To think this class-obsessed country uses DC's names to change theirs?

[GinDaddy]

I live in the South of England, I'm heading towards middle age, so this gives you some context before my OP, which is..

AIBU to think people are giving their DCs "posh" or "aspirational" names as status signifiers? (Which ironically immediately marks them out to me as such?)

I realise there's always been fashionable and unfashionable names since time immemorial. But what I'm talking about is the slew of names which I would previously only expect to hear on Made In Chelsea or Guy Pelly's guest list at Boujis.

Arabella. Annabelle. Isabelle. Amelia. Jasper. Oscar. Oliver (to be inevitably commuted immediately to Ollie in faux-braying tones). Hugo. Theo. Leo. Harry (not even bothering to use the proper Harold, just going straight to the diminutive because well, it sounds right).

It's just a bit odd really. People can and will call their child what they like, but why are so many folk (and it's always the same folk, the ones who are project managers, who love myWaitrose and head tilting, whose teeth chatter when grandparents offer DC a Kinder Surprise) enamoured with these names?

Can someone actually explain this to me? No one has ownership of names, but I cannot believe that some people aren't using this as some sort of social signifier. 15 years ago not everyone was called Ollie or Theo. I didn't know a load of Arabellas or Amelias, I knew a few but that was commensurate with the environment.

AIBU to think the popularity of these names comes from their associate social status?

And Sarah is a late seventies early eighties name, along with mine and clare and hannah and Jane.

I am allowed to question the prevalence of it though?

That’s not what you’re doing though, is it?

And if you were it would be a no brainer aibu. Names come in and out of fashion. No shit Sherlock.

You are on some level suggesting that people have less ‘rights’ to these names because they’re not on Guy Pelly’s guest list. Or that they’re making out that they are Pelly associates by using these names. I suspect more the second.

But that’s bullshit isn’t it? Just because you are reading their choices through the class lens doesn’t mean that they are. The signifiers of these names will be very different depending on who you’re talking to. I repeat, no one has more rights to the name Jasper than anyone else.

It just seems an odd thing to be invested in (and starting a thread on MN clearly signals investment).

At DD's school there were children called Conrad, Cosmo, Perdita, Jacinta and Mallory. To be honest I dislike those style of names where they could equally as easily apply to your dog or your yacht.

@LaurieMarlow

"It just seems an odd thing to be invested in (and starting a thread on MN clearly signals investment)."

Bloody hell, really?

Once again, the take-the-low-road fallacy of "you caaaare too much!" used by folk who have run out of relevant ripostes to an OP.

Pissing myself at Jacinta as a posh name. Here in Ireland it is very working class catholic and quite prevalent within a certain vintage.

The names you mention in your OP aren't particularly posh at all. I work in a normal state primary school and come across those names often. YABU.

It's interesting. I have a Jasper. We loved the name and he's actually named after the area in Canada. Strangely it is aspirational, in a way, as we were headed there before we had our lovely surprise so had to put our trip on hold. (Aspirational to improve our lives but not in a material way I guess.)

I actually do think it sounds a bit posh ( I originally wanted a Sam but my sister had a Sam 6 weeks before.) But we love it, it does suit him. We wouldn't chose a name we thought of as "common" but I think that's more to fit in with the community we already belong to.

Once again, the take-the-low-road fallacy of "you caaaare too much!" used by folk who have run out of relevant ripostes to an OP.

Oh there have been plenty of ripostes. Haven’t you been reading them?

So answer me this. Why would you care what the Audi driving project managers are trying to do with their name choices?

@absopugginglutely

I didn't say they weren't used with increasing frequency or that you wouldn't hear them at your school. That's exactly my point, that you would and will.

YABU.

Oh and Jasper is also the nickname for a wasp in the West Country, said with a thick West Country accent.

Lauriemarlowe where have I said that I think Jacinta is a posh name? I was just stating I didn't like that style of name.

Slightly off point, but I have always felt Isobel should be a technical term, used by cartographers, to refer to lines on a map which connect places of equal prettiness.

@LaurieMarlow

I "care" in the same way that people have been discussing Boden or god knows what for the last decade and more on this website.

It's just a topic with some interest to me. Sounds like a couple of economists thought the same thing also, I'll have to get round to reading Freakonomics.

My point being that I can find something comment worthy without being some sort of zealot or being "invested".

YABU.

When I lived in a particular part of north London, there were 4 Raphaels in DD's nursery class because it clearly fitted in with the parents' community or something g they'd all read or admired. It certainly wasn't planned judging from the wasp eating face of one of the dads on the settling in day.

where have I said that I think Jacinta is a posh name? I was just stating I didn't like that style of name.

It’s been mentioned a few times on the thread, that wasnt particularly directed at you.

And the comment is more about how different the signifiers of a name can be to different people. Im not saying anyone is ‘wrong’.

@kingsassassin

Good anecdote.

I can imagine the faces of some parents when they wince upon inviting the entire class of reception to a party, that there are multiple Oscar, Hugo and Theo etc

High court judges I know: Anthony, Michael, Jeremy, Tim, David, Alison, Philippa. There will be Karims, Ravis, Sunithas in a decade or two but I doubt there will be any Jaydens or Evie-Maes just as there are no Garys or Sharons now.

Having said that I do think Tracey is a very pretty name and may come back. My DC think Joan is a lovely name - everyone I knew at school had an auntie Joan.

Hahahahaha

We have a brand new ‘Ollie’ in the family and we’ve always been poor af, council houses all round, never any inheritance to leave etc.

Are my family the type you mean OP?

It's just a topic with some interest to me.

Hmm. With some judgemental undertones it must be said.

Teeth chattering, failing to use the ‘proper’ Harold (I enjoyed that ), faux braying.

These are just regular people, choosing very standard names. Why be so snide about them?

Serious? A name is a name. I don't think there's anything aspirational about any of those names, they're popular and fashionable. In 10/15 years it's highly likely that those names will be as popular as Gary is right now...

I disagree. Arabella is not the natural choice for Chelsee and kevyn's latest sprog, is it?

@GinDaddy Golly gosh, Oxbridge AND financial services? Wow. I’d have thought that perhaps you’d have more to ponder upon than what other people, with whom you are not acquainted, choose to name their babies.

I am enjoying your attempts to inject unnecessarily pretentious patter into some of your posts.

I'm guessing that all the defensive comments are from people that have used those names.

This country is class obsessed and those names have become polular with the aspiring middle class.

Personally prefer names that are individual, personal and times less, not fashion names.

My kids are all named after characters from books dh and I love.

Some people on this thread are really upset at this thread!
Maybe they’re all aspirational middle classers. Who send their children to mediocre public schools and aim for little Oliver to be a chartered surveyor

Arabella is not the natural choice for Chelsee and kevyn's latest sprog, is it?

Chelsee and Kevyn have a right to use any name they want. Who gets to decide what’s ‘natural’?

@Winterwoollies

Maybe that's just how I speak.