What's in a name?

Some friends of our son recently had a baby boy. When I say recently, I mean about eight weeks ago now. For the first month of his life the poor child was simply known as "Nameless". They even got as far as the register office one day, where the registrar watched them hesitate and advised them to go away and rethink. Snap decisions, he told them, were always regretted. 

Eventually the poor child was named Wilfred!!! This is not a name I would ever have chosen, never in a month of Sundays. It is patently not a tiny boy's name. However, this is their choice. They must have looked him in the eye and decided he looked like a Wilfred, now referred to as Wilfie! 

They went through a similar period of indecision over the name of their first child, a daughter. Lots of people agonise in this way. Some friends of ours went through about ten names before deciding that their son was a Sam. We had no such problems, although we did have to think of a girl's name rather quickly when our daughter was born, so convinced was I that I was having a second son. After all, the first had been fine, so there was no problem having another small boy around. And then a small girl came out instead! 

I was reminded of all this when I read one of those question and answer sessions in the Guardian. I think that they print the question and answer session in that way to avoid having to write up the interview. Lazy journalism! Anyway, today's session was with the actress (I categorically refuse to call her an actor!) Lily Cole. It turns out she has a daughter called Wylde. This is another name chosen after much thought. The actress said, "It took us a while but Wylde was the first name that my partner and I both liked." I wonder how you look at a child and decide that her true name is actually Wylde. Did she have a particularly uncivilised look about her?   

Names are, of course, a serious business. And quite often eagerly expectant parents have a name in mind and then take a look at the newborn and realise that the selected name is all wrong. This is even popping up in the radio soap opera The Archers, where the manipulative Rob is trying to persuade Helen, his dormouse of a wife, that the name he has chosen for their as yet unborn son is the right one. For once the dormouse has resisted, declaring that she did not choose the name for her firstborn until she saw his little face. Good for the dormouse! 

I suppose the only consolation for the children named Wilfred or Wylde (or even North) is that they will probably have a number of little friends in nursery also called Wilfred or Wylde! Such is the way of fashion. 

On the subject of fashion, I have found yet another random statement made by those who write about fashion. According to Jess Cartner-Morley, in the Guardian magazine, there is an etiquette to wearing jumpers. "Your winter jumper should end either at your waist, tucked into a waistband, or continue to the top of your thighs. The jumper that ends around jeans pocket level is not where fashion is at." 

Who knew? And is "jeans pocket level" a technical term?