Are my kids' names strange ?

[ClaudineSeymour]

Hi!

My husband and I are expecting our 4th child together in August. I was speaking to some family about baby names (I didn't reveal what name we had chosen as I had been warned against it) and my MIL said something along the lines of 'Oh I hope the name you select won't be as strange as the others you chose' To which a few others nodded or giggled. Now I've never thought of my kids' names as strange and neither has my husband. A little traditional or old-fashioned maybe but not strange. My children are Arthur, Joanna and Alfred. We're hoping to call our next little girl Matilda when she arrives in a few months. Are these names strange? I love my kids' names and will call my baby Matilda no matter what but I was just wondering if others thought the names were strange?

They're timeless.
Love them.

I absolutely love your kids names 🤩

Definitely not strange they are all lovely names .

Arthur, Alfred and Matilda aren't even out of vogue, they're very much in. The only one that surprised be is Joanna but again it's a perfectly ordinary name, just hasn't come back in yet.

Not even slightly. Arthur has been in the top five since 2019. Matilda has been top hundred for twenty years and is now on the downward trend of its popularity peak. Alfred is top hundred (and on a related note Alfie has been top hundred since the 90s). Joanna is the only one I'd be surprised to see on young child but it's incredibly normal, just dated. I wouldn't expect to meet a baby Christine or Danielle but they're not strange names.

Apart from Joanna I’d say the names you gave chosen are safe popular names the opposite of unusual.

I agree.

My eldest is Alfred (Freddie) and one of his best mates is Joanna. They are totally great names. Arthur is one of the most popular names in the school I teach at. Matilda is beautiful, go for it.

I work in an Infants school, lots of Arthur’s, Alfred’s and Tilly’s..not Matilda but I think Tilly would follow that. No Joanna’s. 😊 All lovely names though and not a bit strange 😊

Your MIL might not know much about common baby names today, and might assume trends haven't moved on since she had children. My MIL often comments on babies born with such strange names, have we ever heard them, including Arthur, Ottlie, Arlo, Delilah, Freya, Willow and Luca. No amount 'yes we have MIL, they're very popular names' doesn't make a difference. Though I was at a small school with several Joannas, an Alfred and two Alfies so maybe not.

They were probably (apart from Joanna) out of fashion when she was naming children.

Your kids' names are gorgeous, your family are strange.

Tell your MIL to look at one of those revolving display cases of pens/purses or whatever that have the most popular names next time she is in a garden centre; there'll be lots of Arthurs and Alfreds.

Those names are incredibly common names of children in schools up and down the country, I can't possibly think of a group of less strange names. Your family sound utterly batshit? I'm really curious what some of these other relatives have named their children if they find your children's names strange.

I clicked and was looking forward to reading these unusual names... But no, they are "normal" names. Joanna is maybe not widely used currently, but is pretty standard. All good names and I love Matilda op 😊

OMG how rude! They're perfectly normal on th names front - I had images of Jaxon Chardonnay and Dacquari which perhaps are a little off beat 😵‍💫
Rude MIL ... and Matilda is lovely too!
My DD is Tabitha which my mum hated .. tried to get my family to hang up on me!!
So don't cave in - tell them you don't need their opinions

Not at all. Arthur and Alfred are pretty standard. Joanna is perhaps less current but fairly timeless.

No they are all perfectly lovely names. I thought you were going to say something like 'Breeze, Dancer, Cobalt and Azaelia'.

Very fashionable names, if anything else.

Would have been very unfashionable 40ish years ago.
Will probably be unfashionable again in another 10-20years.

Names have peaks and troughs.

Lovely names and nice to see Joanna making a return. There were more than a few of these in my 60s primary school.

@ClaudineSeymour Totally normal names , I don’t see how your MIL thought they were strange names ? I’m confused , when I first started reading your post I was guessing your kids name would be something like north west , ivy blue , story , something strange like this but no , your kids names are totally normal , even common names I would say so I don’t understand your family’s issue . And I love Matilda so cute name !!!

Others have already explained they're perfectly normal names, but to put it another way. You could start 100 threads about the strangest / most unusual name you've come across for a child, and even if all of them reached 1000 posts, I doubt a single poster would post your children's names.

They're perfectly lovely names.

I was expecting some pretty 'out there' names when I saw your title, but these are all beautiful names.
I had a Great Uncle Arthur and a Great Aunt Joanna.

Ask your MIL for a list of normal names.

My parents, for instance, think everyone should choose the most common, beige names possible for their children, as everyone's ultimate aim in life is not to stand out from the crowd in anyway. They literally did that for me and all my siblings, chose the top boy or girl name from the most up to date statistics for our birth years/ probably the previous year. With the result that I had five other girls with my name all the way through primary school, one with the same surname too. They might as well have called us Girl#23876, Boy#3766 etc.