Beryl

[tummytickler]

Can I use Beryl if I already have a Pearl?
Dh and I agree on 4 girls names. I also have two more that I am trying to get him to agree to.
Beryl is my favourite from the 4 we agree on, but we have a dd Pearl already.

She is nearly 6, so at school. Baby and dd will not be at toddler group together or anything like that.

What do you think?

"I was aware that I was marking her out - slightly - from the rest by doing it"

But isn't the whole point of NAMING something or someone to IDENTIFY them .

I don't think a lot of people would realise that beryl is a substance found in nature. Pearls are made by oysters and beryl is a mineral anyhow so they are not as closely related as beryl and another mineral might be. They do sound a little alike, and that would give me pause. But I like Beryl as a name -- it conjures an image of someone a little arty, certainly feisty and adventurous and sure of herself.

Ursula is lovely.

God, please not Beryl. And that's from someone who has a DS called Sid!

My mother is called Beryl, she looks alot like the Queen although is 5 years younger. She is slightly eccentric, says what she means, feisty but very caring and has worked hard all of her life although not actually ever employed by anyone else but herself. I have always hated her name and as a teenager all my friends called her Bezza as no one could bear calling her Beryl. If any of that helps at all.....

NOOOOOO!!!!!!!

There are just some names that will never pass. I went to school with a girl called Audrey. Everyone used to laugh and call her an OAP. Try and imagine yourself with the name, at school, aged 14!!

I happen to like the name Audrey- very french and chic IMO!

Im sorry but I think its a terrible name... really really awful.

mumtojohn :o thank you. I must try to comb my golden sheet of hair more often...

Was there a Beryl in Malory Towers or any of them? Sounds like the sort of name she'd use for a fifth former who tuts at Alicia as she pushes past and whacks her on the head with her lacrosse stick...

But then Darrell would have slapped her.........

tummytickler, regardless of what anyone thinks of the name Beryl, I really think Beryl and Pearl sound too alike. Dh and ds1 have similar sounding names and I have often had to clarify that "I was calling your SON!" to dh. V. annoying!

Don't call your beloved baby Beryl. Think of all the stick she would get at school. Some old fashioned names are fine but believe me she would be teased chronically. Ursula on the otherhand is lovely!! But it is your decision. The name you give will have a positive or negative impact when they get to school, please remember that!

can I put my hand up (having waded through only 4 pages of 11, sorry, but it's late!) as a Beryl lover but a Beryl and Perril hater!

In Scotland they are pronounced the same - as someone else pointed out. Even in England though, can you imagine shouting up the stairs "Ber----il!" "Peeeeeeeaaaaaarrrrl" who is going to come running? Would you have a Louise and an Eloise?

I don't think having two gemstones is weird at all. Theming not a problem. I just think these two gemstones are phonically too similar.

I have to say I didn't call my DS2 by my number 1 name - and I feel sad about it, I do. But I knew I'd have to holler both their names across a crowded place every day of my life several times and how they sounded together did matter.

Pray for a boy called Jasper if you want a gemstone theme. (I know, you don't. You want Beryl. Why not save it for a middle name??)

On the "child may grow up to not match their name" topic, I was at school with a somewhat lumpen, mousey girl called Primrose....

I really don't see why a Beryl would be teased at school, any more than a Florence or a Ruby (both "old lady" names to me but very popular regardless). Some of you perhaps have prejudices based on people you have known, but the school children won't have the same associations.

Go for it tummytickler - I am a great fan of your taste in names. Someone needs to have the confidence to be out there in front with the trends. I think of Beryl Bainbridge - a fine author if ever there was one. All it takes is for a pretty young, fresh, Beryl to give the name a new image. Cheryl (only dissimilar by a syllable) Cole hasn't done too badly for herself. As for the phonic similarity between Beryl and Pearl - hmm see your point, but not disastrous. What does your dp think?

I agree with excellentadventure. To a child the name Beryl or Bella or Sheryl or Meryl are just names without any associations. Kids will associate their friends with whatever names they happen to have.

There is nothing teaseworthy or silly about the name Beryl, not like William (Willy) or Tilly (Silly Tilly), nor does it have a negative meaning (e.g. like Claudia meaning disabled/lame), in fact it has a lovely meaning .

I think the OP is just ahead of the curve and I'd much rather meet a little Beryl than another Ella or Evie.

My grandmother aged 93 is beryl her sister were pearl and carmen (3 gemstones) I quite like it

You know, Beryl is really growing on me.

"I'd much rather meet a little Beryl than another Ella or Evie"

Good point, but there are a million and one other different, unusual names out there that aren't hideous like Beryl.

beryl possibly sounds unpleasant , simply because it's no longer wildly used and therefore only associated only with the elderly. we considered grace or arthur for dc4 but ruled them out because they were quite popular , when i mentioned this to my mum she laughed and told me , they'd considered calling me grace or arthur had i been a boy back in the late 60s but when they mentioned it to friends ,the response had been they are not suitable names for a baby , there ugly old peoples' names . so they went for something more mundane .

My grandmother aged 93 is beryl her sister were pearl and carmen (3 gemstones) I quite like it

There you go, tummytickler.

You should go for it. You keep coming back to it. You know you love it. I doesn't matter that you have a Pearl already - they don't sound that alike (if you were calling one of them).

10 or 15 years ago, people would've had the same reaction with Ruby, Grace, Eve, Cecily an now look - this board is full of them.

Oohh, Carmen could be lovely. As naughtymummy says it's a gemstone, and would remind people of beautiful singing and romance too (as in the opera)

Though I suppose it is made up of the components, car and men, which could be slightly weird ?

Beryl has the same chemical composition as emerald. Emeralds are the pure form of beryl. They are little greenish hexagonal crystals.

I'm not sure that Carmen is a gemstone? Are you thinking of Carnelian also known as Chalcedony?
AFAIK Carmen is an opera by G.Bizet.

Pearl is an organically formed nacreous carbonate - the name Margaret is a form of it.

Tourmaline is another mineral / gemstone, is a lovely unusual name - Malina for short.

stonkingly good name

Love Bee and Berry! Hate Beryl.