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 Surely that’s outdated

OP, you're generalising massively based on your name choices for two of your children. That's just anecdotal. Huge amounts of research contradicts your argument.

This deals with race as well as class in terms of teacher expectations:

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w11195/w11195.pdf

If you scroll down to the 'First Names' section of this paper (which is mostly about surnames and class status), you'll see that an Eleanor born between 1991 and 1995 has a 100 times greater chance of attending Oxford as a Jade born in the same period.

https://faculty.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/gclark/The%20Son%20Also%20Rises/EEH%202014.pdf

This is the famous 'two CVs' paper:
https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w9873/w9873.pdf

Born between 1991 and 1995 though. Is it not outdated in 2026 when can spend the nine months of our pregnancy googling names. Many poorer people didn’t have internet until the late 2000s or early 2010s. Now they can google names they like and see that “higher class” people are mocking those names and then many will avoid them based on that.

You only need to look at the names threads on here to know that's not true.

I don’t think it’s age, it’s a certain monoglot, rightwing, Little Englander-ishness that manifests itself at times. I’m not originally from the UK but had DS there, and there were kids in his village school from lots of different European countries, as well as Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi and west African countries. There were three Alices, two Harrisons and two Imogen’s, but other than that, there was a profusion of international names, and everyone managed fine.

@PointedFirs I just assume age because I don’t understand the lack of exposure to other races & cultures. I work with people from all over the world & my dc have classmates from all over so of course I regularly see names I have no idea how to pronounce or spell but it’s not a big deal.

Plus when a poster asks “what do you of the name x” posters often reply with really old, outdated references hence I assume older.

Yes, it’s the same everywhere, that certain surnames are more dominant in certain places for historical reasons. I’m still intrigued, however, as to what first name you could give a child now that would make people across the country think ‘ahh you’re from X area’. I can’t think of one so was wondering what examples might be.

People very much still judge by names, it's only on MN that people ever seem to think it doesn't exist. If I told you my children were called Jasper, Sebastian and Charlotte, would you judge me differently than if I said they were called Jayden, Kai and Kayleigh - Mae?

Well, I agree with you, but I’m in my 50s and my older English friends are all well-travelled and fairly cosmopolitan, have lived abroad for extended periods, and;or have children living/studying overseas.

OP - you are assuming people want posh names and appear posh.
Certain demographics like their “chav” names just fine, and are not looking to portray a posh background. Others like the sound of a name, are not from the UK, like the “uniqueness”, or are simply not thinking of the child.
and yes, working class people can google posh names, and may name their child that, but the majority of middle class parents wouldn’t choose a “chavvy” name. Therefore they still stand out as not middle class…

I remember working with a guy back in the 80's who was the epitome of 'posh'. His voice, his clothes, his manners, his friends – everything about him screamed posh (and he was a genuinely lovely guy).

His parents named him..... Wayne. 😳

@PointedFirsI don’t think it’s representative of RL just this particular board.

You’re not wrong — there’s a depressingly monocultural streak which thinks all children should be called Emily and Oliver.

it’s odd but 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think they are. No middle-class family I know (and I work with the professions) have named their kids whatever today's version of Beyonce, or Jaxon or JayCee etc while traditional names continue to be popular and in the majority.

No. It’s still live and kicking.

It is outdated in the sense that it no longer fits with our idea of what society should be.

But in terms of how society is, it's alive and kicking.

It mutates though - 'Jack' was quite posh for a short minute. Basically, class is a power structure that renews itself.

My guess is that what you think is posh and what others think is posh may differ… we use the word ‘ posh’ as itd it was a definite set of characteristics. My friends son got jeered at as ‘ posh’ because he wore a shirt.

what à world, eh.

You’ve clearly never been in a school staffroom…

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

The point the OP is missing is that an upper class woman will be cut a lot more slack if she gives her offspring a name like that than a single mum on benefits.

I know a woman who is a celebrity academic who gave her child a deliberately “chavvy” name as an act of rebellion. It kind of suits the child and no one is going to say anything to her because its in keeping with her very ant establishment style. So all good and well.

But if she came from a different socioeconomic background people would judge her for it and judge the child.

Class signifiers are things you can only afford to ignore if you don’t have to worry about status. So maybe the OP with her new middle class lifestyle feels emboldened to embrace elements of life that she wouldn’t as a homeless single mother.

I would class someone as posh if it seemed that they'd memorised Debrett's Guide to Etiquette as a child (but didn't, because they'd absorbed the correct way to speak/behave/dress via osmosis in the womb).

Classism exists in 2026 and name classism definitely exists too, but not to the extent that some pearl clutchers on MN believe. I think a certain section on MN like to think that kids with 'chavvy' names will be kept from excelling in life when in reality names are way down the list of things that might hold a child back. They'll come out with things like 'it doesn't pass the high court judge test' or' 'I would refuse to attend a doctor called Jayden' those kinds of things. I do wonder if they live in very provincial areas, it seems such a smalltown mindset. I see a lot of CVs in my line of work and names barely register tbh.

As a primary school teacher of 30 years, I would never judge a child by their name.
I wouldn't even judge a parent
I just roll my eyes, or just get frustrated at the parent who insisted it was Nevaeh - Heaven spelt backwards- when she'd actually spelt it Neveah !
Or the parent who insisted she was River, but spelt Riva.
But, no, I would never judge a child

Christian names are historically important too - where my gran is from (West of Scotland), it was a very important identifier of your allegiance - before your parents approved your suitor, it was important for them to determine, for example, if he was a Graham (OK) or Graeme (not at all OK).

👏👏👏

Good heavens. This is Britain. Class is the hub on which every aspect of life turns.