Riley..

[MissyK]

What are your thoughts?

Thanks!

forgotten about "Old Mother"

Have to agree with sorkycake - i know people tend to get up in arms at the mention of the C word but it is a chavvy name.

I wouldn't use it because it doesn't travel well i.e. it would be tricky to pronounce, for example, in German, French or Spanish. Maybe that doesn't matter to you, though.

Gah.
'Chavvy'
At least it's not made up like tons of the names on here everyday!
Chavvy names change from area to area btw, where I used to live the 'Chavvy' names were totally different to where I live now.

I like it.

A chavvy name? Apart from the yuck factor of saying so, I disagree.

If you want to play that game, the only Riley I know is the son of a consultant. He is a v cute long haired boho posho.

Apparently it's irish and means small stream.

I don't like it but then I don't like the current obsession with sexually ambiguous, surname type names as first names.

Trendy with the "hyphenating kre8ive set" at the moment.
Very down market, sorry.

and I did think of the C word

For a boy or girl?

First thought is that it's a surname

Are there not enough proper names to choose from, without feeling the need to choose a surname from the telephone directory.
Awful I'm afraid.

I love it, it's my DSS's name and all we ever here out of Tink is "Riley" and "My Riley"!

I know they've had to be strict on the "Rye" thing though, so keep that in mind if you do go with it. It's not an easy one to find named things for either, we brought home a truck with Riley on it and he kept asking if we'd really bought it off the shelf and not had it made!

Ignore the surname comments, a lot of names are both as I pointed out once to an MNer who was rather vocal about her dislike of surnames as first names - her name is a surname!

One of my best friends DD's is called Reilly. Her Mum is Australian. I am sorry to say I don't really like it, it sounds like a character off Neighbours to me. Sorry!

I heard Robson Green recently talking about how the surnames-as-first-names thing is a tradition where he comes from.
Because being a miner was such a dangerous job the first born son in each family was given a surname as a first name as a way of keeping the family names going. Hence Robson - and I think his dad was Wilson. And there's a Golightly Green in his family too!

I think it's a lovely tradition.

Dreadful and indistinguished.
Lowbrow in any area. A very modern name (as a first name)will be the Wayne of the noughties.

Indistinguished! MN is making me snigger today.

Smashing.

"Ignore the surname comments, a lot of names are both"

Yes but it used to be something the gentry first did a loong time ago. It is quite the opposite in modern times ie now, in my opinion.
e.g

Very nicely put ladychambers

Very nicely put ladychambers

Gregory, Ross and Duncan are all sur names.

BUT. Reilly is different. It's been taken up in America by people with only a hazy understanding of their own roots. That makes it seem a little downmarket imo.

I've read it myself on babycenter name boards (years ago). I'm calling my DD Riley because we're Irish/Scottish. Eh? Como?!

I'm not keen. I gave ds1 a first name which is a common surname, mainly because it was the first name of a favourite uncle. I do slightly regret it and feel faintly embarassed when I introduce him to people because I do think it sounds chavvy. 'Blimey O' also came to mind for me.

Chavvy

I like it

I have the most popular name for girls my age, it actually stayed in the charts for about 10 years, it's a surname (276). My partners name is never out the charts, it's a surname (2116).

Last years boys names:

Jack - 7,478
Thomas - 157,096
Oliver - 30,803
Joshua - 406
Harry - 2,187
Charlie - 21
Daniel - 8,390
William - 843
James - 82,997
Alfie - 0

The number next to the name is how many people in this country have that name as a surname, I haven't included variations (such as Williams or Charles) on that.

So when I said about ignore the surname comments, I was being very literal. Please give me an example of a name that isn't a surname. The gentry must have a monopoly over names if only Alfie in the top ten is free for us common folk!