To think parents are going mad

[Burgh]

I've seen a few posts recently about parents naming their kids and some of the ideas are insane. Axl, Orange, Blossom. Whats with the trends of going for really out there names - whats wrong with traditional names? Am I the only one that thinks its getting more and more out there.

My sister named her daughter Rebecca in '98 and my Mum thought that was a 'new' name when everyone called her Becky.

I absolutely know all that @IWouldPreferNotTo, which is why I gave my children normal names.

Why does what other people do matter to the OP? She is free to give her kids normal names, too.

I know someone of around 40, a woman called Beau, her full name is Beaujolais. This is not a new thing.

Sorry late back to this- re friend in the 70s they battled with the birth certificate people for weeks, and eventually agreed they could put “symbol” (like Prince ) in the name box of the birth certificate (won’t say which symbol) whether this was technically allowed or a rouge official I don’t know. He was known as “symbol” or by a pet name until he chose his (very dull) first name. His parents were well, alternative, and refused to “label” the child.

He’s remarkably normal

I have a normal name but not very common which is nice. There was no other kid with the same name in primary, only one in secondary (boy) and there was one boy with the same name in my area/circle when a teenager. They both had a different spelling to me. Ley on the end instead of Leigh.

I've met one person with the same name since.

I do find the use of some of the more unusual names hard to understand. However much you may hate name snobbery or people judging names, you have to be aware that it does exist. You know your child has to get through school/ life and apply for a job one day. It makes sense to refrain from giving them a name that is obviously likely to give them issues. Life is hard enough already.

@ChrisPrattsFace Haydn is the correct spelling in Welsh.

Reading this I've realised how fussy I am with names 😂 dd1 has a common name, chose it when I was 8 and it wasn't common then so I am disppointed with how common it is now. DD2 has a rare name in this country but gaining popularity. I like different names (or thought I did) but chardonnay and shiraz (pp) are awful IMO. However I've known recently born Lauren's and Rebeccas and I thibk they are really boring. And grace is way overused and dull

It's so people know you and your children are more unique and special (better) than everyone else.

To me, Axl/Axel is something I would never have chosen for my kids because it seemed far too staid and middle-aged and just plain boring. Just not English staid and middle-aged and boring.

I've had a few students of African/Afro-American descent and they often have names like Blossom or the kind of name that would also have been given to 17th century Puritans.

My son also has a foreign name- but it's a family name, it's something that means something to his family, it's part of his inheritance.

There's different levels of unusual; off trend, lesser used, cultural names can be lovely.

Novelty names, names reflecting a sub-culture e.g. drinking culture Chardonnay, Jack Daniel, copying music stars or mangling the spelling/ pronounciation from an established name is likely to stir a negative response. If a name looks like a cat has walked across a keyboard, it's probably a bad sign. Also, check the first name and surname work together...

Some names die off for good reason. "Chastity" is not a value that sits easily in contempoary society, whereas "Faith" and "Hope" have aged much better. Names always were class based. Victorian/ Edwardian working class names have aged better than upper class high culture classical names which are quite removed from mainstream society and current education system.

My DCs have "safe" traditional first names and their "ethnic" name as a middle name as a balance of keeping their culture, but not having to laboriously correct spelling and ponounciation continuously. When naming a baby, you don't know their personality to carry off an unusual, attention grabbing name.

There is always a strong assumption on these threads that "normal" is English middle-class "normal", that there is no other "normal" or at the very least that other people's "normal" is the wrong "normal". But if you can only get through life by pretending you are not African, not working class, not Muslim, not half-European- that is an awful lot of pretending.

Just seen AnotherPidgey's post, plenty of good points in there. My children still have their "ethnic" name as their first name: if they decide they are so troubled by their heritage that they need to hide it, then they can make the decision to go by their safe middle names.

Well there's an asgard and a Harley-quin in ds's school. Both white working class and English. I used to know a Thor but he was at least Welsh.

There does definitely seem to be something of a spike in unusual names.

Not quite moon unit one or blue ivy, but not just classes full of John and Laura

Poblwc no, it’s actually Hadyn in Wales. Haydn is of Germanic decent.

We named DS after my grandfathers who had the same name. It’s tradition but definitely unusual these days. I like the fact he’ll (hopefully!) be the only one in his class, and probably school, with the name. I was one of 4 in my class at high school

I know a Dorcas who is 70+ and a Euphemia

I've seen a few names in my time being laughed at for being modern and 'you-neek' and they're actually biblical names. Albeit not the most widely known biblical names, but still, they're definitely not modern.

On the other hand, I do feel sad for children who are named after some popular culture figure that is very much 'of its time' because it just dates so badly. All those 23 year old Chandlers. And 30 year old siblings called Kylie and Charlene. It's not about them being terrible names, or even unusual names, it's about the fact that they are so clearly linked to a time and place.

My mother loved a particular name for me-but was persuaded out of it because it was so old fashioned and old ladyish-I would hate it and be teased. It was Emily. I named my own daughter something I thought was a little quirky and unusual but a classic-an "only one in the primary school but might meet another in secondary" type name. It was Grace!

Harley-qui - oh dear. I think that’s on a par with abcde.

My nan was hepzibah by birth......known to all as pat 😂 she hated her name!

I clicked on this thread hoping someone would say Ledasha and was not disappointed 😂

I know an eighty-year-old named Blossom. And I'm sure lots of people have named their children Axl after Axl Rose. Orange is a bit odd though

I came across twins before called Beyonce and Shamilla also a girl in my dcs class called Percy.

Dorcas and Hepzibah are biblical names

I very recently met a child called Cherry-Blossom. And very much a "full name please" child. No shortening allowed. I struggled to take it seriously.

I also recently met a Mai-Mai. Child not Eastern in any way. She and parents as white-British as they come.

Saying that, my all-time-favourite crazy name was Heaven-Lee. This was in a school, and in the staffroom, she was referred to as "Hyphen", and everyone knew who we were talking about.