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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

about really plain names for girls?

452 replies

MrsBadger · 07/02/2007 09:20

Now I swore I would never start a baby-name thread but I can't hold off any longer.

DH wants to give the impending BadgerCub a name that's been used in our families before. I'm fine with this - we have about 20 generations and 500 names to choose from.

The boy's names are generally fine by me (classics like Edward, John, James, Benjamin etc), but he always leans towards girls' names that I just find a bit... dull.

We have a short surname - think Stone or Rowe - and I can't help feeling that (eg) Mary, Susan and Jane don't sound especially nice with it.

Am I being overly picky or should I hold out for something longer and (oh the shame, never thought I'd say this) 'prettier', eg Eleanor or Susanna?

Come on, beat me with sticks now, I know I deserve it!

OP posts:
nailpolish · 09/02/2007 11:03

Zoe is a fantastic name, MrsB

norkmaiden · 09/02/2007 11:04

Zoe is fab, best of those three names - nice though they all are.

I used to know a Zoe with a surname starting with a Z ...

How about a middle name - room for being more fanciful??

Enid · 09/02/2007 11:05

I like Zoe

it is quite 'whizzy'

like Polly

elliejune · 09/02/2007 11:26

I work in a place where I deal with a lot of baby names these are the one's I wouldn't recommend. I apologise now if these are your children or your name

Lace Beryl, Mistletoe (last Xmas) Soul, Storm Cloud, Lucifer (parents were Goths)
Anus (parents Foreign may mean something different in there language)
A-J (poor child just given initials not even a full name)

What names do people really hate?
I don't like Brian yet like Briony for a girl and Ryan for a boy?

ForeverBlowingBubbles · 09/02/2007 11:29

I've only joined this thread because I saw my name in the active conversations list!

ZOE is the best name (yeah, ok, it's mine, LOL) and I DO have the poncey dots over the E. But I don't think they're poncey. They were added by my parents after I had started school and all the teachers kept calling me Zo (rhyming with Jo). They said that if I had the dots everyone would know to pronounce the E.

My surname is similar to Cole in that it is one syllable. My middle name has two syllables, so 5 syllables in whole name and I think it has a nice rhythm.

norkmaiden · 09/02/2007 11:30

Anus?! Can you imagined the registrar's face??

nailpolish · 09/02/2007 12:27

i know a Malaena

(medical-speak for bloody poo )

QueenofTwee · 09/02/2007 12:32

Funny you mentioned Sally, I was thinking of suggesting this earlier but didn't. I've got cousins called Sally, Helen & Joanna. My name is also one of your suggested names, the book by Jane Austen, it's always served me well)

I think Sally is lovely, really sunny and comfortable-sounding, bit like Lucy. Sally Anne Cole trips off the tongue nicely. (SAC not too bad as initials - egg sac -not too offensive)

furcoatandnoknickers · 09/02/2007 13:37

yes but queenoftwee scrotum sac is!

pointydog · 09/02/2007 14:01

furry

elliejune · 09/02/2007 14:02

Also if your surname is a first name such as James or Lewis do you have to give them a first name which is a surname like Mckenzie or Spencer or Riley?

FluffyMummy123 · 09/02/2007 14:26

Message withdrawn

nailpolish · 09/02/2007 14:26

snigger

i heard someone calling for "McKenzie" in the library today

didnt know whether to expect a boy or girl

Original poster
MrsBadger · 09/02/2007 14:52

oi cod

add your wisdom

what would you call the cub?

OP posts:
Original poster
MrsBadger · 09/02/2007 14:55

(or was that a 'YES you're being unreasonable, shut up and call it Jane'?)

OP posts:
Fimbo · 09/02/2007 14:56

Do you have other children Mrs B?

MamaG · 09/02/2007 15:12

elliejune my surname is in your list (it s not anus tho!)

tinkerbellie · 09/02/2007 15:12

oi...my middle name is jane

i thnk that's why i called my daughter a pretty name though i always liked the really girly names like isabel etc, but there were quite a few in ds class at school so opted for a different one

have you thought about taking one of the plainer names and changing it slightly or would that be out of the question

i really like emelia and grace

okeydokeygirl · 09/02/2007 16:15

Go for something you and your DH both like. It is inevitable that your child will at some point hate his/her name so YOU should at least like it. My mother always really regretted my father's choice for my two brothers. They both use different first names that they adopted as teenagers. My mother gave me quite an unusual first name - first and last name both 3 syllables and not English which is a bit of a mouthful. I hated being unusual in a class full of plain Sarah's, Annas etc. and no one ever spells either of my names correctly. It was never shortened to anything either by myself or friends. As an adult I love my unusual name. However, I have given my daughter a fairly traditionally English short name with her father's short, very common last name and both me and DH love it. She may grow up disliking it but she has the option of changing it to anything she likes when she is older.

3monkeys · 09/02/2007 16:44

Dont use Susan - my name and I always hated it!! hence my 3 have really ordinary names that can't realy be shortened or otherwise messed about with (unlike the hideous Sue!)

sammac · 09/02/2007 16:49

My Zoe has not dots or \ in her name BUT at various times she has put them in herself. Now back to without any- so it is versatile!

Ds has a Sally in his class, but that's the only one I've come across.

woozlekin · 10/02/2007 11:31

Just read through the thread - such lovely names! But hello, excuse me, Orchid? doesn't anyone use a dictionary??! It's Greek for testicle...

vizbizz · 11/02/2007 05:22

We were the opposite - we have an unusual surname, so wanted a simpler name. We did choose an unusual middle name. We figured that when he gets older, if he really wanted to stand out, he could use the middle name instead.

QPootle · 12/02/2007 11:08

I have really short surname and monstrously pretentious first name with three syllables. Parents also gave me two traditinal middle names, think jane and Anne, so if I hated my first name I could change it when I was older. Decided changing it was more pretentious than the original... On the plus side I rarely meet anyone with my name and when people do get it they seem less likely to forget it. On the minus side I constantly have to repeat/spell it and people often mishear and think I'm called something else which can be embarrasing.

Having said all that I gave DS a really short but very unusual name... people already say what? or think it's a typo... Some people never learn.

newandimproved · 12/02/2007 12:24

My mum and dad were being forced to have a family name inserted into my name that they both at the time hated - Mary. But it had been in both families since the dawn of time. They compromised with adjusting it to Marie which tarts up my name no end! It's my middle name and runs much more nicely off the tongue in combination with my other names than Mary would have.

Perhaps a little adjustment to the family names would make them more appealing to you Mrs Badger?