Does anyone else love the American surname type names?

[IcedCokeFloat]

I do but I feel so alone in this. I'm a big fan of names like Hunter, Hudson, Ryder, Wilder, Sullivan etc.

If you're a fan what are your favourites?

Years ago I taught a quirky 10yo who had imaginary babies named Nietzsche and Nautical. Years later I googled the names with her surname. No Nietzsche, but Nautical had won the school maths prize and sung in a choir.
The only name ever to stop me in my tracks was Darwin. Now that is one strong look in the town where he lived.

Scottish clan names have been popular as first names for years. Examples are
Cameron
Frazer
Malcolm

All work as first/Christian names and surnames.

Thinking outside the box by…calling your kid Harrison or Jackson? Yeah, woah, so unusual, no one has ever thought of doing that before.

And yet people still consider this “try hard” or “downmarket”. Why? Harrison/Jackson are perfectly normal names.

I mean I totally get not liking certain types of names because they hit an ear differently, but to dislike a group of names because of a perceived snobbery is irony in a whole different level.

I don’t like Ptolemy or Ottilie, Charlotte or Hugo because I don’t like the way they sound in my ear, not because I have any snobbery around them or would consider the parents of the aforementioned names to be “try hard”.

They’re just names. Pick a style you like and go with it!

@ZoyaTheDestroyer ah yes but Mumsnet is a predominately British website, hence the lead.

I don't usually like them but sometimes I do.

Spencer is used as a boy's middle name in my family (was my grandmother's maiden name). When I watched Pretty Little Liars at first I really disliked Spencer as a girl's name but then it grew on me!

People don’t like other people that think outside the box, as is pretty obvious by the responses on the thread.

People don't like other people thumbing their noses at British social conventions because that signifies a total disregard for the class system, which many people are completely and irredeemably invested in. When other people steer around it they feel it is a form of cheating.

Same goes for people choosing Irish names - it is unthinkable that anyone should introduce a non-English element into life and bypass the class connotations English names come burdened with.

Ryan and James were first names first. Spencer is an occupation surname

Ryan is an Irish surname.

I love it too, Harrison, Hayden, Preston, Carter - I wasn’t brave enough but I do like these types of names

Girls with surnames as first names tend to have names that fall out of fashion. Not many baby Lesley, Lindsay, Kelly, Tracy etc now

Perfectly ordinary English first names have also dropped off the radar:
Margaret
Mary
Anne
Patricia
Barbara
Linda
Christine
Suzanne
Julie
Lorraine
Karen
Susan
Jacqueline
Deborah
Sally
Pauline
Sandra
Elaine
Lisa
Lynn
Yvonne
Pamela
Valerie
Cheryl
Sheila
Joanne
Wendy
Dawn
Gillian
Carol
Helen
Sharon
Diane

There are no guarantees that any specific name won't be an announcement of your approximate age.

Girls with surnames as first names tend to have names that fall out of fashion. Not many baby Lesley, Lindsay, Kelly, Tracy etc now

Italics fail

i thought Ryan was from Riain but i could be wrong
I'm not keen on it anyway

I don't understand the MN obsession with class, but I understand the way names go through the class system and how they tend to indicate the parents' socio-economic background

I generally like them and certainly wouldn't think them "downmarket". I'm Canadian though, so I suppose they sound more natural to me as I grew up with them. That said, names like Edward, George, and Alfred sound ridiculous and posh to me. Everyone is different!

Names have been going in and out of fashion for decades. There has been a trend for names being more and more varied, versus previous decades where a few names would be very dominant (e.g. 1970s Emma, Sarah, Claire for the UK).

The US has its own 'tells' of region, class, and ethnic background, but they don't map to the UK.

I like the American girls names, I think they sound fresh & energetic. I don’t really care whether people think they’re ‘downmarket’, a name doesn’t hold you back in life any more so it makes zero difference.

i thought Ryan was from Riain but i could be wrong

Yes, it is from Rian, and by extension the surname Ó Riain (genitive case), meaning descendant of Rian. Ryan is the Anglicisation.

@knitnerd what would be the 'tells' of an American name? Genuinely interested. My eldest has a name that's often slagged off in here for being boring and overly popular. I've met about 4 in her 17 year life lol. My younger one has an American surname name. It's mentioned on this thread. We love it. It's originally Scottish but that doesn't stop the mn snobbery. I really like:
Hunter
Cooper
Hudson
Emerson
Jefferson
Carter.
Honestly each to their own!

@mathanxiety Some of those were new names or from other languages and are dated.

Not all of them have gone away. Mary might not be much used but diminutives are in use.
Same goes for Margaret.

Karen is a form of Katherine - lots of Kates and Katies

Anne might not be much used but there are lots of Annas and Hannahs

Lisa is a diminutive of Elizabeth and was replaced with Lily, Beth, Eliza ans Elsie

etc

I think the anglicisations tend to date badlly

@KirstenBlestst

The specific names Margaret, Mary, and Karen are not used.

People choose specific versions of names for the way they sound. I.e Lisa, not Elizabeth or Lily or other derivatives.

A huge number of the girls' names that are popular now are foreign names:
Penelope
Persephone
Sophia
Aria
Freya
Mia
Isabella
Phoebe
Luna
Maya
Emilia
Chloe
Niamh
Orla
Margot

There is nothing specific to surname names that guarantees oblivion.

Not sure if it's really 'American' but I used to know someone called Mitchell Grant (named before the east Enders character) but because both names could be considered names and surnames, the amount of times he got called Grant Mitchell ! But then I know plenty of people with English sounding names that get mixed round Matthew Stephens / Stephen Matthews for eg.

People don't like other people thumbing their noses at British social conventions because that signifies a total disregard for the class system, which many people are completely and irredeemably invested in. When other people steer around it they feel it is a form of cheating.

Exactly right. I’m British but from a mixed background (first generation British), and on my mums side of the family are all “American” sounding names - Clayton, Brent, Leyland, Carlton (huge in our family). Which is why these types of names are totally normal to us and don’t sound weird to use.

No, I don't particularly like them.
Especially when these names are used for girls.
I came across a girl called Mozart once 🙄(I think FB recommended her page to me, she's a singer or a musician).

God, the utter snobbery and classism on this thread is shining bright!! I have four children, one of whom is Cooper. He's over 16

Did you call him Mini-Cooper when he was younger? 😂

@GladysAndFred

No, I don't particularly like them. Especially when these names are used for girls. I came across a girl called Mozart once 🙄(I think FB recommended her page to me, she's a singer or a musician).

Chill it’s probably a stage name