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.

I know twins named Succeed and Success, and someone called Gaylord (shortened to Gay).

There is a magistrate in my area who's first name is Cherry. Doesn't look like it caused her any problems being taken seriously.

Each to their own and all. A colleague at my work asked me with a scowl why on earth would I pick that name for my child....It's a very normal, top 50 name.

Her son is called Craig...definitely not my cup of tea.

I think most people take it very seriously, just that their tastes are all different. It's a non issue really.

@amispeakingenglish Amanda is pretty ordinary..

I have a friend with a Dolly and a Teddy!

I can't understand how the topic of racism has come into this thread, the OP only pointed out that the world is judgmental about names. And it is, why deny it? For example if I saw a list of names like Pamela, Maureen, Terry, Leslie, Sheila and Pat, I would think they are probably quite elderly people. Sorry if that makes me a c*nt.
I also feel bad for children with names like Baylee-Rae and Maddison. It's as if their parents are determined to hold them back in life. I might be a horrid person for making a judgment about their background, but if I do then so will other people. And a made-up, meaningless name is a handicap.

Princess Buttercup. A great character. A great name.

Racism has come up on the thread because of people talking about CVs and recruiters discriminating against people with unusual names. There is no evidence for this, but there is considerable evidence that ethnic minority names are discriminated against.

Are the people who suggest you shouldn’t call your child Blossom-Summer Smith in case recruiters might pass on her CV also suggesting that parents from BAME backgrounds call their child George Jones in the knowledge that recruiters do discriminate against Mohammed Akintola?

Wait till all the Game of Thrones babies start school

@cms1972 I mentioned racism because people said how ridiculous it is to call your child Precious or Blessing, those two (maybe more on the thread, my comment was early on) are traditional names in another culture. Much like calling your child Emily or Jack. Absolutely nothing ridiculous about it and quite common withing that culture.

Igronance of other cultures and belittling them is pretty much racism?

Does this thread remind anyone else of the "white trash" name list from Ted:

John: “Brandi, Heather, Channing, Briana, Amber, Sabrina, Melody, Dakota, Sierra, Vandi, Crystal, Samantha, Autumn, Ruby, Taylor, Tara, Tammy, Laura, Shelly and Shantelle? Courtney, Misty, Jenny, Christa, Mindy, Noel, Shelby, Trina, Reba, Cassandra, Nicki, Kelsy, Shauna, Jolene, Earlie, Claudia, Savannah, Cassie, Dolly, Kendra, Callie, Chloe, Devon, Emmylou, f**king Becky?”

Ted: “Nope.”

John: “Wait, was it any one of those names with a ‘Lynn’ after it?”

Ted: “YES!”

John: “Okay, Brandy-Lynn, Heather-Lynn…”

Ted: “Tami-Lynn.”

John: “F**k!”

I have a foreign name, spelt incorrectly (my mother changed “a”s and “e”s and added “I” and swapped other letters. I hated it growing up. Basically there was nothing with my name, everyone spelt it incorrectly, no one could say it properly. It felt so unfair that everyone else had those glitter glue headbands with their names on and I didn’t! I shortened it when I hit year 7. Much easier to say and spell now. My own husband was a bit shocked when he saw the full spelling of my full name on our marriage certificate!

When it came to my own children I stuck to classic, british names that were easy to spell and say. I don’t want to put my kids through what I have gone through.

DD is called Flora. When I told my mother she said "why don't you have done with it and call her Marjorie, everyone at school will call her marge / margarine".
Funnily enough no one ever has. And even when I see a tub of Flora Margerine I never associate it with my daughter.

I see... I'm a nurse & I love the names of some of the African nurses I've worked with. One was called "Gladness"! What a brilliant name, it makes you feel better just to say it.
On the whole it's an individual thing & if someone's not comfortable with their name they can always change it. Like (as someone mentioned), Zowie Bowie / Duncan Jones.

I DETEST my own name. I have a classic trashy 1970’s name but pronounced differently to the classic trashy 1970’s name.

Imagine i’m Spelled Tracy but I’m pronounced Traahhcy.

I have been bullied both as a child and an adult because the assumption is that “your name is ACTUALLY pronounced the normal way but YOU JUST DECIDED TO BE PRETENTIOUS.

I hate it. I absolutely hate it. I’ve had to accept my name being said wrong all my life. About 50% of the people in my life get it right. The other 50% are completely unreachable- including my boss. I have to answer to my own name being said wrong 35++ times a day because people including my boss just don’t get it.

My boss just cannot do it. My favourite teacher through 6 years of secondary school never ever got it.

I hate it.

If you say to my mum “why did you call her Traaaacy (not my name).”

Her reply is “well when you live in (suburb of Glasgow) you grow to hate the name “(conventional pronunciation but in a Glasgow accent)” then you’d understand”... AS IF THERR WAS ONLY 1 NAME IN THE UNIVERSE AND HER ONLY CHOICE WAS TO CHANGE THE PRONUNCIATION OF IT.

No one held a gun to her head to call be (the equivalent) of Tracy but spelled Tracy but pronounced Traaaacy.

Fuck me, it was 1970. She could have called me Susan or Brenda. My boss 48 years on could have got that.

Your name really has nothing to do with the person you are and if an employer judges people by their given name perhaps you’re better off not working there.

Also a lot of the names people are pointing out are clearly names that come from different cultures and you should look into their meaning before making judgement.

People are really rather mean on this site sometimes, I see lots of hidden discrimination. Perhaps we should be more worried about the things we teach our own children than the names others have given to theirs.

Clarice is a fine name. Pottery person Clarice Cifft did it proud. I also like Tulip. Had a relative called Iris. What’s the difference? Both lovely flowers.

They do. It may just be that different people have different ideas about what a lovely name looks like.

Really. You have too much time on your hands. And no, I have no kids so don’t accuse me of naming my daughter ‘ballerina’

I don't object to unusual names, especially names from other languages (my daughter has a name from a European country) but totally made up names can be too much sometimes. I read about a woman who called her daughter Abcde (pronounced Absede). It seems almost cruel!

My plumber is called Ziggy. Uniquely easy to find in my phone contacts - which means he’s always the first one I call for a quote/emergency

Bit of a nightmare when Disney brings out a movie with a character that has the same name as your child. Glad it's only our dog that we named Moana. 🤣

Neeve is spelt Niamh in Ireland and its not new or unusual there.

Theo isn’t modern either - Theodore is a very old name. Lola also a very old name

I work in a business where we deal with mostly aged 70+ clients and you’d be surprised at how many have names that are unusual and appear made up. The other day I came across a 92 year old Esmeralda - not made up I know but not common

Worlds0kayestmum

I came across an Ohshun recently. Took me a while to realise it was Ocean which is still terrible

Osian pronounced Oshun is a very normal Welsh name. Not unusual in Wales at all and it has nothing to do with the Ocean

I shortlist cv's for work all the time. Notnonce has someone's name prevented me from 'taking them seriously'...spelling mistakes on the other hand....