Pretentious Baby Names (3 Viewers)

……‘My mother refused to talk to me for two days after we named our son’​

My youngest son is named Indiana. Yes, as in Jones. My husband is Welsh and he wanted a name that was indicative of “an intrepid Welshman”. We were watching an Indiana Jones film with our other two children.

My husband turned to our son Finn, who was two, and said: “What do you think about the name Indiana?” And Finn said: “Yeah!” And that was it. Indiana loves his name. But my mother was horrified and said, “You can’t possibly call a child Indiana!” and refused to talk to me for two days. She definitely got over it, and he’s the apple of her eye. Our son is now 19, and has lived up to his namesake. We still haven’t met a single other Indiana. Sabina Regan, 58, London

‘The only other Cloudesleys are 19th-century academics and cricketers’​

My son, born this year, is named Cloudesley. It seems to be a very unusual first name indeed, especially in this century. The main point of inspiration for the name was Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, a naval officer who lived from 1650-1707. He is actually most famous for wrecking his fleet in the Scilly Isles due to a miscalculation of longitude at sea – but we leave this bit out when we explain the name. I trained as a naval historian and was, for a time, curator of maritime history at the National Maritime Museum.


My wife and I always found the name to be a delight, totally at odds with the historical figure and his fate. It conjures up atmospheric imagery. The only other people with the first name Cloudesley that we can find information about seem to be 19th-century academics and cricketers.

For many years, “Cloudesley” was how we would refer to our hypothetical future child: “one day, when we have a Cloudesley …” When our son was born, we knew it had to be Cloudesley. Curiously, two months before he was born, I saw a segment about the rarity of the name on QI: I nearly wrote in to tell them that the world now has another Cloudesley in it! Joshua Newton, London…….
 

……‘My mother refused to talk to me for two days after we named our son’​

My youngest son is named Indiana. Yes, as in Jones. My husband is Welsh and he wanted a name that was indicative of “an intrepid Welshman”. We were watching an Indiana Jones film with our other two children.

My husband turned to our son Finn, who was two, and said: “What do you think about the name Indiana?” And Finn said: “Yeah!” And that was it. Indiana loves his name. But my mother was horrified and said, “You can’t possibly call a child Indiana!” and refused to talk to me for two days. She definitely got over it, and he’s the apple of her eye. Our son is now 19, and has lived up to his namesake. We still haven’t met a single other Indiana. Sabina Regan, 58, London

‘The only other Cloudesleys are 19th-century academics and cricketers’​

My son, born this year, is named Cloudesley. It seems to be a very unusual first name indeed, especially in this century. The main point of inspiration for the name was Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, a naval officer who lived from 1650-1707. He is actually most famous for wrecking his fleet in the Scilly Isles due to a miscalculation of longitude at sea – but we leave this bit out when we explain the name. I trained as a naval historian and was, for a time, curator of maritime history at the National Maritime Museum.


My wife and I always found the name to be a delight, totally at odds with the historical figure and his fate. It conjures up atmospheric imagery. The only other people with the first name Cloudesley that we can find information about seem to be 19th-century academics and cricketers.

For many years, “Cloudesley” was how we would refer to our hypothetical future child: “one day, when we have a Cloudesley …” When our son was born, we knew it had to be Cloudesley. Curiously, two months before he was born, I saw a segment about the rarity of the name on QI: I nearly wrote in to tell them that the world now has another Cloudesley in it! Joshua Newton, London…….
Hey, the name we used for our second child is in that article!

It's not Indiana though (missed a trick there) or Cloudesley (which is insane; that kid is going to spend most of their life being asked 'how do you spell that' and it being misspelled anyway).
 
Hey, the name we used for our second child is in that article!

It's not Indiana though (missed a trick there) or Cloudesley (which is insane; that kid is going to spend most of their life being asked 'how do you spell that' and it being misspelled anyway).
well, my name is simple. Ian, and i have gone my whole life with people asking me how to spell it, and it being mispronounced.
i would say 8 out of 10 people either mispronounce my name or spell it wrong.
 

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