Do I just have really awful taste in names?

well I love Kerouac and Auden for a boys, my son has a very unusual name and I don't see anything pretentious about it if you love it, choose it. On the other hand I agree that Proenza does sound like an amalgam of drugs!! I quite like Belphebe actually, but Belphoebe (whilst Spencer may have used it as one of his spellings!! Can't tell without the text in front of me!!) does look a bit clumsy. I like most of these actually and think that a child grows into a name and it becomes a part of them 'without my name I am no good man' Proctor, the Crucible.

Maybe those of us with literary pretensions are just pretentious per se, but I think it is more to do with love of words for themselves and for what they represent. I enjoy unusual combinations of sounds and letters and love also what the word means.

I know I sound like a complete tosser, but you hopefully swim.

I think it probably depends on your social circles and the sort of school where your child is likely to go (and it's the secondary school that counts more here, primary kids are more forgiving/less noticing of difference I think in general). Where we lived in South London, and where our children went to school very few of those names would have seemed normal, but in some more yummy mummy areas I think they probably wouldn't raise much of an eyebrow.

I am a great book reader myself, but I don't understand why people want to use the surname of an author they like. My ds's middle name was inspired by one of our favourite authors, John Irving. So his middle name is John. I wouldn't have called him Irving because that's a surname. So if I loved Auden or Kerouac I'd be thinking about Jack or William, I don't understand why the tribute has to be so overt.

OK, Adair, you're forgiven .

I agree that it is a bit small-minded when people say you shouldn't use a name because they haven't heard of it. Likewise Rufus=dog and Felix=cat comments annoy me.

But I still think there are names which just sound horrid or silly to the majority of people and they'll be fair game for ridicule on MN and also an accurate reflection of real life too (maybe just not in London schools).

Errrr

The only name on your lists that I have ever met a child called is Felix.

I know grown-up Irenes and a teenager called Kimia.

They are all rather unusual, that's for sure. I know a lot of children.

I agree with other posters, there is a middle ground between emily (which also would not be my choice as I know at least a dozen) and Belphoebe which I have never even heard of.

What about Fraser, Angus, Nico for boys? For girls, Ophelia, Matilda, Martha, Beatrice?

Well, no of course not! I have loads of names I personally don't like. People like/don't like names for whatever reasons.

The 'provincial' comment comes from the many, many posters who say 'oooh you can't call them THAT, I've never heard of it therefore it can't be a real name. Won't they be bullied? Or people might think they are common/foreign?' Yada yada yada.

As I said, you don't really get this in London (city?) schools, kids just see a name as a name. FWIW I won't be calling my kid Panda, but hey, if someone else ADORED the name and wanted to call their kid it, well I;d pretty soon get used to it (in fact, even by the end of typing this, I'm thinking 'hmmm, Panda for dc3... )

Adair - [sorry a bit of a delayed reaction as I've only just seen your post]

Not everyone dislikes a name because of their 'provincial lives', it's often simply because they don't like the sound/connotation of that name.

What you said makes you sound just as judgey as the judgers you're slating!

I don't think it makes you any less provincial to say 'Oh yes, I adore Proenza - oh and Darthvadaria is sooo fresh and unused'

...and for the record, I much prefer unusual names: my own DS's name is on the OP's list - albeit it's one of the tamer ones - and one of the girls names was a hot contender for DC2.

I love love LOVE Auden.

Not that keen on your others though, sorry!!

Sorry. they are all AWFUL, other than Felix, which is passable.

I am always staggered at these threads, your poor child has to live with this name and any connotations of it, for the REST OF THEIR LIVES!!!!

And there you are just trying to think of something to outdo your mates..

Get a grip.

Yes. You do.

:-)

There's an Eirene (Greek) at DD's nursery -- again with the right pronunciation (which is how I naturally pronounce Irene, but I am aware lots of people don't).

Another suggeston for an Irene alternative to avoid Eye-reen pronunciation. I know an Irina, she's Romanian. Actually the Romanians all seem to have gorgeous names for their girls. Anyway, it's pretty and a bit different.

Several of them especially on the list of girls names reminded me of looking at my mum's medicine cabinet (shes a manic depressive). Sorry.

Pixie is right about imagining your child in the future and how the name would "fit" them as a person.

Jilly should have made it worse, could have said turd eater

IIRC Jilly Cooper's Perdita got called Turdita at school. Just in case, OP, you are at the stage of considering possible unfortunate nicknames.

Irene(ee) reminds me of the Forsyte Saga.

I don't think all these names are weird and ridiculous gerontius, I'd just put Proenza in that category, and maybe Jethro!

They are probably on the several-years-ahead-of-the-curve end of naming, to be fair, except Felix which is very much a current trend.

Personally I like Nichol and Fyfe, would have my own "Seriously?!" response to Kerouac or Auden, and do like Jethro but have it inextricably linked in my mind to Mark Harmon in NCIS.

Kimya is very tied up with a particular ethnicity for me (and wasn't it originally a boy's name, or am I hallucinating that?). I like Irene, Perdita and Ottilie, have some complicated negative associations with Clotilde and would have a "Seriously?!" reaction to Proenza or Belphoebe. Proenza sounds a bit like some kind of new wonder drug.

Have been considering Rufus as a compromise boy's name myself although secretly plan to just browbeat DH into coming round to my preferred choice.

You see, I think it is quite normal to pronounce Irene with an eee sound at the end so I wouldn't change the spelling.

The Irene one, you're going to have to put an extra E on the end otherwise she would have a lifetime of correcting people!

Perdita does indeed remind me of the Jilly Cooper character. I remember the first time I read it I had never heard the name Perdita said outloud and I pronounced it in my head as Perdeeta so when I finally found out the real pronounciation I was a bit but now I quite like it!

All the others im not keen on. But it's not upto me is it!
Get your OH to write up a list of names he likes, see if you like any of those, if not try to find similar but more unusual names that he might like!

This is the thing. Names very, very quickly just become a name. Finley is very weird IMVHO - Fin? Like a fish? But of course, it isn't because we know it now.

I do (partially) agree with the advice not to tell anyone until baby is born. People then associate name with baby and it's fine. Good luck with decision making!!

I have changed my mind and like Kimya very much now.

You can have Felix. And Ottilie and Perdita at a push. And you can have Belphoebe if you promise never to use the name in full.

great and interesting name = (very often) weird and ridiculous name

The company that imports bananas is Fyfe, not the actual bananas themselves.

Not that it matters, still has banana connetations.