright bizarre where the name is purely a reflection of the parent’s ego and clearly no thought at all to the poor child (yes you Elon, Kardashians, love islanders). Who wants a judge called Bambi or e2#glottalstop?

Or I also think it can mean people who name their kids so that they fit in with a certain “set” in later life rather than because they like the name, like Katie Hopkins.

I think it's more naming your kid after a city or an every day object or to spell a commonly used name is such a way that the child in question will forever be correcting people about the spelling or to give your child such a long name that it doesn't fit on any form.

It isn't. It's preposterous.

@cramptramp I know that, not sure what your point is though considering I also want to use it as a middle name and said as such.

Also if someone wants to call their child "Falcon" as a first name they can, its no different than a little girl being called Wren.

My youngest sons name has been called try hard on here. It's a normal, but not particularly common name. I chose it because it was the name of a character in one of my favourite childhood books.

Ah well, what do I know, according the mumsnet two of my other kids have "chav" names or naughty kids names.

So I'm both a chav and a try hard.

Or I just chose names I liked, like most parents.

Sorry, but that's terrible. Does she know what Cove means?

James for a girl is a lovely, there's something up with you.

It's quite possible to not be socially conservative without being 'try hard'.

Try hard is when you're just trying to be unusual for the sake of it.

Quite often giving your child a name they either shorten, abbreviate or just actively dislike in later life.

Attention seeking.

'Oh, her name is so unusual!'
'Wow, I've never heard that name before.'

Invariably tacky.

OR a wacky name / a name from a totally different culture / or an unusual combination.

Try hard. Trying to be different.

People who post that a particular baby name is ‘try hard’ are people who genuinely think only their opinions are the correct ones to have, which of course they’re not.

If anything, it signifies that they’re socially conservative and possibly quite narrow minded too.

The sort to be avoided in real life. 😂