Would you give your DC the same name as a historical 'baddie'?

[AKMD]

I've been trying to figure this out. There are some fairly obvious 'baddie' names e.g. Adolf, Herod, Cain, Jezebel, but also some less obvious ones which are quite popular e.g. David, Delilah.

When you choose a name, do famous historical figures with the same name influence you at all? If there was a notorious person with the same name you were considering, would it stop you using it? Would it make a difference if it was the first known person with that name?

Just wondering :)

Delilah sung like a national anthem - I like that! "why, why, why ....Delilah?" Some names always make you think of songs. It isthe same with Alison for me, I always hear "my aim is true"

Can someone explain the Raoul connection please?

I

Moat. It doesn't leap out as a negative connection tbh in the way some names do.

See I'd forgotten about Raoul Moat. I was trying to work that one out.

Have never understood why people name their kids after biblical whores myself.

I know two brothers called Dante and Kaiser. The name chosen for their younger brother had no shock value and was a disappointment to many

Did someone say you can't really call a baby Elvis? Lawdy....

And introducing - He who must not be named.. Voldermort

And his sister moaning murtal

My son's middle and surname are the same name as an American republican well known for being an anti-communist.

If it is an unusual name which is associated with a historical baddie e.g Adolf, Oswald, Myra or Delilah then I wouldn't use it.

If it's a more widely used name which someone bad happens to have had e.g Rose (West) or Jack (the Ripper) then, if I liked the name, I would use it because the bad association would be diluted by other more positive associations.

I think for some of these, quite a lot of people wouldn't know or link first names e.g. Josef (Joseph) Stalin. Calling a child Stalin would raise a few eyebrows but Joseph is Mary's husband. Funny how that doesn't hold for Adolf or Benito though!

Same with George W Bush. 'Bush', or George if Bush is your surname would be weird. George is George. Ditto Robert Mugabe.

My DD1 was named after Queen Salome Alexandra. I have had a few people flip out for using Salome (making me glad I flipped them around).

I typically just blandly say that it was a common name at that time, being an almost feminine version of Solomon and meaning peace, and then explain who she was named after. Most people just go "oh" and scuttle off. Most people really don't care though.

Positive associations are important to me, and I wouldn't use something locally or universally negatively associated like Adolf, but most names will have both negative and positive connections and we make of them what we will.

Jack has remained popular despite the Ripper

Lucifer sounds great with our surname, but we didn't seriously consider it because of the negative associations. Although my husband did think that if anyone shortened it to Lucy our DS could smite them.

When I think of Salome I think of Freud. It feels like a very strong intellectual name to me :)

I thought Lucifer was a cute name until DH told me it's the devil's name. Too bad...it is a cute name. I would only the avoid the super super commonly known baddies. Like Adolf if your last name is Hitler and Saddam. Biblical baddies not an issue for me as I'm bascially an atheist and wouldn't know who the bad ones were anyway (as per my thoughts on Lucifer, LOL :)).

Lucifer means angel of light, which of course Satan was before he rebelled and fell from heaven. Nice meaning, very dark connotations :o

I had a soft spot for Vladimir and Igor (DH is East German so had a chance of going a bit Russian).

Aw, little Vlad running around nursery... :-)

We're currently calling our (boy) bump Goliath (which means enemy of the people of God). When he is born we will call him after the unpopular recently ousted French president. But we're not French, so hopefully it will be OK.

Do you know, we briefly considered Mara for DC1 but considered it too similar to Myra...for DC2 however Ivan was our back-up boy name, despite a few family no-nos (very tenuous), but it grew on us and it became our "boy name". We subsequently had a DS and 18 months later, we LOVE his name and receive so many favourable comments about it (although obviously have no idea what people say in private!). Having said that, we are trying to remember to say things to him such as "Ivan the terribly fast runner" or "Ivan the terribly good footballer" etc etc so that he is familiar with the phrase and therefore doesn't take it personally.

I also have a friend called Benito, and had no idea of the connotations until my parents mentioned it, and his parents are Italian!

:o at Ivan the Terribly Great Footballer. Genius.

The Mara are scary troll-women in The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner, so perhaps just as well...

Give this book to your 8-9 yr olds incidentally; it's brilliant!!