To ask which names sound snobby in the English language?

[ConfusedWife1234]

I am just interested because I found the Chevy names thread interesting.

I have a friend called Annastasia, who is part Russian part Eastern German. She has been told her name sound snobby and wannabe in the US/UK, while in Russia it is very common and in what was Eastern Germany it is not to uncommon.

I think I've got Jocasta muddled up with Jacinta (forgive me) .

I agree with you, MrsKoala. I think all these uber 'posh' names are a bit too self-conscious to be upper class. Many are a bit too affected. The aristocracy tends to choose quite 'plain' but traditional names. There may be a St John, Ottilie, Clementine, Eugenie or Leopold thrown in as a middle name for good measure and/or as a tradition to honour a more 'exotic' (non British) ancestor, as is often the case with our Royal Family.

'Gus' is another smart name, come to think of it.

Beauchief

I'm afraid to ask how this is pronounced.

Bit of an outlier but Helen and Charlotte.Pronounced Hellin and Shah-lot.

How else is Helen pronounced? Helaine? The latter sounds more posh to my Canadian ears.

I wanted Jocelyn for DS1 (Joss) But DH said it sounded too public school. Tristan was my choice if dd had been a boy but DH also thought it too posh.

Helen is only Hellin to posh people. Otherwise it's Hell-uhn. The 'uh' being the way you'd say the end of Oliver. Likewise Charlotte has the same 'uh' sound instead of 'ot'.

Quite a few of these uber smart names crop up amongst DSis's Cambridge cohort.

O dear. My DC's names are on this thread.

Agree with someoneasdumb, btw. "Posh" girls' school here, and everyone was called Rachel, Elizabeth, Sarah, Victoria, Samantha etc. But the nicknames: Mungo, Bungo, Lotto, Dotto, Bunty, um, Dunty etc. Now wishing I had not been reminded of this.

I adore Anastasia, although suspect I would have brought the class of it down.

Also love Persephone but I wasn't convinced people would pronounce it right.

Anastasia is fine and fairly common these days?

In DS' class there are - Orlando, Sebastian, Carlos, Vladimir, Joaquin, Luca, Xander, Pankaj, Roman, Andre, Mikael, Niko, Ravi, Jago, Ruari, Ishmael and Raife. DS is one if those!

Also agree with those who have said Upper class names tend to be normal names like Georgina, Elizabeth, Sarah etc (often with bizarre nicknames)

The so called posh names like Persephone, Ptolemy and Seraphina are much more (upper) middle class.

In DD's class there are - Alexa, Evie, Sophia, Zara, Mila, Anastasia, Larisa, Safia, Amaia, Alejandra, Pilar, Ava, Amelia, Karima, Sasha, Iarina, Maya, Allegra, Aliya. DD is one of those

I'm guessing you live in a big city with so many foreign names g1itterati

Oh dear, I have a DC with one of the names mentioned mentioned many times in this thread.

Although I knew it sounded a bit pretentious and try hard, I just liked the name. It's just a name, when in far from posh

*and I'm far from posh

I have a DS called Reuben. I told him how he was nearly Rupert but we changed our minds at the last minute.

"Thank God you did, Mum"

Mungo isn't a nickname! It's a real name as in St Mungo and Mungo Park, the Victorian explorer.

Mungo is Hugh Grant's middle name. I assume his parents were taking the piss!!

I got chatting to a lovely mum once in the park, the kids were playing together and so I asked her kids names... “Hortensia and Augustus”. I had to kind of hold in my astonishment at the poshness. Ohhh right. Lovely!

No one uses their first names, it’s nicknames or surnames surely?

“Hortensia and Augustus” Poor children! You would surely diminutise those names otherwise they are way too self-consciously saying something about the parents!

I like 'Gus'. Hortensia just reminds me of Lady Dedlock's rather shifty maid in 'Bleak House'.

There are lots of pukka names that are great as long as you go to a very smart school and continue to inhabit a rarified world of privilege. Otherwise no.

I think a rather unusual middle name is allowed as a bit of a flight of fancy, don't you? There was I girl I was at school with who had very normal first and surnames (think John Smith type normal) but her middle name was Antoinette.

Now which names are considered snobby in the UK? Are there any? The chav names thread is much longer.

Wasn't that thread delete? A similar thread about hyphenated names was anyway.

Why is it OK to ridicule “snobby” names and not those perceived to be the opposite sort?

Jasper
Hugo
Grayson

I love the name Hugo or Hugh. RIP Uncle Hugh. x

I also knew a Bunty. My favourite comic as a child.

PTOLEMY