Harlem?

[shaynes168]

For a boy? this is my first child i do tend to like names that you don’t hear everyday and i’m aware this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but i’m really starting to like it. I’ve been to new york 5 times because i have family who live there and Harlem just stuck out to me as one of the place names i like.
Another place name i like is Bronx but i think harlem sounds better. Thoughts?

If you love it go for it

Isn't Harlem an incredibly deprived area? Not sure I'd name a kid after somewhere so poor tbh.

Harlen?

I know 2. One is about 14 now and the other a few years younger. The younger one apparently got his name because his mum overhead someone calling to the older one in the park and thought it sounded nice.
I don't know if the older one was named after New York.
I think it's nicer than Bronx as a name.

Middle name Globetrotter? Sorry OP. If you like it, go with it, but bear in mind the child could have a lifetime of people taking the mickey out of their name.

Reminds me of the umbrella academy 😁

Introduce yourself with the name for a few months and see how it goes.

it's awful.

@WeAreTheHeroes I never heard anyone take the mickey out of the name of the 2 Harlem's I know.

Do you have any connections with NYC that make the names particularly appealing to you?

It’s probably an awful stereotype on my part but I associate both names with poverty/high crime areas. Well I kinda think of the Globetrotters as well with Harlem.

Sorry just re-read and saw your connection to NY. 🙈

It's Harlan in the Umbrella Academy. Which, TBH, I think is a much better name.

Harlem is going to come with naughty kid connotations.

@2reefsin30knots 😂 one of the Harlem's I know could more likely be described as 'middle class with well educated parents'.
Delightful child. Moved away a few years ago. I kinda miss him. He was so sweet.

It's the US equivalent of calling your child Croydon or Toxteth!

Toxteth is a lovely name. I'd imagine him or her to be a riot.

🤦‍♀️

what would you make of a New Yorker calling their daughter Peckham? Or their son Croydon or Haringey or Brixton?

(Actually, thinking about it, I can imagine the last three as names!)

The other things with place names as people names is that everyone will know or assume that was where the child was conceived. Beyond cringeworthy, as a child let alone as adult.

I don't like it. I have the same reaction to it as someone called Slough, or Lewisham. They are places not people

It’s better than Bronx, but it is very low rent.

As a middle name if you must (Harlem, not Bronx )

Dreadful.

I think Globetrotters too.
Bronx is awful.