To be surprised by the names of the “posh kids” at DDs school

[marilee]

Hi all, my DD just started primary 1. The catchment area for her new school is super mixed with all the nicest houses in the town but also 2 council areas so a real mix. We live in a council flat, I can’t say I’ve rubbed shoulders with the more middle class half of the town and I grew up in a firmly working class area so this is the first time in my life I’m properly mixing with this group (I know that’s awful but it’s just how life has been for me so far).

I don’t know why but I was expecting all the posh kids to have more extravagant names but almost every single one of them is just a very basic name (James, Harry, Anna, Clara, Emily, Emma etc.). While the names I’d normally have associated as being more “posh” are actually the names of the kids from my area (Rafferty, Arabella, Florence, Theodore).

AIBU to be shocked by this? Is this normal or a little regional quirk?

Funny actually, I only know one Annabelle. Her mum is definitely a ‘desperate to be lady of the manor type’. I never thought anything of it before, but, yes! It’s true, at least in this instance. Bit cringe really.

I thought it was a disease carried by rabbits.

I think anyone who chooses a name for a child based on their preconceptions of what class its associated with is a fool.

Fashions change with the generations so a name which has some class associations in one era will feel radically different in the next. When I was in my teens the name Sharon was always thought to be the height of naff, nowadays its considered quite exotic and I have always thought its a really pretty name so I'd never have had any problem naming a child Sharon.

The only absolute fail-safe names if you're worried about class are the classic ones (John, James, Catherine, Emily), but your child could be stuck with a name they don't like because you wanted to keep up with the Jones's. Surely better to give a child a potentially odd name which has emotional significance to you and your family than to give them a vanilla name in order to avoid offending people who you consider your social "betters".

I any case, genuine classnessness comes from not really giving a shit about what people think and if you like a name and can style it out, you should go for it.

A crumb of class

🤣🤣

Ok then whatever you say 🙄

@Gallowayan You can spot someone who is named Siena after the place because it only has one “n” in it.

Well that's pretty awful! Making presumptions about a child before even meeting them based on their name.

This thread has made me guffaw thinking of that absolute mouthpiece Katie Hopkins who did an interview years ago with Philip and Holly and said people who name their kids after places are nothing more than chavs.

Her own daughter is called India.

Oooh, we have 4 of those names in our immediate family (well 5 if I count Harry the cat!). Must be posh! (We really aren't 🤣)

My DD is Arabella! Out of fashion! Wow ! Chosen by lower classes !

I have an aunt called Arabella and loved it so much I used it with DD!

I don't agree it's either out of fashion or lower class. It's not 'trendy', but that's good. The only Arabella (Arabelle) I've known was achingly cool, plus I associate it with the 'Arabella and Mortimer' stories. Great name IMO.

Sounds made up not least because no teacher is going to come across a Chardonnay or bhodi- they’re a 45 year olds idea of tacky names. No teacher in 2025 is teaching a Chardonnay

Im council trash. Low income, 4 kids.

My brothers are called James and Thomas.

My children are Elizabeth, Alexander, James and Timothy. All quite 'posh' names, apparently.

I couldn't be any less posh if I tried.

My best friend, who is 'posh', has a Blake, Connor and Alfie.

Yes and apparently the queen wasn't amused

As an aside, my dog is Arabella Fishcake (well, it’s actually Princess Arabella Fishcake).

My then three year old insisted on it.

We shorten it to Bella.

But you should have heard the laughter at the vet when my children insisted she was registered under her “full” name.

'they only buy cheese from the Deli or Cheese Monger'

What on earth is the problem with this, @SemiRetiredLoveGoddeess? Would you prefer small shopkeepers to go out of business?

A Chardonnay is extremely unlikely but Bodhi has potential, it’s in the top 100 used names for boys in the UK. Granted only just.

Chardonnay was always a joke name wasn’t it, from Footballers Wives rather than actually used in real life and then had a very brief spike in popularity thereafter. The majority of Chardonnay’s are in their early 20’s now so have been through school and long since left.

Florence is actually a lot more classic than Sienna (and is quite a rare example of a place name that has been used quite traditionally).

I know posh people with all those names except Rafferty, and the little Rafferty I know is from more of an arty family than a posh one.

Generally speaking, I think the only names that aren't used by "posh" people are the place or surname variety (Mason, Maddox, Dexter, Carter, Paris, Brooklyn etc) or the sorts of names that are more modern ( including the yooniques) like Charlene, Kayden etc.

I disagree as well. I know several very posh Arabellas, one with aristocratic relatives and the other from a family who are behind one of the great (household name) British instituitons. And Theodore is connected with quite a lot of posh older American families so once you get an international dimension you end up with some posh Theodores (which is the one I am thinking of).

There's no actual evidence for this, you're just using names of people high up in the line of succession in the royal family, which is a bad example because they're mostly named after past English monarchs. And Harry is Henry. It's not anything to do with avoiding bullying or being relatable.

Really posh people don't try to prove how posh they are by picking their childrens name to impress people.
At my Dcs Private school the kids were called very ordinary things like Thomas, William, George, Amelia, Holly etc

This is the most sensible thread on here.

Posh names have always been adopted and copied by "the lower classes" (such as they are.

That means those traditional names can be either posh or anything else.

The names that aren't posh are the left-field Chanels and Jaydens.

I can’t remember how to do links but this article was in the Mail yesterday and surprisingly many of the most popular names were in the top ten in several social classes, based on occupations, albeit in slightly different positions.

Also it is interesting to note the current Royal family of "breeding age" or thereabouts seem to have purposefully departed from trad royal names, apart from William - though even Louis is a tad "forrin." And actually Charlotte came into England by way of cross pollination from their European relatives.

The royal family has Archie, Isla, Mia, Lucas, Ernie which are all common as anything where I live.