Splendid names from the beautiful baby competition

Go on then - just for you...I did actually like Rubeus but H said no - meany!

Dumbledore!

I'm going to run a sweepstake of name and rating for potential for being pretencious ?

Rubeus isn't bad IMO. Not so different from Reuben after all and that's quite acceptable now.

Better than Hagrid, definitely ?

Crying out to be called Ruby and probably bullied, surely? Presumably not a problem for Hagrid, given his size. ?

Hopefully the younger HP fans will have matured enough by the time they have children not to foist a lot of youngsters upon us called Severus, Sirius, Narcissus, Draco, Regulus, Bartemius, Walburga etc etc.

Thank goodness its not one of those ??

Lolita is an awful, awful name to call a little girl. What on earth are people thinking? Friends of ours called their little girl Lola. I can't help think of The Kinks song whenever I hear her name mentioned.

Nah, much worse names out there. I like Sirius but then I'd liked to have called a boy Orion so what do I know.? I'm surprised none of my uni mates have named a son Regulus after their old halls.

Ialso love the names Hermione and Lyra but I'm not sure I'd saddle a girl with a life time of spelling the name and having to say, "yes, like the girl in the X stories..."

I love Sirius and am seriously thinking about Hermione - that is one on our shortlist! PIL says we can't use it as "I can't say it" ?

I think unusually spelt names can affect the confiden of our children. My H's name is Gerard, which is pronounced Jerod, not like the footballer! He has been called Gerrard or Gerald all his life by people who just don't know how his name is pronounced when they see it written down. What is worse is when he tells them his name and they correct him, or just ignore him and continue to refer to him as Gerrard.

He says it knocked his confidence a lot as a child as people called him by the wrong name (and his brother is John, so no camraderie there). He would hate to give any children we might have one day a name that is difficult to recognise for this very reason. (although he says he likes Elvis for a boy and Brenda for a girl so who am I to talk?)

I love the name Hermione, but that actress in Cold Feet puts me off, she was so rude in an interview once and I can't get past that.

I also love Sirius. Very cool.

HH, I think Ysella could also be Spanish, it's very popular in S America (well, more so than here!) There are historical links between Cornwall, Spain and S America though, because of the mining backgrounds, I think.

Amusingly, Ysella actually means 'Unpretentious' ?

Does he pronounce it Hermi-own, like my husband did (Until I laughed so hard I almost fell out of bed)?

? aw all Krum-esque!

No he won't even attempt. He doesn't like "foreign sounding names". He's going to hate our boys name then...

I was just wondering actually when does use of a name become pretentious? To me some of the best names are out of great works of literature or great figures in history. For sources of unusual names I don't think you can beat English history

A good friend of mine told me that as a teenager, he was already sure what his childrens' names would be. Two boys and a girl. The boys would be Herod and Megatron, and the girl would be Mimi. He was genuinely serious and still liked the names.

Mimi's not so bad, you might think, until you know his surname is Meads ?

(I'm so glad for the sake of any potential children, that he's turned out to be gay and not likely to adopt.)

I know Hecate's boy name?

I'm seriously considering Timothy for MiniV if it's a boy but have to get it past H first.

I also love Hermione but our surname begins with H and it would just sound wrong. (for a girl that is!)

TBH even I've had to correct people a zillion times on my name (Julia) as people insist on spelling it with an 'e'. FFS Julie is a totally different name! Grrr.

Oy you ?

I have the same problem. I am a Rachel - the number of people who spell it Rachael or even Racheal is untrue!

We have a Lola. When we went on holiday to Portugal, the locals immediatley just called her Lolita, even though her name is Lola.

I actually think the name Lolita is very pretty, but I wouldnt use it.

There are millions of Rachels on hitched...

You spell your name the best way. ?

Well that's true ?

Just realised what I wrote was ambiguous - I meant people who spell my name wrong as opposed to people called the same name but with different spellings

I went to school with a Herod. He was lovely, had the most amazing deep, ever so well spoken voice. He was a dish.

I love different names. I love the Flumps and would love to call my girl Posie and boy Pootle, but I know that I wouldn't be allowed ?

I also love Blossom and Phoebe for a girl. Lola is a beautiful name ?

Oh maaaaaan!

Why didn't I remember what fantastic names Posie and Pootle are when I named my 2 kids!

Bugger!

?

Just have 2 more ?

Living abroad has definately given me lots to think about with names...

Particularly memorable was a child called 'Mashundae' and then siblings called 'Shawn' 'Shawnae' and 'Shawnette'. Also special were 'Sharae' and 'Aaron' (once you find out their parents were called 'Sharon' and 'Ray')

But I think there are a number of names which would be 'normal' in one country and have negative/stereotypical connotations in another.

Would you trust him to babysit your firstborn though? ?

You'd have to have 3 children, surely? You can't leave poor Perkin out.

It's bad enough naming your house as a hybrid of your two names (well, not you Sah, but 'one'), but a child? I'm refering to Sharae, not Aaron, as I really like that. I would pronounce it air-on though, by default, as my H's best mate's son is Aaron, pronounced that way.

I love Hector, it would be on my list for my Scottish version of the Waltons. ? Hector, Murray*, Fergus*, Angus, Isobel*, Flora, Shona* and Elsie*. (I would actually use any of these but particularly *)

Clara is a perfectly excellent name as well you know ?

I always rather liked Boolean and Epididymus as names. For boys I think. They have a nice classical feel about them ??

In our new Y7 intake have have a Nicky (boy), aymz, Cheltzie, Chelsee, Shelsie, Chelzey (all pronounced Chelsea!) Ebboniey and not one but 2 Jacko's.

How about this one - all brothers and sister called Raegan, Kenedi and Carta. Oh and the Mom claimed not to realise!

My grandfather's best friend was Stan, married Ella, named their child Stella.

I treated a little girl in A&E a few weeks ago, who had a little sister called Topsy! When i aske dhte dad where the name came from, he just looked a bit shame faced and said that his wife and daughter named her!!

Just realised how badly written my post was... It's been a long day. Aymz is pronounced like James without the J. (My daughter does tumble tots with a Jaymz)

No idea if Nicky's parents were westlife fans. It fits timeline wise, doesn't it!