to think that all these darling Jocastas are mythical?

[manicinsomniac]

Seriously, does anybody actually know a Jocasta?

I know it's the go-to 'mock the middle classes' earnest yummy mummy name on mn but I'm not convinced they're really around.

It only appears of one of the ONS name lists from 2006-2012 (there were 3 Jocastas born in 2007) which means there have to be fewer than 20 little Jocastas walking around the UK.

Does anybody know where the reference to 'little Jocasta' came from? Did it start from a specific thread? I know of other seriously posh names which actually do get used each year (if not very frequently) eg Araminta, Antigone, Persephone.

I have never met a Jocasta of any age.
I have met an Antigone, whose sister was Araminta.

I don't know a Jocasta but i would use imagine it's used exactly because it is so rare - much less chance of offending someone. Whereas if you used Persephone, i'd have to get offended. Jocasta is safer.

I do remember an interior designer in the 80s called Jocasta Innes i think.

sorry - a random 'use' got into that post

YANBU, I've never met one.

Maybe they're all in London :)

The only Jocasta I've ever heard of in my life was some sort of paint expert or interior designer or something, who used to pop up on programmes like Changing Rooms and Home Front in about 1996. I think she was quite posh though...

I've never actually met a Jocasta.

I have a friend Jocasta but she's in her early twenties, and gets everyone to call her Cassi as she hates the pretentiousness of Jocasta!

Cross posted with Mrs Koala! Glad I didn't imagine the stippling/stencilling/distressing expert!

Yabu I've met one- sister to Balthazar.I kid ye not.

South of France on a boat trip.

Actually, that's a good point about offending people MrsKoala

For the record, I think Persephone is gorgeous.

Balthazar and Jocasta - wow!

I actually really like the name Jocasta (but the abbreviation is too similar to my name). I also like Antigone but i would be forever singing 'i love woolly and wooly loves me' if we used it .

Treacle - my dad had her book. Every surface in our house was stencilled, dragged, rag rolled...in peach and lemon hues.

Yes indeedy.

Balthazar was in a white linen shirt- yes white, snowy white!

My 3 were covered in pox scars and looked decidedly unsavoury in comparison.

Balthazar was on our short list of boys names. But it reminds me of Balthazar Getty too much. I have the anti MN name taste it would appear!

I'm expecting again and debating whether to go over and get a kicking on the baby naming boards.

I had a cookery book by the same person but I've never heard of anybody else called it. The poshest little girl I know is called Phoebe.

I've never met a Jocasta.

I have met a Ptolomey though. In an ordinary village primary where everybody else is called Jack, Alfie, Ella and Eve.

I know one.
she's quite well spoken but definitely not posh.

Oh yes my DS knows a Ptolomy.

There is a Jocasta in VIz magazine - she is the daughter of very pretentious parents. Maybe that's where it comes from.

I have never met a Jocasta. I have however heard a parent calling after 'Serendipity' in the supermarket, and a teacher calling after 'Ulysses' in a museum.

Everyone I know personally has fairly normal names. Boring.

I think much of mn loves these kinds of names Koala

Araminta is my absolute favourite name; I'm just too wimpy to use it. Persephone - lovely, Jocasta - lovely, Antigone - not keen but Tiggy is sweet, Balthazar - not really my taste but very cool. I'd worry about the nn Batty!

I didn't mean to slate the name Jocasta with this thread (or any of the other names I mentioned including your DDs ) I was commenting more on Jocasta being the go-to name to mock loud middle class parenting than on the names not being nice.

I wonder if it's the same one, RetroPear.

I had never heard of the name before MN and when he started the school I thought his parents were quite brave. No one else knew how to pronounce it.

Nice little boy though :).

I have met a Jocasta who is in her 30s. She was really very posh, and very nice.

I know a Ptolemy too. And two Antigones (though one was named after the other so not sure the second one counts.)

Never met an Araminta, a Persephone or a Balthasar. Or a Serendipity or a Ulysses.

It's a whole world of amazing names I would never dare use!

I know a Jocasta, she is my age and lovely. WC family, her mother read the name in a book once and loved it, her sister was named after an unusual name in a TV program so imagine Demelza from Poldark or similar (not her real name!).

However, I do know 2 "jocastas" who behave in typical "jocasta" fashion. They both have names that their parents thought were uber intellectual until I someone helpfully pointed out that they are pronouncing the eldest one phonetically and not as it should be pronounced and the second one is the also the name of a famous brand of convenience food :o