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AIBU

Children's names

(130 Posts)
NanKate Sat 25-Oct-14 22:04:59

Is it me or are children given some weird and unusual names nowadays?

Today I was out shopping and heard a family calling for their boy/girl with the name of Coven. Do they know that is a group of witches? Then someone else said 'Come here Anastasia' clearly a more cultured child bit still a bit of a mouthful.

How do the teachers manage to learn all these names as many are just made up. My friend's granddaughter is called 'Sky' as she was conceived in the open air. hmm

Deedaa Tue 28-Oct-14 21:28:02

Our SiL has a nephew whose surname is Gordon so his parents called him Flash! Only in America! grin He actually seems to have grown up surprisingly normal!

annodomini Tue 28-Oct-14 20:47:47

My GD's middle name is Ophelia which I love, despite its unfortunate Shakespearean connotations. I'm glad it isn't Desdemona though.

KatyK Tue 28-Oct-14 20:36:24

My young neighbours have a newborn girl called Elsie. There was a young lady on something the other day and she was called Jezebel.

rosequartz Tue 28-Oct-14 20:20:49

My GG Aunt was called Hepzibah; all the names in their family were very biblical including my mother's middle name which she hated. However, my mother's middle name is back in favour and was in the top 10 of girls' names last year!

hildajenniJ They all had Old Testament names, but in their case were Huguenots!

annsixty Tue 28-Oct-14 20:13:38

My friend's GGS is called Frank. Had he have been a girl he would have been Elsie May.A neighbour narrowly missed having Hepsibah (sp?)when the baby was a GS and not a GD. She was very relieved.

Agus Tue 28-Oct-14 20:12:06

One girl at our school was called Faye Wray. Another was Joy and another called Gaye. I do remember thinking, as a child, that they were not actually proper names.

Probably thought this though as my name is a traditional, I think, boring name and there were three of us in the class.

rosequartz Tue 28-Oct-14 20:05:29

www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2011/06/top-100-drop-outs-where-are-they-now-.html

pompa Tue 28-Oct-14 19:26:06

I love the return of old names, our GD is Florence Rose, my mother was a Florence. I know they were considering Agatha.

absent Tue 28-Oct-14 19:06:48

Old people were babies once. Names go around, in and out of fashion. Carol, Linda, Jacqueline, Susan, Christine, Brian, Ronald, Martin, Alan, David, Thomas, John – very common in our childhood – are today's old people's names.

apricot Tue 28-Oct-14 18:17:02

I'm horrified by the return of what I think of as old peoples' names. I know babies called Walter, Agatha, Mabel and Stanley.
I wonder when Susan, Carol, Brian and Colin will come back? Of course we all gave our own children lovely names so I suppose their mums liked Ty and Phoenix and Ashleigh-Mae!

Greenfinch Tue 28-Oct-14 18:09:36

And I knew an Olive Branch and a Rhoda Horsey. grin

NfkDumpling Tue 28-Oct-14 16:50:37

My class at school had three Margaret's, three Susan's and two Linda's (iPad insists on the apostrophe - should there be one?) and DD2 was one of three Catherine's in her class - all spelt differently) so perhaps widening the range of names isn't such a bad thing. But silly spelling is just affectation!

I do wonder if Gaye ever changed her name.

Grannyknot Tue 28-Oct-14 16:41:01

I heard a mother call out "Timber" on the Common a few weeks ago. I looked for a falling tree but then a little girl came running confused

KatyK Tue 28-Oct-14 15:09:34

I knew an Isobelle Bell, a Pat Pratt, and Olive Green. When I was at junior school in the 1950s, I desperately wanted to be a Susan, Linda, or Jacqueline. My parents were Irish immigrants and my name is very Irish. I hated it at the time as I wanted to fit in. I am happy with it now. smile My DD works in a school and some of the names she tells me that some children have are very strange to me.

rosequartz Tue 28-Oct-14 14:59:55

Trying to work it out now, FlicketyB!

FlicketyB Mon 27-Oct-14 22:20:15

My sister had a really unusual name, but, despite having to put up with a host of misspellings and mispronunciations, she quite liked it. But then someone with the name became famous - and she considered her problems got worse. People knew how to pronounce her name and spell it. Instead every one kept saying 'Oh, you have the same name as Xxxxxx Xxxxx', a woman who was more infamous than famous.

rosequartz Mon 27-Oct-14 18:04:42

hildajennij grin

DS has a saint's name - I do remember chatting with another playgroup mum who remarked that perhaps we give the boys saints' names in the hope that they will behave well - and that it doesn't work!

Actually, all my DC have saints' names come to think about it. hmm

The DGC do not.

hildajenniJ Mon 27-Oct-14 18:01:01

My DGC all have Biblical names.
My DD once received a phone call from the child tax credit people who were dealing with her claim. He said "I don't need to ask your religion, You must be Orthodox Jews". To which she replied, "No I'm bringing them up Pagan, but for the form you can put down C of E". hmm

rosequartz Mon 27-Oct-14 17:53:26

Precious reminds me of the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.
It is a pretty name, but I never had the courage to give my DC unusual names.

Jane10 Mon 27-Oct-14 10:19:47

I knew a support worker of African origin who was named after the doctor who delivered him: he was called Doctor!

kittylester Mon 27-Oct-14 09:34:51

Or ask if her Mum liked Jilly Cooper books!!

I've posted before about a girl DD2 went to nursery with who was salled Sammy Sunshine. Her mum went to register her on a really wet day and remarked that she brightened up the day. The Registrar said that she could call her sunshine and the Mum took him at his word! I often wonder what the father said! The child, when I knew her didn't live up to her name!

annsixty Mon 27-Oct-14 09:10:11

I knew a Precious when a girl so she will be in her 70s now. My GD has a friend named Pagan, we often speculate if people remark on her "Christian" name.

Greenfinch Sun 26-Oct-14 23:00:26

In Mexico I met a young man called Rainbow Skye descended from the N . American Indians. I think it is a lovely name. My son has an Indian friend called Kindness ,and Precious is in my DGS's class. Lovely.

rubysong Sun 26-Oct-14 22:13:52

Honor Kermode. (A friend swears she knew a girl with that name.)

Deedaa Sun 26-Oct-14 21:18:09

GS1 was playing Skylanders and showing me a wolf character called Wolfgang. I told him there was a little boy called Wolfgang in his little brother's music group and he was amazed to find that it was a real name! He asked me who on earth would have a name like that so I said "lots of German people for a start!" He has an eastern european name and his brother's is italian so he can't really call other people's odd.