Help please- is Autumn Oates a bad name? I hate my surname!!

[Sarahoatesy]

My surname is Oates. Which I didn't mind until looking for baby names.

My 1st born is called Lyra 🤍

Thinking about name for no2 and love the names Winter or Autumn 🍁!

But have a small feeling these look like porridge brands when paired with Oates. My husband thinks I'm overanalyzing.

Autumn Oates
Winter Oates

Please help and be honest.

TIA

Search for 'winter oats' ... ads for porridge and a piece titled 'Sow your winter oats with care' from Farmers Weekly.

Winter oats are an actual crop. The phrase appears on programmes like Farming Today. Which ok, is quite niche. But that may be the kind of thing you're worried about

If you can't do anything about the surname then perhaps nature-inspired names might work?

Aurora
Calla
Juniper
Robin

Similar-ish vein names
Aurelia
Willow
Xanthe

It sounds like something healthy you'd put in your fridge overnight, or something Automotive.

I think the more tricky the surname the more solid you go with the first name or you risk upping the weird factor, with Oates I'd be going with a recognised name rather than a season.

Porridge was my first thought too, sorry.
How about
Wren
Ivy
River
Rowan
Marin
Ianthe
Lumi (means snow)

First name needs to be very plain and unambiguously a first name, ie not Hazel (!)
Something like Jane, Maria, Elizabeth. Have the seasonal nod as a second name.

Sorry but autumn / winter oates makes me think of either animal feed or porridge. Lots of surnames don't work with different first names for various reasons- we couldn't pick anything with an 'a' or 'y' ending. But unless you are going to go with the bonkers suggestions of changing your surname (?) or just waiting for her to get married (??????) you are going to have to go in a different direction. Oates is a nice simple short name so there will be loads of other names that will work well.

It's not a bad surname at all. It could be worse. If people relate it to porridge and tease, it's the most unoriginal teasing there is. Also, whatever name you have - kids will tease.

Winter Oates, yeah, sounds a bit like a tenuous excuse for James Bond to say something feeble about getting heated up on a cold morning.

Autumn doesn’t hit me the same way. Cos Autumn is a pretty well-established girls name, maybe? Pleasing to say, Autumn Oates, very mellifluous.

Think your DH might have a point, tbh, it’s what you think that counts. Also agree with the PP who said about nicknames, Porridge is so obvious if someone wants to be hilarious it’s right there already, so why not choose what you like?

Or

To go with Lyra…

Olwen
Astrid

Congrats!

I wouldn’t pair your surname with another word such as Winter, Lily, May etc. Lyra sounds perfect with it so I’d go for something more along those lines.

You can't use Winter - winter oats is a crop sown by farmers and autumn oats is a recipe. There must be something better.

Captain Lawrence Oates was a very famous man

Goes to Google captain Lawrence Oates. I don't think he's as famous as you think he is 😂😂😂

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Oates

Should be more famous!

I'm clearly in the minority, I love it.

Winter oats

Wilde!

Celeste
Maeve
Niamh
Justine
Tempest

I have heard of Lawrence Oates!

You could give her her fathers name instead perhaps?

I do like the names Autumn and Winter but you really can’t with Oates.

Equally you can’t really have anything edible - Saffron, Hazel, Rosemary. Or colours, Amber, Sienna, Jade. Nouns are tricky too, Melody, Iris, Pearl, because of sounding like brands. I see your problem!

I think the name needs to be longer to compensate for the short surname sound, and with some substance eg not loads of vowel sounds. And ending in a consonant so it doesn’t run into the O.

Jocelyn Oates
Elinor Oates
Tamsin Oates
Harriet Oates

or very established names

Alice Oates
Elizabeth Oates
Lucy Oates
Phoebe Oates

Anything with a -eve sound at the end will merge into Oates.

eg Maeve Oates = May Votes
Niamh Oates = Knee Votes

see also, -b which will become boats, -c for coats (Zainab Oates = Zaina Boats) and so on.

Stoats
Boats
Goats
Moats
Votes
Notes
Rotes
Totes
Coats
Dotes

Near Votes
Harrier Totes
Ellena Rotes
Tamsi Notes
Anna (r)Oates
etc

No don’t use Autumn or Winter with your surname, it does sound like a breakfast cereal.

Yep definitely a brand of instant porridge oats, in both cinnamon and golden syrup flavours

Your husband is a madman if he thinks that’s OK

It’s also quite a heavy lumpy combo - I think you want something lighter like Lyra to go with Oates, and also something that doesn’t begin with a vowel

eg Zoe, Phoebe, Chloe, Charlotte, Stella, Dora, Freya, Marianne, Philippa (Pippa, Saskia, Serena, Marina, Tara, Zara

Once you’d had 20 years of people making fun jokes you really wouldn’t, and you’d be changing your name as soon as you hit 18

No it doesn’t - she’ll get called Autumn Oates anyway, and hyphens are appalling