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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

googleprint

82 replies

stubbornhubby · 29/09/2010 10:27

my children were named long ago, but if i was naming a child now one of my biggest areas for thought would be : is it better to have an unusual name, so that people can find you on google and facebook, or a 'john smith' type name where you will always be difficult to locate.

there are pros and cons, and I think it's an interesting one.

I have an unusual surname - (less than 500 people in the world it seems) and so every one of my family have unique names, and are easy to find on google and facebook. I think our experience of modern life is shaped quite strongly by this.

I am interested to know if other people debate this, and which side do come down on one? Do you go for a rare name, or a thousands of 'em?

Did this ever occur to you? It doesn't seem to be discussed on MN (or at least I couldn't find it in a search)

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Original poster
stubbornhubby · 29/09/2010 11:34

an anonymous 'john smith' type name has obvious advantages -

but then ask either of the Duncan Campbells who BOTH work for the Guardian whether it has helped them, or hindered.

and (OK extreme example I know, but you get the point) robbie williams has definitely had problems in the USA because every one confuses him with Robin

It is an interesting one.. there are definite pros and cons.

OP posts:
TotorosOcarina · 29/09/2010 10:58

I'd go for Gogyle Prince.

Much nicer.

wukter · 29/09/2010 10:57

Why not Guygle-Prynt, it's more uneek.

seriously, though, it's an interesting question. I'd lean towards an un-googleable name, leaves the control in their hands as to who can get information about them.

kizzibear · 29/09/2010 10:54

I never thought about this but just started google searchs on all my name choices with surnames, and we are on to winners, in terms of no other people with the name. yay.

CaptainNancy · 29/09/2010 10:48

It was important to us- unique surname in UK, google any of us and we're the top link. We discounted one name because there was already a person of that name.
My children should have little problem taking their names as domain names if they want to.
The positives are that we are SEO... that is also a negative, and I'm quite careful about anonymity, and use different avatars across different sites (eg fb, twitter, ebay, mn, flickr etc)

ZacharyQuack · 29/09/2010 10:32

Googleprint is a lovely name, so unique.

LittleCheesyPineappleOne · 29/09/2010 10:30

It's a really interesting question, and one which has gone through my mind. As a result, my two soon to be three DCs have ungoogleable names - a fairly common surname, a classic but not too common first name - but if you google them you get pages and pages of people. Whilst you never knew what sort of technology will be around the corner, it was certainly something that crossed my mind when naming ours.