On another naming site that a frequent, there is a general consensus that if the name in question (especially if it’s for a girl) is not a classic ([name]Elizabeth[/name], [name]Catherine[/name], [name]Jane[/name], etc), than the baby will be “held back in life”. A common argument is that no fifty-year-old could be named (insert name in question).
While I understand that, in general, a child name, say, Lollipop, will have a more difficult time than a child named, say, [name]Lillian[/name], but I have always been of the opinion that times change and we will have retirees named [name]Nevaeh[/name] and [name]Madison[/name], [name]Aidan[/name] and [name]Jayden[/name], soon enough. And that, eventually, these [name]Nevaeh[/name]'s and [name]Jayden[/name]'s will be the company CEOs and the teachers and the politicians.
Is it really that crazy to think that? I know it is difficult to imagine Grandma [name]London[/name]–I have trouble imagining it myself–but it will happen, so I don’t see the use in pretending it won’t.
I agree with you, @heyjudecharlotte! I have one child with a “trendy” name and one child with a classic name, and I can easily see both of them becoming successful because of their personalities, not their names.
I would tend to agree with you on names like [name]Jayden[/name] and [name]Madison[/name], despite the fact that I dislike them. There are so many kids named [name]Jayden[/name], [name]Riley[/name], etc., that when they are adults, I’m sure HR managers, university professors, and the like will not blink twice at seeing their names. A few decades ago, people probably thought [name]Corey[/name] or [name]Tiffany[/name] were less than suitable for adults, yet now they are acceptable names, if dated. I’m less sure about awful misspellings like Kadynce or Mackynzee, which in my mind convey a sense of being low-class or uneducated, and wouldn’t be surprised of some people with those names choose to change the spelling or go by their initials if they want to become CEOs or senators.
I agree completely that our perception of names like [name]Jayden[/name] will change as the Jaydens age.
I also see a point in the other side of things. I consider certain names low-brow and upon meeting an adult job candidate named Naveah & another named [name]Catherine[/name] one might make assumptions about these women & their family background.
At the same time, I think that negative perception of familybackground can extend to names that try to sound overly intellectual or overly cutesy. Naveah might have an edge over [name]Persephone[/name] [name]Ophelia[/name] Leonina [name]Smith[/name] or [name]Poppy[/name] [name]Rae[/name] [name]Smith[/name].
[name]Just[/name] to be clear, I do think that’s unfair & I don’t believe in naming your child with the intention to help them blend in at the top of yhe list of requirements.
I do think that finding a name that ages well & projects the right image (for me) is important & that’s why I’m on Nameberry!
No judgement from me toward anyone with these name examples in my above comments. But I do think the world is judging.
I completely agree with you! From an HR standpoint, names [name]DO[/name] carry status symbol, fair or not. Names with misspellings, made-up names, boys names on girls - project an image of being less educated (In fact, I am pretty positive this is something that was in Beyond [name]Jennifer[/name] and [name]Jason[/name], a study showing that certain names are used by parents with certain levels of education.) I don’t believe in name discrimination, but fact is - it happens and it happens often. When you name your child, it’s only fair and responsible to consider the possible side effects that a name can have.
That’s actually a good point, one that doesn’t get made here so often. Pretentiousness and preciousness aren’t necessarily qualities you want projected onto your child any more than ignorance/low class. It’s something to consider anyway.
Cutesy is definitely something that I think falls under “ages well”, which is something I think everyone needs to consider.
Pretentious isn’t something i would be overly concerned about…I would rather look pretentious and like I actually have an education than like a 5 year old for the rest of my life. [name]Just[/name] sayin! :eek:
I certainly do agree that people judge your name (and, by extension, you and your family), and I do think that you should name your child as an adult, not a child. It still bugs me that there is this assumption that if your daughter (this is specifically about girls, though I’m sure the same is applicable to boys as well) is not named [name]Catherine[/name] [name]Marie[/name] or [name]Elizabeth[/name] [name]Jane[/name] that you are setting her up for a life of failure. And all because “no [name]Fortune[/name] 500 CEO would be named [name]Madison[/name]”.
And I completely agree with taz. Our perceptions of a name change over time, and our we assume things about people based on their name. I do think that it’s wrong, but I know that it happens, and that there really isn’t any way of stopping it. I would like to note that my example of Lollipop and [name]Lillian[/name] wasn’t a great one. The argument tends to be more a trendy name (-son names, nicknames, etc) versus classic names ([name]Elizabeth[/name], [name]Catherine[/name], etc.), and how one (classic names) is better all around for everyone.
For a reference point, the name is question this time is ‘[name]Teddy[/name]’. The poster wanted to know if it would be alright to just use ‘[name]Teddy[/name]’ for her daughter, as she didn’t like [name]Theodora[/name] (she also sounded like she would prefer to use [name]Teddy[/name] as a nickname, but would use it as a given name if she couldn’t find a full name she liked). People automatically jumped on her about how she was setting her daughter up for misery because no grandmother, doctor, lawyer, or CEO would be named [name]Teddy[/name].
Well, they must not know any doctors, lawyers, etc, because [name]Theodora[/name] strikes me as a very posh and scholarly name.
I have a real-life example of name prejudice. I worked once with a resident physician in another field who continually introduced herself as “Dr. ‘[name]Johnson[/name].’” We all that she was dramatically pretentious since we residents never refer to each other as doctor anything except when teasing. [name]Even[/name] her white coat said “Dr P. [name]Johnson[/name]” rather than her full first name. Obviously her notes, prescriptions, consults etc all had her full name so we quickly discovered it was [name]Princess[/name]. I worked in an enormous hospital yet everyone knew this woman’s name was [name]Princess[/name]. She clearly despised her name; everytime someone with a friendly tone would say “oh yes, I remember you!” she would roll her eyes and mutter bitterly that she knew why they remembered her.
Now, on the one hand, her name didn’t hold her back at all. She went through college, did well, was accepted to medical school, did well, and won a residency appointment at a good hospital. On the other hand, her patients had difficulty taking her seriously; her clinics had fewer spots because patients allowed to pick from a list of physicians’ names almost never chose [name]Princess[/name]; she was certainly snickered about behind her back; in short her professional life was made a bit more miserable because of being named [name]Princess[/name].
Whoever said it above was right-- the world DOES judge, like it or not.
Whether it’s wrong or right, there will always be judgement based on your name, just like there is still racism and sexism. It’s a fact of life. I agree that some names can cause problems for a person and though it may not stop them, like in [name]Blade[/name]'s example, it can give them a harder time. It’s better to stick those cute names like [name]Teddy[/name] as a nickname and go with the full form [name]Theodora[/name] so she has something to lean on when she’s applying for jobs. OR use them in the middle spot where they aren’t used regularly.
My problem with the pretentious names I come across is that so many of them don’t come off as educated to me. They are mostly plucked out of books from high school level lit classes or surnames of commonly known notable people. This makes them seem so showy & fussy to me that I wonder if a [name]Nevaeh[/name] would be raised better & less entitled acting.
Ok, so I know [name]Aidan[/name] (and all the variations) are big now, but that’s not one I think of as being weird on an older person. The first association in my mind for this name is [name]Aidan[/name] [name]Quinn[/name], who’s in his 50s. And really any of those names that’s very commonly used now is going to blend in by the time they’re adults. It’s not like all the applicants for a job will have classic names and that one will stand out. I’d think misspelled or infrequently used made-up sounding names would pose more of an issue, assuming that some of that made-up stigma wears off if enough people use the name and it becomes commonplace.
Given that high school teachers try to pick timeless classics that are supposedly among the best of what literature has to offer, choosing names from books commonly read in high school is usually by no means a bad thing.
[name]IMO[/name] it’s only pretentious if parents are choosing these names [name]JUST[/name] to sound smart and don’t actually like the books. If they actually love the book and the character I don’t think that’s pretentious; I would personally find it really cool to meet someone named after a favourite character. So what if it happens to be from a book or play commonly read in high school? From my signature you can see that a lot of my favourite names fall under that category… I don’t mean for this to come off the wrong way or anything so sorry if it does… but if I named a future son [name]Fitzwilliam[/name], people who knew me would probably not consider it pretentious since they know how much I love P&P. Obviously little [name]Fitzwilliam[/name] would meet many people who didn’t know that, but how hard is it to say you were named after one of your mom’s favourite books?
I don’t think anyone who uses [name]Fitzwilliam[/name] or [name]Ophelia[/name] is necessarily trying to make the statement that they are a well read intellectual and I also don’t think that anyone who uses [name]Nevaeh[/name] is a low class uneducated trashy person. But either name could get an eye-roll and a certain assumption from HR.
I was just trying to make the point that naming your child [name]Kitty[/name] or [name]Bronte[/name] could be as much a “disservice” as Mikayluh when it comes to how people perceive them.
I think a lot of people hung up on “trashy” names or “cutesy” names don’t think of the assumptions that could be made about a girl with a “pretentious” name.
I do think that you should name your child so that their name will age. My teenaged sister’s name is [name]Bryn[/name]. [name]Bryn[/name] wasn’t a trend when she was named and I don’t think it is now, but it’s certainly a new name to American ears within her lifetime. Is a 30 year old [name]Bryn[/name] difficult to picture? Not really. Maybe I’m biased, but it’s a non-fussy name with a great meaning. I have friends, however, named [name]Courtney[/name] or [name]Kaylie[/name]. Is it hard for me to imagine having a grandma [name]Kaylie[/name]? YES. But maybe those parents know that when their child is a grandma, they will be in good company and lots of people will have grandmas named [name]Brittany[/name], [name]Ashley[/name], [name]Courtney[/name], [name]Kelsey[/name], and [name]Kylie[/name].
So I am in the middle on this idea. I tend to like more classic names in general, but I do think some of the trendier names will age well.
I’m in one of the professional fields people worry about their kids having a good name for (law) and I know people with all kinds of names.
I like the point someone made about preciousness and pretention. I think that’s good for us to remember. That’s how I feel about a lot of the more frilly girls names. We want to be taken seriously, so we should be named with some amount of seriousness since our name is one of the first things people know about us.
I think some of these names people aren’t quite what most people think about when they hear horrible names. I mean, [name]Madison[/name] isn’t my first choice of names, but there is nothing gaudy and weird about it either. I do think [name]Nevaeh[/name] is bizarre. And that poor Dr. named Priness (seriously, the perfect time to change her name would have been when she got accepted into med school). There are trendy names that will definitely date you to an era, but there is a fine line between trendy for the 2010’s and naming your child something over the top. Totally made up names like [name]Nevaeh[/name] will always have a certain connotation, however, no matter how popular they may be.
I am worried that my own name is going to make it hard for me to get a job. It seems like a misspelled, tacky version of [name]Rainy[/name]. And I do judge people on their names without meaning to. Actually, more of their parents and their economic background. I had a friend from summer camp named Leegha. Pronounced [name]Leah[/name]. I assumed her parents were either illiterate, immigrants or she came from a low class family, because ‘Leegh’ doesn’t prodouce a ‘lee’ sound, but [name]Leigh[/name] and [name]Lee[/name] do. So I assume her parents aren’t native speakers OR didn’t finish high school.
Now, with misspelled boys names on girls, like Madysen, [name]Jordynn[/name] and [name]Ryleigh[/name], I’m pretty sure its an attempt to make the name more feminine. However, it still doesn’t look very professional, but it does help clear up some gender issues.
On the 1 hand I can totally understand finding a name that you fall in love with and nothing else measures up to it. On the other hand, I can see why some names (or spellings of certain names) can lead to judgement of that person or their family.
Uncommon names can age well, I think, though. As others have pointed out, it’ll be a generation of of [name]Nevaeh[/name]'s, [name]Jayden[/name]'s, [name]Kylie[/name]'s, etc., etc. etc. grandmas. [name]Just[/name] like [name]Brittany[/name], [name]Jennifer[/name], [name]Rebecca[/name] and [name]Sarah[/name] may seem boring and dated to some people now, it will get that way at some point with [name]Nevaeh[/name], [name]Jayden[/name], [name]Kylie[/name], etc. That’s just how trends work. And when it comes to HR and hiring it’s assumed that a candidate named [name]Jennifer[/name] is probably going to be older than [name]Nevaeh[/name], in general. Based on how name popularity and naming trends go.
Like others, I have a much bigger problem with more common/traditional names being misspelled. As much as I dislike [name]Nevaeh[/name], I’d rather see that than Jennyfer, for example. [name]Just[/name] like I’d rather see [name]Zoe[/name] than [name]Zoey[/name]/[name]Zoie[/name], [name]Kelly[/name] than [name]Kellye[/name]/Kellhe, [name]Brianna[/name] than [name]Bryanna[/name], etc. The former in each example is the original spelling and looks correct whereas the latter looks like people 1) Didn’t know how to spell it…so they guessed. 2) Were trying too hard to come up with a cool/uncommon name when what they succeed in doing was butchering a common name and making it so that their child will have to spell and pn their name for everyone their entire life. I’m not in HR, but if I was and saw Gecykah (meant to be [name]Jessica[/name]!) I would probably go with another applicant. If it took me too long to even figure out how the name was meant to be pronounced I would give up in annoyance. And that does affect the person applying. [name]Just[/name] because her parents wanted to be ‘different’.
If you like any of the names given as examples by myself or anyone else that’s fine, but just be aware that they could cause several issues to the child later in life.