To think people should take naming their children seriously?

[DreamsOfDownUnder]

Do they not imagine their name choice on the top of a CV or whatever when naming their child 'Ballerina' or 'Buttercup' or 'Tulip'. I find it tends to more girl names than boys.

donquixotedelamancha nope, a girl!

In my dd’s class there are lots of very interesting names. Some English, some not. I think they’re all lovely. But I like the fact that I can call up the school and they know who I am straight away, as there is no one else with dd’s name in the whole school.

They do take naming their children seriously, OP. They agonise from well before conception and throughout pregnancy, and then they call them — drum roll — Jack and Olivia.

Ah, thanks for the Game of Thrones confirmation!

donquixotedelamancha nope, a girl!

That's like calling a boy 'Ovum'. At least make your hideously crass name scientifically accurate.

Have you mentioned that pollen is plant sperm yet? I would not have been able to resist putting that in the congratulations card.

(On an unrelated note I am not permitted to write cards following a couple of 'humorous' incidents some years ago)

We called our DD by a very traditional family name and nicknamed her "ladybird" which stuck for years, until she grew out of it. Needless to say she goes by her real name these days.

Or son also got a traditional name and was nicknamed by his school friends for years by a take on our surname. Now that he has a serious career in law, no prizes for guessing which name he chooses.

I think loads of names sound stupid... Or boring, or snobby, or tacky, or weird... For the most part I keep those thoughts to myself.

We all have our personal preferences. I guarantee there are people out there who think your children's name are awful OP! Just let people name their kids whatever they like and don't worry about it.

Well put pregnantsea

@crazyasafox....i know not all are their given names, but they are the names they are known as publically and are doing perfectly ok with. so my examples stand as far as i'm concerned.
Socratis otto is australian, of greek parentage. and so are many of the children who have 'weird' names in this country have parents from other countries and cultures. so again, its relevant to the OP in that judging a name because ou think its weird, without an clue of that persons heritage is ridiculous. My daughter has a name that is sometimes taken as me changing it to be unique, when it is, in fact, an old name from my culture. i don't give a fuck if people judge for it.says more about them, than it does me.

Reminds me of Mrs May's class on the Facebook page "i know I need to stop talking"...brilliant names for the children!!

www.facebook.com/197680063576205/posts/2445255282151994?s=1476791062&sfns=xmwa

I once worked with a woman who had a nice, ordinary name but insisted on being called by her nickname, which was Tigger. I respected her wishes & never passed comment on it, but every time I had to call her that I'd inwardly cringe. I couldn't take her seriously at all.

I went to school with a Boadiccea - she didn't live up to the original, she was incredibly meek! She was in the same class as Vienna, too. Also went to school with a Bliss; Duplicity might have been a more accurate moniker but I actually love the name Bliss itself. She seems to get jobs just fine.

When I worked in primary schools, I came across two separate sets of children in the same forms with "stand out" names. Came across a pair of girls called Tierney and a pair of Gracie-Mays.

We used the Prime Minister/CEO test.

Works for us.

The only time I judge is when people give a classic name with a "unique" spelling. Condemns your kid to a lifetime of "No, with k" or whatever. Better to go all out different in my opinion.

I'm sorry but names change with the times. My children's friends are.
Bea
Alanya
Kellar
Blake
Romeo
Renzo
Kitty
Jax
Blain
All these kids have jobs. Also their growing up with celebrities kids called.

North
Saint
Chicago
True
Stormi
Rein

Employers aren't going to bat an eyelid to these names in 10-20 years times because funnily enough we are not in the 1800s anymore. Who wants to be another Charlotte, Henry, Thomas, Charlie, Beatrice, Olivia ect when there's literally thousands already out there with those names.

I have 5 kids, only one has an unusual name. The other 4 have normal names but not popular ones. I've never met anyone with 3 out of the 4 names and the 5th I've only met one person that shares her name.

Abcde is pronounced Ab cidy apparently

It's all well and good for MNers to be falling all over themselves with tales of uneekness and never ever being discriminated against etc etc but it's just not real life.
You can absolutely tell a lot by a name, specifically, the uneek and badly spelt. It's also usually more about the parents than the child but noone's going to own up to that!
Of course, being MN everyone with a uneek/stupidly spelt name has reached every pinnacle of success but the fact is a name absolutely CAN hold one back. There have been studies on this very subject and I'm quite sure people ARE aware of that. No, I'm not providing examples because they are plentiful and readily available.

Do I care? Not particularly. I do think, however, that the OP has a valid point.

lucymegan I wouldn’t consider most of those names you listed as “unusual”
Who wants to be another..? Surely someone’s name doesn’t make them the same as everyone else with that name?

I think the digital revolution is partly responsible. Chances are that [email protected] is no longer available and poor lizzie has to be elizabeth.burton612. But she can guarantee that young yooniec.butterkup can freely build her online brand across platforms without let or hindrance

@okpedro, but then by the same token having a different name doesn’t make you worse/less than does it? Isn’t that the point that your name has nothing to do with who you are. In fact, pretty much by definition (unless you name yourself) it literally has nothing to do with you.
Look, I can understand that maybe people do judge names. Clearly so by this thread. But maybe that says more about you than the person who picked a name you find distasteful? How about we just learn to be less dickish and accept people for who they are rather than the arbitrary set of letters they have in their name?

Yanbu.

I think the point is that people will judge based on names, even if we think they shouldn't, so sensible parents might want to bear that in mind.

People judge based on tattoos. They shouldn't, it should be your absolute right to tattoo whatever you want whatever you want it, but some people are going to judge you.

How would all the name-judgment-is-unfair people feel about their daughter getting a delicate filigree design tattooed up her neck and across her face?

owl I agree, a name means nothing. Whether it’s a usual name or not 👍

lucymegan I wouldn’t consider most of those names you listed as unusual

Really? Where are you from?

Here are their peak positions in the UK from the last 20 years:

Bea - 959th
Alanya - 1122nd
Kellar - doesn't make the list due to never having been given to 3 or more babies in a year
Blake - 57th
Romeo - 278th
Renzo - 906th
Kitty - 189th
Jax - 139th
Blain - 1552nd

So most are very uncommon.

I think the point is that people will judge based on names, even if we think they shouldn't, so sensible parents might want to bear that in mind

It is a bit conflicting because I don't care what names people use and I don't care in the slightest about the kinds of jobs where people would judge you for your name, but I have to accept that my child might one day! Maybe they'll want to do something boring and snooty like working in a bank or something.

Having said that, I also believe I will raise my kids to be smart and pragmatic (who doesn't?) and so I'm sure they'd be able to figure something out like putting their name as James on their CV or whatever.

@Fiddlesticksakimbo, well I don’t really think those two things are a good analogy for one another (you don’t choose your name the way you’d choose a face tat) but I’d feel similar to if she named her child Boris or something, I.e. I’d not like it, but if as a grown adult that’s what she chose I’d have to suck it up.
As an employer which is probably more pertinent to this topic, I’d not care as long as they were able to do this job I employed them for. Would I be a bit taken aback at a face tat? Yes, because it’s still pretty unusual in our society, but the whole point of not being a prejudiced dick is to check those impulses. I’m aware not everyone is able to do that, but again that’s THEIR issue.