Wilberforce

[Fartbaby]

We have decided to call this baby Wilberforce if it is a boy. We absolutely love it, as do my family and my best friend. I haven't told anyone else as I know for a fact lots of people would be horrified by the name. We will be almost exclusively calling him Wilbur due to the aforementioned probability of loathing for the full name, so my question is: is there any point to putting Wilberforce on the birth certificate?

I know it sounds as if I don't have the courage of my convictions regarding the name Wilberforce and that makes me a little sad, too, as I absolutely love it. Would you introduce your baby as Wilberforce if you were me or would you pretend he is simply Wilbur?

Oh blimey, I sound like an idiot

[girlandboy]

Just be aware though that an unusual name can be a burden depending on each individual child.

I have an old fashioned middle name that I purposely kept secret because at the time all my friends had middle names such as Tracey or Sharon or Jane (dating myself here!) Mine is Dorothy. When my middle name was discovered due to someone seeing the school register, my life was literally made hell for several years. Maybe some children could have just shrugged off the teasing, but I couldn't.

And that was just over a middle name!

[Eminybob]

My DS is called William and I regularly call him Wilbur or Wilburforce as a kind of nickname. Or William Wilburforce-hissurname the third or some such.

If you like it bloody go for it. Your little boy will rock whatever name he is given.

[Fartbaby]

I've never heard of the toy. I already have a baby called Nancy and she was to be named Queenie right up until the birth, but the haters (ie everyone in my universe) just wouldn't let me use it. Since then I've been determined to use the name I've loved for a long time.

I know Wilberforce is seen as quite monstrous by everyone some, but we wouldn't introduce him - even to his teachers - by any name but Wilbur. So, again....what's the point of christening him Wilberforce?

[girlandboy]

Wasn't Purdey in the New Avengers?

[Fartbaby]

Oh, Eminy, thank you!

And an honest thanks for the more erm...brutal posts, too. I need to think on all these views, I guess.

[Fartbaby]

Yes, I've loved Purdey since Joanna Lumley played her. I'm 44 so remember The Avengers well i always wanted to be Purdey

[TeapotDictator]

I think they're both great names, and I would do Wilberforce on the BC but to all intents and purposes call him Wilbur with that spelling right from the get go. Nobody needs to know really that his full name is Wilberforce, unless you feel like telling them, so the difference in spelling will be irrelevant. I was at school/college with several Bens - including a couple of Benedicts, Benjamins, and another a Benbow. Nobody laughed at Benbow - he was 6'5, quite attractive and highly popular.

Ignore the naysayers who talk about your child being picked on, and know that if a child's going to get picked on, it will get picked on. It's not as though regardless of a child's demeanour and popularity the school bully trips through the register looking for someone outlandishly named to target that day.

[SomeonesRealName]

Sorry it makes me think of the slug people in Under the Mountain. Wilbur is nice though.

[drinkscabinet]

Prefer Wilberforce to Wilbur TBH. Meh, do what you want, it's your child. I hate the 'your child will be bullied if you give them an unusual name' brigade. All of my kids have unusual names for where we live and the two at school are regularly told they have 'cool' names. Unusual can be good. Better than being yet another James or Oliver and spending your life as James H or Oliver B.

[BertrandRussell]

"so we're in for some ribbing all round probably grin"

Great. Big grin at doing something you think will lay your child open to "some ribbing"

If you think you are going to be ribbed about it, imagine your child being ribbed for 85 years.

[Fartbaby]

Teapot, I so appreciate your post, thank you. My husband is 6'5" and I am 5'8" so I'm hoping my 'little' Wilbur will be able to look after himself

[Fartbaby]

The was a nervous one because I was proposing my other unconventional name of Purdey.

[reuset]

Is Wilberforce not used as a first name, then?

No, not much. It's a surname. You might find a smattering of modern examples but it's in the ' very rare' category.

[BertrandRussell]

And no, I don't think that children are generally bullied for their names.There were some children in my family with very unusual names- and they weren't bullied. But it was just tedious to have a slightly surprised and sometimes amused response and have to explain every single time. As they got to secondary school age, they each in turn took things into their own hands and chose a new "known as" name for their new schools. Their parents were very upset, but had to give in in the end, in the face of the determination of the new Tom, Sam and Alice (not the names they chose, obviously, but along those lines!)

[Newlywed56]

Can I ask where you got the name wilburforce from? I have never heard anything like it! Don't mean to sound rude lol but did you make it up (just curious!)

[msgrinch]

purdey / perdita isn't that unconventional, I know 4. 3 recently born and one in her 60s.

[SmugairleRoin]

Wilber and Purdy are two great names imo. For pigs. And nothing else.
So at least there's a connection I suppose...
Off you go and call yourself Purdy/Wilber for a while and see how you get on with it.

[Fartbaby]

Google William Wilberforce, Newlywed, he was an abolitionist.

[Capewrath]

Some children just don't suit their names. I had wanted to give DS one, but he just didn't fit it.

But I see no issue about transferred surnames. If you want to be Nancy Mitfordesque about Norman, do so, but Stuart is completely acceptable these days. My DF's v unusual first name was a transferred surname, and so what.

I was teased about my names. Marginally unusual

Purdey is fun. The Avengers, one f the best makes of classic shotguns, magic.

[MrsGentlyBenevolent]

Those saying a chid who is going to get picked on, will get picked on regardless . No. I'm no wallflower, but have had teasing over my name ever since I can remember. Everything from ribbing to pure rudeness. Oh, and if you think height makes a difference, ask my 6'2 partner what fun he had at school. Some kids look for anything, and years of grating over one thing (like a silly name), can drive you to despair. It's like hearing a broken record on repeat, your whole life. All because your parents just had to be different.

[JoffreyBaratheon]

I've got William Wilberforce on my family tree (descend from a cousin with the surname although my branch kept the old spelling, Wilberfoss) and even I wouldn't use the name for one of me kids. Truly. No. Just no. And I could use it legitimately.

"Wilbur" sounds like a slightly dim friend of Huckleberry Finn. Probably fine in 1890s' America....

[SirChenjin]

But why should someone tall be expected to 'look after himself' because his parents chose a name that attracts a lot of ribbing

[BuckyLastard]

I'm liking both Wilbur and purdey.
You definitely should have used queenie.