Is this in the Kayden/Caiden/Jayden/Brayden camp?

[naminggaming]

I love the name Caleb and I'm aware it's a biblical name but I worry it sounds in the Kayden/Jayden etc name camp by sound and that isn't for me.

Please tell me I'm overthinking it!

Phonetically you're splitting it wrong.

Caleb.
Ca_e is pronounced c-A so cay
You then have l_b left which is lub

Cay-lub

Not referring to you personally @Palmfrond, I hasten to add.

But if anyone tried to argue that popular culture must be my primary reference for my personal culture on the back of me choosing Caleb as a name for my child, and/or judging me on that basis, I'd be judging their ignorance right back tbh...

Caleb has been too 150 since the turn of the century, getting into top 100 in the last decade. It's in no way a modern US name. And the best US show with Caleb in, if we're going TV influence, came out in 1995.

I’m not keen on Caleb but use what you like.

Where I used to live the vicars son was called Jayden and a very nice child he was.

I don't think it is OP.
It's recent popularity in the UK seems to have come from the USA so it may drift into the Kayden/Jayden category but currently I would put it more with Seth, Rueben and the like.

It is worth thinking about the silent judgments others will make about your dc's name.

One of my dc has a name that is criticized on here for being too pretentious/wet but in the USA where we now live seems to be used more in the African American community. So names are very culturally specific.

Caleb is nothing like Jayden etc. It is a very nice old established name.
Just choose whichever name you and your partner like.

I didn’t have much of an opinion on Cayden as a name, but you have put me right off it. You seem gobby and judgemental about names.

Well yes, the sound of caleb is very similar to cayden etc.
Caleb and cayden start with the same letters but they don't think they sound very similar anymore than Norman sounds like Noah or Elliot sounds like Elijah.

Tbf to Lina, she's probably read enough threads about how those names are chavvy, all teachers dread getting one, everyone will judge them thinking they're a chavvy, asbo owning child of a feckless dole-idling layabout etc.

But no one makes you give a child a certain name.
You choose to give them a name surely knowing the judgements others will make. Whether that is boring, pretentious, chavvy or others.
It isn't worth railing against this once you have made your choice.

criticisms like 'boring' and 'pretentious' are more about the name itself. When people say 'chavvy' they tend to be making a wider judgement about the family in general and the future behaviour of the child.

Maybe. But to then attack other names isn’t helpful.

Yes, exactly, renewed interest, driven by pop culture imported from the US.
Unless of course you are a 17th century dissenter or 19th century revivalist, or maybe a cowboy, in which case I offer my most insincere apologies.

She hasn't attacked other names. She didn't say "Thomas is a phone thief's name", she said Thomas has stolen Kai's phone.

Ah yes, since ye turn of ye century! A hoary tradition of all of 23 years!

As it happens I don't actually have a child named Caleb. However had I chosen to use that name it would have had absolutely nothing to do with pop culture, on any level. Not even peripherally.

It would have been picked on its own merits from a cohort of similar names, with a knowledge of its Hebrew origins as well as its Biblical links. If some ignorant person were to think that Caleb is a new name of the same ilk as aforementioned names and has no idea of its actual history, their opinion is hardly going to matter to me!

Apologies for atrocious grammar there!

@TangledWebOfDeception
No explanation necessary, I can see that you are totally cool with it and a chill person and also a great repository of historical facts.

And also congrats on not having a kid named Caleb.

Ca_e is pronounced c-A so cay

Not really. Calendar is not pronounced caylender. Calescent is not pronounced caylescent.

So I struggle to see why Caleb should be Cayleb rather than Caleb

Caleb sounds less like Cayden/Jayden too

The same reason scone is Scown. Because it is. There's a reason as in the Magic E but it's English so that rule doesn't have to extend everywhere because then phonics would be easy and the hair of 4-6 yo parents would be less grey 😁😁

😁 Fair point, it's only as long as I've Ben an adult, so a mere flicker of time. But "ooh it's all modern pop culture" I would expect it to have come in much more recently that something that's crept up for several decades. DarkGreener only go back to 1996 so no idea before then but see the difference with Caleb and Caidenesque names

The British Baby names blog is typically excellent on Caleb: www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2019/03/name-of-the-week-caleb.html. It was fairly popular in the 19th century and there is a Caleb in Middlemarch.

Also interesting to see which names the blog categorises it with under 'if you like Caleb, you might also like...'

Amos
Reuben
Elliot
Dylan
Ethan
Joel (I love this name!)
Ezra
Nathan
Jude
Callum

Let me tell you… I work within a children’s service and we do judge names which is really naughty…

For me Caleb is a good one and not in the other camp 😊

It's Kayleb in English and some other countries. In countries like Spain and France it's Cal-eb.
Why can't you just accept it?

You should do an AMA and people can tell yo u their kids names and you can fortell their future 🙄