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 Surely that’s outdated

Existence and access are two different things. Poor kids had access at school at the very least.

Poor parents thinking of baby names mostly didn’t have internet until the late 2000s/early 2010s.

Even without the internet I remember people my DMs age talking about people have babies and being negative about names that they considered "common".

But, respectfully, OP, you were a child having a child in a really difficult situation. You seem to have chosen your eldest child’s name in a vacuum, without the kind of life experience or exposure to different types of people that would have allowed you to understand the social class connotations of names. That you chose a ‘posh’ name because you liked the sounds was just a fluke. It’s not anything more than an anecdote. As is the crackhead’s child being called Hugo.

I mean, I know two men called Valentine. One I grew up with, and he’s serving a long prison sentence for being a big drug dealer. The other is an emeritus professor of English Literature at Oxford.

Oo yes, I remember my mum and gran openly saying something or someone was common. I at least keep my thoughts to myself!

I was horrified when I walked into the kids clothes section of a shop and saw all the midriff baring tops and could hear clear as day my DMs voice saying "those tops are really common".

I'm sure if we'd had the word chavvy they'd have used it but it was always common back then.

People think that names signify class , when the opposite is true. Names take on an association with class when people from that class use them. This is why there's not always concensus because people tend to judge the name based on the people they know with it.

I think this nails it actually.

It’s not the names, it’s the generalisations people make based on their own experiences. If a load of middle class people started calling their kids Mason, for example, the preconceptions would change.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we’re adoptive parents and didn’t choose our kids names. Neither have names I would have chosen and I wasn’t keen on either name when they first came home. Now I just associate the names with them and any previous connotations they may have held for me have long since disappeared.

Yes, this is true. I’m surprised at the Tyler shouts on here as the only person I can think of with that name is the presenter who was on Strictly who is obvs successful and has a lovely, warm personality. My association with the name is positive, based on that!

Looking at the top 100 girls names, I think most of the names span both classes. Names like Ava, Eva, Emily, Amelia, Isabella, Isla, Florence, Freya etc etc are just very popular and give zero indication of social class IME.

What about a Taylor? That definitely has the same vibe as Tyler.

The links are very old. My Nigerian friend wanted to call her child Star, I explained the so called issues with some names and it is one of her middle names. She pucked a traditional Nigerian name for her instead. I attend gatherings across the Nigerian/Ghana and Zimbabwe communities. They can't get their head around a name being judged. It's going to disappoint a few MNers, but a lot are in charge of recruitment/business owners etc. So are a lot of WC. No-one's name is holding them back, it's what you can personally achieve. If someone in recruitment is rejecting CVs based on names, the company will be shit to work in and you've had a lucky escape.

Also not everyone has this weird MN mindset of ‘anything or anyone working-class’ is BAD.

A lot of recruiters might see a working-class name and make lots of positive assumptions. Ditto they could see a very ‘posh’ ‘private school’ type name and have a lot of negative associations and assumptions about that person.

This is a good point. Reverse snobbery is more common in the younger generation than actual snobbery. I think a lot of people on here show their age by not realising that

Well, yes, it’s not one way. There’s also the fact that the socially secure can use any name without it being viewed as déclassé. Look at the names of the Bloomsbury Group and hangers-on, and what they named their children, for instance — Saxon, Lytton, Pyramus, Ottoline, Pernel, Dorelia, Angelica, Julian (a girl), Burgo, Gamel, Nerissa, Amaryllis, Vita, Eardley, Aldous, Poppet, Romilly (a boy) etc.

This. With bells on. Accents are another area where it seems that snobbery and prejudice are perfectly acceptable.

God bless your naïveté in thinking things have changed that much since the 90s.

You beat me to this comment!

My parents was torn between two names for me, so DM asked her Aunt to be the decider. Her Aunt vetoed one name (Amy) because she felt it was too “common”.

Little did she know that my given name was ranked within the top 10 that year.

Name classism absolutely still exists, whether we intend to judge, or not.

It does though because you’re still the same person? So although your youngest was born to a married couple, financially comfortable and older, you still were a teen mum?

If they hadn't, none of my children's peer group would have most of the jobs they have. My eldest was born 1985. Also, none of the African people, who are all working would be in jobs. There are places that work to keep 'people not like them out' calling your children, Charlotte and George, won't get them in. Reverse snobbery has been talked about, but what's actually happening is people are waking up to where and how the wealthy accumulated their money and respect is starting to drop.

My youngests early years are completely different from my eldests. House with a garden, bedroom, married parents etc. You can’t assume anything just because of a name. I’m the same person yes but I do not act like a stereotype of a teen mum

But you’re acknowledging here that those names are likely students who can’t afford the fees…

Yes, I am. And your point is?

Classist views around names continue, but since the pre-internet days, what's changed is how names tend to be used for a "type", like Karen, Jessica, Kevin or Debbie. I hate that (and have worked with lovely people with those names). This isn't classicism as such, but a judgment that's new (before anyone says what about Fanny/Dick, it's not the same as those names are used to describe genitals, so while I don't know anyone who has called a baby that recently, the names aren't used as nouns like a "Karen".

I really hate that Karen is now used as a derogatory term and think poorly of people who use it in that way.