Betsy is cute, and I think would be fine. I've known a few Betsys my age and none of them had any issues that I saw. I wouldn't think it's moved much further down the cow spectrum in the last 25 years. I would use
Betsy as a nn though, despite its possible cow-ish-ness. If there was trouble, she'd still have
Elizabeth and a billion other nn options. And you know, I don't see anything wrong with a "cow name" anyway. What's wrong with cows? They're fun.
Jemima, on the other hand, I would never use in the US. It's too syrup and racial stereotype here. It took me months to get over that and be able to like it anyway.
Jemima Catherine is my only combo with it as a mn, which I suppose is boring but I like it. I love
Agnes Jemima. I think
Jemima would be awesome with any Puritan type names too. It has that colonial-nostalgic feel like that.
This message was edited 11/9/2011, 5:51 AM