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?

Well lljkk, as I really like the name Kitty, I would like Kitty to interview me please . I'm not too keen on Elizabeth as a name so don't want her, but if she introduced herself as 'Libby' then that would be fine as I like that name.

this thread is going in a slightly peculiar direction.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Ussher
serious like an economist?
or serious like an MP?
:)

lljkk when I called the police after intervening in a horrible incident of violence the lovely police officers who came were Nicky and Gary. I certainly wasn't think I wish Nicola and Gareth had come instead.

I agree with your mum (not the doctor bit).

Plus how is she going to know when she's in really big trouble if you don't have a formal name to call her?!

I have a nickname given name and always wanted the long form. It's nice to have a name for casual use/friends etc. and a more formal one for formal occasions imo.

Lljkk if you've just been burgled you would not give two shiney shites as to what the investigating police officers names were.

Honestly, you sound utterly bizarre. As I said before I would question your intelligence if you assumed someone being called Posy meant they were incapable of doing a job they'd be trained for.

Do you generally get introduced to police officers by their first names?

I think if people cringe or decide on someones character because of their name it is their problem.
I don't think people should have to choose from a limited selection of names seen as serious enough to be a high court judge just because some people are ever so slightly snobby.

I'm with your mum.

Cute name for daily use. Serious name for the birth certificate.

In a world where school application forms have a space for 'first name' middle name' and 'given name' - there is absolutely no disadvantage to offering your DC a choice of valid name variants to use as they grow up.

Our generation had the chance to shorten & change our over-long square names... next generation are being a bit stymied with a tide of unshortenable names... I think they might well assert their individuality by lengthening their names, or going for an alternative nickname from the same root.

I suppose, thinking about it, I'd probably have a slightly higher opinion of someone called Kitty if it were short for Katherine, because I like the name Kitty and if it's a short form it means the person herself chose it so shares my excellent taste; if it's her given name it just tells me that her parents had excellent taste .

You don't judge a person by their name surely? You could judge their parents, but not the person who has it . . .

When my granny was in a care home, it was full of women called Gracie, Dulcie, Kitty, Betty. Gorgeous names, they all stand the test of time.

Call your baby whatever you like (your choices are lovely anyway)- your mum sounds a bit odd after all .

Posy Simmonds, 67 years old, has managed perfectly well being known by this name through a long and successful career.

Daisy Goodwin - 52. Also highly successful.

I'm more snobby about people using names they like but I don't understand why people would use names like that now that they're fashionable and not 10yrs ago. I would use a name I like and have liked for the last 20 odd years and will like.

The idea that names like William and Catherine and now George become popular due to other people having/using them makes me wince.

People should look at a range of names and never ever consider the trendy amazing celeb person who has used it and then use it because they think it makes it cool. It's not cool, it just shows lack of imagination.

Nothing wrong with William, Catherine or George if you liked them before and always. Just the rise I as reading about since their engagement/wedding and baby is just utterly ridiculous.

The thing I think about that MaryKatharine is that sometimes there is a name you haven't or wouldn't have thought about but that grows on you because you hear it a lot, and the more you hear it, the more you like it.

It is possible from hearing a name that you haven't considered and thinking 'ok, that's an ok sort of name' to hearing it again and again and thinking 'yep, I really like that name.' To then considering it for your own DC.

That's why names become popular, and go in and put of fashion, I suppose.

I have DSes in their teens, and I keep quoting Kitty on here as a name I like. But I didn't consider it for any of my DSes because 15ish years ago I hadn't really come across it before so it wasn't in my orbit. But if I was now to have a dd (impossible) it would be top of my list.

I think it's pretty much impossible not to be influenced by the prevailing trends of the day, whether that means thinking 'Oh yes, I think I'll call my daughter Lily too' or alternately 'Anything but Lily thanks'.

I suppose that account for some of it.
My Kitty is 5yrs old but I think I had always decided that if I had daughters they would have names that were formal with softer nns so I have Elizabeth (Lizzie) and Catherine (Kitty). My boys have similar names. I may have changed my mind though if 3 popstars or tv celebs had started to use it and created a trend.

I suppose I always wanted names that could be found in every generation going back and back and back; and hopefully forward too. I'm mid 40s and although lots of girls at school were, Sarah and Tracey, there was still Elizabeths and Catherines around.

All my boys have long names but they are all known by the shortened version. Although that is more to do with the fact we have a short surname so wanted their full names to be a bit more interesting.

That's a good point squoosh about being put off a name because it's popular. If you had grown up dreaming of one day having a little girl called Lily, then finding that half the population have nicked 'your' name, how annoying is that.

Yes, I have a friend whose 18yr old is called Grace. I remember everyone saying how lovely and unusual it was at the time. Fast forward a few years and it suddenly became very popular.

I also liked Jack 20 odd years ago, though we would have called him John on the BC. Then it suddenly seemed that every little boy was called Jack and just Jack.

I actually know 3 sets of boy/girl siblings who have a Jack and an Ellie. For a while it seemed that every new baby girl we were introduced to was called, Ellie. My 9yr old has 3 in his class too.

My daughter is a Kitty. She is almost 7. On her birth certificate, is Katherine.

My DD has already decided that when she's older she wants to be a Katherine, because she thinks Kitty is too babyish. She's happy with it now, whilst she's a little girl but wants a more grown up name for when she's older.

Her name, her choice. That's the benefit of having birth certificate names .

Oh I so wish we'd used Katherine instead of Catherine. She does get a little frustrated that her nn and her actual name begin with different letters. Though I suppose that's no different to, Bob, Ned or Lottie but still.

OP, I would take the person seriously if they seemed competent at whatever they were doing. I might think someone has a nice name, a weird name, a horrible name etc, but that has no impact on their characteristics or abilities. Sweeping judgements based on name say negative things about the mental competence of the judge, not the female pilot named Kitty.

I think your Mum has a point. Why not call a child Kathleen or similar if you like Kitty and just leave the Kitty for the shortname. But not Kitty, Dotty and so on for the name. Posy is a bit cutesie too. Like it or not people are judged by their names.

It is personal choice and aspiration. I didn't want to give my daughters' cutesy twee girly names because I didn't want to think of them becoming cutesy twee girly women. So I suppose I am inflicting my values on them, but it seemed to me sensible to choose a name with a certain gravitas as it is hard enough for women to be taken seriously as it is.