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Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Do your DC have any friends whose names you secretly hate?

124 replies

branflake81 · 24/01/2008 09:11

DD's best friend is called Shirley. She's 6. I secretly think it's horrible.

OP posts:
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Chuffinnora · 24/01/2008 23:08

I think it had come from a baby name thread and the debate sort of continued but of course I hadn't seen the original thread until I saw DD'd name in active convos. I didn't post, I wouldn't have been very nice but everytime I read one of her posts I would snort "well you would say that" out loud to myself.
I think it was all about class in the end and this person wanted to show how common she thought the name was. [two fingers up emoticon].

TellusMater · 24/01/2008 23:09

Aaaargh. I want to know!!!

Soft yet manly.

I want to know!!!

EachPeachPearMum · 24/01/2008 23:13

Pauka- I don't actually think I know of anyone but yr ds with that name. Until I looked up the origins just now I had assumed it was french origins, but have been set right.
was it after historical figure (s) or for other reasons?

PaulaYatesBiggestFan · 24/01/2008 23:14

i have cat -ed you !

EachPeachPearMum · 24/01/2008 23:14

oops- paula I mean!

EachPeachPearMum · 24/01/2008 23:15

Oh Chuffin- did you call her Princess Tiiaammmiiiii then?

Chuffinnora · 24/01/2008 23:16

You'd think so but no, just a normal sort of unremarkable name. Just not posh enough.

TellusMater · 24/01/2008 23:17

Me?

seeker · 24/01/2008 23:18

Oh go on, Paula, tell us. You know you want to!

I am very old, and when I was born, my mother told her friends she wanted to call me Emily after Emily Bronte. Apparently they all laughed like drains and mocked her for such an old fashioned and outre choice and convinced her that she was barking mad and I would be scarred for life.

PaulaYatesBiggestFan · 24/01/2008 23:28

lol at Pauka!

he was my fourth boy and i was intending to have him in water!

PaulaYatesBiggestFan · 24/01/2008 23:29

yes tellusmater ! doh at me!

TellusMater · 24/01/2008 23:30

Hurrah!

AprilMeadow · 24/01/2008 23:40

Hatrick - i love you dd's names. How're you doing btw x

WestCountryLass · 25/01/2008 00:04

I think Gabriel is a manly, yet soft name. What is it Paula!!!!!

My DD is Jemma with a J and she is going to say it is Jemma with a J for the rest of her days, really did not think that through

MrsJohnCusack · 25/01/2008 07:22

i'm with hatrick
there was a thread discussing my DD's name once and there were some rather robust views expressed on it
now I don't care at all, but obviously lots of people do, and I do try to be careful about saying anything rude about names

having said that, I did once start a thread on 2 corkers of names from the paper here. but having googled to try and find the thread, I've brought up the website of one of the children in question and it's all rather sweet and I'm feeling a bit mean now.(and his parents look completely normal)

FoghornLeghorn · 25/01/2008 08:31

WestCountryLass - I am Jemma with a 'J' too and I love it

Botbot · 25/01/2008 08:51

Talking of the Brontës, perhaps the Shirley the OP was talking about was named after this Shirley?

A brilliant book and a feisty heroine. I do like a literary name, me.

Botbot · 25/01/2008 08:52

[and no, my dd isn't called Shirley]

ilove8pm · 25/01/2008 09:25

my mum refuses to say my dds middle name, and when she was born and people rang my mum she lied to them about what dds name was . I have never really forgiven her TBH. I had a big chat one day with her about it, and made her promise that when my dd is older if subject of names crops up, that my mum will have the good grace to pretend she likes my dds names! she promised, a bit unconvincingly though!

PaulaYatesBiggestFan · 25/01/2008 17:58

westcountrylass - i tried to CAT you but you dont have it lol!

cory · 30/01/2008 11:11

These things keep changing so rapidly, though: what was hilarious 20 years ago is plain everyday today. Where are the Marks and the Fionas of yesteryear? Somebody with an unusual name may simply be at the forefront of the next trend. My mother wanted to be brave and original and call me Susannah- until she got to the ante-natal ward and found all the other mums on the ward were also planning to be brave and original... I am not called Susannah!

Anyway, once you've known somebody with a certain name, you're going to think about that person, not about the name, next time you hear it.

I think surnames as first names is an odd concept, because it is not (at least not currently) part of my culture, but they are obviously perfectly normal to the people around me.

On the other hand, the kind of names I would see as normal would seem impossibly hippyish in this country. Path, anyone (Stig)? Stone (Sten)? Bear (Björn)? Both my dc's have foreign names that have to be spelled out, cannot be pronounced and (in the case of my ds) need special fiddling with the keyboard. I don't think they're suffering- they like their names.

Obviously, there is a class difference within the UK, as well as the differences between countries. Which makes me even more wary of condemning other people's names - am I actually saying something about a whole section of society? And if so, what does that make me?

shreksmissus · 31/01/2008 11:18

Message withdrawn

lemonstartree · 02/02/2008 21:02

yes in my sons class D'Artagnian. and they are not even French !!!!!

jojo0207 · 03/02/2008 23:22

i agree with budcat- hate is such a strong word. maybe children are given names in memory of someone else, or with good meaning. i'm sure we all come accross names we would not call our children, but then who's to say the names we have called ours are to everybody's taste? my daughters' names (angela and jessica) i love, but that may not be someone else's choice. don't judge love, it'll come back and bite you on the butt!!

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