Recent nutty names I have heard

There's a girl named Velocity at DD's university.

And a friend of mine had a pair of twins in her first class (nearly 40 years ago now) called Ribena and Delrosa.

I know someone who's called her son Buzz.

Was looking up the Phoenix family on wikipedia after reading of the hippy family who called their girl Mermaid, and apparently the family surname was originaaly 'Bottom'. Joaquim Phoenix was born, Joaquim Bottom! (funnier if Joaquim's pronounced properly)

These are hysterical. I know a Kerry Perry and my mum went to school with Douglas Douglas.

My dad once had a work colleague named Fakoffo. (Try saying it out loud.) Perfectly normal where we lived then (Pacific island), but my dad always had trouble saying it. When at work he always carried a 2-way radio. Sometimes a voice would come over, calling, 'Fakoffo! Fakoffo! Fakoffo!' It was as if my dad's waistband had developed sudden-onset Tourettes.

In Kenya my parents knew a man called Bonaventureofgod. Lovely name, if a little unusual.

I once met a woman called 'Merrily'.

Friend of mine once worked with a guy called Mustafa Shittu. Worked perfectly well for him in his home country. Slightly more problematic when he travelled to the UK.

Ohh and there was a Gail Forse in my English class at school, still makes me chuckle

I was once in a high st chain store and heard someone shout for a Kenzo, the little chap was running wild...

At college there was a Chinese girl in my biology class who was called Vagina. The story went that she wanted to be called Virginia, but got it wrong on her paperwork and it was only when someone at the college pointed it out she realised her mistake.

Another girl at college was called Charmaine Rainbird which I always thought was quite pretty.

About 10 years ago looking the announcements in the paper I came across a new baby girl called Panda(I always hoped it could have been a typo for Pandora)

i know a Mike Hunt (my father's friend) and always used to snigger as a teenager, when my mum would ask who was on the phone 'oh it's Mike Hunt' my dad would say...

Even the most innocent of names can carry trouble for the child due to unthinking or cruel but think they're funny parents! Having taught for over 30 years the prize winners were definately Mr and Mrs Cotton calling their daughter Polly Esther, and Michael Hunt which is fine until abbreviated to Mike...I kid you not!!!

Danilo is eastern European, (I presume for Daniel), just like Jiri is Czech for George.

@takethatlady - Mercedes is a very popular Spanish name, very common in south and central America, and is older than the eponymous German car firm. The British ballerina Darcey Bussell's middle name is also Mercedes.

Just stumbled across these names on a blog I didn't mean to find: "Koala 17; Carpenter 15; Einstein 13; Michelangelo 11; Princess 9; Jelly Bean 6; Jack Jack 4; Jem 2; 'Baby' due March" Can they be real??? Jem will probably live up to expectation, but as to the rest...

Flame-Carmen, anyone? was a child in DD's ballet class I kid u not !!

Pepsi and Shirlie!! yes she was Helen..and Shirlie is one of my customers! still looks the same..well not the puffball skirts though!

I went to a school with a Merlin - which I now love

Have also come across a Saint, Demi and a Destiny in a local school, and have friends who have named a child Zebedee and also Hepzibar (far from the madding crowd)

I love all those Chinese names (but only on Chinese children I think) snow, china and swan - wonderful.

Also love Titus but resisted due to potential Tight Arse and have also adore Dido but thought helpful school friends would add an L. :)

We know an Elektra which I like very much....

this thread is v amusing!!

Sorry, Jedediah (Hebrew for "friend of God"). Tricky typing so many letters at once.

Haven't read all 11 pages of this thread but as for Pepsi and being a Wham fan - her name was actually Helen. Hello!!! People should not give their children first names which were famous peoples' nicknames. I do think people should research names more carefully instead of just copying what they see on a wall or t-shirt. I think old, rare names are nice like Dorcas, Hebe and Jedidiah - but you do have to be careful about ones that have now got strong literary/theatre associations - like Lucretia and Regan. I mean, yes, they sound pretty but in secondary school people will know that one is a rape victim (and not known for much else) or much married woman from a Machiavellian family (again, not a great reputation), and in King Lear, Regan was evil. Misspelling the name doesn't change the associations. If the child is from a foreign culture and the name is foreign, that's fine and we can't really judge. Then again this isn't new, like Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence and Moon Unit Zappa (now uses just Moon) can attest. Famous and successful parents don't necessarily choose kind names!

I can vouch for the normalness of Fatos in Turkey - it's a diminutive of Fatma and is pronounced Fatosh. Not much can be said to help any poor boy named Ufuk who ends up in an English-speaking country though...

Last year went to a party and was a 4 year old called Willow, which I have known for 30 odd years as a girls name, but this was a boy.

At DS1's nursery in SW London a few years ago a boy called Chaise (pronounced Chase - I really struggled with that - surely someone they knew must have done some French at school?)

While living in Africa, I found that Precious was a pretty common name, as were things like Gift. Even there though, the couple I met on a bus were felt to have unusual names: he was called Office and she was Chemist.

I am particularly pleased with my cousin's friend who is called.........
Darth Clegg.
Fucking genius

I know a 3yo girl called Felix.......

My Gran once had to put a lady straight who was going to name her child gelatine after she misheard my Gran saying Geraldine was a nice name....

I think there are so many mistakes made by people who can't spell sadly - when I registered my DD, the registrar made sure she had it right and I am sure she would steered me right if I had unknowingly misspelt it!

Is a shame they don't intervene more but on the Sigh-Anne thing - If you name a child Shawn instead of Sean, what's a Registrar to do - I imagine it is just a phonetic spelling of Sian?!

I had a Hong Kong student called Happy Yip. Reminded me of something Snoopy would do on a good day.

Cardamom has reminded me of another..Coriander

My sister use to work for the police in the child protection agency. She came across some classics including a Chardonnai (yes, spelt like that) and a woman who gave all her daughters the same first name . There was also a great mispelling: 'Abbey-Gale'.

My personal favourite ever is Jeepster (a boy).

I am now shamed though since the name we would have given to a son is on this page (in my defence it is completely normal where I come from).

I once had a summer job in the local council office and witnessed the staff trying to persuade a new father that whilst "Fanny" did indeed fulfil his criteria of a name beginning with 'F' it would be an astonishingly bad idea in a north Glasgow suburb.