googleprint

I'm the only one with my name on Google, which is ideal because I work freelance in the film industry and I'm easy to find for jobs. Frankly I'd hate to have a common name - why give your kid the same name as everyone else? I think folk get too hung up on school bullies - if they don't rib your name they'll rib your height, or your dad's car, or your ears... why kowtow to a bunch of juveniles? Go for something special, I reckon.

well.... all my boys have unusual names.

if you put their names into google they're in the top few results. BUT that is because they each have their own website and dp has SEO'd the shit out of them

I am the first 5 results you get from Googling my name :)

Like the OP, I can be relatively confident that anyone with my surname is related to me if I go back far enough. There are only 7 of us in the UK (used to be just 4 but my borther got married and had kids). There was another "visitor" from SOuth Africa who was doing a PhD at Oxford: I found out about her by googling - emailed her and worked out that great great grandfather's second cousin by a second marriage (IIRC) - but I think that she has gone back now.

Unfortuantely dh's surname, although unusual, is also a common verb so it is therefore not google-able - and both he and ds have relatively common first names.

DS is not only the only one with his name but already comes up twice, I'm not sure whether I should be pleased or concerned that he is that famous at 2!

There is only one other person with my name on fb (I don't use my own name on there anyway) but several more must be around as DP once spoke to a much older one when he worked in a call centre.

DS (3 yrs) is apparently a very busy television producer...now how he managed to fit that in with his playground and nap schedule I'll never know. :o

Only ten people in the whole world with me and DS's surname. Doesn't matter what first name I choose for future childrne, they'll still be one of a kind

My surname is also very unusual, and my first name was pretty unusual (in the UK, not so much in the US) until about 5-10 years ago, but now it's EVERYWHERE, grrr. Still, for now it means that if I google my name, all the entries are me, me, me, and I readily admit I really like that (and will be enraged if one day an imposter appears on "my" search results page).

DH's name, however, both first and surname, are common as muck . And since DD has his surname and quite a common first name, she won't be easy to find on these type of searches. I must admit it didn't even cross my mind when naming her (though tbh, with DH's surname, she was never going to be unique unless we called her Esmeralda Boniface Zahara, or something).

I have a verrrrry common name and it has advantages - however, it's not great for business.

DH has a very unique name and I'm envious. I don't want to change my name, but I do covet his ever so slightly.
I was happy for our children to have his name. Being the only one (unusual forenames too) will be an advantage. However, I suppose it's only a slight advantage, and also, it's only an advantage so long as you're happy to be known (and not notorious).

I'm pretty much unique - there seem to be a couple of probably now-departed americans with my name, thats all.

Fortunately my hits are mostly thing like publications but it does mean that I avoid any online discussions which aren't anonymous.

DH always worries a bit that with his unusual surname we're too easy to find should anyone bear a grudge (his example, someone he's turned down for a job).

Having gone and checked...

11 people on FB with DS's name. Two with DD's name. None with likely girl's name for DC3. Five with likely boy's name for DC3.

it never crossed my mind, but i am going to goggle ds name see what happens...

I think everyone has to take responsibility for their own identity security in this day and age so no, I don't see it as a problem for the next generation of kids. They will be sorting out our security for us.

There's a difference between being found on FB and having your info accessible to any old finder.

But in answer to the question, I had a unique-ish name combo before marriage and I loved it (an ex-boyf said I sounded like a secret agent!). Now I have a v dull surname and my first name is now incredibly common - I would have hated that at school. For this reason all my DCs have fairly unusual names.

8 people on FB with DS1's name, which is also the name of a park in Texas. 6 people on FB with DS2's name.

I am the only person on FB with my name, and google brings up one other person - an elderly lady in the USA :)

I'd definitely rather have a relatively unusual name. Hadn't thought about registering domain names for DSes - might do that...

This is definitely something I thought of. There is nobody on Facebook with DD's full name, & on google there are only dead people. She has a reasonably uncommon first name, & a fairly uncommon surname. My surname is even more uncommon than DP's, & my family are the only ones that come up on Google.

I think somewhere in between is best.

I searched ds1's name and weirdly, a character from Dallas came up! Very handsome but looks remarkably like ds1, only a bit older...

Try it with different names, on google images - you often find several results who look very alike. Spooky.

It isn't something that I have ever thought of, but I have just checked and there are 495 people on Facebook with DS1's name, 47 with DS2's name and 54 with DD's name. Which is strange actually as in their school DS1 is the only person with his first name but there are 2 of DD and 3 of DS2!

I think their names are nicely in the middle ground, not too common but not too unusual either.

DH has a dead common surname so even with fairly unusual first names there are a few Google hits for both the DCs' names and for our likely names for DC3. DS is also a bad teenage poet from NZ and a Scottish golf pro, while DD is a former Olympic shotputter and an amateur Gilbert & Sullivan singer. Both are unusual enough that firstnamelastname.com hadn't gone, though, and we've registered those domain names for the DCs in case they want to use them later in life.

My first name used to be unusual and I spent most of my life up to my late 20s knowing that if I heard it it was always someone talking to/about me. Now it's become popular and is on an army of small girls and it's very offputting as I keep turning around in shops when I hear my name called.

Are there ANY benefits to having a 'John Smith' type name?

I too know so many Mikes, Steves, Daves etc that I always need to add their surname when talking about them...

There are SO many lovely names out there, surely we can all try a bit harder to try and give our children less common names.

Exactly bigbluebump! I have a fairly uncommon name and whenever people mention the name in conversation they are always referring to me. Colleagues with names such as Chris, Michelle, Dave etc have to constantly check which Chris it is that needs to do something.

Never thought about it to be honest. I kind of like that for my current name, I don't appear at all (paranoid), but the name is still kind of different - I've never met another person with the same name (first and last) as me .

Have just googled my first name with DP's surname and on that search, someone who runs a jazzercise class came up. I like

Why would anyone give their child a 'thousands of them' name on purpose?

Agree with previous poster that the idea of naming something/one is to identify it.

To me the advantages of having a unique (in the sense of less popular) far outweigh any negatives.

It is also much easier to remember someone's name (whereas I know so, so many adult Steve's that I honestly struggle to remember a new one ).

To me the whole point of 'naming' something or someone is to uniquely identify it/him/her. It just makes life easier and creates less confusion.

Ha, I just googled my kids names and my DD2 has one of the most unuckiest names in the world apparently!!

There are a couple of others out there with my kids names, so there will probably be a high chance they'll be google-able when they're older. Saying that though, once they are old enough to have an internet presence, there may be more of them online so it'll be harder?

I'm the only one of me on the internet and it can get odd to know that I'm the only result when I'm searched for.

I've checked my partner's last name with my first and reassuringly discovered that there are several others, should I change my name, if we ever got married. I would still be the only one in the UK, however!