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 Surely that’s outdated

Pre Google/smart phones we often used baby name books for ideas. My 17 year old son's name came from a baby name book.

I couldn't agree more. I've been teaching for a very long time, and we'd come down like a ton of bricks on snobby teachers like that. You don't pre judge, you get the best out of every child.
That gets completely shut down.
Plus, I've taught badly behaved children called Isabella, Elizabeth and James, and absolutely delightful children called Alfie, Mason, Krystal and Jayden.

Eton is part of a scholarship programme where outstanding pupils from state schools in poorer areas can gain a fully funded place in sixth form.

Jayden, Tayla, Tyler, Mason, Paige, Kayden, Kai etc are over represented in a different socioeconomic class to Catherine, Elizabeth, Lucinda, Otto, Rupert etc

that's just a fact - and people will do with the information what they have always done since the dawn of time - mentally put people in social boxes. Twas ever thus.

The only real group names that span both classes are the florals : Rose, Lilly, Ivy etc

But did the baby name books tell you what class the names were associated with?

One baby name book I had put names into all sorts of categories. It definitely had an old money section.
The Times used to publish its top baby names list every year which would consist of the most popular birth names it had announced the previous year.
Newspapers would often report the national top baby names and The Times list each year, so it was easy to see the trends in the more privileged groups.

I get that some people pick up on non-verbal stuff more easily than others but I think that most people have an idea of what social group they want to belong to and what the expected norms are. Those norms include things like children's names. That doesn't mean that there won't be exceptions, outliers or people that genuinely don't care about what group they belong to.

But is that as explicitly in your face as thinking “oh Chantelle/crystal/destiny sounds nice” googling it and finding numerous examples of people saying it sounds like the name of a methhead in a trailer park with a big flabby stomach hanging out?

@Kyttiol I see your point and I think it’s kind of true in that people have a wider access to ideas for names and aren’t limited to choosing from names they see on TV and in their circle of friends/families.

However, classism is sadly RIFE in this country and names are definitely considered a signifier, whether they are or not.

We adopted our children and so didn’t name them. We are all friends with quite a lot of other adopters, most of whom, like us, are middle class and middle aged. The look on people’s faces when we call our children at a play park etc is priceless. You can literally see the cogs moving….

I think the confusion here is that you are failing to understand that people had knowledge and information before the internet came along.

Yes, people knew which names were considered classic and which were considered chavvy.

I don’t believe that a Charlotte and SammyJo-Mae are getting the same first impression when you read their names.

If you know you know. A middle class person sees a name and automatically knows if it is chavvy or not. You don’t have to google it to find out. Middle classes can also try too hard using certain classical names which can be hard for kids to carry off at a regular secondary schools. Upper classes are basically exempt and can give their kids any name they want.

I've worked with kids for 20 years and the name classism is going strong!

We've been through the period where 1 in 5 boys had the same name, to so many try-hard out-there names, to parents giving such ridiculous names to not just a little baby but a human who is going to be lumbered for life. I've dealt with teenagers who ABSOLUTELY DO NOT want their legal name on GCSE certificates because they're mortified about them.

People judge everything op. Names are especially judged as you're setting your kid up for life, one way or another

I work with children and families.
Unfortunately you can often work out quite a bit about a family before you meet them based on children's names.
Not always in a negative way at all.
For example if a baby is called Pooja I might assume they will be in an Asian family? Viktoria / Ewa I might be wondering eastern European? James perhaps british, Angus oh I wonder if they have Scottish roots for example. I could be wrong but generally that will be who I will see. It's also a conversation started when a new baby!
I also do work with children who have been taken. into care of some sort and unfortunately often the names of these children do indicate a lower social economic status by name. They also can be a bit of a miss match with the foster parent/adoptive parent they end up with. The adopted parents may be very much what you expect an Olivia and Noah's parents to be and the child may be Boyance-Nevaeh ( hopefully completely made up name) for example.
I do notice names and do ask parents how they picked children's names as I'm interested . Not everyone Google's the name or do know the history. I am seeing babies names after characters from games/ cartoons etc at the moment where parents literally haven't a clue about the origins and in some cases rather unfortunate history of names especially in the greek/ Roman mythology areas. Probably would help if they knew that a name associated with a particularly nasty or tragic story but hay ho.
I do also see the upper class trends and aspirations of parenting though the name picked.
It's an interesting area but doesn't mean I treat anyone differently or really judge.
I would assume teachers do also have an interest in names for a similar reason, it's interestingly.

Many teachers do have an interest in names, @catdo, but the important thing is not to judge the child or make assumptions about parenting.

Beyoncé-neveah and Chardonnay I get, but would everyone really have known Chantelle was considered chavvy pre internet. It honestly looks quite similar to Charlotte and sounds French so if anything you’d think it was classy. Until you google it lol.

The poster who mentioned it has now replied and said she’s from Cornwall. This makes sense as Cornish names don’t seem (to me, a Northerner, anyway!) to have travelled up and down the isle, the same way Irish and Scottish names have.

Respectfully, OP, you keep sounding as if the internet is literally your sole source of information on names and their connotations. I mean, you live in the world, you meet people of different social classes, and encounter their names, don’t you?

I dare say some people would like it to be outdated, or would like to think that it is, but I don’t think it is, at all.

Well, there’s still a strongly entrenched social class system, so the class associations of names will presumably last as long as that does.

No I said in my op real life experience hasn’t matched with it either knowing the biggest crackhead in my town had a child called Hugo.

Im only in my 20s so was a child pre internet. I actually never googled my eldests name and chose it based on liking the sound and still landed on a “posh” name despite being a really lower class 16 year old.

All the people I know with super chavvy names are adults.

I would still be surprised if Kayden, Jaxon or Mason make it to Eton using that route.

My DD would get a raised eyebrow if she brought home a Tyler.

The internet existed when you were a child if you’re in your 20’s.

Not for poor people and this thread is about classism