Are hyphenated/double first names really that bad?

[VanillaV]

We're considering choosing a hyphenated/double first name for our daughter. My husband loves many of them, and they have grown on me. I know that they're viewed quite negatively and generalised as being chavvy in the UK, but my husband is American so he's unaffected by that association. He has known many lovely people with double first names throughout his life (Emma-Jean, John-David, Mary-Grace, Rae-Ann). If we choose a hyphenated name, we intend to call her by the full name at all times. I guess I just wonder how disliked hyphenated names actually are and if they're a major inconvenience.

I've listed all of the names that we're considering below, and I'd like to get everyone's thoughts. We want a name that fits in both the UK and the US.

HYPHENATED
Anna-Kate
Anne-Marie
Joy-Anna

NOT HYPHENATED
Alaina
Camilla
Galilee
Jodi(e)
Julianna
Katherine
Lori
Lorraine
Madeleine
Rosemary
Stella

I used to work with a lady who gave her daughter a hyphenated name - it was a 4 syllable name hyphenated with Rose. She was forever correcting people and used to get really pissed off about it when they only used the first part, or even worse, used a shortened form of the first part of the name.
From that anecdotal perspective, if you do choose a hyphenated name you (and your child) will be correcting people for their entire life…

Yes hyphenated names are hideous, but I also don’t like any of your single name choices

Anne-Marie is vaguely OK. Rest of hyphenated names are dreadful.

And would you seriously consider calling a child Galilee? 🥴

I work in a school (non-teaching role) and most years we have girls with hyphenated first names. Currently we have a Viola-Rae, Georgia-Mae and Harper-Drew - none of the girls are called by their entire name. In fact I didn't even realise their names were hyphenated, until I saw them written down!! So they are referred to as Viola, Georgia and Harper. My friend's daughter is Ella-Mae but is always called Ella. As a parent you may call your daughter by her full name, but I can guarantee most people won't and even the child themselves won't bother either.

I think double barrelled names are fine, and some of those are really pretty, You say you will call her by her full name at all times. Do you mean that YOU and maybe her dad want to call her her full name, or do you mean you don't want OTHER people to shorten it? Or her to chose to shorten it in the future? If you just mean you would want to shorten it fine, if you don't want others to shorten it, especially other kids when she goes to school etc, chose a short name that is not double barrelled. Choosing a name which is long and has two actual independent words in it, invites shortening. Come on, people shorten long names to bizarre things that aren't really words, there's no way they won't shorten something that actual shortens to a pretty and easy to say known name!

The only people I know with hyphenated names who went by their full names were:
Anne-Marie
Ceri-Anne
Sammy-Jo
Sally-Beth

more random names combos such as Emma-Michelle and Kate-Lorraine didn’t seem to stick and these people went by their first names.

so based on that, if you’re going to go for a hyphenated one, I’d choose a well known combo if you don’t want the first name dropped. So not Anna-Kate

also not Lorraine or Galilee

I actually know of a child with 3 hyphenated first names. It’s along the lines of Skye-Hollie-Jane

as far as I know she just goes by Skye

Yeah, I wouldn’t hyphenate here -

I’d go for Stella, Katherine or Julianna

Anna-Kate - there’s no need to hyphenate it - just call her Anna Kate - I’d go for Anna Katherine as a full name

Anne-Marie - same, Anne Marie is very established, no need for a hyphen

Joy-Anna - she’ll get called Joy or it’ll be mistaken for Joanna whether you use a hyphen or not, so no point

Alaina - it’ll get mistaken for Helena or Eleanor so just pick one of those

Camilla - nice

Galilee - don’t be silly

Jodi(e) - no - 90s and a bit low rent (v low rent with an i)

Julianna - lovely

Katherine - lovely

Lori - no, it has a hyphen vibe / low rent

Lorraine - no, it’s very 50s naff. Too early to be revived

Madeleine - nice but Maddy isn’t and it might be hard to avoid

Rosemary - lovely but she’ll end up one of a million Rosies

Stella - great

What about Marianne? Marianna? gorgeous and if your husband is very religious he might like it.

Rosanna (various spellings) also very pretty.

women With these names usually use them in full in my experience.

shame about Anna-Kate which is pretty but once you hear annotate…

Juliana and Stella are great too.

You should move to France btw I rarely meet a French guy with just one name!

Absolutely hate hyphenated names, but it's not my baby, it's yours.

I think it really depends on the name e.g. old school Catholic hyphenated names like Anne-Marie or Mary-Rose seem quite classic and respectable. It's the newfangled, trendy, strangely spelt hyphenated names that tend to have a negative image.

You’ve got some lovely names on you non-hyphenated list. I would go for one of those - Julianna and Stella are my favourites.