Susie O'Brien on baby names - Adelaide Advertiser

[PumpkinZulu]

^ Apparently it's an Egyptian custom to give your child a 'meaningful' name even if it's not a traditional or typical 'name' word. The parents chose the name 'Facebook' to honour social media's role in the recent protests and political saga that we've all seen unfold on the news.

Oh god I missed you!!!

[Glamourcide]

Nawww! *blushes* You know I'm still lurking lol! Love ya
x

[ezymay]

The only Erin I have personally known was male, and definitely never slept with the football team.
I read it as a random example of how a name can have negative associations for people.

Really a male Erin??? Unusual... I've not heard of a man being called Erin. The name means Irish goddess of peace and the old name for Ireland

Certainly name associations can be very strong but like Glam said i think once a child has that name and ppl get to know the child they then become the association.

[butterfly_warrior]

Marlene, Can I please get to meet your Mitchell? Please?

Funnily enough, every Samuel (or Sam) I ever taught was a pain in the bum. Fortunately there were few enough of them that they didn't completely obliterate the nice associations the name has for me and DH. But I've gone into those reasons many times before, I won't do it again.

And for what it's worth, to me, Erin is a very quiet, very intelligent and absolutely lovely young woman. I'd be very happy if my boy brought home an Erin like that when he's older!

BW

[Pandora]

Ezymay - well, he does have an Irish surname? Hmm

[mrsmac]

Marlene- I ahve only taught lovely Mitchells!!!
When I was pg with Riley I wanted to call him Harry or Max cause they were two gorgeous boys in my class at the time LOL

[Tiff+2]

I agree with most of this, but wow, this lady is seemingly VERY judgmental! Of the Erin's I know, what she wrote couldn't have been further from the truth. If I was an Erin I would be completely offended she even wrote that and it is a great thing she's not my sister, I doubt I'd speak to her about anything after an such an outburst.

As for the American state refernce, I think she needs to have a look at how a lot of them got their names!!! I think she may find they came from people... I could be wrong though??!

My family is very opinionated about my children's names. I didn't want anything completely out there, but on the same token I didn't want "Jane" to be called out in class and 3 other girls answer. I do believe a name should be decently, so I did my best to keep my childrens names simple to read, spell and pronouce (which I wasn't 100% successful in doing, but if you say it as it reads, not as you think it says, you'd get it right!).

I wouldn't care to read any further articles of Susie's!

[mrsmac]

The funny thing is some names you can have 2 or 3 in a class and they aren't that common! This year we had 2 Jaspers start kindy - I have never thought that a common name! We also have 2 Poppy's- again not what I would consider common. Last year I had 2 Luca/Luka s in my class.

[butterfly_warrior]

Annalise, Melanie, Jessica. I'm completely blanking on the boys names I've had multiples of, but I have NEVER taught a Jane.

[Glamourcide]

The funny thing is some names you can have 2 or 3 in a class and they aren't that common! This year we had 2 Jaspers start kindy - I have never thought that a common name! We also have 2 Poppy's- again not what I would consider common. Last year I had 2 Luca/Luka s in my class.

I figure it's a generational thing. When I was growing up, there were always plenty of Angelas, Rebeccas, Jessicas and Karlys. Nowadays they're practically unheard of, and 'uncommon' names like Poppy, Cooper and Bailey are a dime a dozen!

[Cranky Kitten]

My own name was a little unusual, a very old-fashioned Irish name that is a feminine version of Brian - I found the problems associated with "different" names or those with tricky spellings/pronunciation is that you will never get called by your actual name. It would almost immediately be shortened, unfortunately for me to a type of very tasty soft cheese.

Ultimately I changed it by deed poll to reverse the positions of my first name and second name (much shorter, easier to pronounce) because I was sick of having my name shortened or mispronounced every time I met someone.

So now when it comes to naming my children, I've leant towards quite traditional names, although DD's father insisted on varying the spelling slightly on Rachelle (pronounced Rachel). I think it stems from not wanting to put them through the constant headache of having to spell their name out or correct people every time their name is mispronounced.

[Tiff+2]

The funny thing is some names you can have 2 or 3 in a class and they aren't that common! This year we had 2 Jaspers start kindy - I have never thought that a common name! We also have 2 Poppy's- again not what I would consider common. Last year I had 2 Luca/Luka s in my class.

I do agree with this to an extent. Although not a teacher I use to work in a child care centre and had a few names come throught that I thought were a little different, then there'd be more... And yes I know young girls names Jane, Betty, Elsy, Esme, but not a lot. Thankfully I live in a small town... There are about a 1000 Ava's around, but haven't yet come across a Tiera or a Hadley! Not in Music classes, preschool, kindergym, swimming or mother's group.... So far so good!

[Glamourcide]

The only Erin I have personally known was male...

I was just thinking about this earlier (I believe I was peeing at the time lol, needed something else to occupy my brain!) and I wondered, maybe 'Erin' was a creative version of 'Aaron'? Just a thought, as I agree with the others who have referenced this - all the Erins I know are women

[mrsmac]

No its not, its the old name for Ireland, its very traditional actually!!!!

Tiff+2 - I taught a Hadley about 6 years ago in Yr 5, it was a boy though.

[Tiff+2]

Yeah Mrsmac, I have deinfately heard of male Hadley's and I have no doubt there are plenty of Hadley's out there, both male and female, but in this town I am yet to meet one. I got the name out of a baby name book, this is just getting back to what I said earlier, I like less used names, not anything out there.

[mrsmac]

I know thats what you meant, I was trying to say how uncommon it was, I see 100s of children as I have been teaching for a long time and that is the ONLY Hadley I have met.