Your unpopular mumsnet naming opinions

[Jsummers16]

This is a very controversial opinion especially in the Uk but I prefer the modern “made up” names like Paisley, Braylee over the classics like Olivia, Lily, Edith ect.

People can name their kids whatever they want, I can’t say I’m overly bothered. But when it came to naming my own DCs? I had a plethora of “no’s” 🙈

• Anything ending in “den” - think Jayden, Kayden, Brayden.


• Traditionally “upper class” names - think Cressida, Tarquin, Camilla


• Anything that sounds like a perfectly “normal” name but is then given a weird spelling to make it “unique” - think Lily but spelled Lilli


• Double-barrelled first names - Lily-May, Ellie-Rose etc


• Made up names plucked from fictional characters - I know someone in real life who called their kid “Khaleesi” and it makes me cringe every time. Not even a made up name…but a made up title of a made up character in a made up language.

My kids ended up with names that aren’t super common - they are the only ones in their school with those names, but they aren’t so uncommon that you’d think they were odd or made up.
My eldest DD’s name was popular in the 1920’s.
My son’s name is popular in Scotland and Ireland but not so much in England.
My youngest DD’s name has become more popular in recent years, but definitely not going to be worried that she’ll be one of many in her year group….unlike me 🤨🙈😂 I come from a Polish background, but use the Anglicised version of my legal name, which funnily enough was massively popular in the U.K. in the early 90’s. So there were 5 of us in my year group with the same name. Forever known as Name followed by Surname Initial 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

Wholeheartedly agree re Ottilie. It sounds little Utterly butterly.

I also hate girls names as ridiculous as that sounds. There is not one girls name I like that would have worked with our surname. I ended up calling DD a longer girls name with a gender neutral name nickname (Matilda to Mattie for example) because Sophie, Lily, Charlotte, Emily, Olivia etc etc just didn’t work for me.

I ironically then went on to call DS a boy’s name but he goes by the girl’s diminutive and it really suits him - this Reuben to Ruby.

I can’t get on with Martha. The biblical reference, the Handmaid’s Tale character that came after, the fact that it’s Maaa-faa in a good chunk of the country… bleurgh.

As a teacher, I went with old lady, dull names spelt properly. Why make problems for your child with 'unique' spellings?

Every time we are at a book festival, the authors signing their books heave a sigh of relief!

And I'm sure that anyone with a child named Braylee or a 'pensioner name' would probably take your comments personally. Funny how that works.

Agree! I live in very rural Highland area of Scotland, have a neighbour who is Cockney whose daughter is Maaaafaaaa.

Of all the names, why pick one you can't pronounce yourself?!

The thing with names is that they go through fashions, so what sounds overused and 'obnoxiously dull' to a person now, was once unusual and pretty!

I think I'd rather be 'obnoxiously dull' than obnoxiously rude.

How many times a year do you attend a book festival?

How To Demonstrate You Think You Are Subtly Making a Point

Or you could be neither dull or rude. Works for me 🙂My overall point being that if you're the kind of person who makes people feel bad for the names they like then why get pissy when someone insults your name picks?

If you want to come on here and comment that names like Braylee indicate an awful child that teachers will hate then fine. Good for you. But you can't then throw your toys out the pram when someone says that your fave name Elizabeth is a dull, boring choice that may reflect a dull, boring parent.

Both comments are as 'mean' and 'hideous' as each other objectively speaking and there's no avoiding that.

We attend lots. There are tons on. 3 weekends spent at Edinburgh alone.

That’s not a unpopular opinion on this site. Im sure the OP was asking for opinions that are controversial

If we named babies on "what they look like" loads would be called Winston Churchill

Oh another of these. Always brings out the best in us. 😂

It does rather dampen the glee of stating your potentially-divisive opinions when you open a thread and immediately see your own DC's name slated multiple times! (For the record, "old lady" and "ugly", though it's not why I chose it and I think it's beautiful.)

I share a lot of previously-stated opinions that I won't repeat, but here's one I think I'm sometimes alone in: names don't have meanings, they have etymology. It's not the same thing (word names notwithstanding, obviously). The focus on at best reaching and at worst entirely made up name "meanings" by some posters is bizarre to me.

Waited until we saw what they looked like. Mole and Piglet love their names.
We get so many comments about what pretty names they have

Love this 😂

I don't really understand the big deal re: using names from other cultures (unless the name is something like Muhammad). Most "British" names aren't British in etymology and were originally borrowed from other cultures anyway. Why is it acceptable to use a name that was borrowed in the 1940s but not a more recent borrowing? My name is technically Italian (whenever I meet Italian people, they sometimes mention that to me or tell me my name's meaning) but it's so common in the UK, most British people don't see it that way. The idea that you shouldn't call your child e.g. Saskia if you're not Dutch or Luca if you're not Italian is kind of like Canute trying the hold back the tides.

Most name "meanings" are (a) of dubious accuracy and (b) usually have nothing to do with why a name is actually used in our culture. In the past, most people were illiterate and they didn't understand Hebrew or Latin or Greek so they wouldn't have known the etymology of names anyway. E.g. Mary/Maria/Marie is a common name in Western countries because of its religious significance in Christianity and the tradition of naming children after relatives, not because of its etymology (which most people don't even know).

@yui, i agree with you re Mohammed.
Disagree with Luca - I think it will date badly, and Luke and Lucas won't

I don't like names that sound nice in their original language being used because they usually don't sound nice here. They are often names that look pretty but don't sound great in a regional accent

A colleague's wife is Natalie and she's french, her name is pretty, but Na'erleh isn't

Names from other countries/cultures/languages are usually ones you've heard used on an adult, so are usually a bit dated in their original culture

If I had another girl (I'm not going to now!) I would really like to call her Taylor but that is very unmumsnetty!

It's:
Also, OP,
You seem to have lost your comma key. You won't mind me pointing that out as you were so ready to correct the OP.

I love Taylor for a girl. Although on here you’d probably get comments for it being “too American”, I’m not sure why something being American is used as an insult

Agree about margot & Ottilie

Trixy
Alexis
Cinnamon
Stormy

Couldn't agree more @Moonface123 !

An Irish friend of mine called her kid a french name which she pronounces incorrectly. Males me laugh. On account of all the mispronounced Irish names, which annoys her 😂