Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Baby names

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

Cosmo - cruel or acceptable???

112 replies

Sarahmum · 10/12/2008 19:04

I love the name Cosmo for a boy, but it is just me??? Do you think it is dreadful/cruel/ridiculous?

Your thoughts please!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
mrsruffallo · 13/04/2009 13:07

I love it!

ruty · 13/04/2009 13:07

it is posh and sounds a bit poncey. But if you're not poncey then it won't be.

MadameCastafiore · 13/04/2009 13:06

Makes me think of naked Burt Reynolds.

kittywise · 13/04/2009 13:05

but not doubly so, sorry

kittywise · 13/04/2009 13:05

cruel

kittywise · 13/04/2009 13:05

cruel

nappyaddict · 13/04/2009 13:03

I love it. Also like Cosimo and Cosmas.

AllotmentMum · 13/04/2009 12:49

Its taken me a while to pluck up courage to respond to this, after reading all the comments about the name being pretentious. My son is called Cosmo and we think its a cool and groovy name.

We live in quite a rough area but he has never had the slightest hassle from kids about it - you just have to see the sort of names in primary school these days to see that its not that wacky. Most people see it as groovy and hippyish rather than posh, but perhaps thats because we clearly don't live in a posh area. I agree with previous posters that its not kids who react to names, its adults.

Cosmo is a very old name, just one that's gone out of fashion and I can't see why people equate it with being posh.

The archbishop of canterbury who spoke out against the WW1 was called Cosmo. The guy who first mapped Ethiopia was called Cosmo. One of the funders of Guys Hospital in the Victorian era was called Cosmo. An environmental campaigner in Canada is called Cosmo.

And spookily our son was born on St Cosmo's day although we didn't know that until MiL's big catholic buddy assumed that was why we had named him such. He's patron saint of medics, one of the earliest doctors (and our son is so sqeamish being a doctor would be the last thing he would want to do).

Asked my son for his comments. He says being called Cosmo is great, he's the only one in school, and signs his name The Cosmo, his mates think its cool, our Greek dentist greets him like an old mate because he says its a Greek name meaning "the world" and he likes that. Apparently the only bad thing about it is that you can't buy a mug or a pencil with his name on it anywhere. But maybe that will change?

jujumaman · 17/12/2008 16:12

I really wanted it when pregnant with dc1

Dh originally liked it, then did a pop quiz in the pub and it was roundly vetoed by his mates. Dh backed down. I was furious.

As it turned out I had two dds, so it didn't arise. I think it's a lovely name still but I know from the derision that greeted us that many people will (secretly) think you and he are big ponces. Boys names are hard.

LuLuMacGloo · 17/12/2008 16:06

I love Cosmo and would put it in the same bracket as Felix and Jasper. I wanted to use it for DS but dismissed it on the grounds that we couldn't afford to send our kids to a public school (to make chums called things like Felix and Jasper) and so would probably end up being bullied mercilessly. DS now at local state primary and surrounded by kids called Felix and Jasper so easily could have got away with Cosmo and I really wish we'd gone for it (he even looks like a Cosmo!).

Having said that I asked DS the other day what he would rather have been called - Cosmo or his own name. He looked at me like I was a loon to even have considered Cosmo...

joyfuleyes · 17/12/2008 16:00

It's fab! Would be fine around here.

Yellowflowers our ds was very nearly called Bruno

Sarahmum · 17/12/2008 15:09

Thank you all for your comments - I'm not sure what the conclusion is!!! I guess at the end of the day, it's only a name, but it has been interesting to read such diverse opinions.

OP posts:
yellowflowers · 15/12/2008 10:33

i love cosmo.
bruno too (which happens to be Nigella's son)

MrsSeanBean · 15/12/2008 10:24

Great name!

mickeymistletoe · 14/12/2008 14:31

cosmo and dibbs used to be the puppets in a kids programme in the eighties with gary wilmot.

great name for a magician - cosmo the amazing!

Grublin · 14/12/2008 14:11

Cosmo & wanda from Fairly odd parents springs to mind.

warthog · 14/12/2008 14:07

i think children just accept it. they pick up on what their parents' attitudes are though.

annasmami · 14/12/2008 12:37

Maybe we (adults) should become more accepting of less common names. Do we really want our children to be so shallow and tease someone just because they have a feature that is a little different? I wonder if it is insecurity that makes such adults make rude comments...

warthog · 14/12/2008 12:19

don't like

lottiejenkins · 14/12/2008 12:17

Sirius........i thought the same thing about Little Cosmo in Jilly Cooper...it was the first thing i thought of when i saw the thread title!!

LurkerOfTheUniverse · 14/12/2008 12:04

I know a Cosmo, but he lives in Totnes

Lockets · 14/12/2008 11:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Nancy66 · 14/12/2008 11:22

Actually, I said earlier on in the thread that I liked the name - i was just addressing the point you made about whether one child would tease another over a name and, yes, I think they would.

annasmami · 14/12/2008 11:11

and do you think that children really think that having the name Cosmo is as 'different' as walking on crutches or having a large birthmark?

Why would a child find the name Cosmo any different than Jack, John or Connor? I mean there is nothing unusual about the sound of the name, is there?

Nancy66 · 14/12/2008 10:55

because when you're a kid it's all about fitting in if you have an unusual name, wear a turban, walk on crutches, have a large birthmark etc it singles you out.

all very cruel but some kids can be.