Would the meaning of the name Mallory steer you away?

Mallory to me is ….. the climber

It may not be.

But Mark means 'dedicated to the god of war' or 'warlike'. Matilda comes from the elements 'battle' and 'mighty'. Rhys means 'martial ardour', i.e. the urge to rush into the fray.

And people get medals for courage in battle and are admired for it. It's a part of most cultures. Hardly surprising that such names exist.

Penelope for me will always be the lonely woman that Ulysses left to be bullied by everyone and his mother while he went off gallivanting. Beautiful name, wrong association.

The Penelopiad or the Songs of Penelope trilogy give a fresh and very interesting perspective on her.

Same with James (which does not mean that BTW)
James does mean supplanter, in Hebrew.
But it also brings to mind Scottish kings and a biblical apostle, which might be why some people like it.

How is ‘the sound of people killing each other’ any better as a meaning?

I can assure you that my reaction to a bad flavour is entirely comparable to that of a bad meaning. I don't like it, so I avoid it. No misunderstanding there.

Sarah is sufficiently popular and common to have other association's than the 'original' biblical Sarah. Thats is not the case with, say, Penelope. Penelope for me will always be the lonely woman that Ulysses left to be bullied by everyone and his mother while he went off gallivanting. Beautiful name, wrong association.

The attitude to names is obviously in the eye of the beholder, as we've seen in this thread. Which I find fascinating, because I'd have thought it was the actual taste in names that was subjective. But it turns out it's also the importance attached to their meaning that is subjective too. Whereas I assumed it was a universal thing.

Every day is a school day!

OP, sorry for the derail. Have you made up your mind about Mallory yet?

I think you misunderstand, if you think discovering you don’t like the taste of a specific food is in anyway comparable to discovering a deeply ordinary name means ‘supplanted’ or ‘crooked’, or has a sad/bad associated story

I mean, Sarah, probably the UK’s most ordinary female name, has lots of associated unpleasantness — the Biblical Sarah is best known for her unhappy barrenness, having a child in extreme old age, and for banishing the slave her even more ancient husband had had a child with. In some stories (possibly Torah) she dies of grief after she’s misinformed her husband actually killed their son as a human sacrifice after God told him to. (In fact God changed kindly his mind at the last minute…) The Nazis forced Jewish women who didn’t already have an ‘identifiably Jewish’ first name to add the name Sara/h to their documents in 1939.

I mean, none of that is exactly happy stuff, but yet Sarah is perennially popular.

You misunderstand, I think.

It's not the name of the food, it's the food itself. Looks good. You try, you hate it. Then you order it next time you go to a restaurant? Really?

Same with James (which does not mean that BTW). You hear it, you think you may like it for your baby. You look into it and you find out if means 'supplanter' or 'vengeful invader' or 'dishonest', or whatever. And you'd use it anyway? Really?

I have never met anyone who doesn't care about what a name means. That's kind of the point of words, including names.

It isn't really though, because food that you like doesn't suddenly turn disgusting because you find out it's name means "horribleness".
James means "supplanter" , would you avoid that?

The only place I hear people discuss the meaning of a name, is on Mumsnet.

It has never occurred to me to wonder or care what the meaning of anyone's name is.

Mallory is the bonkers mother of Archer, to me. But it turns out there's only one l in her name.

See, MT is my earliest familiarity with the word and the double I looks terribly wrong to me. As would ‘St Claire’s’ with an i. Or Whyteleafe School without the ‘y’.

The superstitious thing is more about the idea that a child's name will affect or shape their life in some way.
Eg Calvin means bald so if you name your child Calvin, they will lose their hair.
Otto means rich so if you name your child otto, they will make lots of money.

It’s Malory Towers. One ‘L’.

You’re welcome.

It’s a surname so I wouldn’t use it as a first name for that reason.

There's only one L in Malory Towers. (Which looks soooo wrong.)

I like Mallory or Malorie. Not keen on Mal though which is presumably what it inevitably gets shortened to.

It's the second time I read the word 'superstitious' in this thread. I don't follow. What do irrational beliefs have to do with disliking the meaning of a name?

Why would anyone choose a name with a a negative (to you) meaning on purpose?

It's a bit like saying you don't care that a particular food tastes horrible, you're going to order it anyway.

I know a very outgoing Mallory, I’ve never known the meaning of the name. She’s my only one!

This. I don’t see huge numbers of people called utterly ordinary names like Deirdre, Dolores, Cameron, Calvin, Mara, Claudia etc oppressed by the glumness of their fate.

Tristan developed from a Brythonic name Drust - there were several Pictish kings of that name - meaning "noise, tumult", likely referring to the noise of battle.

It only became associated with sadness when French romanciers took Celtic legends and altered names, in this case linking the name Drystan/Trystan with the Latin rooted word for "sad" more familiar to them.

Once you’ve heard it or seen it written down though then Amelia is associated with that, it doesn’t matter where the name originally came from or the where the medical condition name came from, they are the same name.

I know.
What exactly do people think will happen if their child's name meant, I dunno, bitterness or something 500 years ago? Their child will grow up bitter because thats what their name 'means'? Kids will look up the meaning of the name, circle them at playtime and chant your name means bitter, your name means bitter

How about Darrell, Clarissa or Gwendoline instead?

I’m equally surprised that anyone could be superstitious enough to think that using a particular name somehow means imbuing the person with qualities associated with the meaning of that name

Pitstop?

I just think of Mallory Park the racing circuit.