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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Friends awful baby name

737 replies

ThisIcyHare · 01/01/2025 16:26

My best friend is due to have a baby soon, they are having a girl and she has been talking baby names with me, which feels super special. She has got a few very lovely traditional girly names, and a couple of more unusual choices, but not ‘offensive’. They are names I would expect from her. However, she has one absolutely terrible name, that actually just feels very cruel. It would be bad even by American standards and ‘tragedeigh’ names. It’s not that I wouldn’t choose it, it’s just crazy stupid and the child will be ridiculed by peers and adults. Some of her choices are genuinely wonderful, but I’m so worried she will madly choose this one awful name, I can’t say anything can I?!

OP posts:
pomers · 03/01/2025 11:04

Chastity?

Grammarnut · 03/01/2025 11:16

ThatNavyGoose · 03/01/2025 03:50

I think virtue names are generally much less popular in Britain, to the point that I can remember reading in a magazine in the midwife’s waiting room that you should avoid virtue names like Hope, Honour, Grace, Faith, Joy etc incase your child turned out to be the complete opposite as an adult!

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And you spelled Honour correctly. It's true, they are not popular, except Faith turns up occasionally.

Grammarnut · 03/01/2025 11:20

FizzyBisto · 02/01/2025 23:52

All well and good until they start learning vocabulary for various foodstuffs in their French lessons - and the lad is henceforth forever known as Mushroom, or Mush for short!

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I'm guessing that's not Fun Guy?

HugoYorway · 03/01/2025 12:21

Grammarnut · 03/01/2025 11:16

And you spelled Honour correctly. It's true, they are not popular, except Faith turns up occasionally.

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I disagree. The origin of the word is from honos. The -our spelling of the name looks wrong.

ilovesushi · 03/01/2025 12:28

Sobriety, lucidity, insipidy, vomity, villainy?
Any of the above?

Catandsquirrel · 03/01/2025 12:37

Pukicity? Arsity? Undercookedeggicty?

OneZippyWasp · 03/01/2025 13:21

BucketBouquet · 01/01/2025 21:54

I have triplets called Independence, Discovery and Potential. Everyone tells me what beautiful names they are.

You have got to be joking!

Grammarnut · 03/01/2025 13:24

HugoYorway · 03/01/2025 12:21

I disagree. The origin of the word is from honos. The -our spelling of the name looks wrong.

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Pray disagree, in English the word is spelled 'honour'. It's origin is indeed 'honos' after the Roman god of that name. But I am not speaking Latin, I am speaking English, as originated in England, and we spell it as 'honour' - as the default version of English (not Latin) that is the correct spelling, USians can 'Americanize' it as they wish, they may not tell a native speaker of English that they are wrong. And 'honor', 'favor' etc look very wrong to a native English speaker here.

SemperIdem · 03/01/2025 13:40

Hello @Grammarnut, native English speaker here!

Honor is the correct spelling of the name in the UK. It does indeed differ from our accepted spelling of the word, honour.

DaringlyPurple · 03/01/2025 14:00

@Grammarnut Yes, my husband's grandmother was called Honor. She certainly wasn't American and that is the correct spelling of the name. As a native speaker of English I can certainly tell you that you are wrong.

RavenQueen · 03/01/2025 14:04

Grammarnut · 03/01/2025 13:24

Pray disagree, in English the word is spelled 'honour'. It's origin is indeed 'honos' after the Roman god of that name. But I am not speaking Latin, I am speaking English, as originated in England, and we spell it as 'honour' - as the default version of English (not Latin) that is the correct spelling, USians can 'Americanize' it as they wish, they may not tell a native speaker of English that they are wrong. And 'honor', 'favor' etc look very wrong to a native English speaker here.

Edited
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Well Honor Blackman was English and that is the spelling she used. She was born in 1925. Maybe people are just taking her spelling. And as far as I'm aware she didn't change her name either that was her original name.

Alconleigh · 03/01/2025 14:16

Someone better tell Honor Lisle it's an American name......

ohime · 03/01/2025 15:42

CurlyhairedAssassin · 01/01/2025 17:13

Do you know what? I've worked in schools for 15 years. I've seen every type of name. And while I may do an inner snigger the first time I see them on a register, you quickly come to accept the name as totally normal and you can't imagine them being called anything else. I quite like the extremely unusual names.

Erm. As someone with an odd name that also lends itself to hurtful puns I can attest that, whatever the staff's opinion, one's schoolmates - even well into the teen years - generally do not simply snigger the first time and then accept your name as totally normal; instead the torture pretty much continues until you graduate and get the hell away from there. Thanks, mum, for the gift that kept on giving.

Rosscameasdoody · 03/01/2025 15:57

ilovesushi · 03/01/2025 12:28

Sobriety, lucidity, insipidy, vomity, villainy?
Any of the above?

I especially like Vomity !!

Grammarnut · 03/01/2025 15:58

HugoYorway · 03/01/2025 10:34

The name is Honor. The word is honour.

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Afaik you can spell the name either way. The problem seems to be Americans of the United States objecting to the English spelling of the virtue. For example, pointing out the virtue comes from the name of the Roman god Honos, so the word is spelled honor (only by Mr Webster afaik).

Bugaloo77 · 03/01/2025 16:31

We told everyone we were going to call our son Genghis and not one person told us it was bad 😂😂 Could she be using you on?

HugoYorway · 03/01/2025 16:34

Spell it however you like @Grammarnut , you've put me off the name for life. I'd never use it now.

Minc · 03/01/2025 16:37

Chastity is a lovely name — can shorten to:
Chas
or
Titty

HugoYorway · 03/01/2025 16:41

or Chitty. It's so important to have a name with options.

fairytailcat · 03/01/2025 16:47

Is it Rectitude?

Rectitude Rose!

I like it 😆

daleylama · 03/01/2025 16:49

HugoYorway · 03/01/2025 12:21

I disagree. The origin of the word is from honos. The -our spelling of the name looks wrong.

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You could look it up of course. It's correct in English. America and Australia drop the 'u'

FizzyBisto · 03/01/2025 16:55

Bugaloo77 · 03/01/2025 16:31

We told everyone we were going to call our son Genghis and not one person told us it was bad 😂😂 Could she be using you on?

I'm sure there was a MN thread some time ago where OP had family members expecting a baby whom they were determined to call Genghis. That wasn't you, was it?!

HugoYorway · 03/01/2025 16:58

@daleylama , in the word, not the name. Anyway, I'm bored to bits with the discussion about the name now.
Honor (given name) - Wikipedia

I guess you could spell it Onna.

Whoooaaa · 03/01/2025 17:04

Oh Christ I'm out of here. I could be here till fucking doomsday! OP it's a name for a kid who is not yours so why stress. Let her call the kid what she wants and if it gets bullied it's her problem 🤷‍♀️.

Bugaloo77 · 03/01/2025 17:05

FizzyBisto · 03/01/2025 16:55

I'm sure there was a MN thread some time ago where OP had family members expecting a baby whom they were determined to call Genghis. That wasn't you, was it?!

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😂😂😂 no that wasn’t me and we didn’t name him Genghis. My daughter told everyone she was going to call her baby Wolfgang, Wolfie for short and the amount of people that believed her was unreal 😂😂

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