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Baby names

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

Original poster

baby names: rita

106 replies

puppydavies · 26/02/2007 19:42

honest opinions please

OP posts:
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harpsichordcarrier · 26/02/2007 23:09

WT lol, what was the name??

Ceolas · 26/02/2007 23:10

No thanks.

Molesworth · 26/02/2007 23:11

I love it

colditz · 26/02/2007 23:25

Lovely Rita, meter maid

I used to look after an old woman called Rita, she was as mad as a sofa full of snakes. She was the size of a sofa full of snakes too. She used to scream and stamp her feet if, eg, another resident was sitting in her spot at the table.

We had her checked over, but several mental health professionals were of the opinion that mentally she was perfectluy healthy but (as one put it) "had been accustomed from an early age to a life that goes her way, and no other"

She was brattish, in other words.

And that name has precisely those connotaions for me, so not for me.

PeachesMcLean · 26/02/2007 23:29

DS can't pronounce R very well which causes confusion when he's giving his name. Obviously he's not called Rita though.

Molesworth · 26/02/2007 23:29

What about Gloria?

Or Barbara?

Tinker · 26/02/2007 23:34

No, no, no, no, NO

sparklybits · 27/02/2007 07:43

not keen on rita myself - it's not very soft off of the tongue is it.. if that makes sense

has got me thinking though - we'll all think of this thread if this name rises up the ranks on the name charts in the future.

reading through i was a bit concerned that the name freda is making a comeback.. apologies if that's anyones name / dd's name etc etc but i'm really not keen on that one. is it really becoming popular?

one question; does anyone know if there is an internet site which 'matches' your desired name with your surname & tells you if it works or not???? Or do you just have to write it / say it / ask everyone else a million times to see if it gels?

ssd · 27/02/2007 08:02

I know a rita but she's in her 50's

seems an old name for a baby

lemonaid · 27/02/2007 08:20

I don't like Rita, but it's got many of the right qualities to be a name that grows on you. I can see that the way I instinctively feel about Rita is the way that I felt about Noah twenty years ago, and now I think of that as perfectly mainstream and inoffensive. So, I wouldn't use Rita myself and would be a bit if a friend or relation did, but am also cheerfully aware that if they did then I might well find myself liking it a few years down the line. (I do immediately think of the meter maid, though, which might prove an insuperable barrier).

Lorelei is really lovely and not associated at all with traffic wardens.

lemonaid · 27/02/2007 08:27

Mystic lemon's picks for the possible next Molly / Lily / Martha:

Agnes
Alma
Audrey
Edith
Hazel
Ida
Jean
Joan
June
Lois
Myrtle
Shirley
Vivian
Wanda

fishie · 27/02/2007 08:34

hmm lorelei
i really like all the edwardian names, freda is great, pearl, elsie, nell. fab. even ethel although it sounds a bit like a sneeze.

joyce, mavis and betty must have been really go-ahead racy names in the 40s/50s. the downside is nigel, stanley and norman of course.

DizzyBint · 27/02/2007 08:36

rita, sue and bob too. some of you must of seen that film?!

and who suggested barbara? baby barbara

fishie · 27/02/2007 08:39

babs, cute ok all you who disapprove of so many names, what do you suggest?

Alice
Peter
James
Susan
Charles
Mary

what a very dull lot like permanently living in 30s children fiction.

FluffyMummy123 · 27/02/2007 08:40

Message withdrawn

noddyholder · 27/02/2007 08:42

seeing it written down I straight away thought no but saying it I really like it.

FluffyMummy123 · 27/02/2007 08:42

Message withdrawn

MrsBadger · 27/02/2007 08:50

I'm in a 'simple yet pretty' names for girls groove (Helen, Rachel, Zoe, rambling thread here ) and I rather like Rita.

It's not cutesy or frilly and has a good slosh of dignity for when she becomes a High Court judge. And I'm sufficiently ignorant of popular culture that neither the song nor Corrie spring to mind.

Eleusis · 27/02/2007 08:54

Rita always makes me think of the meter maid (Beatles).

Bodkin · 27/02/2007 09:34

Oooh Lemonaid - like your style. There are some corkers on that list that are beautiful names that are thankfully, still unusual. Especially my particular fave for this baby (if a girl) but which DP has yet to be swayed on, Myrtle. God it's beautiful Sorry, back to Rita....

Original poster
puppydavies · 27/02/2007 13:48

don't see what's so terrible about the song myself, think how many blithely call their girls lola

tbh a better reaction than i expected, i make it 4:3 against. i like them odds

OP posts:
Molesworth · 27/02/2007 13:49

And a rita born in the 21st century is hardly likely to be taunted by her peers with a late 1960s beatles song

NotanOtter · 27/02/2007 13:56

i agree!

NomDePlume · 27/02/2007 14:02

rita makes me think of old ladies

Eleusis · 27/02/2007 14:05

Got the bill and Rita paid it, took her home and nearly made it