To anyone thinking of picking something pretentious...

[LethalWhite]

Don’t know if anyone else was listening to radio 6 just now?

A woman rang up with a request, mentioned her 6 week old daughter
Presenter: what’s she called?
Woman: Isolde Fleur
Presenter:.... what? sounds confused
Woman Isolde Fleur
Presenter: why? Where’s that come from?
Woman: it’s an old Arthurian legend.
Presenter: right. Why...why did you pick it?
Woman: well we were researching baby names and it just seemed to fit.
Presenter: well, ok.

The poor woman

Is it Is-old-uh or Iz-old-uh though. I always thought the latter but happy to be told otherwise.
Just to muddy the waters, any two part name is pretty pretentious to be fair but once they started gaining popularity they then became chavvy!

Isolde can be pronounced a few ways so its really a matter of whatever one the parents want to go with!
In France its generally Iss- Old
In Germany its Iz-Old-Uh
But you could use either one in the UK... As if you are going by the opera is would be the German way... if going by the film that came out a while back it would be the French way... if going by the Legend... there are hundreds of different spellings
If going be the pre raphaelite art its usually the German way but sometimes the French way...

So neither are 'wrong' just depends on what the family chose.

My mum uses the the 'Iss- Old' way

Thank you icecream. I'm probably fixated on the German version because of Wagner then.

Pretentious means pretending to be something you’re not. It’s means trying to impress through affectation.

It has nothing to do with class per se. You can be pretentious from any class background.

My point 1) I find those names pretentious because they’re affected, twee and over-thought. They’re trying to appear sophisticated but produce the opposite effect.

My point 2) I find those names pretentious because they’re pretending to be American/celeb. They’re trying to ape US glamour, but it doesn’t really work here.

I’m sorry your thread didn’t pan out the way you expected OP, but I’m well aware what pretentious means and I used it aptly. I strongly suggest you look it up.

Pretentious: attempting to impress by affecting greater importance or merit than is actually possessed.

You'd know a thing or two about that, eh @TatianaLarina

e.g it's aiming 'up', not aiming 'down'

Wow, that's really rude! Nothing wrong with the name at all, I met a young Isolde in the library a couple of months ago, it's a perfectly nice name, as is Fleur.

Npeter on the other hand...!

GreenDinosaur - to be fair, it’s pronounced ‘Peter’, so probably wouldn’t have the same effect in conversation, only when written down...

adds Npeter to baby name list

To be honest I think this sort of thing is possible with any unusual name, not just pretentious ones.

Some of the Younique names you hear about would probably confuse me, even if I wasn't tying to be a dick about it.

Exactly.

So your thread went tits up now you’re having a go at me.

^ to *LethalWhite @ 19.38

I think Isolde or Fluer by themselves are nice names - but if you say them in a way that runs them together then it probably would sound a bit strange.

Although Fluer does get kind of murdered in an English accent and putting on a French accent just to say it if you’re not in any way French does is pretty cringe so although I like it it’s a tricky one to pull off.

I’m a fan of pretentious names
Isolde Fleur is awful though.

My two are surname names. I'd love to know if they're pretentious and/or chavvy I suspect one is chavvy and one is pretentious

Alpine - we’ll have to try and figure it out....
Do you live in a ‘Thick and Violent Area’?

That was a piss-take wrt ‘being bullied senseless’ over a name.

I don’t buy it.

Chavvy and pretentious are opposites. Chavvy is lower class and pretentious is wannabe posh.

No they can be the same thing: a lower class person can most certainly be wannabe posh!

Are you sure Npeter not actually Nepeta, as in the flower? Its the flower family that catnip comes from.

Nobody knows the person... so nobody knows if it was pretentious!

That's beside the point anyway!!

Just say the name in a scouse or manchunian accent and you will truly understand that it's just an awful name 😂

I quite like Isolde. Fleur always makes me think of the baby from that comedy ‘May to December’.

My most pretentious name - once hired something from a Tarquin McFarqhar. I did joke with DH that he probably went to private school.

Isolde is fine. Not so keen on Fleur (it's the sound). The presenter was unkind. Presumably if she'd said Charlotte or Amelia it would have been fine. Many people in this country really do seem to have issues with Celtic names.

Tatiana is correct about the actual meaning of pretentious, btw, OP. People tend to use pretentious to mean "aspiring to be upper class" but it actually just means having any kind of pretensions. It's contextual based on who you're talking about, so people who name their kids after Kardashians aren't "aiming down" - to them, aiming to be like the Kardashians is aiming high.

I love a lot of names classed as pretentious to be perfectly honest. But Fleur is vile. Sounds like something someone sneezed up. I've come across a few, and the parents have been twats every time.

I would imagine the presenter heard it as isoldafluer all in one so was confused.

I heard of an Ignatious (sp?) the other day

My most pretentious name - once hired something from a Tarquin McFarqhar. I did joke with DH that he probably went to private school.

His name isn't necessarily pretentious. His parents may just like the name and aren't trying to 'pretend' anything. Maybe he did go to private school!

Okay maybe not pretentious but it definitely sounds posh...