The name Myra?!

[ValiumSoltera]

The thread about the wisdom of using Jessica and HOlly together got me thinking... although it's a different angle being the murderer rather than a victim, are we nearly ready for Myra?

There are a couple of Lyras out there now (sleb babies mostly I think). Ten years ago Lyra would have been considered unusable due to its similarity to Myra, but now it is just similar to Lila I think.

So how long til Myra is used do you think? (don't mean to offend btw, I'm a name nerd and find this stuff interesting)

I know a couple people called Myra who are my age or older.

I can't begin to imagine it making a comeback in UK for ages yet.

not for a long time. at least until anyone alive at the time has died.

I had a midwife called Myra...

I agree with the above posters - it'll be a long time.

A very long time.

I hear Myra, I think Hindley.

Lyra is less associated because of the Pullman Northern Lights books I think...

Nowhere near ready yet. The child would have to live with too much misdirected malice. No name is pretty enough to survive associations like the most hated child killer this country has ever produced. Unlike Harold (an olden days king), Fred (a cute 1920 kind of name) or Jack (uber popular) there are no other associations that spring to mind when you hear Myra. Just That Woman. It is debatable if she was the most evil of child killers but it's pretty clear she was the most loathed.

that's what I thought. I wonder will the name be like Hitler. Just tarnished forever now.

gosh - had an Aunt Myra who died in her 80s a few years ago.
Never (until now) thought of Hindley.

But think it's unwise :(

Having said that why hasn't Fred suffered in the same way?

Lyra is a much more modern coining, and it wouldn't have occurred to me to associate it with Myra.

Hindley was arrested in 1965, so I don't think you'll find any British born holders of the name under 45. And her crimes are still very much hated, so I think another couple of generations at least will pass.

Ian isn't vilified in the same way, presumably as it is a so much more common name (bet there was a mid-60s dip, though).

Ian Brady and Ian Huntley. It should definitely not be popular these days, but, I think you're right, it was a common enough name before, during and after - much as Fred is/was.

is it because women killers are rarer...? More vilified?

I think it's a pretty name; I hope it does come back. (I was born in the 80s, so I suppose it doesn't have that much of an impact on my consciousness.)

I think it's a combination of her being so hated and it being a fairly unusual name, I have never come across anyone called Myra so there is only one association with that name but there are lots of people called Ian, Rose, Fred.

I think it is misogynistic tbh

Plenty of Peters in Yorkshire

If it's because of the women killers thing though shouldn't Ruth also suffer the same fate?

(Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in Britian for murder.)

I don't know why Myra as a name went down in flames, it seems a bit baffling when you think about it, but it deffinately did.

And is Maxine unusable now? I would say yes. But perhaps that is unfair to the name and to the extent of Maxine Carr's involvement.

Ruth Ellis wasn't a child murderer or someone who was ever going to kill again. She committed a crime of passion - she killed her lover - wasn't he marrying someone else?

Ruth is in a different category though, a martyr category, and I don't mean that meanly, like I usually do when I call somebody a martyr (like my Mum). She didn't deserve to be hanged imo.

Fair point, how about Rose West though?

underachieving because Ruth Ellis was convicted of a 'crime of passion' as far as I know, she killed another adult, not a child/ren. People see that differently.

oops xposts with thereisalight

Rose was not as popular when fred and rose's crimes came to light.

So there must be a point at which a name becomes sufficiently unusual that it is tarnished by associating.

I do know of a baby Maxine, named, I think after a family member but Maxine Carr was certainly my first thought at the time.

Or Mary Bell?

I think it must be something to do with how often the name was used before. I doubt Myra was anywhere near as frequently used as the others, hence the stronger association with Hindley not a multitude of people in ordinary life.

The name Adolf has also come pretty much to a full stop.