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Baby names

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Original poster

What do you think of Persephone?

116 replies

woodysquirrel · 18/09/2009 21:13

What do you think of Persephone as a girl's name? It's listed on Mumsnet's Baby Name Finder.
Please could you help with this. I'm guessing this is very unusual, am I wrong? How popular is this and what do you think of the name? We're shortening to Sephy or Persy.
Middle names will be Constance Jane.

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persephonesnape · 22/09/2009 13:50

obviously it's a wonderful name, an inspired choice and your daughter will grow up to be an assured, confident and exceptionally beautiful young lady. but I would say that...

muddleduck · 22/09/2009 13:13

Tis fine as long as you are 100% sure she will go to a private school

corblimeymadam · 22/09/2009 13:01

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8oreighty · 22/09/2009 12:58

maybe you are posh.

Leda · 22/09/2009 12:56

It sounds as if you are trying to be posh.

8oreighty · 22/09/2009 12:54

why can't you say it? I think it's lovely...would prob get shortened to sephie though which is odd.

colditz · 22/09/2009 12:47

BUt you can't say Persephone ... it has to be honked.

Spidermama · 22/09/2009 12:41

To me the names Tarquin and Persephone are used to denote the pinnacle of poshness in jokes.

LeonieSoSleepy · 22/09/2009 12:40

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duchesse · 22/09/2009 12:40

We just gave Ophelia as a second name to our daughter, so I am exceedingly biased towards it...

I don't agree with people who say that some names are "pretentious". Exceedingly odd. A name is a name. Some may ring better than others, but there are loads of different reasons why people opt for one name over another.

8oreighty · 22/09/2009 12:33

Ophelia?

8oreighty · 22/09/2009 12:33

I love it, loads...considered it,but thought would get this reaction.

colditz · 22/09/2009 12:32

achingly pretentious

LeonieSoSleepy · 22/09/2009 12:32

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LeonieSoSleepy · 22/09/2009 12:27

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stressedHEmum · 22/09/2009 12:19

But just think, every time the baby entered the room you could have THAT music playing! I find him strangley compelling, but not enough to want to saddle my child with his name, sadly.

Had another thought on Greek names. I find all this business of plucking figures from mythology, or even ancient history (if you aren't familiar with the names background, in particular) a bit incomprehensible, to be honest, also calling your child some sort of anglicised version of Latin and Greek words (Eutyche, Eulallia, Euodia, etc.) a bit bizarre and pretentious. However, along with Aletheia, another very beautiful name (and one with great symbolism for ancient, hellenistic peoples) is Eleutheria. It means freedom.

Sorry, I don't know how to make my puter do Greek script, so I can't put in the etas where they should be, so you will just have to fill in long ae sounds.

serenity · 21/09/2009 20:02

StressedHEmum - the day I see a 'Sephiroth' name thread on MN will be the day I die laughing (I do like him though - always root for the misunderstood bad guys)

Grisette · 21/09/2009 18:46

Why would you want to do that?

stressedHEmum · 21/09/2009 18:33

I have to say, as well, that all this talk of shortening to Sephy just makes me think of Final Fantasy and maniacal, one winged, silver haired bad guys. But that may be because I am a mother of teenage boys.

Penelope also gets the same sort of mispronunciation as Persephone, I knew tons of youngsters who, when reading Greek Myths at school, refered to Percy-phone and Penny-lope (with a long o and no ey at the end.)

stressedHEmum · 21/09/2009 18:27

Pro-ser-pee-na, not a very auspicious name and doesn't even sound as nice as persephone.

if you would like a nice greek name, how about Aletheia. it means truth.

Most well known classical names for girls have so many bad connotations that I can't really inflicting them on a chid. many sound very beautiful because Greek is such a mellifluous language, but the meanings or myths associated with them much are less so.

messalina · 20/09/2009 19:35

Electra? Iphigenia? Cassandra? Jocasta? It always amazes me that people choose such unfortunate names for their children. If they would only bother to look up their classical heritage, they would steer well clear of them.

messalina · 20/09/2009 19:32

How about Medea or Clytemnestra? Those are cheerful names.

TwoPersephone · 20/09/2009 19:27

Love it

Also Antigone and Hermione, Helen and Alexandra/Cassandra.

lumnag · 20/09/2009 19:02

Persephone is a gorgeous name.

florence2511 · 20/09/2009 16:21

I love it and it is up there in my top ten for girl's names. DH likes it, but unlike me, thinks it's abit too poncy.

He likes Penelope though, which is in the same league as Persephone in my opinion, though more widely used as a name,

I also like:

Antigone
Hermione
Ariadne

They sound so pretty especially Persephone.

Maybe I'll get to use it as a middle name one of these days!!