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.

Oh dear.What is the name?

You don't need to "wait and see" what name suits your baby. Babies change so much, what they look like today is not what they'll look like in 20 years time, 20 months time or even 20 weeks time so I don't believe a baby "doesn't look like" a name!

I thought this until DS2 was born. He ended up with a name I had totally vetoed because as soon as i saw his face I knew it was his name.

YES exactly! Don’t tell me what your child’s name is and then immediately tell me I have to call them something else! A friend’s child is Hermione which is my absolute favourite name, but the second she was born we were told we had to use a stupid cutesy nickname. So now I’m expecting DC1 and can’t name her Hermione even though they don’t even use it!! 😩

If your friend's DD doesn't use the full name, you could still use it, @BanjoVio .

can't bear the name nora/norah, reminds me of nora batty,
nitty nora and bloody nora, it makes me think of an old woman not a baby.

Anna , Emma and Sarah are fucking dull. I'd rather name my kid Kylie.

My unpopular opinion is that whenever someone asks for advice on names you always get someone replying with "Ava, Beatrice, Alice, Lydia". I get that these names are popular but they always sound so English and overdone. Yes they're pretty names but not all "new" names are to be scoffed at

People will struggle with an unusual name.

My name is fairly unusual and I'm amazed at the ways it gets misspelled.
The first and last letter usually remain in place but the others are transposed, replaced, added to or removed.

Your children get one first name, They are not "Josephine NN Scarlett"
Pick one bloody name.

Nicknames are organic and develop naturally.

Shortenings and diminutives are different to nicknames (Josephine NN Josie is fine for example but only if this developed naturally and wasn't prescribed by parents from birth 😆)

James and Jamie are NOT the same name.

Nickname policing is a load of shit. If you call your child something which has one, really common nickname don’t then be surprised if people use it instead of the tangentially related thing you want them to.

I don’t really like the thing of naming a child “for” someone else or “after” them. Appreciate there may be cultural traditions in some cases, but generally I don’t really get why you would want to reuse a name, it doesn’t mean you love them any more than anyone else.

I loathe unisex names. I have one myself and I've yet to meet a person with a unisex name who likes it. It baffles me when here on mn people go on about how they want a unisex name due to wanting their child to be strong and independent and they get people saying please done i have one and I hate it and the poster still thinks they are right and all the posters with unisex names are just not getting it. I am 50 I've had 50 years of debating that yes my name is unisex and yes more commonly used by males but no I'm not a male and I dont care what the computer says. I am living this daily and I dislike it so intently.

I have NEVER. Minded having to spell my somewhat unusual name and I have children with names that needs clarifying at times and they express the same no issue with spelling it (dd3 has one of those much despaired of Irish names on here) yet the spelling seems yo be a huge issue on mn.

Personally I loathe the name Connor not made better by every Connor I've met has been horrid.

Very unpopular on here but I love the American style surname type names

Madison, Taylor, Kennedy, Mackenzie etc.. unfortunately only a pipe dream as my husband hates anything that sounds American, never mind it sounding like a surname on top.

3/3 of my DCs names mentioned on here 😁

Old people names are awful. Arthur, Edith, Mavis, Fred - ugh.

Middle names are completely irrelevant and not worth more than about five seconds' thought.

Pick a name that's easy to pronounce and spell or you're doing your kid a disservice. It's much more important than being "unique."

3/3 of my grandchildren's names too (although neither of my children's!).

One of my cats' names has been rubbished. I am DEEPLY offended.

Pick a name that's easy to pronounce and spell or you're doing your kid a disservice. It's much more important than being "unique."

I have a name that's not easy to spell. And many want to mispronounce it (it's actually said as it's spelt) my children have names you need to spell out. (Even if one is only a witha C not K) but none of us mind
In fact mine have expressed they like having names thats not the bog standard. So hardly doing a disservice.

Using a name from another culture is not a good idea especially if you mispronounce or misspell them.

Enko There was a thread here a while ago and nearly everybody with a "Can you spell that?" name agreed it was a real pain in the arse. I'm one of them and completely agree.

I think from people I know with a "Can you spell that?" name, it isn't the obviously tricky ones that are the real PITA.

The really unusual ones tend to get a 'How do you say that?' but the ones that you'd expect to be easier tend to get said all sorts of ways.

I have a fairly unusual welsh name and people will try to make it into something they'll recognise, or they'll ask me to say it then repeat it making it sound horrible, or they'll say something like 'How the f**k do you say that?'. My name gets misspelt a lot. I also get told things like 'Why do you say your name is [My real first name] when it's really [Another name], and 'I know how to spell it' (no you don't)

A friend called Ceri has what I'd have thought was a much easier name, but she gets Serri, Surrey, Cherry, Cherie and Cerise and if they've heard it but not seen it written down, Kerry, Kerrie or Keri

I often work with people from different countries, and it's the monoglots who struggle with my name. Having said that, I struggle to remember to say their names correctly, usually because I first heard an anglicised version - something like 'Oh you'll be working with Jürgen and Liisa' and they aren't 'Yerg-en' and 'Lisa'

There's nothing wrong with yooneek spellings providing you can tell what the name is.

Lottie for example doesn't have to be Charlotte on her birth certificate.

Sibling names don't necessarily have to match.

My own naming tastes run to names which are probably considered posh and long - and can be shortened though my now-adult children never have done so.
But I don't mind names that are shortened on the birth certificates. I have a job where I go into nursing homes from time to time and it always makes me smile that I literally could see the same names that are on the bed board on a nursery register including names like Tilly or Archie on a birth certificate.
My dislikes are:

1. spelling a name incorrectly and saying it's to be more original - it is completely ridiculous to say that Haileigh will feel different from Hayley (except for the fact that they will have to spell their name out every single time for every single person)
2. picking a unique name and thinking it will make your child special and less dull. The people with the weirdest names I know (and I think they are genuinely unique so I can't put them here but think something like Moon-Petal and Lightning-Star) have a parent who thinks she's cool but actually is very dull (but had piercings and tattoos before everyone had them) and her children loathe their names intensely, have been horribly bullied (they are not allowed to conform in any way so it's not just down to the names) and are like extreme versions of Saffy in Ab Fab - they're so conventional it's funny. They will definitely have children called James and Sarah if they ever decide to have children...

Absolutely, shame on their parent’s empty little heads.
All Connor should immediately change the spelling to Concobharc, Kevins to Caoimhín, Orlas to Orlaith and anyone who’s not sure should just choose a different name.

Ah, if you want a minority opinion....

I think it's fine to spell however you like. I might not do it myself, btw, but fine if you do.
Lorents? Marrie? Hoogogh? Bring 'em on.
Fine to use names from other cultures, too.
And fine to spell it how you like (Neeve for Niamh, Shavaugh for Siobhan etc.).

I'm baffled at purists who insist otherwise.

@lljkk, with you all the way. Hoogogh, Lorents and Marrie are lovely simple names with no spelling or pronunciation issues whatsoever.

I don't agree with you on Neeve for Niamh, Shavaugh for Siobhan though as the spelling change the pronunciation. Neave and Shivaun would be more logical