What's the Most Pretentious Name You've Ever Heard?

Cortina: are you the Cortina I knew at BSG?

princess and angel may be of afrocarribean heritage? v common, we have both in our school at the moment (not sisters tho!)

Birth announcement in my local paper yesterday for twin girls, called Princess and Angel. Their siblings though have relatively ordinary names. And they didn't look premature, incase you thought delicate names for delicate babies.

Horatio at a local playgroup

I love Calypso. She is a character in the Cammomile Lawn (amongst other books) by Mary Wesley, as well as being a god (I think) os storm or something like that. The character is a bit of a cool wild sexual thing. Pity it's so unusual. Kid would be teased mercilessly.

I love the Telegraph birth announcements and read them whenever I visit my granny

They are often very long. My favourite so far (and I do love it) is Kingsley Paddington.

This thread has reminded me that I briefly had a thing with a chap called Hrothgar, mainly because he was called Hrothgar.

It was probably about 15 years ago and I didnt realise the significence at the time. She had a girl called Cesare as well. I believe the others have unusual names ansd she was frequently on the local radio/paper due to the 'unusal names'

Did she have another named Cottontail? You can take a love of children's literature too far!!

There is a local woman who called one of her DC's Mopsyflopsy or Flopsymopsey cant remember which way round it was

Sapphire Penhaligon

apologies if you are said woman. I met you as a child in a drama workshop.

someone told me there was a Sturgeon announced in the Telegraph last week.

I mean, that is a fish...not a boy! Belongs in the sporting pages not the birth announcements!

'China', Christ you can bet that's a limerick waiting to happen when she starts school!

Good point, Annabelsmummie.

Perhaps if we knew what some of these anonymous' posters looked like, what clothes they wear, what names they chose, etc, we might be relieved that they don't like the names we do .

Guinevere

Are any of the names on this thread 'pretentious' if they reflect their parents heritage, tastes and style?

Because a name may sound pretentious to one family but perfectly acceptable to another. Sebastian, for example, is a perfectly acceptable name for me. So, those who find it 'pretentious' may simply have different taste in names. And I probably wouldn't like their name choices .

But that's ok, its ok for us to have different tastes!! Why is it such a big deal? And why 'label' names??

Are Antigone, Persephone, Artemis, Prometheus etc still pretentious if the parents are Greek?

Mind you, I'm of Greek origin and I still fail to understand why you'd want to name your DC after such tragic myths - I mean, buried alive, abducted by Hades, the eternal virgin, liver as bird feed?

OTOH, I know a Sophocles, a Pericles and an Achilles, all named after their grandparents.

Sebastian!

I love reading the Times baby notices and the best one I ever saw was Melisende A-Go-Go Frenegonde. OK, so Melisende is a lovely name but once you add the others it does seem a bit tosspotty.

This thread really goes to show how our tastes and attitudes differ....

I really love many names on here (incl. Monty, George, Benedict, Octavious, Hermione, Calypso, Antigone (Tiggy)), and am quite surprised how some of you find such names so surprising/unsusual.....

I've lived in several countries and have not met such an 'obsession' with unusual names as in the UK. I have also never seen children teased purely due to their names - most children are surprisingly accepting of different names (unlike some mumsnetters ).

I am another who adores some of these names- Calypso being a particular favourite (not least because i have a friend whose daughter has it as a middle name.) I do recognise that some names have pretentious connotations to some people but personally I don't care whether you call your children tom, dick, harry or sky-blue-pink-with-yellow-dots. :D

I encountered a little girl called Horatia (female of Horatio?) recently, she was a little, erm, spirited. Mother was a Loud Parenting devotee.

Thaddaeus

I know an Octavia, so Octavius doesn't sound too far off for me.

PMSL at Crispian - it's like his parents couldn't decide between Crispin or Caspian - or maybe the mum just loved Crispy things when preggo.

TBH, loads of these (perfectly normal a couple thousand years ago) Greek names wouldn't be heard in the US where I come from - there aren't a whole lot of pretentious names there...mainly words superimposed as names (Maverick, Ever, True, Blue, etc. are considered quite trendy and cool as opposed to pretentious), ditto the surname trend which is still going strong (Turner, Carter, Newton, Robinson, Quindlen).

SO long way of saying 'I don't know' - hehe I lose

I like Octavius for a boy! But not sure about Thyme.....

Ottaline is a nickname for Ottilie, I think. That's quite cute imo.