Oh no, is Sylvie horribly dated?

Girl Names
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I’m not currently pregnant with a potential Sylvie, but when I think about names I am thinking about a literal human being in the future. So yeah, maybe we are coming from different viewpoints.

I appreciate that you are one who wants to take back names and fight against stereotyping. But I personally wouldn’t bring another person into that without knowing they wanted to be, by naming them something contrarian. Especially something as contested as Karen. And for many people, especially people of colour, Karen has become a name that represents oppression and violence rather than just being “dated and gross” as it represents a particular kind of ‘white rage’ that poc encounter. I wonder at what point Karen stops being ‘Tracy, Sharon and Linda’ and veers into Adolf and Manson.

Again, there’s a difference if it’s hypothetical or you’re naming an actual child.

This is a very insightful point and I’m taking in on board! I guess there is no way of getting it 100% right. I can be a real perfectionist lol. As you say, let’s just do our best!

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I guess the difference for me between [name_m]Adolf[/name_m]/Manson and [name_f]Karen[/name_f]/Sylvie is that Hitler and [name_m]Manson[/name_m] were real people who did appalling things and had names uncommon enough and crimes heinous enough that their names are understandably off limits.

To my knowledge [name_f]Karen[/name_f] and [name_f]Sylvie[/name_f] are not real life people, but stereotypes associated with the names. For a name to veer toward [name_m]Adolf[/name_m] and [name_m]Manson[/name_m] in my mind, it would have to be the actual name of an actual person who did actual horrific things.

I’m not arguing for naming a daughter either of them; I’m just not advocating against it. :slight_smile:

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