Baby names with private jokes attached - cute or unfair on the kid

[owlborn]

So, DH and I have had a plan for ages for our firstborn's names. They are very nice names, we think, but we also picked them because they came with silly in jokes between the two of us.

We have always said we'd call our firstborn 'Morgan Victor'. Victor because that's always the middle name of the firstborn son in DH's family (him, his father, his grandfather, all the way back to the 18th century) and Morgan was originally a joke because it sounded vaguely like a pirate, and I said I would call my firstborn 'Morgan' and raise him from birth to be a pirate because we need more pirates in this world. And it sort of stuck. Plus, it's a good solid Welsh name and DH is Welsh.

Then a while ago I commented that if I had a girl, I'd name her 'Mary Susannah', as in 'Mary Sue' and that way she'd have to be perfect. But 'Mary' is also a family name for me - my grandmother, and my mother and sister all had it as a middle name, and when I thought about it, I realized I'd really like the tradition to carry on.

Anyway, we're planning on starting our family soon and I mentioned our names to a friend and she said she hated 'joke' names and thought it was stupid, especially 'Mary Sue'. I said if we had a girl she'd be 'Mary' and I also thought the jokes were kind of subtle and weren't intrusive. Am I being unreasonable? Or can I get away with my names. I really like them as names too. I just also like that we picked them for slightly silly reasons that seem appropriate for our family.

[PenguinsandtheTantrumofDoom]

Mary Iris is beautiful. I alway wanted to use Iris.

[TheRoseAndTheFire]

Mary Susannah is really nice. Most people who aren't geeky, involved in fandom so etc probably wouldn't get the 'Mary Sue' reference anyway.

[CitrineRaindropPhoenix]

My DD is Katherine and referred to fairly interchangeably at home as Kate or Bob following Blackadder Ii. She likes the reference already and is looking forward to being old enough to watch it!

[GlacindaTheTroll]

If you have a second, he could be Edward (as in Teach).

A girl could be Grace (O'Malley) or perhaps Circe?

[YonicScrewdriver]

I don't think anyone would get Mary Sue until late teens. And even then, you probably only Know middle nanes for about 4 classmates ever. Go for it.

[owlborn]

Glacinda - that's fantastic. :-)

DH and I actually discussed this today. We think if we have a second DS we'll use Robert for a middle name. First names he likes are Edward (as in Teach) and Jack (as in Jack Sparrow, which is his favourite but is hideously common). I also like Henry (as in Morgan) and Nathaniel (which is the name of about three minor pirates but also just sounds extra piratical and cool.

For girls we're totally lost if we have a second one. But hopefully we'll have at least a couple of years (well, a year or so after #1 is born) to think of something new. We like 'Hildegard' for family reasons again, but it's a bit of a mouthful for a child, so maybe 'Hilde' as a middle name and something a bit fairytale-y for a first name - Elise is my personal favourite. But it's all very maybe. And, of course, a very long time away and we may change our minds.