Bow for a girl?

[stacestation]

What do people think of this? Have you ever heard of this being used as a full first name?

Woman from school derides popular names. Apparently her daughter has a unique 'name' though to call it a name is a bit of a stretch as I recently discovered the girl is called Bow, as in a hair bow, not bow and arrow.

The unfortunate part is that the area they're in all the local accents, including their own, pronounce it as Bore. I feel sorry for the poor girl. I can't mention the middle name as that would be outing, but that's even worse. The poor girl, it doesn't aspire to much.

Okay, so the OP came on here sneering at a real child's name, and sneering at their accent, and several posters have joined on the bullying. Shame on you.
The Babynames board is for sharing information and stories to help mums weave magic around their child's name.
Bow is a good name, it's short, sweet, easy to write, comes with a readymade emoji.

Are you certain the inspiration was a hair bow? I’ve heard the name before in relation to rainbow 🌈 and in relation specifically to ‘rainbow babies’.

I think sometimes people forget they are naming a human, that may want to apply for a serious jobs, and not a chihuahua or a kitten. If you want to call child something like this, think of a sensible actual name (Roberta perhaps in this case), and use it as a nickname.

I know of a little girl called Bow. It isn't for me but it's not offensive or anything

I know a little girl called Beaux. I actually told DH that he was wrong and she couldn’t be…but she is.
Anyway I expect she’s in a class with Honey-Mae and Sigh Ann so no one cares except the French teacher.

Beauregard however is a wonderful traditional name.

I didn't sneer at their accent at all. I said it was unfortunate as it meant the name was pronounced 'bore'. I stand by my opinion that it's not a good name bearing all of that in mind.

Weaving magic? The baby name section is also a place to discuss names, and opinions often differ if you've read any threads here.

Beaux is so wrong as a name! As the child will discover for herself if she ever studies French or visits France.

Weaving magic? The baby name section is also a place to discuss names, and opinions often differ if you've read any threads here.

Agreed. I actually think this board is the only place you can be truly honest about a name, it might give a new parent pause for thought with their outlandish name choice, be it Bow, Beauregard or Balanz

Once you've officially named your child and start introducing them to friends and family you'll find people may be too polite to say "ACK that's a terrible name" so the board is great for unfiltered, truthful opinions.

bow is terrible. as is Beau.

Bow 😂

I still want an example of how ‘bow’ can be pronounced ‘bore’ — presumably in a non-rhotic English accent. Assuming you’re not pronouncing the ‘r’ sound, is the vowel doing something different?

Imagine a strong Yorkshire accent for example.

@Craicbaby , some accents have flat, open vowels. Many UK accents are non-rhotic. Both bow and bore would sound like Baw (rhymes with jaw)

Ridiculous.

My daughter is called Bow-Willow and we call her Bow for short (as in Bow and arrow). Personally I think it is a beautiful name that really suits her. She came across this thread while Googling the meaning of her name and has read quite a few of the comments and has now gone to bed a very upset little girl at the fact that grown women are slagging off her name that she really likes. Hope you are all pleased with yourselves.

@Bowsmummy , your daughter shouldn't be on MN if she's a minor.

@GogLais she was googling her name for a school project and the op question came up on Google so she clicked on it and saw a number of the comments before she told me. I have only just made the account to give my opinion. Other than that she would never have been on MN.

Not sure why she'd need to google 'Bow' and 'Willow', as they are both everyday nouns.
My browser brought up images of campsites and some trees with bows on.

@Bowsmummy
Sorry she's upset but this is an open forum where people will say out loud what they are too polite to say in the real world.

Not sure why she was goggling unsupervised but it's fairly obvious Willow is a tree and Bow can either be bow n arrow or bow to the king, depending on pronunciation.

Exactly

@Bowsmummy I wasn’t critical, I hope she read my comment.

Agree, and that she shouldn't be googling unsupervised. Though I did a search for the 'name' Bow and it didn't bring this thread up 🤔

You could explain to her that a pronunciation issue was involved which made it sound like the girl's name was 'Bore'. This section is always brutally honest, so might be better not to let her access again.

The pedant in me wants to let you know that Willow isn't a good tree to make bows from, as you said there was a bow and arrow connection. You'd need Rowan or Bamboo or something. 😀

@toileviv , they were traditionally made from yew. Neither rowan or bamboo would be good choices.

Bamboo is an excellent choice actually and also traditional, though perhaps not in this country! Yew is the traditional one most have heard of, for longbows, but rowan makes good bows and is also 'traditional'.

Back to my point though, though it was all tongue-in-cheek of course (feel I need to point that out now 😉), Willow isn't a good material to use for a bow.