All baby names were made up once

[jewellerysign]

I see a theme on mumsnet of people not liking names that are made up or 'aren't proper names'. But all names were made up at one point. I don't see anything wrong with making up a new name that is completely unique.

I'm not a fan of celebrity names such as apple, North West etc

but names I have made up for the sake of this post such as Vesoria, Orlynde, Jovelie, Klyria, Iselora: I don't see any problem with people making up names like these.

Why are people so against it?

Vesoria, Orlynde, Jovelie, Klyria, Iselora

Sound like brands of toilet paper

I knew a girl called Violanda because her parents liked Violet and Amanda and combined the two. Really not good if you know Latin ("she who is to be violated").

Many posters are sniffy about any names that don't ( in their eyes, signify that their child is MC) and therefore needs to be the sam as all his fellow privileged peers. Obviously you can't be a PM with a commoner name
I say bollix to this, if you like it use it. Names are not owned, I am very aware of the roots of most names, interested in fact but this snobbiness grates my nerves.
Oh and children very rarely get bullied because of their name. Other children DONT'T CARE unless a dislike/ mockery has been transmitted from parents... worked in a school for 23 years, children are more concerned about who is a kind and caring friend than whether they have the correct ( at least 4 in same class) MC acceptable name. They will therefore be Thomas B, Thomas S, Thomas M and so on.. nothing against Thomas as a name just an example!

I don't like 'made up sounding' names because it saddles the child with 'what, sorry? How do you spell / say it?' / confused looks forever and I wouldn't want to do that to my child. Also plenty of these types of names leave kids susceptible to teasing. I've worked in schools and believe me it happens.

My kids have normal names and none of this stuff is going to happen to them thank god.

@Mimilamore , I think it's more that parents want their children to fit in, so they choose names that seem quite normal and they like the round of.

Personally I like things to be simple, I chose names that are easy to say, have one spelling and are generally known to be names in the country I live and my children are growing up in. There are so many thousands of names it is very easy to find nice ones without having to combine random sounds to make a new one.

For me there was no reason to go about 'inventing' a new name. I don't care if other people do, but for me it does seem like a hassle to give your kid a name that will always need to be spelt and explained how to say it because it isn't recognisable.
Years of school with teachers butchering any childs name that could not be instantly sight read, put me off anything remotely complex.

I am happy with my regular name that people can read out from a list. I am fine not being called Lysilda, Freyetta, Margenor, Asherty etc it just feels pointless and a faff

Plus names that are "made up" generally sound like brand names to me, like when to be able to trademark it the company combined some sounds together.

Kids do get bullied about names. I did as did some of the others. If other kids poke fun at your name, you don't have to rise to it, but still it's not pleasant.

Like @bakewellbride , I didn't want my DC to get the What?/How do you spell that? etc comments, and I was aware that given we were relatively young when we had them, we chose fairly non-trendy names. The names we liked included some that I'm glad we didn't choose.

Another thing we thought was how other people would say the names. Some sounded bad in DH's family's accent and some bad in my family's accent.

Actually love Jovelie, sorry 🤣

Yes it's lovely jovelie altogether.... Oh wait....

Because they like names that have history behind them. Names are part of a culture.

I don't get it either. It baffles me why people think being asked how to spell your name every now then is some kind of curse. My name is slightly unusual but has multiple ways to spell it. Being asked how to pronounce or spell my name really isn't a big deal.

You are right!
I always like the fact that the name 'Wendy' was made up for Peter Pan.. it did not exist as a name before then. So yes its fairly old but its so accepted as a traditional name now.. when at the time it was just something JM Barrie conjured up.
Same with Arwen. Accepted as a name now.
And in more modern times Lyra and Luna. These weren't traditionally used as names and altho its slightly different with Lyra and Luna because they are words with meanings, they weren't used as names until used in popular books.

I mean all names were new at some point and loads of people will have thought 'what made up nonesense'
So I say go for it.
I do get the ick a bit about commonly used names spelt strangely because I do think its just a lifetime of correcting people.

@Brightandshining Wendy was used as a diminutive for Gwendolen before JM Barrie used it in his books (though I appreciate that wasn't his reason for using it) it just wasn't very common.

Also, Tolkien, a linguist, very much did not pluck Arwen out of thin air.

It's a pain, @ElfieLea . Anyone encountering the name will say it strangely, often using a different vaguely similar name or adding/changing letters. It never sounds good when it happens.

Add to that, people tend not to remember the name only that it was something weird beginning with X, whereas if you were a Sophia or Olivia they'd remember it.

You might think you only need to correct someone once, but it's you end up correcting nearly everyone at least once.

Not the name, but say it was Ghislaine and you got your name said as Jis-laine, Giselaine, Gillian, etc and has it written a s Gillen, Gihslane etc, and when you bumped into someone, they just remember your name started with a G and had an l and s in it, so they say 'Oh hello Gladys'

If it only happened once in a blue moon, then it probably wouldn't be a problem. But it's every time I meet someone new. Every doctor's appointment, every dental appointment, every hospital appt etc

Oh, and there's that little pause before they say your name when you know they are thinking 'How the f**k do I say that?'

They’re all awful and I wouldn’t dream of naming my daughter any of those!

You can’t control what people look down on, certain names are looked down on, always have been always will be.

Thank you.

DP claims ‘Llamedos’ was a very popular house name in the North East ( it’s apparently a reversal….)

And also the name of a country in the Discworld. Similar in vein to Dylan Thomas's village of Llareggub, though the edition of Under Milk Wood we had for our O level English had subtly bowdlerised it to Llareggyb.

Maybe if you are making up names you could go for something that at least seems phonetically correct and easy to pronounce. Your original list gave me cold sweats! I’m a teacher and when I see those sort of names I apologise before I even attempt it and it usually takes a couple of months of the child correcting me for me to master it 😂🤦🏼‍♀️

My kids classes are full of new, made-up names. They're nit original as they kind of get lumped together and I frankly, don't have a hope in hell of remembering them or knowing how to spell them. And neither do they kids. They come home from school fir the first year not knowing the other kids names. I can't help because I've never heard or them or they're pronounced so differently to the class list.

Oh and the teacher once said "I breathed a sigh of relief when I got to your child's name. At least there's one child's name I can remember, pronounce and spell." 😱

If you told me 'my daughter's name is Miadora' it would be so unique I'd have forgotten it the next time I'd seen you. If you said to me "my daughter's name is Mia" next time I saw you I'd be looking at your baby and saying "hello Mia, how are you today".

My point being unique names are harder to remember, while more common ones are easier because they're already in our memory.

Yes agree. And if you hear a teacher say they won't remember a child's name the first couple of months, that takes you past half term ie. 1/6 of the time they'll teach your child....

I don't think it is a case that Mumsnetters want middle class names so their child can be Thomas Rufus Smith. I think people are generally in favour of names that aren't random letters on a page that a poor child will have to explain.

If someone had a girl name list of:
Catherine
Sarah
Mia
Lily
Sophia
Lyra
Edith
Rose
Siobhan
Eve
Amelie
Amber
Claire
Ava
Olivia

Then most replies would have a mix of personal likes/dislikes, a handful of comments about the recent trend for A ending names, but otherwise very few negative comments.

I find it interesting that it's almost always girl names that get the long made up name treatment. Boys might occasionally get an unusual spelling, but I've not seen many threads saying "we like Thomas, Kyan, and Adam so DS will be called Thomkyam".