To think it’s very sad certain professions are denied to some children

[continuallychargingmyphone]

I just didn’t know when I joined MN that if your name is not suitably middle class you are forced into a life of servitude in Asda or Tesco. No being a high court judge for you.

Or, aibu to think people are ridiculous and call your baby what you like?

Wrong thread?

I remember the community dental team at my hospital saying they just needed to see the register at each school they visited, to predict with 90% accuracy which kids would need fillings. And it wasn’t the Emilys and Ruperts! Britain is still hugely divided by class, sadly, although access to professions for working class kids did start to improve during the grammar school era. My own parents were born in slums with no flush toilets and a 50% infant mortality rate - my generation was the first to get to university.

OP is like my teenage DS, called Balonz BTW - starting an argument with himself.
Ha ha - and I was hoping he'd grow out of it.

Nominative determinism - the idea that people are drawn to careers/jobs that suit their name.

Examples: Polar Explorer - Daniel Snowman
An article on incontinence by A. J. Splatt and D. Weedon.
and my favourite - Lord Chief Justice England & Wales, Lord Judge Igor JUDGE

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism]

I used to know a Mrs Pratt who was a headteacher.

However, yes- people will make judgements based on names, appearance, speech, whatever...

DH has a name which has people making assumptions, his East End grammar doesn’t help. The Cambridge education and top degree in maths tend to come as a surprise.

In response, DS has a biblical name. It would suit a surgeon or bar staff equally well.

Excuse me?

I wasn't aware Maisie was chavvy. When we called our eldest this, 30 years ago, she was the only one we knew - we just happened to like it. I have noticed though, it has been taken over a bit by the Maisy-Mae brigade...

The worst is being called Chardonnay, but it being spelled Sheifjsnhey
or something else equally odd.

"Victoria, Daniel, Peter. All nice middle class names aren't they"?
Now who's the raging snob?

hahahahahahah gotcha, OP.

Maisie only became acceptable to the MCs in the 1990s. It was a housemaid’s name, never a traditional MC/UMC name.

If that is what you believe OP then just don't call your child a yooneek or "chavvy" name. Simple.

Traditional people with traditional values, will choose traditional names. Like Michael or Michelle. Frivolous people choose frivolous names like chardonnay.

Thus in the future the frivolous attitude is perpetuated.

After all didn't Zowie Bowie and Moon Unit Zappa change names when they needed to sound professional?

I also knew a man called Lovemore, an anglicisation of his Zulu name, but at work he preferred Clive.

This has been studied and documented in Freakonomics. Frivolous ridiculous names make you sound frivolous and ridiculous.

Chavvy common names sound chavvy and common. I wish it was not so but it is...

"So, what you are saying is that people will look at a job application and reject it"

It comes as a surprise to most people that the first person to read a job application is looking for reasons to reject it. Which is why you should never get creative with your application (unless it's for a creative role).

I would never reject based on name, but I'm sure it will happen in some places. Casual everyday discrimination and prejudice is unfortunately part of the English national psyche.

When I was at prep school in the 1970s a Daniel joined the school and my parents had an attack of the vapours...

I knew someone who called their daughter sugar princess

How idiotic to have your kid sound like a porn star when they introduce themselves

if parents choose something that is deliberately unusual, odd, provocative or outlandish they have to accept that as a consequence there will be people who raise eyebrows. It's up to parents to make a judgment call about whether it's worth it

This ^^

I do think names very much have an impact on future careers but it runs alongside their work ethic, education and aspirations etc. They usually match the name hence why it shows up later in life career wise.

The simple fact is if you lumber a child with a silly name because you like it they are the ones that have to live with that name unless braved enough to change it as an adult. What's cute or yoonique to you won't be to many in the real world.

Slaughter May

Typo right there!!!

That's what people ore talking about.

Know all this research, why would anyone give their child a disadvantage if they didn't have to? Nobody is forcing the parents to give their child a silly name and not think long term.

I did my training contract at an internationall corporate law firm. In one of my training seats, the partner in charge of the team was called Sharon and she worked with a senior solicitor called Tracey. They were both English and from the generation when Sharon and Tracey were seen as the archetypal names for working class girls with little education.

Virtually everyone in my grammar school in the 1980s was called Sarah, Emma or Katie, with a few Lauras scattered in to make up the numbers. Ah, the great First Name Shortage of the early 1970s...!

The same still applies to grammar schools I'm afraid.

I work for a top law firm and I know people with quite a wide range of names... but I can't imagine going into a meeting with top execs and introducing myself as Honey Bunny Boo or Sugar Princess. I think there would be a degree of . And I wouldn't really blame them...

Yes, one of my school friends went on to successfully complete a degree in medicine. His name was Dean. So I am just not getting the ‘your application will be thrown in the bin.’

In many organisations, certainly larger ones, application forms are anomymised, particularly to guard against racial or sexual or age bias (due to a few discrimination cases), so having a chavvy name wouldn't stop you getting through the initial weeding out stages. By the time you're short-listed, your name shouldn't be a factor.

I think the more likely cause is that chavvy names are more likely given by chavvy families, who are less likely to value education, so the kids are less likely to have a string of A grades at GCSE/A level, hence not being able to progress into university/professional education. (Of course, huge generalisation there, I'm not saying unique names are only given by chavvy families or that all chavvy families won't value education!)

I just don’t see Kacey and the like as ‘silly’

Not actually my personal taste but then neither is Ottilie or Persephone.

Good grief

Chavvy