Anyone actually managed to pick an unusual name?

Being from Wales I always thought I would use Welsh names, I love lots of Welsh boys names; Iolo, Oisin, Ieuan, Gethyn, Iestyn...

However, DP is German and none of the German rellies would have a cat-in-hell's chance of ever pronouncing the name!

So far the only German/British name I can come up with that I like is Clara

These are the names of children where I teach that I have never met another one of - or not in recent years at least. (terrible sentence!) I haven't included names that are only so unusual because of their spelling:

Girls: Aliya, Anastasia, Amreeta, Annalise, Athene, Camilla, Caprice, Cathy, Celest, Cerys, Christabel, Clare, Fenella, Fionnhuala, Gemma, Iona, Jaskiran, Juliet, Katinka, Mira, Meg, Nayana, Nyah, Pippa, Rosemary, Sadie, Samai, Samya, Sorcha, Zia

Boys: Alejandro, Arnav, Ayrton, Barnaby, Benedict, Craig, Cosmo, Diego, Douglas, Ferdi, Fitch, Gennady, Gregory, Guy, Hal, Hector, Joleyon, Keshav, Monty, Nelson, Niall, Nacho, Oluwakorede, Oluwatoni, Orlando, Orson, Paris, Peter, Rafi, Ranulph, Rex, Ruan, Shea, Simon, Tasimba, Tavish, Tawanda, Teo, Tolulope, Vishal

Some of those might not be unusual names in other cultures or countries at all, I don't know.

i live in france and i find the differences in trends for baby names fascinating. I know plenty of women in my age group (40's) called Florence, Béatrice; Nathalie, Virginie, Slyvie and Isabelle and no one would dream of calling a baby those names today. Most popular baby names are Léa, Manon, Chloé, Emma and for boys - Hugo, Tom, Enzo,Luca, Clément, Théo and Raphael.

I think there are lots of pretty french names for girls - my favourites are Constance, Joséphine, Solange, Sabine, Estelle and Maud

my DD would have been Rowan Elizabeth, if DS2 had been a girl he would have been Rio or willow, middle name of ds1 is Haydn wish we did this first name as his is fairly common, also like Hermione, September, Troy, Reuben and Caitlin.

ready, is it Lucrezia? If so then I am afraid I have bad news for you...

I think 'Baby' is used for a baby that is stillborn in the statistics (i.e. where the parents didn't register a name for the baby).

I was thinking along the same lines Carlita and luckily my husband and I hit upon a 2 names (first & second) that we both LOVE around the time I fell pregnant (after 10 years of never agreeing at all) I just looked up both names on the link above and found that there were only 10 others of her first name and 17 of her second last year. At first I was really pleased that we'd picked something so unique but now I'm worried the name has some kind of hidden history or meaning I don't know about. Nevermind I still adore it, even more so now that I associate it with my beautiful 8month old.

Seriously though, there were 10 'London's and 10 'baby's. Who calls their baby, baby?!? Surely our name is better than that!!!!!

I have a theory that in past years there were one or two names that were hugely popular to the extent that large % of the population of that rough age will have the same name. Whereas at the moment although there has been the odd runaway name, most of the time there is more of an even spread between the top 25 - so that even if your child had the most popular name for that year their still aren't necessarily that many of them.

My daughter is named Cariad which is Welsh for sweetheart. We live in England and she chooses 'Cassie' for short

Cariad means sweetheart doesn't it?

I've always fancied having a Basil.

Picked DDs name thinking it was fairly unusual (but traditional) then found out it was about number 39 on the list the year she was born! However, she's 3 now & I haven't so far come across another one.

All the unusual names I like(d) are creeping up in popularity & DH would say no to anything too 'out there'!

My son's name is not in the least "weird" and doesn't stand out as such. However, I have yet to meet another child with the same name as him and he is 8.8.

DS1 has a rare name but not unheard of. He will be the only one at the whole school when he starts secondary school next year for eg.

DS2 has a more unusual name and i've only tracked down two others in this country. There are more elsewhere though.

"at my son's infant school there's not a single Jack.. Now Seb, Zeb, Mabel, Aggie's are a plenty"

Really - I find that hard to believe

And my step nephew and nieces had unusual names and hated them to the extent that they insisted unchanging them before they would go to Secondry school.

I understand the desire to name your child something that means they likely to be the only one in their class. ( I thought I was doing this 15 years ago by namingbmy daughter that charming, unusual, old fashioned name Grace!) I am baffled by deliberately given. Child q name that requires explanation, spelling, pronouncing or all three every single time it is given for the rest of that person's life!

For a different perspective. I have an unusual name and love it. Never have to use my last name to differentiate myself!

eilidh and angus fairly popular in northern scotland good names I like them but not so common further south. peggy is nice too and felix and seth know 1 seth, several angus's and eilidh's

Everyone seems to have really individual taste in names where I live, to the extent that I haven't noticed a repeat of any name at all... no matter how unoriginal they might have been in the past.

It's quite handy really.

My current favourite is Aro though. Apparently it's very popular in Hungary?

I love Zebedee and Jethro
And for a girl Keziah or Ottilie.

Names I loved which dh wouldn't agree to:
Asher
Briony
Hamish (managed this as a middle name)
Coral
Cariad (Carrie for short)
Rosemary (chose something not too far off for dd in the end)

I know a lovely little boy called Camlo, and another friend has a daughter called Eska.

To say it has been the most popular name for boys for years, it's odd at my son's infant school there's not a single Jack.. Now Seb, Zeb, Mabel, Aggie's are a plenty.

Lilah, Peggy, Tierney, Oonagh, Keeva, Eilidh (pronounced Ailee), Raythe, Aurora

None of the above although come across Lila a fair bit.

I work in an infant school:

Cillian, Gus, Otto, Finch, Rufus, Nate, Oisin, Angus, Alvah, - not got any of those currently that I am aware of.

Stanley, Seth, Felix - have either taught or have/had in school recently