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?

Why project managers?

@Pulpfiction1 exactly this.

You know nothing of working class aspirations, my Dad raced whippets. He was fast as fuck.

Goodness GinDaddy, you are getting a lot of verbal abuse for your perfectly reasonable thread.
I agree with you.
But you've obviously hit a nerve with some posters.
I can't think why.
Perhaps they're regretting calling their children Chezni- Mayeeee or whatever 😁

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

My kids are named after characters in my favourite German Operas. I know that little Wotan and Sieglinde will go far.

@SharpieInThe

Ok.

Amelia, Oliver, Jasper and Oscar and Harry posh? Really? Common as muck round here!

Tristan and Isolde was my choice
Not sure why it didn’t go down well

I named my dog like this.

She's a right mongrel, but I hoped she'd pass for a pedigree with the name Polly.

Got her a Harris tweed collar and everything.

Yes, of course names have class connotations.

And the same name can have different connotations in different places, at different times.

And yes, England is a class-obsessed country.

@MrOnionsBumperRoller

Again, that's my point

• sigh

@StealthPolarBear, your dates are wrong. Sarah was 1950 and 60s mainly, and Susan 1940s and 1950s mainly.

The names could work for Sir James and Dame Susan or Jim and Sue from next door, and although Susan hasn't been used all that much in the past 50 years, it has been around for a long time.

Tracey was very much of its time and was inspired by a Grace Kelly film. Darcey was inspired by a ballerina/tv star.

The so-called aspirational names tend to be ones associated with a celebrity.

The Wagner jokes really aren't cutting it, folk.

I never said there aren't outlandish names. We all know some.

High court judges I know: Anthony, Michael, Jeremy, Tim, David, Alison, Philippa.

I think that must be peak mumsnet, knowing 7 high court judges.

I don't think I've ever met a high court judge now that I think about it (although I do know plenty of professional people, just no judges, high court or otherwise).

I named my dog like this.

She's a right mongrel

Dotto, his name is Theodore Albert. Gets called a whole array of nn around those names.

On the other hand my son received the only name that dh and I could agree on, literally no thought to social economics or class movement. It literally was exasperation from us both because everything we both said was met with no 😂

I think it's reasonable to want to give your child a name that they can take anywhere they want to in life, but I don't think the names you have suggested (or other currently popular names) are class signifiers. Just nice names.

OP I wonder if there is a generational difference between you and people currently having (and naming) children and perhaps that's why you see it so differently?

Perhaps they're regretting calling their children Chezni- Mayeeee or whatever

You consider that ‘aspirational naming’? LOL.

And disagreeing doesn’t mean ‘a nerve has been hit’ or that the OP is clever because they’re soooooo beyond social influences.

Dh's grandmama was born in a castle and he veto'd Ptolemy for dc1 (should I ltb?).

There are a brace of Ollie's at preschool with dc1 but they come from a range of backgrounds including non-British. I know a few Harry's (always short for Henry) and a Leo (family name) but I wouldn't necessarily associate with middle/upper class.

OP you'd probably think my children have "aspirational" or at least class signifying names. They are both named after family members. Dc1 after 3 of his Great Grandfathers and Dc2 after an adored Great Aunt of Dh's. Those 3 Great Grandfathers came from very different backgrounds, 1 upper class, 1 middle class and 1 definitely working class but they all had the same first name.

The new “working class” (if there is such a thing now) names seem to be a bit Yonique
But that’s how generations change.

@Dinosauratemydaffodils

I would BET my house. That you chose ancestors names that suited how you see yourself and your family. If your great uncle was called Kevin it might be a different story.

Ergo the argument stands, even if you think you’re NOT doing it.

Amelia, Oliver, Jasper and Oscar and Harry posh? Really? Common as muck round here!

I think that's the point. The names have gone the way of smoked salmon.

Maybe we get them a bit later in the north :) my school in the eighties was overrun with Sarahs

Why names become popular? My guess: someone famous has an unusual name, lots of people hear and like it, give it to their child, it becomes fashionable, and then drops out of fashion because it's now associated with a slightly older age group.

My friend's DC (in a rather posh area) about 20 years ago had friends called Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elijah. The parents were all utterly middle-class WASPs. Must have been a fashion.

With Victorian names, I often wonder why eg Alice and Amelia and Martha are back in style, but I never hear of a child called Edna or Agatha!

'High Court judges I know'

You do know this information is public, you can pull their names from the internet lol

I equally don't like SUVs, and will never personally own one.

OP methinks you are maybe just a little bit worthy.

Who cares if people are aspirational. Why not see it as a positive thing.