slightly kooky 'posh' names? boys or girls?

[ihateshopping]

I wanted a slighty kooky 'posh' name for boys or girls. I really like tarquin, DH is not impressed. Ideas??

Io - have never heard of that!? Nor Messallina... Do you mean Melissa?

Io was/is a minor Greek goddess. Messalina (sorry for typo above) was the wife of Claudius the Roman Emperor.

Not especially happy stories, mind you.

Oh, I see. The other problem with Messalina is the potential nickname Messy .

Some other ideas
Arlo
Constantine
Carlotta
Theodora

Or, how about Iona?

Rufus
Ariadne
Persephone

Bertrand
Gertrude

Bethsheba. (not strickly posh though)
Loveday
Brideshead (cant get much posher than that)

Or just get a few PG Woodhouse books out of the library, you are bound to find some corkers

I though the OP was looking for 'cool' posh names. Gertrude and Bethsheba are just plain old ugly imo.

How about
Sebastian
Thaddeus
Theodore
Rosina
Arabella

Love Persephone, nickname Sephie!

I find it funny that Rosina is seen as posh these days. It was my great grandmother's name and she was from the slums of the East end of London.

Funny that about Rosina. I only ever knew one Rosina and her Dad ended up doing time.

Cassian
Rufus
Atticus
Raphael
Tristan
Miles
Quentin

Octavia
Maria
Seraphina
Olivia
Katharine

are all cool and not 'common'.

Claude
&
Charmaine

Charmaine is like Chardonnay - the other end of the spectrum imo!

Milo
Niles
Meredith (boy or girl)
St John (pronounced Sinjon)
Ludovic (Ludo)
Julian
Tabitha
India
Tamara

Bede
Rudyard
Valentine

Bede is ace
I don't get why Marigold isn't more commonly used. It is because of the yellow gloves???? Mari is an ace nn...

I love Blaise for a boy, don't know if I'd use it though but I love how it sounds

'Lets call her Marigold, and hope she will", a possible reason?

Messi would be a seriously cool nickname at the moment, but do you/DH support the right teams?

All the posh people I know are called William, Thomas, Charlotte and Elizabeth

Great, so the rest of us (normal people) can use these names without looking like we're copying anyone .

I really like
Rufus
Hugo
Sebastian
Quentin
Bede
Thaddeus
Harriet
Marnie
Cecily

I don't think there are 'posh' names anymore. People might still be posh (in the UK) but not names imo. Names that used to be posh (e.g. Sebastian, Olivia) tend to move 'down the ranks', eventually becoming quite common. Freakonomics indeed has a good chapter on this.

I just think of certain names being less overused/more interesting, but of course there is no guarantee that they won't become 'common' too.

Most of the names mentioned, e.g. Hugo, Quentin, Felix, Miles, Olivia, Harriet etc. are really quite 'normal' imo.

And it may only be a matter of time before people look for yet more 'interesting' names and start using Tarquin, Clarence, Petunia or Hortensia, making them seem normal.

And Gertrude will return!

Lawrence (Laurie)

I always liked Pandora too, but worry people would always ask about her box. Cringe.

I see someone has mentioned Katharine - is this making a comeback because of Middleton?