Can I use these names?

[LemonJuice92]

I really like the following names, but the few people I have mentioned the names to immediately say that they’re religious names (we aren’t telling people the name, but I do drop them in conversation to get a general opinion on them). Does that mean we shouldn’t use them if we are not religious people?

Ezra
Micah
Isaac
Jonah
Elijah

For context, myself and my husband are not at all religious and neither of our families are.

Of course not. Every James, Stephen, Mark, John, Sarah, Elizabeth, Paul, David, Jacob, Daniel and Benjamin's parents are deeply religious.

Don’t forget Matthew, Luke, Peter, Noah, Adam, Aaron, Ruth, Naomi, Mary.

There are a lot of religious names out there and avoiding them all is almost impossible if you like traditional / classical names.

Of course you can use them. I know children with all those names and only one of the families are religious. Isaac is incredibly common.

Of course use them, I think Jonah is bad luck though?

Jonah is only considered bad luck if you’re superstitious. It’s just a name. I really like it.

In the past, if you saw a young Noah, Jacob or Joseph, then you knew the parents had a strong religious faith. Not any more and these names gave become more mainstream.

Out of your list, I think Micah may be the strongest current religious name, but the others are definitely more mainstream. No one will bat an eyelid though, with any of those names.

I like it too, lovely name.

@Mumofteenandtween , I had to stop somewhere.

I think the names in OP's list are a bit too 'Old Testament', and I find the trend a bit weird, but I wouldn't bat an eyelid at David or Michael. I only like Isaac from the list but I don't love it.

I don’t think the sarcastic response was necessarily needed - you have just stated yourself the names in my list a more “Old Testament” as you’ve put it. I’m aware a lot of mainstream names are religious. What I was getting at was are the names in my list too associated with religion, not like names such as John, James, Mark, Benjamin which have been mainstream for years.

They are all perfectly mainstream names @OP. I know several of each amongst my teens' peers, actually only one Micah (but there were a couple at my school!). We're just in a mining village in Yorkshire, no where trendy or that diverse at all., they're just normal names, of Old Testament origin. Like a lot of names..

The first reply was a joke @LemonJuice92 .
Otherwise, yes, I do think they are a bit religious. 60% of them are books of the OT. The names are currently fashionable, and I think that other than Isaac they'll become dated when the fashion changes.
They strike me as faddy.

Of course you can use them, but I was a bit surprised when an atheist friend gave her two DC non-mainstream OT names.

Of course you can!

I know a couple of Elijahs from very Evangelical families, so I might associate the name with that. But not the others, and I wouldn’t assume you were very religious if I heard Elijah without knowing you.

If OP had posted Can we use:
Saoirse
Fiadh
Meadhbh
Aoife
Sadhbh
if we have no Irish connection?

My response would probably be different to if the list had been:
Liam, Finn, Conor, Ryan, Ronan

and probably different if she'd only asked about one name.

(Apologies if I misspelt any of the names)

I love the names you’ve listed and personally wouldn’t assume you were religious if you used them, as they are getting more commonly used just for being nice names, rather than for the religious connection. Isaac and Elijah are particularly usable by non religious families, imo.

No they are all very popular (other than Micah but that seems to be getting more so) the UK is culturally majority Christian so using commonplace biblical names isn’t a sign of god bothering

I like them all except for Micah

I wouldn’t personally use Ezra because I associate it with a character in a weird computer game but that’s a bit niche!

The others seem fine. I know people with all of those names from non-religious families.

@LemonJuice92 Does that mean we shouldn’t use them if we are not religious people?

Ezra
Micah
Isaac
Jonah
Elijah

There are no rules, of course. To me, they sound rather 19th century, and stiff.

But OT names were popular with 17th century Puritans, so maybe explore the full range. https://www.behindthename.com/submit/names/usage/puritan

OP - it also depends on where you are a bit.
In the US - for eg - the OT names you mentioned would be more commonly used by Jewish or Fundamentalist Christian patents.
But maybe in the UK they don’t have that connotation.

And compared to lots of weird ‘unique’ names some parents chose - these are completely regular names that will cause no issues for anyone in the future.

So what if they have a OT origin. The most that would happen is someone asking you (or your child when they grow up) if you are religious. Much better than being asked to clarify spelling of a name over and over.

Call them whatever but if people are actually questioning the name then that's Basically what people will pre judge the child with for years whether they should or not. Mary and Joseph don't really think of as Christian names as they are well used, but soirose or Mohammed you straight away place the child as Irish or Muslim. It's just what we do.

No, they're quite trendy and not at all associated with religion or religious leanings.

A few young families that I know have children with a variety of the currently trendy names - surnamey names like Lincoln, Hudson, Easton, Wyatt, Brody, Spencer, Quinn, Carter, and Harris alongside Old Testament names like Asher, Noah, Levi, Micah, Ezra, Elijah, Hershel, Isaiah, Asa, and Caleb.

I don't agree with the US association mentioned. They're very trendy names. In fact you couldn't heave a brick in many a school playground where I am without beaning a child bearing one of those names. The area is the opposite of fundamentalist. There are a good few Jewish people here. They tend not to choose OT names for their children.

I’m not religious at all and I have an Isaac. He’s known as Ikey