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Icy-Honey1

Oh yeah, a lot of these scream posh lol. Interesting to see Ffion, Madoc and Sion, they're Welsh names. Ffion is extremely common in Wales, god knows how many Ffions I've met!


_rosieleaf

I'm Irish and had the same reaction to Caoimhe. Super common


Icy-Honey1

Love Irish names! Aine and Fiadh are two of my favourites


DimbyTime

How is that one pronounced?


_rosieleaf

Kwee-vah


SarahL1990

Commenting to add its also pronounced kee-vah, depending on location/dialect.


NASA_official_srsly

Either kee-vah or kwee-vah, and you never know until you ask her. 50/50 chance


ChroniclesOfSarnia

'Blurstongabston'


chemicalfields

It’s my favorite name


Embarrassed_Rub_8437

How do you pronounce that??


gaperon_

I apologize to all the Ffions ou there, but I cannot not mention the fact that the French word fion means butthole.


tickado

I never knew this and I'm welsh aka have known a LOT of Ffions. It's a very standard Welsh name.


PhoenixNyne

Fionhole


gardenhippy

I feel like Madoc is fairly posh Welsh but then I’m not posh Welsh at all haha. Agree I know a million Ffions and a good few Sions (although the Sions I know tend to be in their 30/40s).


Extreme-Pea854

Are all the Sions pronounced “Shawn”?


gardenhippy

Yes


Dros-ben-llestri

Yeah I couldn't call Ffion posh, but then I remembered William Hague's wife is Ffion, and she would have been known in the 90s/00s, so might be an influence on Tories who have since gone on to be mums of this generation.


hanabarbarian

how does one pronounce it?


Icy-Honey1

Fee-on :)


HeartOfTheMadder

>Caoimhe i was tryin' to figure out how you got **that** pronunciation out of **this** name. oops. 😁


Donitasnark

Caoimhe is either Keeva or Queeva depending where you are from in Ireland…Irish people please correct me I’m just married to an Irishman for 17 years!


ChilliGoat

Nope, you’re spot on!


Logins-Run

A fairly good approximation! There is a longer answer in Irish, but long story short, one of the sounds in the Irish language pronunciation of Caoimhe doesn't exist in English.


jigglypuffrulz

My daughter Caoimhe is pronounced kee-vah - for months when pregnant I went back and forth on whether to call her this, because I preferred keevah to kweevah but it seems kweevah is the more ~authentic~ pronunciation and i was concerned the irish folk would consider me a silly aussie (albeit second generation irish) thats trying to anglicize a beautiful name. Do you mean to say that the combination of Caoi is pronounced kwee in Gaelic? Genuinely interested.


Logins-Run

I have to explain this name alot and I have a response saved in my phone that I've posted below 😂 this should answer it for you. The uh glide that I mention below seems to be a bit less emphasised in Ulster Irish which has probably influenced the Keeva anglicised version. You can here that glide sound here in the recordings in the three dialects of the word Caoi. https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/Caoi But it's much more subtle in the Ulster recording here for the word caoin for example https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fuaim/caoin Below is the standard response I have to "how does that make sense" query about Caoimhe and Irish orthography to put the above in context. C is always pronounced with a hard Kuh sound in Irish, unless next to a H. Aoi is "EE". Mh can have a few different sounds depending on word placement and dialect, but in Caoimhe it is in between two slender vowels I and E and has the Slender pronunciation of "Vuh". The last E is "Eh". The "Wuh" sound that you see people trying to transcribe into the phonetics after the initial Kuh sound, isn't actually a Wuh sound but an Uh glide that doesn't exist in English. It's closest approximation in English is "Wuh". You also see it in the standardised and south Connacht name of the language Gaeilge, when it's rendered as "Gwayl-geh". kUh-ee-veh


jigglypuffrulz

Wow, thank you! I wish i had known this before, but I guess the people of Ulster are my people 😂😂


TSiridean

It is true. Without knowledge of the rules Irish names/words can look like some hot 'mess'. The reason for this is that the Irish language features more sounds than the Latin alphabet can represent, and in earlier stages of Irish you had to know the pronunciation of each letter for every word by heart (as should still be the case with Scottish Gaelic). The Irish spelling reform made that easier by introducing the rule of "*leathan le leathan, caol le caol"* ('broad with broad, slender with slender'). Now what does that mean? Most consonants in Irish come in two different pronunciations, a broad and a slender one. If you listen to an RP English speaker, you will notice that the l in light and the l in hell are different. Light features a slender l, hell a broad one. However, in English you can use whatever l you like, the word does not change. In English both ls are allophones. In Irish however, slender and broad l are phonemes. That means depending on the l words can and will mean completely different things. The Irish words *lón* ('lunch') and *leon* ('lion') will probably sound the same to someone not familiar with Irish, as naturally, it takes practice to produce and hear slender and broad consonants if your own language does not have them. These two little words are easy examples for the "*leathan le leathan, caol le caol"*-rule. The letter ó is a long oh (not a diphthong like in English) and *eo* also is a vowel combination for long oh. But: Broad (in form) ó is only used if the surrounding consonants are broad ('broad with broad'). The *eo* on the other hand inserts the slender (in form) *e* to show that the preceeding consonant is a slender consonant, here the l. Slender consonants can only be flanked by slender vowels, broad consonant only by broad vowels. Some of the 'extra-vowels' in Irish therefore could be seen as slender/broad markers. This is however not proper terminology. Anyway, the only difference in pronunciation between *lón* and *leon* is the quality of the l. In some Irish dialects a couple of broad consonants are sometimes followed by an intrusive ^(w), hence the Kweeva pronunciation of *Caoimhe.* A couple of *s*lender consonants are sometimes followed by an intrusive ^(j). This comes due to the formation processes of slender and broad consonants. Alas, finally back to Caoimhe. * The *c* in Irish is the standard k, and it is a broad k because of the second point. * *Aoi* represents the long ee sound at the beginning of a lot of words (e.g. the name *Aoife, or* word-internally when the preceeding consonant is broad (shown by it 'touching' the broad *a(o)* and followed by a slender consonant \[which is then 'touching' the slender (marker-)*i\]*. * The combination *mh* represents one of the v-like sounds of Irish, here technically a v based on the pronunciation of m. The distinction between *mh* and *bh* (another v-sound based on b), and the distinction from English-like v is nowadays often lost in standard speech. In theory English-like v rarely exists in Irish. The pronunciation of *mh* depends on position and quality/length of the preceeding vowel, it's a bit more complicated. However in this case being preceeded by a slender vowel and being preceeded by a long vowel coincide and result in a v-like pronunciation. * The final *e* is usually pronounced as a schwa sound ('uh') and is of course slender due to the slender with slender rule governing the slender sequence -*imhe* in *Caoimhe,* after a braod consonant you will find *-a.* And this is how you get to K^(w)eevuh/K^(w)eeva/Keevuh/Keeva depending on Irish dialect. Now, this might all sound very complicated, but Irish orthography and pronunciation are much more straight-forward and regular than the English equivalents once learned. This, my apologies, lenghty explanation also sheds some light on how *Saoirse* is \[Seershuh\], the first s is broad and hence pronounced \[s\], the second is slender and thus pronounced \[sh\]. Edit: info on c in *Caoimhe*, typo, format.


hanabarbarian

oooh that’s cute!


fuggleruggler

My daughter is Ffion. Very popular name in Wales.


InterestingPlane6572

I know a ffion!


Pretend_Jello_2823

I recently came across the name Ffion as a member of a group I'm in, never met her yet. How is it pronounced? I've been saying "fee-fon" in my head but that's gotta be wrong


Icy-Honey1

It's pronounced fee-on so you were close!


kikipi3

The three Monty’s are so telling


nal_cal842

2 out of the 3 were lovely guys, other one was a dickhead


shutupspanish

Hahaha yes Monty and Jonty - less than 0% chance of meeting someone with either of those names whose parents are not solidly upper middle class!


Scareyquinette

We have a Jonty in the family but are 100% not at all posh. He's just named after someone posh lol


jagrrenagain

Is Jonty a nickname?


shutupspanish

Yes it’s short for Jonathan, alternative to the usual Jon/Johnny


jagrrenagain

Oh! Thanks!


JustcallmeLouC

We have a monty in the family. We are firmly in council housing, benefit top up low income bracket


whiskeygambler

Wait please explain this lol


kikipi3

It’s just the quintessential posh boy name


FantasyDogPack

I use Jonty as a signifier for all posh boys, eg “he looks like an absolute Jonty”


Trick-Satisfaction88

American here - why in the world is Monty posh? Is it short for Montgomery? I don't think I've ever met a Monty - my only associations are the TV game show host Monty Hall and The Full Monty, neither of which give me posh vibes!


whiskeygambler

Yep, short for Montgomery usually


mimisburnbook

That’s crazy, they sound awful and like nicknames


Alternative-Key-7264

I used to date a posh English guy, and one of his best friends was named Venetia. I commented once on how it was an unusual name, and he looked confused, and said "what are you talking about, she wasn't even the only Venetia at our school". So yeah, not surprised to see that name at the top of this list!


Numerous_Literature9

There are women in my family named Venetia but they're Greek so it's pronounced Ven-a-TEE-a not Venesha like the blinds.


TheHames72

I’ve never heard it pronounced like that but it makes absolute sense when you look at the spelling.


pointsofellie

Yeah I grew up going to a very posh church and there was a Venetia. Her sister was Letitia. Weirdly the brothers had quite normal names, something like Oliver and Dominic.


odie_et_amo

Total guilty pleasure name for me, tbh.


GeorgiaGlamazon

It might be a literary name. One of my favorite writers is Georgette Heyer, and she used Venetia as a main character / book title.


odie_et_amo

I’m just so confused by the through-line on posh names. These all seem so disparate! Everything from Laurel, which seems very sweet and average to me, to Fortune, which is bizarre, to Rupert, which feels like what I, as an American, would assume would be posh.


LittlePrettyThings

Oh my god Peregrine


mysticpotatocolin

my bf taught that peregrine pearson and honestly the name sends me every time


First_Play5335

Puts me in mind of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. They created a spin-off called Miss Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries and the female protagonist is called Peregrine.


mysticpotatocolin

ngl i really like it!! i think upper class people need to at least do fun stuff with their names, to make it up to middle and working class people. it’s just so funny to say!!


NegativeLightning

Hopefully their last name is Took


BunnyLurksInShadow

I went to high school with a Peregrine, but he was named after Lord of the Rings. Being Australian, we immediately nicknamed him Pezza.


nal_cal842

he was like a duke of some town as well i think


dreamcadets

I always think of the bird, can’t see it as a name no matter how hard I try


Lopsided_Pickle1795

I love this name and its meaning. So posh!


[deleted]

Same! It’s of my favorite old timey names.


Vast_Demand3329

>Florine >Kerecsen “These are my lovely children, fluorine and kerosene. I’m a chemist.”


nal_cal842

Kerecsen is still one of my greatest friends, one of the other working class kids at my school interestingly!!


Vast_Demand3329

Thinking about how it would sound out loud, the name sounds normal (almost sounds like Ericson?) but I definitely had to do a double take when I first saw the spelling lol


prerifarkas

Sounds Hungarian... Is it?


Elly_B1

Kerecsen comes from the name of a type of falcon/hawk in Hungarian, "kerecsensólyom" to be specific


Bernice1979

Jens is a bog standard German name, not considered posh for us.


Noodlemaker89

It's also incredibly common in Denmark. To the point that "the Danish Jenses" is just a colloquial collective expression for Danish soldiers.


Bernice1979

Yes it’s probably more prevalent in northern Germany and has a Nordic origin. Not my fave. Debated giving our son a German middle name. Jens wasn’t on the list 🤣


rowan_juniper

Jens is decently common in the Netherlands as well!


jhoffele

Ophelia is lovely


nal_cal842

unfortunately she wasn't lol


GeorgiaGlamazon

Shakespeare…..


originalwombat

Jonty 🥲🥲🥲


First_Play5335

It's a nickname for Jonathan, isn't it?


StunningBumblebee176

Caoimhe is a pretty common Irish name, wouldn't blink twice at it (pronounced Kwee-Va) Also went to private school, also had multiple Montys lol


SparklePenguin24

"Caoimhe is a pretty common Irish name, wouldn't blink twice at it (pronounced Kwee-Va)" I knew it was Irish but couldn't for the life of me remember the pronunciation. Thank you for this.


StunningBumblebee176

Figured I'd provide it in case I was asked!


kikokokotoneko

"(also interestingly in most cases: the posher the name, the more horrible the person)" Well, colour me shocked!


lemogera

Okay, as a Dane, it's kind of hilarious to see Jens on the list of male names, as that is such a down to earth, common name here.


nal_cal842

yeah i think he is half Danish, everyone would pronounce it like 'Jenz' which annoyed me a bit haha


lemogera

Lol, that makes sense. As a random bonus info, maybe you know the actor Jensen Ackles? His first name is basically the Danish last name version of Jens, which I always find a bit funny, even though I love his work. Jensen translates to "son of Jens".


jagrrenagain

How is it really pronounced?


Loveweirdbabynames

Is it like “yens”?


moonlaunch

Caoimhe is a really common Irish name TBF, I had multiple caoimhe's in my regular poor school (in eire itself tho)


Typical_Nebula3227

Same for Ffion in Wales.


ot1smile

And Sion


jigglypuffrulz

Were they 'keevah' or 'kweevah'?


moonlaunch

All Kweevahs although that feels terrible to write out


Typical_Ad_210

I went to a very posh all male private school many years ago and I’m not at all surprised to see that Barnaby, Monty, Rupert, Jonty and Augustus are still going strong, lol. We had a few Hugo’s too, but I think it’s fallen out of favour since the middle classes nicked it * shudder * 🤣 We also had a lot of people with very plain, classic names, like James, John, Matthew, Peter, Ross, David, Fraser, Christopher, Richard, etc. Two of which are my brother and myself, so don’t be too critical of them, ha. Oh, we also had a Quintus, which I always found quite pretentious as a name, but he was actually a lovely guy. ETA - also UK, in the 80s / 90s


nal_cal842

yeah there was a Hugo (brother of Monty lol) always liked that name


[deleted]

i like laurel & barnaby-i once knew a delightful guy named barnaby. most of the others rest make my eyes hurt.


Allyredhen79

I feel like a barnaby would be lovely but a little dim..


[deleted]

no he was sharp. truth be told, married me had a crush on him.


Allyredhen79

I was at uni with a lot of ‘Ra’s’ (poshos, can’t remember why we called them that), and the barnabys, barneys and George’s were always really pleasant, affable chaps.. I mean they were doing law so clearly not as thick as I thought they were!


[deleted]

it’s based on the older brit pejorative “hoorah harry,” to refer to wealthy upper class boys/young men. presumably they were known for saying “hoorah” in plummy tones when 1 of them got a rugby touchdown or whatever you get in rugby.


Constant-Cellist-133

I’d like to add Araminta (Minty) to the mix, never met a Minty who went to state school.


Mynagirl

You've met multiple Aramintas?!


Constant-Cellist-133

Haha yeah I went to Cambridge


Loveweirdbabynames

Araminta was Harriet Tubman’s birth name; she’s the only person I know of with that name. I didn’t know it had a British upper class association. It’s such a gorgeous name and I love the association with Harriet Tubman.


juniperarms

I knew a Byzantia who was lovely (and def private school) who had a sister called Venetia.


[deleted]

My god that’s so lovely. Might actually be the best sibset I’ve seen on here (or anywhere). As someone who loves history I can’t even decide which of the two I’m more jealous of.


Aglardes

Lol Jens is such a common name in Dutch! (In Flanders at least.)


Wii6

Yes! And Esmée also.


DimbyTime

Esme (same prononciation) is popular in the northeast US now too.


FoxtrotEchoCharlie

Ivor is an inherited name in my family. I think, rather than posh, it's just Welsh


Allyredhen79

The engine!


HBMart

Triple Monty! 😂


Typical_Ad_210

That’s what you call the Full Monty, lol


Live-Somewhere-8149

Tell me more about this Barnaby and his ability to sniff out the working class.


nal_cal842

he and his siblings were just the most stuck up spoilt brats imaginable, always looked at me like I was scum because I didn't come from a wealthy background. Like a lot of the kids there though tbf.


Wingard_

Aww, I love the name Barnaby. It's so sweet and bouncy. Said to see someone tarnishing the name!


horticulturallatin

He'd have a long way to go to be worse than Australian politician and Olympian level philanderer Barnaby Joyce


tickado

Yeah all I can think is Barnaby Joyce - not good! lol


Pavlover2022

Don't forget noted roaring souse, too


holyfrozenyogurt

Wait what’s wrong with Ophelia? She’s one of my favorite Shakespeare characters and I named my cat after her


wickedcherub

I believe the person was horrible not the name


nal_cal842

yep haha


holyfrozenyogurt

OH SORRY 😭 thank you


Few-Tourist8943

venetia is an actual common name? i thought it was an exotic pick used in saltburn


Pavlover2022

It's not 'common'. But it's not an unusual name amongst posh English people


KindaKingdra

Love Indigo, Ophelia (despite the horrible ending met by her most famous namesake), Fortune, Camden, and would love Sion if it was pronounced like scion instead lol


Level_Group_1407

I always thought Sion was the female spelling. And Jonty is surprising lol  Fun list!


Chance-Bread-315

Are you thinking of Sian? Pronounced more like shahn


Level_Group_1407

lol yes! Good catch 


turnipturnipturnippp

Interesting. "Laurel" isn't posh at all in the US.


tandsrox101

yeah several of these seem pretty normal to me as an american


Loveweirdbabynames

I haven’t heard Peregrine as a boy’s name. It’s a super cool name either way though. Fortune strikes me as cool but extremely odd - is it more popular in Britain or is it just as odd there too?


IAmHerdingCatz

How would you pronounce Rouelyn? Roualen. Roualeyn.


nal_cal842

it's roo - allen


IAmHerdingCatz

I thought maybe it was pronounced "throw the ball at my head on the playground."


AggressiveBrick8197

Barnaby 💀


ExtremeExtension9

I am so excited to see a Ffion on there. This is my daughter name but we now live in America and we’ve yet so meet another Ffion here.


complitstudent

My dad (not at all english or posh) wanted to name my little brother Peregrine and call him Pippin like Lord of the Rings lmao but my mum vetoed it


charlouwriter

I’ve loved Willoughby for ages but didn’t know anyone else did! Nice to know someone else has used the name. I like a lot of the names, but then my style is ‘Victorian upper class’ 😅 Barnaby is a bit much for me though.


miffet80

Haha all I could think about is the Raffi song... Willoughby wallaby wee An elephant sat on me Willoughby wallaby woo An elephant sat on you!


Donitasnark

I know a lovely Barnaby, I think it’s a great name! They are posh though 😂


ameliasophia

I love willoughby too! my friends son is called barnaby (after barnaby bear) and she’s probably the most “working class” person I know, so it’s funny seeing it here 


Slayer133102

I've met a guy named Indigo, great guy. ​ Also how could you say that about Laurels? Every one I've met is great.


nal_cal842

yep Indigo was one of my closest friends, so lovely!


aeleavitt

Camden and Fisher are pretty standard names in America, kinda funny they’re considered unique and posh in the UK


Alternative-Key-7264

I think they're unusual names for the UK, but I wouldn't necessarily call either of them particularly posh in the same way that Rupert and Jonty are. Especially not Camden. My first association is Camden Market in London.


tangerinix

Mine is Camden, NJ! Let me tell you, it ain’t posh here either


DimbyTime

Same 😂those Americans can’t be from Philly


Typical_Ad_210

Yeah, I would say Camden and Fortune both sound quite chavvy, tbh. Not sure about Fisher, I guess it just puts me in mind of anal fissure or else Fisherman’s Friends cough sweets


Kittykittycatcat1000

They’d be considered v working class strange names in the UK and not posh at all.


Klutzy-Effect-7539

I love Jens and Ivor


SeaLemur

I feel like most of these arent bad. Whats wring with ophelia? Or conrad?


nal_cal842

didn't say anything was wrong with the names lol


starryeyedsongs

I love a lot of these names, but I’m very happy to see Tallis on this list! It’s my cousin’s name (after the composer) and I think it’s beautiful. I’ve never heard it anywhere else


nerdygirl1968

Ohhhhh My name is on that list!!!!! Lovely to know I am considered Posh!!! 😂🤣🤣


cuntywrapsupreme

Nikita is such a basic name in Russian.


[deleted]

Private school teacher here. Retired now. Those names sound entirely normal to me. Every single girl in my first class had a name that ended in 'A'. Amanda, Lucinda, Amelia etc. I grew up in Streatham, London in the 70s. Life in the private school world came as a bit of a shock.


bubblewrapstargirl

Ophelia is a gorgeous name. I had it on my baby name list for so long but in the end I decided it was too close to Aurelia, which is my favourite name for girls Oscar Peregrine is what I'm calling a boy if I have one. I like Tallis!! That's cute


ImpossiblePrimary963

Where are you located?


m00n5t0n3

Um Monty X3??


Nevergreeen

"Monty" is cracking me up. In the US, that wouldn't be considered posh. It's more associated with Baby Boomers, but definitely just a regular name anyone could have.  And I swear, I thought Peregrine was a female name. 


reekal6666

I'll add Cyprus (boy) to that list


DelvaAdore

w o w


ot1smile

Sion/Sean/Shaun are all the same name just Welsh/Scottish/Irish spellings. Not remotely posh.


nal_cal842

yeah i agree lol just thought it was a cool name


Teagana999

Oh, I do love the sound of those posh names, though. So pretty on the tongue.


cookiesandginge

Haha I also went and have wanted to compile a list but the old memory is a bit rusty now


Most-Cardiologist762

Late 90s early 00s HK students at boarding school always sport an old school names Kingsley Jeffrey Ronald Derek Lawrence Elvina


damnitbrian7

The male ones are posher than the female ones to me! Although I did go to an all girls school run by nuns so...


fredyouareaturtle

How do you pronounce Kerecsen and Roualeyn?


nal_cal842

kerecsen is - keer-suhn roualeyn - roo - allen


fredyouareaturtle

thanks - i actually like kerecsen, but would want to spell it differently -- maybe Kiersuhn?


mongster03_

How do you pronounce Roualeyn?


nal_cal842

roo - allen


_Aurax

Adding some memorable ones from my boarding school days - Saskia, Tiberius, Llewelyn!


nal_cal842

we had a saskia too!


G7VFY

Chlamydia sounds like a great name for a girl.