The names I pointed out are more common in the places I've lived, and there's about as much pretention attached to
Imogen as there is to
Caitlin or
Chloe. ;)
Rhiannon in particular is just so dated to a certain generation for me, and all of the Rhiannons I have known have been lower middle class. I don't think that most people are aware of the roots of it here; the popularity is tied to the musical reference. That's popular culture for you.
I think
many names sound pretentious with the right surname, but those names in and of themselves aren't universally considered pretentious.
I'm not American, so there you go. Fascinating how names appear differently around the globe. For instance, it always surprises me when people list
Matilda as being upper-class or something, as some people have done here, when it is as common as dirt to me.
This message was edited 2/20/2011, 6:58 PM