Baby Girl Names

JodyBPM

miss_independent wrote: »

This thread inspired me to google baby name suggestions,

From American sites; Melina (blood in faeces!), Vienetta (shah don't tell them) and Lettice. Probably pronounced Leteeece.

Lettice is actually the traditional spelling of the name that we now spell Letitia (or L'Teesha, LaTeesha etc). It's actually a really pretty name, but I'd never use it now, def been adopted by chavs.

rachbc

daisiegg wrote: »

So it's ok for other people on the thread to call people 'chavs' but not me just because my job is a teacher? For the record it doesn't change the way I treat a child (actually one of my favourite students is an absolute 'chav' with a name to match...oops sorry, 'favourite' was not perhaps the best word; you will probably tell me I shouldn't suggest that I like any students more than others) but the fact is, some people are what society calls 'chavs'. They just are. Doesn't actually make them bad people or unintelligent people (one of the 'chavvy' Madeleines I teach is at the top of the class and some of the 'posher' kids are right at the bottom, it doesn't make a jot of difference), it's just an instantly recognisable way of describing someone with certain characteristics. Believe it or not, I genuinely don't mean it in a derogatory sense. As I said, I teach a range of abilities and there are 'chavs' getting the top grades just as there are 'posh kids' failing. There are 'chavs' that I really like and are an absolute joy to have in the class and there are Sophies and Olivias that are a right pain. The fact is that the word 'chav' is widely understood to encompass a number of features, and the people I have described as 'chavs' have those features. Just the same as you might describe some people as being 'posh' or whatever other term is used for the other end of the scale.

then perhaps 'lower class' or 'working class' would be a more suitable description. Chav has, I am sure you are aware extremely derogatory connotations and is generally used as a term of contempt rather than a statement of social class

JodyBPM

daisiegg wrote: »

Also you took my quote out of context, I said I was yet to be proved wrong about Madeleine and Amber (which are about as possibly 'chavvy' as names really get in the school I teach in) - not that I was yet to be proved wrong at all! Actually there is a white girl in one of my classes with a really typical black American type of name (I won't post it for fear it would offend anyone), and contrary to all expectations she is a very quiet, well-spoken little girl whose parents are the opposite of 'chavs'. Oooh, I also teach someone who is of the 'Emilee' school of spelling traditional names in a different way - again I won't post it as it's so unusual it would be instantly recognisable but suffice to say it has more than one Z and more than one E in a name that should not have a Z or an E! - and she is the singly most 'posh' student I've ever met.

So maybe I'm proving myself wrong! and I'd be happy to concede that it's just an anomoly that the 'chavviest' (but not necessarily the least intelligent or least pretty or least nice or least likely to succeed etc etc...before anyone thinks I'm being judgemental...) girls I teach are all called Madeleine or Amber.

Got to admit, I'm quite suprised by the name Madeleine being considered chavvy! It's not a name I've heard often round here (but my children are quite young and I wonder if it fell out of popularity after Maddy McCann?), and not one I would associate with chavs. Quite a pretty traditional name to me?

meritaten

my own kids had classic Welsh names - which have become very popular since! There is usually at least one with one of my kids names in the grandkids classes!
Tho my DD wasnt impressed with one nurse who informed her that when she heard her name thought she would be an 'old lady'! (on a maternity ward!!!!!!!) but then the nurse was from the 'backside of beyond'!

ruby-roo_2

daisiegg wrote: »

So it's ok for other people on the thread to call people 'chavs' but not me just because my job is a teacher? For the record it doesn't change the way I treat a child (actually one of my favourite students is an absolute 'chav' with a name to match...oops sorry, 'favourite' was not perhaps the best word; you will probably tell me I shouldn't suggest that I like any students more than others) but the fact is, some people are what society calls 'chavs'. They just are. Doesn't actually make them bad people or unintelligent people (one of the 'chavvy' Madeleines I teach is at the top of the class and some of the 'posher' kids are right at the bottom, it doesn't make a jot of difference), it's just an instantly recognisable way of describing someone with certain characteristics. Believe it or not, I genuinely don't mean it in a derogatory sense. As I said, I teach a range of abilities and there are 'chavs' getting the top grades just as there are 'posh kids' failing. There are 'chavs' that I really like and are an absolute joy to have in the class and there are Sophies and Olivias that are a right pain. The fact is that the word 'chav' is widely understood to encompass a number of features, and the people I have described as 'chavs' have those features. Just the same as you might describe some people as being 'posh' or whatever other term is used for the other end of the scale.

I take it for the sake of this thread the names of your students have been changed. Its not beyond the realms of possibility that some of your students might read this forum and recognise you. Might make monday morning lessons a tad awkward if some of those teens realise you view them as 'chavs'. You may not mean it as a derogatory term, but the young adults you teach are hardly likely to see it as a compliment are they!

Hovel_lady

miss_independent wrote: »

This thread inspired me to google baby name suggestions,

From American sites; Melina (blood in faeces!), Vienetta (shah don't tell them) and Lettice. Probably pronounced Leteeece.

Lettice is the medieval English version of Letitia.

ruby-roo_2

daisiegg wrote: »

Also you took my quote out of context, I said I was yet to be proved wrong about Madeleine and Amber (which are about as possibly 'chavvy' as names really get in the school I teach in) - not that I was yet to be proved wrong at all

daisiegg wrote: »

I'm a teacher and it's true that you just know what a child is going to be like as soon as you see their name on the class list. Unfortunately I have yet to be proved wrong and have never yet met a Madeleine who is not bleached blonde and orange, or an Amber who is not a full-blown chav (I live in a pretty middle class area so Maddy and Amber are about as chavtastic as it gets - no Lily-Maes here...although I do have a few Lillis and they are all rather chavvy come to think of it).

Being a teacher really messes with future child naming - for example I think the name Olivia is really pretty, but the three naughtiest girls I teach this year all happen to be called it and so I'll never be able to use it if I have a daughter!

Sorry but I beg to differ about taking your quote out of context. From your original post, which I have highlighted above, you do seem to have views on kids with names other than just Madeliene or Amber. Im not meaning any of this as a dig at you its just my observations of what you wrote.

claire16c

StumpyPumpy wrote: »

I think you're reading to much into this because it happens to be your name. In my year at school we had several of each, the ones with your spelling were always known as "with all the vowels" (don't read too much into that either I know o & u aren't there)

My point wasn't that Cla(i)r(e) is unusual, weird or whatever, just that with a name that has several different spellings, people gravitate toward the one they are familiar with, sometimes without regard to how it has actually been spelt out to them. If it can happen with a very common name like Cla(i)r(e) then it is many more times likely to happen with Emilee.

I'm sorry that the name wasn't more exciting, but that is what she is called and I don't know why she didn't spot it before she travelled, I wasn't that close to her.

Though it surprises you she didn't thoroughly check, it doesn't me. I could not say hand on heart that my passport definitely has my correct date of birth on it without looking because I don't think I've ever checked. I just assume it is as it was correct on my original application 2 passports ago. It might just be me not being as meticulous as some people, but that is how I am, and probably how she was.

I just thought you meant that someone should use Emily instead of 'Emilee' so people dont make mistakes as they would never assume it was spelt that way - which makes sense. So the next bit didnt make sense to me - not because its my name, I would have thought the same if you had picked say Jane or Jayne for example.

Ive looked at my passport so many times I just cant imagine not noticing something as blatant as my own name being wrong. I mean apart from the initial time of getting it back, you would look at it when entering the number into the API, the ESTA form, form on the plane etc. Or making a photocopy of it before going away. Using it as a form of ID for some reason, a new job. Etc etc.

Not to mention if the name on your passport doesnt match the name on your flight ticket - and that can include the correct spelling if the airline is feeling fussy, you might not be getting on the plane in the first place!

Anyway, the main point, is that Emiliee is definitely a recipe for disaster :rotfl:

raven83

At the end of the day everyone has different tastes and i say each to their own, it would be a boring world if everyone was called claire or laura or sarah etc, though i do have to say i hate the way some of these names are spelt like jorja, loocee, leigh-an etc and how lots of names are double barrelled with may, to me that is chavy and as said before, looks like parents cannot spell properly.

claire16c

I always think of Madeleine as a fairly 'posh' name.