Dinner lady

[Charhen12]

Just before you name your child, this might help,
I'm a midday supervisor at my little boys school -we are currently inundated with variations of certain names. It causes a lot of confusion (maybe parents should stick to old fashioned names and spellings!) -
Maya, Mia, Mya
Lola, Layla, Lia, Lyla
Eva, Evie, Edie, etc
Arrgghh can't cope! Lol!

Ava!

I thought you were calling your baby Dinner Lady before I opened this thread.

In my child's class there is a Lyra, Lila, 2 Mila's (pronounced differently), Ava, Eva, Evie, Harry and Harriet and 2 Georges

That must be confusing!

The names you list are not 'certain variations', they are totally different names! E.g Lola and Layla

Not sure I see the issue here. Would you prefer to go back a generation with 10 Stephen/Steven's, 5 Sarah/Sara's and a handful of Hanna/Hannahs in the class? Not to mention the several Johns, Michaels, Matthews, Davids and Daniels you'd have to remember 🤔

But it's easier if there are 5 Stephens, 4 Susans etc rather than an Evie, an Eve, an Edie and an Evelyn. Plus an Alfie, an Archie, an Albert and an Albie.
At least in the first instance you just say Stephen.

Doesn't make it easier to differentiate between the children though?!

As soon as I read your post I knew you’d set a cat amongst the pigeons!!
The current trend is to try to have a ‘unique’ name but it tends to mean Ava Eva Evie Ada Ella Ailsa Isla instead of a room full of Mary’s.
I reckon it’s probably no more awkward than when you had lots of the same name - loads of kids were Liz Lizzie Elizabeth Beth Elizabeth C Elizabeth F etc etc for the same reason
In fact there used to be so many Johns and Mary’s that half of them went by Jack and Molly etc

Basically there have always been a tonne of kids to keep track of and it’s probably always been a pain in the arse

maybe parents should stick to old fashioned names and spellings!

Maybe dinner ladies should stick to dishing out pasta bakes.

There was me thinking you were considering Bren.

Maybe dinner ladies should stick to handing out pasta bakes - wtf ? What qualifications are needed for people to have opinions on baby names in the baby name section of Mumsnet???

Lol, thanks for the replies, have made me laugh!
Glad there are others who see where I'm coming from. As you say though, it's just a new trend of names, most of them very cute and twee, but far too samey and confusing for me!

I know what you mean - in DS2's class there is Freddy, Freddie, Eddy and Eddie, Harry and two Henrys. But I remember in my 6th form we had 5 Emmas and 3 Melissas and my parents (who met at school) went to school with 3 Daves and 2 Jims so I guess these problems have always been with us...even in the spice girls 20% of them were called Melanie

And along with the Daves and Jims my parents had 3 Dianes, a Susan and a Suzanne in their class too!

There does seem to be a trend for names ending in a or ie at the moment, boys and girls, and it being for example Freddie rather than just Fred or Frederick, or Evie rather than Evelyn/Evangeline. I like some of them, but there's a definite trend.
When I was at school it was full of Samuel's, Jason's, Lisa's and Katie/Katy's. Just one of those things. You're seen as try-hard for trying to be different, be it with 'unique' names, or old-fashioned e.g. Evangeline/Frederick.

You're seen as try-hard for trying to be different, be it with 'unique' names, or old-fashioned e.g. Evangeline/Frederick.

No, you're not. You're seen as a confident parent who is trying to find a great interesting name that isn't overused/fashionable!

Personally I feel the recent fashion for cutesy names (Evie, Lillie, Izzie, Ellie, Alfie, Archie etc) is coming to an end as people get tired of them. They will soon sound dated.

It does sound try hard. Some names sound like the parent is desperate to sound posh tbh.

Nothing wrong with having names that become dated though. It’s just how trends work & always have. If someone says Barbara, Ethel or Maureen you wouldn’t be expecting a 20 year old would you?
Having a name that’s in sync with your generation isn’t a bad thing.

Well, that's your opinion.

Personally I prefer names that are timeless classics that aren't trendy.

There's always a trend. Nursery was full of Lyra, Lola, Layla, Lila, Ellie, Ella, Ollie.
Then Eva, Ava, Evie etc.

Currently it's Aria, Ariana, Oriana, Arlo.

Define ‘timeless classic’

Charlotte, Antonia, Alexander, Miles are examples of what I find timeless classics

As is Cordelia from another thread

Does it matter if you holler at Freddie to stop that right now and come here and two children stop in their tracks? The other one was probably up to no good as well