Comments about names that you just don’t get

[jrt2022]

On mumsnet, I always see the same comments repeated about certain names, and while some I get, others I just can’t get my head around at all! For example:

On every thread asking about Lydia, someone mentioned ‘Lydia dustbin’. Lydia dustbin??? As in … lid of your dustbin, I assume but … WHY? Firstly - what about the lid of my dustbin? Also, loads of things have lids, so why only ‘lid of your dustbin’ in particular? Why not ‘lid of your jam jar’ or something. And even then - what about it? What is funny or interesting or bad about it? I just don’t get it.

There are loads of others but I don’t want to list them as I want to see what others think rather than just rant on about my own! So, any regularly thrown out comments to dismiss names that you think are weird/don’t make sense?

And does it really matter at school? I can’t see how it can be an issue in the workplace where you’ll go by your full name anyway.

Yes to many people it does seem to matter.

@ChiefWiggumsBoy , all my colleagues go by first name only, apart from where there are 2 or more with the name. That goes for pretty much everywhere I've worked.

@KirstenBlest yes but presumably if you need to send an email or something or need to talk to then you don’t flap about whether it’s Katie B or Katie S? You just know who they are?

At a recent job, we had 5 Steves in the office... that did sometimes get confusing!

@ChiefWiggumsBoy , there are usually duplicates where the surname is similar, and it can be confusing if say there's a Dave Thomson and a Dave Thompson.

I worked at one place with lots of Davids, somewhere else it was lots of Steves, somewhere with lots of Marks, and somewhere else with lots of Ians.
There are usually two or three Karens, and several Sues and Emmas.

And the best thing is that all this confusion of duplicate names can be avoided so easily - there are literally thousands of beautiful easy to spell names out there. We really don't all need to give our children the same few fashionable top 10 names!

Although, often people think they’re picking something interesting and new, but it turns out to be one of the names that everyone thought was interesting and unusual that year. 🤣

There’s also some regional variation. So you might have a child with what you think is a pretty unusual name. But you move and there are loads of them in your new location.

best to pick something you love and not over think it.

My first name is terrible. Really not a good name. I have managed with it without any scars. 🤣 most people do.

How can people knowingly pick chavvy or common names and just be ok with cementing your child's place in society like that?

What makes a name chavvy or common i wonder? Popularity?

Whether it’s more likely to be heard screamed down the aisles of The Food Warehouse or trilled down the aisles of the local poncetastic organic farm shop presumably.

I work for a very small organisation with nine female staff. Three of us have the same first name and middle name and they’re not even especially ‘common’ names.

I work for a very small organisation with nine female staff. Three of us have the same first name and middle name and they’re not even especially ‘common’ names.

You can look up how 'common' they were very easily. I bet the name would have been in the top 50 or top 100 for there to be 3 in one office.

My first name is terrible. Really not a good name. I have managed with it without any scars. 🤣 most people do.

Of course they do!

But as parents we should still try our best to find a great name for our children.

@SudocremOnEverything , there was a reporter on the news called Elodie something a few years ago. I can remember thinking it was an unusual name. It tied in with the Ellie short for something trend, and is very popular now. I have no idea if the two are connected.

The popularity of Amelie coincided with the release of the film in 2001.
names.darkgreener.com/#amelie

Darcey/Darcie/Darcy almost certainly made popular by Dame DB. I don't understand how people can say the name is 'gorgeous'. Dame DB is, but it's not her real first name, and I think of it as a surname

Theo was pretty unusual when young Mr Walcott hit the sporting headlines

Would Jenson/Sebastian/Max/Lewis been popular without the F1 association. It will be interesting to see how popular Lando gets

Thanks for the handy tip, I’m well aware of how frequently used my own name is, thanks! 😄

The point I’m making is more that three of us have the same two names. The first name has probably always been in the top 50 names but the middle name is pretty unusual.

I’m pretty sure my foolish parents thought it was a great name. They were wrong.

It seemed to be a short lived burst of popularity that dropped off to nothing before I was born (see graph). Still, I lived in the same street as another one (younger than me) as a child and I regularly come across people with the name who mostly don’t fall into the age range of that popularity curve at work in life. There were 3 of us in a meeting a few weeks ago. None of us born in the 70s or before.

which is to say, a name doesn’t have to be in the top 100 (only names in the top 100 appear in that graph) for you to come across people with the name regularly.

no one calls their daughter this name now. It’s dreadful. If I started a ‘names that should never make a come back name’, it would appear quickly and frequently. So, maybe, if you’re looking to be sure your newborn daughter will be the only one in her class with the name, this is the kind of name you need to go for.

none of this choosing a nice name. Choose a really shit one. One pretty much everyone agrees is terrible. 🤣

1. When a poster asks for their list to be ranked and people suggest a name not on the list 😂
2. When people actually think they’ll have control over their child’s future nicknames.
3. Rose, Mae and Grace suggestions for middle names.

🔫 🔫

no one calls their daughter this name now. It’s dreadful.

I wonder why so many parents once liked the name so much that it reached the top 20? That's pretty popular!

Here’s 50 names. Rank them.

Um…no.

Looking at the timeline… hallucinogenic drugs. 🤣

Most comments about middle names. They really don't matter that much. I don't know the middle names of most of the people in my life. Also thinking that a middle name will solve an issue with the first and last names. No, it won't as most people won't use it.

I do think people tend to overthink teasing potential.
A lot of it comes from the person just not liking the name and trying to come up with reasons why. Sometimes you just don’t like certain names, there doesn’t have to be a reason.

I remember before it became popular someone vetoing Luna because it sounded like lunatic and they would be teased in the playground. What child uses the word lunatic these days? 😂

A lot of people of a certain age seem to be very anti names they deem to be unusual, even if they’re not actually that unusual it’s just that they’ve never come across them before. In the past few years we’ve had babies in our family named Freya and Riley, and the grandparents we’re up in arms about them even though both those names have been in the top 100 for many years now.

Even very unusual names aren’t what they used to be. When I was in school in the 90s to mid 00s there would perhaps be only one or two children in the school with names like Tiger, whereas now it’s more like one or two in each class.

@Duvetdweller It comes from rhyming nicknames

Margaret > Maisie > Daisy

See also

Margaret > Meggy > Peggy

Margaret > Molly > Polly

William > Will > Bill

Robert > Rob > Bob

Richard > Rick > Dick

Im sure there’s more example but those are the top of mind ones.

I think I have that third one wrong. Think it is

Mary > Molly > Polly

@Rhaenys , the term loony is alive and well.

Ed -> Ted ->Ned

I thought Daisy was from marguerite, but the rhyming one is probably more likely

A lot of people of a certain age seem to be very anti names they deem to be unusual, even if they’re not actually that unusual it’s just that they’ve never come across them before. In the past few years we’ve had babies in our family named Freya and Riley, and the grandparents we’re up in arms about them even though both those names have been in the top 100 for many years now.

I've noticed this.

My PIL have said in the same conversation 'you should pick a top 10 name so your child won't be bullied' and 'don't do what cousin Sandra did and give your child a weird unpopular name like Isla' 🙄😁

Our friends DC have 'very unusual' names according to PIL and my parents - Freya, Arlo and Albie.

My Mam still can't get her head around names popular in Wales now like Macsen, Osian and Seren. She comes from an era where people where called Sian and Cerys.