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HelpRe: What Names Do You Consider Low Class?
in reply to a message by mirfak
I think you've really got something here, but I honestly believe that, more than anything, people just like the names they choose. People from working class communities are the least inhibited when it comes to name choices, imho, and there's often a stronger sense of community than there is amongst other classes and they know that no one's going to judge them. In fact, the only people who are going to judge them, are delightful individuals such as Puck here, and those people are the exact people they want to metaphorically stick their middle finger up at and they want to rebel against. They don't want the middle and upper classes' approval and they're quite happy to rebel against them because of the way they've been oppressed by them in the past. The working classes are kept apart from the upper and middle classes and, you know what, they're gonna embrace it.
(I was very clearly raised in an anti-Thatcher family.)
http://www.behindthename.com/pnl/116467
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Replies
You're equally delightful if I may say.
*gags*
*gags*
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:)
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Yeah. You know we "just like" names for some reasons, though - reasons we don't necessarily consciously think about.
I'm assuming that the connotations and oblique associations with things like Armani, Lexus, Chablis, or Diamond are roughly the same for people who use them as names, as they are for me. (I could be wrong! I'm not intending to speak for anyone, just to offer a more reasonable guess about it than Puck has.) Anyway if I set aside the "what, as a person's name?" reaction, and my annoyance at being programmed to recognize brand names and want costly things ... they can give me a magazine-ad type atmosphere-vibe that isn't tacky or materialistic, of serenity and dignity and pleasure and privilege, that is about as cliche and dreamy as that evoked by a name like Sebastian or Genevieve. lol
Rebellion, I dunno ... It seems to me that it ought to be similar to, say, how Meadow is to hipsters. I agree that people who use a name, really honestly do think it's cool. They might also feel like it'd be uncool to use a name like Emily. But maybe not. More of a "if you don't see why it's cool, you're just a clueless tool I guess" attitude, rather than a "See how I flip the bird to your judgment" kind of attitude. Like, maybe people aren't defiant about whether someone thinks the name is tacky - they really just don't know or they don't care, or they figure that someone who'd judge them negatively for their name is too shallow and low-class to worry about.
Again, I don't know ... just going on an assumption that other people are more like me than unlike me.
I'm assuming that the connotations and oblique associations with things like Armani, Lexus, Chablis, or Diamond are roughly the same for people who use them as names, as they are for me. (I could be wrong! I'm not intending to speak for anyone, just to offer a more reasonable guess about it than Puck has.) Anyway if I set aside the "what, as a person's name?" reaction, and my annoyance at being programmed to recognize brand names and want costly things ... they can give me a magazine-ad type atmosphere-vibe that isn't tacky or materialistic, of serenity and dignity and pleasure and privilege, that is about as cliche and dreamy as that evoked by a name like Sebastian or Genevieve. lol
Rebellion, I dunno ... It seems to me that it ought to be similar to, say, how Meadow is to hipsters. I agree that people who use a name, really honestly do think it's cool. They might also feel like it'd be uncool to use a name like Emily. But maybe not. More of a "if you don't see why it's cool, you're just a clueless tool I guess" attitude, rather than a "See how I flip the bird to your judgment" kind of attitude. Like, maybe people aren't defiant about whether someone thinks the name is tacky - they really just don't know or they don't care, or they figure that someone who'd judge them negatively for their name is too shallow and low-class to worry about.
Again, I don't know ... just going on an assumption that other people are more like me than unlike me.
This message was edited 7/29/2015, 5:16 PM
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Sebastien is having some popularity where I live, hyphenated, even. Jean-Sebastien, Leo-Sebastien, Olivier-Sebastien, which is quite a lot of name to yell at a kid venturing too near the street.
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Meadow is not just pretty to hipsters... wait, am I a hipster? Pretty sure I can't afford to be hip. lol.
I do agree with this though. I don't think the average person is naming their children out of defiance, but rather out of a personal perception of what is valuable, classy or just sounds swell.
I think it's safe to remember that most people just don't do research on names like we namenerds do. They find something that appeals for one reason or another and roll with it.
I do agree with this though. I don't think the average person is naming their children out of defiance, but rather out of a personal perception of what is valuable, classy or just sounds swell.
I think it's safe to remember that most people just don't do research on names like we namenerds do. They find something that appeals for one reason or another and roll with it.
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Well, hipster for lack of a better word. My understanding of what a hipster is, is distorted because I'm in the wrong generation. I mean, the contemporary equivalent of co-opted hippie culture ... Meadow is like Summer circa 1970, or like River circa 1990 ... I dunno. Nature names are hip and Meadow is just about the most over-the-top pastoral image, especially as a name for a city dweller. I don't mean hipster in an insulting way at all.
It's interesting that people "rolling with it" is still resulting in diversification, though - at least some demographics do seem to be consistently looking up names on the internet, and so they kinda do collect info about them more than they used to. Or maybe it's not that ... but where else are they getting new ideas. It's all I can think of.
It's interesting that people "rolling with it" is still resulting in diversification, though - at least some demographics do seem to be consistently looking up names on the internet, and so they kinda do collect info about them more than they used to. Or maybe it's not that ... but where else are they getting new ideas. It's all I can think of.
This message was edited 7/30/2015, 11:47 AM
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I really like the way you're looking at this and analysing it, haha. It fascinates me the way all of these different elements interplay and affect the choices people make. I guess we can analyse it until the cows come home, but we don't really have a definitive answer I agree that it's often that people don't know or don't care, though, and honestly I just think, "more power to them". I'm certainly not going to make judgements.
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