To think you can't judge a child by their name??

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Would you judge a child by their first name?

Katie Hopkins on this morning was saying how she judged the children her children play with by their names.

There's a YouTube video but can't link it

One of DS1's friends is called Kai. He's a lovely boy, doing well at school and I suspect he'll do very well in life. His mother is on the lentil weaving end of the parenting spectrum.

I do judge. [ashamed]
Strange spellings are sure to raise eyebrow and poor tots called after vegetables/things/etc make me cringe.

Oops. Nearly started a duplicate thread on this. I was so angry with this stupid woman. And then to find out her children's names made me laugh at first and then get even angrier at her double standards.

A beat she is a snob, at worst she is a cruel manipulative parent who will turn her poor children into poorly adjusted adults.

As a teacher I avoided certain names for my ds as I did associate them with more challenging pupils,in my class. Often, but not all the time the more challenging children did seem to have certain names.

I think quite alot of the time names do give you an indication of the sort of class children are. Sorry but I've been teaching 10 years and in lots of very good schools in rich areas and schools in deprived areas and more often than not it's true. But you get your standard Jacob and josh wherever. I find names are spelt unusually in both types of schools.

I think you can usually tell quite a bit about a child from the name their parents chose for them and quite often challenging children have,the same kinds of names.

But I wouldn't judge them on it or not allow my ds to play with them because,of,it. This would be judged on the childs and parents behaviour no matter what the name was.

I would raise an eyebrow at misspelt or ridiculous names but would never dream of preventing my DCs from playing with said children or otherwise making negative assumptions about their families.

I also know 'normal' families who give their DCs determinedly middle class and pretentious names in a bid to sound posher than they are.

I work at an airport and see some corkers. One unlucky girl had been saddled with 'Feral' FFS.

I "judge" people/children because of their names when I don't know them. That doesn't mean I'd avoid them or forbid DD playing with them. And once you get to know someone, the name becomes pretty unimportant. Some people you like, others you don't.

But names definitely play a big role in first impresssions.

Maybe you CAN judge what class a person is from by his/her name, but who cares what class a person is from?

It's all very different here in the States anyway. Tristan, Octavia, Dominic...all very "chavvy" here. And what part of the country you're in makes a difference too.

It's all according to taste. A college friend just had a daughter and named her Kinzley Jayne. I have to admit I did a face when I read it on facebook...just not my taste at all! However, I'm sure she did the same when I had my DD a few weeks later and called her Margaret Rose. :)

Ha - just watched this and realised katie would not allow my kids to play with her kids, thank god although they have classless names, because we are the ones late for school and homework not always done by ds, mainly because he is sen and doesn't always want to go to school so struggle to get out the door some days. We don't always do his homework if he has had a bad day as it is too much for him. Funnily enough both my dcs are achieving above average and I hope that when my ds learns to work round his sen they will both go on to do wonderful things with their lives. Her loss! She sounds a very judgmental person who has no time or understanding for other peoples circumstances or difficulties in life and I would rather my kids didn't play with hers as I wouldn't want them mixing with such a snobby family. Her comments about the kids misbehaving in school left me cold as she made no allowances for the fact they might have sen or be going through a difficult time in life and need sympathy not judging.

I think sometimes it can give an indication of class but you shouldn't judge really - perhaps the parents but not the child.

Having said that all my teacher friends have pretty set ideas about kids called Connor, Kieran etc...

I would certainly judge that ignorant cow Katie Hopkins for calling her daughter after a country.

Cheerful Yank Tristan is chavvy?? it screams toff here!

Morris,

One of the reasons why you get more referrals from estates like that is because people are quicker to refer when it involves someone from a poorer area.

You are no more likely to be a wife beater a child abuser a neglectful parent a sex offender or a incompetent parent if you are called Kevin than if you are called Hugo you are just more likely to come to the attention of the services.

Here's a funny example. I know two different people named Katie. I am assuming KH would approve of both as it's her name, too.

The first Katie is from a very wealthy family, lived in a huge mansion when she was growing up, went to all the best schools. At the age of 21 she died of a blood infection due to injecting heroin with a dirty needle.

The other Katie is from a working class family, lived in tiny flats growing up (different ones as her single mum was always behind on rent), wore second hand clothes, worked super hard to get through school and go to uni.

Katie Hopkins going by her self-proclaimed rules would've let her children play with both, but probably would've preferred the middle class Katie to the working class one, eventually. So her DD's, had they become best friends with MC Katie, would probably more likely had become exposed to illicit drug-taking than if they ran around with WC Katie.

I do think SW are referred to lower class families because sometimes the abuse or neglect isn't hidden as well. I know lots of incidences of abuse in higher class families, but there is more pressure to cover it up in order not to tarnish appearances.

By the way, the working class Katie is me. The middle class Katie was my childhood best friend. We met at nursery.

I think as well with higher class families, people are less likely to contact SS because they just don't believe it can be happening in that home. You see it on "should I tell someone about this" threads on here all the time. "But they are such a lovely family!" "He's always clean and well dressed!"

I would love to be there when Katie Hopkins' kids fling the 'Fuck off Mother, you aren't the boss of me, you can't control who I am friends with...' rant at her.

Don't you think having a less cosmopolitan and diverse set of friends means her kids would be more likely to rebel and stray from the parental ideals laid down by KH? Perhaps she is trying to raise insular bigots though?

I hope they rebel, but sadly parents often pass down their insipid, bigoted opinions to their offspring, which is how racism, classism and such are still sadly in existence today.

She is a total loon imo.

And I totally pmsl when she said 'I don't like geographical names - Brooklyn, London...' and Phil said 'But your child is called India'.....!!!

She said 'But India isn't a 'destination'....'

She is crazy, and shouldn't be given air time.

We chose names that we liked and had meaning for us, but which were also broadly MC - some names cover a broader class and cultural span than others I feel ? Also DS's name is posher and more traditional than DD's, but maybe many are a little more adventurous with girls names ?

But would be wrong to say we had no awareness of the class connotations at all. I think most people do, and seem to choose those their friends and family will be comfortable with.

That could be my son's name too Aidan - we wanted to go for a bit of breadth in cultural connotations too

I'm an ex-pat in America, and the name Tyler is quite WASPy over here. There are many American names I'm not keen onCarter, Jackson etcbut I don't draw conclusions about kids or parents based on their names. (Although last week I did meet a three-year-old Jagger, and wondered whether it was a family name, whether grandma was a former groupie etc. etc.)

Cannot stand Katie Hopkins and she probably judges everyone on everything Hope all of her childrens' play buddies parents read the article and avoided her.

I think there is a very small element of judging someone on their name but not to the extent of katie Hopkins. There will always be names that people deem chavvy - a list that is changing all the time.

Interestingly I read y'day that Mabel is making a huge comeback. So all the old names are coming back round again.

Plus ça change.

I was absolutely appalled. I have a bit of a reputation here on MN for having my judgey pants on a little too often, but first of all, if MN has taught me one thing it is never to admit to giving your child a gregg's sausage roll never to judge a child based on their name. But more importantly what I find so disgusting about this is she isn't just making assumptions based on names, she is actually acting on them. She genuinely believes she is better that other people. While I do admit that I may occasionally make an assumption about someone based on their name (and I'm more than happy for that assumption to be proven incorrect) I would never prevent my DDs from playing with a child because of their name. I would never dream of preventing my children from playing with anyone for that matter.

I did laugh when I read that the topic was started based on a survey conducted on Netmums. That will teach them for asking The Hun!

My DS has a very unusual biblical name. It is a traditional name in my DH's family. Over the years DS has got fed upon with explaining where the name comes from. If anyone asks now he simply says that the name is Jewish. We are not Jewish, but lots of people have assumed that we are!

I think the middle classes with lots of little Jeremys, Fenellas, Tabithas, and Arthurs look smugly down on the working class Isabellas, Connor, Kaydens and Rubys.

Of course the real upper classes tend to stick with Edward, Henry,George, Charlotte,Victoria,Mary (king or queen names) no need for the 'is this a high court judge name' test needed.

If you really judge people on their names you know someone somewhere will be judging you and yours