American names = bad?

[thecaroline]

Hello, everyone,

I'm not a mom or pregnant, just very interested in names. I've been reading here for a while and am a regular on another name website, and I've noticed that lots of posters here seem to feel a certain disdain for "American" sounding names. I'm curious about this, partly because I'm American, and partly because I don't understand the categorization.

So, what are these American names you speak of? And I'm wondering if all "American-sounding names" are inherently tacky to the British/Irish ear, or... what do you think? Where do "Australian sounding names" fit into this equation?

I have a feeling that this category of names is what a good number of Americans would label "tacky" or "trendy"... or at least I hope so.

Thanks, y'all (I might as well play up my Americanness, right?)

:)

[NinjaLeprechaun]

The thing that amuses me is that Jessica is in the top 5 for baby names in the UK right now.
On the other hand it's not popular in the US at all, probably because people becoming parents today had 3 or 4 in their class at school. It was the most popular girls' name in the US for the entirety of the 80s, and most of the first half of the 90s, and sounds like the quintessential American name to me.

CheerfulYank I don't think Liam and Aiden are going anywhere quite yet, they're both still in the top 15, and Liam was #2 last year. I agree with you about Declan and Finn being poised to become popular though. I wonder how much influence Adventure Time has on people choosing the name Finn.

[CheerfulYank]

Or Glee :)

No, I know they're still very popular choices. They just aren't "fresh" popular choices.

[SconeRhymesWithGone]

In the past few years, I have been doing a bit of research into my Scottish ancestors who came from Argyll to North Carolina beginning in the mid-18th century. There had always been a lot of Scottish surnames used in my family as first names, but I have discovered that this goes back several centuries in Scotland as well. There were also a good number of women in Scotland with family surnames as middle names, which is a traditional naming practice in the South as PP have pointed out. Of course, many Scottish surnames, including my own, lend themselves well to use as first names so I think that has played a part as well.

[SconeRhymesWithGone]

I love Phoebe, btw. Great name.

[mathanxiety]

' "Irish" people are naming their children McKaeley and claiming the name is an old family surname meaning something like "Celtic faerie dust."
I exaggerate but barely.'

Oh if only it weren't so true.
I was told that Kyla, Kelsey, Michaela and Lauren are Irish. Many people assume Megan/Meghan/Meagan is an Irish name too, Irish for Margaret it is alleged.

The two little Finns I know are Finnegan on their BCs. Finley hasn't made any inroads in my neck of the woods.

[YakInAMac]

The American names criticized are wannabe trashy celebrity gangsta names, and the equivalent UK names are similarly reviled ( Chardonnay).

I don't think we wi ever go for Palinesque names either, like Brick or Trigger.

[CheerfulYank]

Yak our surname is one of those Palinesque names and it's what I call my husband about 50% of the time. :o

I think it depends on where you live in the US too...where I'm from there are plenty of little girls named things like Madison, Kylee, etc, and while to me they are "down market" (and maybe other parts of the population as well) they really aren't in terms of lifestyle. Someone around here named Emersin or Braylee or Eliotte has as much chance of getting a degree as someone named Ophelia or Frances.

[Legionofboom]

It makes me a bit sad to read this thread. None of us have any say in the name we are given (unless we change it by deed poll - can you do that in the USA?) and yet we will be judged our whole lives on our parents choices.

I know we all do it and it's possibly more an instinctive judgement than anything else but it's not nice.

[Sophronia]

Yes CrewElla those names may have been and are used in Britain as well, but certainly not to the extent that they are in the US. They are all in the current top 100 there and aren't particularly popular here, so I don't think it's 'ignorant' to refer to them as American sounding names.

[TheSporkforeatingkyriarchy]

squeak Laquiesha is a variant of Lakeisha which is a Swahili name meaning favourite one. Many of the stereotypical African American names have African roots and are merely mocked because of who has them (like Tyrone which is an Irish/English name often mocked because it was so often given to enslaved boys and since passed down).

[thecaroline]

"Someone around here named Emersin or Braylee or Eliotte has as much chance of getting a degree as someone named Ophelia or Frances."

Yes.

Though there is definitely a correlation between being born privileged and making it to college and there seems to be a correlation between names like Braylee and a lack of material and cultural privilege.

[SconeRhymesWithGone]

Yes, once you are 18, you can change your name legally in the US (I think one state the age of majority is 19). The process is usually to file a petition in court but it is a fairly simple process.

[Legionofboom]

Thanks for that Scone. Here in the Netherlands you cannot legally change your name (except if your name is considered a rude word) even on marriage. Your name is your name for life.

[CrewElla]

my post should have said 200 years; so, yes, I do view it as British ignorance to be dismissive of American sounding names when the names, used as first names, are historically English. We are ignorant of our history.

[DecaffTastesWeird]

Agree with PP and personally find it a bit cringy to ape the culture of another country. For that reason I think a lot of "American" sounding names often don't sound right in a British accent.

[Legionofboom]

But do many names that are popular and widely accepted as traditional British names not come from other cultures?

[SconeRhymesWithGone]

One of the posters on this thread is Sophronia. That was my great-grandmother's name. I don't think it's ready for a resurgence yet.

[ineveram]

^I love American names blush
Caleb, bhodi, Riley, Addison, Peyton, meredith, Aubrey.
just not brave enough to use them^

Why would you name your child after a disease?

[ineveram]

To me, Cody just seems like the name of an idiot. It's so stupid-sounding.

It does sounds a bit silly. I can't imagine naming your baby Brad or Brett either.

[WittyUsername102]

ineveram - Addison has been a top 20 name for the last 10 years here. We know a lot who are under 5, and a few more who are teens..I had no idea it was a disease until MN

[WeeClype]

Oh dear I knew I shouldn't have read this thread since I have a ds named Cody

[SconeRhymesWithGone]

The disease was named for a person, Thomas Addison.

[Sunna]

Meredith is Welsh, Caleb is Biblical (and often used in Puritan times in the UK) and Aubrey is French and has been around since 1066.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Yes the first thing I think of is the disease given that it's not used in the UK and that's all people would think.

But then plenty of kids named amelia too which is a birth defect so it's not as if many manes don't have other meanings too