Jayden

[LBNM19]

Finding it really hard to pick a boys name, I've got a little boy called Louie and thinking of Jayden for this one could be shortend to J or middle name will be Joseph as that's my dads name so Jayden Joseph could also be JJ. Honest opinions please :)

Not that it is seen "as WC". Just that it doesn't get chosen as often by employers.

But usual they won't find a new job. There are literally tens of thousands of people with that kind of prejudice in jobs with hiring responsibility. They aren't going anywhere. There is no way of weeding them out.

Anyone discounting a CV for example because the name is seen as WC needs to find a new job.

I agree entirely. But there are some people out there like that - my first pupil master boasted about throwing any CV that wasn't Oxford or Cambridge in the bin, to give an extreme example.

But why make your child's life harder than it needs to be if you have a choice between two names and one has less baggage?

This.

It is just pragmatism.

Ok spero

People are twats and judge people based on one experience with the name.

So the answer to that is to advise anyone who likes the name to avoid it?

Fair enough. I give up.

Pragmatic - well, that's what I thought about 10 pages ago.

But now I find its all sorts of snobbery, classism, naivety or stupidity.

You live and learn.

I don't understand why it's so difficult to understand that the 'real world' is full of prejudice.

Yes it is wrong, but stamping your foot and shooting the messenger won't fix it.

So the answer to that is to advise anyone who likes the name to avoid it?

No. I refer you to the very first response I posted to this op.

All I have ever advised is for people to think and be aware of the choices they make because names have power and your child will probably carry it for the rest of his or her life.

Here is what I said, what seems like so many years ago now.

Please do note the inverted commas, a lot of people seemed to miss those.

*The 'problem' with Jayden is that it will immediately mark him out as 'not middle class'.

You may not see this as a problem at all, in which case go for it.

But I do think names are important so I would try to give any child a pretty neutral sounding name that wouldn't allow others immediately to put him in a particular box.

I think 'joseph' ticks all the boxes - its classic, its classless, you can shorten it to a variety of other nicknames if 'joseph' all the time is too heavy or formal.*

I would hazard a guess, Tantrums, that the answer is that the overwhelming majority of children with names like Jaydn/Jayden/Jaydon/Kayden/Tyler are from a particular socio-economic class. It's not 'several' children. It's most children with these names.

Similarly, I would suggest that most children called Sebastian/Rupert/Jago/Ottilie/Henrietta are from a wholly different socio-economic class.

Of course, someone named Sebastian can become a drug dealer. In the same way that someone named Tyler can become a Law Lord. But if outcomes in life are linked to class background (likelihood of gaining certain qualifications, likelihood of going to university, likelihood of going to a Red Brick university, likelihood of earning over a certain salary, likely age of child-bearing etc) then names used by certain classes will inextricably be linked to certain class outcomes.

Of course the OP may not give a flying fuck about any of that. However, she asked for opinions. Which people have given.

I am aware of that usual. I have seen just how 'up' your back has been for a number of pages now.

I am only sorry it has lead you to accuse me of all sorts of appalling things and encouraged a lot of others to jump on what I think was a really unfair bandwagon.

I am very sorry you feel slighted by me. I would be a fucking idiot to look down on the WC given that I am but one generation and one university degree removed from the WC. I and my parents benefitted from a degree of social mobility that now seems denied to my daughter's generation and I think this is a wicked shame and waste of people's lives and talents.

Because sadly there will be many people who want to put others in a box and keep them there.

Then I wouldn't want my children to work for an employer who was that much of a twat.

Personally I don't think it's up to me who my child works for.

I was given an article by a friend when pregnant that said you should imagine your child's name being read out at a Bank of England Monetary Policy Meeting and wonder if eyebrows would be raised. If this sounds like a load of pretentious middle class BS to you, by all means call him Jayden.

*I don't understand why it's so difficult to understand that the 'real world' is full of prejudice.

Yes it is wrong, but stamping your foot and shooting the messenger won't fix it.*

The "real world is full of prejudice, racism, sexism

I always thought it was a good thing to challenge discrimination in any form and not just accept that is how it is.

I also think that perpetuating the "fact" that having a certain name holds you back in life is quite absurd.
And I don't like the idea of having to name children according to which "class" they are, or which class their parents aspire to be is ludicrous

I dont think that sends a good message to anyone- quick, pretend you are MC so you are successful.

Aren't we supposed to teach our children that the world is at their feet and if they work hard and have a good work ethic and ambition then they can achieve great things?

Wow, this thread has gone off at a tangent! Don't know if OP has / will come back / read this but on the off-chance:

I love Joseph!

Not keen on Jayden though love Aidan or Hayden.

Don't like alliteration either so would rule out Jayden Joseph & JJ.

My vote is for Aidan Joseph

I am very sorry you feel slighted by me. I would be a fucking idiot to look down on the WC given that I am but one generation and one university degree removed from the WC. I and my parents benefitted from a degree of social mobility that now seems denied to my daughter's generation and I think this is a wicked shame and waste of people's lives and talents.

Interesting you should say that. My parents only got their degrees because the existence of Birkbeck University meant they could study at night, one of my grandparents signed their marriage certificate with a cross, two of my great grandparents were born in a workhouse. I have been allowed all sorts of chances.

Maybe I feel the fragility of the progress I too. Maybe I am not very bold as a result

"Aren't we supposed to teach our children that the world is at their feet and if they work hard and have a good work ethic and ambition then they can achieve great things?"

In an ideal world this would be true.

But it's not an ideal world. I prefer to help my children deal with the world as it is, not how I would like it to be.

Like don't have a tattoo on your face. It will hold you back. Whether it's right or wrong for people to have prejudices against those with tattoos on their faces doesn't really matter.
They do, so we have to deal with that.

all the baby names threads have lead me to think that the best policy is not to ask on MN what people think of your names! God, DD's name (both her first name and first-middle name combo) is regularly derided on MN as being too common popular, but we think it's beautiful and that's all that matters, frankly. I have no idea if it'll mark her out as a future judge, nurse, teacher, archaeologist, dustman, whatever. I do hope it won't get too dated, though now I realise how popular it is perhaps it will, but hey ho. It's got one spelling and one pronunciation which is handy (I saw that as someone who has a less-usual spelling of a classic name and I spend my life sending back documents to be redone - thanks parents!).

Maryz all the types of discrimination you name can (and have been) legislated for. Do you really see class prejudice being outlawed in the UK any time soon?

"I always thought it was a good thing to challenge discrimination in any form and not just accept that is how it is."

Challenging it is not the same as saying it doesn't exist in the first place.

"And I don't like the idea of having to name children according to which "class" they are, or which class their parents aspire to be is ludicrous"

There are plenty of perfectly nice names that don't fit into class categories - parent's don't 'have' to do anything, it's a question of taste and choice.