In your opinion, can people with names like 'Posy', 'Kitty' or 'Dotty' be taken seriously?

[Stateofgrace]

...I happen to think so, but my family and a few friends disagree. Strongly.

Almost every name I have considered is of the 'cutesy' variety - as well as the above three, I also like Polly, Lola and Nelly. I seem to just like girly names. My mother is fond of telling me ''You are naming a person, not a baby'' as if I am not aware that baby will grow up.

I know that you shouldn't tell people the names before baby is born and present the name as a fait acompli, but I really don't want to pick a name which everyone else seems to hate...

Any thoughts / experiences on this? My mother this morning has just told me that ''she wouldn't trust a Doctor called something ridiculous like Posy'', which is actually one of my favourite names.

Any thoughts/experiences on this?

[somewherewest]

I guess I also like the idea of having a formal/informal distinction in names. I always use the full version of my first name on official stuff, but shorten it with family and friends. I quite like having the distinction - I'd have hated it if that choice had been taken away from me.

[poppy12345]

Having the choice though makes it feel like you're not being called by your actual name. My birth certificate name is a formal name which I actually love as it was given to me at birth, later on in life when I was a little older way before school it got shortened to a nickname. Now I'm known by my nickname by everyone and really hate it! If I request my formal name it always get shortened and doesn't 'stick'. If your child grows up with being known as a shortened name, that will be their identity, if at 21 they change it to their formal name on their birth certificate they won't feel like themselves in my opinion.

I just wish I was still known as what was actually on my birth certificate! It's who I am!

[Yonionekanobe]

Is Posy short for Josephine?

[poppy12345]

Yon according to google it is!

[CheshireDing]

I haven't read the whole thread as it's massive

We have a Poppy and yes it does seem to be becoming a bit more popular but by the time she grows up and is in the working world there will be lots of people different ages so less people with the same names, ikywim.

Kitty or Dotty I think are fine but would probably use them as the nn but register the official name so the child then does have a choice.

I do think it is better to not tell people your name choices in RL though as they love to give their opinion ! Let's face it most people grow in to their names and nobody thinks anything of it.

We know a Teddy and the Doctor off Embarrassing Bodies is called Pixie.

[Onyabike]

Yes CheshireDing, but "Pixie" McKenna from Embarrassing Bodies is actually Bernadette Anne McKenna!

[Littleen]

I think it's ridiculous to judge someone by their name, and I would happily have a doctor called Posy or a lawyer called Lola! Name your little one what you think is beautiful :) None of them will be thought about as "too ditsy" by their own generation, because they are not so unusual. It won't matter!

[squoosh]

And yet despite her 'proper' name she still goes by Pixie in her professional life!

[pommedechocolat]

I think Poppy is popular on a larger age span, went to uni with one, had an 18 year old apprentice one last year and know a three year old one!

[shoobidoo]

Not suer I would not take someone with a cutesy name seriously..., but I do think that a lot of the recently trendy cutesy names are likely to sound dated as they fall out of favour again, as people look towards more solid names again. Such names incluce Alfie, Archie, Poppy, Ellie, Evie, Molly etc.

I personally prefer the sound of longer, elegant sounding names.

[CheshireDing]

Pixie is a way cooler name than Bernadette

[LadyLech]

Littleen,

Whilst people shouldn't judge others on their names, I think it is naive to think that others won't. There's a huge amount of research to show that people are judged by their names all the time. The link shows this point, although it is American, but there is a lot of British studies that have similar results

www.livescience.com/6569-good-bad-baby-names-long-lasting-effects.html

There's another, British study where researchers sent in identical CVs, certain names were found to be offered interviews far more frequently compared to other names. I forget where I read it, but it was fascinating.

And also, just because a name will become more common, doesn't mean it will necessarily be judged well. Think Sharon and Tracy of our generation!

[ringaringarosy]

names always get shortened or lengthened no matter what they are,Posy will be called Po for sure!

PLus if they hate it they can change it when they get to 18 if they want to,my cousin did that,but it was from one boring name to another so didnt see the point.

I dont see the point of giving formal names if you intend to call them a shortened version,its annoying,and that comes from someone with a long name who is known as the shortened version,id rather of just been called the short one.

[ratqueen]

I have given my DD a (fairly common) long name and short name, and we have always used both interchangeably. If that's is annoying to other people, well.... how is it their business?!! And every traditional boy name seems to get shortened at school anyway. Why not pick one with a shortening you like? Would you call a child Jim instead of James? I doubt it.

OP, people in RL (esp mothers!) love nosing in other people's name choices pre-birth. Much better to make a decision you love, keep it a secret, tell people at the birth, then they can lump it!

[skyflyer]

I kind of agree with your mother. Posy & Polly are ok as nn but not to be taken seriously. A 'proper' (sorry can't find the right word) name for the first name and then Posy or Polly as a middle name?

[Lighthousekeeping]

Omg my senior doctor on tonight is a Polly!! People are making ridiculous assumptions on here,

[babyboomersrock]

If it's true, as has been suggested, that HR departments are staffed by people so blinkered that they choose employees with the "right" names, then they need to be educated out of their discriminatory practices.

How do they cope when the name is not one they recognise? Or do they avoid the problem by binning all applications with "foreign" names, just in case it's the equivalent of Tracy or Sharon?

[Writerwannabe83]

The sad fact is that people are judged by their names - that is life and just because we don't agree with it doesn't mean we should ignore it.

I would never call my child something that might cause people to say, "What the hell was she thinking?"

Cutesie names don't bother me though, as long as they are real names I.e Poppy, Molly, Evie, Kitty etc. I don't think there is anything wrong with pretty names like that.

It is just ridiculous names I have a problem with, where children are called silly things that aren't real names - Bear being a great example

[Writerwannabe83]

Mind you, I do have two lovely kittens. Maybe I could call my child Cat? Not sure if it is a masculine or feminine name though...

[babyboomersrock]

Baby, very sadly when they've done blind tests with so called 'white name' cvs eg Annabelle Cordingly and identical cvs which have 'foreign' names on, many more of the foreign names get binned

I suspected as much, but thank you for the confirmation. I guess no-one can ever prove they didn't get an interview because of their name, any more than they can prove it's because of their colour - but perhaps more needs to be done to stamp out such discrimination at source. If HR staff are truly "educated" as someone claimed earlier, then they need to look at their uneducated prejudices.

I have a brother whose name is very "British" though his ancestry is Pakistani - he's adopted. He often laughs at the fact that his identity is "hidden" from prospective employers - but isn't it sad that he occasionally has to face the slightly-shocked expressions on the interviewers' faces? They presumably read his cv (which is excellent), and approve of his reassuringly middle-class British name, but then have to disguise their surprise when he comes through the door? His skin colour shouldn't matter, any more than his name...but it does.

So, our choices are to choose only interview-friendly baby names, or to train HR staff in equality legislation and continue to monitor their practices until they get it right. I know which I'd prefer.

[FoxyRoxy]

Dr Pixie on embarrassing bodies.

[VileWoman]

I'm not keen on the cutsie names, they infantise the women who will carry them. There is also the additional current problem that they are so popular at the moment that in 30 years they will seem very dated. But in the 'bad name' hierarchy they are nowhere near the Bears, Apples, or Chardonnays.

I also don't think every name that ends in 'y' is a cutsie name, Emily or Anthony are both proper names, but Dotty or Bobby should only be used as a nn.

Not sure I agree with the PP who said no name feels like your real name if you use several versions. My brother has a good solid traditional name that he uses at university and work, he has a family nickname that is a common short form of his name, he also has a nickname that his schoolfriends call him that only loosely related to his real name. All three names belong to him. My sister has a family NN that isn't based on her name, she is actually quite protective of it and friends and acquaintances aren't allowed to use it, but all her nieces and nephews call her 'Auntie NN'.

[curlew]

Real name Bernadette!