Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Have I saddled my baby with a chav name?

113 replies

KateBeckinsale · 26/03/2010 11:55

My DS is 2 and as soon as I found out I was pregnant, DH picked the name Kaeden for a boy. I really liked it and we stuck with it.

I chose to spell it this way for the following reasons:

  1. Kaiden would get Kai and he has a cousin called this. 2)Kayden would get Kay 3)I didn't like Kaden as thought it loooked like kad-en rather than Kayden and it is arabic and I have no arabic connections.
  2. Caden means round lump and is usually the girl version.
  3. Kaeden is sometimes shortened to Kaed and we just like it.

But since then lots of people have called their kids Kayden/Jayden/Hayden/Aiden/Brayden, etc and people have started calling it chavvy.

This really upsets me as neither DH or I are chavs, we're teachers with a nice house, etc and we DS going to be judged on his name for the rest of his life and is it really a horrible name or are people just being snobby and trying to label others?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
SixtyFootDoll · 26/03/2010 14:51

Lol at sciencebint again!

BridesheadRegardless · 26/03/2010 14:52

OP not been back.

Hurt feelings, doing something more interesting, or a little test for us do you think??

BridesheadRegardless · 26/03/2010 14:56

Bint you don't seem to find the term chavvy offense just the suggestion they may live in 'shitty houses'??

Is your point that 'chavs' can live in posh houses too? Beacuse that doesn't seem like a hugely righteous stance to take.

Maggie00 · 26/03/2010 14:58

I know what you mean sciencebint, having a nice house doesn't mean that you deserve this fate worse than death any less than some family who accidentally did the same thing but live in a shack...

I wouldn't mind living in a nice house !! Well, at the moment I live in somebody else's nice house, but one day we'll live in our own shack, so that's another way some people might judge MY children.

So many assumptions, stereotypes, judgments, and so much fear of it all too. Maybe we should all get a computer-generated name?!

weegiemum · 26/03/2010 14:59

My Aidan will never be a Chav.

However, as we are in Glasgow, he might be a Ned.

But only if he ditches the Barca top for a Rangers/Celtic one!

BridesheadRegardless · 26/03/2010 15:01

'this fate worse than death ' surely we are now exaggerating the disadvantage in being called Kaeden (or whatever it is.)

Herecomesthesciencebint · 26/03/2010 15:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Maggie00 · 26/03/2010 15:04

Yes, I was being facetious..........

I wasn't even referring to any one specific name either. Just the idea that the sudden realisation that you've chosen the wrong name is less awful if you live in a council house...
But I don't want to tear the OP's OP apart.

bellissima · 26/03/2010 15:04

It's the person not the name! Kevin is often derided on here (and indeed in RL) - but if you are an American actor it's perfectly acceptable. Sharon is a very pretty sound. Tracy was the 'posh bird' in High Society and that Bond film with whatsisname..

BridesheadRegardless · 26/03/2010 15:05

Got to do school run myself.

The word is snooty of course, just seemed you were hung up on the house element of the snootiness above the general snootiness.

I too use the ' 's for chavvy to show that will I am joining in the discussion I am really better than all this[ snootinesswink].

thumbwitch · 26/03/2010 15:06

fwiw, sciencebint, I wasn't offended by you being called a witch - you can join my coven if you want to!

BridesheadRegardless · 26/03/2010 15:06

obviously got all [snnooty barckets and winking mixed up there!!

mathanxiety · 26/03/2010 15:08

Aidan is a lovely old Irish name. And Hayden has a long and respectable pedigree too.

The rest are Americanish (especially Jayden) and popular among a certain type of American too. The C word is unknown in the US, but the idea is alive and kicking. That being said, if you like the name and had what you thought were good reasons for choosing it, why would anyone else's perception of it bother you? It seems a little shallow to be worried about something like that, and I wonder if your perceptions of children you teach are coloured by their names and other surface-level aspects of them too.

MamaLazarou · 26/03/2010 15:13

Aiden's lovely.

Yes, I am afraid Kaeden is that c-word you mentioned. This is because: a) It is very modern, and will therefore date very quickly, and b) Contains the ubiquitous 'ae'.

I don't see how spelling it with an 'ae' would make it less likely to be shortened to 'Kay', though. Kids don't really consider spelling when nicknaming their friends.

Bewler · 26/03/2010 15:15

Well your DS is 2 so there's not much you can do about it now is there?

As Forest Gump might have said, chavvy is as chavvy does. My DH has a chavtastic name - he should have been a burglar - but isn't.

I have quite an unusual (but certainly not made up) name which people have always been complimentary about and I saw someone on a pregnancy thread suggest it as a baby name and some cow piped up that it sounded cheap. I was really and a bit

So inviting total strangers to comment on your much loved DS's name is a silly thing to do IMHO.

sungirltan · 26/03/2010 15:28

Hayden is a welsh name, in honour of the composer Haden - who wrote choral stuff (i think)

Kaeden is fine. i think its only chavvy if you dress him in shell suits and bellow loudly at him on the bus. also wearing sportswear and smoking.

Maggie00 · 26/03/2010 15:32

Composer is Haydn. I think. i should google that before I say it!

BunnyLebowski · 26/03/2010 15:33

Can I just say OP, PLEASE do not not lump the lovely traditional Irish name Aidan into the same category as the heinous Kaaeden/Cayden/Brayden/Jaiden brigade.

It's an actual name y'see?

Bewler · 26/03/2010 15:36

What if it was "Ayden" - can we lump it in then?

BunnyLebowski · 26/03/2010 15:37

Definitely Bewler

sungirltan · 26/03/2010 15:47

maggie00 - you are indeed correct - i am rubbish at being welsh!

MadameCastafiore · 26/03/2010 15:50

I think it is vile and very chavvy. (You asked!)

SoupDragon · 26/03/2010 17:55

DS2's class has an Aidan, a Jaydon and a Shaydon. Some poor mother got all 3 in her group on a school trip recently

Nothing wrong with Aidan - it's a proper spelling of a proper name.

ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight · 26/03/2010 18:14

A chavvy name = a name popular amongst lower socio-econimic classes, people who live on benefits, teenage mums, people who live in social housing, people who wear certain types of sportswear and gold jewellery, etc etc.

Let's call a spade a spade.

There certainly is a distinct cultural identity which runs through the (huge and varied) demographic of people who fall into the categories of i) socially housed ii) young parents iii) poor (or any combination of the above) but certainly does not define all, or any, of those people.

The problem with using a word like 'chav' is that it is almost always used to denote difference and inferiority. People from less afluent or priveliged backgrounds may have a different culture to those from middle class/wealthier backgrounds, but by expressing horror at the thought of being seen to be 'chavvy' you are stating that your culture is better. It's not better, just different.

There will be people who argue that 'chav' doesn't mean the above, but means thieves, or benefit scroungers, or anything else negative. But that's not true is it - the word chav would just as easily be used to describe a working professional if she lived in a council estate and wore gold hoops and a 'mum' necklace.

Snobbery is an ugly thing.

To answer the OP, yes, Kaeden is the type of name popular in a working class culture (ugly term, but there isn't really a better one - but then why should it be uglier than middle class?) but the fact that people might think you are 'chavs' from that fact is very unpleasant. I think you should give that some thought

BridesheadRegardless · 26/03/2010 18:47

Oh dear, I really feel for this OP if this is real.
The resonses must feel very harsh, i'd imagine she is rather upset.