Name classism doesn’t exist in 2026

[Kyttiol]

Name classism gets mentioned a lot on here but I don’t think there’s such thing in the big 2026 with the internet anyone can google and name their kid whatever they want. My eldest I had at 16 while living in a homeless shelter has a so called posh name and my youngest I had as a grown woman in her twenties married to a man with a middle class job has a name that’s been called chavvy on here.
Hugo is also apparently the epitome of posh but I know a literal crackhead named her son Hugo (he was taken away at birth though)

People always quote freakonomics which was written in 2005 before mass internet use and certainly before the internet was used to discuss baby names! Surely that’s outdated

I also get to see the names of newborn babies through work & would say there’s still a divide.

It still exists. It’s actually gone worse now that people just name their kids anything. The worst ones for me are giving kids names and then pronouncing them incorrectly so the kid spends their whole life ‘correcting’ people who are actually correct and misspelt names (again, subjecting the kid to a lifetime of ‘correcting’ people who can spell).

Classic and biblical names are used by all social classes. But newer 'made up' names, 'showgirl' names, funny spellings, hyphenated first names, non trad surnames for first names, non trad boys names on girls, naming after celebrities etc will always be seen as lower class. In The UK at least.

I don't see why you think the invention of Google would make an upper class woman called her son Kayden or her daughter Nevaeh-Rae?

My primary teacher sil loves to tells us all about the "crazy chav names" each year. She might be a ok teacher, but shes not a nice person.

I work in a grammar school in a leafy, affluent commuter town (so basically everyone is middle class) and there are names we almost never see and names where there are several in each class. Unusual spellings of names are incredibly rare (basically non-existent). We have plenty of names that are unusual, but they are almost all ‘normal’ names from the countries they or their parents/grandparents were born in.

As a teacher I can tell you a lot of judging happens (rightly or wrongly) and it is virtually always justified.

I mean googles more likely to stop you naming your child nevaeh Rae.

I actually really like Chantelle as a name but google would reveal everyone else thinks it fucking sucks 😂

What I’m saying is names aren’t the class signifiers people think they are

But they are, unquestionably.

There are lots of posts on MN where people who are responsible for shortlisting candidates for a job will just throw out applications from those whose first names are chavvy.

It's a great disadvantage for female babies to be given surnames as their first names, or hyphenated chav names such as Kayleigh-Mae.

But if you are posh...you can get away with it!

Loads of posh Rubys and Tallulahs, I bet you.

I really wanted to be called Chantelle as a teen in the 1980s. It cropped up in our tricoloure French text book and we thought it tres chic 😆

Generally, it's a shame for the child if they're saddled with a name they have to spell for the rest of their life but otherwise, each to their own.

I saw a Jaiie somewhere online today... just why? 🙈 Nothing wrong with Jay ... Just why make everyone life difficult in doing a weird spelling.

See this is fascinating to me, I posted yesterday about someone saying my granddaughters have “showgirl names”.
My grandsons who have the “posher” names have parents who would probably be coined working class. While my daughter whose children have showgirl names, went to a top international ballet school in Europe, had a career as a ballet dance, went on to be a senior creative in choreography and production, are seen as “lower class”.

So I agree with OP, the stigma may exist but it’s not accurate, it’s not really a case that showgirl names are only used by the lower classes as it would be very difficult to call DD and her husband lower class considering their childhoods, lifestyles, educations and careers.

You’ve obviously never worked in a school on first day of term with the amount of eye rolling that goes on in the staff room

Do you think this is okay though?
I mean if it’s the first day of school it’s just prejudice isn’t it? Is that good trait for teachers to have?
You don’t know these children yet and you are already making assumptions based on just their names? That’s not something to be proud of is it?

Ask teachers their honest opinion of some names. Some are ridiculous.

But ballet dance and showgirl dance are associated professions. It's just the posher version of it! I think posh people can get away with naming their kids anything. It's working class people who unfortunately have to try and avoid traditionally 'chavvy' sounding ones.

Jayden, Brayden, Brodie, LaShanda, Chardonnay, Klay, Nevaeh v Hugo, Annabelle, Amelie, Violet, John

If you were a teacher or an employer, which cohort would be more appealing?

I voted YANBU in that you’re definitely correct that the internet at everyone’s fingertips should theoretically help people avoid “chavvy” names if they want to, and probably this is happening quite a lot!

But I do think some people still manage to miss the message/don’t care/maybe feel like some of the “posher” names would feel out of place on their child (e.g., I personally would have to be pretty confident in my own poshness to call my daughter Arabella!).

So, I don’t think name choices have homogenised to the point where they are no longer a “class marker”. I think there are still definite general trends and differences across socio-economic groups with people at the lower end of that inexplicably still choosing odd/invented spelling when naming their children!

plenty of people develop an idea of a person just by hearing their name before they ever meet them

My name gives away the area I come from but not social class, it gets shortened it gets laughed at in other areas of the Country it is always spelt incorrectly but never pronounced incorrectly. So I'm not sure which box I fit into

I also think that globalisation has impacted things a bit, if you’re not from the UK but you live here, you are more likely to choose a name that might be a clear signifier of class for a Brit but you have no idea about this, so any stereotypes about the name that exist wouldn’t apply in your case.

E.g., my DH has vetoed a few names as being “too posh” when I had no idea they were posh at all and just liked the sound of them!

I like the name Rory for a boy but according to DH this would be giving ourselves ideas above our station lol!

This works in the other direction too, a lot of Americans/Australian/Canadians would choose names like Kayden or Kayleigh and this wouldn’t be a class signifier in their countries, just a perfectly normal “middle class” name.

Most people briefly think a name is posh or chavy straight away. I know theres names I turn my nose up to when I hear it or it reminds me of someone I know and I think I would or wouldnt name my child that.

Lots of names do shift from upper/middle to working class over time I think. If you met an adult called Hugo, Percy or Rupert you would assume posh, but I've met quite a few lower middle/working class babies with those names. Same with Albie, Amelie, Ophelia, Theo.

Some names are still definitely working class - no one posh or who considers themselves middle class is naming their baby Jayden, Mason, Tia, Brooklyn.

Oh that’s interesting as I can’t think of any names that are area specific.

IMO everyone in England should just call their daughter Catherine.

Unless they are in the States, where Mason is a perfectly common and non class-inflected name. Context is everything!

Mabli? Oisin?