What do you think of Beryl as a first name for a girl ?

[MamanFlo]

Heya mums

pregnant again with baby2 I am looking for first names. My MIL suggested Beryl, which sounds nice and original for the french people that we are... but what do anglo saxons think about this first name ?

thanks

flo

Beryl the Peril

Or a grandmas name.

Or isn't it the name of a brand of Biro??

I like cantankerous late fifty-somethings
And babies don't usually have any teeth either

No, it would def be a bold sort of choice, I think probably quite tricky for her to handle. Mind you, there was a girl at my school called Ethel - short for Etheldreade - luckily she was very popular, pretty and cool, else she'd have been stuffed

someone i know had a girl and called her Anneka (not sure how spelt exactly, but pron Uh-nikka rather than ann-ikka)... at the time i was about 17 - and therefore sensitive and suble as a brick - and i said nooooo, you cant call her that! but you know what? its a lovely name and suits her down to the ground.

all these reasons for not liking so far only make me like it more tbh!

not that its me having the baby girl...

There is nothing in Beryl that is intrinsically unattractive, it's just unfashionable at the moment.

Was thinking if shortenings would be even worse, and just came up with Belle - which is nice but has either Disney connotations or is a pyrannean mountain dog for me.
I like Doris, Ethel, Dorothy etc. But not Edna.

i like betty (not as in ugly...)

I AM a cantankerous late fifty-something....well, nearly!

ooh, muminfife. me too. donald was considered by me... as was ronald... but laready know someone with a Max and Ronnie so couldnt go there( ds2 is max)...

No, as someone said of ethel, you would have to be very, very pretty and popular to pull it off. Not that I'm sure your dd won't be. If an English person was asking I would have kept silent but if you don't have the English ear you have to be warned it would be a big mistake. Meryl is not so bad because it doesn't have the granny with a wart on her chin connotations

I think its lovely. Its one of those names that hasn't been used much for about 70 years. However, I think its time for a revival. I am going to step off the fence which is very unusual for me and say that people who reject names because they are old lady's names have very little imagination.

There are countless Olivia's now, but that used be an old lady's name.

I wonder if Ethel or Thelma, will return? The Thelma I knew, bless her, had a moustache and wore visible baggy underwear.

Bonjour! I'm not so sure about Beryl either I'm afraid. I like unusual names now, but growing up as a Gisele when everyone else was called Susan or Jane was hard. It's awful to have to conform, but I hated having a different name so much I used to call myself by my middle name, Susanna. That said, we're thinking of some pretty unusual names for ours. If you like it, then go ahead, but it wouldn't be for me.

One of ds's middle names is Donald (both his middle names are after his grandads). I don't like it, personally, but it was important to dh as his father had died unexpectedly the year before. When we told MIL, she announced: 'Oh dear, your father never liked his name anyway'.

If you want your child to be the only one of their name in the whole school, these days you'd be better off going with Peter, Jane or Susan...

I know a Thelma who is a couple of years older than me and very fashionable. Very odd choice of name but she makes it cool.

so true edam!! I was in school in the 70s and it was all susans and Janes, and the boys were all called Andrew, Peter and Daniel (I blame Elton John for that one)! It just shows how fashions change!

Kevin, Tracy or Sharon would be unusual these days too, but I wouldn't advise it.

But if they are Jane or Susan or Deborah, they are going to have old ladies' names when they're older.

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Beryl makes me thing of Thora Hird and Brenda Blethyn types.

Aunty Beryl for me as well, and she was as mad as a mongose, with an unhappy predeliction for sitting with legs apart so you could see her volumenous knickers.

Don't do it

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