Renaming fictitious children, what would YOU choose?

[Lalaluuu]

Has anyone else ever learnt the name of a child in a book, film, etc, and just felt "ugh"? Underwhelmed? Like the name revealed is just a billion miles away from what you would choose if ~you~ were their fictional mummy?

I fully understand it may just be me here...

I propose a game of naming the poor things PROPERLY, with a name that actually suits them!

I'll start:

The Banks children in Mary Poppins returns...
Annabel and John are gorgeous, but "Georgie" makes my skin crawl! What's wrong with, simply, George?! I would rename his character "William", if I were Mrs Banks (and not dead) 😂

The Pevensies...
Peter, Edmund, and Lucy- so beautiful! But, Susan? She got the short straw there, in my view. I would rename her "Anna". Still a practical and "capable" name, but prettier and less clunky.

Where I am struggling to think of a name, is where there is officially no name... The name of Bea and Thomas McGregor's daughter (and subsequent children, I imagine they would have a minimum of 3). Interested to see what names you would suggest for their brood most of all, given their vibe and lifestyle and COMPLETELY BLOODY STUNNING home...

Come humour my silly little daydreams and amuse me whilst I sip my decaf and pretend I don't have laundry to attend to... Pretty please? Feel free to add your own too!

Somebody come and play?!
Bumping bumping bumping

Agree about poor Susan. Don't much like Peter either, would have preferred Stephen, William or Jonathan (bearing in mind when the books were written)

Same sort of thought about Ann from the Famous Five. She is written as a colourless wimpy girl however, so perhaps it was on purpose.
Imagine if she'd been Boudicca, or Diana…

@Giggorata ooh yes, they are quite handsome!

Yes! Good point, I do love Boudicca.

Terry Pratchett's Tiffany has always bothered me a little. Although I expect there's a lesson in there that girls with very girly/ frilly names (and I know this can be completely subjective) can absolutely be intelligent, tough and not afraid to get their boots dirty.

love ht eidea for a thread.

struggling to think of children in books.....

(and who are Bea dn Thomas MacGregor?)

Anne of Green Gables made a huge fuss about being 'Anne with an E' but I think Ann is much nicer without the E.

Trying to think of well known books. I guess in Wuthering Heights when Catherine is regularly shortened to 'Cathy' it gives it a bit of an Eastenders edge

@Underadandelion with Tiffany, I can only think jewellers, breakfast at, or a cockney accent. A perfectly pretty-to-look at name for me, but the latter association taints it so strongly!

@steppemum thankyou, I thought it seemed fun too :) Bea and Thomas are from the recent film adaptions of Peter Rabbit, played by Rose Byrne and Domhnall Gleeson.

Oh THEM.

hmm, hard to find a good name to go with MacGregor int hat context. It comes with a big back story...

@PlateBilledDuckyPerson I remember at school someone made the rhyme "Anne with an E always needs a wee" (no idea why). So, that's all I hear when I see the book!

@Mistressofnone Ahh yes... "Café" 😂😂

Always thought Enid Blyton was veyr unimaginative with names, until Uncle Quentin.
Where did that spring from?
George - hmm, very conventient that her name was Georgina. Too neat.

Agree about Susan. Was never a surprise that she was the one that 'didn't believe' in the end.
I did feel that Edmund was a bit left field compared to Lucy Peter and Susan though. Surely it should have been Edward?

Some of the Harry Potter characters have awful names!

Ronald Weasley - how about Robin instead

Neville Longbottom - Neil or Nate/Nathan

Very, very selfishly, I would rename both male characters from The Secret Garden. Colin is not a great name but Dickon??!! Wow.

The selfish reason being, it was my favourite book as a child and I would love to have been able to name my first son after one of those characters. Not a chance 😂

@steppemum perhaps a son John, in honour of Mr McGregor himself... Maybe John would have a brother named Rory or Hamish as a nod to the scottish heritage? But the names all feel warm and wholesome, fitting of a countryside home with a proud veg plot, I think :) But as for daughters... Not quite sure what would fit that theme!

I love the zing of Quentin! Feels quite fresh and crisp, but friendly. Edward is certainly more studious-sounding to me. Edmund feels more velvety? Perhaps Edwin?

@snowysnowglobe Robin is PERFECT for Ron. Love love love!
I was always disappointed by Luna. Xenophilius! Pandora! Luna feels rather plain in comparison. But she is a gorgeous character herself.

@CoolCalmCollected a perfectly valid reason! 😂 What would you opt for instead?

Probably some classic names of the time. William, Charles, Arthur, Ernest, Samuel, Stanley, Clarence.
Not that I ended up using any of those names for any of my children.

@CoolCalmCollected very nice choices. Especially William, Charles, and Samuel. I only know one boy with each of those names but they are all sweet little things!

@Lalaluuu Funny, you picked out the three that were my Grandad and his brothers' names! They were/are all very lovely elderly gents 😊

@CoolCalmCollected oh how lovely 😊 They're such kind names and paint a lovely picture of the bearer :)

I'm thinking, for the McGregor daughters I'd perhaps go for Molly, Wendy, Sally, Penny, Annie, Alice, or Jane. Again channeling a wholesome english cottage vibe...

Going by Swallows and Amazons, and LTWATW, older children seemed to have solid, boring, or family names in that era and then after that parents (who knew they'd probably have more than 2) could go wild. The older of the Swallows are John and Susan and then we have Letitia and Roger (and whatever the baby was really called). The Amazons are Ruth and Margaret (but I don't think they got the younger siblings). And the Pevenseys are Peter and Susan; my DF is of that era and he has the family name, with his first sister having a solid biblical name and his second sister having a boring family name, with his third sister then getting the exotic Shakespeare name.

I do this all the time including people I know's children with names I think suit them better (ONLY IN MY HEAD, THOUGH!!!)

My main one at the moment is all the 'kids' in Succession.

Connor, Kendall, Roman and Siobhan don't go together as a set. Ignoring Connor, who has a different mother, the other three still don't go at all.

It's Kendall's that works the least for me - it should be... Cassius or something else grandiose.

@drspouse I definitely agree that naming choices seem to get braver with subsequent children if the more meaningful or sentimental names have been used!

@housemaus I do it too!! But, like you, totally to myself. Every baby I've ever known (other than mine) I have thought "well I would not have chosen x, they are CLEARLY a y"... I truly don't know who I think I am 😂😂
I don't know Succession, but I pulled a face when I read that sibset!

The McGregors would call their daughter Flora.

Thinking about the names in "Matilda", I would have called Amanda, Arabella.