How has your name affected the way you name your children?

[SouthernandCross]

I have a very unusual name ( my mother made it up- thanks mum!) and have spent my whole life spelling it out and correcting people. In the end I've adopted a shortened version of it and call myself that.
I was determined that my kids would have nice, normal names that were easily recognised and am not at all bothered if there are more than one of their name in the class.
My DH has a very common name from the 70's and was fine with common names for his children. Maybe men don't worry as much?
Did your name influence your children's names at all?

[tabulahrasa]

Yep, mine isn't made up, but it might as well be for all people recognise it as a name, no-one can spell it if they've heard it or say it right if they've seen it written and I have to spell it out for everything.

My DC have fairly classic easily recognisable names

[birdofthenorth]

I have a very common name and wanted DC to have less common ones. However my best friend going up had a very rare (pretty much unique) name which was beautful but hard to spell and pronounce and I think this also affected me (EVERY teacher EVERY year got it wrong, there was teasing, etc). So DD has an "unusual but known and pronounceable" name and I think that's my rule going forward.

[rachel234]

Aren't most names nice, normal and easily recognisable? I mean most of the top 500 names used last year fall into this category.

Some are more widely used than others - so the question should be did we choose popular or less popular names?

[GuillotinedMaryLacey]

I'm the opposite. Grew up with a really common name which still means I have to have my initial after my name always. DD1's name is at the bottom of the top 100 and DD2's potential names are out of the top 100 and one is about 350 or thereabouts. I only know one other of DD1's name and she's a couple of years youger so different school years. I know most of the children who'll be in DD1's year and there is no other with that name.

[mycatsaysach]

i have a awful trendy in the 60s name which i have always disliked.

i made sure my dcs had classic names which would never date.

[poppydaisy]

I agree with rachel - aren't most names, certainly the top300 or so, 'normal' names? Looking at last year's ONS statistics even those used only 10 times (so way down the list) are still 'normal' names, they're just not 'trendy'.

[poppydaisy]

The question should be: Did you choose a 'trendy' popular name or a 'less trendy' but still normal name as a result of your own name.

[tabulahrasa]

'Aren't most names nice, normal and easily recognisable?'

hmm, sort of - but I ruled out any that had more than one way to spell them - so Rachel was out, nice as it is, lol

[mopsyflopsy]

My children have unpopular (but lovely ) names because I hated being one of 3 in my year. Yes, lots of normal, nice, easy to spell names further down the popularity list. My ds's name was used 7 times last year.

[IvyAndGold]

I have an uncommon Irish surname, and it's forever being spelled and pronounced in every possible way apart from the proper way! Even if I spell it out, letter by letter for people, I have to go back and correct them most times. I wanted to name DD Niamh (pron. Neev) until DP pointed out how annoyed I get with the trouble with my surname, so DD might be driven mad with Niamh as a first name!

Saying that, we picked a name that we and the rest of our family thought was a nice, short, really easy, but I've still had people manage to pronounce it completely wrong!

[mopsyflopsy]

Regarding the pronunciation of names - lots of names, both popular and less popular, have different ways of spelling/pronuciating them (even Kathryn, Catherine). Lots of foreign names used in the UK with difficult pronuciations. But it would be shame to lose these names with cultural significance - most people do learn how to pronounce/spell a name once told.

[DamsonJam]

Funny I also have a very unusual name (not made up but almost unheard of - have never met another person with my name) and it has had the opposite effect. I enjoyed growing up being the only one with that name and as a child felt it made me special. I don't see it as a problem at all.

In naming my children I've simply gone for names that I've liked the sound of. Although both DD1 and DD2 have names are in the top 100 in my home country, they are relatively unusual here and it would not have occurred to me to not use them because they are unusual/ difficult to spell here. After all plenty of popular names have so many spelling variations, children with those names are likely to have to spell them out as well.

[barleycorn]

At my school there were a total of 7 girls in my year with my name. So I was quite happy to call our kids names which originate from dh's home country. We chose short, easily pronounceable names though. Dh's name is so complicated to spell only his mother ever gets it right!

[thefirstMrsDeVeerie]

My mum was aspirational so I have a middle class biblical name despite my working class background.

With my maiden name it also sounded very Jewish. I married a West Indian with a very Jewish name so I still sound Jewish.

This has caused some confusion in the past (more for my FIL who only got to buy his house in London because the vendor thought he was selling to a white jew and not a black man)

I quite like my name. I didnt like the family shortened version at all and have been called by my own (slightly punky - blame the early 80s) version ever since I was about 12.

I dont think it had any affect on how I named my own children. I love chosing names for my babies and went for ones I loved. They have many, many between them and most of them are on the unusual but not wacky side.

[HerdOfTinyElephants]

I liked having a fairly unusual name but hated that no one could ever pronounce it (one of my tutors at university never once got it right even after three years). My DCs have relatively unusual (or unusual for England, anyway) names but they are all easy to pronounce.

[GnomeDePlume]

My own name has two spellings and my mum chose the less common spelling so I spend a lot of time correcting people as they write it down (thanks mum!). DH's name is less common so tends to be met with puzzlement until it is spelled out at which point people go 'oh yes'.

As a result we have given the DCs unusual but easily spelled names.

[Fennel]

My name is boring. There have always been others of me in the class at school, university, work. I didn't like that.

So my children have names that are less usual, 2 of them often need spelling out or saying again. There are no other dd1s, dd2s or dd3s in our school or in their social groups. that was my intention. So they don't have to be known by their surname as well as first name.

Though we do meet quite a few toddler dd2s. it's a name that's racing up the charts now, but dd2 is 10 and among her peers it's known but still not that common.

[SomethingAboutThisPlace]

Having spent all my life having to spell my whole name, I purposely gave my DCs traditional first names. So to answer your question it's a YES! Less traditional 2nd names but they're rarely used.

I even gladly changed my surname when I got married so I could just simply be Mrs X and not Mrs YRKLJS, sorry how do you spell that!?!

[lilibet]

I hate my name. As soon as you hear it or see it, you can tell to within a few years how old I am.

My children all have 'timeless' names.

[RhinestoneCowgirl]

I have a fairly uncommon name, and apart from a brief period in childhood where I wanted to be called Clare, I like having an unusual name.

Have given my children unusual (but classic) names, hope they agree with me!

[winkle2]

I have an unusual name that can't be shortened so I want to give my kids easy to pronounce names that can be shortened!

[SenseofEntitlement]

I grew up with a lisp, and have a really soft sounding name. Even now, people repeat it back to me with the lispy sound in it and I have to correct them.

So, my daughters have no soft sounds in thier first names.

[Meglet]

My name is as common as muck, there were 4 of us in my class at school.

My children have more unusual names (although they are easy to spell) as I wanted them to be remembered and not muddled up with other kids of the same name.