If you decided on an unusual name did you every regret it?

My sister and I have unusual names, my 3 DCs have names I've never heard of and I've never regretted any of them.......I still love them today and they are 11 and 8 yr old twins. They all suit their names and get complimented on them, some people chose to be rude but I have to say not many.....my DP sister was a little rude about them but I don't like her boys names as they are common and wouldnt suit my family so I don't really care what she thinks! If I'm honest people have opinions on absolutely everything, my DS gets nagged all the time by his elders for having long hair but in school he's cool so as long as he's happy then I'm happy!! We are expecting number 4 soon and we have picked a very unusual name that we've never heard of before
As long as your happy with it then go with it, if you care what people think then go for something common otherwise you'll never be able to settle with it! Good luck

Unless it's an outright bizarre name, You should stop caring what other people think. Go with what you love.

DS2 is Tristan. It gets spelled wrong often or confused with Tristram. He gets called Dustin, Justin, Christian, Kris. He had speech delay & couldn't say his own name properly for long time. Like most unusual names, it doesn't have as nice NNs as the common choices.

DS2 has quite a... er, colourful personality, so stands out in a crowd anyway.

So sometimes I wish I had just called him Steve or Oliver.

DS3 has arguably the most common boy name of the last 60 years.

PMed you.

shhhhh. Sworn to secrecy

I want to know all these unusual names now

Thing is, other people will have an opinion on everything aspect of your child rearing from naming, to feeding, to schooling etc. If it is right for you and DP (sounds like it is) then you should call your DCs what you want to. London is very diverse for names and there are very few names that would be roundly criticised but no doubt everyone will have an opinion.

The good (ish) news is that if you don't tell anyone pre-birth when you introduce the baby most people (usually with the exception of family )will be too polite to be critical even if they don't like your name choice. AND hilst they may say something behind your back they are unlikley to say it to your face.

The only person you will really need to "justify" it to is DC themselves.

I have an unusual name and have always loved being the only one with it at school, at work and amongst my friends. It is a beautiful, classic but rare name and it also doesn't 'date' me as it was never trendy.

I agree that the purpose of giving our children a name is so that they can be identified (ideally without adding an initial or other adjective!).

Startail, are you being ironic? Would you rather we all be called similar names so that no-one would know whe you're talking about ?!

"The main problem with unusual names is absolutely everyone who overhears knows who you are talking about."

Isn't that excactly the purpose of a name - to IDENTIFY a person!

The main problem with unusual names is absolutely everyone who overhears knows who you are talking about.

Both DDs have lovely friends with very memorable names, so the most innocent things cant be discussed in public because of the chance that someone will know them in our small town.

Nope. My children have got very unusual names and I love them. Many people have never heard of them before. They go nicely with our lovely forrin surname.

As I said earlier I don't think children are teased much for their names, unless they are something no sensible person would choose- Roger, or Willy or Minnie or Fanny or something. It's just that it's, as my step nephew said ( as he changed his name to Tom!) really tiring to have to keep explaining.

I know about 10 Steves and 15 Andys and, whilst they may not mind, I do. It gets confusing and annyong to have to add a surname or other modifier.

Also, depending on what area you work in, it can be handy to be found/identified easily (e.g. on the internet), which is going to be hard if you are one of 1000s Steve Joneses or Andy Smiths.

Our ds has an unusual name (used about 15 times last year) and he and us love it!

Patrick isn't a usual name these days though, even among my lot (Catholics) My DS has a solid bible name and he was one of 5 in his year at primary school, 3 in his actual class, and more than 10 in the school as a whole. It was fine. It's one of those names capable of lots of different short-forms and the boys all found their preferred option. At secondary school, there are two in his tutor group and again, many more in the year (including the other 4 from the primary school). He's fine with it. His name really suits him.He wouldn't like an unusual name like his sisters have.

I know about 10 Davids. All of them through work. None of them mind having what was clearly a pretty usual name 45-50 years ago.

My name is a common name that rhymes with jelly, belly, smelly etc.

Doesn't matter what you name a child there will be a way of using it to tease.

ANY name can be teased. Will becomes Willy, Ellie becomes Smellie, Gabriel becomes Gayboy etc etc. But in my opinion a child is rarely teased because of his/her names - kids are pretty accepting of different names. Children are teased due to their character and the teaser WILL find something to tease regardless of name.

In other words, I would not worry so much about teasing potential in regards to names. I would choose a name you love, that sound good with your surname and that, ideally, isn't already used by thousands of others!

I am always amused that people justify really "out there" names by saying it's the only way to avoid being one of 4 in a class. I have a Patrick and he has only just, now he's in year 7 met another one anywhere near his age. His friend John has met grown ups and a baby, but no other child. I could come up with 10 perfectly ordinary names which I could pretty much guarantee would make them the only ones in the class.

My son has an uncommon name. I dont regret it.

It's a name we liked so he got it. It's similiar to callum.

I have an unusual name and often wonder wtf my mother was thinking. Especially as my entire family shorten it so than my name sounds like a grunt. Thanks, honest . In fact, I half married DH because he never, ever shortens my name .

I think it depends entirely on the name/s. All 5 of my DC have Gaelic/Celtic names, though we actually live well outside of the area they originate from. DS1 and DS3 don't tend to have as many problems because their names, whilst very unusual when we picked them, have actually become recognisable and quite trendy outside of Scotland in recent years. So depending on the names you've picked, something which is unusual now might not be so in 5 years time, especially if it's already a name which has gained a little bit of popularity in trendy circles. Oldish names have also made quite a resurgence in the past decade, so it might not be as much of a 'burden' as you worry.

However, particularly when it comes to DD and DS4, I do wish we'd considered the implications of using very culturally/linguistically specific names. DS4's name (Arran) has been criticised as 'chavvy' because some people perceive it to be a mis-spelling of Aaron, and whilst it's obviously incredibly small-minded to think this way or make judgements about a child based on little more than their name, I do worry that it affects his life. It's always being written down as Aaron - and often even when we/he say that it's actually "like the Scottish island", people still stare blankly!
Likewise, it's very rare for anyone to be able to spell, pronounce or put the spoken and written versions together of DD's name (Mhairi - pronounced VAH-ree) and so I rather agree with seeker - it doesn't affect DH and I so much but it's tiring and an utter pain in the arse for DD and DS4 to have to explain over and over how their names are spelled and pronounced, that no they aren't made-up, that Irish is a close guess but we're actually Scottish and so on.

Both my daughters have uncommon names. DD1's name is a bit uncommon, in this country but not in Ireland, DD2's name is extremely uncommon everywhere. Both names are actually French in origin. DD1 hates her name but goes by a nickname which is WAY more unusual - its not because of the unusualness of her name that she hates it but because she was never called it when little. However she may be warming a bit to it now - she says it isn't 'her' but she will use it professionally when she grows up. She wouldn't change it to that extent.

I think it's a beautiful name. :(

DD2 adores her name, loves it being very unusual, and insists on everyone using the full version except for us and her sibs who are allowed to use the shortened pet name version.

It is a great name, I must admit.

My sister has a completely made up name. There appear to be 2 others in the whole world, both about 20 years younger than her, not known to us, we assume their parents heard her name somewhere and nicked it. She likes her name now, when she was younger, not so much. It has a very very common abbreviation though which she habitually used when she was younger.

Oh the most out there names I have come across were Cinnamon and Vanilla for a set of twin girls (?)
and Snake for a boy (definitely hate it)

DS has an unusual name and the only problem we have come across is school. Every time he changes class the new teacher/teaching assistant has a problem. This year all his books have his name with an added 's' because that makes a word (although not a name). We have also had 'ic' added.

His name is unusual-ish but not unheard of and not made up!

Brugmansia I understand you don't want people to put you off,

but I always discussed our names with other people, because I wouldn't have wanted to choose with a hidden negative meaning I didn't know about or something that could be teased as language/understanding/slang change
maybe it's because English is not my first language, but living permanently in the Uk with English husband I wanted names that are nice and easy to use, preferably with only one spelling known/common.

and I'm so glad I did ask around and didn't go for the following names(although I still love the sound of all!):

• Jezabel (thought it was a version of Izabel!)

• Lydia (I adore it, but DH says he knows people being teased coz it rhymes with chlamydia...I still love it, if we had a second daughter, I'd still want it, even if for a middle name)

• Isabell - stupid cyclistfgriend laughed and said " Is a bell neccesary on a bike?" totally ruined it for me, but I would have hated that joke made after naming DD

• Benedict - my 9 year old's reaction was "what? Bene Dick?

• Abigail - friend's daughter's been bullied and teased Abi-gay

• Lucas - rhymes with mucus apparently

• Stella - sometime it's a nickname for beer I was told

• Adam madam- I'm-Adam

• Fleur - can be pronounced to sound like floor

• and probably the worst of all Adolf! I couldn't help but liking the sound of it, despite the hugely negative historical association

some names can gain massive popularity over night (Scarlett and Tara after the publishing of "Gone with the Wind" just one example, Elvis another, which was practically unheard of previously and is suggested to be a family name for the Presleys) and equally totally fall out of use (such as Adolf, Herod for obvious reasons!).

you just can tell what's safe what's risky or what will be popular/unpopular by the time DC goes to nursery or university or reaches 60!

I wonder how many babies have been named Barack or Obama (first or middle) in the last 4 years!

(by the way if you have any of those name above, please understand that I'm not intending to hurt anyone's feelings, I'm just stating the reactions I've come across so far!)

ps. just notice you are the OP brugs

I have an unusual name and generally I really like having an unusual name. The only thing that bothers me about it is having to spell it, and correct pronouciation but this is a small price to pay IMO. If at all possible, try and pick an usual name that is phoentically spelt (it does make life easier ).