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?

Well I don't know, you've confused me now 😅 I understood the out there names, but then apparently Albert is too, which I thought was as bog standard as you can get..I feel the acceptable name pool is becoming rather slim 😂

Besides in a few years a deemed acceptable name will become a problem...like Karen 😅

Besides some old names are often used after grandparents or past loved ones, so I don't judge as you don't know the meaning..although a K8 I would quietly cringe.

I don't like made up names , Shanizeee or chanella types .
I also think people do have unconscious or conscious bias against' class' names .

Years ago I used to work in banking and people were chosen for interview based on the demographic of the branch so
Toby-Jax or Chelsea-Rai would not been called for interview for Kensington or Chelsea but would have been for Holloway Road or Hackney against Amelia or James who would be assumed to be middle class and well spoken so ideal for well healed areas . In some roles and branches it mattered .

This isn't a new trend, infact Jane Austen used similar in her novel Pride and Prejudice. Fitzwilliam D'Arcy was named after his mother's maiden name, hence why his cousin was colonel Fitzwilliam.
As someone who has worked in education for over 20 years I can say that names become irrelevant in the way that if you meet a truly delightful child named Lucifer then the name becomes more connected to nice things but a bloody terror called Elizabeth will put you off the name for life!

I love the baby names threads! Some of the best on here for sheer batshittery, lol.

I think popularity of names is very area dependent. Our son has a name which was very popular amongst people of my age, and is supposedly one of the continually most popular boys names of the last 100 years. I think it's still top 20 or so now apparently. We didn't pick it because it was normal or popular, it was literally the only boy's name we both liked! We had many more girl's names on the list.

I'm yet to meet another child his age with the same name. However there are two boys called 'Otis' in his room at nursery. We live in a fairly trendy area so maybe that is why?

Also I think the old fashioned names coming back makes perfect sense because people like to use family names of their grand parents? If ours was a girl she would of had my husband's grandmother's name. Unfortunately my husband wouldn't accept my grandfather's name 'Cecil' as even a middle name for our son. Said it was too silly.

I agree with you, I met a Peregrine at a baby group in a rough area once, I did raise my eyebrows quite a lot. People need to remember they’re naming a human who will be an adult not just a cutesy baby, and not a pet! I am admittedly quite fussy about baby names.

My DD is in a 2 form entry school and I mentioned to another mum that it was funny that most of the kids in one class had what I would consider ‘normal’ classic type names and most of the kids in the other had more ‘modern’ names and apparently I wasn’t the first to notice this and it happened every year, the thought was that one of the reception teachers had worked there for years and picked the kids she wanted in her class by the names.

Yes, people should stop thinking about themselves or their children as individuals and consider how they best fit into the machine.
Working class parents certainly aren't going to encourage their children to be sufficiently humble and lacking in scope with names like Horatio are they? How ridiculous.
Blend in and stay within your parameters I say. There's no need to go beyond the top ten names when your son's clearly only going to be a bottom feeder.
Eh OP?

Otis will most likely have got into peoples heads from the Netflix show, Sex Education. Otis and Maeve (lead characters) shot up the baby name charts shortly after the TV show became popular.

Similar with names like Arya and Khaleesi about ten years ago. And Harper after Harper Seven Beckham was born.

I knew a child called Blue in the 70s. She had a sister called Chelsea.

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.

Normal is relative. I wouldn’t want to work with someone with this thought process because they likely will dismiss names they haven’t heard before that are of different cultures, heritages, and ethnic backgrounds.

They also sound like the people who will make excuses for bullying, teaching their children to bully through their own actions because someone dared name their child something they don’t agree with.

Yes, people have their opinions about names and can judge them but what they do with that judgement speaks volumes about them as a person.

I know plenty of successful people with names that aren’t considered normal. No one should have to choose a “normal” name to appease people who can’t get past their own bias and judgements.

Probably the same people who get annoyed when baby girls are given “masculine” names yet one of the reasons for that is because some parents are doing the same thing as them when it comes to jobs, hoping that a “male” name will have recruiters hire them because they will assume it is a man, not a woman.

@phoenixrosehere
spot on

Some parents dont seem to grasp that the child gets stuck with the name for life, rather than the few moments after they thought it was a good/clever idea.

Sparatcus - cant imagine the bullying/ridicule the child might get subjected to in later life.

I agree, I have just given birth and when I was looking on the Baby Names section of this site most of the names sounded ridiculous to me, I have given my girl a traditional name and I'm glad I have. But it made me feel like she'd be the odd one out at school

But you would defend it if your name really is Phoenix Rose ? Other people will see things differently and think conventional names will help a child in life .

Yes good point about 'Sex Education' I hadn't considered that reference. I was thinking maybe they were naming them after the 90s CBBC presenter 'Otis the Aardvark'.

'Traditional names' are often only traditional if you are white British. Many POC choose names that white people from non diverse areas are unfamiliar with. A couple of the names that have been scoffed at as WC people trying to be unique are the same or very close to the names of WOC I work with. Its a good job our HR screening process doesn't involve making judgement based on names. And while people seem to think its acceptable to be classist they might also want to remember that by sneering at names they've never heard of, they may also be being racist.

What makes a name traditional? India and Willow have been in use since the late 19th century in England; gaining greater popularity again in the late 20th century.

So Autumn, Savannah, Isla and Lena?

100% thanks

"Normal" urgh

Not monarchs and consorts, but still part of the royal family

Could you give some examples?

What's wrong with Horatio? It was the name of a famous sea Captain. In and out of fashion ever since.

Big difference between made up names or names from TV fantasy series and historical or Biblical names. Lots of Christians go for unusual names for religious reasons (Jonah, Noah, Gabrielle etc).

I feel sorry for kids with 'nature' names like Storm, Wolf, Bear, Bracken. I think of these as names for dogs/cats.

Game of Thrones has a lot to answer for with hilarious baby names (Daenerys, Tyrion etc). And the Witcher series/games resulted in some interesting ones (like Yennefer!) 🤣

And what has it being in a "rough" area got to do with it.