What do you think of Zephaniah?

[tvmum1976]

I honestly could never understand baby name threads, until nowI have a dilemma of my own! We are thinking about the name zephaniah- zephy for short (for a boy, as I have heard of some female zephys recently- think Chuggington...)

Please give an honest opinion. Is it too much? Is it ridiculous? Would he be laughed out of town?

I don't like it however I like Zephanie (Zephie for short) for a girl.

I'm all for unusual names and being different but sorry,think this one is a bit too much

Its a bit of a frilly boys name IMHO, but it does have a nice tone to it. A nice namesake is the poet Benjamin Zephaniah

Makes me think of nuclear war, due to reading Z for Zephaniah at at impressionable age,

It was Z for Zacchariah though, wasn't it? Zephaniah is okay but reminds me of the poet.

Makes me think of Benjamin Zephaniah too. He is awesome, but I wouldn't name a child after him.

Twas indeed z for zachariah.

Love it.

I love Zephaniah. It's been on my list for a future baby for years.

Yup. It just screams 'performance poet'.

I have no idea if this is a niche reading though. Apparently not on mn!

Sorry, but a big no.........

Sorry but I think it's terrible. I can't stand Benjamin Z either, so that doesn't sell it to me either.

What ... why?

thanks everyone. Now kind of more confused than ever. Because I don't know what names the people who hate it do like, I can't work out if we just have different tastes/ styles of name or whether it is truly objectively terrible! If anyone reads this and can bear to- if you hate it, can you say another name or couple of names that you do like, for reference. Or is that ridiculous?

Thanks again!

I don't mind it as a word/ name, but it's the associations with the poet that I think make it a bit 'trying-too-hard'.

It would be fine without that association.

(Not that there's anything wrong with BZ per se, just that it's the cultural equivalent of trying to find a name with only one possible sleb connotation, for the grauniad classes...)

Kinda like Kylie or Jason in 1985, or Shania a few years later. But with a twist that says 'I'm clever, and jolly right-on, me.'

The name itself is fine. And I quite like BZ. But I wouldn't name my child after him.

Boys' names I've liked for at least 20 years -
Thaddeus
Barnaby
Benedict
Rowan
Laurence
Luke/Lucas
Asher

Boys' names I'd also consider were I to have a ds now -
Bartholomew
Roland
Bram/Bramwell
Vincent
Simon
Wilfred

Forgot Edward/Teddy/Ned and Edmund - but they are likely to be far too boring for you!

I love Bartholomew, but loathe Bart or barty.

I like Sebastian, but loathe Seb or Baz.

I'm not telling you ds's name - but we did in the end go for one where I don't like the diminutive, and it has taken 11 years for anyone to use it.

I suspect we do have different tastes though, as I like Zephaniah (without the. Poet connotations) but Zephy makes my skin crawl. I'd have to just call him 'zee'. Zephy sounds... A bit like something a three yo would call a teddy, not a person.

I know a Zephaniah, shortened to Zephan or Zeph it suits him.

I think Zephaniah is lovely. My own son is set upon calling his future twins Zephaniah and Leviticus, clearly he is quite biblically influenced!
I love the names Sebastian, Boaz, Josiah and Nathaniel.
I really really love Elias but can't use it for my unborn unfortunately because I already have an Eli and Tobias so would look very unimaginative!

I immediately thought of Benjamin Zephaniah too!

I really like Zephaniah,and I love zephy!

If you like the sound of it, I used to know a Xenophon, known as 'Zenny' or 'Zen' (but spelled Xenny and Xen of course!).

He'd be mid-forties now - wonder what he's up to?

There's also Zephyrus or zephyr that have a similar sound...
these two are on my list.

thanks everyone and especially for humouring me with your name choices. Starlightloz- i think we have similar taste in names- I like your choices too. like the biblical stuff and have an older DS with a slightly 'extreme' biblical name too.

alwayslateforwork- love the idea that Z is the kylie or Jason of the radio 4 set! ha!

youllneedatray- I also knew a xenny in childhood- wonder if it's the same one!

thanks again to all.

Erm I like unusual names but this is too much imop. Think about the number of times you and he (when older) will hear "huh?" followed by "can you spell it for me?"