OK - I'm going to start this thread and go out for the day and only come in wearing an asbestos suit, but

[seeker]

...I've just been looking through the class lists at dd's grammar school and I've realized that there are 150 girls in her year and there are no - and I mean no - unusual or differently spelled first names. There is a Cherry and a Jordan and a couple of names from other cultures that I don't know whether are unusual or not, - but apart from that they are ALL called very traditional, very top 100 for the past 500 years type names. Any thoughts anyone?

Thanks bree - fancy some popcorn? You'll want a snack while I'm being eaten alive!

I was just curious - and wondering whether there was any correlation and what it was. And whether dd's school is the exception. It does seem odd that they are all called Emma and Amy and so on.

Thanks but no thanks Seeker, I don't think I can bear to watch.

Off now to swimming, then the school fayre, then the village carnival then the fun fair on the village green.

I will check in on you about midnight.

I'm sure there is a correlation but it's no surprise surely??
The only 'unusual' names you're likely to find at a grammar school are ones like Merlin etc etc, middle class parents who've gone bonkers mad and are trying desperately to be original but end up looking like fools and will consign their poor children to a lifetime of teasing and name calling.

Perhaps the parents with no imagination to choose unusual names send their DC to posh schools so that they can keep up with the poor kids who have unusual names but lots of imagination/zest for learning new things

Ah, I see you are planning on wimping going out.

You're talking about the names of teenagers - perhaps 12+ years ago there was a smaller pool of liked names. Perhaps folk are more adventurous now.

Having said that, I think kittywise has a point about what's considered unusual - Merlin's an unusual name which won't get you teased in a private school, but will on a rough estate. Vice versa, Bailey-Kai etc.

Horses for courses and all that.

hatrick - Thea is lovely name ! (my ds is male form of it!)

Hatrick - I think both Thea and Kitty are beautiful names, but if I had seen them both written on a school list I would have said that Thea is more traditional and Kitty more unusual!
I'm sure its me being ignorant about these things that makes me think that, I just thought it interesting that you said its the other way round!

I also live in a pretty mixed area, and although I love some very unusual names, both my boys have traditional names. I think they just suit our lifestyle better and will minimise the possibility of teasing from both ends of the scale!

Kitty is a very old name

Hatrick- you dont find pandora unusual? gosh, i've nrver met one in my life!

how do you define unusual or mis-spelled in a mixed culture anyhow? loads of names i've never come across at ours (and spellings) but i presum thats due to us being immigrants into Wales

seeker, aparantly someone did some research a few years ago in to the correlation between names and GCSE relults (heaven knows why!) Apparently,people with names such as Elizabeth, Kathryn and Philipa had better GCSE results than those called Duane etc.

So as it's a grammar school there are bound to be lots or ordinary names.

I'm still here - and I think it's important to say that this isn't a posh private school - it's a state grammar. We still have the 11+ in Kent. So the school draws from all the primary schools in hte area. And there were plenty of unusual spellings and madey-uppy names in the primary schools!

Oh and hatrick - you're cheating. Thea is lovely - and not whacky at all!

Conservative (small c - poss big C too). Yes.

11+ [shudder]. My crazily named kids will be fine where we will live (currently Hackney) I think...

'But they might not be able to be a hotshot lawyer/fatcat owner of Tescos/city bwanker' well GOOD .

Pandora not unusual! I'd only ever heard of the mythological and Adrian Moles's before this.