To think you can't judge a child by their name??

[SaveWaterDrinkMalibu]

Would you judge a child by their first name?

Katie Hopkins on this morning was saying how she judged the children her children play with by their names.

There's a YouTube video but can't link it

[FryOneFatManic]

I am frequently told I do not seem to "match" my name, so may be she'd have trouble deciding how to judge me

Judging someone based on their name seems rather nasty to me.

[BoysRule]

No, but I might judge the parents. For example, if I met a child with a really ludicrous name (I met a little 4 year old called Thierry Henry!) I would think the parents were quite selfish. Think of the amount of times you have to tell someone your name!

However, Katie Hopkins' examples of names she would judge were absolutely normal and not harmful to the child. Just names that she considers beneath her for whatever reason. Complete and utter snob and her argument completely failed when she said she didn't like Geographical names but her own child is called India. Idiot.

[SaveWaterDrinkMalibu]

I thought that, but it was the way she tried to defend the name by saying it was a family thing

[MaMattoo]

You can. And there is a whole scientific project done about it a bit of which is included in a book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell..
It is a v.e.r.y interesting book and the section of names specifically was freaky and creepy in equal measures..

[Juniperdewdropofbrandy]

It's bonkers. I don't care how many projects are done on it.

She seemed unhinged when I watched her. I was at work but my client had it on and was outraged too.

Still it gets us talking

[WillowKnicks]

I think you can certainly judge the parents.

I hold my hands up high & come clean for being a name snob...sorry

It kills me to admit to agreeing to anything Katie Hopkins says!!

lol @ India

[TheSurgeonsMate]

Whatever your study says, mamatoo, the statistically insignificant sample of kids your child is going to be coming across makes the idea that you can make 'quick and dirty' decisions on this basis laughable. Coupled with the fact that you don't need a quick or dirty solution to this, however fucking 'busy mum' you're feeling, just makes KH look inefficient, never mind a snob.

[PomBearWithAnOFRS]

Some names do seem to "go with" certain families though - you can often (although not always) tell quite a lot about people by the names they give their children, and certain names are very evocative. It must be quite hard for someone with a name that people assume carries certain connotations, if they are completely different iykwim.
Think Tarquin, Jemima, Dwayne, LaToya, Kylie, Chelsea, Hugo, or "Sleb Weird" names - the Geldofs, or Apple/Bronx/the Beckhams and so on.
Of course there are names that are (I can't think of the word) "ordinary" and don't date or place the person too - Daniel, Michael, Sophie, Ellie, Sarah, that sort of thing iyswim. You can't tell a thing about the person from their name.

[revealall]

This has already had a thread. However i can't help thinking there wouldn't be such angst on the baby naming thread on musnet if there wasn't something in it.
I chose a name for my son knowing I was going to be a lone parent. I gave him a very traditional, non common (not in top 100) and most upper middle class name I could. To be fair no one ever thinks we spent the first two years of his life in a hostel for the homeless. Had I called him Tyler, Josh or Kieran they perhaps might of?

[BoysRule]

We specifically chose our DSs names as we felt they didn't give anything away regarding their upbringing or background. We felt it was important that they wouldn't be judged when people met them or saw their names written down (on a CV for example), as whether it is right or wrong, it happens.

It is unfair to give your child a ludicrous name such as Fifi or Apple and then expect them to go out in the world and get a job and be taken seriously. Although tbh the people with those names probably won't ever have to get a job.

[Primafacie]

YANBU. Or at least that's what I always tell my DCs Hermintrude, Tristram and Chardonnay.

[usualsuspect]

I gave my children names I liked.

I didn't feel the need to make people think I was MC.

[IneedAyoniNickname]

Ive often been told that ds1 has a very middle.class name. According to the class definitions we were told at college, I am not middle class (im under class apparently) and wasn't bought up in a middle class family.
However. His name is lovely, and suits him perfectly.
Ds2 has a more common name, no idea what people think of it, but again its lovely and suits him.

[PomBearWithAnOFRS]

My DCs have totally ordinary unremarkable names, and we have been know to change the youngest three to Aubrey, Ptarquin and Carmencita-Jabonica for displays of Loud Parenting in Public simply to amuse ourselves and laugh like drains at the funny looks we get from other people sometimes
(Aubrey is a stuffed panda, Ptarquin is a pterodactyl, and C-J is a ragdoll that tend to go everywhere with us and the DCs are ever so good at answering to them )

[sarahtigh]

not so much names but certain spelling I might

sophie fine; sophy equally fine; but sofy would cause a raised eyebrow

[ShatnersBassoon]

DH's name is pretty naff, the Jayden of its day, the male equivalent of Sharon or Tracy. I've lost count of the number of times people have said "He's not what I expected," or "He's not a typical xxxxxx" when they meet him. My mum has admitted she was disappointed I'd got a boyfriend with such a name as it was embarrassing to tell her friends!

He is judged, but is doing his bit to make people think twice . He was dead set on giving our children names that say nothing about them, that would be unremarkable for a miner or a brain surgeon.

[PoppyWearer]

My name is definitely more "posh" than I am or my upbringing. My DPs didn't choose it for social status reasons, they chose it because they like it.

Katie Hopkins would have hated me if I had been "chosen" to be her child's friend! Common as muck, me.

I have tried to choose "classless" names for my DCs.

IMVHO it is very important to be able to get on with everyone, regardless of their income/class/whatever and I really couldn't give a flying fuck if my DCs are friends with the daughter of a Managing Director or a cleaner. Both are fine!

[Kiwiinkits]

I have a good friend called Kristyl. Awfully common. But she's not common in the least and has a high flying finance career. I think her name works against her, but it's not fair to judge her on it.
But WTF were her parents thinking!!!?

[revealall]

ShatnersBassoon -ha that made me think of my last boyfriend.
Rather well to do parents had given him a wonderfully "artistic" first name and they had a very "niace" surname and his middle name...Trevor.

[Kiwiinkits]

MaMattoo I think the names analysis is in Freakonomics; did he repeat the analysis or extend it in Outliers - must get a copy.

[ArbitraryUsername]

But the whole thing is just silly. Josh has been suggested here as a name to be avoided; but it's an absolutely standard and unremarkable name among Jewish communities. In fact, until this moment, it had never occurred to me that anyone would object to it on some kind of class grounds. Similarly Kieran or Tyler may have certain connotations for stereotypical middle Englanders, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have the same connotations for everyone.

[usualsuspect]

What's wrong with Kirsty

[Kiwiinkits]

(Disclaimer: my dd2 has a 'Fifi' type name)

[Kiwiinkits]

Not Kirsty. KRISTYL. As in crystal, but spelt with a k and an i, and a y in the wrong place. Dreadful.

[jamdonut]

You shouldn't judge by names, no , but I and my colleagues know that children who go by the name Joshua are more likely than not to be "challenging". Even my class teacher, whose own son is called this,says the same and actually wishes she hadn't called her son that name.(Even though he is actually a lovely boy!)