traditional vs modern names

[TheLoyalWriter]

I am a fan of modern unisex names but DH likes more conventional names. We are expecting a baby girl. He wants to call her Charlotte Felicity as it sounds cute and means "free and happy" together. I love the meaning but seems a bit too traditional to me and too girly. His other options are Annette, Grace, and Jasmine, all of which are not my taste. Names I like would be like Riley or Lulu and I love the idea of a middle name like Hope and Peace but we have a one syllable surname so might not flow well.

Pearlie is fine as a nickname for Pearl, but as a name in itself it looks like Pear-lie, rather than Pearl-ie.

Respectfully, that’s something going on with you, I spent 25 years living in the UK as an adult with a name that is unfamiliar and unpronounceable to British people unless they hear it said, and it was never particularly bothersome, other than pronouncing it for people I met for the first time, or spelling it over the phone. It never prevented me ‘giving a confident first impression’, or made me flustered, and we gave our UK-born DS a name from our home culture, too. And we’re unexpectedly currently living in our home country again after many years.

People move around. Calling your child Emma or George is no guarantee they won’t be living on the other side of the world and pronouncing it for colleagues to whom it’s an unfamiliar cluster of sounds.

OP, you and DH just have to keep going until you find common ground between your different tastes. Write a list of everything you would consider from a baby name look or the naming stats for last year and get him to do the same.

Right

Some “unique” names are usually just names from another country, but as we’ve seen from other threads no one should get upset if someone can’t be bothered to say their name correctly and their parents should have given them an “easy” English name

I’d suggest they look at the list of Nobel Prize winners.

I am thinking of making Charlotte Charlutte

Urgh that's just spelling it wrong. Don't do that.

... i don't know where to start 🙈

Give her two middle names then.

What I would say is that you need to avoid turning the initials into a word. I went to school with someone whose initials were B.R.A.😂

What's the saying...a name is a gift to your child for life, choose wisely with the reciever in mind. Tempting as it can be to indulge your own desire to be creative or go with the trends around 'gender neutrality' once given it will be your DDs name not yours. Do you think there is more chance a woman would want the choice of Charlotte/Charlie/lottie, or be called Riley or LuLu?

One day Pearlie won't be two years old anymore, she'll be a teenager with mean classmates or an adult trying to get a serious job, and she really won't thank you.

Lulu is a nickname not something you put on a birth certificate

Can you imagine a prime minister called Pearlie? It just sounds silly.

Trying to make names "unique" usually just means poor spellings or made up derivations that result in a child getting laughed at.

I know a couple of people who were given names like that and both rejected the names as teenagers & went by more typical variants.

Im not a fan of funky names.
I like names that are names.
I know 3 people that have changed there names due to what the parents called them and i dont blame them.

Pearlie is a cutesy name for a dog or a toddler. What about when she's 14 and doesn't want cutesy. What about when she's 40 and has a professional career and wants to be taken seriously?

Just call her Pearl if you want to nickname her Pearlie. Then she's got options. Or Charlotte nn Charlie or Lottie.

Unless your one syllable surname is White. Then for the love of god don't use Pearl or any derivative thereof.

I suggest a mental experiment of imagining your daughter as an adult living independently, and working in different job roles.

Pearlie the plumber
Pearlie the investment banker
Pearlie the cashier

Cute? I don’t think so.

Hard no on Charlutte, your daughter will spend an entire lifetime correcting people’s spelling.

someone once said to me that names need to work on a building site or in a boardroom and I think that also goes for “cute” names too. Your baby won’t be a baby forever and being called Pearlie or Lulu when she’s forty isn’t the same as when she’s little.

Lauren is a lovely name.

"What's wrong with Pearlie?" you ask...😨

Well to start with, the
'Pearlie' gates of heaven 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

And the rest...it's very twee, sounds like a name for a poodle, or a knitting stitch, and will not transition well beyond the age of about 3 (just imagine a stroppy, hormonal 14 year old trying to carry off a name like Pearlie!)

Your DH should definitely be left in charge of naming your child OP...and I've never said that before in all my 60 years on this planet!

I really think giving a longer version of a name gives them the ability to figure out what they want to be called.

All the Rebecca’s of my day were able to go back to Rebecca or Becky after the Becci/Beckii/Bekkiie phase (although I see a few poor gals holding on out of stubbornness I imagine).

I do think people are becoming less “traditional” with names though. No one bats an eyelid so much at toddlers with different to the usual James, Tom, Sarah’s. Soon there will be a whole generation of workers with different and unusual names

I also like Pearlie
Hope your surname isn't Gates
Lulu, Pearlie, Charlutte, seriously this is a future adult, not a forever cute wee toddler.
Pearlie is bloody awful.

Pearlie is cute but it’s really for a puppy or kitten op. I think there’s a reason Pearl went out of fashion and I don’t think it’s back for long, though I have heard of a few recently.

Charlotte is a lot more versatile. It can be short and cute if you go for Lottie or Lulu but she can also revert to something more grown up and “ take me seriously” if she applies for a demanding professional role etc . You have to think beyond the baby in the crib or the five year old in pigtails.

Given one of your first choices is Lulu I’d go for Charlotte and call her that for short.

Is the OP just trolling? Charlutte? Pearlie? FFS remember one day this child will be in their 30s/40s with a daft name that no-one will be able to say or spell without an inner smirk at the stupidity.

Oh my gosh I just realised Charlotte Felicity has the initials that spell Cheeky Fucker

No one outside MN is going to make that thought. I suspect you're trying to wind people against the name now.

Anyway, they don't have those initials, because they will also have a surname. So their initials will be CFN.
And most of the time my dc wouldn't bother with their middle name with initials so they'd be CN.

And it's still a nicer name.

Charlotte Felicity Hope. Lulu as a nickname. She then has lots of options and both your preferences are accommodated.

If you think Lulu short for Charlotte is a stretch, Lulu can also be short for Lucinda, Lucy, Lucia, Louisa, Eloise ... Please don't give Lulu as a formal name, it sounds like you couldn't be bothered.

Don't fuck with the spelling. I know a Sharlotte and it's been the bane of her life constantly correcting and explaining the spelling.

Riley is too blokey. Makes me think of a builder with his arse crack showing.

Pearlie is just silly. Unless perhaps you have true cockney heritage and want to pay homage to your Pearly King and Queen ancestors.

I'm not sure that would be top of most people's minds. I know a woman who's daughter is called Dee Dee. But as far as I'm aware no one makes MN references about it.

“I am thinking of making Charlotte Charlutte with the nickname Lulu? I also like Charlotte Hope but he is pretty set on Felicity.”

Don’t do that - your poor daughter will spend her life having to spell out her name (and it will make people think she has illiterate parents).

I prefer Kumberly