s/o Names you like but rarely hear

[Anonymous]

^^^ it’s not so bizarre if the name is from your heritage. Even if you don’t know how to pronounce it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bridget is a classic name I dont hear too much. Mildred is my favorite "old person name" that I think should come back. Millie is adorable in my mind. Im done with all versions of Eleanor and Stella. Those old people names are DONE.

My DD12 is Bridget!

Also have seldom heard favorites;

Blythe
Cecily
Elise
Mary
Nora
Rebecca/Rebekah
Vivienne

Gavin
John
Josiah
Levi
Paul
Timothy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bridget is a classic name I dont hear too much. Mildred is my favorite "old person name" that I think should come back. Millie is adorable in my mind. Im done with all versions of Eleanor and Stella. Those old people names are DONE.

haha! The name Bridget is always interesting to me. Bridget is/was the stereotypical working/low class name in Ireland...it was THE name for Irish domestic maids/servants/the "help" so much so that for a really long time, many women would actually change their names to avoid that stereotype. I'm never sure if Irish American "never been to Ireland but my last name is Sullivan or O'Reilly!!!" crowd doesn't know this or doesn't care.

Yeah, I don't know why anyone would use this name, you are essentially just naming your kid "Maid."
Of course, there is a subset of people who romanticise all things Irish, and for those people, they probably are doing it to celebrate their great great whatever who was a maid, had no education, had 14 kids and lived in a tenament, god bless her. Should all the current Bridgets aim as high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, it's cultural appropriation. So, I side-eye people who appropriate culture that is not their own. So, you get defensive about that. So, you post a nonsensical question about "ownership."

That's what.

NP here. Hold the phone, so someone who's 100% Irish, though multiple generations American, is engaging in cultural appropriation if they name their daughter Aelish? Even if they have an Irish last name? And this is because they're now "American", not Irish? Then what names ARE American and acceptable under this reasoning?

If you didn't know how to pronounce the name growing up, it's not your culture. You're trying to put out that you have a connection to Ireland that is not there. There are Irish Americans that are still very closely connected to this culture -- they have living Irish people in their families, or they travel back and forth and keep close with relatives in Ireland. But those names aren't exotic to those people, they're just names. So again, if you didn't hear these names growing up, if you had to be taught how to pronounce them when you were thumbing through baby name books: then you are part of the diaspora, you are Irish American, you are not Irish. And it might hurt your feelings to learn this, but nobody hates Irish Americans who don't understand they're not actually Irish more than the Irish do. It's a pretense. That's why the Irish PP in this thread put an obligatory "Sully from Boston" dig in her response.

Sincerely, a Murphy

PP here - let me be clear, I have no dog in this fight. I'm a drop Irish along with half a dozen other nationalities and gave my kids family names. This is a thread about names, not about migration patterns and sociology. My point is, if "Irish Americans" aren't allowed to use certain names because of cultural appropriation, what names ARE they allowed to use? You're implying that for the vast majority of us generically "American" folks that have no remaining connection to the countries our ancestors came from, that there are names that are off limits and names that are permissible. Which names are which? Which names are permissible to you? Would you extend this rational to Italian Americans? African Americans?

If the name is so unique to a culture that not only do most people not know how to pronounce it upon seeing it spelled, but also the parents didn't know how to pronounce it upon seeing it spelled, then yes. Naming your kid that to stake out a connection to that culture is appropriation, and obnoxious.

Agree, and also to the PP above - as I understand it, you're only "Irish" if you're from Ireland or otherwise have Irish nationality. Otherwise, you're Irish-American - and that is its own culture. I find nothing more obnoxious than meeting people who call themselves Irish when what they mean is that their long dead, never met, great-great-grandparents were from Ireland. You are not Irish! You are American, and if you want to be more specific, you are Irish-American. I am from Ireland, now I live here and have dual citizenship so I consider myself Irish and American.

Have you ever been to NY? That's all we do. Everyone still associates with their nationalities even if it was 4 generations ago. it's a source of pride. Although I don't live in NY anymore, I still make pierogies every Christmas because it was tradition in my family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you didn't know how to pronounce the name growing up, it's not your culture. You're trying to put out that you have a connection to Ireland that is not there. There are Irish Americans that are still very closely connected to this culture -- they have living Irish people in their families, or they travel back and forth and keep close with relatives in Ireland. But those names aren't exotic to those people, they're just names. So again, if you didn't hear these names growing up, if you had to be taught how to pronounce them when you were thumbing through baby name books: then you are part of the diaspora, you are Irish American, you are not Irish. And it might hurt your feelings to learn this, but nobody hates Irish Americans who don't understand they're not actually Irish more than the Irish do. It's a pretense. That's why the Irish PP in this thread put an obligatory "Sully from Boston" dig in her response.

Sincerely, a Murphy

Or maybe you just like the name.

My background is Jewish. If I encountered a Goldie Chen, or a Goldie Vassilikos, or a Goldie Garcia, or a Goldie Tesfaye, or Goldie Bhattacharya, or ... I wouldn't think, "You don't get to use that name because you don't have a Jewish background."

Well, the Jewish, as a culture, are not really all that invested in maintaining generational continuity in first names, (first letters maybe, but not the actual name), while other cultures are. Jewish parents seem to be free to just pick names they "like." For other cultures, first names have lot more meaning than that. It's great that you aren't offended, but I think its mainly because your people don't care about stuff like that, mine does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bridget is a classic name I dont hear too much. Mildred is my favorite "old person name" that I think should come back. Millie is adorable in my mind. Im done with all versions of Eleanor and Stella. Those old people names are DONE.

haha! The name Bridget is always interesting to me. Bridget is/was the stereotypical working/low class name in Ireland...it was THE name for Irish domestic maids/servants/the "help" so much so that for a really long time, many women would actually change their names to avoid that stereotype. I'm never sure if Irish American "never been to Ireland but my last name is Sullivan or O'Reilly!!!" crowd doesn't know this or doesn't care.

Well, it was my grandmother's name and I loved her dearly regardless of the fact that she grew up on a farm. She also made her way by herself to the US as a teen and succeeded, against many odds, in raising 3 successful children. She may have been the help, but I'm very proud of her and I sport her name as my middle, always wished it was my first, and gave it to my daughter as her first name.

That said, if we'd had a second girl, I really wanted to use Dorothy.

Your grandmother sounds like an amazing person, and I think Bridget is a beautiful name!

Like I said, there is a subset of Irish folk who are willing to romanticise almost anything....

[Anonymous]

There is one really foul Bridget hater here.

I'm Irish, and I love your tribute to your grandma, PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is one really foul Bridget hater here.

I'm Irish, and I love your tribute to your grandma, PP.

+1 It's so strange that they don't understand "When I hear a classic Irish girl's name I just think you're poor! Because Irish people are poor and they had to be maids!" isn't convincing Irish Americans to be ashamed that their ancestors might have been poor. It just makes that PP sound like a bigoted jagoff. Congrats on your great-great-whatever having a maid, I guess? Since that's apparently a source of pride for some people?

[Anonymous]

PP Bridget’s mom here and what have I started?

My great grandmother left Ireland at 16 and came to the U.S. in 1905. She left her parents and youngest sibling behind and although she never saw any of them ever again, she faithfully wired money back to them for the balance of her working life.

And, she was a domestic, a maid. Why? Because that was the ONLY job available for a single, Irish-Catholic teenager with a fifth grade education. She married an older Irish immigrant who was employed as a chauffeur, also one of the few jobs available for Irish men of the era with limited education.

Yes, I heard the stories that Bridget was so common particularly among domestics that it became a shorthand or nickname of sorts, “have you hired a Bridget?” and in early movies, the maid character was called Bridget. Guarantee that no teenager or even young adult knows (or cares) about any of this.

But Catholics follow naming traditions and choose at least one saint’s name at baptism and or at confirmation. St. Brigid of Ireland (Kildare) is a special way to memorialize my GGMo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Naomi
Phoebe
Gideon
Julian

For various reasons I wouldn't use these myself but I like them and don't know any kids with those names.

I know one of each (varying ages) except for Gideon.

I know a Gideon, and a bunch of Naomis. I liked Julia but DH thought it was "wimpy."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Naomi
Phoebe
Gideon
Julian

For various reasons I wouldn't use these myself but I like them and don't know any kids with those names.

I know one of each (varying ages) except for Gideon.

I know a Gideon, and a bunch of Naomis. I liked Julia but DH thought it was "wimpy."

*Julian

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really like many 80s girl names: Amanda, Jessica, Heather, Kimberly, Amy, Nicole. Imagine meeting a baby named Amanda!

Right!?? Or Scott, or Eric. Seems insane now.

Totally. Baby Scott! Or Jeremy, or Greg.

[Anonymous]

Delphine
Camille
Wilhelmina (Mina)
Honora (Nora)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Delphine
Camille
Wilhelmina (Mina)
Honora (Nora)

I've heard all of these recently. Delphine is great although I have no French connection so it makes me think of Orphan Black.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really like many 80s girl names: Amanda, Jessica, Heather, Kimberly, Amy, Nicole. Imagine meeting a baby named Amanda!

Right!?? Or Scott, or Eric. Seems insane now.

Totally. Baby Scott! Or Jeremy, or Greg.

or Todd!