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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to tell friend that her baby name choice is not unusual?

284 replies

toastofthetown · 08/01/2019 11:31

My friend is expecting her first baby later this year. As I’m massively interested in baby names I asked her if she had anything in mind. She said she wanted something unique and is planning on using Aurora. I said that Aurora is a gorgeous name, but has risen hugely in popularity over the last few years and is now in the top hundred. My friend seemed annoyed with this and told me that it is a very uncommon name with only a few born each year, so I just changed the subject.

Since then I’ve been wondering if I said the wrong thing. Was I unreasonable to point out how popular the name is? I wouldn’t have said anything bad about the name itself, but l didn’t want her to regret her choice later, because she didn’t know about the sudden spike in popularity.

OP posts:
LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 09/01/2019 19:27

Fibber

myshinynewusername · 09/01/2019 19:30

Reminds me of the person I know who announced that her new baby girl had a very unusual name. It was Mia Rose!

Everyone told her it was a lovely name, because it really is. Lots of eye-rolling in private though.

Frazzledstar1 · 09/01/2019 19:33

I don’t get the fascinating with unique names; I picked names I liked and didn’t much care where they were in the ranking, but a friend kept vetoing names that were too popular.
It’s probably best off looking at regional top 10/50/100 instead of national anyway.
Never met an aurora in person either!

Sb74 · 09/01/2019 19:37

There are times in life that you keep quiet even if the person you are talking to you is wrong and you are right. This was one of those times. Best not to hurt someone’s feelings especially when they’re hormonal.

EggOfScotland · 09/01/2019 19:38

My son IS called Pinnochio!

I think your nose is the one growing. 😂

I hope this doesn't offend anyone but Dwayne always makes me think wtf.

Bibijayne · 09/01/2019 19:53

@ItsQuietTime

In the original story, Sleeping Beauty wakes up because she's pregnant. She then hunts down the prince who raped her in her sleep and makes him marry her.

Probably not much better!

DeltaG · 09/01/2019 19:56

It's just 'Dawn' in Latin, innit? I know a couple of people called 'Aurore'; both French. Dawn.

BeenThereDoneBetter · 09/01/2019 20:05

From my experience of having worked abroad,sorry to say, Aurora is a common surname in an Asian country. So whole family can be an Aurora!
Nothing unusual about it in some parts of the world.

MoronsandNeurons · 09/01/2019 20:11

My DD is named Aurora, after the Aurora Borealis (northern lights) although she’s delighted it’s also a princess Smile. I called her that in 2013 before it took off. But since then there’s been the Maleficent film with Aurora in it and Passengers so it seems to have got more popular.

OP how did you deliver it? I was so fed up of people telling me they didn’t like it, or someone I knew who insisted it was so common there were 3 in one class. Hmm (great joy ensued when their ‘rare’ DC’s name was in top 100 higher than mine Grin) maybe you came across wrong. Some people seem to take joy in raining on someone’s parade.

purplebunny2012 · 09/01/2019 20:18

Maybe tell her there is no such thing as a unique name, if more than one person has the same name it is not unique.
I would have thought Aurora would stay popular from Sleeping Beauty

pawfoot57 · 09/01/2019 20:26

I think you were quite mean to tell her, you need to be a little more tactful and less of a know it all.

hoodiemum · 09/01/2019 20:34

Think it's actually helpful to warn people. When my first was born, I knew almost no babies or parents, and there was hardly an internet. I chose a name because of associations with my grandmother and a 1930s actress I liked, thinking it would be quite unusual. DD1 has never been in a class where she hasn't had to add a surname initial to differentiate herself from all the others with the same name.

FayFortune · 09/01/2019 20:37

Mean is not the same as tactless though. There is intent in meanness. Worth recognising the difference before you judge.

winniestone37 · 09/01/2019 20:39

I think you were having a good wee on your friend's fireworks and are enjoying pretending on mumsnet that you were just being informative, obvs you just nod and say it's a lovely name. The fact you've run off to mumsnet shows your the one with the real issue. I've never met anyone with that name either btw.

Ofthread · 09/01/2019 20:50

Don't say anything, unless the baby is going to be called Adolf...

DesertSky · 09/01/2019 21:01

I hope you don’t fall out about it OP. People are very sensitive when it comes to name choices.
FTR I know a 5 year old Aurora.

NicolaStart · 09/01/2019 21:18

655 in the entire country in 2017 isn't that many at all, even if it is rising in popularity.

She can do her own research, OP. Leave her to it.

Vivianebrezilletbrooks · 09/01/2019 21:20

My real name had a huge surge in popularity in the mid 80s due to a character in a US soap. It's somewhat more common now but I was named after a character from a much earlier TV series of a few years before. It ties me in with the decade I was born at the very tail end of I guess, but I don't care.
On the street we used to live where I grew up, someone's friend took great delight in telling everyone in saying they had chosen a really unusual name for their new child only to get told it wasn't that unusual as there was someone with the same name a few doors away. Yes, me. Grin
I personally wouldn't say anything about the choice of baby name unless she had asked your actual opinion.

manicmij · 09/01/2019 21:23

If she wanted a unique name then surely some in investigation on popularity will have been undertaken. Or is it because friend hasn't heard the name before that she considers it to be unusual. YWNBU giving her info.

poppingalf · 09/01/2019 21:28

Not sure if anyone's mentioned but the darkgreener website has all the data names.darkgreener.com/#aurora

PaintingOwls · 09/01/2019 21:30

I was in a supermarket the other day and an Aurora was having a screaming tantrum on the floor whilst daddy tried to calm her down. It sounded ridiculous, especially repeated so many times.

namechanger2019

My husband and I are both Astronomers so all 5 of our children have celestrial names.

Ooh can you tell me what those celestial names are?

Slowmovingtraffic · 09/01/2019 21:46

PaintingOwls why would repeating Aurora be any different from a parent repeating any other childs name? I'm not sure why it would sound more ridiculous than any other name?

PaintingOwls · 09/01/2019 21:57

It just doesn't roll off the tongue very naturally. Sounded very grating "aw-rora, aw-rora!"

3out · 09/01/2019 21:57

Try saying it over and over, it’s quite funny! If it was Jenny Jenny Jenny it just wouldn’t have the same ring

castielchace · 09/01/2019 22:24

I live in a small village with a standard small village primary school & we have 3 auroras,but we've also got a little girl called Ziggy & another new starter called storm X aurora isn't unique where we live but all three of those little girls are X it's always the uniqueness of the child,a name doesn't define the child.saying that I called my ds castiel....never heard of another yet,but he's named after an angel X actually come to think of it all my kiddies have unusual names but not unique😀eldest daughter is Shennea -tammara,second daughter is Tammara marley-lola...sometimes it's just best to be a nice person & a good friend, personally I may have replied" oh that's so lovely,she will be as pretty as a princess,I bet your soonest excited ! " Maybe that would have been nicer,plus pregnancy hormones raging it could of really upset her even if that wasn't your intention X