Can someone explain the term ‘try hard’ in the context of baby names.

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As the title says. I’m reading the threads and someone always uses the term ‘try hard’ to give their opinion on a name. I genuinely don’t know what this means?

it seems to be a derogatory term or even a euphemism?

I get if you love, like, dislike a name. I also appreciate names considered classics or historically posh etc but try hard I just don’t understand.

just curious

😱I didn’t expect this question to get so much traction!
I’m still none the wiser to the definition apart from it being used as a derogatory term.

Our little girl is called Skylar. 💓 we certainly weren’t try to be unique or different.

in our antenatal group lots of different names and I think everyone of the babies suits their name. I’ve never judged a name before but naming babies seems an emotive subject on MN

@Mariammaom , the parents I know who have unusually-named children have very ordinary names themselves.
The names aren't lovely.

Shouldn’t we all encourage more and not less name diversity? Makes life much more interesting and names more memorable. How boring if we’re all called Jack Smith or Olivia Taylor etc.

Obviously we shouldn’t inflict cruel names on our children like Willy, Poohead or Princess Tiaami - those are indeed stupid. I don’t know why posters assume those are the only alternatives to overused top100 names…?

Wow

They aren't lovely names. The children are fine bit the names are very unusual and quite harsh sounding. I can't say what they are because they are too out-there. You get used to the names but the general consensus was 'Why on earth have they picked that?' (or words to that effect).

An example might be Igraine or Thirza.
Parents are something like David and Sarah.

He’ll probably change it to Brian when he’s older 😁

I do actually think we are much better at having a wider range of names than when I was growing up. My kids are in their early twenties and they never found it odd when kids had unusual names. There were some where I thought, oh that’s a bit out there but they just took them in their stride.

@Mariammaom you have to read the rest of @MysteryNameChange posts. She made the point that her son has a name that is fine in her middle class “poncey liberal” world, but that he would be teased in a “rough” school like she went to, and in a working class setting. But she wasn’t worried about it, as she didn’t think he’d ever find himself in such a setting. That was what my comment related to. I was making the point that whilst we can control our child’s environment when they’re little, we don’t know what their adult life will go on to consist of.

I’m not sure why you’re having a dig at me and suggesting my parenting may be deficient. It was @MysteryNameChange who said her son would be teased in a more “rough” environment. My kids have never teased anyone about a name.

Before you go throwing accusations around, you might want to read the thread.

Why are plumbers or car mechanics more likely to be so narrow minded and rude as to ‘take the piss’ out of a colleague’s name???
One mechanic is called Cam and the other one is Jack. I had to make an effort not to make a joke.

I’d rather be Thirza than Sarah (& surname initial)! I hated being one of many with the same overused 70s name.

I love Skylar and wouldn’t think it was try hard at all

Those aren't the actual names, @Mariammaom , and you can't actually know unless you have a try hard name. I won't know what it's like to have an overused name, but I know what it is like to have an unusual name.

If much rather be Sarah! I have a very overused 80s/ 90s name, always one of many at school and work. I like that it gives nothing away about me or my background. I love that no one I meet can put my name in Google and find my social media or linked in profiles. Different strokes for different folks I guess!

I also advise you to never share a name until after the baby is born. Firstly you might change your mind but no one will have an opinion that they will share once baby is born. Pre-birth you are just asking for trouble 🤪

It was Bligh but my phone autocorrected to Blight 😂probably an ongoing issue for the poor kid!

I'm more worried about parents who don't try hard enough! It's a horrible sneering phrase meant to put the op down I think

I was about 10 before I discovered James was a boys name. I thought it was a plural for Jane as we had a lot of those in our class, I always wondered why some of the Janes were allowed to wear shorts of trousers!

I have not noticed “try hard” but from the definitions given I would not have thought Skylar was unusual, odd or any of the other derogatory meanings. It is a lovely name, it was fairly common when I was at school in the sixties as I lived in a flat area with a lot of Dutch nurseries. There seems to have been a lot of children named it lately which I imagined was due to the perfume brand, a bit like Chloe in the nineties.
Beautiful name choice

I've just read the latest Hunger Games prequel- Sunrise on the Reaping - and all the tributes forced to fight had names like these plus in the other books 👀😆🤷‍♀️ names like - Panache, Carat, Loupe, Coil, Velo, Ripman, Heartwood. I said to my kids - next time we have a litter of foster kittens maybe I'll choose names from those books/films 🤭 maybe the parents of some of these weirdly-named kids had similar ideas lol. my DS has 2 friends with an unusual name for a boy. It kind of suits them but I'm still amused that of all the baby boy names in the world they both chose this same unusual name that is more typically a girls name.

Sarah is one of my favourite names. It never gets old or dated and you can’t age a person by the name. It’s pretty much the perfect name to me.

I agree, in this age of google I hate that my name is too easily found. I don’t have an SM presence and that is part of the reason. Nothing to hide but I like my anonymity.

Agreed. Its lasted over a thousand years for a reason!

@BunnyLake , it was so popular when I was born that it does sound dated now, but not in a bad way.
Sarah
Baby names since 1904: how has yours performed? - Office for National Statistics

I will have to disagree with it sounding dated. You could name a baby that today and I wouldn’t think, well that’s a dated name. Sarah looks perfect on a 3 year old or an 85 year old. It’s classic not dated (imo).

@BunnyLake , as I said, it is dated but not in a bad way, and the statisitics support that. It doesn't sound dated in the way that Nicola or Claire do. (Names picked from top 5 in 70s and 80s.)

I don't think there are many 85 year old or 3 year old Sarahs but there are thousands aged 45-70.

I don’t mean in regard to popularity I mean in regard to sound and visualisation. It’s a very pleasant sounding name and you can’t easily age someone by it the way you can by some other names.