Baby names!

Bible
Jane Austen
Shakespeare
Classical Greek or Roman
Nineteenth century novels
Brontes (own and characters' names)
Kings & queens

Nothing :-
Fashionable
Oddly spelt
Celebrities
Twee
An abbrieviation
Made up
Somewhere you went on holiday
Somewhere a celebrity went on holiday

Yes this is a bit snobbish and a bit of a 'guide to the middle classes'. However, when I was teaching the top sets were full of Emma, Sophie and Georges and the bottom sets were full of Chardonnays and Kais.

My daughter wanted something classical, my son in law liked Pony Club names so I offered Penelope, which was rejected by both. They settled on Flora!

I have a very unusual name and spent my childhood having to spell it. I wished I had been called Anne, but my mother pointed out that I would still have been asked about the spelling.

I have grand-daughters called Alice and Dinah - nothing too tricky there! Also a great-niece called Luna which is pretty I think too.

Mauriherb, that's an interesting concept. When one of my GC was born her parents withheld her name for 24 hours so that they could be satisfied 'it suited her'. A novel concept to me but now you have made a degree of sense of it. Thank you. My girls' name choice would be Stephanie or Lynn.

My husbands family are a nightmare ‘ namewise’ my husband is William as was his father , grandfather, and great-grandfather ! What IS that about? My husbands sister is Mary as was his mum, grannie and g-grannie...for goodness sake! When my daughter was born I flatly refused the name and called her Annie ....when my son was born ...NO William ...but Greg! They argued ...they sniffed .... they badgered me , but I stood firm. As long as the name goes with the surname I’m sure they’ll find a good name. Good luck with your new grandchild whatever they call her. But not William or Mary!!!!

I like Olivia, and Sophia x

On a slightly different tack. Old names which DON’T seem to be making a comeback;

Doris
Gladys
Ethel
Bertha
Myrtle
Mildred
Nellie
Queenie
Winifred
Phyllis

Edgar
Eustace
Leslie
Maurice
Oswald

I’m sure GN’ers will put me right, and announce GC who have these names.

I haven't read all of these, but make a plea for for '2 syllable rule' ie: easily shouted, whether to come in for tea, stop teasing the dog or come and say hello to Nanna

Yes, I do tend to agree, Lilyflower - and a Roman/current Italian name is now a serious contender! Pretty, can't really be shortened, and goes well with the surname.

If anyone else is an Inspector Montalbano addict, it's his girlfriend's name. But dd is worried that everyone will assume it should have an 'O' in front...

paddyann My son and DIL have called their little girl Willow she is their first child and they picked the name very early on,we where expecting a cute delicate little girly girl with a name to match !!
We got a still cute baby girl but she is like a baby elephant who barges in everywhere nothing delicate about her at all she cannot talk quietly she is very loud but very very funny and loving totally different from my other DGDs who are grown up now and called Aimee & Abigail both nice names.

My name is very unusual and I have only ever met 5 others in my life. Strangely, my brother in law met a woman who had been married before and already had a child. She had the same first name as me and, after he adopted her, exactly the same name. She spells the shortened version slightly differently.

Someone up thread was quite rude about it. I'm glad I'm not sensitive.

Ethel was on our list when our DS was born 40plus yrs ago. It wasn't popular then and never joined the pop charts.
The name we chose for him which was then an " old man's name" became the most frequently used name ever. We were the first!

Scottish and Irish names have had a huge comeback esp with Gaellic spellings.
I once mentioned to the mother of a Caitlin that it was the same as Kathleen. It is.
She disliked being told that because Kathleen isn't as trendy as Caitlin.
Sheila anyone?

I have a Neil and a Gregg. No middle names and wanted ones that wouldn't be shortened (though occasionally get Gregory!) as are my niece/nephew Amy and Joe (and of course some people assume Joseph) for same reason.

My niece named her daughter Gracie, which is a little different to all the Grace's. My neighbours granddaughter born around same time is Lettie. She was often tempted to say Lottie at first, got told off by her son more than once when that slipped out lol.
My step niece has just had a boy and they've named him Rex.
Friends GD is Phoebe which is a pretty name.

Doing old baptism transcribing there is an occasional pretty name which pops up, Kezia(h) and Thirza are two which you don't see now.

When I worked in a secondary school it tended to be that the students with the most unusual names or most peculiarly spelled names were the worse behaved. We used to say that all the parents’ efforts went into devising the name and nothing on the parenting!

I love the name Ethel. Probably because I've always been a Just William fan.

We thought about Flora for DD1 until a relative said 'you can't name a baby after a margarine'. Rather took the shine off that one ?

I think Catherine is lovely as it's a classic name which I don't think dates. I also like Mia.

My DD and SIL didn't discuss names with anyone, they just announced the name after their babies were born which I think was quite nice, also it meant there was no chance for anyone to say they didn't like the name they had chosen

Whatever it is, you have to think of the whole name. We'd picked Daisy for DD1 until a friend nearly choked laughing at it. She said that with our very Yorkshire surname it sounded like the farmer's prize cow. She was right.

My younger sister was Mia long before we ever heard of another - the first was probably Mia Farrow, way back. It wasn't her given name, but my brother who was under 2 when she was born, couldn't pronounce that. He called her Mia, and she's been Mia for 60 odd years now.

I would opt for Maria - it can be pronounced and recognised practically anywhere in the world. As far as I know there are no nasty or obscene connotations or abbreviations either.

You have three weeks to finalise baby’s name before registration. Plenty of tie to get a feeling for what suits. All of my granddaughters were known as ‘Daisy May’ until their proper name was decided upon.
My grandson, unfortunately, was known as ‘Li’l Spud’.
He’s almost two now, and despite having a very nice name, is often referred to as Spud!

The thing to remember is that you are naming an adult rather than a baby. They aren’t babies for very long. Their name will be read out at school, university, when they marry.....so it’s very, very important.

My grandchildren have three names each. One is the name they’re known by, the other two are family names. All are quite nice, much to my relief!

My grandson, now 17, is called Wren. I still cringe when I have to tell anybody!