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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think there is no such thing as a “teen mum name”

82 replies

Hippout · 30/05/2026 10:21

One thing I’ve noticed on the name board is things like “sounds like the name of a girl who becomes a teen mum” usually used to criticise the incorrectly spelt or names posters don’t consider classy.

I had my children at 16 and 18 and my name is Charlotte. One of my closest friends was also a teen mum and her name is Shannon.

Teen mums have normal names!

OP posts:
Allseeingallknowing · 31/05/2026 15:56

Elli-Mae

Allseeingallknowing · 31/05/2026 15:58

ChristmasBaby2026 · 30/05/2026 11:29

Whilst you are strictly speaking correct, anyone can use any name and bad names are not the exclusive copyright of teenage mums, it is the case that girls from certain backgrounds are more likely to become teenage mums and choose names accordingly. Of the teenage and young mums I have known, their names have been

  • Tianna
  • Shaylee (pretty sure this one is just made up)
  • Billie-Jane

All awful in my opinion.

All names are made up!

Camomilecrumpet · 31/05/2026 18:30

Tigerbalmshark · 30/05/2026 12:23

It technically means “gypsy”, which is why people don’t think it is acceptable - describing any poor behaviour as “gypsy-like” is clearly racist, and “chavvy” is just an oblique way of saying the same thing.

”Tacky” gets the point across without bringing gypsies/travellers into it.

Show quote history

I don’t think it means gypsy, I think it comes from the Romani language.

Quine0nline · 31/05/2026 18:44

Chavi means child in romani.

I am sure I read that 18 to 25 are the years that nature has designed as the best fertile years of a human woman's life to give birth, possibly up to 30, and possibly a little earlier. Much later and the outcomes for a healthy child fall dramatically.

Is there any data which, factoring out abortion and environmental factors which prove or disprove this?

YankSplaining · 31/05/2026 18:52

SlightlyAjar · 31/05/2026 14:27

But names work differently across different cultures. Shannon was never used in Ireland, for instance (I mean, for Irish people, it’s as much an airport and a seriously ugly industrial zone as a river) until it filtered back via Irish-Americans giving their children placenames from a country they’ve never lived in. (And even then, people were using it because it sounded ‘modern’ and ‘American’, rather than because they were paying tribute to a river goddess. It was as much ‘Shannen’ [sic] Doherty as anything.)

See also the giant mistake that is ‘Caitlin-pronounced-Kate-Lynn’ which is a diaspora mispronunciation of Cáitlin, pronounced Coytleen or Coytchleen.

’Connor’ has been described on this thread as a ‘teen dad name’ and an example of ‘surname names’ but in Ireland, spelled correctly as ‘Conor’ , it’s a standard, safe classic like James or Edward in England.

Edited
Show quote history

Yeah, I know names work differently across different cultures. I’m just noting a difference I wasn’t previously aware of.

VeterinaryCareAssistant · 03/06/2026 13:05

EmmaB1309 · 31/05/2026 13:59

As much as we might try to pretend otherwise there are just some names that teen mums are more likely to have and to give to their children, and people judge even if they don’t admit it. It’s not right, and obviously doesn’t apply to everyone, but there you go.
For what it’s worth, the same is also true of a certain demographic of parents- I wont attach a class judgement to this- those who are well off, possibly older, breast feeds their 3 and 5 year olds, etc who is more likely to call their children Tarquin or Theodore.

Hugo
Matilda
Harriet
Emily
Henry
Julian

HumanOfTheWeek · 03/06/2026 13:18

Quine0nline · 31/05/2026 18:44

Chavi means child in romani.

I am sure I read that 18 to 25 are the years that nature has designed as the best fertile years of a human woman's life to give birth, possibly up to 30, and possibly a little earlier. Much later and the outcomes for a healthy child fall dramatically.

Is there any data which, factoring out abortion and environmental factors which prove or disprove this?

Nature can’t design anything…
Women used to have children across the whole of their fertile lives. It’s very recent that childbearing is limited to a few years then stopped by most people. For example, both my grandmothers were born before WW1, started having children young but continued into their late forties (naturally, of course). So even when people were all having kids young, there were still plenty of kids born to older mothers, they just weren’t the eldest siblings as they are now.

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