Children's names

We have a Hermione in the family - Hermione was the daughter of Helen of Troy and Menelaus.

One of DDs friends is called Hermione, she is 29 and it comes from her Mothers favourite Shakespeare play, A Winters tale.
I admit to not being to keen on DGS name, his father chose it, it is a celtic name but a wee bit common,,,,,, ah wrong thing to say i know, but as he is French and thought he was paying DDs Celtic heritage a compliment when he chose it, well. It is also the only form of this name that the French can pronounce. Other than SILs own version. Think Oz cricketers. DD had to shorten her name when she went to school here as no one could pronounce it properly and it really annoyed her.

Nothing surprises me, just back from supermarket where a harassed mother was yelling Chardonnay and Merlot at 2 kids running riot, and I don't think she was looking for the wine department either!

I don't know many Claudias, but the two I do know or knew pronounced it Cloudier. One did have a German mother.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

(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)

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

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!

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.

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..

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.

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!

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.

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?

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