Anyone actually managed to pick an unusual name?

Our main criteria for naming (3DDs when DD3 is born in a couple of months) is that their names aren't in the top 100 for the last five years. Mainly because DP and I have very common names and both hated it.

DD1 is Helena (I don't know any Helenas under 30)
DD2 is Felicity (I know of a few little Flisses but don't know any personally)
DD3 is Miranda (which I imagine will get more popular, but I don't know a single one)

Go for the names that were very popular from your own school experience as most of these are very rare now - I'm thinking Karen, Susan, Rebecca etc

Most amazing name I have heard is a now departed elderly lady called Arras after the battle of Arras which her father survived but many of his "pals" regiment did not.

Cheerful To my (British) ears, the parents of the Aaron I knew in PA pronounced his name as if it was written Arran - in fact, that's how I thought it was spelt until I saw it written down (pronounced almost like Erran). It's difficult to describe the difference, but I would stress and draw out the first syllable more. There's also the difference between the way in which "a" is pronounced in British and American English (to me, a in American English sometimes sounds more like an e and is widely copied by Austrians!).

Of course, I was generalising based on the one Aaron I knew in the USA and had assumed that was the standard American way of pronouncing it, but maybe not?

seeker, not a totally new preoccupation - my mother wanted names for us that were not much-used, and for the seventies, she succeeded (mine is much more popular these days (top 40), DB1's has grown in popularity but not as much as mine, and DB2's I think has risen a tiny bit). So she did well, seeing as she didn't have access to the Internet in those days!

I was the only one in my year with my name, out of 120 girls. There was one in the year below, and one the the year below that, in the five years I was at secondary school that was it - none at junior or primary, I don't remember another at sixth form. I like it that way.

Unusual names are lovely.

Trying to be witty is cruel to the child.

I know an Asher Price. Asda Price!

Also a Cherry Ada. cherryade!

Hi Mouldy
My maiden name I still had to spell my married name is worse it's French so (le,la,de,del) etc. before name. Ok you think but the (le, la) has to be in small letters then Capital for other name but (L* ***) is problematic.

and I gave my kids non normal names so they'll have exceed
our expectations

Were in Wales and my DS has a Welsh name (which I hear a lot but normally applied to men in their 70s/80's or as a surname).
People either miss hear me when I say or say "thats a good strong name" sine found out it means strong lord

My DDs have unusual names for the area (east London) but I have a Gisele (named after the meaning "truth or promise") not the Ballet or supermodel and a Nataliya (which I believe is a BelRus version of Natalia) as Grandmother's name but as I live with lots of eastern european's my DD2's best friend is (nickname) Natashka but has the same name but different spelling. I have a Tali and am happy ( ask me again when she's a teenager and wants to be called Nat then I'll have a problem)

We have an Orithyia (28) in our family, I've yet to meet another!

Your DC's all have fabulous names

A friend of my mum has just become a granny for the first time. The little bundle of joy is call Wessun Smith...... in Smith and Wessun guns.... And it was deliberate! Poor little mite!

My name (i'm not really called mouldy!) is unusual and I've always had mixed feelings about it. The good is that people tend to remember me. The bad is that it is often spelled wrongly and I've had to return my passport, cheques etc because of mistakes. I often have to repeat my name when asked and spell it two or three times over the phone. I always make hotel and restaurant bookings in my DH's name. When my DC were born I made sure that I chose names that were fairly common so that they wouldn't get teased in the way that I was at school.

When we were looking for names we didn't want any 'weird' spellings, names that couldn't be shortened to something we didn't like, something that, hopefully, there wouldn't be 3 or 4 of in the same class and nothing too far 'off beam'!

Had DS been a girl he would have been Maya or India. DH liked Freddy for a boy but in the end we both agreed on Sven. Lost count of the amount of people who have told us and him that it's a really 'cool' name.

Have just looked on the names statistics for the year he was born and he is one of 5 so it definately ticks all our boxes!! and in his school there are no other children with any of the names we picked!!

All my DDs have outlandish unusual names but DH & I chose them because we loved them and they had special meaning to us not because they had to be odd or not common. They aren't made up or 'tweaked' either.

When I say DD1's name I usually get asked if it's Welsh so get a few odd looks when I explain the real origin!

Not met another one of any of them (except DD2's name as I met someone who had the Greek version of my Latin name when I was expecting DD2).

Before I get lynched their names are as follows:-
They are Lilith Louise, Alethea Ivy and Callia Seren.

Aaron is always Air-on here in the US...what is Aran like?

I'm another who thinks it is almost impossible to predict if the name you have chosen will be unusual enough, if that is one of your main concerns.

When we named DD, we chose a classic, but old fashioned name, thinking she would be unlikely to meet any others around her age. What we didn't know was that another couple from our same small village were in the other postnatal ward at the hospital having the same discussion, and choosing the same name. The girls are now at the same school, and close friends. But, when I check the baby name statistics for the year, statistically it was not a popular name at all, so the chances of this happening were amazingly low. Nothing wrong with wanting a name that stands out from the crowd, but there are no guarantees....

bollocks2u did you really choose Billie because of my Billie?

I dont know what to say - how lovely. And your DD has the female version of DS3's name too

I wouldn't say that my name is unusual but it is uncommon (well outside of the USA)

i HATED the fact that no one else had the same name as me as a child, I could never buy anything personalised (a massive ishoo for me as a child) and everyone always commented on my name.

I used to tell people that I was called Sarah or Michelle whenever they asked as I knew plenty of those.

My ds have the most common & boring traditional British names, Jack & Thomas. Coincidence??

i know a girl called bryre,her mum got the name from sleeping beauty's briar-rose.i love it but if i stole it she would beat me with a stick!:o

DD is Winter - have met one other and heard of a boy with the name and DS is Atticus - not met any others but understand it is quite popular in the US.

Ime this unusual name thing doesn't work. My mum ditched the name she had lovingly selected for me because there were 3 other mums on the ward choosing the same- I have never to my knowledge met another person of that name since. But there were 2 more in my class called by the name she chose instead.

Dh and I chose an unpronouncable Scandi name that we thought nobody would ever have heard of- there's a German boy in the next road called the same!

ooh. Well I'm from East London so everything is 'f'!

'Fletcher' always remins me of 'phlegm'. Nice.

You never know smearedin! I would love to know if you did have a girl. Think my DD would love it if she heard of at least one other Xantia.