Is Gwendolyn really that unpopular as a baby name?

[Waheymum]

I'm just about to go overdue with my second baby. DH and I have decided on Gwendolyn Puck as first and middle names. I wanted Puck as a first name but it rhymes with the F word and also sounds like pucker (pucker up? 🤮) so that's why it's been downgraded to a middle name. Loads of people I've mentioned Gwendolyn as a name to have either hated it or just said "oh" or something equally along the lines of 'if you have nothing nice to say don't say anything'. Is Gwendolyn (Gwen) a horrible name?

Are you really into ice hockey. What a weird ass name. Gwendoline Puck. Sounds like a main character in a kids book about the weirdo who found happiness in magic or whatever

Love Gwendoline. Puck?? You’re setting the poor child up for bullying when her peers in school find out!

Had to google Puck as never knew it was actually a name!

The ‘image under review’ is just a screen shot of the names meaning. 🙄

Puck in Dutch doesn't sound like in English.

I love Gwendoline and Gwen. I don't like Puck!
I know an adult Gwen and it's lovely on her.

Not sure whether I believe this is true.

Gwendolyn is fucking awful. Gwendolyn Puck is off the scale fucking awful.

It would be like calling a lovely new born boy Bernard Runt.

Gwendolyn is a lovely name.

I'm struggling to believe that any parent would saddle a child with the name "Puck".

I quite like Bernard

Me too. Probably due a revival.

I think new parents only choose from a narrow list of names.

Not now Bernard

I don't mind Gwen, but I think the problem with the Gwendoline Mary Lacey thing is that the name is clearly intended in the books as a bit of a joke (positive character development later in the series notwithstanding). She's depicted as fussy and a wimp, and insists on the full name, and Enid Blyton has given her a name that's a little bit too frilly to make her easier for the other girls to tease.

It's a bit like when people like the name Saffron for a girl, but if you are old enough to have watched Ab Fab, you will know that it's kind of a joke name for Edina to have given her daughter, because that's just the kind of name that a pretentious hippy of that era would have chosen, and the actual character is really sensible and prosaic and that makes it funnier.

So the names themselves can be just fine, but they don't quite work until the pisstaking connotations have worn off.

I thought that the thing with Gwendoline Mary Lacey was that she insisted on the full name. The characters EB liked had boyish names.

Saffron would have been a teenager when Ab Fab was first on, so probably an early-mid 1970s baby and Saffron would have been a bit 'hippy' then. The joke was that Saffy was the complete opposite of her mother.

It wouldn't put me off either name.

Violet Elizabeth wouldn't put me off the name Violet.

I have a really lovely friend called Gwen. If your daughter is hakf as nice as her you will be very proud.

Nothing wrong with Gwendolyn and I quite like Gwen.

Puck though, you must be joking, right? Not an attractive sound at all. Is it supposed to be after the (male) fairy in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' or what?

Ariel or Faye perhaps would work if you want a hint of 'fairy', and they are suitable names for a little girl. Honestly, even Titania would be preferable to 'Puck'. FGS poor child.

I think Gwendoline is an absolutely beautiful name. Also, there is a witty and rather smart Oscar Wilde heroine called Gwendolyn. Gwen Stefani, Gwendoline Christie. Spider Gwen. I would think of them before I would think of the Enid Blyton character.

I take it your in Wales gwen of any longer version I’m not a fan of but Puck where the Fuck did you get that from? Are you hoping when your a stressed out toddler mum you can should fuck in the park and no one would notice?? ‘Puck cone back here’

I actually know someone with a kid called Gwendolyn. Bit of a devil. Parents regret the name as it raises a lot of eyebrows.

As for Puck. You do you, but they won't get an easy time at school.

@WhisperingAngelisnotbad , the Oscar Wilde character is Gwendolen, Gwen Stefani is just Gwen. Wendy Craig is a Gwendoline.

@Rhibledd , Puck is from Midsummer Night's Dream.

** Gwendolen is quite nice but the stress is on the middle syllable not on the Gwen. Gwen-DOL-enn not Gwendoline.

Ah that was a typo, as I meant to write Gwendolen for the Wilde character.

However I have seen the Importance of being Earnest 3 times on stage and also on film, and no one pronounces Gwen-DOH-len as you suggest?

Autocorrect is a menace.

However I have seen the Importance of being Earnest 3 times on stage and also on film, and no one pronounces Gwen-DOH-len as you suggest?

I've seen it several times and they said it as Gwendoline, but it's a Welsh name so follows Welsh pronunciation. The stress is (nearly) always on the penultimate syllable.

Gwendoline doesn't as it's an anglicised name. It's GWEN-duh-lyn

I've seen Twelfth Night a few times and only in one was Maria said as Mar-EE-a. It sounded so wrong.

(I dislike the anglicisations because the names sound all wrong when you are used to them being said in the original language)

Gwen is fine, my first thought was Gwen from Ben 10, she’s a strong character.
Puck though? I guess people wouldn’t know as it’s just a middle name and it might be a good icebreaker at her wedding!