Would the meaning of the name Mallory steer you away?

[iruma77]

I’ve been obsessed with the name for years and years, but mentioned it in passing to someone and they were shocked we even considered it. It’s such a beautiful name & I haven’t cared about the meaning of anyones name before!

I think you misunderstand, if you think discovering you don’t like the taste of a specific food is in anyway comparable to discovering a deeply ordinary name means ‘supplanted’ or ‘crooked’, or has a sad/bad associated story

I mean, Sarah, probably the UK’s most ordinary female name, has lots of associated unpleasantness — the Biblical Sarah is best known for her unhappy barrenness, having a child in extreme old age, and for banishing the slave her even more ancient husband had had a child with. In some stories (possibly Torah) she dies of grief after she’s misinformed her husband actually killed their son as a human sacrifice after God told him to. (In fact God changed kindly his mind at the last minute…) The Nazis forced Jewish women who didn’t already have an ‘identifiably Jewish’ first name to add the name Sara/h to their documents in 1939.

I mean, none of that is exactly happy stuff, but yet Sarah is perennially popular.

I can assure you that my reaction to a bad flavour is entirely comparable to that of a bad meaning. I don't like it, so I avoid it. No misunderstanding there.

Sarah is sufficiently popular and common to have other association's than the 'original' biblical Sarah. Thats is not the case with, say, Penelope. Penelope for me will always be the lonely woman that Ulysses left to be bullied by everyone and his mother while he went off gallivanting. Beautiful name, wrong association.

The attitude to names is obviously in the eye of the beholder, as we've seen in this thread. Which I find fascinating, because I'd have thought it was the actual taste in names that was subjective. But it turns out it's also the importance attached to their meaning that is subjective too. Whereas I assumed it was a universal thing.

Every day is a school day!

OP, sorry for the derail. Have you made up your mind about Mallory yet?

How is ‘the sound of people killing each other’ any better as a meaning?

Same with James (which does not mean that BTW)
James does mean supplanter, in Hebrew.
But it also brings to mind Scottish kings and a biblical apostle, which might be why some people like it.

Penelope for me will always be the lonely woman that Ulysses left to be bullied by everyone and his mother while he went off gallivanting. Beautiful name, wrong association.

The Penelopiad or the Songs of Penelope trilogy give a fresh and very interesting perspective on her.

It may not be.

But Mark means 'dedicated to the god of war' or 'warlike'. Matilda comes from the elements 'battle' and 'mighty'. Rhys means 'martial ardour', i.e. the urge to rush into the fray.

And people get medals for courage in battle and are admired for it. It's a part of most cultures. Hardly surprising that such names exist.

Mallory to me is ….. the climber

It makes me think of Mallory Knox of Mickey and Mallory fame which you’d think would put me off but I still quite like it!

I wouldn’t use it.

Ellery / Ellory means cheerful, or lively, if that helps!

I had no idea what it means. I didn't find out what my kids' names meant. I just gave them names I like.
My friend's daughter is called Leah which apparently means a cow - nobody cares.

But that's your unusually narrow view of Penelope, though. It's inside the top 50 names for England and Wales. Plus most people, even if they didn't know many Penelopes themselves, would be aware of lots of famous people and characters of that name -- Penelope Cruz, Penelope Keith, Penelope Wilton, Penelope Lively, Penelope Leach, Penelope the Bridgerton character, Penelope Pitstop, Penelope Parker from the Spiderman universe, Lady Penelope from Thunderbirds etc etc.

no, i think it's a pretty name, name meanings do not determine a child's future

I love the sound of it, but the meaning would rule it out for me.
Mabli is a Welsh name meaning “lovable”. That is similar and much nicer meaning.

It's a lovely name, but the non-Welsh pronunciation isn't as nice.

I don't like it. It reminds me of the Mallory Towers books i read as a child.

But none of those are the associations that it has for me. The first one is the one that stayed with me. Forever. f I had called DD Penelope, I'd always have a flashback to a sad/pissed off ancient Greek woman! As I do whenever I think 'oh, what a shame I didn't name her that... Ah, never mind!'

And that is the thing with personal associations as opposed to objective meanings.

Also, I didn't grow up in the UK so your widespread associations obviously won't match mine.

Thanks for the recommendation, will check it out.

I know she wasn't exactly a doormat, but I'm afraid my original childhood association os the sad/angry woman has stayed with me forever!

Give them a go; they might challenge your associations. And they're both just very good reads too!

That’s a strange analogy. Eating a horrible-tasting food is an unpleasant sensory experience. Simply being aware that a name originally had a meaning that had a negative connotation is… not that.

I love the name and would absolutely have considered it - but for the meaning.

I didn't grow up in the UK either.

The meaning(s) of Jocasta are beautiful, all about shining moons, purity and violets. The Greek classical tragedy associations, not so much.

Unless people are deliberately setting out to find something controversial and offensive, most names are going to have potentially positive and negative connotations.

(And yes, I have known a couple of little Jocastas)

Nope. The meaning wouldn't bother me a jot. People defy their names all the time. I know two women called Joy who could curdle milk at a glance.

Yeah. That puts me right of Amelia.

I thought Sarah meant Princess!