My friends say my husband and I have chosen 'cruel' names

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My husband and I are expecting our first child together in early June this year and we're both a mixture of nerves and excitement. We are both fans of traditional names and so have decided on Arthur for a boy or Edith for a girl (we've decided to wait until the actual birth to find out the gender). I think these names are really sweet and could work for both a child and adult. Both our families have said they love the names, however when I mentioned it to my friends they started laughing and told me it was cruel to name our child something so old fashioned as they'll be ridiculed at school. My husband and I don't see where they're coming from but I was just wondering if anyone had any opinions on this?

Those are lovely classic names. Your friend sounds pretty mean tbh.

Friends come and go, you'll have your children for life. Do what you want. After all, it's not like you're giving them freakish names like Carrion, Snake, Chardonnay, or Banana.

Edith is a very beautiful, medieval name of British Queens. It means “ blessed”. Stuff anyone dumb enough to say otherwise. People are so ignorant! It’s elegant and easy say.

Pretty bog standard names. I know little kids with those names

I wouldn’t want friends like that for starters and those names are beautiful nothing wrong with them at all. Please get new friends or just ignore them.

Edith and Arthur are gorgeous names. Go with your heart on this. I also made the mistake of listening to my friend’s criticisms of my baby name choices whilst pregnant. And that influenced me enough to change name choice. Now 7 years later, I wish I’d said nothing and gone with our personal favorite. Best not to share, as it’s such a personal choice. Don’t have regrets, it’s a big personal decision. People like to give their tuppence worth, now I realise they prefer to criticize then compliment your choices. Not everyone will like, there will always be haters. But like everything, names grow on people and kids tend to grow into their names. Have you asked your friends what names they would call their kids? I’d love to hear them.

Don’t dump your friends - they probably mean well. I think they are foolish to be so frank, though. Being so blunt about a prospective parent’s name choice is unlikely to sway them and may endanger the friendship. A pregnant temporary teacher at the school where I worked silenced us all by saying she and her partner were thinking of the name Sinbad! None of us said anything confrontational though we laughed about it in private. Later we learned she had called him Andrew. Maybe if we had called her out she might have stuck with Sinbad!

What world is your friend living in? Arthur is super popular at the moment (and has been quite a common name for ages, my son is 11 and we know lots of Arthurs), it must be heading for number 1 in the names list for 2023. Edith or variations of is also becoming more popular - there are lots of Edies, Maisies, Evies, Ivys etc. Both are lovely traditional names though and I think they are a brilliant choice!

Your friends are idiots, they are popular names at the moment - call your baby what you want

Your friends sound like pricks

Both really common around here. Your ‘friend’ is awful.

Arthur was the 4th most popular boy's name in the UK last year. Tell your outdated friends to get with the programme!

Round our way people wouldn’t bat an eyelid at these names. Ignore your friends. Fwiw I think they are lovely names.

Lovely names! There are other young Arthurs and Ediths out there too. Ignore your 'friends'. This is why I didn't mention names we liked before our kids were born!

Lovely names, ignore the haters

Lovely, classic names. Arthur is very popular right now. And Edith is versatile - could be Edi for short. Both names will work well in adulthood.
Don't listen to your friends. __

I wouldn’t have told anyone the names I had chosen before the baby was born. People will always have opinions. Just name the baby when they’re here and tell people the name.

Both names are fine. I like Arthur/Art/Artie, not so keen on Edith but I like Edie. Neither name is cruel, there are plenty of names like this around. They don’t stand out.

Your baby - your (beautiful ) choice of names…

The names are lovely. Your friends are not.

Gorgeous names, and popular. Don’t let friends put you off.

beautiful, modern classic names

Ignore your friend.
We have a nearly 8 year old Arthur and he's never been ridiculed!

Keep the names. Ditch the friends.

They're totally normal names. Your friends are weird.

Sorry OP but your friends sound dim.

keep the names and lose these friends!