Double standards?

[Smile19]

When I was pregnant with DS, I asked my great aunt for a list of girl names from the family (I was told he was a girl!)

Both DH and I loved Myra (believe it or not we didn't know about Hindley!) It became clear quickly this name is off the table.

I think it's sad such a beautiful name is unusable, yet infamous men in history don't have the same stigma (like Ted / Theodore).

Do you think Myra will ever be usable in the future?

Thanks @Sessy19! I'm not going crazy after all 😊

Well if it's any consolation If one like Fred or Peter either, not Ian !

I know a wee baby Myra. You could also spell it Mira.

With siblings Triton and Gainsborough?

It's purely when there's one very (in)famous person of that relatively unusual name and they're the first/only person everybody immediately thinks of when they hear it - male or female - whether it's Adolf and Enoch or Madonna and Cher.

I really like the name Kermit, which is an ordinary name in a lot of countries, but in the UK, people have only ever heard of one famous owner of that name, so you could never realistically use it for a child, who would forever get asked by 'characters' who assume they're the very first to think of it where Miss Piggy is.

My mum says Mary did fall dramatically out of fashion for a while after Mary Bell even with her not being the most famous Mary. (I'd say the Virgin Mary takes that one)

Do people remember when violinist Nigel Kennedy announced at the height of his fame that he just wanted to be referred to henceforth as Kennedy, ostensibly because he'd become too well-known to bother with a first name? The principle works fine if you have an uncommon surname, as with Biggins; not so much if you share your surname with a former US president, whose assassination was a landmark in world history.

I'm an 80's baby and Myra makes me think of Hindley but I doubt it would for my nieces and nephews who are turn of millennium babies.

If you name your daughter Myre only an idiot will ask if it's after Hindley and you just point out all the Jack's aren't named after Ripper and look at them like idiots. Her peers will have no idea

It's an interesting one - my first thought is Hindley, but then I couldn't name any other famous Myras, not even historical ones. Whereas with Ian, Dennis, Ted, Rose, Fred, Peter, Harold - there are lots of others so the infamous murderers of those names don't come immediately to mind. I don't think Myra was ever a particularly popular name, unlike the others. It's a shame it has that association, but nonetheless, I wouldn't use it. What about Mira or Mara instead?

I love Camilla but it conjures up Parker-Bowles image and has become unusable. As does the name Diana and her unfortunate death.
I really disagree. Camilla doesn't make me think of Parker-Bowles. I know a few people, including two children/teenagers, called Camilla. Diana definitely doesn't make me think of Princess Diana. I think Roman goddess. Both are lovely names.

Do people remember when violinist Nigel Kennedy announced at the height of his fame that he just wanted to be referred to henceforth as Kennedy, ostensibly because he'd become too well-known to bother with a first name?

I hadn't thought of that guy in years! He was the Marco Pierre White of the violining world

Ooh, I LOVE Mara.

Although, if you google it now, a terrifying horror film AND Netflix series comes up!! 😳

There are some astonishingly ignorant people here.

And Myra is a hideous name, there was good reason it was unusual even before it because synonymous with a child murderer.

There was a Myra in the year above me in school, so she’d have been born in 1968, just a couple of years after the moors murderers were convicted.
Whilst everyone else in the country were feeling shocked and repulsed by the news, her parents must have been sitting thinking: “Myra... that’s a pretty name!”