*girds loins* double-barrelled forenames

[whatausername]

Someone said on another thread that they only like "traditional" double-barrelled names. My questions to you are a) does Sally-Anne etc sound any better to you than Molly-Rae, and b) what even are traditional double-barrelled names? Combinations of Sarah, Mary, Anne and Kate, for example?

Oh, I have a c) do non-English ones sound better, such as Jean-Luc, Marie-Therese or Anne-Kristine (in this acquaintance's language the Es are pronounced so something more like Anna-Kristina).

Before I am flamed into oblivion, this is merely some name nerdy, not for an actual child. Although, Augusta-Hortensia is starting to sound good... joke!

Mary-Louise and Marie-Therese come to mind, from 30ish years ago in a fairly trad Catholic area

I think in English they are always naff - I suspect Sally Ann was the Lola Mae of its day.

Catholic religious choices eg Anne Marie, I guess falls within the French tradition - which I assume is based on having fewer choices of religious names - so that gives a different impression I’d say.

Sorry OP, they always make me laugh. They sound like deep south American hicksville! Elly-May Clampett in the Beverley Hillbillies cones to mind.

The French tradition comes from the very limited list of approved names which existed until the early 90s. You couldn’t register your child’s birth unless they were named from the list.

Sally-Anne is naff. Molly-Rae is awful. Pretty much every Sally would have had the middle name Anne anyway.

Similarly Sarah-Jane and Emma-Jane were probably among several Sarah Jane and Emma Janes in their age group.

The French ones work OK. As pp they had a limited list of names.

It tends to be girls' names that get hyphenated in the UK. Unless you know of some little Asher-Jay or Ezra-Kit type names.

The names usually sound better on their own.

Only surnames are ‘double barrelled’, forenames are hyphenated. French ones are alright, modern ones are awful eg. Laceey-Lou/Skylah-Rai etc. 🤮

@Carbara is right. 'Double barrelled' refers to surnames only. OP is talking about hyphenated first names.

The traditional French/Catholic ones are fine. Dated now, but used often enough to have become traditional.

The modern versions are downmarket horrible, especially if the names used are spelled oddly. A modern hyphenated name on a girl isn't great, on a boy it's particularly awful.

Marianne is nice.

Anne-Marie is ok.

Sarah-Jane just about passable.

All others not so great.

You don't need to apologise to me :-) I'm only opening a conversation to figure out what some could mean when they say "traditional" hyphenated names. Personally, I find the joining of forenames tends to detract from each name's beauty and I think it seems indecisive on the part of the parents.

hyphenated first names are weird for my ears.
using middle names all the time is even worse. one of my kids had a classmate whose names weren't even hyphenated, but he had to be called William John at all times.😳

I couldn't help but hearing this convo in my head every time I heard his name🤣

IMHO (which may not be shared on here), the best of these names are nicknames for two fairly traditional names on the birth certificate.

So, Joshua John becomes JJ, William Robert becomes Billy-Bob, Emily Louise becomes Emmy-Lou, Eleanor Mabel is Ellie-Mae etc.

A culture where it is traditional to give multiple names of the Anna Maria Lucia Garcia Perez ilk is slightly different but also fine.

It’s about the connotations isn’t it, rather than the sound per se. Objectively Molly-Rae doesn’t sound much different than Sarah-Jane, but one has a “downmarket” feel, and the other more middle class. Personally I can’t think of a name that is improved by hyphenating it. The French ones don’t seem so bad because as pp have said there is solid historical reasoning behind them, rather than parents trying to be “different”.

I'm not Catholic but I do know several women with names like Anne-Marie, Marie-Therese etc (with or without the hyphen) and I have always quite liked those 'traditional' names.

Whereas I am not so keen on Molly-Rae, so I guess yes I prefer the more traditional names even though I haven't really thought about it before.

However I am not super keen on Sally-Anne as a proper name. I would prefer e.g. Sarah Anne Smith known as Sally-Anne. Same as I don't really like Molly-Rae Smith but wouldn't blink an eye at Mary Rae Smith known as Molly-Rae even though Rae is hardly traditional. I used to know several families where this was common as they would re-use the same few first names so first name - middle name combos were popular for everyday use. E.g. James Robert known as Jim Bob to distinguish himself from his grandfather James (Jamie) and cousin James (Jimmy).

I'm a 40 something Anne-Marie.

I've never had such a problem with it as I do now that I'm on Mumsnet where apparently it's naff. Cheers everyone.

People frequently comment it's a nice name. I've never liked it myself as I'm sick of spelling it out 'e and a hyphen' etc and because Anne is the world's most boring name.

I think there's a big difference between my name and all the random hyphenated names that are popular currently.

I live in Spain and tons of people, particularly older women are called 'Marie or Maria-something'. Very catholic and traditional. Of course - different in the UK, but that's what I would think of as traditional.

Anne-Marie isn't naff. I like both names separately, although I prefer the Ann spelling. I don't know why but I don't like Marianne.

The American host on a true crimes podcast Nancy Grace has a 13 year old son called John David that she often brings into her conversation. Sounds a little odd because it doesn’t flow. His father’s name is David, I think. The boy’s twin is just Lucy.
Whatever the reason I have always liked the double French names — no idea why, they just sound good, whereas the English Emma Kate, Sally Ann, Mary Jane etc sound corny.

I know an adult man with a hyphenated first name. Both names are ordinary but in the less usual spelling. Think Allan-Jon or something like that.
When I found out, i thought "What were his parents thinking?"

There's nothing wrong with the names, but they don't run well as a combined first name, and the conventional spellings are easier.