I am prepared to bet (unfortunately there is no way of testing my theory so I am on pretty safe ground) that the vast majority of children would much rather be one of 2 Toms or 3 Emilys in their year at school than the only Halcyon or Sequoia.

I also think that people are very disingenuous when they insist that they are choosing made up or off the wall names so that their children are the only one in their year. I have a Grace, who is one of 2 in a school of 1420 girls,and a Patrick, who is the only one in a school of 430 children. I don't know why people choose off the wall names, but uniqueness can't be the real reason.

Message withdrawn

Because they are American?

They've got the market cornered on weird, naff, silly, made up and flat out stttooopid names.

I think for some parents, they see their choice of names for Dcs names are some kind of badge or status symbol.

i chose my sons name because of its meaning.

I gave my DS's very common names..........except they're not too common in the UK

(still in shock that someone picked up on her oldest sons name in a thread similar to this 1 month ago, while her 2 younger sons, who have slightly more unusual names were left alone )

I have an unusual name and was always very glad not be one of the 3 Emmas, 2 Michelles, 5 Charlottes in my year, etc. Emma P and Emma D and Emma G. Not for me! I love having an unusual name. (And no, my name isn't Sequoia! It's actually not unusual in my parent's country of origin, but is unusual in England).

People have different opinions on this, as is very clear from the baby name's board. Personally, I'm in the 'never name my baby a Top 10 name' camp.

(And I do have a good chuckle sometimes at the local playground when one mother screeches 'Joshuaaaaa!' and 3 little boys turn around and say 'Yeh?')

Some of the names this week on Mumsnet have been horrendous!

I suppose people want to be different and for their child to stand out a bit rather than being Tom H, Tom G or Tom P.

Ds has a name that is becoming more popular now but I didnt know of any when he was born.

DS2 has a very popular name but I still love it and if he has more than one of them in his class then so be it!

My daughters have Gaelic names which are not ususual here, but people outside Scotland or Ireland may find them so.

I liked their meaning, too - Helen and Rose.

Because everyone is different and they are perfectly entitled to call their kids what they want. So what if they want to use 'poncy', 'chavvy' or made-up names?

There are the ones who go a little too far with names like Chlamydia etc and that it just a shame.

Vacantlypretty - but they never say "I'm calling him Sequioa because I love it" - they say I'm caling him Sequioa because it's unique and will make him a unique person" Unlike Tom, who is, of course a clone of the other Tom in the class......

My mother and grandmother have beautiful, unusual names. I was one of four girls with my name in my year at school and hated it. My dd doesn't have a top 10 name, and my ds won't either. Not weird, made-up, mispelt oddities, just something slightly unusual.

I don't understand why people seem threatened by others who show a little individuality.

I don't think there's anything really wrong with unusual names. DD2 has a name that is very unusual in th UK. But I don't like many of the more 'modern' names around, which parents have chosen to be 'different',they do make me cringe.

TBH I absolutely hated being one of 3 with the smae name in my class at choll & 1 of about 15 in my year grou. So yes dd does have a name that is not in the top 10 (or ever likely to be tbh) However it is also a lovely name which is why we chose it. You may well class it as off the wall if it doesn't correspond with you ideal of common enough.

mind you I do get plenty of looks when I call my youngest "TK" - he's actually Takunda, but we've called him TK almost since he was born - and it's stuck LOL

I actually manage to render Americans speechless with my childrens' names. No mean feat in that place.

The names they think are Scottish are usually ones no Scot in their right mind would ever name their child.

This one will be Muireann if it's a girl and Struan if it's a boy.

"Vacantlypretty - but they never say "I'm calling him Sequioa because I love it" - they say I'm caling him Sequioa because it's unique and will make him a unique person""

Lots of people on here say they're choosing [unusual name] because they love it, so I'd be willing to bet that lots of people in the wider world do too.

Besides which, saying you're giving your kid an unusual name because it's unique isn't really that different to giving your child a solid top 5 name "because I want them to feel like they fit in/don't stand out/are normal".

It would be a very tedious world indeed if it were only populated by Janes and Johns.

If you want to choose a name that is differnet, do it, but PLEASE make sure it's readbale and not too hard to pronounce or your Dc will be forever spelling/explaining it to people.

I don't see why people say I'm naming her dbayfguseyfv pronounced Clara.

Oh, I hated my name when I was a child, although it was not a strange name (something like Grace but I never came accross another person with the same name until I was probably about 8yrs old, now it is very popular but before it was a rarity).

Having a not so popular name gave me some trouble as a child but the advantages were enormous when I grew up. People found it easy to remember the name because it was unusual and it certainly help to advance my career faster (part of it was in fine arts).

So, tried to do the same with DS, has a regular french name that although increasingly popular in France, here is still pretty unique.

How do you pronounce 'Muireann' Expat?

I wish there were some really nice flemish names. DD2 has just about the only nice flemish girl's name, but I don't really like any flemish boy's names.

We'll go for an english or maybe french name for dc3.

<<<<<<<<<<wonders what to do about her surname which no-one can read/spell/pronounce>>>>>>>>>

expat - fab choices that go very well with your DD's names LOVE Struan!

Ah but FAQ, you didn't choose that.

Oh and another good point of choosing a not extremely popular name is that you are Halcyon, full stop, not Halcyon the tall, Halcyon the lazy, Halcyon the clever, or Halcyon the Daft.

Unusual name - good.

'Unusual' spelling of regular name - bad.

no but I could have chosen to keep my maiden name when I got married

Mirren, belgo.

I hope they don't move to England .

Message withdrawn

I was one of 3 the same name in my year, and I didn't like it. I would have much preferred to have had a name that was a little less popular.

(Struan is a great name expat, there was a Struan in my year at school that I fancied like mad.)

Both mine have unusual names because we loved them and they have a family connection too, not to be unique. Although I have a very common name and really disliked being one of 3 in my class so at least they won't have the same problem.

expat. My english family and friends have all made an effort to learn the correct spelling and proununciation of dd2's flemish name. It's dh's flemish family who spell it wrong

Don't mind unusual names that are actually names. Although if extremely unusual as in 'no-one in their right minds...' I feel a bit sorry for the poor kids.

Made up crazy spellings or mis-spellings just make the parents look a bit thick tbh - how hard is it to look up the bloody spelling of a name? And how daft do you have to be to think spelling Emily 'aenghije' or whatever is big or clever?

Ds has a fairly unusual for England name, although we have come across of couple of others. But it's a well-known surname* in England and very common in the part of the UK that my family comes from. And easy to spell and pronounce for the English.

(NOT Bradley or Carlton or a surname that isn't actually a first name, it is a proper first name, just not in England.)

MemysonandI - you don't have to go the Halcyon route - as I said, mine are Grace and Patrick - no need for qualifiers. And I could come up with 10 similar names without trying.

I really don't know about the REAL but unusual names thing.

I will stick my neck out however and hazard a guess that, statistically speaking, the popularity of MADE UP names or CREATIVELY spelled names is inversely proportional to the average social class of the parent.

I think some folks have realised this now (possibly due to consulting mumsnet and getting a less than gushing reaction to the proposed name(s)) and there's a bit more "Isn't it unusual, its a family name you know" going on. People are less likely to be so forthright in their opinion if its a family name for fear of offending a whole clan rather than one parent.

what one person thinks is weird another person thinks is fine

'weird' to some people means a bizarre made-up name with lots of zs in it, to others it means any name they have not heard before

my fil thought our choice of names was hard enough but we were eclipsed completely by sil

I find the idea of a usual name slightly weird. Am utterly spooked by the fact that there is another child at the Inferiorettes' school with DD1's name, and that DD2's name (chosen in a drug-crazed post-natal haze) is really quite...well...usual.

I simply cannot imagine a life in which one did not have to spell out one's name (both parts) in long and excruciating detail. I feel it is a Tradition To Continue.

I have an unusual name. My sister has an unusual name. Dh has an unusual name. It's normal for us not to have the "normal" name.

We visited a school the other day and the poor receptionist struggled through the first four names on her list, then sighed with relief when she came to Ben and Christopher!

True...I have a 'regular' name and I still spend half my life spelling it or correcting people. Fortunately I love my name (it's at the unusual end of normal these days) so tis a small price to pay.

DS's name is not currently common, but it has unambiguous spelling and pronounciation, and is known as an actual name.

I don't think it is the un/commoness of names that bothers kids, but anything that takes 3 attempts to get someone to spell or pronounce, or accept is even a name.

"Barley?? BARLEY? as in the country Bali, or the crop?" etc etc.

I have a very unusual name and I love it, always have. It is a nuisance having to spell it, but I could if I wanted to (I dodn't) use a shortening that no one would have any problems with (except me!). I get a lot of positive feedback about it too. My parents chose it because they liked it. My siblings all have names that were unusual at the time, but have all at one time or another been more popular. They all like their names too My middle sister does have a slightly daft middle name which she doesn't use any more. My dh has the most popular name for the year he was born, but never met anyone else with it until university when we knew loads of them (7 or 8) and it was a bit of a nuisance then.

We tried to steer a middle ground but the shortening of ds's name became very popular a year or two after he was born (bloody Eastenders!), and dd's nickname is always in the top 20. She however rather likes meeting other children with her name. At school she calls herself by her full name and we've only ever met a couple of people with that.

I like unusual names, but only if they are nice (subjective I know!) spelt right, have some cultural or family relevance and are the full version of the name in question. I guess whn it comes to names we are all pretty opinionated

"I will stick my neck out however and hazard a guess that, statistically speaking, the popularity of MADE UP names or CREATIVELY spelled names is inversely proportional to the average social class of the parent."

I don't know. The upper classes are pretty keen on some rather odd names. Think Santa Montefiore.

I tend to think, names are supposed to be unique. That's the point of them. To distinguish someone from everyone else.

I think it's nice if your first name is unusual enough that you don't have to be constantly referred to as firstname surname but can just be firstname.

my name is common and boring. I'd rather be a Sequoia or Halcyon.

Of course if you live or work in a multicultural environment then the range of names is so wide it doesn't really matter! When I worked in innner city London spelling my name ceased to be unusual anyway as we all did it (especially with e-mail being the primary communication method).

MeMySonandI (hello btw ), that's exactly why I didn't want to choose "top 10" names for my kids. In my class at school we had two Lisa's, known as "fat Lisa" and "skinny Lisa", and two Sarah's, known as "loud Sarah" and "quiet Sarah". I did NOT want my child's name to have negative prefix once they became one of many.

(and then what did I do? Had two boys and gave them very popular Gaelic names )

(and expat btw, I love Struan, ds1 might have been Struan but it was "spoilt" for us by a horrible brat of that name that we knew!)

My rl name has been very common for decades, it's no fun being one of 4 people with the same name in your class. So I wanted to give my DS a different name. He's not got anything wacky though.

NAmes-dont care about what why or unusual spelling.not worth getting your drawers in a twist about frankly

We had 3 catherines - fat catherine, tall catherine and (sadly)one-armed catherine. She wouldn't have been labelled if she'd been an unusual name.

What about when you think you've chosen an unusual (but not off the wall) name and then go to nursery and find two more!!!!!

Love Muireann expat - though where I come from it would be pronounced Mwirren! Even though I am Irish I struggle to say the names of a couple of kids I know who have Irish names - because they pronounce them in a slightly different way to what I would - different dialect I suppose...

What I find interesting is that children generally don't have trouble pronouncing "unusual" names - their brains seem to be more able to hear the name and repeat it perfectly than adults who perhaps have set ideas on how to say words. My dc's can say my neighbours kids names perfectly and vice versa - mine have irish names, the neighbours have Asian names.

I met a friend the other day whos ds goes to nursery with a girl called Cinnamon??...........

i don't like overly common names for the reason i hated having a common name at school.

cinnamon??? barley???

that is a step too far for me!

My DH has a unique name. He loves it because he says people always remember him.

i dont agree with the op at all

maybe up to the age of 7 that is the case but NOOOOO

my kid bemoan their ordinary names as their younger siblings have odder ones

vive la difference

I know a woman called Cinnamen. I could forgive Cinnamon, just, but when you can't even spell it correctly....

I did want to call a DS Meteor or if it was a girl, Rainbow.

DP put his foot down .

artichokes Montefiore is part of Santa's married name, her full married moniker is Santa Sebag Montefiore

Santa, well there is Mr Claus, a fine upstanding member of the community, presumably the parents had him in mind when they named her [tongue in cheek emoticon].

i like rainbow!!

33jks

oh how sad for the one-armed girl

I come over madly peculiar on the rare occasions I meet someone else with the same name as me.

MI - you are madly peculiar anyway....

when i was 5 i called my first pets, cats, tabitha and cinammon. ouch, poor girl. short version, cin?

<cackles>

My two have unusual names but not too far out, they just aren't common and that is the reason we chose them. I have a name that you don't come across every day, but again its not Pixie or Peaches, and I love the fact its not common, probably why I have done the same thing. They can always change in later life.
Why do you ask anyway?
Ps expat can I ask where in Scotland you live? Those names are lovely but being a Highlander with fluent Gaelic I have heard before

I have never met another person with my name. I know they exist - I just haven't met one!!!!

ds1's name is very popular in the UK, much more unusual - but now gradually getting more popular - in Germany, and ds2's is very unusual in both countries (more so in the UK than in D). They are both easy (intuitive) to pronounce/spell and, as Blu says, recognisable as names.
If I had known when we named ds1 how popular it was in the UK (I think it was no. 6 in his year of birth), we might not have named him it, because it really does suit him incredibly perfectly.

should have said ...we might not hve named him it, which would have been a shame because it really does suit him etc.

I hate even hearing about other people with my name. Not sure how I would react if I met one!

I watched a programme last night and there was a Apricot on there. I think that was of the "we are very posh and can get away with anything, even ... off the top of my head ... apricot. See??"

oh dear. apricot, apple whatever next! cherry i can just about handle cos i think that is a proper name derived from something else.

I like names that stand the test of time, some of the threads on here have been horrible. If it was me then I wouldn't ask for an opinion, if you are going to post you have to be prepared for the negative reaction.

Seeker, I have a Patrick too. Great taste! I have a very unusual (Icelandic) name, and like it now, but felt a weirdo at school, so preferred to give dc normal, if not Top 100, names.

I'm thinking of the name Kaylzhaigh for my next daughter.

I was always one of many at school, always had a number next to my name. I would rather be one of a normal name. My sister is called Ruth, it's pretty, not old fashioned but not so common that you meet loads at school. I had hoped that for Tink but alas it is a lot more popular than I thought.

expat - Aren't you American?

i think unusual names but not so unusual people would think it funny are lovely.

I understand why people would want a less common name for their child, their choice completely.
Our dds all have pretty run of the mill names but they are not commonly used at the moment.

Well dd3's is actually fairly common but still gets alot of negative responses and we have been told we obviously don't love her enough to give her a name she can't be teased for. lol- that is right, we looked at our newborn and thought "Nyah bugger it she isn't very nice, let's call her Kitty so she never gets a job and boys call her fanny and `vagina when she is a teenager." then we laughed , gave her to the midwife and went for a pint.

The name we have chosen for ds is not overly common in England but is common as muck in several Italy, France and Spain apparently.

What I really find hard to fathom is how obsessed some people are with names , how they react to names they don't like or have not heard before. People who are on a mission to rid the World of all names except those that pass their standards. Losing battle I think

I have an extremely unusual name which (apart from a couple of years in my teens) I absolutely love. Apparently I was about 2 days away from being called Jessica though, phew. Can't ever imagine having the same name as anyone else (never met one yet!) it would be really wierd.

DD has what i thought was a pretty unusual name, which means the same as mine actually, but in a different language, but have since found out is pretty common (esp in Surrey, apparently!) and on top of that, slebby, chavvy, and poncy as well! blimey. Still love it tho.

Maybe they don't want to pick a name like Grace, which is HUGELY popular, especially in the 1 - 4 year olds at the moment.

the definative answer

its all in a name

lisas are well shit

MI - I squeaked with delight (there's madly peculiar) when I came across a character with your name in Haldane's My Friend Mr Leakey.

My name was the most popular for ages when I was little and I absolutely hated it. I was always one of many in any class or club, and always known by my surname or a nickname a a result. We've picked an unusual name for our first (due in July) because we loved it as soon as we heard it.

Names are largely influenced by fashion. Asking why people pick unusual names is like asking why not everyone is wearing the same 8 most popular outfits. Some people genuinely don't like any of the names in the top 10 so choose something that is more unusual.

yes, but i haven't set foot there in years and don't miss much.

especially not those dumb ass, made up excsues for names many come up with in order to be unique, different, unusual.

when it's really just dumb ass, made up and naff.

i don't miss all that fluffiness, baby showers, going overboard and analysing every minute of pregnancy or parenting, competitiveness - the level of childishness displayed on some of those boards is astonishing, including boasts or moans about having/not having 'the first grandchild' or how their siblings fell pregnant with no thought to the timing of their children, etc.

and i won't get into all that 'I'm Scottish/Irish' and then you find out they had a great great great great granny once removed who visited the place once BS.

yeah, you can say i didn't fit in well with all that shit.

how do you pronounce Kaylzhaigh , i really wouldn't know where to start.

Santa is an old Italian first name - not common there either but v traditional

mmj - is that from that bounty thread? her name is kay haigh. dunno what the lz is for.

Surely it depends on what you think is unusual. My name is not so uncommon in certain circles, however the spelling is - i am yet to come across another person with my name who spells it the way i do - and i really like this. DD has a not so run of the mill name, but we named her for the meaning - helper/healer, depending on which book you read

Santa is lovely.

Kitsmummy - that's the point. Grace may be common among 1-4 year olds, but it is NOT among 12 year olds. And she was definitely the only baby Grace anywhere in our circle when she was a baby. You could call your child Sequoia, and he would be the only one, but in 12 years time it could be the number one baby boy's name. You can only guarantee a very brief period of exclusivity.

And you may have noticed that I deliberately refrained from commenting on the name of anyone's dcs except my own.....maybe we ought to make that a rule for this thread?

I think that there's a distinction to be made between 'unusual' names and 'uncommon' ones. Uncommon ones can certainly use the argument that they don't want to be one of many - my name is uncommon, as is dd's currently, but neither are unusual in any sort of made up sense.
I really don't know why people use unusual names, in the sense of ones that they've made up, or ones whose spelling they have chosen to change for some woolly or non-existent reason.

I had an uncommon name and it was great at school. I felt dreadfully sorry for Rebecca H, Rebecca D, Rebecca R, Rebecca J etc. And when someone calls my name in the street, I know it is me they mean! Imagine turning around all the time when it's not you!

I find it very sad when folk want to spend their time judging other people's choices of name for their beloved children.

I love most of the virtue names but was felt it might be tempting fate to use them, I would have ended up with a Patience who had a really short fuse or a Grace who was clumsy and built like me or even worse a pessimistic Hope - just my luck. I taught a little Vanity who was absolutely stunning thank goodness

I shouldn't judge people by their names but I do, I think that most people wouldn't be able to stop their first gut reaction however much they rationalise it afterwards.
Tests have been done that show that teachers and examiners are influenced by names when they mark work-they would be horrified to find they did but it has been proved.

I am a teacher and although I may have a certain opinion of a name I am professional enough not to let it have any influence on the way I treat, interact with or view a child.

agree with you hatrick

I wanted it to signfify my ownership of him I suppose, I have enough trouble feeling confident and accepted as a parent because of the fact I'm single, so I guess doing something against the tide appealed to me, to show people that actually 'Yes, I do know how I survive, Yes, I do know why I'm alive' as Chrissie Hynde puts it.

I also love their names, dearly.

I had a quite unusual name and didn't think about it much till later on when I saw its niceness and context and then it gave me a confidence boost as well.

Definitely preferred being that to being one of seven Claires or whatever.

Also I have a problem with my place in the world and feel like I don't fit in very well - so an unusual name represents me better perhaps. To have an ordinary name as well as being a freak would be almost unbearable!

..as in having to live up to the other 25 people who were normal, iyswim...

Claire C
Claire T

and Odd Claire

i think you'll find that donna summer says it actually.

or certainly originally.

I like Halcyon - I think that's rather lovely

Not entirely sure about Sequoia - sounds like sentencing the child to a lifetime of

"That's ESS-EE-CUE-YOU-OH-AYE-EY" ad infinitum

You would be surprised! There is a test on the internet about prejudice -unfortunately I can't remember where it is-and it tells you that you won't like the results! It flashes words and pictures and you have to make quick fire responses-hesitating is counted in the results. I think that if there was one with images and names and you had to make instant decisions you would find that you were prejudiced.Of course teachers don't think they allow names to influence them - they would be horrified- but tests have been done with unknown students where the name is the only thing to go on and names have influenced them.

sorry-tinkerbelle said earlier in this thread;

I'm thinking of the name Kaylzhaigh for my next daughter.

i have no idea how to pronounce it? can anyone tell me?

Sorry-it moved on quickly-I was replying to hatrick and martianbishop.

Is it a pizza?

Kale - zjay guh

but how do you vocalise zjay?

It is pronounced Rosie of course- duh.

Luckily teachers never have to make snap judgements about children they teach based on a name flashing up and having to react. It is therefore a pretty inaccurate test by the sounds of it Abbey.

it's not an english sound so I can't use an ebglish word to illustrate!

They have it in french and russian, do you speak either of those?

Is it like high?

is it like what, man?

lol!

i speak no russian and i can just about ask for a ham sandwich and two beers in french.

so maybe it's not a good name to call a child because presumably there are plenty of non french/russian speaking people in the uk who will have the same problem?

Re Students names.

I always mark 'blind'. So I mark the work and then check the name. I mark too many books to recognise the handwriting

Wow Janitor I didn't know it was a cover. Mind you I am Mrs Thick about stuff like that.
And I have an original 7" copy of I Feel Love which you are now going to tell me was written by Elton John, right?

<disillusioned>

Sorry, can't help you there, but it was from someone who said that we have odd names on this site and don't use our real names.

ironically that wasn't even her real name. well it was her first name and last name combined together by lz in the middle.

Kelsey?

Bit like chalmondelay being pronounced chumley innit?
Or featherstonehaugh being pronounced fanshawe.

kaylzhaigh is obv either kayleigh or kelsey imo.

<gets coat>

nurklook

god i love this song

My mum and dad gave my brother an unusual name. He was teased a bit but now he's an adult he doesn't get the same treatment. It was the childish bullies who were in the wrong, not my parents, and my brother loves his name.

What is it to you what people call their child? I think it is reverse snobbery to judge people on their choice of name. A name should have meaning to that family - full stop.

My name is not unusual but not common. I often thought when growing up that I was sooo happy not to be called a name the same as lots of others in my class.

DH has a really unusual name, and he is very happy with the name.

MMJ thankyou, that was awesome

(only read the op)

I was one of 6 Michelles at school.
If you call me in the playground at least 10 women turn around.

I would have loved to have had a more unusual name.

both my children have names that are traditional. i chose them because (at teh time) they were not very common.
(and because i liked them of course)

If i had another child they would be either Ophelia or Reggie.

i don't hear eitehr name in the street or the park but no doubt by the time i get round to suing them they will be loads.