# What First Names Suggest...er... Qualities Other Than Physical Beauty?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-names-suggest-er-qualities-other-than-physical-beauty/460578>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 19, 2008, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-names-suggest-er-qualities-other-than-physical-beauty/460578 "2008-08-19T18:33:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-names-suggest-er-qualities-other-than-physical-beauty/460578/101 "2008-08-20T22:17:15Z")

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Has anyone mentioned Mathilda yet? Strong evocations of battle-axe there!

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**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-names-suggest-er-qualities-other-than-physical-beauty/460578/102 "2008-08-20T22:27:57Z")

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[QUOTE=Quartz]  
Has anyone mentioned Mathilda yet? Strong evocations of battle-axe there!  
[/QUOTE]

Except now it just makes me think of an adorable, precocious but modest elementary school age girl. (From the Roald Dahl book, Mathilda.)

I used to think of Clarissa as a super modern trendy name because “Clarissa Explains It All” was on when I was a kid. When I came across a witchy, weird character with that name in another book, my mom told me that it actually wasn’t all that common, and that choosing the name Clarissa was an unusual decision. I think if I hadn’t seen the show first, I’d just think of Clarissa as an old lady name.

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**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-names-suggest-er-qualities-other-than-physical-beauty/460578/103 "2008-08-20T22:47:46Z")

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[QUOTE=CalMeacham]  
**Magda  
Dagmar**  
[/QUOTE]

Magda, Dagmar?

Dude? Really?  
Those are stone cold fox names. Slavic, but hubba hubba. 😃

No, for other than fox you need names like…  
Constance

Wilhelmina

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**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-names-suggest-er-qualities-other-than-physical-beauty/460578/104 "2008-08-20T23:09:36Z")

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[QUOTE=OtakuLoki]  
Wilhelmina  
[/QUOTE]

Really? You don’t think of [beautiful women](http://www.wilhelmina.com/) when you hear Wilhelmina?

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**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-names-suggest-er-qualities-other-than-physical-beauty/460578/105 "2008-08-20T23:15:22Z")

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[QUOTE=Freudian Slit]  
Really? You don’t think of [beautiful women](http://www.wilhelmina.com/) when you hear Wilhelmina?  
[/QUOTE]

I had never heard of that company. As you may have since guessed - I don’t know much about the players in the modeling industry.

I was thinking of matronly, or even elderly northern European nobility, really. Such as [Queen Wilhelmina](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Queen_Wilhelmina_of_the_Netherlands.jpg).

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