DH list - I will be surprised apparently

[TippleMacFreddy]

I suppose it is what I get for marrying a Medieval ( Anglo-Saxon) expert.

I think he is slightly crazy but he has made me promise to put up his list because 'you will be surprised' (this is the list after my cull btw)
So....

Boys

Athelstan
Oslac

Girls

Alswitha /Ealswith
Osburh/ Osburga

That's quite a list! Maybe Athelstan as a middle name (as yes he was a great king) but none of the list really translate to now to make a workable name, especially the girls' names.

I think that you could have Athelstan as a middle name without major problems. ds is named after Alfred the Great and loves the historical connection (if we had realised just how popular Alfie would become a couple of years later we might have thought again though). Athelstan sounds like he was quite an impressive figure.

the girls names are definitely more problematic!

NoMoreMarbles DS's name is a 7th century Northumbrian King/Saint. That was probably about the last time it was used so old rather than old fashioned but no classical associations.

Certainly my experience with name based bullying is that I have often heard older generations making up silly name based nick names. These bullets were then fired by their children. These days there are so many different cultures and backgrounds in schools that IME children dont really notice the names unless pointed out. In the past I recall there being far fewer names (my year was the 'Sarah' year, DH's was the 'Andrew' year) so possibly anything different would be commented on. Now that all names are different I'm not sure that the same rules apply.

I suppose what I am really saying is that if you want to test a name then try it out on a group of young children rather than a bunch of adults on MN!

Love the sentiment, just not the actual choices.

How about:

Boys
Alric
Anselm
Caelin
Osric
Oswyn

Girls
Guinivere
Judith

I knew someone whose first name was Aldith which I think is nice and dates from a similar time.

I don't actually think bullying is the problem. my step nephew wasn't bullied, it was just the relentlessness of every single person he ever met commenting on ibis name- even though it was very rarely meant unkindly that wore him down to being a school refuser- he just couldn't face going through it all again at Secondary school.

I have hqd 50 years of saying "no, with a C not a K- yes it's the Irish spelling", and that's irritating enough!

Or, if you go for Athelstan, you could move to the centre of Kingston upon Thames, where it will be familiar to most people. OTOH, it might defeat DH's object of impressing everyone with his choice of obscure Saxon name.

OP - Can I give you a tip, while he is keen on these names, do you have sensible more conventional names you prefer? Then when your DC is born, after your DH having watched you go through the most terrible looking pain and not being able to help (academic men tend to feel the most useless at the birth IME), you hold your new snuggly little baby and say "hello X" (X being whatever name you really want to call him/her), then look at the staff, "s/he's called X". Your DH will at that point find it hard to argue with you and you can say "Oh I know you wanted [insert whichever bonkers name you'd settled on] but he/she looks like X, we can make [bonkers name] the middle name." Keep using the name you like a lot in the first hour. It'll stick. Middle names are allowed to be embarrassing, first names, not.

Quite like Bede

My DS' middle name is Eadric, but we often call him that as well as his first name and actually it sounds great! We pronounce it ee dric. His first name is James

Don't think it's a good idea to have sex as part of a name, doubly so if it's at the beginning.

Athel at the beginning has too much scope for Ethel or awful as nicknames

Dh is Edmund which he likes albeit he is known to all as his nickname and only ever used Edmund for formal stuff - I certainly don't think that I've ever called him it.

Met someone once who was called Kentigen (sp?) which he liked and used in full rather than shortened. When he said it, the last bit sounded like the gun in begun rather than the gen in general.

i actually quite like all of them.

gnome good point I suppose it could come from the parents etc IME it didn't feel that way but I suppose as a 10year old being called names because of your name, you focus on the bully rather than the parent... I am, however rather curious as to what your DSs name could be

I thought it was Sexburga .... I've seen that somewhere. Sounds much more interesting than a Whopper :o

I don't often say this, but those names are all absolutely awful. I have no problem with old-fashioned or unusual names necessarily, but the girls ones in particular are just very ugly to the modern ear/eye.

I'm sure there are nicer Anglo-Saxon-inspired names than those...

DS is Oswin, I checked with him and also his big sister and both confirmed that it has never been a problem.

Dreadful.

How about Roland? Alain? Theoden? Harold?

gnome is it oZwyn or oSswnn (pronounced obv lol) I don't think that's "bad" not my taste but nice for what it is IYSWIM

I sniggered like a teenager would in registration class upon hearing Offa and Wuffa. I can even imagine the teacher trying to stifle a smirk as he/she tries to set a good example to the class.

Athelstan or any of the other less mean options are fine, but as MIDDLE NAMES ONLY. That way the child does not ever have to admit to it if he/she doesn't want to. Great that your DH is so passionate about his area of expertise, but there's a reason those names have died away over the centuries.

Is the Anglo-Saxon bit more important than the medieval option?

DD is Alys which is medieval but I'm not sure about it being Anglo-Saxon. I think Audrey is from that period too.

This website is quite useful:

www.behindthename.com/names/usage/medieval

I like some of them. I would use them as middle names though.

I love proper english names.

love athelstan.

I would go for those if i were married to your dh.

DH's cousin has an unusual middle name and you should have heared the sniggers at his wedding when his full name was read out. So even middle names should be considered carefully.

NoMoreMarbles it is with a hard 's' so Ozwin rather than Osswin. It's a name, it's his name.

As many of the later posts are demonstrating it's the juvenile adults who will cause problems not children. Children are more interested in whether their new friend is good at football/has the latest xbox game not whether he is called Athelstan or Bob.

Tipple's DH, I am a history and language nerd and I understand how tempting it is to name your child with something that refers to your interests.

But really.

You cannot name a child any of these things. They are so unusual as to be an albatross around a child's neck. Can you imagine your child trying to introduce himself to people, and they just can't understand what his name is? Do you realise how excruciatingly embarrassing that is? Having to shout over the music in a club in order to spell your name to girls/boys you desperately want to pull??

My DH has an unusual name. It's actually not even as unusual as the names you've got here, and he H-A-T-E-S it. Hate hate hate hate hate hates it, so much that he just wants to scream when he introduces himself to people. The only reason he hasn't changed it is because his parents would be upset, plus he is a shy person who doesn't like to bring attention to himself, and telling people he knows that he's changed his name would make him cringe for months if not years.

PLEASE don't name your child any of these. Bede I can just about swallow, but it will never be pronounced correctly, and is actually quite ugly sounding when you take the history away.

Can I suggest something like Dunstan, Caedmon, Edward, Oswald, or Wilfred for a boy. For a girl, what about Ethel, Emma, or Hilda. These names were all widely used in the medieval period, but still have some sort of reference in the mind of a modern person.