Don't Have a Ginger baby or give your child a common name

Nicki

I once met a woman (whilst I was helping run a toddler group) who had called her son Iago, and rather snootily spelled it out for me as I was registering them and informed me "it was from Shakespeare you know", obviously assuming that being a mere mother and volunteer helper I would not know this. I guess what I knew and she perhaps didn't was that Iago is a sociopathic murderer in Othello, and that calling your child after him is on a par with naming your child for Fred West or Peter Sutcliffe

I also have a cousin, who came out with a similar line about her daughter Elektra, "from the greek myth, don't you know". Again calling your child after someone who was big on incest and matricide, and being proud of that, is something of an epic fail IMO.

adouglasmhor

kingfisherblue wrote: »

There was a girl in Grange Hill called Precious Matthews - now I'm showing my age :rotfl:

I must be older than you, my Precious won his last commonwealth medal in 1978.

adouglasmhor

Nicki wrote: »

I once met a woman (whilst I was helping run a toddler group) who had called her son Iago, and rather snootily spelled it out for me as I was registering them and informed me "it was from Shakespeare you know", obviously assuming that being a mere mother and volunteer helper I would not know this. I guess what I knew and she perhaps didn't was that Iago is a sociopathic murderer in Othello, and that calling your child after him is on a par with naming your child for Fred West or Peter Sutcliffe

I also have a cousin, who came out with a similar line about her daughter Elektra, "from the greek myth, don't you know". Again calling your child after someone who was big on incest and matricide, and being proud of that, is something of an epic fail IMO.

Iago is a form of James, usualy Spanish, Sant'Iago de Compostela (St james the great) patron Saint of Spain was an apostle and therefore over a thousand years before Shakespeare.

Janepig

Nicki wrote: »

I once met a woman (whilst I was helping run a toddler group) who had called her son Iago, and rather snootily spelled it out for me as I was registering them and informed me "it was from Shakespeare you know", obviously assuming that being a mere mother and volunteer helper I would not know this. I guess what I knew and she perhaps didn't was that Iago is a sociopathic murderer in Othello, and that calling your child after him is on a par with naming your child for Fred West or Peter Sutcliffe

I also have a cousin, who came out with a similar line about her daughter Elektra, "from the greek myth, don't you know". Again calling your child after someone who was big on incest and matricide, and being proud of that, is something of an epic fail IMO.

More recently, Iago was the name of the horrible bird that was Jafar's sidekick in Aladdin (the Disney version). Slightly more low brow than Shakespeare. Or St Iago. :D

Jx

Nicki

Yes but the mother specifically made a point of saying her child was named after the Shakespearian character

I believe that Adolf was once quite popular too by the way, so the fact that st Iago predates the very unsaintly Iago in Othello isn't really relevant.