Is Reeva ok to use?

[fairyteepee]

Me and my husband love this name if we are having a girl BUT im worried everyone will immediately think of Reeva Steenkamp? I know she seemed like a lovely person and theres nothing negative surrounding her as a person. But the circumstances surrounding the name are very sad.
Would you still use it?

[Bowlersarm]

I've just google 'Reeva' and it is only Reeva Steenkamp coming up for pages. So I'd go with 'Riva'

[WhereHas1999DissappearedToo]

I think it's fine to use, so long as the baby isn't due any day now.

[Sunna]

Very bad taste to even consider it. It was a made up name.

[BigfootFiles]

Or just go with Eva. Or Caoimhe (often anglicised to Kiva, Keva or Keeva).

[Bowlersarm]

Sunna -it's not a made up name.

[LineRunner]

So no-one's going to call their boys Oscar any more??

[Zara8]

I dunno...
but I don't like it much as a name anyway.

If you want a similar South Africa/German/Dutch origin name, how about Renate?

[BigfootFiles]

Riva/Reeva is a Hebrew name actually Sunna.

[Chachah]

Oscar is a well-known common name with many other associations (Oscar Wilde?!)

Reeva is Reeva Steenkamp, and no one else.

[HighlandHannah]

I wouldn't. Maybe a couple of years down the line it would be ok.

financial but James isn't an unusual name, quite the opposite in fact. I have a good friend called Myra - she's 45 , but I know the name Myra is associated with evil. Reeva did nothing wrong, but she had such a tragic end.

[MajesticWhine]

Because it's unusual, Reeva Steenkamp is the immediate association. Not quite the same with Oscar, because it is not so unusual.

[Sootgremlin]

I think Reeva is a much more unusual name than those in the examples people are giving of other high profile cases. It is certainly the first time I have heard the name, and that is probably so for the majority of others.

I wouldn't use it this year, not while it is all so current. That is not to say it can never be used, but it will seem like you chose it because it is in the news now, depends on whether that's an association you'd be happy with.

[Sootgremlin]

I have to add, I think it would be unpleasant for your daughter to find out the connection in later years and that would stop me using it.

[flanjabelle]

No way.

[redandyellowbits]

I know a Riva, I think it's a lovely name, and I don't think it will be associated with the OP case for long enough to impact on people's opinions. (sadly).

[theendoftheendoftheend]

If you like it use it. The name doesn't become obsolete because something horrible once happened to someone named it. Personally I wouldn't automatically make the association either and I doubt most people will by the time the baby is born. I don't see why it would be morbid.

[firstchoice]

The timing's a bit weird.
I have a cousin called Carrie.
She was born the year the horror flick came out.
Her parents saw it and 'liked the name'
It's a lovely name, as is Reeva / Riva.
But I wonder if they ever said that to her, and how she felt?

Of course, this is a bit different.
But, still, I don't know if I would?
I'd certainly change the spelling.

Poor Reeva Steenkamp. RIP.

[Shinyshoes2]

Use it .. I like it
I prefer the look of Riva on paper though

[DrankSangriaInThePark]

Of course you can use it.

It might raise an eyebrow if you are in Sth Africa I suppose. Or if you knew the family or something.

But tbh, even yesterday, on the UK news channel I was watching, the verdict was only the 3rd item of news.

Are people not using Oscar anymore in case people think it's after Pistorius?

Exactly.

[Kendodd]

I think it's okay, lovely name as well.

For a few years people will remember RS though but by the times she's in school most will have forgotten, by the times she's an adult, nobody will remember.

The only thing is I'm guessing you only know the name from RS? That's the only time I've ever heard it. This means she would be named after a murder victim.

[Hakluyt]

I just think it's weird not to mind what will pass through everyone's mind when you introduce your glorious, wonderful beautiful baby. Just plain weird

[BOFster]

I'd spell it Riva if you really want to use it. I think it's a bit macabre to use Reeva as a) it will be easy to work out that the Pistorius trial was running while you were pregnant, and b) there are no other well-known Reevas you can point to, and naming a baby for a high-profile murder victim just looks weird.

[Thurlow]

How weird. Use the name you like.

[naturalbaby]

Depends why and when you chose it. What would you want your daughter to say when asked about where her name comes from?

[SignYourNameInBrownAndFlame]

I wouldn't, personally. There is a difference when the name is associated very much with one person and although Reeva Steenkamp did nothing wrong and sounds like she was a lovely person, her name has become irrevocably linked with tragedy, bloodshed and a high-profile murder trial. If there were or had been other well-known Reevas, or it was already a top 100 name it would be different, I think, but it's similar to calling a child Myra or Adolf. I appreciate the last two were the perpetrators of horror not the victims, but the effect of a name being instrincally connected to one notorious/tragic figure so that people make the automatic mental leap to that one person on hearing the name is the same.

In time perhaps, when the immediacy of the court case has faded, it might be different but I definitely wouldn't use it now. It would seem like a slightly odd, inappropriate tribute.