question- what are "posh" names?

[thecaroline]

I'm not from the UK, so I was wondering what everyone means when they say a name is "posh." Like, upperclass, but which names in particular? Names like Arabella, Charles, etc.?

Dont forget the posh Catholic names.
Benedict
Dominic
Sebastian
Basil
Basically think "Brideshead" and you're on the right track.

Hugo, Rupert, Giles, Tarquin, Monty, Ptolomy
Bunty, Bunny, Arabella, Clarissa

With Isambard I guess the parents intended to put in mind Brunel not Pakistan!

Agree as you put it well moxon & awful daughter can seem a distinction between established posh and the 'nouveau'. Not that I've known many!
Just thought of Barnaby, Constantine, Cosmo, St. John plus Anouska, Portia, Solange. A couple more -a/-ina on the end of a man's name too: Edina, Nigella, Roberta, Thomasina. Regina to be really aspirational?

Yy to nouveau names being the posh names I dislike. Solid old proper names aren't offensive.
I dislike things like Toby, Tarquin, Gideon, Jonty, Torquil, Hugo and Cosmo or Candida, Arabella, Persephone etc.

Thanks for all the examples! For some reason I had it in my mind that to be posh you had to be kind of an old family. I didn't know the word referred to the "nouveau riche" also.

The older families around here tend to use traditional classic names, too. But every now and again you'll get a family surname used as a first name, which I guess isn't done so much in the UK.

The word 'posh' was the acronym for 'port out starboard home' - in other words the way that people with money travelled on the ship (best views). Some think posh = upper classes; some just equate posh with having money.

Never knew that Oriunda!

Wow! I had no idea that's what posh meant! very interesting.

Oriunda- that's just a myth. The majority of people booking a passage to India did not arrange 'home' journeys, as they were intending to colonise.

The precise origin is unknown, but it is possibly from a romani word used to mean 'money', and an associated word meaning 'dandy'.

Giles has been mentioned a few times - that's not a name I'd associate with being "posh" at all, ditto Tara. The poshest people at my school, were:
Bassy (Sebastian)
Jools (Julian)
Crispin
Francis
Tiffany double-barrel
Anna
Sophie
Cleo double-barrel

Also, it is the done thing in some families in UK to use a 'family' name as a middle name perhaps (either a forename used by many in the family, or a surname). My brother has a family name as his middle name.

People that are upper class would never use the word 'posh' btw, and they do tend to be 'old' families. I don't know of anyone with new money that is UC.

A good book to examine this subject is Kate Fox's Watching the English.

Yes, like NerfHerder said they often use a family name as a middle name, and often use more than one middle name too, and it's true that upper class people never use the word 'posh', I think they use 'smart' instead? At least that's what Kate Fox says in her book.

The 'nouveau riche' are more upper-middle than upper class, but some may try to appear or sound 'posh' and that could possibly be why they use such posh-sounding names - not being aware that most real upper class people just use normal, classic names.

"Some think posh = upper classes; some just equate posh with having money."

I agree with this Oriunda, the definition of what is 'posh' seems to be an individual thing as well. I've been called posh before just for pronouncing my 'th's', and I would never define myself as posh

I once met a man called Meredith. I think this must be the poshest name I have ever encountered.

Anything ending with 'a'. Amelia, Arabella, Anastasia, Henrietta, Sophia, Cordelia etc. The 'a' has to be pronounced in a certain way. Posh teenagers never call each other by their names. They use nicknames, or first letters. I used to know an 'Aitch' and a 'C'.

Names heard round Waitrose include Hugo, Zachary, Toby, Charles and Marcus. Harry/Henry is becoming a bit common now.

Highly amused that my name and those of my husband and daughter are considered posh.

We're not posh at all but perhaps we secretly aspire to be

Oriunda- that's just a myth. The majority of people booking a passage to India did not arrange 'home' journeys, as they were intending to colonise.

You didn't have to book both directions. The point was that the wealthier passengers would always be on the port side out and the starboard side home.

I agree that the port out starboard home thing was debunked. Pretty sure the OED rejected the etymology.

Oxford dictionary site says that none of the etymological (spl??) theories can be proven or disproven, but the Persian one is less likely.

The Romani theory certainly sounds very likely though.

Amelia is a pretty name but it's not posh nowadays - it's been the most popular name for baby girls in England and Wales for the past 2 years; getting on for 6,000 babies were given the name in 2013. Posh surely implies an element of exclusivity? Am not saying that this is a good thing, but I think it's a fact.

Sophia (also pretty) used to be posh, but is also very popular now; it was no 15 in England and Wales in 2013 and Sophie was no 9. Almost 6,000 babies were given one or other of those names in 2013. There were also over 1600 babies called Sofia (= no 30).

My dog has a posher name than my children!

Names tend to 'trickle down' the social classes, this is well explained in the book Freakonomics.

So formerly 'posh' names like Isabella, Aurelia, Sophia, Sebastian, Quentin, Raphael, Hugo, are now fairly normal.

But I also feel that people make their names, not the other way round and I think the UK is becoming a little open minded about names, certainly around London.

Ptolemy!

I don't know if you can really generalise. I teach in a posh school (home counties private traditional prep, feeder for lots of big name public schools) and I teach/have taught over the last few years a wide variety of names including:

Sebastian, Hugo, Frederick, Darren, Gavin, Ptolemy, Charles, Bailey, Orlando, Lysander, Montgomery, Declan, Dylan, Conor, Liam, Cosmo, Harrison, Benedict, Jake, Jordan, Joleyon, Tristan, Alfie, Archie, Albert, Barnaby

Lara, Victoria, Savannah, Dakota, Annabelle, Isabella, Antigone, Sydney, Hailie, Eliza, Atlanta, Jasmine, Jade, Kya, Tia, Elizabeth, Darcey, Sophia, Beatrice, India, katinka, Genevieve, Georgina