My friend wants 'Harrow' - your thoughts?

[keepyk]

My colleague is keen on Harrow for a girl, I said I'd put it to the MN hive mind!! Any thoughts?

I'm from SE England and I too only know if Harlow (the place) because of Mumsnet. I think it's a nice name! Prefer Marlowe though.

😂

Harry & Hallie & nicknames for Harriet - perhaps your friend could use Harriet?

I also only know of Harrow the place from Mumsnet! Are we all getting geography lessons here?

To me the name Harrow just reminds me of harrowing which really isn’t a great thing

Isn't that how the Cadbury's parrot said hello?

YY This^^

Really?

Are we all getting geography lessons here?

Of course. Having, apart from one or two mavericks, hopefully quashed 'harrow' as a viable name, maybe we should turn the thread over to more cheerful questions such as which ocean does the western end of the Panama Canal come out in?

North Atlantic

Where is there an island within a lake, on an island within a lake, on an island?

Mysterybox - nope. By way of clue, which is further west, Edinburgh or Bristol?

I just got that wrong sorry, mysterybox. Tied myself in a mental knot.

No. It's a boys' public school at Harrow-on-the-Hill, which is a suburb of London these days.

Harrowing Also has two meanings. One means distressing. The other is smoothing down the big lumps in a newly ploughed field. The Harrow is the name of the large, viciously spiked tool that farmers attach to their tractors to do it.

No again. Why must people try to think up weird and whacky names for their babies? It just sounds utterly ridiculous and stupid. The children won't thank them for it in later life.

Is it Jean Harlow that makes Harlow sound nice? The boys name Arlo is very popular atm and I totally understand that place names can conjure up wildly inaccurate impressions if you're not from the area of the UK. Plus there's the international factor a Kingston, Jamaica is very different to Kingston (Upon Thames) in London.

It really depends if the baby is being brought up in England or not.

It really depends if the baby is being brought up in England or not.

The meanings of the word 'harrow' are much the same in an American dictionary such as Webster's. 'Torment, vex' ... could be harrowing for a kid to be saddled with such a name.

I think of harrowing and also the London Town.

Not nice as a name.

That's just horrid.

It's not a name, it's an ugly harsh sound, you can't shorten it to anything nice - can you imagine her friends in the playground? - 'Arr! Arr! Come over 'ere!'

Plus it's got about four different connotations, none of them very nice.

What on earth were your friend's thought processes here?!

Is your friend really you?
I don’t understand why we get so many friend posts on an anonymous site

How harrowing to have a friend who thinks that the name of a rather boring London suburb is a suitable name for a human being.

Lol penny4thoughts, no I can assure you my friend is not really me. I'm well past having babies I'm afraid!

Thanks for the replies folks.

The overwhelming consensus is that it's not a great choice- which was my thought exactly but I thought I was perhaps being unfair to her when I said I wasn't keen (it's a school to me as we are no where near London suburbs here).

I shall try to feedback sensitively!!

Harrow is a place in NW London and not a girls name.

Harlow isn't that bad as a name actually, but anyone who has actually ever been there would never bestow it upon their own child!

If you've told her you're going to put it to MN, surely she can just read the thread.

Or is the whole internet thing totally beyond her?

@Quintella Coming from Lancashire, the Americans’ fondness for calling their children Preston never fails to baffle and amuse!

It's dreadful

Preston is a mixture of the WASPy Prescott and the football-related Peyton to American ears.

wait you thought you were perhaps being unfair to her. did she ask what you thought of the name and does she know you were going to ask on the internet because I get the feeling she doesn't.