To not understand why people call their baby...

[smellfunny]

Not to be goady, but I don't understand why people give their babies names with negative connotations or meanings. Examples from the top of my head being:

Cain (murdered his brother in Old Testament)
Hector (hector also being a synonym for bullying someone)
Tristan (this one is a bit contentious because it can either mean 'tumult' or correspond to 'sadness')

Is it just that people don't think about the meanings behind the names? Feel free to add more names to the list...

Bonus name: 'Claudia' coming from the Latin word for 'lame'. I gave this one a pass because it's so established and the connotation is generally unknown...

even if it has the potential to make her a bit unhappy, then why do it?

But pretty much everything does! Tell me a name that doesn't rhyme with anything, that has no potential to seem pretentious or 'common' ... I'm struggling, to be honest! I can see ways both my children's names could be seized on and made into a fairly weak insult (though still stronger than 'ha ha ha a person with your name in Shakespeare died'), in fact.

They can be picked on for having older parents, or younger parents. Having a fit mum or a fat one. Parents not being married, parents being religious, parents being pretty much anything. Contortions of surname (I could not have predicted/did not predict one consequence of surname for ours, in fact). Loads of things you could decide not to inflict on them but do! If you haven't named then Wazzock Faced Twathead, but chosen a name you like and think is reasonable and manageable, I don't think you can do much more.

(and I say this as someone who chose Very Normal Names, but did give my daughters their father's surname because I did, actually, get teased about my own).

I think teaching our children not to look down on others and make smart arsed remarks would be a much more effective way of making other people's lives better

In so many ways if we all did this daily it would make the world a much nicer place to be.

“I think teaching our children not to look down on others and make smart arsed remarks would be a much more effective way of making other people's lives better”

Absolutely. But do you want your child to be a teaching aid?

“But pretty much everything does!“

Of course. But I presume you would choose no,t to call your child Titty or Roger or Dick........?1

I don't know anyone called Titty. but i do know some older men called Dick and Roger and i had never even thought about their names in any other terms than just names. I can imagine kids teasing a Dick now, but Roger I can't. Do the young folk watch a lot of carry on films these days?

Yeah, I think the issues with those names are really quite obvious though.

I wouldn't use Dick or Titty, though I object to them changing the name in Swallows and Amazon's from Titty to Tatty.

Roger is a perfectly normal name though, and I know a few Ricks.

Thing is though, there must be such a narrow list of names that will completely remove the risk of any kind of teasing. I'm not sure they even exist.

I tell you what I wouldn't do though, and that's give a first name that made a celebrity when coupled with the child's last name. I've know several, and it does perplex me that someone would do that. (eg., your surname is Crawford and you call your child Joan).

Agree with that Seek. I know someone called Barry White (born mid to late 80s) and every time they meet people they say 'what really?!' and then laugh. That's got to be shit.

My first boss was called Albert Hall............and he was a Londoner born and bred.

But do you want your child to be a teaching aid?
What do you mean? How is teaching your child not to look down on or make nasty comments to people make them a "teaching aid"?

You know perfectly well what I mean, Dione. Although you always seem to like amusing yourself by not quite understanding what i’m saying, don’t you? It’s a bit tedious, honestly.

I understand what you meant, Bertrand. I think it was a daft thing to say though.

But just prevent any more disingenuous questions, I would not give my child a name that might cause issues if the other children had not yet learned not to make smart arse remarks. Yes, it should be perfectly OK to be called Titty. But frankly, I wouldn’t expect her classmates to have reached such a state of enlightenment that they wouldn’t giggle.So, however much I “loved the name” I would not use it. And I would think badly of anyone who did.

No, I don't know what you mean Bert. I teach my DC not to look down on or make nasty comments about others. How does that make them a teaching aid?

Melana - sounds pretty but the meaning definitely isn’t!

Sorry meant to put Melena (auto correct!)

Don't get me wrong @Megs4x3 - I am one of those well read pretentious people who loves to be well read and I did look into what the name of my son means - he has a literary referenced name (a very geeky one!) I just mean, if you make a point of insulting someone's choice of name because of some obscure (or perhaps not so obscure) reference you are probably just a bit of a show off. I don't need to criticise someone for calling their child Ophelia/Desdemona/whatever - yes I know what they all get up to etc but that doesn't mean that the person who called their child that knows, or cares.

@Battleax - I don't consider those things obscure. I have a postgraduate degree in eighteenth century art and literature. But the average Jo probably hasn't read the Iliad.

@DioneTheDiabolist - yes! I do believe my point may have been made 😂

I would not give my child a name that might cause issues if the other children had not yet learned not to make smart arse remarks.

Unfortunately, as a lot of people are saying until we're all blue in the face, ANY name might cause issues. My ordinary late-70s British name was twisted and mocked. My friend Wendy was bullied about her name. My friend Catherine. And Daniella. And Debbie... I could go on.

Yes, it should be perfectly OK to be called Titty. That is an extreme example and somewhat facetious.

However much I “loved the name” I would not use it. And I would think badly of anyone who did.

Assuming that you don't just mean the name Titty here, but any name you deem problematic (or that you think makes parents seem uneducated), like Ophelia to use an existing example, then frankly it is you who should be thought badly of, for being intellectually snobbish and judgemental.

@RhiannonOHara - this! Yes - this is just my point about pretentiousness. Sometimes people know exactly where the name is from and couldn't give two hoots about what the character got up to. We have to censor all names that have appeared as a tragic character in any well known play/novel/poem? Seems a bit OTT to me!

Y'know Fink. The way people a generation ago could (mis)quote bits of this and that, and a goodly smidgen of biblical language was woven into the fabric of things. Literature shouldn't be an elite thing. I see us as a nation of autodidacts. You don't need to have read the Iliad or The Odyssey to know what Helen's face did or that Paris was a rotter or what attitude to take to Greeks bearing gifts.

Of course, our culture has extra religious and cultural influences all the time but that should add extra influences, not detract anything.

Imogen doesnt mean last. It comes from the gaelic for maiden
Not sure what disease amelia is (am a dr)
Melena and candida for names do make me chuckle tho

If you think Cain is problematic and I'm fairly indifferent, I know of a young boy called 'Kayne' (shudders)