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.

Portia was the main female character in A Merchant of Venice btw

Bogey - he pronounced it the same way i would say Caesarean.

Jocasta Innes was behind Fired Earth. She also wrote The Pauper's Cook Book which provided about a quarter of the food I ate as a child. More recently she wrote a book on housekeeping which I found highly amusing as it has chapters on how to deal with the au pair and what to look for in a gardener which is probably fairly normal by Mumsnet standards but not really concerns for the average family.

Then he is an arse :o

Have just looked up Modern Parents. Is it very funny? I never did read viz.

Was laughing at parents being Malcolm and Cressida Wright-Pratt

oh yes, most definitely!

Didn't Jocasta Innes have something to do with the very middle class paint shop that was very popular in the early 90s?

Yes, Paint Magic.

I was gloriously unaware of this.

Jocasta died by impaling her fanjo on a sword. I saw a very bad youth theatre interpretation of this act when I was around 15 and it has scarred me for life. If I met a RL Jocasta I would be like this but only because of that.

My cousins very nearly ended up as Adelina, Estharia and Thadeus

Luckily, my uncle put his foot down

I think your youth theatre was going for shock tactics Wilson. The canonical versions have her hanging herself.

Thank you Molly. Fired Earth, that's the bastard.

I know Viz well as we have the annuals in our bathroom library.

I worked with a woman called Mercedes! Lots of people asked why she was named after a car :). I bet she was sick of it. Lovely name though (lovely person too).

There is a girl in Ds2s class called Cressida. Her parents are definitely not posh they live on same council estate as me

At the school I work at, loads of mc families who send their DC to private schools after primary, a lot of rather fancy names.

::runs into thread::
::clutches all fellow mothers-of-Persephones to bosom::

So happy to see all these references to other Persephones. Ours is 18 months and normally called Seffie. I love her name. But the world, sadly, divides VERY starkly into those people who have heard of the name and those who definitely have not.

Most popular names at my private schools (80s onwards) were Isobel, Amelia, Sarah, Eleanor, Jane and Elizabeth. More unusual were Geraldine, Nina, Cynthia, Corisande etc

My primary school best friend's middle name was Persephone. I wasn't allowed to tell anyone in case she was called "Percy". Strange. It's a really lovely name. She was born around Easter. I think if dd had been born in Spring, I might have been tempted.

Anyone thinking of that Cocteau Twins song, "Ivo", or something?

I love the name Persephone.
Seems I was wrong about Jocasta Innes having anything to do with Fired Earth. I was thinking of farrow and ball after all.

There wasn't as much variation in names in the 80s and 90s though CorusKate I think every girl everywhere was called Amy, Becky and Sarah! (oh, and Emma and Laura)

I work in a pretty posh private school and have taught a huge range of names, some expected and some not.
Over the past 8 years I have taught 1 or more of the following:
Anastasia, Annabelle, Chantelle, Hugo, Sebastian, Riley, Hailie, Frederick, Georgina, Lara, Dylan, Montgomery, Maximilian, Cosmo, Jonquil, Athene, Gavin, Makayla, Juliette, Darren, Genevieve, Caprice, Fenella, Fabia, Tiffany, Orlando, Camilla, Athena, Lillie-Mae, Kia, Ptolemy, Antigone, Tia, Fitch, Katinka, Aurelia and Karizma.

Of course, those are just the ones often stereotyped. Most of the children are called Alfie, Harry, Thomas, Charlie, George, Jack, Chloe, Amelia, Olivia, Charlotte, Sophie and Ellie just like everywhere else!

Does anyone remember that episode of Skins where they get themselves invited to that private school girl's party (Abigail?) and her introduction goes something like;
'this is Sara, Sara, Annabelle, Sara, Annabelle, Sara and Sara'?

Oh yes, I'd forgotten the Emmas and Lauras

OI!!! I wont tell you which one I am but it is very common (not common common but common!) I was at an Al Murray gig in the East Mids (born and bred) and he called me posh, so dont be dissing my name!

Back to a point made earlier in the thread about mythical hilarious kids names being shouted out in supermarkets... I'm sure 99% of these are people like me who think it's amusing to try and embarrass our kids by calling them funny names in loud voices in supermarkets. It's just something you do to pass the time, isn't it?

My DCs are adults now but they will actually answer to their 'joke' names as I use them so regularly. My boys fake names are 'Atticus' and 'Leander'.

I actually love both those names

I don't know a Jocasta but I do know a little girl called Medea, her mum didn't know who Medea was, she just thought it was a pretty name.