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?

@OhWellThatsJustGreat

I couldn't drown myself in your depth of analysis if I tried.

Next week: "there's always been traffic, it's always been this way".

Both great grandfathers were Harry, and working class from South London.

You sir are talking nonesense!

Amelia, Isabelle, Oliver, Harry etc have been in the top 10 baby names list for years. I don’t think they’re names particularly linked to a class, they’re just popular names at the moment. I don’t see them at all aspirational - most high status celebs either give their kids very traditional names (Eg: Charlotte, George) or very unusual names (Eg: Blue, North).

There's no question for me that Katherine/Georgina were also considered solidly middle class names back then.

By you. I knew plenty of working class little Katherine's (Kate/Katie) and Georgina (Georgie) and I'm fifty one.

What do you classify as a working class name then?

Names go in and out of fashion is all.

I'm seeing a lot of little girls with what I consider 'granny' names lately (Mabel, Eileen, Grace, Milly etc) for example. The names have just come back into fashion, possibly related to people choosing family names. My own grandmother was an Isobel to take one from your list, OP, albeit with a different spelling. It's a really standard working class name to me.

I know nothing about pop culture but im aware of harry styles and ollie muirs (sp?)

Probably contributing to their popularity.

Im Sure there are more celebs/tv characters with other names you mentioned

This is the most naval gazingly LMC thread I've seen in at least a week.

My mother moved to the UK from a slum in a European country when she was 14. She lost all traces of her accent as soon as possible.
When she had my sister and I in the early 60 s she gave us both names associated with aristocracy.
This is not a new phenomenon.

even if you were right, what is so wrong with being 'aspriational' and giving your child a name which you hope will take them anywhere in life?, my dgs has a name that will suit him if he becomes a high court judge, shorten it and he can fit in well at a commune in the welsh hillsides while eating his hand sown crops. he is only 4 so we will see

btw, by your standards we must be a right load of braying waitrose shoppers, as a family we have 5 of the names you have listed

I actually don’t disagree with you. It’s a bit like how people I know who struggle to make ends meet and borrow money from their parents shop at Waitrose because that’s somehow important to them 🙄 or people on limited incomes leasing cars they simply can not afford. People seem to want to be what they aspire to, even if they cannot afford it and don’t seem to realise everyone else can see through that. I think the “posh” name thing is a symptom of the disease, personally.

I have a few friends who specifically chose names because they are “different” rather than just names that they like. It’s ridiculous.

Better than calling a child Jackdaniels which has happened

Yes! and a boy called Bailey because it was his mother's favourite drink.

Most high status celebs are so powerful that baby names are the last thing they need to help their DCs get on in life. So I don't expect them to use those names.

I do however expect certain folk to gravitate towards the names I mentioned, simply because like German SUVs and F&B painted furniture, it's all aspirational etc

Because few want a name for their DC that is going to be looked down on as "chavvy" in the future.

I merely think most of the names you listed are popular at present. I don't think they are a barometer of class.

I do think however, some names can be a lower class cliché- ie 'ayden' ending names or girls' names ending -Mae.

@thebabessavedme

Nothing of what you posted surprises me.

what is so wrong with being 'aspriational' and giving your child a name which you hope will take them anywhere in life

Good question, what is your issue with it op?

Are you of the opinion working class people shouldn't be aspirational? They should know their place and make sure the kids do by naming them with good solid working class names, whatever they may be in your opinion?

You what?? My eldest is almost 14, she has /has had peers with pretty much all of those names.

Oliver was 4th and Amelia 16th, so hardly some kind of modern invention.

@GinDaddy I pointed out that trends happen and name popularity tends to be a cycle.

It's a fact, not an analysis, but you know, only takes 2 inches to drown.

I’m lol at the Harold thing too. Harry hasn’t been short for Harold since the unfortunate arrow incident. Henry. Henry, darling. The diminutives point is more of a trend in and of itself though - Charlie etc.
Now I want to dig out freakonomics again. Burberry today?

So we tried to choose names that are aspirational and that we liked. We seem to have got it spot on with 1 name and not with the other.

You're a right goady fucker, OP.

What is wrong with being aspirational anyway? Surely that is a good rather than bad trait.

The "proper" name for Harry would be Henry like Prince Henry known as Harry. Amelia was in the top 3 list 20 years ago so if you didnt know any 15 years ago I think you have just been rather "lucky"

mlMost of the names you have added here I would view bog standard common names with no particular class associations. Had you gone in with Horatio, Calista, Rocky or Cordelia I would have perhaps felt you had a point.

I just think those names are having a "moment", I don't think Wayne and Waynetta seriously think little Arabella's working-class origins will become imperceptible because of her first name.