Yoonique names?

[TheCatsMeow]

Just wondering why everyone hates them? Surely at one point Catherine, Michael and Tom were unique? And people used to spell their own names multiple ways.

I'm not on about spelling a normal name differently. Jaymez instead of James will obviously just make spelling difficult.

But what's wrong with made up names or names that aren't usually names?

[AnnieOnAMapleLeaf]

Because it sets the child up for a lifetime of difficulties - constantly having to correct the spelling and/or pronunciation and being teased.

I was born in 1978 and my hippy mother gave me a unique name that has subsequently become very popular. However, I was the only person with the name all the way through school and was teased mercilessly for it. It was awful and I hated my name until I went to university.

[AwfulBeryl]

An excuse to feel smug and superior about something ?
Personal taste obviously comes in to it, but I don't know why people seem to care so much. Especially on here, it doesn't seem quite as bad elsewhere.
Obviously it's dressed up as genuine concern for the poor wee children who will be judged and probably end up as a tradesman because their names fail the high Court judge test.

[AnnieOnAMapleLeaf]

It is genuine concern AwfulBerry. I have lived through the merciless teasing and I would not wish that on anyone just for the opportunity to make my child unique.

[AwfulBeryl]

Sorry Annie, my comment wasn't a dig at you. I was trying to juggle multiple things whilst MNing and missed your post.
I was bullied at school too, I understand where your coming from.
I don't think everyone on here is as genuine as you are though.

[AwfulBeryl]

I was bullied because I was ugly - I have a pretty normal but unfortunate name.
Although looking back, I wasn't all that ugly. I just look like a little girl.

[TheCatsMeow]

Annie any worse than Niamh or Seraphina, both accepted names?

[TheCatsMeow]

I got bullied because I'm an introvert. The problem is bullying not the victims name/financial situation/race

[AwfulBeryl]

I mean you're coming from obviously. Juggling and grammar don't mix.

[AwfulBeryl]

I agree with you Cats, the problem is the bullying not the name or the way you look, where you live, what trainers you wear etc

[AuntieStella]

I thought the hallmark of yoonique names was kre8iv spelling?

Unusual names aren't usually criticised as yoonique. But random nouns as names often get a hard time on here (Persimmon, anyone?) as do things that look like the result of a nasty spill at a scrabble championship.

[sugarplumfairy28]

I was bullied at school because of my maiden name, it's German so not only did I have the German sigma I also had a weird name that in English is a funny word, apparently. I also have a normal first name but it's spelled differently, didn't get any grief over that though. I would say in the main kids will always find something to tease a child over though, whether that be a name, glasses or something else.

For me personally though, I like a name to have some history and some kind of meaning, which a made up name wouldn't have.

[charliedontsurf]

I have to disagree. I have an unusual name, I always have to spell it but I love it. I was never bullied for it - picked on for my weight, glasses, music taste etc but nobody ever once said anything about my name.

I like having an unusual name and I have given my DD am unusual name too. I don't understand the snobbery on here about names. An old boss was called Jaden and he was in his late 30s - nobody took the piss out of his name either

[Floggingmolly]

Niamh and Seraphina are, as you say, completely normal if not to everyone's taste names. Both quite popular in Ireland, actually.
How do they fit into the yoonique category?

[TheCatsMeow]

Flogging I meant are yoonique names any more difficult than having a normal but unusual name?

[Floggingmolly]

Oh, sorry

[TheCatsMeow]

I didn't explain it very well, no worries haha

[AwfulBeryl]

I think it has become a bit of a culture on here - to be sneery and snobby about names. I don't think MN represents rl in this sense tbh.
Although someone will be along in a bit to tell us that whether we like it or not prospective employers / society in general judge people by their names.

[BinaryFinary]

It's just a very 'now' thing isn't it? A sort of trying to out do everyone else's unusualness by being the most unusual which often results in using any random word at all.

It's a fashion. It'll pass and Davyonwyn or Aspen will be tomorrow's Gavin or Wayne in that it will put the person firmly in their time

[Floggingmolly]

They don't have to be made to measure in order to mean something, though.
Ds1 is called after my late father (James); that has a special connection for us as a family despite the name being quite ordinary.
I considered calling dd Jadie, after a caravan we stayed in for holidays as children in the West of Ireland . Thank Christ the hormones subsided before we actually had her registered...

[AnnieOnAMapleLeaf]

Cats - my name is Summer. It is a fairly common name now although, from what I have seen on MN, it is like marmite. Some love it, others loathe it.

BUT, growing up in the early 80s, it was horrible. There were no other Summers at that time and the name didn't even appear in baby name books. I hated going to school because the teasing was appalling.

On the flip side, my name became ridiculously cool when I started high school because Baywatch introduced a character named Summer.

[Mclaren37]

I agree with you AwfulBeryl, it's a Mumsnet thing. I saw a thread on here this morning where posters were describing American-style names on children as 'a bit low rent'. That exact phrase was used by more than one responder. I kid you not... this was in reaction to some very normal surname-names. Differing taste is one thing. To consider them low-rent is a Mumsnet fad. We have a little boy called Archer, whose name in the real world is often admired. All of our children were born in San Francisco. I'm not concerned that he'll consider his international childhood or dual nationality low-rent when he grows up. :).

[Mclaren37]

On that note I thought I'd share this. I think everyone, on both sides of the fence, will enjoy it! www.telegraph.co.uk/women/11803408/How-do-you-choose-an-original-baby-name.html

[TrojanWhore]

People will only ever say complimentary things in RL.

On MN people are asking for opinions about names, and people give them, unfiltered by the norms of RL. So of course you only hear those opinions on MN. You wouldn't think people are posting for effect if they say a name is lovely. There's no reason to think they are if they say one is horrible, or has enduring associations or whatever.

[TheCatsMeow]

McLaren37 that's really rude! Archer is a nice name in my opinion, and I know of one so I wouldn't even think it was that "strange". It seems on here everyone likes fairly inoffensive "safe" names which are fine but I don't get the hate towards more out there names