AIBU to rule out Lucy (as a baby name) because of the Lucy Letby association?

[WhereWithWho]

We're having a baby girl in June, and my DH loves the name Lucy. I think the name itself is lovely but will not agree to it only because of the association to Lucy Letby. My DH thinks that I've gone mad and has said that it's a popular enough name that she will not be anyone's first thought. He also feels that she's mostly been forgotten. My feeling is that she could be in the news for many more years, documentaries are still being made, and she's become more internationally known. I want to avoid naming my daughter Lucy for the same reason that I would avoid naming her Myra or Rose. Thoughts?

YANBU to discount a name because of the mental associations you have with it

YABU to expect other people to have the same associations

My DC was going to be named Maggie and Margaret Thatcher died that day.

So we were in a panic of should we change it.

Wed had over 20 scans (medical issue) and were told all along it was a girl....so confident the name was set.

2 hrs later we had a boy, so the naming issue was easier/slightly harder as we had to completely start again

But i wouldn't make a Lucy Letby association. And Lucy was my 2nd choice

Lucy is a lovey, timeless name. In fact, there are five women in my office with the name Lucy, all different ages. I like it. I wouldn't make the association at all.

Those will be shortened to Lucy, so if you don’t want Lucy, then I’d avoid those names. Having said that, as others have said, Lucy is a common enough name for no one to make the association with Lucy Letby.

Letby is my very first thought when I hear the name now. I never say anything because it would be impolite but am thinking it. I'm surprised Lucy hasn't dropped in popularity.

Lucy is a lovely name, Letby doesn't cross my mind when I hear it.
Bear in mind you could name the child anything and in six months time some horror individual could be in the news with that name. As long as it's not something very unusual (so as to make an obvious association), I wouldn't worry.

Your rationale is daft. But it's still your rationale and you might not be able to train yourself out of it.

If you know you're going to be thinking about baby deaths every time you hear it, and I do agree you're right the case may carry on for much longer, maybe it's not worth it. Basically, YABU, but given that you can't necessarily make yourself NBU, perhaps better to avoid the issue altogether.

I wouldn't think of Lucy Letby.

We loved the name Madeleine but had to avoid it for a similar reason, our last name is McCann 😩

I think this is stupid.
Nobody think of the name Lucy and then immediately thinks Lucy Letby. Same for Rose.

Myra you might be more likely to think of the person. But that's only if you were even trying to think of other people with that name and cos it's a rarer name.

For all of those names, if I liked the name I would name my child that.

Mmm yeah I can see why you preferred to avoid that one!

If you have a boy next, I'd suggest Andrew or Donald ?

I've always thought having the same name as a victim of a tragedy is much different than having the same name as the cause of a tragedy.

I would never have thought of the association to Lucy Letby if I heard the name Lucy, but I will now - thanks for that!

😂

The other thing to consider OP is, would you regret not using the name if this is eventually found to be a miscarriage of justice? Not to try and turn this into a thread to discuss the ins and outs of the case, but it's a possibility that exists.

Does your second name begin with an L? That would give me pause.

I knew a pair of boys growing up, let's say Bill and Fred, and my sister called her sons Bill and Forest, and when I name them, I always have to stop saying Bill and Fred.

Yes that name is well and truly taken! There probably will never be another. Poor wee thing. ❤️ to her family, always.

I wanted to call my daughters Lucy but ex didn't like it . Doesn't make me think of LL.

I think it’s fair to not choose a name YOU have negative associations with, I also am not keen on Lucy but my high school friend was called “Lucy goosey” at school and hated it so it sort of stuck onto my dislike of the name too. However that’s a very personal association, I’d never expect anyone else to have the same association so therefore I think you’re overthinking with the Letby thing. Some people might think of her but it’s not generally closely tied to the name. I’d be more concerned it might absolutely boom and you end up with five Lucy’s in classes in years to come with the new Narnia series coming out.

There are so many negative connections with names ; Lucy Letby, Myra Hindley, Rose West, Jackson as a first name [Michael].
Things move on and so do ideas and thoughts, go with names that YOU like. It doesn't matter what randoms think on here or anywhere else, it's your child and your choice.

I think Lucy is a lovely name and it wouldn’t enter my head to think of LL.

Lucia?

We have an older generation relative called Myra and I always just think of her as her… it’s her name and I associate it with her, not MH. MH doesn’t cross my mind in that context.

Though if you asked me about the name Myra in abstract I would say ‘like MH’.

I have a Dc with a relatively uncommon. name and I always find it weird when I hear of others with that name because it is so imprinted in my mind as being Dc

I just saw your thread title in the Trending box saying "AIBU to rule out Lucy as baby name because...."

So I tried to work out who the issue could be before clicking on it, and got through

Lucy from Charlie Brown
I love Lucy
The Scarlett Johansen film of the same name
Zena, Warrior Princess
Lucy Lu from Charlies Angels
The fossilised cave woman

before giving up.

Letby didn't even cross my mind until I actually opened the thread.

I'm sure with almost every name there's going to be some association with someone who did something notorious

I love the name Lucy. Certainly better than all these names which sound like they've just been made up

Weirdly I was only thinking about Myra (the name, not the killer) recently. IMO it's a lovely name and a shame that it's association with one truly terrible person had tainted it to such an extent that it's basically unusable. And yet Fred, Rose, Peter, Ian are all notorious British murderers but their names are almost nondescript.