Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Raven - Is this a good name for a girl?

101 replies

Daisydrum · 04/09/2021 19:48

Hi, I’ve just been drawn to the name Raven but wondering if it will carry well into adult hood?
And do I need to wait to see if she has dark hair? (Both DS and DD have brown hair taking after DH).

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
ErrolTheDragon · 05/09/2021 07:34

Xpost !

Harlequin1088 · 05/09/2021 08:33

This is the name we've got picked out for a daughter (currently 8 weeks pregnant). I think it's a beautiful name and both my partner and I have our hearts set on it.

MsTSwift · 05/09/2021 08:38

Poor kid. She might pull it off but if she’s not dark haired confident and slightly dramatic it won’t work. She’ll probably change it to Rachel or something.

Can you imagine walking up to a group of new people aged 13 and announcing this is your name? I thought of a way out name for dd1 when I was pregnant which I didn’t use when I told her when she was about 13 she was horrified she would have hated being called it she is quite low key and quiet.

lottiegarbanzo · 05/09/2021 09:28

Raven is a classic goth name, chosen by black-swathed, black-haired teenagers, wearing lots of dramatic make-up and cheap black and silver jewellery, for themselves.

Therefore very hard to take seriously for anyone else.

It reminds me of the episode of The Mighty Boosh where the characters are competing to come up with the gothiest of goth names. Raven would be 'medium strength' on that scale. Not quite up there with Obsidian Blackbird McNight, is it? (But, wouldn't O. Raven McNight have been gothier? Oh yes).

Similarly that CBBC show hosted by the mystical, mist-wreathed, dark-haired, dark-ages Scottish person. Another two-dimensional, deeply earnest (therefore rather hilarious in the three-dimensional world), dramatic character. (Not saying the Boosh characters are 2D at all but the goth alter-egos are).

The carrion feeding habit of the raven - feasting off the bodies of the dead - definitely pushes it up the goth scale, and the yuck scale. Corvids are the British equivalent of vultures. Is that really the association you want for your daughter?

I can see the attraction for a young woman with long, sleek, black hair, who is both serious enough to carry it off and self-aware enough to embrace the self-sending-up quality of the name. Rather like Morticia Adams, or Lilith from Frasier.

If the 'v' sound appeals, how about Vivienne, Venetia or Morven? Morven seems quite close to Raven in its mystical sense, without the link to a specific look.

Faith is an incredibly strong name. What could be stronger, for those who have it, than faith? (Also a slayer from Buffy but that association isn't going to be overpowering, or even that well known now).

If you like virtue names, how about Verity, or as a pp suggests Honor? There are plenty more.

Wendy is a weak, watery, nursery-confined name. 'My little fwiendy wendy'. Ugh.

Sorry to be so blunt but you did ask.

ErrolTheDragon · 05/09/2021 09:39

Faith is an incredibly strong name. What could be stronger, for those who have it, than faith?

Irksome if you lose it though. Some names with distinct meanings are really quite presumptuous on the part of parents.

manhattenrain · 05/09/2021 09:53

I love Raven! I love that it can be shortened to Rae. I don't mind Faith and am not a fan of Wendy.

lottiegarbanzo · 05/09/2021 09:56

There is that. Somehow Faith sounds both 'virtuous' and is so well recognised as a normal name, that it's ordinariness, in a good way, transcends its virtue meaning.

It's not like calling a child Happiness, Beauty, or Intelligence.

Though no shortage of parents call their children Belle / Bella and I think I'm being anglo-centric and ignorant of cultural context too. I think though, that like Faith, Bella is suggestive of good things, seeking to draw out or reference the named quality, rather than proclaiming the child themselves to be faithful or beautiful. Maybe!

TenThousandSpoons · 05/09/2021 10:01

Faith is my favourite of the 3 but round here it would be pronounced Faif by most.

How about Hope?

MsTSwift · 05/09/2021 10:06

Faith is the name of the really rough girls at dds school. A Faith will definitely beat you up

Yellowcrockpot · 05/09/2021 10:11

Can't believe nobody has said this yet...

Raven - Is this a good name for a girl?
Ozberry · 05/09/2021 10:20

I actually like it and reckon I could pull it off. I’m an R name with very dark, shiny, hair (have been described as raven haired many times) and alternative tendencies. The Edgar Allen Poe poem is one of my favourite pieces of literature.
My parents couldn’t have known I’d turn out like this though!

I still wouldn’t give it a child.

Daisydrum · 05/09/2021 10:33

Thank you. It’s interesting to read how some love the name and have a little girl called Raven who also love it and others hate it (and have even changed their name). It does seem very marmite. I’m honestly a little fed up with the soft names that seem the norm at the moment. But I do appreciate that I need to know how I would feel it if it was me with the name. I quite like it.
I’ve seen teen titans go and although Raven has demon heritage, she fights for good and even unites the girls.
I wasn’t aware of the drag queen Raven.
I’ve looked at other names beginning with R, F or W and none stand out for me.
I like classic names.

OP posts:
Rozziie · 05/09/2021 10:47

What about a unisex kind of name if you don't like soft girly ones? Raegan (still could be Rae), Morgan, Riley?

NeverDropYourMooncup · 05/09/2021 12:01

Ravens are great birds. So intelligent, funny and they love things like surfing on thermals and taking the piss out of cats. All Corvids are great, but Ravens in particular have so much character.

I'd feel slightly different if I had vulnerable livestock to worry about reaching before the smartest locals did exactly what they are evolved to do, true, but I adore these noisy, chatty and outright naughty birds and think there is nothing wrong with using it as a name.

DollyDan · 05/09/2021 12:03

Absolutely love it!!!

VoyageInTheDark · 05/09/2021 12:10

Love Raven. Wish I'd used it for dd2

lottiegarbanzo · 05/09/2021 12:12

Choughs are amazing birds too. Wouldn't name a daughter after them.

Oh yes, the eye-pecking (of young livestock). That is seriously not nice. Makes a change from dining off roadkill I suppose?

Ozberry · 05/09/2021 15:39

What about Roisin?

ErrolTheDragon · 05/09/2021 19:07

Given that Florence and Sienna are pretty normal girls' names, how about Ravenna? Then if Raven would suit them they can abbreviate, if it doesn't suit then they're not stuck with 'black corvid'.

HavelockVetinari · 05/09/2021 19:10

[quote bizzieb33]It's a university web service? raven.cam.ac.uk/[/quote]
It was hermes in my day, much cooler than bloody raven!

Ingridla · 05/09/2021 19:19

Really like it

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 05/09/2021 19:21

Love Raven.

Carboncheque · 05/09/2021 19:26

I like it and I’m usually one for traditional names.

Buttercup54321 · 07/09/2021 23:46

Great animal name.
Wendy is very dated.
Faith or Fay .
Alice or Elizabeth?

ODFOx · 07/09/2021 23:49

Will the middle names be Nevaeh Mor?

I think it's a striking gothic name OP, but in my head it's a boys name because of that kids tv show that used to be on. Sorry.

Swipe left for the next trending thread