How important is a name?

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Are the names we give our DCs really that important or do we stew - and post! - unnecessarily? Have you ever looked at a person and thought 'they don't look like a ....' or 'what a horrid name'? I haven't.

There may be names all of us dislike but when that name is attached to a person, it ceases to be an issue. A name just identifies a person - it doesn't define who they are or what a baby will be in the future - although, granted, certain names do conjure up stereotypes (which they shouldn't IMHO!).

Your thoughts please.

Most kids at our local primary have quite unusual names (coming from lots of different cultures) but nobody bats an eyelid. To most kids, a name is just that, their friends' name.

"especially if the parents have the luck to be called James and Elizabeth"

Not sure what is lucky about being called either of these names ....

If you're a teacher like me you get very paranoid about names! You can't call your kids any names that remind you of very naughty pupils and you see some very unfortunate names on the register e.g. I once taught a lovely boy whose parents had called him Wayne...which was fine but his surname was Carr! This didn't go unnoticed among the other pupils! I also taught a girl called Tia whose middle name was Maria because her mum liked the drink of the same name (not kidding) and two cousins in the same year group who were called Paige. They told us that they wanted to be called Paige one and Paige two! My mum taught a brother and sister called Luke and Pia...I've also taught a girl called Racheal (that's how her mum spelt it) and a girl called Abbie-Joe with an e. Now these kids are all lovely and they will all be fine and of course names don't define you but still...a little bit of thought wouldn't have gone amiss :) And when you teach kids all day, you really see how names go in waves of popularity. I use to teach loads of Kayleighs and Kylies and Leigh-Annes. Then it was Chloes and Camerons and Callums. Now it's Jessicas and Hernrys. And it may be awful but the naughty boys are usually called Liam or Callum. And kids who have the same letter for first name and surname are always somehow the "characters"...goodness knows why.

Because James and Elizabeth are established but not particularly common names, which are easy to spell, have lots of abbreviations and will not put their owner into any particular box.

My dh went to school with a Wendy House - I kid you not.

Priceless. My old music teacher was called Aileen Pigg.

James and Elizabeth are classics which is why I chose them for my post. As seeker says they don't put their owner into a box, you can't tell which class they fit into and you can't make assumptions about the parents. They give the DC lots of choice and they can decide for themselves whether they want to be Betty, Liz, Lizzie, Beth etc etc. I know a James whose parents gave him the name intending him to be know as Jamie but when he got to 7 yrs he insisted on James, but equally he could be Jimmy etc.
Names should give the owner scope to personalise them but still keep their identity. You can't do much with Hector or Humphrey or Hilda (at least not in a nice way!)

I knew a lovely posh bloke called James and I called him Jimmy, which he thought was very funny, because it made him sound like an old working class bloke!

Exactly, you can do what you like with James-there are lots of possibilities.

i would agree that once we meet a person in the flesh are opinions of them are not necessarily based on the name they use .however, more often than not first contacts are often made not in person but by phone ,email, letter , job application etc and in this situation people will have an opiinion on name and may make immediate judgements on this basis eg whether to even an offer an interview etc .