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[Opinions] Re: UK Girls BAs [Long]
in reply to a message by Evey
I like most of these names. Even though reading through them all together makes me feel a little like I'm looking through some kind of trendy product catalog full of soft-focus images.I'm dismayed by Isadora instead of Isidora. Amused by the revival of the awful Myrtle.Coco as a woman's official name is so awful! It's like Jojo or Mimi ... IMO not a full first name name, but only something someone is called aloud familiarly, by people who know them personally ... trademarkish. To me, putting it on a birth certificate seems so self-consciously blithe that it's almost deprecating. The way one names a dog. It must be a British - American cultural difference ... just looking at the number of nicknames in the different top 20, it has to be. I'd like to understand that better. Are nickname names in the UK sort of like tryndee names in the US? So Poppy is like Avery, and Alfie's like Jayden - seeming modern and spunky and devil-may-care? What's the nicknamey style about, to British folks? - mirfak

This message was edited 9/13/2015, 10:34 AM

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I think Alfie and Poppy and Jack and Rosie and Tilly and Ollie and so on are part of the same aesthetic as Cath Kidston floral prints, shabby chic, bunting, those 'Keep Calm and Do X' posters, vintage cake-stands with home-made cupcakes, etc etc. Not my cup of tea, but I can see the appeal. Simple and cheery and cute, quite classless - you come across them on all sorts of kids - very British, and as this is quite an old trend now, not new enough to be scary. Coco is more of a 'media professional name'. She might have a brother called Django. A bit more 'edgy' (and more annoying)
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Also don't the English sort of have a thing for aristocrats with names that don't seem to fit their status? Like Hyacinth Bucket's instant admiration of someone named "Porky Hooten" because it sounds "very public school" (and public schools are the fancy schools for the rich people there, right)?
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I personally don't like the nickname-as-full-name trend, but I think people like the Victorian, old-fashioned feel of names like Alfie and Elsie and see them as refreshing and cute. I've also heard people say that there's no reason to put the full name on the birth certificate if the child is only ever going to be called by the nickname.Hyphenated names are also particularly tryndee in the UK right now, Gracie-May, Evie-Mae etc. A cousin of mine actually took this one step further and gave her daughter the middle name Lily'Mae with an apostrophe in it!
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I can't remember what site it was on but a while back on some forum, one of the semi-regular members always talked about how she and her partner had planned on naming their future daughter Sara(Beth) ...parenthesis included... Smh
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I tend to like nickname names, Maisie and Tilly so on, and yes I'm British. I definitely don't see them as modern or trendy, we have Averys and Jaydens too and I think the feel is totally different. The reason I like them is that they seem classic and grounded but not stuffy. P.S. not fond of Coco however.

This message was edited 9/13/2015, 12:47 PM

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