For thinking baby names are getting silly

[bulbarsaurus]

Hi everyone,

Recently read through a thread with OP who wanted to name her child something completely ridiculous.

I have noticed a lot of threads with the same comments of very odd baby names, think things Like Spartacus or Amicablalette. For some reason this now seems to be the norm.

It seems like people are now either trying to make their normal child sound like a WW2 veteran by naming them Albert or Rodney or the lord or lady of the manner with names like Tarquin or Agatha.

Is it just me or do some of these names not look ridiculous. I know a child at a local nursery with working class parents called Horatio.

I can't imagine naming my children anything other than something normal so that when they finally go for a job interview their names appear professional and easy to read/pronounce.

Are there a list of normal Girls/Boys names you can give me! And does anyone else agree with me?!

AIBU?

I'm guessing Ned(dy), but Eeyore is much more fun.

It must depend where you live, my daughter's class have all of those names plus Harry, William, Amy and Emma.

Pretty normal names I think but when I was expecting DD8 my in-laws wanted to to know we couldn't pick a nice "modern" name like Michelle or Lisa. All names of girls I went to school with 😆

So you chose a name which is 26th in the popularity rankings? 🧐

I know a child who has the middle name Spartacus! It suits him 😊

@EmBear91

But that's an incredibly common name...for boys mostly so not at all different

Girl donkeys are Jenny. Males are Jacks.

My grans was called Hugo however 😂

Hence Jackass.

For boys yes. For girls it’s rare.

yes it is - for a boy. For girls it’s not common at all. I think there was about 16 girls named it last year. We wouldn’t have chosen it for a boy. Regardless of my own child’s name though, why does someone care if someone else calls their kid Horatio? Not your circus, not your monkeys in my opinion.

Why did you give her a common boys’ name if you wanted to avoid there being others in the class with the same name though? Doesn’t it just mean she’s likely to be girl Teddy to boy Teddy A and boy Teddy B?

Omg why do you get grilled on mumsnet for a simple comment. We wanted a girls name that is not common. The name we chose is not a common girls name but it is a common boy name. We didn’t want to name her something like Isla or Olivia which is very popular. If she’s in a class with a male Teddy, she will still be easily to differentiate due to being a girl. There was 3 other Emily’s in my class at school & even the teacher would get us confused. This thread and my comment wasn’t even about my child. I was just saying that I like name that’s aren’t common. There’s a baby Darwin in our baby class. Would I choose it? No. But I don’t judge anyone for what they name their baby. We all have different taste (which was the only point I was trying to make).

It's completely thoughtless of the parents.

They're treating their child like a piece of property, a doll even. No care for how their comedy name will affect them through their life.

The type of people who give their children ridiculous names probably don't care as they assume, for example, that they'll never have a proper job, just like the parents.

Edit: I'm talking about the Horatio one.

At least 4 friends have registered their DC names using the full version of their name- Charles for Charlie etc just in case they need to use their proper name later in life.

There was a lad in my class who was born and registered with the name Chris, not Christopher. Yet school insisted on him being called Christopher which annoyed both him and his DM.

This was also the experience of my best friend Jess who was "just Jess, not Jessica". Teachers could be very rude to her.

What if the employer has a 'silly' name themselves? They might be biased against someone as old fashioned and posh as Jonathan.

I've heard a lot about this 100 year cycle thing.
Was there a trend for Gladys Olive and Ethel type names in 1824?

Jonathan is a posh name??

On MN, people are a bit disingenuous, claiming that they NEVER form an opinion on someone based on their name

Or some of us wouldn’t know to because we are used to a variety of different names whether through growing up or simply reading books and it doesn’t occur to judge strangers based on a name that they didn’t choose and was given to them for reasons unknown to us.

If you’re happy to judge a stranger by their given name, that’s your prerogative, but it isn’t disingenuous not to do so because you , yourself have chosen to for whatever your reasons are.

'Same goes for people who bang on about "The Prime Minster Test". Show me someone capable of becoming Prime Minister that would let a name stop them, they would simply change it if necessary. People need to get a grip'

Quite- and to be a bit flippant, if you can get to be Prime Minister with the name 'Alexander Boris dePfeffel', and not even stick with the Alexander part, you can be Prime Minister with any name! Incidentally, his current successor as MP for Uxbridge is called 'Danny Boy Beale' and that hasn't stopped him from becoming an MP..

Keir isn't exactly a common name.

The thing is, by the time Okayden has a job, his peers will be called Tilly-Boo or whatever you deem a silly name. They will have grown up with less traditional names so it won't affect their job prospects.

Edit:

Oops sorry! Meant to respond to the person you responded too ❤️

You never know- quite possibly in a decade or two. I would have thought of Mabel as a grandmother-ish name that would never come back, but I've met a couple of small children called Mabel.. And slightly earlier, Amelia, Ruby, Lily, Archie, Arthur.

The only ones that wouldn't are those that have acquired negative associations with historical figures (Adolph/ Adolf) or with 'rude' or sexualized terms (Fanny, Dick).And even the latter can be culture-specific; e.g. British parents would not call their child 'Randy' but it's far from unknown in America.

I'd stick to if it's in the Bible or in Shakespeare or Royal Family. Classy timeless acceptable

Ah yes, Coriolanus, Dogberry and Bottom. So classy 😅

Spelling of Oskar just to be different condemns him to a life time of his name being misspelt !