Genuine admiration for new baby's name

DOG Your dc's names are lovely. I like all of them
[stalker emoticon]

DS is Harris James and my mum usually introduces him as Harris James Surname. There have been lots of positive comments, including two people saying the name sounded 'distinguished'. I like to think Harris is 'unusual but not unheard of' although it had a huge leap in popularity in Scotland in 2011.

I have an Alexandra which me and DP love and think its a name she can grow with IYKWIM. She goes by nicknames at the moment however as its a bit of a big name for a little girl.
DS is Jack. I hate it but we have had no negative comments on it.

Sausage Delilah is beautiful! A lady on my PN thread called her baby Delilah, Dilly for short which I think is so cute

I get lots of compliments about DD2's name. Her name is Charlotte but she is known as Lottie, which I often introduce her as. People who have overheard have stopped and said, "oh, what a pretty name."

OP, not everyone is going to like the name that you choose. Both my DDs have names that are often named by MNers as "their favourites" or "classics" but on other threads they are named as "boring" and "overused". DD1's name is particularly popular nowadays, which it wasn't when I chose it (or didn't seem to be).

Cheerful - I have a Ciaran, but that's no so unusual, a Brennan, a Brogan and a Tate.

At the risk of outing myself (meh no one I know is on here anyway) we had/have the same criteria as you OP, unusual but not unknown. DS is Dexter which, aside from the odd serial killer jibe it's been very popular. Am pregnant now with DD who we've decided to call Delilah (Lilah for short). Again the reactions have been really positive, the only person who seems to not like it is MIL who keeps asking if i'm sure about it.

I think names are unusual for a number of reasons
A) they really aren't everyone's cup of tea
B) ethnic names that most people wouldn't get away with
C) the next big thing
DD1 got loads of positive comments for he first year or two. Now it's very common and no one comments anymore. DS on the other hand gets lots of positive comments. His name is not unusual though. Lots of people genuinely love it - I guess that's why it's popular.

We had - and still receive - positive, genuine admiration for all DCs names: one unusual, one middling, one middling since very popular. So I do rather agree with the poster who said that in RL, every comment will seem like genuine admiration. And socially adept people will add little expansions to their comments so you really believe it.

Admiration reflects taste, and so if you want to be sure lots of people like the name, go for top 20. They are classic and popular for a reason.

Ooh, deemented, spill! :)

My next baby will most likely be Eleanora Josephine or Charles Frederick. I love 'em!

I always get a great reaction when I introduce dd2 (except from my mum). I think it really depends on so many different factors though. I have never 'met' another person with her name and it is different to what most baby girls around here are called. There are about 20,000 Lola's here.

Her name is Eliza.

We have just named DD Lucinda, but introduce her to everyone as Lucy. Midwives, health visitor, family, friends etc have given loads of positive feedback & smiles, saying it is a lovely, classic name and a nice change from all the Lilys, Millies, Ellie-Maes & Olivias around.

But then again, I'm biased and it would take a pretty rude person to say "oh, what an awful name!" when being introduced to DC!!

I have three children with unusual names - as in, there isn't any others that i know of. I love all there names, especially DS3's as it just suits him so much.

Am really struggling with names for DC5 though.

I let DH do the final choosing of DD's name, he chose Daisy. It was on our short list, but not my favourite and tbh, it was only as she got to 3 ish that I started to think it was 'her' name iyswim? I called her all sorts of nicknames before, so she was always Doodles, Pumpkin, Sweetpea etc

DS I chose the name, he is Fred (Frederick) but not Freddie. It is a common name in previous generations of my family and it suits my son perfectly. I love it and rarely call him any pet names.

I have an Amelia - that always get's lovely name comments, although is now hugely popular.

I also have a Claudia - that does not always get lovely name comments. A midwife asked me if I had named her after someone and looked confused when I said no. She clearly did not like the name, and I have seen a few people falter when I first said it.

Yet out of the 2 it is my favourite name

We thankfully all have different tastes and surnames and so hopefully will choose different names for our children, especially as the whole point of naming someone is to identify them.
No name will be loved by everyone and if it were it would soon fall out of favour for being too 'common'. Choose a name You love!
We have a Quentin and love it. Most people's responses are very positive (whether genuine or not) .

When I was pregnant, we said dp would name boys and I would name girls.
I had 2 boys.
I hated ds1's name for a long time, love it now as it really suits him. His name is Jacob. I hadn't met anyone called that before he was born, and now they are everywhere!
Ds2 is called Luke. I don't like that name. He is 3 and I still don't really like it. I wanted Jonah, Joseph, Isaac or Matthew.

Originally I wanted to call ds1 Ford! Love that name

I get lots of positive comments about my dd's name, less so about ds. I do think that you need to choose something you love, not something that you think other people will love.

I have a Hannah, and very rarely get any strong reaction to it, positive or negative. Sometimes I do get 'name envy' and wish we'd called her something more 'out there' that drew more attention, but we wanted a name that would never be particularly in or out of fashion, so hopefully she will never feel 'saddled' with it.

I have a Samuel Robert and most people seem to like it all right. My MIL loved it when he was first born and would introduce him to everyone with his full name. :o While we just called him Sammo.

Agree with blastoff, your motivations are askew. :(

We got generally positive feedback about ds's name, but a year or two after he was born it was used on Eastenders and it is now thought of as very chavvy. We moved to Canada a few years ago where the name isn't used very much and he has had a few people comment that it sounds like a girl's name, which isn't really the response a 12 year old is after! However he loves it and so do we, so really who cares?

I have a very unusual name and do get consistently positive feedback from all sorts of people, which is nice I guess, although it's a bit of a pain always having to spell it. I can't remember people making comments about it (positive or negative) when I was a child though.

To be honest I would avoid a name where people's immediate reaction is 'wow' because the only time I have ever reacted like that was when someone told me the name of their little girl and my mouth moved faster than my brain (the little girls in question was called "America" which to me is a really bizarre thing to call a child). Of course in embarrassment I then said something nice about it because I really didn't want to be rude/upset the other mum.

Personally I like Marianna very much, but not Ivo or Antonia. Different people have different tastes (which is great as otherwise all children would have the same names, which woudl be dull).

(And popular names are popular because lots of people like them, not because they couldn't be bothered to think of an unusual one! Most people put huge amounts of time and effort into choosing a name. They may choose something you think is pedestrian, and yes may be influenced by fashion, but they haven't chosen it because they couldn't be bothered to think of something different)