Myra?

[theinterest]

My DH and I thought we were settled on the name Myra for our baby due later this year, but having been settled on this for several months I’m not sure how others will view it? Neither of us are into crime type media, early 30s, and live in the south of England so somehow managed to miss the connection to Myra Hindley until now. My DH is still completely set on it, but I worry now what others will think (blame the hormones). Lyra isn’t an option for us due to a close friends baby being called that earlier this year.

I’m really after view in what you all think? I love the name but now doubting if it’s the right thing to use!

You can still use Lyra...

It’s not the same for reasons that have been mentioned several times on here. Less common names like Myra have far fewer associations for people. Fred and Rose are much more common names so they have a lot of other associations and people are more likely to know someone with those names so the negative associations do not stand out in the way that less common names like Myra do even if murderers have also shared those names.

How unpleasant, please stop making personal attacks, totally unnecessary and nasty.

Myra and her brother Ian??

Unfortunately, I also thought of Hindley immediately. So, I agree with many of the other Mumsnetters here, please don't name your dear daughter the same name as Hindley's xx

What a silly response. The child would not be named AFTER Hindley. It's just a name, and one that her peers would not necessarily make any bad associations with, so no more likely to be bullied over it than any other name... unless of course they're put up to it by adults. Somebody posted on here recently about her son being bullied bcause his name is Ewan - kids are just little shits sometimes. So what if 90% of people would raise an eyebrow (as somebody said further up)? Most normal people would keep their thoughts to themselves, and if they don't, it's not really anyone else's business.

It’s clearly very much linked in the public consciousness of people 40+ to Hindley.

IMO I don’t imagine too many kids will know it but it’s so rare as a girls’ name there’s a risk of an immediate ping of recognition as soon as the name is heard. It’s not like Lucy or Rose or Ian. And all it takes is for there to be a development (there’s an as-yet unfound victim) or an anniversary BBC programme/Hollywood film while your kid is still at school and no-one else is called it - then suddenly it’s a problem. We’ve got a kid with a fairly common name which is shared by a famous wrong-doer and while it’s no big deal (like I said, it’s very common) it’s come up a few times cos this dickhead is enduringly notorious, arseholes gonna arsehole and tbh my kid could do without it. It’s worse now because of all the true crime stuff.

On a positive note, why don’t you call her Miri (short for Miriam) or Mira or something in that area. I like the name Vera but I know some see it as an older woman’s name. Estie is nice as well (Esther). Marie or Mhairi or Marnie. Just not Myra, for her sake.

You live in the south, not under a rock. It’s the first thing literally anyone thinks of.

I'm 66. I've never met anyone called Myra. The only Myras I've ever heard of are Hindley and Dame Myra Hess.

That’s nice for you. Again, I made the point that I was shocked by someone of this generation being named Myra. What’s the point in saying “well i don’t know of anyone called Myra” other than to imply I’m making it up?

Yet another example of the mumsnet phenomenon that if it didn’t happen to you, it didn’t happen 🙄

It’s the name of the most infamous woman in England - I’m flabbergasted you thought otherwise!

No. What about Mira?

One of my late mum's friends is a Myra. It is a lovely name but the link with Hindley is so strong it spoils it.

And it isn't just about the 1960s, in the 1980s both confessed and both were taken to the moors in an attempt to find burial sites.

Keith Bennet's body is still on that moor, somewhere.

I think that is why I probably wouldn't use the name, if his body is found it will be a big story meaning the association is back in everyone's mind. And that could be anytime when your little girl is a child, a teenager, an adult.

Other names don't have such a strong association. Rose West murdered more but because there are a lot of women with the name 'Rose' the link isn't as strong.

If it carries on on its current trend it will be top 100 in the next 10 years. You are only slightly ahead of the curve.

i wonder if the younger generations will associate that name with Myra Hindley though. It does seem a bit off that no-one associates the name "Ian" with Ian Brady! Nor do there seem to be bad associations with "Ted" or "Jeffery"

The reasons for that have been addressed multiple times throughout the thread.

No it isn't. The other examples are just emphasising it's vanishingly rare.

Ian Watkins
Ian Brady
Ian Huntley

And yet the association is not there.

Sorry , whilst there is nothing wrong with the name it has been ruined by Hindley. Could you consider something similar such as Mya as an alternative?

Oh fgs -as has been explained several times there are1000s of men called Ian or Iain or Jack or Peter or women called Rose or Lucy.

"Ian" makes me think of the various Ians or Iains I know, including Iain Glen.

No! It so wouldnt be fair on your daughter. You might not make the Hindley connection but I guarentee that literally everyone she meets for the rest of her life will!

My eldest DS had a Health Visitor named Myra (way back in 1991)
Was it at a clinic in London SE12 per chance ?

Absolutely not.
However, come to think of it, the name Rose is currently very popular although another serial killer Rose West is a more recent notorious criminal.

Because I suppose Rose is, and always has been far more popular than Myra! I know loads of Roses, Rosie’s, even a Rosa. I know no one called Myra. If someone told me they’d called their baby Rose - the first person who’d come to my mind is Rose from Titanic. Not Rose West. Myra on the other hand…. It’s about popularity. The more Myra’s would have diluted the comnection, but there aren’t many, so she’s the first person you connect with the name!

Mara is lovely...