Naming Names: What Immigrants Need To Know About Names In The United Kingdom

How people name their children is a very interesting thing to look at. In the case of the United Kingdom, one would be able to see the trends that have been happening in how parents have been naming their children. There are trends and immigrants can be fascinated at how these go. Immigrants in the UK may meet some people with unusual names and that can be quite different from how children were named in their country of origin.

Taking a look at how parents name their children in the UK may not seem like a big thing or a really helpful thing especially for immigrants who may still be new in the country and still may be adjusting but this piece of information may be very useful when it comes to understanding the culture of the country and may even be a good conversation topic or conversation starter.

So what’s in a name?

Names of family members or religious names

Centuries ago in the United Kingdom, parents gave their children the name of a member of their family or the name of a religious figure. So it is possible that immigrants can meet people who may have old names or religious names because of this. It may also be possible that the person could have such names because their parents held on to the tradition and continued such a practice. Most of the people in the UK that have religious names are mostly from families who are of Catholic belief. There is a huge chance that the Joseph, Moses, Benjamin, Rebecca, or Magdalene that immigrants meet in the UK have been named because of this tradition.

Modern names

Nowadays, children in the United Kingdom are not named like that anymore. Most of the time, parents would name their children according to what they want. The names do not have to be from members of the family or from religious figures. It can be basically anything that parents want their children’s names to be. They can come in the form of Jane or Irene or Margaret or they can be Sylvester or Pierce or Philip. Parents nowadays also give their children names that suit their fancy like names of their favorite movie stars or singers or celebrity.

Married names

When a woman gets married, she would take the surname of her partner. This is common not only in the UK but also in many countries around the world. However, there are some women who still wish to retain their surname. To do so, they would put together her original surname and add her husband’s surname. For example, Jane Smith married John Wick. If she wants to keep her surname, she can do so and her new name now would be Jane Smith-Wick.

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