Jonah- would the unlucky thing bother you?

[CultureAlienationBoredomandDespair]

I love the name but am not sure if I can get over the unlucky association (although I think surviving being eaten by a whale is pretty lucky!).

I think it’s probably an older generation thing but I distinctly remember my nan calling people ‘Jonahs’ if she though they attracted bad luck and I’m sure DM would pass comment too.

Am I overthinking it or is this still very much a connection people will make?

No, we went with Gabriel in the end. I still think it’s a lovely name though 😊

@Caty88 if you read the thread I think the OP liked Jonah but in the end thought her son looked like a Gabriel so went with that name instead 😌
I called my son Jonah. He’s our lucky charm and is no way a loner, he’s so independent and sociable! @stormonasummersday I think that term of ‘he’s a Jonah’ meaning unlucky/loner is a very old fashioned term. You certainly don’t hear it around here anymore (London, England). If a kid said that to mine I would imagine an adult /Grandparent might have said it and they repeated it?

One of my oldest friends is called Jonah. He's one of the luckiest people I know.

Thank you, I think it's a great name and I love the Bible story. We were really set on the name but a few comments from family members cast a shadow over our choice. We re think though and keep coming back to this name! It's good to hear experiences like yours and I bet your little boy could never be anything else but Jonah!

Ah another lovely name! We thought Jonah for our last son but ended up calling him Leo. Perhaps the name was just meant for his little brother 😄

My friend is called Jonah and got no end of stick when we went whale watching but other than that he gets a lot of compliments.

Ah another lovely name! We thought Jonah for our last son but ended up calling him Leo. Perhaps the name was just meant for his little brother 😄

Thanks @Caty88 he is totally a Jonah and could be no other name! He has a very strong personality so I think the old fashioned negative connotations that I pondered on momentarily, before me and my husband were decided were and are irrelevant in this day and age.
Obviously you have already told family members, but I didn’t tell anyone exactly for this reason, people always have a difference of opinion! My mum wouldn’t have known about the biblical or old fashioned sayings but she might not have liked the name so we told no one until Jonah came along. We threw a few ‘we like this name(s)’ and put a few other suggestions we were considering to shut people up! 🤣
When he did come along we checked he definitely was a Jonah and never looked back. Don’t listen to others it’s what you, your other half and Leo think that matters! Best of luck for when little Jonah comes along! 🙂

I know the bad luck association, the Biblical Jonah, the ‘Jonah’ in Master and Commander, the ‘Jonah day’ in Anne of Green Gables m, but I don’t think it would stop me using the name if I liked it, any more than people are put off Ophelia (madness, suicide by drowning) or Cassandra (cursed with gift of prophecy but never being believed, depicted as a liar and madwoman).

@Persephone12 thank you for your well wishes and sharing your naming story. You are so right I'm reluctant to tell people and you do get those reactions with any name!

I like it! Younger generations don't know Bible stories anyway.

My mother used to tell us “Oh, don’t be a Jonah” if we were pessimistic about something succeeding. So we associated it with a whining pessimistic person for whom things generally went wrong.
I prefer Jonas which doesn’t have that associated meaning

@Fluffywhitecloudsinthesky The story will be familiar to Christians, Jews and Muslims (Yunus)

We considered Jonas, but it sounds so much sharper. Jonah sounds so much softer, especially with our surname which also ends with an ‘s’.
I really do believe that old fashioned connotations will just disappear for good in a few years, and where I live no one really knows about them unless they knew someone who said it from the older generation. So to those who like the name just go for it!

Yes we told people we were going to name him Jonas (and we did consider it) knowing we’d go for Jonah but my dad who is Muslim liked it as he said in the Quran it’s Yunas.
I am biased but Jonah is so much nicer! ;)

How do you people come up with these things? I have never heard such in my life...

The same people who say ‘You can’t call your child Lana because it’s an anagram of ‘anal)!’ See also Orla.

@Melodyy , once you've seen it, you can't unsee it. I see Lana and see Wool.
I can't unsee The Odour for Theodore.

😂

Lol ridiculous! Theo and Lana are such popular names I have friends that named their baby’s both these names around the time Jonah was born. Sorry but I think it’s people like you @DuchessOfSausage that encourage such silly concepts! How an earth do you get Wool out Lana?!?! 😂😂😂

A right Jonah! Bad luck or the whale, no wonder it’s not popular.

If asked “what do you think of this name” I do associate Jonah with the whale and unlucky - BUT I know a 20-something year old lad at work called Jonah, and it had never occurred to me that he, personally, had an “unlucky” name - it’s just a nice name, nobody thinks anything of it. So I think there’s a thing where the name in isolation has one association, but it seems totally irrelevant when you meet a person with the name.

@Persephone12 , it's the Italian and Spanish word for wool. It's on many clothes labels. (Linen is Lino I think.)

As for The Odor (US spelling) and Oral - I can't unsee it.

It's not silly to point things out. It amazes me that people use names like Penny, Mary and Lily to refer to female genitals.

But it has Nah

This if anything I'd think it good luck