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Original poster

To think this is cruel from the parents? Child's name

251 replies

BePoliteOpalQuail · 08/04/2025 07:45

Recently been teaching in secondary schools and met a kid with the exact same name as a very well-known and and iconic male celebrity, along the lines of Brad Pitt, Harry Styles, Zac Efron.

I imagine the kid gets a lot of stick. A little divided by it, it's cool but the kid will forever be getting comments on it and I just don't think it's fair on them.

OP posts:
MrsMoastyToasty · 08/04/2025 08:04

I know a Kenneth (known as Kenny) Dalglish. He is younger than the footballer. I think it's worse for men because they don't tend to change their name through the course of their lifetime.
Not a celeb name but I also went to primary school with a Christopher Massey. He was known as Christmassy to pupils and staff. Poor lad.

IridescentRainbow · 08/04/2025 08:05

Naming your child the same name as a celebrity isn’t as bad as the very normal name of a man I knew… Michael Hunt.

SnoozingFox · 08/04/2025 08:05

I remember years ago people feeling sorry for children whose parents called them Elvis. So this isn't a new phenomenon at all.

Similarly all the girls born late 80s who were called Kylie. But it's not just calling a child Kylie or Elvis. It's specifically choosing the name Kylie when your surname is Minogue, or Elvis when it's Presley.

That is stupid/cruel. Of all the hundreds of thousands of given names you can choose to go with Presley, you choose Elvis - that is lumbering your child with a name which guarantees raised eyebrows for the rest of their life, or at least until they are old enough to change it for something like Adam or John.

ItsUpToYou · 08/04/2025 08:05

Is it Tony Blair? A lot of Kosovan Albanians named their children variations of Tony Blair (Toniblair, Tonibler, Toni Blair, etc.) in the late 90s and 00s because of his role in the Kosovan War. I didn’t know anything about it until I suddenly started teaching lots of Tonys, Tonis and Toniblers in the early 2010s!

Teanbiscuits33 · 08/04/2025 08:07

MrsMoastyToasty · 08/04/2025 08:04

I know a Kenneth (known as Kenny) Dalglish. He is younger than the footballer. I think it's worse for men because they don't tend to change their name through the course of their lifetime.
Not a celeb name but I also went to primary school with a Christopher Massey. He was known as Christmassy to pupils and staff. Poor lad.

If my name was Christopher Massey I’d actually think it was brilliant if people called me Christmassy! But that’s just my personal humour 🤣

TaggieO · 08/04/2025 08:08

That really depends on the name.

Potter is a pretty common surname, and Harry is a pretty common first name. There are an awful lot of Harry Potters out there.

Brad is really not and nor is Pitt.

wordywitch · 08/04/2025 08:08

Not quite the same but a friend of mine named her baby the exact same name (first and last) as a character on a TV show that was very popular at the time, but because she didn’t watch it had no idea. The character was in prison as well. She was mortified.

RustyBear · 08/04/2025 08:13

DD’s name (until she got married) was the same that used by a fairly notorious stripper/model/actress/TV personality, who became famous long after DD was born. She did get some stupid comments when that person was at the height of their fame, and I think it was one of the reasons she double-barrelled her name when she married. But she did say that one advantage was that it made her pretty much invisible on Google!

JackJarvisEsq · 08/04/2025 08:16

wordywitch · 08/04/2025 08:08

Not quite the same but a friend of mine named her baby the exact same name (first and last) as a character on a TV show that was very popular at the time, but because she didn’t watch it had no idea. The character was in prison as well. She was mortified.

Deirdre Rashid?

Tainiz · 08/04/2025 08:18

I used to know a guy called Russell Hobbs.

ThreePointOneFourOneFiveNine · 08/04/2025 08:23

I think it can be quite cruel. A child will have that name for a lifetime, and be hearing the same comments for a lifetime. Why would you deliberately do that to them?

DefyingGravidy · 08/04/2025 08:23

It depends. If the family name is Michael, passed down by generations, and the surname is Jackson, then it might be a bit annoying for the child but understandable.

Also remember that lots of people have different levels of interest in the world of celebrities and the parents may not have heard of this person. Or this person may not have been as famous when the child was born, or they assumed the person wouldn’t be famous for long.

Or maybe they thought they were being funny (which is indeed a bit cruel).

But really the cruel ones are the people who take the mickey out of a person for their name.

TheCurious0range · 08/04/2025 08:24

JackJarvisEsq · 08/04/2025 07:49

Could be worse; I know someone who shares a name with a murderer

Me too and he was born after the murderer was known about

Sameoldsameoldsame · 08/04/2025 08:26

SomeonesSomething · 08/04/2025 07:50

I'd imagine by the 'exact same name' the OP is referring to their last name too.

Show quote history

This is how I read it too. Imagine a kid bring called Harry styles, poor kid.

MayaPinion · 08/04/2025 08:31

I used to work with a Bradley Cooper, and I once taught a Tom Jones!

NeutralBee · 08/04/2025 08:33

I went to school with a Michael Jackson, born in 1992 so MJ would have already been famous when his parents chose that name. I agree its cruel

BeMintFatball · 08/04/2025 08:36

One of my kids was at school with a Pierce Morgan

backinthebox · 08/04/2025 08:37

I know people with at least 6 of the names mentioned here already! (Wood, Hunt, Massey, Bond, Kerr and Jackson, with their matching first names.) I work with a lot of people with names the same as famous people (eg Steve Martin) and know a lady whose married name is Theresa Green. Names are funny things.

HuffleMyPuffle · 08/04/2025 08:37

SnoozingFox · 08/04/2025 08:05

I remember years ago people feeling sorry for children whose parents called them Elvis. So this isn't a new phenomenon at all.

Similarly all the girls born late 80s who were called Kylie. But it's not just calling a child Kylie or Elvis. It's specifically choosing the name Kylie when your surname is Minogue, or Elvis when it's Presley.

That is stupid/cruel. Of all the hundreds of thousands of given names you can choose to go with Presley, you choose Elvis - that is lumbering your child with a name which guarantees raised eyebrows for the rest of their life, or at least until they are old enough to change it for something like Adam or John.

Kylie and Elvis are both names that on their own conjure up a celebrity. It doesn't need the same last name in those cases

viques · 08/04/2025 08:39

I used to teach Elvis.

No, not that one, another one.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 08/04/2025 08:40

jewelcase · 08/04/2025 07:53

I know a couple of people who have the same name as extremely, globally recognised fictional characters. They had normal names before those characters became famous. I do feel sorry for them.

If parents knowingly give a child a name associated with a celebrity, I am both mystified and sympathetic. But I guess some think it’s cool or have other reasons.

One couple I vaguely know accidentally did this. They names their child after a famous poet (there aren’t many of those so this person really is well known) and didn’t even realise. Poor kid gonna spend his whole life intruding himself and having people go ‘Oh, like the poet?’

Not Alfred, Lord Tennyson I hope!

Lovelysausagedogscrumpy · 08/04/2025 08:42

Pigeonqueen · 08/04/2025 07:57

I think if it’s a proper name then it’s fine. Better than something weird like Hot Cross Bun or something 😂 in the future a lot of people won’t remember a lot of the famous people around now.

This being MN I’m fairly confident that someone will be along shortly to tell you they know a ‘Hot Cross Bun Smith’ !!

HuffleMyPuffle · 08/04/2025 08:43

I know a couple with "alcohol brand" names. Think James Sons.

I also know at least 4 people who's given first name is not the name they go by but they go by their middle name so don't think it's that uncommon

sosays · 08/04/2025 08:43

BePoliteOpalQuail · 08/04/2025 07:52

Of course it's the full name. There are many Zacs and Harrys out there, but they also had the same surname, Efron, Styles.

The fact you had to explain this… 😂

Brefugee · 08/04/2025 08:44

BePoliteOpalQuail · 08/04/2025 07:48

I met another kid with the name of a much older actor, think Sean Connery, Jack Nicholson.. but i think they're too old for most kids to recognise.

Do you mean the kid is called (think) Brad Pitt Smith?

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