Can you predict based on names?

[Xenaaa]

Hello,

I have been reading the baby name forum a lot recently as I am expecting, and am surprised to see quite a few comments that associate certain names with class. I was not aware that class and baby names were linked at all!

Just out of curiosity what class are these girls names? Some of these names are on my list, and some are children or close acquaintances where I know what “class” they’re in.

I just want to know people can actually predict what class they’re in based on their child’s name.

Sienna
Aurelia
Sophia
Amelia
Evie
Ottilie
Amélie
Ophelia
Isla
Emmeline
Cassia
Ruby
Darcey

Interested to see if there are correct predictions!

(No offence meant in this post, all the above names are all beautiful and a lot of them are on my own personal list)

I know has just named their baby Ruby and loads of people have raised their eyebrows and said it's chavvy behind her back.
I'm sure they say nice things to her face but who knows.
I don't particularly like this woman but I do think it's quite low to slag off a baby's name so much and I wouldn't join in.

@WinterOfOurDiscoTent

I know has just named their baby Ruby and loads of people have raised their eyebrows and said it's chavvy behind her back. I'm sure they say nice things to her face but who knows. I don't particularly like this woman but I do think it's quite low to slag off a baby's name so much and I wouldn't join in.

How do you reply to that conversation? I can’t imagine a conversation with my friends that goes ‘yeah, Anne had her baby. Ruby, baby Ruby. I know - chavvy! Hahaha.’

Rather than just ‘not joining in’ I’d be looking at my circle and why I surrounded myself with so many nasty people.

And for what it’s worth I know many children named Ruby. Looked after lots of them at nursery and in reception class, dd has friends named Ruby. Nobody has ever felt the need to tell me they think that the child had a ‘chavvy’ name. Although maybe they know I would think very poorly of them if I heard them say that.

Op, are you from the U.K. ?

@WinterOfOurDiscoTent

I know has just named their baby Ruby and loads of people have raised their eyebrows and said it's chavvy behind her back. I'm sure they say nice things to her face but who knows. I don't particularly like this woman but I do think it's quite low to slag off a baby's name so much and I wouldn't join in.

The people you know sound really unpleasant

They are colleagues, not friends particularly, I didn't choose them!
No one likes this woman much but I was surprised at such vitriol for a name.

Plus, I don't remember anyone being quite so rude about her first daughters name. That's why I mentioned it, I don't think it's just the fact that she is disliked at work, the general opinion of Ruby was not positive.

My sister had a negative opinion when I used the name Ruby too . Well, she is 18 now and I still adore her name and she likes it too, so no lose on our part. It's a lovely name.

Well I’ve known colleagues who have named their children names I really really dislike - names which I’m pretty sure most people would dislike. Still has absolutely never resulted in a nasty little gossip about the child’s name calling the baby ‘chavvy.’ I suppose as we work in a working class area perhaps we are just too aware of how classist and nasty that type of language is.

I can tell you if one of my colleagues said that to me I would have something to say back about how it made them look.

And to be honest I don’t think it really reflects on the name ‘Ruby’ very much. I think it reflects far more on a toxic workplace desperate to be nasty about this woman who ‘everyone hates.’

I know has just named their baby Ruby and loads of people have raised their eyebrows and said it's chavvy behind her back.

Wow, what nice people you work with

@Grinling

I was not aware that class and baby names were linked at all!

Seriously, it hadn't occurred to you that Thomas Wentworth Somerset Dunstan Rees-Mogg and Princess Tiamii Crystal Esther André might be from different social classes?

This 100%! Of course names are sometimes linked to class. I don’t know what people are trying to prove suggesting otherwise.

Lady Marlee-Mae? Lord Kaidyn?

Sienna - was upper class a few years ago, now seems to be over for upper class and mostly used by working class
Aurelia - popular in all classes
Sophia - see Aurelia
Amelia - working class
Evie - working class
Ottilie - see comments for Sienna
Amélie - middle and working class 10 years ago
Ophelia - popular in all classes
Isla - working class
Emmeline - middle class
Cassia - middle class
Ruby - working or middle class 10 years ago
Darcey - working class

Based on the people I know with these names

Sienna - was upper class a few years ago, now seems to be over for upper class and mostly used by working class

Definitely nor over, unless princesses are no longer upper class!!

Sienna - not as achingly hipster it as in the 1990s, settled into fairly classless
Aurelia - I've fever met one in RL, always struck me as a bit common, because Disney
Sophia - was in such frequent use that it's dropped back in terms of mass usage, but a classic name still a sloaney stalwart
Amelia - used to be fairly posh, now classless
Evie - very frequent name, not remotely posh
Ottilie - bit 'try hard' not really posh
Amélie - bit 'try hard' from 15 years ago
Ophelia - very 'try hard' and not posh
Isla - could be anything
Emmeline - middling
Cassia - depends on how it's pronounced 'Cass-ee-a' is way posher than 'Cash-a'
Ruby - hopelessly overused 20 years ago, and not a classic/perennial
Darcey - could be anything

This 100%! Of course names are sometimes linked to class. I don’t know what people are trying to prove suggesting otherwise

Only people who are the beneficiaries of the class system are in a position to scoff at it (or they are perhaps foreign, so unlikely to be attuned to it - you only really 'get' that of your own nationality, and suprising numbers of people think wrongly that 'only' Britain cares about class. It's different - not non-existent - elsewhere

And whether you think it's a good idea looking at features of class depends quite a bit on whether you have internalised a message that some classes are less worthy.

There's a pile of social and psychological research that shows how first impressions matter, and your name is part of that first impression. People do behave differently, and those who stated the strongest opinion that class didn't matter were usually those who showed the most marked differences in how they reacted to names (based on fairly complex scanarios and interactions, not just 'tell us what you think of X'

It's the sort of think that features on HR courses, as a module in fair recruitment. Anyone who says they don't need it is likely to be wrong - it's a really interesting area.

Only people who are the beneficiaries of the class system are in a position to scoff at it (or they are perhaps foreign, so unlikely to be attuned to it - you only really 'get' that of your own nationality, and suprising numbers of people think wrongly that 'only' Britain cares about class. It's different - not non-existent - elsewhere

This^
Class is not just a British thing. In other countries you can really tell the parents' level of education/social standing by the names they pick. Classical vs. made-up or borrowed from a popular tv show.