I went to a college open day with my daughter today, and i was really glad she wasn't called....

Nothing to apologise for Peachy

Shall I stop digging myself in now Rusty? OOps sorry

Well, I because as our name is also a flower, it didn't actually occur to me that I'd named my daughter after two colours until DD's class read 'Amber Brown is not a crayon' and she had a few days of being called 'waxy'. However, they all got bored after a while & DD wrote to Paula Danziger about it & had a lovely letter back, so I don't think she's been emotionally scarred by it....

Don't know why you'd [slush] rusty.... our surname is not just a colour but a fruit after all.

My children have a big enough future of being referred to as Mr Banana / Orange / Plum not to need that fruit described in all its summery colouring as a Christian name also.

Basing it on Oxford also shows a distinctly unrealistic grasp on reality.

People: the vast majority of our children will not go to Oxbridge! That is indeed the point of selective education; that most people are barred.

If they show the apitude to go there then fabulous but value every ability they have: celebrate the plumber, the nurse, the artist, the Tesco cashier. Heaven knows we need them all.

Now if there were (and of course there cannot be) a name table of happy people then maybe I'd be interested. Oxbridge admission I suspect I can live without.

Our surname is also a colour.....

It does sound nice together though. And she has a good solid traditional middle name that she could have used if she wanted.

Actually she is known to her friends as Bam-Bam (via Bambi, I swear I'm not responsible for that one)

BabyDragon has a name for all occasions. One friendly name, one "lawyer" name and one that will serve her should she become a burlesque dancer

Saying a certain name is the most likely to get you into Oxford etc is actually saying here are the statistics for those people studying at Oxford. They will be whatever they will be depending on who is accepted.

I always find it interesting to hear Oxbridge being touted as always a positive. I have been involved in recruiting staff and it did not sway me either way that someone had a degree from Oxford over someone from another university. What I was looking for after the basics of undergraduate degree and post grad qualification or experience was someone with a good understanding of the role and flexible enough to fit into the team. I also was not basing my decision on their name... Kevins, Katherines and Daisys all welcome.

We do all make 'judgements' for want of a better word about someone's name, but it is generally either a like or dislike. Class judgements will vary from person to person as will judgements about what is too popular/ too weird/ too boring.

We still come back to the only way to choose a child's name and that is if you like it and if it suits them.

Elf you amde me pmsl there

Because until I married DH I wanted a girl (well before the whole snobby thing) to be called Scarlett Amber.

I decided, even before I had boys anyway, that combined with my surname it would be cruel.

Would have been Scarlett Amber Peach

Yes, I don't think the corrleation wih names and academic success is really down to the effect of the name is it?

It's not becuase oxford professors think 'ooh Marthas a nice name, they are always clever marthas.'

More likely to be due to the type of parents and familes that choose those names are more likely to rate education highly and therefore more thier children are likely to perform better on educational measures, such as GCSE's or getting onto Oxbridge?

I would have thought.

This is all very silly.

I know lawyers called Kitty and Mimi.

Well, I was a bit shocked the first time someone listed it as a 'chavvy' name (hate that term anyway) - it was a mum at school who was happily bitching about another mum who had DDs called Paige, Jade, Amber & Chelsea. It was quite funny to see it suddenly dawning on her that I was standing there.

There was some frantic backtracking "Oh,well,of course not everyone... I didn't mean...Oh, there's DS's teacher, must catch her....."

There was a list a few months ago in the Times saying the most likely names to get places at Oxford/Cambridge and the only one I can remember was Martha.

Ooops not a name we picked!

Many a person has passed comments on my daughters name (especially the middle one).

I have had "god help her if she wants to be a chartered accountant as they publish the results showing middle name as well"
and "oh my God, I thought you were joking!"

I dont care. She can be whatever she wants to be when she grows up and I'll be as proud as anything about her. My boring common name has not held me back, why should her "odd" name hold her back?

Rusty, thats not chavvy!
I know a little girl called Scarlette Amber, and I always wondered if her parents debated about using Jade as well to be red amber green.

Neither are they modern anmes, but instead reflect the Victorian love of all things botanical- and also often reflecting the names used in the elderly generation as this seems to influence the middle class of the day. Our Dh's are all Michael / mark / david etc, so our children generally are not despite the loveliness of those names. Instead we go for the used - to- be - common we recognise from past generations.

My own childrens names reflect this in the main- Samuel, Harold, Sebastian: none in my school years but plenty in the years before me (DS2 is a more unusual name but DH wanted it).

Agree completely that Poppy and Daisy are standard aspirational middle-class names now so future lawyers, doctors and business people will be called Poppy and Daisy...

Bunperlicious, Custy wasn't alking abot silly made up names, she referred to cureently popular 'cute' little girl names.

i would have felt silly saying "poppy wants to do law"

Your point is correct poele do judge on names, but Custy's point that judgement on these types of names will make them seem foolish for wanting to go into Law or medicine, is totally incorrect.

The judgement poele will make on these types of names is 'oh I bet your parents were middle class and you were born in the first decade of 2000', becuse that is what these names generally reflect, and those girls will be just the sort to become lawyers, so it will cease to seem odd by then.

made up names howver often elicit a judgement of 'I inagine your parents were rather ill educated and possibly undercalss', and whther this jugement then would impede your progression to the bar is a different discussion from the one that Custy initiated.

Poppy and Daisy are fun and feminine names.

Do you have to have a dull, asexual name to be a lawyer? I think that would be a very sexist view...

So this is where I've been going wrong all these years...I've been choosing names for dc that I like, that suit them, and that go with their surname.

Everyone needs to stop getting so huffy and understand the point being made by custy. Even though we know it's ridiculous and terribly judgemental people do of course judge people by things such as their name, especially when like on a CV etc you don't have much else to go on. There are countless pieces of research saying it happens. Almost everyone on this thread has expressed an opinion about different names. No it's not right, and it is mostly subconscious, but it does happen. Just something to think about when you are deciding between boring but timeless Katherine and adorable but twee Kiki-Trixi.

What an unpleasnt, smug, self satisfied type of thread, as well as being rather stupid.

In twenty years time law firms and hospitals will be choc a block with Dr Poppy Williams', Registrars called Millie Robinson and QC's called Poppy Bleasdale etc etc (make up you own cute name/surmane combo)

as these are the current popular names of middle class girls, and who are now performing best at school and entering these professions in disproportionate numbers? That's right middle class girls.

So fear not those of you with cute girls name DD's (I have DS's with not very cute names) they are our Dr's and lawyers of the future. If that gives you any reassurance and/or pride .

I imagine though that by then Custy will be a cynical old lady (like now but worse) along the lines of Catheriens Tate's Granny, and sitting there in her dirty tights whilst consulting Dr Lily-Mae Jenkins about her arthitis, and muttering just so the Dr can hear (cos she's hard)'Lily-mae, what sort of bloody stupid name is that for a Doctor??' Of course Lily-Mae will act totally professionally and ignore the nasty old ladies coments and try to alleviate all her old lady symptoms.

I actualy think the most unplaeant thing about this thread is the suggestion we should try to think of names to help them become lawyers and/or doctors when they are babies. Why??? There are many other ways to lead an equally/more fulfilling life.Weird imo.

Oh RustyBear - YOu have to tell us what your DD's name is now!

I wonder if the prejudice against certain names may be due to preconceived ideas of what the parents who give those names may be like, and therefore how the child has been brought up.

DD has what has been described (on MN and elsewhere) as a 'chavvy' name, and I have more than once had comments on the lines of 'You don't look like the mum of an X' - and DD has had similar comments herself.