What about all those American girls names that sound like boys names, place names or surnames?

[Gunnerbean]

Things like Tyler, Taylor, Ashley, Ashton, Scout, Bristol, Atlanta, Harlow, Finley, Harper etc to name but a few.

They seem to be very big on it over there but it doesn't really seem to have caught on to such an extent over here yet. But I suppose it will eventually.

What do you think? I think some can sound OK but others - I mean Bristol is pushing it a bit surely?

Sorry, I have a thing about surnames-as-firstnames. Yuck

Bristol = Bristols

My home town would be good - Dundee, with the nn Dun or Dee. Fab

When I was pg, I thought of naming after Tube stops:

Willesden for a boy
Dollis Hill for a girl

There are loads of British children called "Brooklyn" so I think it has caught on here.

Lets hope this particular trend stays that side of the pond.

Lots of Madisons and Paiges around though which sound like American type names that have caught on over here.

I think it's a sort of tradition in the US to give children the mothers maiden name as a first name. Hence all the surnames.

I don't know if they ever will catch on to the same extent here, not across the board anyway (socially). Americans have their own cultural references. A lot of the sur names as first names are former US presidents (Kennedy, Madison, Grant).

And I remember once laughing (privately) at a little girl called Quincy, but it turned out to be some character from the Boston Tea Party, or, somebody who'd arrived on the Mayflower. It seemed a little less wtf when it was clear to me (as it would instantly have been to an American)

ps, Americans aspire to that whole WASP notion. THey see it as aspirational. A name like Harper or Walker or Tucker seems so quintessentially Mayflower to them. even though it's not. The sur names are all quite blah and forgettable. But it's the impression they give. If you're name is Walker then nobody is going to assume that you were one of the millions of poor Italian/Polish/Irish immigrants who went in search of a better life.

I think that to this day, without all realising why, or analysing it, Americans are still buying into that desire to have a WASPY name. To appear to have descended from the more privileged and deliberately settled wealthy Mayflower types...

IN my opinion.

IMO.

TheJester That's really interesting

My sister lives in LA and actual real names are very unusual. My sister has a colour and a season as her dd's names, and whilst they seem odd over here they are not in the bohemian arty farty bit of LA she inhabits.

My niece has a friend called Singer at playgroup, which made me pmsl when I found out her mum made clothes for a living. Lucky she wasn't called Bernina Bobbin!

ha ha! Singer made me think of a sewing machine instantly as well.

Bernina, mmmm, that's lovely

This has been going on for years in the US. I'm not sure it's ever really going to catch on in the UK or Australia.

I've always really liked the name Murphy for a girl. DP would never countenance it, and tbh, I would probably chicken out too. If we get a dog it would be a good name too but as it's also a close friend's surname, that probably wouldn't go down too well either.

There are quite a few of them now - can't stand 'em. There are loads of Chelseas around here for some reason

May take a bit longer for Bristol to catch on. And maybe a bit longer still for Grimsby, Barnsley and Grays Thurrock

If I heard the name Quincy, I'd assume it was after the TV programme .

If you go back into your own family history you'd proabably find some odd names as family surnames were used quite often - there's a Daws on my family tree.

OMG, the names in the UK seem just as aspirational to me. Lots of "lower class" people using what they perceive to be "upper class" names. And the surname as first name thing definitely seems to have taken off (Taylor, Carter, Harrison etc etc that pop up regularly here ). It is a trend all over the Western world and was discussed in Freaknomics I believe (albeit in an American context).

I get tired of the smug superiority people in this forum seem to express over Americans' choices of names. I see so many names that I think are absolutely ridiculous is this country. For example, Alfie, to me, is a poncey toffee-nosed name but it seems to be very popular here. I figure it is a cultural thing that I just can't understand. That doesn't mean the names where I come from are any better.

I am not American but just find it funny how there is this feeling that Americans have certain failings that the rest of the world don't.

Sorry for the rant but I only just moved here a little while ago and it seems like it is quite acceptable to call something "American" if you want to implicitly insult it. I really don't understand it.

ps: I just thought of the most aspirational of names: Muhammed. It was No#8 on the list of most popular names in the UK a few years back.

As an American....! I'm sorry, but I have to say that Chaya's made a great point! Names in the Uk seem just as, well, strange to me as US names must seem to you. I don't think there's much truth in Jester's comments about Americans aspiring to WASP-y names at all, but maybe, as she says, I'm not conscious of it or maybe I just come for a very diverse area. I grew up in a suburb of New York City and my mostly Italian-American family is very very proud of its heritage, surnames included. In fact, I've got an Arabic first name with a Spanish last name! It never ever occurred to me that it might be even slightly unacceptable to call your child a name that doesn't necessarily match your 'heritage' until I moved here and heard 'we couldn't possibly, that's a SPANISH name' or similar. When it comes down to it, I think that the so-called "American way" is actually a lot more open minded.

As for surnames as first names - I don't think it's overly common in the States, but I know 17 year old twins called Spencer and Taylor, so it's been going on for a while. I think some are nicer than others, but to each their own really. I cringe when I hear Barnaby, Poppy, the aforementioned Alfie, et al, but it takes all kinds and if that's what people want to name their children, then more power to them.

I don't care where names come from but maybe some people want to have a good 'fit' with their surname or names they've already got when they name subsequent children. What seems classy in one language could be common or chavvy in another.

I know that names like Arthur, Stanley, Archie etc seem normal to us and utterly ludicrous to Americans. I suppose to our ear, we're ready for them (in the purely cyclical fashion basis of names revolving every 90 yrs). OUr ears would be revolted by Brian, Derek, Trevor in the same way.

LastBoxOfTampons I don't think that all Americans aspire to being WASPish! It was more like a look at what 'launched' the trend. The back bone of the trend.

I think fashions in names do correlate to real life, political and cultural climates. Irish names became popular outside of Ireland following the Good Friday Agreement and after the celtic Tiger really took off. That is of course another trend in America.

I know very few Americans in real life, but I did used to visit a forum on babycenter and over a period of about five years I got an idea of what names were coming in and out of fashion and what sounds new and cool to the American ear and what sounds crusty and unusable.

Americans aspiring to be WASPish-

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

I'm picking myself off the floor now!!!

American family names are their history. We have all the old buildings and the kings and queens and all that. Americans have their families. They are especially rooted in the innocence and role-defined 1950s- especially now things are so dodgy with the economy. They all want to go back to mom's apple pie.

The US is a very fifties kind of place - the cars/the two pin electricity/the big fridges and square tvs/the infrastructure - it's all quite old fashioned, which surprises people I think. (The popularity of 50s set TV show Madmen is direct testament to that.)

If you go to the States it is full of square jawed clean cut men saying 'good job' to their kids.

Their heritage is family. And that means family names.

To our ear, Quincy, Madison, Parker etc may sound 'off the wall' but it is exactly the opposite to the Americans.

These are good, solid family names. Very conservative.

It would be very 'out there' to call their kids Poppy or Alfie - very alternative/literary names.

These names don't 'mean' anything to them and sound too frivolous and not weighty or 'old money' enough.

Merrylegs -
I know you gave a warning that it would be a sweeping generalization...but, really? Seriously? That's what you think? Have you been to the US since the 50s??? I think that people over here love to define Americans by whichever means are convenient at the time - whether it's gun-toting rednecks, aspiring WASPs desperately trying to find some meaning to their history-less lives, or over-indulgent non-thinking capitalist consumers. While each of these stereotypes do exist, the country is really made up of a much more diverse, much less extreme population. Sorry this has gotten really off topic, but it's put my back up as it's just so inaccurate.

For what it's worth, I don't think Poppy and Alfie are altnerative or literary names or not weighty enough. I think they're old fashioned, and I pity the poor little boy saddled with a stuffy name like Alfred! (very very sorry for any I've undoubtedly just offended!). But that's my personal opinion - I've just come from visiting an American site where people were singing the praises of the name Freddie (which I would put in the Alfie category). Again, to each his own.