Elliot - classless?

[barca123]

Do you think of Elliot as classless? And do you like it? Be kind -my brain is fried!

I find Elliot a bit posh name as a sound but I love it. Go for it! Cute for child and mature for an adult. Not trendy but timeless. If I had a boy it would be in my shortlist

I mean this very kindly, OP, but are these threads actually helping you at all? Your choices are great and you just need to have a bit more confidence in them. MN is definitely not the place to find it!

You’re right

I don’t hate it.
As for class it’s not posh but you probably don’t find many on a sink estate in Bradford either

Because they are used predominantly by LMC, WC or UMC families. Anything associated with a group of people becomes synonymous with that group whether it's brands, pronunciation or names. It's not hard to understand that.

Meh, I know several Elliot's ranging from 29 to 3. All firmly MC. All at or went to leading public schools so not exactly WC or dated in this green leafy part of Surrey.

I love Elliot!

It also seems to go well with so many names as middle names if you're wanting to choose one of those too.

I have an Elliot and think it’s a lovely name. We have a daughter but if we’d had another son we would of gone with Henry…or Edward/Eddie. So I think the name goes beautifully with Henry

Because they are used predominantly by LMC, WC or UMC families. Anything associated with a group of people becomes synonymous with that group

Do people in the UK really still belong to 'classes' ?!

Does he get any nicknames?

Absolutely. Folk don’t walk around declaring themselves to be working class or middle class (except on MN) the class system is very much alive and well and social mobility is at its lowest for many years.

I love the name Henry but to me it doesn't go with Elliot. To be honest I wouldn't choose the name Elliot as there are several legitimate ways of spelling it so you would always be saying "with one T" or "with two Ls" and that would annoy me too much.

Class, socioeconomic group, demographic... call it what you want but every society has them

Absolutely. Folk don’t walk around declaring themselves to be working class or middle class (except on MN) the class system is very much alive and well and social mobility is at its lowest for many years.

OK, but why should names be restricted to certain 'classes'? If anything, it only reinforces the stereotypes.

I'm glad I'm not British (am from an EU country) so don't feel restricted by such class rules...

Many names that originally started off “posh/avant garde” over the decades become used by the middles and others as names filter down. It’s no doubt a faster process now because of the internet. Back in the day, it would be someone seeing a posh name in a film or a book and then using it for their own child later on, by which time the posh people have moved on. It’s why a name such as Florence might have been posh at one stage, within a generation or so, became a servant name called Flo or Flossie etc, while the poshos had moved on to a name like Daphne. And then Florence gets revived and is cool and lovely and new 20 years ago. And the process continues. But you still see it here - people using names that seem 20 years out of date to me.

I agree

Not many names start with the working class and get adopted upwards though: I don't know any middle/upper class men or boys called:

Wayne, Kelvin, Gary, Warren, Jayden, Jaxon, etc.

Similarly for women or girls:

Brenda, Doreen, Maureen, Sharon, Kim, Lorraine, Ellie-Mae.

There are classics across all boundaries that fall in and out of fashion.

@Reddahlias , OK, but why should names be restricted to certain 'classes'? If anything, it only reinforces the stereotypes.
Names are not restricted to certain classes, but names might be popular with certain types of people. Some names might seem too unusual for your area or friendship/acquaintance group. I think the stats say that older mothers tend to go for more conservative names, for example. e.g. A young mother might call her child Jackson or Jaxxon, an older might pick Jack.

I'm glad I'm not British (am from an EU country) so don't feel restricted by such class rules...
They're not rules as such, they're conventions or what actually happens.
Maybe your country has different rules, or maybe all the names are completely classic and classless.

Elliott for me partners with:

Caspar
Felix
Milo
Giles
Tobin

rather than the classics such as: Edward, William, Henry, James, George, etc.

There were only 9 girls recorded with the name Elliot last year in the UK. If you know a few then that is quite the statistical anomaly.

It’s correlative rather than causative and descriptive rather than prescriptive, but certain names are associated with certain demographics. It’s possible to deplore aspects of the class system whilst also not pretending that Ptolemy’s parents aren’t likely to be from a different demographic to Heaven-Leigh’s.

It’s not unique to the UK, either. Ask a French person for a list of names they consider BCBG, or an Australian for bogan names, or an American for trashy names, or a Milanese Italian for the southern ‘peasant’ names that they wouldn’t dream of using for their own child.

I know three Elliotts -

1. In his early 20’s. Brother is Callum.
2. Around 10. Brothers are Joseph and Sebastian
3. Two year old. Baby brother is Beauden. Sister is Emily.

Beauden!

Yes I thought similar

Agreed I think!