Upper class baby names

[lovetpwonder]

Not to be confused with crushed velvet sofa and annual holiday to Dubai names (inspired by another poster).

Hit me with your upper class/well to do baby girl names that are still used today!

Augustina. Emmeline. Mariella. Christiana
Estefania. Rosamund.

Boys name with a ‘wet’ vibe. Cuthbert, Rupert, Peregrine, Timothy etc

Haha yes this! Julian is another!

Venetia

Really posh people have traditional names (I think some of the names in the list here are a bit 'frilly' for that - more upper middle/arty/boho/try-hard) but then acquire some really strange nicknames

Boys would be:Charles, James, John, William, George, Henry, Edward, Rupert, Alexander, Frederick, etc

Girls: Alexandra, Isabella, Charlotte, Anna, Catherine, Elizabeth, Victoria, Sophia, Georgina, Sarah, Harriet, Lucy

Stereotypically upper-class names like Tarquin?

The upper-class people I actually know or have met have (and have given their kids) very classic names like James, Eleanor etc then bestow them with daft nicknames, rather than using diminutives.

"I have taught in a private boarding school"

That shows wealth (self or employer) or ability to secure a bursary. It does not indicate being upper class, because the DC with those names might come from upper, upper-middle, or nouveau-riche classes, or be of completely different class if fees paid by someon eother tha the parents.

The real upper classes have some bonkers names: Butter, Jet, Bundle, etc.
Some have traditional names but the idea that you must use a dull traditional name is much more middle class.

Why don’t you try reading some Jeeves and Wooster books for inspiration? They are chock full of posh names.

I can’t remember their exact names but I do love his description of Bertie’s Aunts having a disagreement:

‘Like two great mastodons, bellowing across a primeval swamp’

I don't think anyone says you must

Rather observing what certain demographics actually do.

It's a description, not a 'how to' manual!

Benjamin
Thomas
Edward
Sebastian
Andrew
Charlie
James
Henry
Cuthbert
Percy
Howard
St John
Alexander
Edgar
Julian
Cecil
Farquhar
Leopold
Maximilian
Niles
Miles
Forbes
David
Matthew
Oswald
Winston
Stanley
Quintin
Reginald
Walter
Tristan
Simon
Raphael
Michael
Cosmo
Bruno
Orlando

Sarah
Jemima
Jessica
Kitty
Perpetua
Grace
Chastity
Cosima
Bronte
Anna
Jane
Catherine
Elizabeth
Anne
Arabella
Isabella
Augusta
Octavia
Olympia
Portia
Jamesina
Georgiana
Thomasina
Harriet
Helena
Nancy
Florence
Petula
Bridget
Charlotte
Seraphina
Celeste
Aphra
Virginia
Regina
Genevieve
Emma
Emily
Rose
Dulcie
Nerissa
Adeline
Oonagh
Rebecca
Edwina
Winifred
Orla
Isla
Ianthe

You just need to look at The Telegraph birth announcements announcements.telegraph.co.uk/births/announcements

The real upper classes have some bonkers names: Butter, Jet, Bundle, etc.Some have traditional names but the idea that you must use a dull traditional name is much more middle class.

Yes there are a lot of myths about ‘upper classes’ on the internet.

This thread reminds me of that Margaret Thatcher quote: "if you have to tell people you're powerful, you aren't".

That said, to assist with the OP's aspirations to upper-middle-class life, I would say that most of the properly wealthy old money types I know have fairly ordinary "traditional" names (James, Charlotte, Edward, etc) and a ridiculous nickname they have had from childhood, such as "Tigger" or "Bunty". EVERYONE knows them by the nickname, as if that was in fact their given name. So, OP, why not start with choosing an outlandish nickname? If you get in there early with it, it may even trump the one your child is given at prep school by his or her peers.

My 'posh girl' names that I love are Aurelia and Rosalie. However my very working class mum deemed them "too snobby" lol x

I would say that most of the properly wealthy old money types I know have fairly ordinary "traditional" names

See above for myths about upper classes.

Any class represents a widely varied group of people - some are conservative and traditional and choose trad names, some cultured and intellectual and go for more unusual names, and some are full Bohemian whacky woo.

Tatiana, an anecdotal comment about "people I know" is, by definition, not a "myth". It's a comment about people I know. It is not a comment applied to "all upper class people".

I didn't know there were such things as "upper class" baby names. Where did anyone get that idea?

There are chavy, pondlife names such as, "Waynetta", but most of us who aren't upper class wouldn't choose that.

Most people just choose what they like.

It may be fact in your case (I doubt it as certainly not ‘most’ uc people with silly nns use them in adulthood - only some), but I’ve seen that precise claim made so many times that it absolutely pertains to myth.

Diggory? Dickon? Ballonz

Bunty
Lettice

Tatiana "pertains to myth"? What nonsense. In my 10 years in boarding schools and then 4 at Cambridge, I got to know a lot of old money wealthy kids. As adults they all use their nicknames. Don't be so dismissive of other people's lived experience.

Proper, old money, UMC names I have encountered in my lifetime:

Daffodil
Tansy
Topsy
Galahad
Rupert
Artemis

And also a ton of Harriets, Isabelles, Felicitys and Pippas.

My son got headbutted (intentionally) by a very posh Eloidie at soft play this week if that helps at all? 😁

Oops. Two of those names were on my shortlist for DD, and she has one of them as a family nickname, although she uses a different one. We are not upper class at all.

*Elodie