When Juliet declared that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, she was probably reading the Instagram comments beneath a celebrity baby name reveal. Earlier this year, influencer Molly-Mae Hague and her now fiancé Tommy Fury announced that their daughter was called Bambi. Cue an onslaught of ridicule, with Molly-Mae herself responding that it was a cruel reminder of “how nasty this world can be”. Her soon-to-be-brother-in-law, boxer Tyson Fury, may face similar backlash alongside the debut of his new reality show At Home with the Furys, which launched this week: in it, we meet Fury and his wife Paris’s seven children, whose names include Adonis, Valencia and Venezuela. One wonders what Juliet would make of recent stats showing interest in Barbie and Ken as baby names, following the huge success this summer of the-movie-that-isn’t-Oppenheimer.
So what is in a name? I decided to go directly to the source. Not Greta Gerwig, but Justine Roberts, CEO and founder of Mumsnet. “Our users have mixed views about unusual baby names,” she tells me. “Many parents angst over whether their choice may lead to teasing, but on the flip side life would be incredibly boring if we all opted for classic names. Ultimately, babies rapidly grow to fit their names; pretty soon it will be odd to think of little Barbie or Ken being named anything else.”
