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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

sherish Fri 31-Oct-14 12:38:08

Victoria Beckham named her daughter after Harper Lee who wrote 'To kill a mockingbird' and Seven after David's number on his football shirt.

rosequartz Fri 31-Oct-14 19:46:48

Does anyone remember the film star called Tuesday Weld?

I thought of her when Nicole Kidman named her daughter Sunday Rose (was she born on a Sunday? So was I, so thankyou DM for not thinking of that one!).

numberplease Fri 31-Oct-14 23:50:52

I rather like the name Tuesday, and Friday, as in the folk singer Friday Brown, years ago.

Deedaa Sun 02-Nov-14 22:58:02

I'm always surprised that people never seem to look further than the baby in the cot. Suppose your little darling goes on to be a high court judge or even prime minister? "Pray silence for the Right Honorable Princess, or Rainbow or Ace?" At the same time I have looked at tiny babies and wondered how anyone could have called them Humphrey or Winifred!

I had a friend who called her oldest son Aragorn (Down to his father actually) this was soon shortened to Gorny! her other children all had quite normal names.

pompa Wed 05-Nov-14 09:47:04

I sometimes wonder how childrens names affect their later life. Can you imagine someone called Tarquin digging holes in the road ?

numberplease Wed 05-Nov-14 14:59:49

My husband had a brother named Harold, a perfectly respectable name, yes, but how on earth would you look at a tiny baby and say, I know, we`ll call him Harold?

janerowena Wed 05-Nov-14 15:31:45

It's often done on the spur of the moment, when affected by the death of a much-loved relative.

Friends of mine have a Tarquin and a Hermione. Pre Harry Potter, so used to get a lot of looks. Apparently Hermione Gingold was the inspiration. Tarquin was because a favourite book was Tarka and they thought THAT would be a Bridge Too Far.

maxgran Wed 05-Nov-14 15:49:41

A friend of mine has just had a Grandson they have named Stanley. I haven't heard of anyone being called Stanley for many years!
A lot of the old names ARE coming back - Many of them are names I thought were for old people!

Nelliemoser Wed 05-Nov-14 15:59:57

I encountered the forename Crimea, but I never did establish the child's gender.

You could go quite a long way on that theme. Agincourt, Bosworth, Waterloo, Rourk's drift. Somme, Paschendale, ad infinitum really.

tanith Wed 05-Nov-14 16:10:11

My sister was called Gwlythyn , my Mother and her sister who was also called Gwlythyn were Welsh but I've never been able to find reference to the name or its meaning anywhere. Quite where they got the name from I have no idea..

rosequartz Wed 05-Nov-14 16:16:48

My DM used to think that Hermione Gingold was wonderful. Now we have our very own Hermione and I think DM would have been quite surprised!

I suppose if a child is called Aragorn you could look at him and think about the delicious Viggo Mortensen - I can't imagine calling a child Viggo.

feetlebaum Wed 05-Nov-14 16:47:16

I thought it a bit odd when people named a child after a place - presumably the site of the conception... But then I remembered Bleak House, in which the Sergeant's old army friend 'Lignum Vitae' has named his children for the postings he was in on various campaigns - one was called Montreal, I think... anyway, it's not, as I had thought, a silly modern fad!

Galen Wed 05-Nov-14 16:51:37

Darling daughter is Venetia, her children are Merryn and Elowen (Ellie)
I expect they'll end up as Merry and Elly!

Galen Wed 05-Nov-14 16:53:28

(Venetia was supposed to be conceived on Venice, but as she turned out to be her elder brother, we didn't think he'd appreciate the name)

rosequartz Wed 05-Nov-14 17:00:19

My DC have old-fashioned second names (which have since become fashionable!) and I was very surprised to find out, when researching my family history, that they are the names of my Great-great-grandparents.

Bellasnana Wed 05-Nov-14 17:12:47

We stayed in a B and B in the Lakes where the proprietor's sons were named Hawthorne, Nimrod and Aaron. I was speechless shock

ninathenana Wed 05-Nov-14 17:27:08

I met a very glamorous mum at a wedding last weekend her toddler is called Archie and the baby's name is Maud.
Names never heard in mine or my DC generation.

My brother has the male version of DM's name and mine is the feminine version of DF's. Not a lot of imagination my DP's grin

J52 Wed 05-Nov-14 20:03:23

DGDs all have uncommon names, but the names are all minor female characters in great works of literature.

harrigran Thu 06-Nov-14 12:49:06

GD1 has her great grandmother's name and her baby cousin is Archie.

rosesarered Thu 06-Nov-14 19:53:21

Hespian that made me laugh! Arsenal backwards.Lanesra. What idiots.
Like the village in 'Under Milk Wood' then, Llaregggubb [Buggerall.]

rosequartz Thu 06-Nov-14 20:11:23

A good Welsh place name!

Years ago I heard of one child who was named after a whole football team. What selfish parents. I hope he or she changed it by deed poll later in life. Imagine trying to fill in official forms.

goose1964 Thu 13-Nov-14 17:45:37

when I was in hospital having my eldest one girl wanted to call her daughter Claudia Skye - it looks OK written down but she wanted to pronounce it as cloudier rather than claudia & couldn't work out why we were laughing

Babyboomer Thu 13-Nov-14 18:37:53

Some unusual names are delightful, and make a refreshing change, but others are belittling. People who choose names like Apple, Blanket and Satchel seem to see their children as trendy lifestyle accessories rather than people in their own right.

rosequartz Thu 13-Nov-14 20:04:49

Oh dear, goose1964! Of course, it should be pronounced 'cloudier' but not teamed up with 'Skye'!

Babyboomer you're right. Who would want to be lumbered with a name like Satchel or Apple (Satch and App or Appy?). 'How are you today, Appy?' 'Well, I'm feeling a bit miserable actually'.

Is Blanket a real name - didn't he call him the same as his older son So, if I called my children Fred, I could have had Fred 1, Fred 2 etc.

MiceElf Thu 13-Nov-14 20:22:03

'Cloudier' is the way Claudia pronounced in Italy. It's an Italian name.