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

In my experience, having a less used name is a huge help in remembering a person's name. When I meet yet another (adult) Steve, Andy or Mike, I really struggle to remember their names. But a Winston, Linus or Darius stays in my brain much more easily. We sometimes forget why we name a person (or think), namely to identify him/her/it!

Or ds has a name that was used less than 20 times last year and he absolutely loves being the only one with his name in school and we get lots of compliments on it. DD's name, on the other hand, has become very popular and she is now one of 4 in her year group, which means she has to add her surname to all her work (and be known as littleXX or blondXX etc).

Why dys what's wrong with Phaedra?! [Wink]

No,we've not regretted DS's unusual name,I love it more every time I say it.

I have,however,regretted DD's name,it is,again,unusual,though more well known...the difference being,I never loved it in the first place.

Their names are Arlo (DS) and Skye (DD)

our kids all have names that aren't in the top 50 but that are commonly known - though some of the spellings are different. still happy about these choices, though would have preferred one child's godparents not to have copied it for their child

Is it Phaedra?

I called my ds (8 weeks) Herbie. It's a very uncommon and unusual name but I love it. Also everyone who has heard it has commented on how lovely it is.

Ds3 has a lesser used named - you can't get it from a shop on a key ring, but it's a brilliant name and no one has problems spelling or pronouncing it (except occassionally they stick a K on the end or a Mc on the front for some reason). I've never heard of another child with his name, although recently I've seen it pop up on name threads on here.

...may not be... sorry, not nob!

yes please tell us the names, they may nob as unusual as you think!

we named our 4th Noah which was very unusual at the time, but the name is getting quite popular

on the other had we have a Michael as DS3 first name, he is inyear 5 and I've not come across another Michael his age so far!

Same with David which is DS1 middle name and Elizabeth DD, although she's only 7 months old so there could be loads of them the same age, but won't know till this years statistics come out!
(people may have chosen it more frequently as a result of Jubilee hype/respect of Queen Elizabeth II - which was not our reason, although I don't mind the assumption.
we chose Elizabeth Grace for a girl for first pregnancy, but had 5 boys and waited 12 years to get to use it!)

ds1 has a very unusual name, he's 8 and we don't regret it, we love the name and it suits him. There are always comments on it, usually where is it from and that it's quite nice, and he loves having a name no-one else has. But we did give him a regular middle name so if he ever hates it he can go to that.

I must say, now we have ds2 with a common name it's quite nice saying a name and not having to get into a conversation about it. But such is life!

My brother's step children had "unique" names. Their parents never regretted it, but the children did, and all three, one after the other, refused to go to secondary school unless they were allowed to change their names.

They were never bullied- I don't think children are bullied for their names, unless it's a rude word or something- but, as the eldest put it "it's just so tiring having to explain every single time."

Hmm...we had an unusual name in mind for DD1 before she was born 30 odd years ago, but did not use it. I was speaking with DD2 in a conversation about names recently and mentioned the unusual one we had thought of and she was horrified! Could not believe we had even considered it.
I think we had thought of how the child would feel, growing up with an unusual name - could they carry it off? would they feel self conscious?...and had decided against it, just in case. And I think we made the right decision -we are very different people now from when DD1 was born (basically we are out of the earthy, vaguely hippy phase!).

We used a very underused name for DD(9) and have only found one other little girl with that name in nearly 10 years (and on here, not in RL) A few old ladies though.
DD is quiet and shy and really doesn't like to be the centre of attention at all but she LOVES having a name that no-one else has.
For DS(7) we opted for another slightly unusual name though it is more often used as a nickname for other, longer names. I LOVE the short his version :) He seems to like his name but has played around with different names since he was talking!

I would say if you love it go for it though be prepared for interfering relatives to comment :)

It depends what you mean by unusual? DD's name is uncommon, but still 'normal' and gets loads of compliments.

I think you need to tell us the name