Artemis?/ other Classical names

[AbieH]

So I'm kind of a Classics geek and I really want something recognizably Classical for my baby. I'm wondering if Artemis is a step too far for a girl? Other girl ideas: Dido, Persephone, Helia, Livia, Hebe, Selene?
For a boy: Cosmo, Rufus, Felix, Philo?
Tell me honestly, am I setting my kid up for a childhood of bullying and a lifetime of prejudice? DH has told me that I am completely free to choose a name and he will not interfere, which to be honest is not very helpful... Help me? What do you think of these names, and can you think of any others? Thanks xx

misread Dido as Dildo.

I think we should all stop stressing about how people might mispronounce or misinterpret or tease. Unless we all want to name our kids Jane or Bill - and even then.. 'oh, plain Jane', or 'oh, the old Bill, eh?' What matters its that is sounds good to you.

Cassandra
Hedda
Eustace (or Eustacia- "it's enough to scare the birds!")

My DD1 and DD2 both have names mentioned here. One is Selene. She rocks her name!

Helena- I LOVE this.
Julia
Claudia
Cosima

I know an Atheni which I think is lovely.

Lorenzo
Augustus ( Gus is cute)
Julian
Marcus

Hmmm, I'm another of the ?50% of mnetters with a happylucky son. Didn't realize there were quite so many out there.

On the naming after gods question, I know a very handsome Greek man called Adonis. It works for him, but seems risky.

I have a Rufus & a Claudia & a Penelope (it was toss up between that & Helena for her) & a Jasper (who would've been Octavia if he'd be a girl). I like classical names

i'm drooling over these names and feeling all name-broody

I have a Felix and an Aurelia - they get lots of compliments about their names and haven't had any negative comments about them except on mn and when i was pg with ds

Love all the names on this thread. I have a Hermione & a Camilla. Perdita was vetoed as too Jilly Cooper, Aurelia as DH thought sounded like areola(?!) and I vetoed Persephone, but now love.....
My mum is eighth child - I always tell her she should have been called Octavia! You could call someone Octavia if born inAugust at a push....?
Great ideas for DC3!

Haven't read the whole thread so apologies if someone has suggested this, but Circe is a cool, classic name for a girl. Also, a female snowboarder from the '90's had it and I thought it was great...

Beyond the nickname and pronunciation issue, Clytemnestra is a bad idea seeing as she murdered her husband in his bath, married her lover and was later hacked to death by her children.

I agree that for some of these names, whether you can get away with them will depend very much on what the social context is. There are lots of upper-middle class families who wouldn't bat an eyelid at any of these, and there are working class areas where many kids will have unusual names and the more unusual ones suggested here won't stick out as much. Where they are most likely to be perceived as showy is in the middle of the middle. And you have to think about them constantly having to spell them out for people.

Having said that, I'd love to use classical names too, and I think you shouldn't let MN put you off if you really love a name.

Does anyone else think it sounds like an STD? Sorry

obviously in the minority here but a lot of these names are incredibly horrible and outrageously pretentious. Clytemnestra? Ptolemy?
I suppose whatever floats your boat but to me they scream "Look at my mummy/daddy. Classically educated you know!"

zillah for a girl

sieglinde I can't believe you think all that matters is it sounds good to you The child may spend years spelling their name and that's not worth stressing over? And how is a name misinterpreted please, how does that work?

Have to laugh at this thread - only on Mumsnet!

I love classical names (and we did consider Julius for our son but decided against it because we thought he might be teased or called Julie) but you are going to the very UMC extremes here. Whenever we attend a Yummy Mummy/Daddy event I am just waiting to hear the first mention of Jocasta or Artemis and internally laugh when invariably I do!

To some extent it is the flip side of the made up 'chavvy' names - it certainly shouts your class from the rooftops and there's nothing wrong with that per se but your children might not be so keen....

There's classical and just pretentious!

My SIL did Classics at Cambridge (see Mary Beard thread!) and she never considered going down this route.

Most children wish to fit in and with some of these classical names you would stand out like a sore thumb - particularly in a state school!

Whereas some can seem pretentious and stuck up without using classical names... Not sure coming across as a stuck up twonk because of your attitude is any better, to be honest.

For those with an Aurelia, dont you have any problems with pronunciation?
My son is Aurel and i kind of regret it because people says oriel, Owen, owel, they just can't says the "r" correctly...

Re- having a "different" name to standards one - I guess it depends where you live. Here in london most people have to spell their name anyway because London is do cosmopolitan. My name is Charlotte and while it is a pretty standard name, I still get asked to spell it!! Amazing! And sometimes people get it wrong and write it with an S instead of a C (apparently the ch in syrillic alphabet looks like sh).
My children will forever be asked to spell their surname anyway, I'm sure they ll get used to it just like I did when I came to England (I'm French). I mean, it is no big deal.

Eleni (El-EH-ni) is the modern Greek version of Helen, which I think is gorgeous.

Just remembered, I heard about a man who named all his children after Latin cardinal numbers, in order....I think he stopped at five!
Spose Tria is quite pretty. Or Duae. Actually no, don't like the idea at all anyway.

gazza, what names do you think will guarantee that dcs will 'fit in'? I can't think of any. 'Plain names' are just as odd in some contexts as fancy ones. I grant you that Ptolemy would be unusual in most circles, but so would Mary. I don't think most would fancy picking the 5th most popular names for 2012 and using that...

I hear what you're saying but there are names that stand out and names that STAND OUT. I have a nephew called Merlin and that raised quite a few eyebrows as although one side of the family would consider themselves UMC the other side most definitely isn't!

Don't get me wrong I do love classical names in classical literature. Maybe in multi-cultural London you could get away with it (as you can with most names because of the cultural mix) but surely not in East Anglia (unless in Cambridge where I dare say there are loads of children with such names!).

I have a classical Greek name. Whenever I'm asked to give my first name I pause, take a deep breath then pronounce it correctly and spell it very slowly. If anyone asks me what it means I say 'pretentious middle-class parents'. I wouldn't change it for the world though. My two kids both have names that are in the top 20 boys' names.

Funnily enough there was a kid called Merlin in my dd's class at one stage.

Here in Oxford, and FWIW, my sense is that posh names are pretty well-known - Henry, for example. Or Edward - though maybe Twilight has changed that. We have zillions of Olivias and Chloes, too, and Harriets and Isobels and Phoebes. What's usual in East Anglia? What if you call your kid whatever is normal there, and then move to Cambridge?

Ha I don't actually live in East Anglia but was considering it to be quite Middle England in mentality although I know in the agricultural areas things are getting more multicultural - please don't shout me down!

Yes, Oxford is as Cambridge in mind-set methinks.

My two have both got names in top 20 lists although we are older parents and had liked the names for yonks before DCs were born - obviously fashion caught up with our natural choices. Both would be considered to have a classical origin but not pretentiously so, as both are quite pan-European in terms of popularity.

I guess it is a difficult one and it annoys my DW no end that she had chosen such a lovely name for DD which is now so very popular (although not common)

Yes, we have a Merlin at DCs school too but it's still quite unusual!

On the subject of very, very unusual classical names I guess if you use diminutives that are cute/straightforward it probably makes life easier for the children. Seem to recall in Upstairs Downstairs one of the women was called Persephone but called 'Percy'in everyday life...