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?

Most of the names you mentioned aren’t posh at all. In fact, some are quite the opposite.

I think it’s more the pretentious tone of the replies the OP has posted that is getting people’s backs up

I agree

Just for fun I googled top ten babies names in the uk for 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007, (then I got bored and stopped). Oliver was in the top ten for every one of those years. So all of those Oliver’s are between 13 and 19 now. Oliver has been popular for years as has Harry and many of the other names on your list. Must be a lot of aspirational parents out there.

Not bothering to read all replies, but surely a name can't "change" your class?!

If you're from a "working class" council estate calling your daughter Violet isn't going to open the doors for you to live in a luxury bungalow "with room for a pony".

So to answer your question: Yes. You are being unreasonable to think this class-obsessed country uses children's names to change their's.

Missing the point somewhat, but isn't Harry commonly a derivative of Henry? And since when has it been a middle class name? Isn't the cliche 'any Tom, Dick or Harry'?

Yes, Harry is a diminutive of Henry or Harold. I'm 70 and had an Uncle Harry (Henry) and my dad's middle name was Henry. No one of my generation would have called their son Henry :-) (or Arthur or Walter), far too old fashioned.

I don't think YABU for noticing that people choose their children names in some cases with aspiration or to fit in with a certain idea of class but YABU to be wound up by it. Some names cross class boundaries Ivy, Ava etc which were quite old fashioned middle class at one point now commonplace. To be honest being British you literally can't help signifying class so a baby name is just one more thing! Only an issue if the child will be bullied for it e.g a Hugo on a council estate may have a tough ride I'd imagine.

"Fucking names."
Why the 'f***g'? I suppose 'Randy' could be considered so.....maybe Cora.

No one of my generation would have called their son Henry :-) (or Arthur or Walter), far too old fashioned.

True, but then fashions run in a cycle, don't they? Hence the current trend for baby Marthas and Ediths. Saying that, I do think Henry has been ruined by the hoover.

Beaniebeemer Sun 26-Jan-20 19:12:22
You never get a working class Rupert
.....
I don't know about that but I like the name, one of my ex colleagues had a son called Rupert (Rupe), he was smashing. My first thought on hearing the name is 'Rupert the bear', but that's showing my age.

CecilyP Sun 26-Jan-20 18:30:40
Names like Theo were always common

Don’t know about names like but Theo has only become common fairly recently.
......
Depends what you mean by 'fairly recently', certainly twenty or more years ago it was popular. Shortened version of Theodore or Theophilus. I really like the name.

meh!, i think kevin (aka gin daddy) has fucked off to put Allegra and Rupert to bed before starting his next OU paper! [grin[

This post has nothing to do with names and who has the right to a "posh" or "chavy" name, however you see it. Just been on the news it is the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz tomorrow so surely the vast majority of decent human beings don't give a monkeys what name is given to a child be it born into poverty or royalty. God help us all if we are now 19 pages into MN arguing the toss over this ridiculous nonsense. And let the berating begin. You have no idea how much I do not care.

Boujis closed down some years ago now OP.

HTH.

Haha my daughter is Harriet. Simply I was convinced she was a boy and sat in shock so when the midwife asked her name the only one I could think of near to Harry. My son Oliver is named after my childhood Teddy bear. My younger two are Lucy she was early and tiny so little Lucy and my last is Aimee which is af a French relative, We are a French family with my dad from the Caribbean (I was born in the UK.) so we have a few biblical names like Theodore and Nathaniel and a Gabriel. I don't watch "reality shite" TV.. I think people are searching for more old fashioned names, I know a baby Betty, a maud, baby Ethel and an Aubrey. I don't consider myself any class or anything except fabulous 🤩🥰 😂😂

GinDaddy Sun 26-Jan-20 15:11:05
@Bluntness100

I've seen head tilting in the real world. Sorry to disabuse you.
....
I wish you'd describe it to me. I probably have seen it - blimey, might even have done it! - but not noticed or realised the significance.

As for names, I favour ordinary ones: Jonathan, David, Mark, Nicholas, Jeremy - Sarah, Charlotte, Jane, Claire, Louise. Plus many Hebrew names - Hannah & Rachel for example.

No child will grow up feeling embarrassed about having one of those names.

Are you Katie Hopkins OP? Dear oh dear. Mind you, I do have a rule myself about books, if the summary on the cover refers to characters named Cosmo or Serena for instance, it's not for me. I'm just not aspirational enough. And definitely, no Ruperts.

As an outsider this is so interesting to watch.

I agree - I’ve lived here many years but both the defensiveness of some on this thread and the dripping contempt for conscious aspiration from others is both fascinating and pretty amusing.

@Bluerussian Sarah is Hebrew too

It's an MN stereotype to say that certain baby names are unacceptable because they aren't the name that a future high court judge would have.

Posh names also cycle in popularity. To my ears posh names are on the lines of Lettice and St John. The Made in Chelsea cast often have very mainstream names like Louise, Mark and Sam so maybe there aren't that many posh names left?

I have a Harry (short for Harrison) btw Most Harry's I know are short for Henry which is also a popular name in it's own right.

^Don’t know about names like but Theo has only become common fairly recently.
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Depends what you mean by 'fairly recently', certainly twenty or more years ago it was popular. Shortened version of Theodore or Theophilus. I really like the name.^

I like it too but would consider the last 20 years fairly recent, certainly as compared to ‘always’.

You might not be able to believe people pick certain names for anything other than ‘a social signifier,’ I think perhaps that says more about you than them. Pretty old fashioned thinking!

Names go in cycles, and people choose names for a myriad of reasons. Your interest might be purely anthropological... But you just seem so disdainful of people stepping outside their box.

Maybe I and a number of other posters have little Theo’s and Oliver’s and are all offended and outraged. Or perhaps there is something unpleasant about the way you go about making your points. Who knows!

Queen we have great taste in names

Mine are called Oliver and Lucy.

Bloody hell, OP doesn’t want the poor folk getting ideas above their station, thinking their kids are worth anything at all.

OP it was always thus. Why are our prisons disproportionately filled with Wayne's and Lee's ?
(Getting ready to be flamed)