Savanna & Harvey....thoughts

[MotherOfCleo]

Hi
I am only in my firat trimester but me and my OH already have some favourites names wise. I wondered what other people thought though.

For a girl we are pretty much settled on Savanna Brooke, its unusual and so I'm worried our parents wont like it, but it is a name which means something to us and reflects my OHs history so we are very keen on it.

For a boy we like Harvey Sebastian but I dont like Harv for short which is tricky....we also quite like Ryley and Dexter as first names so this one is less decided.

Any thoughts would be welcome.

[difficultpickle]

The problem is OP that you are in the UK and practically no one would ever spell Savannah without an 'h', no matter if it is common to spell that way in SA.

Up to you what you choose but just imagine always having to spell your name out and then explain why it doesn't have an 'h' at the end.

[ladymia]

It's not a common spelling in SA bisjo. In SA they spell it the PROPER way with an H! Except when they are referring to the cider which is without the H ... or the OP's future child.

See what you have done OP, just what I was afraid of ... People now think people in SA are illiterate and can't spell!

[SirChenjin]

Did the OP say SA? I just seem to remember that her OH had African heritage - which struck me as a bit vague! I must have missed the SA bit.

[Roopoo]

OP never mentioned South Africa

[KateSMumsnet]

Ok, you say Savannah, I say Savanna, let's call the whole thing off.

[SirChenjin]

And Ryley? Where does MN stand on Ryley, Kate?

[KateSMumsnet]

@everlong

Bit late for that Kate

It's never too late for a bit of

[SirChenjin]

MN has neatly sidestepped the Ryley question, I note

[NorksAreMessy]

now, Ella and Louis, they are LOVELY names :)

[Skygirls]

Oooh! You're all so naughty .

Cleo congratulations on your pg btw. IMO, as others have said, if you like the name go for it. At the end of the day it is your child, so please don't get stressed out by what others have said. It doesn't matter.

I take the point that it can be a PITA to have to constantly correct people if your name has an unusual spelling, like mine, but so what? I never had a problem telling people.

My DD is a Savannah. Personally I love the name - for me, it was right for my DD. It suited her.
I had friends say to me that it was a porn star's name or was chavvy, but that was their opinion of the name, not mine.
(Although my DH said he would prefer not to think about her being a 'treeless plain' or just 'plain' )
My 2 cents worth is that I don't really like Ryley though, but love Sebastian - no real reason.

In a few months, you will have a beautiful baby.
The name you pick, spelling and all, will be lovely because it'll be right for your child. Good luck with everything

[Skygirls]

Well what is the correct way for pronouncing Louis? Is it Looey or Lewis?

Don't want to open a can of worms here......

[badtime]

This is an awesome thread.

I do feel sorry for the OP, in that she is clearly taking a lot of things personally which to an outside observer do not look like personal comments. She may well have felt overwhelmed by the number of people who (rightly, IMO) thought the spelling was an issue, when she did not consider that the spelling is an integral part of the name.

However, I think the 'thread is closed' and calling everyone bitchy etc was not helpful. That sort of behaviour looks a bit passive-aggressive, even if someone doesn't mean it that way.

Also, if many people think the same thing, it is not evidence that they are ganging up - it may just mean they all think the same thing about a particular name.



FWIW, the Queen's great-granddaughter Savannah Phillips is 12th in line to the throne. I don't like the name, but it's not necessarily 'chavvy'.

[SanityClause]

My point, notso is that the OP has changed her tune.

Earlier on, anyone mentioning spelling (including you) was attacking her.

But then, she thanked you for being understanding, even though you had "attacked" her previously. As I said, what you put in your later post, that you were thanked for, about not liking her choice of spelling would have been unacceptable to her on the first page of the thread.

She has been somewhat irrational all through the thread, and I don't really think she has been bullied, at all. And no one has called her illiterate or a chav. She made that up.

Frankly, I agree that she can spell the name however she wants. Many others who have been accused of bullying have said the same.

[vamosbebe]

OP: I don't like any of your names except Harvey - only because of the James Stewart film with the invisible bunny, one of my favourites.

How you spell names is, of course, up to you; but be aware that even though people in RL (probably) won't comment on something they don't like, when you're behind the anonymity of a forum username you'll read those thoughts.

For instance, I hate small babies with their ears pierced but I wouldn't say that to a parent's face!

Congratulations on your pregnancy

[Cotapaxi]

Not passive-aggressive just plain ole aggressive.

[badtime]

I agree Cotapaxi, but I think the OP genuinely thought that she was being attacked, even though most people were being polite and expressing an opinion which just happened to differ from hers.

I do think MN should have a [wahmbulance] emoticon.

[AvonCallingBarksdale]

I couldn't give a hoot about the spellings tbh OP., that's your call, totally. However, my personal opinion is that they are both names that I would give a very, very wide berth to. Savanna is marginally better than Harvey, which I really don't like. Sebastian, oth is great - Seb, Bas, Sebby, Bastian are all good IMVHO.

[Ashoething]

You asked for my opinion op-savanna and ryley are both horrible names and you will be judged for them as shall they.

[MotherOfCleo]

Ok, firstly sorry to anyone I upset, annoyed or p*ssed off in anyway. I have raging pregnancy hormones which went a bit awry, I honestly felt upset and like I was being ganged up on but should have written things more constructively last night.

I am finding things a bit hard at the moment as my OH had to go overseas almost as soon as we found out I was pregnant and I haven't told anyone in RL so have felt very alone. Then I fell quite badly in the snow last night and hurt myself, I was hoping for a nice chatty thread with name suggestions, banter etc but ended up feeling a bit bullied by all the 'anti' talk which continued long after I stopped posting.

I will bow out and let you continue and discussion you want to have.

[CheeseStrawWars]

Congrats on your pregnancy OP, and sorry you've been upset. I don't think that was the intention of most posters on here. Hope you recover from your fall quickly.

[Cotapaxi]

Oh no Cleo I am genuinely sorry . Well done for coming on and apologising that takes a lot of guts .

Take care of yourself and try not to take it to heart, don't bow out of MN altogether, this thread will die a death soon enough anyhow .

[MeerkatMerkin]

The names are not to my taste but if you like them that's what matters.

FWIW, when I was pregnant with DC1 I started a thread on here asking for opinions on a particular name with a particular spelling - a certain friendly ghost you may have heard of, but with a 'K' (that I loved and had called my cat years before)! The vipers ladies of MN said it was a nice name but suggested I might want to spell it a different way as the 'K' spelling I liked was associated with a clown/idiot in Germany. I didn't know this so was grateful. I ended up using the spelling of the name that MN suggested (beginning with a 'C' and ending -ar as I realised from research that their spelling was actually the 'original' spelling of the name and it has Persian origins, which I loved because I am of Persian heritage. I am glad I did, I love it and I'm so thankful I posted!

Funnily enough though he does get his name misspelt a lot, people tend to know the version of the name beginning with 'C' and ending -er that bloody ghost but it's nothing we have ever been upset over as we know our spelling is correct so we just correct as and when we need to but for things like birthday invitations and Christmas cards it really doesn't bother us.

Moral of the story: call your baby the name you love and if a certain spelling had meaning to you then that's nice and don't worry what other people think! But also, listen to MN, they may stop you making a big mistake.

I really don't think spelling Savannah 'Savanna' is anywhere near as bad as spelling, for example, the name Alistair as 'Alaztayre' - you're only missing off a letter on the end, not adding random letters and punctuation!

P.S. If you guessed my DS's name please don't spell it out on this thread as I don't want to out myself by his name being searched for.

Congrats on your pregnancy OP - I'm in first tri too, it's an emotional time isn't it. :)