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?

My DC both have very "ordinary" names. One is kind of timeless but has got less popular since he was named, the other would have been considered old-fashioned once but has been very conventional in his lifetime. Not Peter and Jack, but names with the same sort of vibes.

I like several quite unusual names, but I think part of the reason I didn't choose to use any of them was that I always hoped to have two children, and if you choose one very unusual name you're kind of committing yourself to choosing another one, and what if you couldn't find a good combo? With more traditional names, they're never going to sound actively wrong together.

Can't move for Esme's and Arthur's where I live. Names aren't "getting silly" the old ones are just coming back into fashion.

I think you kind of made my point here, insisting that you wouldn't possibly make any snap judgement assumptions about people, based on their name. As I said, people on MN can be disingenuous about this

I totally accept that Jayden-Kayden could be hard working, talented and the better candidate. But, I still think the name could / would go against him in job applications for certain roles

Esmes and Arthurs. (Why do people apostrophise names?)

Esme’s and Arthur’s what?

In my child's school there was a girl called princess pixie 🙈

I also have an Agatha. Certainly not becoming lady of the manor, she’s 18 next year.
It’s the only name I liked.

My own name was extremely unpopular in the 1970s, I had loads of grief about it growing up, everyone else was called Sarah, Claire, Louise, Catherine, Joanne etc. Now it’s fairly popular again and no one would bat an eye at it - it’s like Emily.

Fashions come and go. DD went to a school of names hyphenated with Mae…which they’ve all ditched in secondary.

I do know people who specifically picked names thinking they would be rare and have turned out super popular- Jack and Arthur…you just can’t guess.

Associations between names and class tend to be so time-specific and culture-specific. I do remember that in the 90s, some people in England really looked down on the name 'Chelsea' and considered it lower-class; yet it was also the name of the American President's daughter, so obviously it wasn't regarded in that way in America. And, of course, 'Karen' right now has acquired certain negative associations, which it never had in the past and hopefully won't in the future.

I worked with a Hazel in the 1990s and we all thought it was such an unusual name then.

There used to be an elderly lady called Pixie near me, apparently it had been popular in the 1920s.

My daughter is Eris. She quite likes it when people assume her father and I made it up. She’s been known to console them on their lack of manners/knowledge of Greek mythology.

Good manners are more important to me than correct grammar.

Just have to get this out there…most recent baby name I have come across, yesterday, is Foury.

The number four is significant to the parents.

Then there is recently born, Stasi. Pronounced like the SS, yes. Apparently mother will “cut you” if you call baby “Stacy”.

All these people scoffing at names such as Stephen, Mark, Deborah, well I can tell you there was a time not so long ago where names such as Arthur, Nora, Reggie were thought of as exactly the same.
They were viewed with disdain and classed as names ‘which would never make a come back.’
Stephen, Mark and Deborah will all make a come back. That’s when the parents of Nora, Arthur and Reggie will be cringing!

Ethelred is due a comeback tbf

Mark and Stephen are 'past monarch' names anyway, come to think of it.

Interesting that Alma ( the battle of) is coming back.

Maybe we will start to see some other mid to late Victorian trends coming back after all. There was also a great trend for the more ahh... unusual Saxon names in the late 19th century, but probably very niche...or maybe not?

How about Cnut?

Isn't Pixie an old nickname for something totally unrelated like Eleanor?

chefs kiss

Not heard that one. Nellie/Nell is one of the diminutives for Eleanor. As in Nell Gwyne.

Lol!
Thinking about the more 'niche' names that could make a come back. Euphemia 14th century Scottish queen. Shortened to Effie, imortalised by Sir Walter Scott.
But perhaps ideal sister to Cnut!

We have a relative by martial and both her daughter and granddaughter have really odd names. The funny thing is that they're known by both standard nicknames. Think River- Glass and they're known as Val.

We’ve had an Asha (girl) and Asher (boy) in our circle for a long time. Everyone just calls them girl Asha and boy Asher to differentiate them. The same will happen to your Teddy.

Please confirm that you've told her that's obnoxious.

Remember working at a bank in Leeds in 2003/4 and one of the chav mum customers had a girl called Gemini. Gemini is 22/23 years old and probably got 3 kids by now