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Hi. This is off-topic. I hope no one minds too much.
My husband and I have two boys. They are named Stewart and Nigel. If you have spent much time in the US you know that those are VERY uncommon names for kids (anyone) in the US. Stewart (means steward) was named after my deceased father. For our second child, we wanted a name that would sound good with such an older style name, and one with a strong meaning. With a tremendously complicated and scary pregnancy, we one day learned that Nigel was the latin form of Neil and meant champion or victor. We decided if it was a boy, that was it. WELL, our baby came 8 weeks prematurly and he did prevail over a long and difficult hospitalization. The name proved perfect for him.
MY QUESTION IS -- whenever someone hears our boys names they comment on how British they sound and inquire about our British links (we have none:-)). I am wondering if any one could comment on how popular these names really are in the UK. Are they frequently found? Are the frequently found on today's children? What are popular names on todays UK babes?
If this is too weird for this forum, please accept my apology. It just occurred to me as I signed off the other night that this may be the place to have my questions answered.
Thanks!
StacyD
floridadreamvilla.co.uk
07-05-2003, 00:48
Hi Stacy
Yes, they are both popular names in the UK. I'm not sure they are terribly common childrens names but I have quite a few friends and aquaintances called both Nigel and Stewart (sometimes spelt Stuart).
'Nigel' is also the name by which UK airline staff refer to British Airways flight crew as they always seem to be called Nigel ;).
Popular names for children today in the UK might be Sophie, James, Jack, Ben, Joshua, Joe, Megan, Emily, George. I'm going off popular names in our childrens classes for ideas here :).
I have attached the top 20 names for 2002 for girls and boys. I don't think that Nigel or Stewart are in the list and are not that common for children now but quite common in adults.
Boys
1.Jack
2.Thomas
3.Joshua
4.Lewis
5.Jake
6.Callum
7.Ethan
8.Luke
9.Daniel
10.James
11.Jamie
12.Kieran
13.Nathan
14.Harry
15.Owen
16.Ryan
17.Adam
18.Brandon
19.Connor
20.Jordan
Girls
1.Chloe
2.Ellie
3.Rebecca
4.Megan
5.Jessica
6.Lucy
7.Sophie
8.Courtney
9.Grace
10.Katie
11.Lauren
12.Bethany
13.Emily
14.Hannah
15.Caitlin
16.Georgia
17.Abbie
18.Amy
19.Holly
20.Leah
floridadreamvilla.co.uk
07-05-2003, 01:01
Quite a few Irish names in there Millie - is the list just for the UK or does it include Ireland too?
Stewart or Stuart is common in Scotland.
Nigel is probably quite old fashioned nowadays - I did have a boyfriend when I was 16 called Nigel - but that was 30 years ago!!!
Don't forget the great Nigel Mansell who won Fi one year then Indy cars the following year.
Jacqui
I think the list is for the Uk - must be a trend for Irish sounding names!
quote:Originally posted by floridadreamvilla.co.uk
Quite a few Irish names in there Millie - is the list just for the UK or does it include Ireland too?
Andy & Arlene
08-05-2003, 04:04
My eldest son, who is called Shaun gets really annoyed cos he can never find anything in Florida with his name spelt this way. The American version is spelt with a 'w' as in Shawn.
Last xmas while struggling with stocking fillers to get for them, I ended up getting a mug from Universal spelt the other way with a 'w'. He was not amused.
steph_goodrum
08-05-2003, 11:36
My friends daughter (7) is called Kristy and they have never managed to find anything with her name on, there seem to be a couple of actresses in Australia (Kristy Wright used to be in neighbours) so don't know if it is Australian but in April when it was her birthday her aunt and uncle were looking in Clinton cards for her birthday card when her uncle spotted that they had a batch of mugs wrongly spelt under the name of Kirsty, so they bought the 4 different designs they had to last her a few years.:D
Well you want to try finding Catriona or Pippa or even Fiona!
Pippa they are totally flumoxed by when seeing it written and can only manager Pepper. Catriona becomes how you spell it rather than Catrina and as for Fiona! Only one that is easy is Chris! My brother is a disaster as well with Alastair, but as my mother has an Irish name Eileen that of course is usually available!
We have a Joshua which is so easy to find now, even though it was unusual when we choose it. But Darrel, forget it. Nothing to be found spelt that way:(But saying that, I'm glad we spelt it a bit different as it's a bit more unique.
I haven't yet managed to find Karl with the K or Jacqui spelt my way.
Aren't we an awkward lots of devils[}:)]
Jacqui
We can never fidn anything with Josie on for our eldest Katie on the other hand gets alsorts of named things and thinks it's Great!
Jen
Short for Jeanette and I can never find anything either!
steph_goodrum
08-05-2003, 15:14
Coincidentally our local council newsletter arrived today and it includes the top names in Medway for the last year. It looks like we're pretty much in line with the National list except for a couple of differences.
Boys
1. Jack
2. Joshua
3.Thomas
4. Harry
5. George
6. James
7. Benjamin
8. Callum
9. Luke
10. Oliver
Girls
1. Chloe
2. Emily
3. Megan
4. Sophie
5. Ellie
6. Jessica
7. Charlotte
8. Lauren
9. Katie
10. Lucy
According to the Daily Mirror, Jack has been no 1 nationally for 8 years and Chloe for 6 you'd think there'd be some originality wouldn't you?
We are beginning to think about this for our October arrival but we have the added problem of dozens of nephews and neices and all our close friends have already had children so we are really going to have to be creative to avoid any clashes.....
Looks like we may have to go down the track of obscure Scottish names/spellings:D
Will be fun
Cheers
Les
Well good luck Les. Pippa was going to be Fionnuala but Chris thought that was a bit unfair to land the girl with spelling like that! I like Isobel myself, and of course she much prefers that to Pippa! For boys they were either Callum or James so that was easy!
Do keep us informed!!!:D
steph_goodrum
08-05-2003, 19:30
Well it's quite convenient having a unisex name as you do, because you can follow tradition and name your first born after yourself......you must admit K4LGB II does have a certain ring to it.:D
Funny you should suggest that Steph as currently the bump is affectionately known as Les Junior.
Don't know if calling them Leslie is a good idea as I still get thing sent to me addressed as Miss/Ms/Mrs and I know a female called Lesley who gets mail with Mr so I don't think you can win either way!
My family has a sequence of Alexanders which is currently vacant in my generation but one of my friends had a boy last year and called him Zander so I suppose I could still get away with it if I decide to.
My newphews are called Craig, Glenn, Ryan, Michael, Andrew, Joshua and Lewis. My neices are Nicola, Hayley (after the comet) and Sarah.
If I go into close friends childrens names I could be here all day....
I'm sure we will find something suitable even though my current top choices of Zinzan (after my rugby hero), Zak or Zoe are not going down too well with Babette!
Speak Later
Les
steph_goodrum
08-05-2003, 20:44
Our daughters name came about in a similar way Les, my husband kept saying , when asked for suggestions, "I don't mind what it's called as long as it's Mick Jr", I half joking said "well if it's a girl we could call her Michelle Joanne and then we could call her Mickey-Jo for short , is that close enough, and we both decided we like the names. It was only recently she pointed out that my brother and brother in law are both Michael John so she has the feminine form of both.
My sister Les has been known to get her own back, when I was at college and she was working in Scotland she used to phone me and I commented on how I got lots of phone calls but never any post to look forward to, so she decided to write to me. When I asked her if she'd had a bad day at work she asked how I knew and I told her she'd started her letter to me with "Dear Sir or Madam" , I mean, we only shared a bedroom for 18 years you'd think she would know wouldn't you.
You just never know where you're going to find help on this forum.
We're expecting our first baby in September (hence the lack of Florida trip this year :(). and all of these lists of names are very useful.
Of course with Orlando being a derivation of Roland, should we ;) ?
I'm glad to see that names perplex people all over the world. The trend in the US is for invented names, taking surnames for first names and the ever-popular state/Western names, besides all the tried and true classics, that is.
I love the name Fiona, by the way. My 19 year old cousin is Fiona. And... that is Julia Roberts middle name.
I haven't heard Pippa in the US, but Piper is quite popular in upstate New York.
Jack is quite popular (#49) and Chloe is (#30).
Our social security administration has a very cool website if you are interested in ideas from this side of the pond, Les.
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/
Can you find things in the UK with Nigel and Stewart on them? Maybe I need to visit London again.
And Lakul, I do, too, like that our boys' names are a bit different. In all the programs we do in the town rec. center, all the teachers always remember Stewart by name, in the midst of all the Jacobs, Ethans, ****karys, Nicolas' and Daniels. (All very nice, but very popular names.)
I do have to say, that if you haven't found your name in a shop in FL you probably won't find it anywhere, in the US, as they have more "what-not" stores in FL than I have ever seen anywhere else!
Busch Gardens Williamsburg, VA has a lot of stuff with German names, I remember. Maybe Karl there (?), but that is a LONG way from FL.
SJD
steph_goodrum
09-05-2003, 02:02
Mike I wouldn't remember Roland Rat?:D
My friends daughter has just named her baby Teneal (it was in some Australian baby books) and all I can think of is The Captain and Tenille who had a hit song in around the 70's. She's only 3 weeks old and been nicknamed Tilly already , I met another baby Tilly last year so I don't know where that is from and why it is so popular all of a sudden.
Another Thomas joined the world yesterday , another friends baby.
Speaking of invented names , my mum was one of the original Wendy's of the world, when she was born, J.M. Barrie had just invented the name for the older sister in Peter Pan, it would have been a couple of years before my mum was born in the early 1930's, so I guess one of her older sisters or brother had the book.
The name came about apparently because when J M Barrie was young a friend used to come and visit him , who was nicknamed "fwiendy wendy" so he created the name Wendy from that. Another useless piece of trivia to add to the s****book.:)
We used to have trouble finding anything for Juliette until we holidayed in France and then we found hundreds of things.Peter, David, Paul and Chris are all relatively OK apart from most of the Chris things are very masculine. Seems Christine is right out of fashion though not as bad as my sister Sandra.
I collect loads of thing for Catriona and I when we are in Scotland, and Pippa is short for Philippa (which she hates with a vengeance!!) which is an old English name. Chris chose that as I had chosen Catriona's name. They are universally known at school and by their friends as Cat and Pip. OMG, I shall be like my mother in law, the only person to always refer to Chris as Christopher (which he also hates!!).
We can never find anything in Florida with Harriet on it, much to her disgust as her elder sister's name Hannah can be found everywhere:D
Andy & Arlene
09-05-2003, 03:50
Our daughter is called Stevie although her 'Sunday' name of Stephanie is on her birth certificate. So when she is older, she always has the choice of using either name if she wants.
steph_goodrum
09-05-2003, 11:21
Arlene
I don't know how old your daughter is but did she suffer from the same "identity crisis" as me when she was younger? I have always been called Steve by the family and when I started school in Singapore at the age of 4 , my mum went to a parents evening shortly after and the teachers said they couldn't work me out as they knew I wasn't a naughty child but sometimes completely ignored them and they were wondering if there was a hearing problem even, at that moment I picked up something and mum said "Steve you're not supposed to be playing with that now so I put it down, the teacher suddenly clicked and asked if I was called Steve at home and mum said "always"., so they realised when they had been telling "Stephanie" what to do I thought they were talking to another child. My first years reports all read "Steve is doing...etc" till I got used to being called Stephanie.
Wow. Steve for Stephanie. I know many, many Stephanies and never once heard one called Steve. I wonder why not. Western New Yorkers must never have picked up on that.
Hannah is soooo popular in the US and I have never ever heard a child named Harriet (which I think is beautiful). Out of the top 1000 (yes one thousand) names in the US for girls in 2001 (the last year computed yet), Hannah was number 2, and has been in the top five since 1997, and Harriet has not even been in the top 1000 since 1991, when they started sharing data. Poor girl. I was a Stacy, which was popular, but as Stacey or Stacie. And my sister, a Kelly, always had things with her name on them and I never could find things. Is Harriet popular in the UK?
My son Stewart's name is also not in the top 1000. Nigel is in the 600s.
I love Philippa. Too cute. Does she like horses? I love the name Philip for a boy, but am not terribly fond of horses and I know that is what the name means. Just curious.
SJD
Burridges
09-05-2003, 23:38
Hi Everyone,
The "name" topic goes on LOL. Well my name is Pippa too!! It's a name you don't come across very often and I too can vouch for not being able to find ANYTHING with my name printed on, my real name is Philippa and the times I've found that printed on mugs, keyrings etc (and that isn't often) it has always been spelt wrong with either too many L's or too few P's. My son is called Joseph and we find his name on things most places but my daughter is called Claudia and we haven't found that on anything yet! Our son was named after his grandfathers Joseph and John (his middle name), then our daughter we wanted something slightly unusual but not too weird. My husband's name is Steve, he has no problem at all getting things with his name on - hardly any surprise we have 6 close friends with a Steve in the family.
The Burridges
floridadreamvilla.co.uk
10-05-2003, 00:06
Me (John) and Sarah never have a problem in the US.
The children are a little harder - Isaac is not bad in some areas (jewish influence maybe?) but Freya is just impossible and most americans can't pronounce it :(. Still nice to have names that are a bit different and that we chose with feeling :).
Hi Stacy,
Thank you so much for your comments re Hannah & Harriet's names. Harriet is quite an old fashioned name and not popular at all but Wayne and I loved it. We resist the temptation to shorten it! Hannah did not seem a common name when we chose it (in 1995), but everyone else obviously liked it too as it suddenly became popular.
Darrel would have been a Hannah Louise in 1988, but being a boy he wouldn't have taken kindly to it:D. Joshua's middle name is Kai. It's a Persian word meaning king. Nice and different.
Andy & Arlene
10-05-2003, 01:29
Steph
My daughter is only 8, but when I enrolled her at playgroup, nursery then school I told all her teachers that she was known as Stevie (as I had to bring her birth certificate along which had her 'Stephanie' name).
It's funny but whenever we are in company and I sometimes call her Stephanie, people always turn and say 'I didn't know that was her real name'.
I know a few people round my area who have called their daughter's Stevie only (ie not shortened it from anything else).
I find it both easy and difficult buying things with my daughters names. My eldest is called Hayley-Jane (nearly 13 and don't we know it!!!) as you can imagine it is impossible!!! And I go completely potty whenever I get the chance to have something especially made for her!! The youngest (nearly 9 - "its 10 days to my birthday Mummy!") is Charlotte and as you can imagine I have absolutely no problems there!!!
Before they were born had they of been boys they would have been called Luke!!! Goodness knows what we would have called the second one if we had had two boys!!!! I am sure we would have come up with something!
floridadreamvilla.co.uk
10-05-2003, 13:06
Our daughter Freya always introduces herself as PARTY!!!! and more recently PARTY WIT-WOO, this does not bode well for the future[:I]
Sarah
PS Orlandobabe - I think Tilly is short for Matilda which is now quite popular.
PPS John's sister has 3 daughters,one is Tabitha (Tabby) and the youngest Katja (Katty or Kat) So yes she has Tabby Kat!
Reading about the Steve reminded me of a time hubby and I were introduced to friends of our friends. We were introduced as Viv and Jack and it was 18 months before anybody told this couple that they had the wrong names for the wrong person:D. We of course (Vivian and Jacqui) found it all very amusing when they kept referring to us wrongly and never corrected them.
Jacqui
PS My hubby's introduction to our children's friends is:
"Hello, my name is Viv and I'm a lesbian." It took me ages to work out how he had arrived at this statement. Simple really, says he - I've got a girl's name and I sleep with a woman therefore I'm a lesbian.
It could have been worse, I suppose. At least he refered to me as a woman and not a dog:D:D:D
Is Vivian a common name for men in the UK? How did his parents come up with that? I have a friend Susie, whose husband is Vicky. Really. They all call him Vic, now. But people assume it is for Victor.
I can't bring up the first page of this, but getting the Gist of it...
For our baby - before it was born, we chose Robert Lee for Boy and Charlotte Louise for a girl...........
the uncanny thing is - Robert LEIGH was my Mum's dad [ ie my grandad]'s name and Charlotte was her Mums name. I had never known this, or anything about them - they died 20 years before I was born, and were never mentioned by their names at all. How uncanny is that ?
Anyway, Robert likes his name unshortened, and lives in fear of BOB, but likes Rob if anything, and we have no problems getting anything with names on anywhere !!
Oh dear... we've got grandchildren - a Rachel (relatively easy to get stuff for) and a Zara (well nigh impossible!). My husband spent hours on the phone half asleep at 6 am when the twins were born and we were told their names saying 'Sara?' 'Lara?' 'Tara?' eventually asking how it was spelt as he had never heard of the name before and then saying to me in exasperation 'why on earth didn't they call her something easy to understand like Jane?'
Needless to say, Rachel is known as Rach and Zara is known as, well... Zara actually! :D
steph_goodrum
14-05-2003, 12:00
If they'd said Zara , the same as Princess Annes daughter he might have twigged.:)
I opted for names that wouldn't be abbreviated and although they were quite common names some years ago they are not quite so popular now, so my children do not tend to have many 'doubles' among their friends and classmates, but they are easy to get 'named' items for. Paul,John,Dean,Mark and Jade.
sleepylu
15-05-2003, 14:30
Stewart is still a well used name in scotland. Nigel is a bit more unusual these days!
For years and years and years Zara was my favorite girls name. And I knew Princess Anne named her daughter that, even though I am way over here (NY). But, alas, Zara is an arabic name meaning splendor of the east, and these days (post 9/11) the sentiment in the US would have been unfavorable to an arabic name in a non-arabic family. AND seeing as we had boys, it negated itself as an issue. :-). I think it goes lovely with Rachael.
sjd
When we were first over in the States with Camp America my name caused real problems, especially for the camp director. I think that was because he saw it written first rather than heard it. Aileen hasn't really had any problems in the States and she likes the fact that the first female serial killer caught in the states was also caused Aileen[:0]. Our son doesn't really have any problem as Nathan is quite popular, however our daughter is a different kettle of fish. Her name is Caraid and it is gaelic for friend, used informally, although we have always called her Cara (pronounced Cayra in America), but the pronunciation (when she has been bad) is Caritch.
There is a Highland tradition, though, that I thought you might like. I guess it cpmes from continuing on the male names and is much more commonly found in the 60+ age group. Basically any male name can be used for a female (usually the first born in the family) as long as ina is added on to the name (in pronounced in the same as in nine). So you get Kennethina, Williamina, Jamesina ... I have to say it does kind of sound like "we wanted a boy"
Best wishes,
Euan (More readily understood thanks to Euan McGregor and Obe Wan Kenobe!)
sammibabe
01-08-2003, 03:25
We always have a problem with "named" things for my youngest, Polly. If ever I see things where they will add a name I buy those. My other two, Bethany (popular now but I had never heard it when we chose it - my husband was reading a Stephen King book!) and Rachel (which my husband liked). As Polly is not that popular people do have a tendancy to call her Molly or Holly so then I really have to emphasise the 'P'!:D
This is an old forum, but I'm new and reading through everything so here goes-I named my daughter Celine when she was born in 1993. Everyone thinks she is named after Celine Dion, but she isn't, I just found the name in a baby name dictionary and liked it. The Celine Dion thing really irritates her; unfortunately we are Donohues so she even has the same initials as Celine Dion. And in spite of Celine Dion's popularity, I have never seen anything w/the name Celine on it, even at Disney (which also really irritates her since her brother's name is Casey and he has all kinds of name things).
My friend named her new baby "Clementine". Sounds like she is from Florida (like the fruit), but she's not.
I take that back about Celine- I was in Brussles a few yrs ago and found a tie by the designer celine w/the name all over it, I bought it but of course my husband wears it, not her.
DISNEYDIVA
25-01-2004, 18:38
I named my daughter TABITHA after the TV series Bewitched. I chose the name when i was at school and still love it (that was in the 70's) My granddaughter is called Emily, i guess my daughters way of saying now that's a proper girls name mum.;)