Why on mumsnet do people think their children’s names have to “go” together ?

[Smallhorse]

I’ve never come across this in real life. Eg “ suggestons for name for sister for Toby and Freddie? “ I really don’t get it.

Phoebe had two leaps - one from 65th to 40th (ish) in the first few years of Friends' run, and then another big one from 2005-2010. I suspect that a lot of teens and early twentysomethings really loved Friends but weren't in a position to use a baby name, so that second jump represents those teens reaching peak childbearing age.

See also Willow, which had very rapid growth from 2010, when a girl who was 17 at the start of Buffy's run would have been thirty (median childbearing age in the UK).

I think people generally like certain types of names.
The same as anything really.
I wouldn't ask anyone else personally because if you like a name then use it. Whether a stranger on the internet likes it or not would be irrelevant to me.

My favourite girls name was Merryn, but when heard together with my sons name it invariably had people going "oh you could nickname them Pippin and Merry, like the hobbits from LOTR" so we didn't use it. If DS had a different name we probably would have.

I also knew someone once who has 3 children called Pray-God, Faith-Born, and Jack. It was in a country where none of those names are considered weird in isolation, but obviously they are a weird combination!

Seraphina, Artemis and Dave.... it just doesn't flow does it?

It's not just on MN. I don't know anyone with a Henry and a Kayden, a Florence and a Lexi-Mae etc.

Just pick a less common first name!

We picked a name for one of my children that was fairly unusual at the time, nowhere near the top ten. We rejected a top ten name that we loved on the grounds that it was too common. We didn't know anyone who had a child with this name, and didn't know any adults either. She still ended up as one of two in her class at school. Whereas no one in her entire school had the name that was actually more common. You just never know how things will work out.

Still laughing at Tom, Ella and Beyoncé 😂

My name is Old Testament and my sister’s is 70’s glamour name - not Rachel nor Eve. No rhyme nor reason, just mum’s personal choice

It’s because we live in the first world .

Yes, because poor people don’t care what they name their kids. It’s strictly a MN thing.

Smallhorse why does anyone post anything?

Most MN posts could be answered by googling or looking in books or talking to friends and family, or don't need discussing at all. Sometimes people want to discuss things with random strangers for all sorts of reasons (including being excited about or annoyed about something that they know nobody in their day to day life will give a rat's arse about).

Given that you started this thread you aren't really in a position to throw stones at people for starting threads on topics that don't strictly need discussion!

Different demographics like certain names.
People who like Eleanor, Charlotte and Beatrice would not think about Chantelle-Mae and likewise those that prefer Jayden-Kai wouldn't dream of choosing William, Arthur or Benedict.

So people inadvertently choose names that go together.

It's the sort of thing we do to pets, Sugar and Spice, Rough and Tumbles, I think that it undermines the children's individuality.

Depends what we mean with 'go' together?

Sam and Ella or Sam and Pam sound silly and don't 'go' together.

But anything else pretty much goes imo, and as long as the parents like all the names, they're likely to be similar anyway.

those that prefer Jayden-Kai wouldn't dream of choosing William, Arthur or Benedict.

Just because the parents don't like certain names, they still 'go' together. I know brothers Jayden and William. Nothing wrong or silly about that.

Some people really should have considered this but don’t seem to or if they do, think having children with practically the same name is cute or something . I know someone who has a Millie and Mollie.

If you have an Arabella-Jocasta and an Oscar-Sebastian calling DC3 Jack or Jill might seem strange.
From Paul, Karen, Oliver, Harriet and Destiny-Rae looks odd on Christmas cards.

Like I said I don’t think the second Phoebe rise 2005+ is related to Friends. It’s more related to the fashion for Edwardian names Violet, Imogen, Beatrice etc.

Likewise the rise of Willow is related to the fashion for flower and nature names - Lily, Rose, Iris, Ivy, Willow, Rowan, Briar etc

My 3 dc all have Victorian but well known classic names. When having ds2 I put a post up with my first 2 dcs names, because I wanted suggestions of names in my style rather than lists of cutesy names or ‘unique’ spellings. I didn’t want a name linked to other cultures or nicknamey type so it helped to narrow down what type of suggestions I wanted.

I did look in baby name books but they are all clumped together and I started to go cross eyed after a while (Anyone who claims to have read a baby name book past the letter ‘G’ is a liar)