To wonder where all the kids from the baby names are?

[Abbinob]

Was browsing the baby names forum doing a bit of daydreaming about a future not yet existant tiny squishy baby, as you do..
Algernon.
I have never in my life met a baby algie

I am called an unusual 'MC' name and spent the first 30 years of my life HATING it. For my own DC I have tried to choose names which don't give away too much about age , and are neither chav nor pretentious so along the lines of Elizabeth, Lucy, Julia Catherine, David, Samuel, Edward, William (not the actual names!).
DD goes to school with 'Horatio and 'Augustus'' which I think are ghastly!
I do sports coaching, teaching about 300 children 5-14 (mostly girls) a week.
At the moment Eve/Evie are the most common names

Unfortunately I associate 'Eve' with 'heave' , Eva as one who heaves, and Evie as who who feels as though they might heave!

We know an Atlas and an Isadora. They suit their names beautifully.

DS's middle names are Rufus and Augustine. I love them.

Love Many Irish names, too. But they can be tricky to spell and pronounce leaving everyone a bit confused...

DH's name is Irish and we get post with every fecking spelling option.

I'm confused to hear a couple of people say that they know a real life Elliot. In the last 20 years I have lived in four completely different areas of England and known multiple Elliots in each place. I'm sure I saw it was in the top 50-or-so names.

Bullying happens because society lets it and accepts it. You might want to stew on that, when you say we should take that into consideration.

Gosh, thanks red. Having spent the last 7 years pissing in the wind as I have tried to tackle bullying against DS1 at school (not about his name) I don't think I need to stew on anything. Yes, society lets bullying happen, and it will continue to do so, and I will do whatever I can to prevent it happening to my DC. Perhaps I should take the "brave" decision, and call DC3 Percival or Hermione or whatever, and just let them take the inevitable pelters, but that is not going to happen I'm afraid.

Fair few unusual names around here (rural Westcountry). My DD's name is very unusual and got absolutely ripped apart on a thread on here, people were being totally vile. Regarded as very MC hippy apparently. She loves her name and has never encountered any negativity though so that's good!

I agree with MrsDeVere who said (I think, sorry if I've got the wrong person) that people get all judgey about names because they ascribe motivations to it - aspirational etc. It's rarely true I think. DD's name is a family name (although have read on here before that people who say are always lying...) and we picked it because we loved it. If she hates it one day she can change it.

I'm not sure why there's so many quite unusual names around here, I've never heard of kids being bullied for their names here either - maybe as a community it's quite accepting? Quite a deprived area, and not very diverse, so it's not that.

DD used to do swimming lessons with a brother and sister called 'spike' and 'pixie'

Slagging off names is thinly veiled class bashing. The reason people get so worked up about them is because they really want to say they hate 'WC' people or 'MC' people or those who think they are better than they ought etc. Its the only way i can understand the frothing venom against what is essentially a collection of syllables and sounds.

It is acceptable code for what they really mean, and that is 'Chavs' or 'Poshos' or 'Arriviste' or whatever. I'd rather someone just said to me 'i hate you and your children and everything you stand for' rather than what they actually say, which just means that anyway but in a more cowardly way.

It's not always class bashing. I think some names just sound a bit ridiculous.

I know someone called Cheerful! I really do!

I just loathe some names, though I would never mention them. Suffice to say they have an apostrophe in them.

I met a bloke the other day called Tennessee. I think that's an amazing name!! I would never be brave enough to use it although if I have a boy I love Jackson.

FlaptheWings that says more about certain corners of Fife than the names though.

If your town is anything like the Fife town I grew up in then simple things like eating fruit would be enough to get you ridiculed

But why do you think they are ridiculous? What about those collection of sounds is ridiculous. Is there a funny whooop in the middle or something?

Gosh, thanks red. Having spent the last 7 years pissing in the wind as I have tried to tackle bullying against DS1 at school (not about his name) I don't think I need to stew on anything. Yes, society lets bullying happen, and it will continue to do so, and I will do whatever I can to prevent it happening to my DC. Perhaps I should take the "brave" decision, and call DC3 Percival or Hermione or whatever, and just let them take the inevitable pelters, but that is not going to happen I'm afraid.

Sorry, but don't blame the kid or the parents of the child with the odd name. Blame the bully for their behaviour.

Otherwise, you should say, don't ever do anything that is different or challenges injustices in life because you deserve to any mistreatment you get as a result. Wouldn't our world be lovely if we all just complied with others even if we disagree.

Unusual names are not the cause of the problem. They do not make someone MORE of a target. They can only ever provide a focal point for bullying which would have just picked on another thing instead. Bullying is the fault of the bully and bullying on the basis of name being somehow acceptable is socially supporting it.

Suggesting that you effectively are 'asking for it' because you were given a certain name by your parents and your parents should have modified their behaviour to protect you has a familiar ring and comparison to it, that I do not like in the slightest.

As others have pointed out, names from other cultures are different - should they be adopting 'acceptable' names to protect them from the playground bullies? What does that same.

I live neither in the SE or a big city, and I've come across a fair few unusual names among my DC's peers, plenty of which are mentioned upthread, but I can't be bothered to list them.

Generally you get used to them pretty quickly anyway. The only one among the kids I've met that does still make me wince a bit is Isis, and that's because of the association current events has given it rather than any dislike of the name itself.

Incidentally, the only Jayden I've met goes to private school now, and his parents are definitely on the posh side.

Sheesh. Would 'silly' be less offensive to you than 'ridiculous'? Because to me names like Bertha and Rupert and likewise Nevaeh sound silly. And ugly.

Would I say anything? No. Would I presume their future career would be dictated by their name? No.

Do I think they're silly names? Yes. Do I expect other people not to use these names for their kids? No.

Nothing to do with class bashing though.

Even "normal" names get a bit of gripe on here.

For example my dd's name was originally a shortened version of an old fashioned name that has become acceptable as a name in its own right. I still read people saying that they would rather hear the proper name and the other as a nn

There's no name that goes unmauled on MN from what I can see.

I dont think ive ever known anyone to be bullied because of there name... Maybe i just live in a really nice area

I know a Ptolomy, a Quinlan, a Caoimhe, a Sylvie, a Zeke and many more all in North Shropshire and with no range of ethnic diversity at all.

When I was away last week we went to a zoo and a mother kept shouting at her two kids at the top of her voice. Their names were Phoenix and Vulcan
Phoenix was a girl, Vulcan a boy
Seemed very very upper class as well so I don't honestly think it's anything to do with lower class. In fact if you look at the all the unsual names famous people give their kids I would say it is maybe more an upper classes thing

My DS is Fabian, as in Fay-b-un. I still love the name and it really suits him but I sometimes feel bad that he always has to correct people when they pronounce it Fab-ee-un.
My husband tries to wind me up by saying that when he's older he'll go by the nickname Ian!

There are quite a lot of children with unique names in DS's school and there are twin boys in his year named Romeo and Mercutio but Mercutio is known as 'Mercy'.

I have a cousin called Fabian! I think it's an awesome name.

My parents named me after a plateau on the Malawi-Zambian border. My dad would have got the name had he been a girl but he got called Mark and I got "the name".

I go through phases of loving and hating my name even now in my mid-20s. It is impossible to pronounce or spell on first seeing/hearing it because it's pretty much not actually a name for a person. People always say what a lovely name it is though and it is certainly a talking point. I've even spoken about the origins of my name on national radio (I was on The Chain on Radcliffe and Maconie!)

I love a lot of the names in this thread but I really do feel like when I have children I won't call them anything which isn't actually a "name for a person". Got no problems with people calling their children shortened names either, although my closer friends call me "Ny" (to rhyme with "why") and I wouldn't want that on my birth certificate...