Advice: what would Giles' mother be named?

[dragonyphoenix]

Anyone have a good name for Giles' mother. I have Faith's PoV and she thinks of Giles as, well, Giles. It's sort of odd, in that context, referring to his mother as Mrs. Giles.

Comments

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Actually I don't know why I didn't think of that. I've come up with other names using that method.

[devo79.livejournal.com]

Amelia
Bertha
Frances
Nellie
Mildred

You can find more here:
http://www.baby2see.com/names/1890s.html

I know she wasn't born in the 1890's but that should provide you with some nice old fashioned names :)

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I actually have an aunt Mildred. I have to assume she never liked her name. ;-)

Hmmm, I'd go with my grandpa's sister's name but I think Avis would make people think of the car rental place.

[devo79.livejournal.com]

Avis is the Danish word for newspaper :)

I really think Giles' mother would have an old fashioned but sweet name like Nelly unless she's a mean bitch then she'd have one of those names that sound like a sharp command.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Given the English class system, I'm not sure Nelly sounds highfalutin enough. I do mean for her to be fairly nice though.

[gillo]

Nelly would definitely have been a working class man then. Unless it was an affectionate diminutive for Helen or Eleanor.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[devo79.livejournal.com]

Euphemia

I can see Faith rolling her eyes at a name like that :)

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

You didn't just make that up? That's a real name?

[devo79.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah :)

http://nameberry.com/babyname/Euphemia


She was a Christian martyr:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemia

[devo79.livejournal.com]

Faith could shorten it to Effie.
Giles would hate that.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

That is too delightful. And it's worse than either of the aunts name, which is wonderful.

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

Umm... Agatha? Persephone? Madeleine?


Gabrielle

[rbfvid.livejournal.com]

Persephone! Woman who named her child 'Rupert' must be getting back at something.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Eunice reminds me too much of that old Carol Burnett sketch!

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I think Persephone is rather pretty, although given the mythological context I'm not sure I'd burden a child with it.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions. Persephone? I like it but perhaps a bit too heavy into mythology. Agatha's awfully dowdy.

[il_mio_capitano]

I offer up
Jessica
Helen
Deborah

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions. Jessica was actually my favorite name when I was a kid. It's just so pretty.

[gillo]

Presumably she's now in her late 80s. Relatives of mine of that generation (thus British) include Thelma, Anne, Pamela (three of those), Mary, Ethel (already a bit old-fashioned; she hated it), Dorothy, Josephine, Audrey...

[il_mio_capitano]

Got to agree with the Pamelas. I can think of a couple of those in my circle too.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[gillo]

It's one of those names like Susan or David for children of the fifties. Presumably she would have had a relatively upmarket name, too.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

upmarket?

[gillo]

Class was a fairly big deal in names back in the twenties. Certain names - flower names like Rose, for example, were considered lower class then. Daisy is another mostly working class example. (Princess Margaret was Margaret Rose, but few of her own class copied that. ( I'm assuming that the Ripper phase was Giles fighting back against the stifling class background broadly similar to Wesley's.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Whoa, that's fascinating. I've never heard that.

[gillo]

I have read one heck of a lot of fiction about kids in theory born around then. It's very clear.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I can see where she wouldn't have liked Ethel. Audrey is a pretty name though. That's my favorite.

[gillo]

She was known to everyone outside her family as'Tod' which confused her relatives greatly at her funeral in April.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

She should have made her family call her Tod as well.

I remember when my friend switched from Debbie to Deb. Dad and I were traveling together to Michigan for a family visit. After I told him she was changing what she wanted to be called, he started teasing me with "So,when you see Debbie, tell Debbie ..." and so on.

[gillo]

I think some of her very close family did, but she was 94 when she died and only had one relatively distant nephew and his family left.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

94? Good for her!

[gillo]

My Mum will be 89 in a couple of months. An impressive generation.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Very.

[baudown.livejournal.com]

Margaret. Helen. Elizabeth. Marjorie. Georgina. Isabelle.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

Helen has shown up a couple of times but I'm rather liking Margaret. Faith could call her Meg or Maggie and get a frosty, "It's Margaret" in response. ;-)

[starkat75.livejournal.com]

Don't know if it would help. but here are a few more names:
Maura, Eugenia, Myrthel, Claudine

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I really like Maura. I'm going to be very hard pressed to pick a name!