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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

If I say Jonah, what do you think of?

73 replies

ICantDecideOnAUsername · 26/04/2015 21:56

Erm, that's it really. Struggling with boys names (although don't actually know if we're team blue or team pink yet Hmm.)

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SaBearOz · 27/04/2015 12:28

My gorgeous DS- loved the name since sleepless in Seattle, then the NZ rugby player, the whale and then Jonah from Summer Heights High.
Didn't know the bad luck connection until I read it on mumsnet a few months ago but I still love it. Classic yet underused which is why I loved it. He occasionally gets called Noah by mistake or Jonas but that's rare.

ouryve · 27/04/2015 12:31

Louis.

And I get "It Aint Necessarily So" as an earworm.

SevenEleven · 27/04/2015 12:40

I love the name Jonah! Smile

I wouldn't think anything if it was just said in conversation, but - like many names - if you ask me to think about it then I suppose I think of the little boy in Sleepless in Seattle, Jonah and the whale, and the fact that my friend at school used to think that Joan of Ark was actually called Jonah Vark!! Grin

But if I were to meet a little boy called Jonah, I would think what a lovely name.

ChanceBeAFineThing · 27/04/2015 12:45

My cousin, known as Jonty, which I really like.

Tattiesthroughthebree · 27/04/2015 13:29

Whale

squoosh · 27/04/2015 13:43

Bad luck.

tomatodizzymum · 27/04/2015 13:57

I think of the whale in the word. But my sons BF is Jonah, it didn't come into my head when I met him. It's a lovely name. He too has a huge smile.

flamingtoaster · 27/04/2015 14:08

Jonah and the whale.

Nanasueathome · 27/04/2015 14:09

Smyrna 3 year old grandson

Nanasueathome · 27/04/2015 14:10

That should say MY 3 year old grandson
Stupid ipad

SunnySomer · 27/04/2015 14:12

My DS has a best friend Jonah, too, never thought of him as anything but Jonah.
He's lovely, funny, chatty, sporty, brainy (secretly wishing he was my child?!)

SevenEleven · 27/04/2015 14:28

How can a name be bad luck?

squoosh · 27/04/2015 14:39

The name itself isn't bad luck but traditionally sailors have referred to someone who brings bad luck as being a Jonah. In the bible story God was angry at Jonah and created storm to have him thrown off the boat he was travelling on thus endangering everyone on board.

Then he got swallowed by a whale but escaped that too. So you could argue that Jonah was in fact very lucky!

SevenEleven · 27/04/2015 14:48

Ah, I've never heard that before! Grin

Groovee · 27/04/2015 14:48

Satsumas

A couple at our church when I was a child announced they were having a baby by handing out satsumas. Their son was then named Jonah.

ICantDecideOnAUsername · 27/04/2015 20:43

Maybe I'm over-thinking it. The more I think of the name the more I like it. I would probably do Jo or Jonny as a nn. Still have to get it passed the other half before it gets on the shortlist though.....

I don't get the connection between satsumas and pregnancy. Am I being thick? Nice thought though - I'm going through a satsuma phase at the moment.

Jonah Vark, love it! Sorry, our surname is not Vark but it would almost be worth a trip to the deed poll place Grin.

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TheBuskersDog · 27/04/2015 20:54

As somebody else said when asked what you think of when you hear the name they may say whale etc, but when you meet a boy called Jonah you don't think of it.

albertcampionscat · 27/04/2015 20:56

Oh Jonah he lived in whale/ Oh Jonah he lived in a whale/ Oh he made his home in that fish's abdomen/Oh Jonah, he lived in a whale.

Ira Gershwin was a genius.

Philoslothy · 27/04/2015 20:58

A whale

kavv0809 · 27/04/2015 20:58

The Loner. Jonah the Loner.
Not sure if it's a rhyming slang thing but used to hear it down essex way.

Notso · 27/04/2015 21:13

Jonah Hill who I quite fancy.

Love the name it was a very close contender for DS3 but it's DH's friends nickname he is also quite fit.

lemonyone · 27/04/2015 21:43

Hang on - just because it's associated with a whale doesn't mean it's a bad name.
I mean - when I hear Noah I think "ark" but I love the name.

My DD has a name which means that everyone sings her name the first time they meet her. It wears off very quickly and then the association with her name becomes "her" rather than the "song".

Really like Jonah. Go for it.

VainVulva · 29/04/2015 13:39

I love it! But the nn Joe would put me off....I also like Josiah but similarly the possibility of the nn Joe would put me off!

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