If you're thinking "I love the name, but I don't think I'm brave enough to use iit"

My name is no big deal where I was born and grew up, but it leaves people tied in knots where I live now. There are no guarantees.

I will say imo there is a difference between unusual and ridiculous though. Fifi Trixiebelle is ridiculous. Christabel is unusual. Unusual is fine, and in my case usual can become unusual with the purchase of a one-way airline ticket.

I think the important thing to consider is that when you name your child, it is THEIR name that THEY will have to live with - it's not about you.

My name was one of the number one girls name in the early 80s and every other bugger at my all girls school was also called it....I wanted to name my children really crazy out there names due to this.

Not sure what happened (I half blame my DH) but my baby girl is called Charlotte...I hope she loves it!

I actually love my name, I think it's really nice, just not how common it is!

I'm done naming kids, but were I not, I'd be adding Pendragon to my lists!

People, be brave and bold! The world can cope with unusually-named humans, ever more so. My kids have unusual names and have only ever received compliments. And if the kid really doesn't like it, there is deed poll. I know two people who have changed their names - given names were Rachel and Helen. Both remamed themselves with far more adventurous names.

I'd give exactly the opposite advice OP.

If you love the name but no-one gives any reaction upon hearing it/there are millions of them already/deep down you know its pretty dull- then don't land a dull, average name on a baby, please. They deserve to stand apart/be individual- but yes not have such a mad name its never been heard of before and people would snigger upon hearing it, agreed.

who has potential dates ask things like "no seriously, what's your name?"

I think the potential date is the one with the problem there, not the person with the unusual name. Who would ask that question? Only a dickhead.

Akin to what pp said, my name is Harriet. Very normal name, always top 100, but I have to spell it out all the time.

Normal surnames - married and maiden - have to sell them out all the time too as one can be spelled 2 ways, and the other is always misheard.

No big deal.

DS has an 'unusual/brave' name, will no doubt have to spell it out. But I have a normal name and have to spell it out. Don't see the issue?

Oh, and I love my name and have tried to give my children similarly unusual names too! (But not younique)

But Bertrand, I have to spell my name constantly. It is regularly misheard, mispronounced, said as a completely different name (Georgina and Deborah are quite common ). People ask where I come from because of it. My name is Gabrielle. So fair enough, it's not a common name, but no one would call it unique, or think you were being "brave" to choose it.

Let's face it, unless you are called Sally or Sam or something, people mishearing, misspelling or mispronouncing is par for the course with many great names, and the world would be a pretty boring place if we had to exclude names on the basis we might have to explain them once in a while every day

Not convinced OP.

Whilst I wouldn't have called my son Marion, I wish we'd been braver tbh. They have solid (boring?) names.

In this day and age, with so much global movement when not everyone you know is John or Jane, or modern Jack or Chloe equivalent, there's room for a bit more name excitement.

Pokemon, be grateful for Charlotte. I got one even more 'popular'!
At least you can get a couple of decent abreviations out of it.

I guess the responses to those three names partly prove that a name that is crazy to some people is pretty normal to others. Unless it's Pendragon (he usually goes by Pen, to be fair).

And who wouldn't want to be named after the one and only Cordelia Chase? Vision girl, higher power and queen bee - its an excellent name.

Merlin is fairly common amongst old Welsh blokes.

People are probably more likely to associate Cordelia with Buffy than Shakespear nowadays.

I don't think a name like Cordelia can be classed as being in the same league as Pendragon. I don't even thinks its in the same league as Merlin (which is at least a first name).
Cordelia is rare but recognisably a name without any weird connections (unless someone is big into King Lear -but people get called Juliet all the time so that's not a problem)
Merlin is a bit hippyish, people might raise eyebrows, but you'd get over it soon enough.
Pendragon is just nuts. I think its crueller than 'Zowie' tbh

InvisibleKittenAttack No, you've misunderstood me. As I said upthread, I'm an adult and I hate my very safe classic name of Charlotte (which has been mentioned in this very thread as a great name to choose!)

I know adults with extremely unusual names - a Pendragon, a Merlin (they don't know each other!) and a Cordelia just off the top of my head - and they've never once said "I wish I was a David/Laura" or felt they had to be brave... they all love their names. Yet I have always been inevitably the third Charlotte in the office, or the second Charlotte someone's dated, or whatever... it sucks. So it's by no means guaranteed that a "safe" name means its owner will be happy with it.

There's obviously a difference between a slightly out-there name that parents wonder if they should use, and a completely batshit name that would just obviously be cruel to give someone (say, Zowie Bowie...). It's just that a lot of the time making a "brave" choice, for some people, just means choosing something outside the top 100.

Mostly I just want to appeal to people to stop naming their poor daughters Charlotte. It really is such a boring name.

Bertrand, I think your posts are the ones on Mumsnet that make me think above all others!! You, along with Buffy and LRD, are probably the reasons why I am feminist today!! Just wanted to tell you that!!!

I gave my DD a highly unusual Irish name (I am Irish) and my mum told me straight away with a screwed up face that she 'wasn't sure about that....' as if it was a real stinker of a name!!

My DH is Prod (he calls himself that) so never heard of it...but I loved it and insisted!! She got his surname so I choose her first name!! 😜My now seven-years-old DD loves her name and takes great pleasure in it! Sometimes bravery pays off!!

PokemonDont - you are still thinking in terms of naming a child, not an adult. The parents are the ones to defend the name for the first what, 15% of the 'bravely' named person's life. After that, it's them that has a CV that gets sniggered over, that has to introduce themselves to colleagues and customers, who has potential dates ask things like "no seriously, what's your name?" when trying to pull the most stunning person in the bar, who has to battle to get a fair hearing after judgements made about what sort of person they are based on the name alone...

Of course you can change your name as an adult, but then if you have already gained qualifications and work experience in the old name, you won't be able to escape it.

My appeal for 'brave' parents, give them a sensible/dull middle name with a common spelling. Then at least they can be "Ms/r. Z. Jane/John Smith" in the workplace with minimum fuss.

To me an unusual name is fine, so long as it's not a made up one or an ordinary name with a messed about spelling (eg Karron). However I'm a great believer in names that have been around for a while, as they are less likely to go out of fashion. Eg Catherine, Jane, Philippa, Matilda, Anne, Frances, Charlotte, Louise, Isabella, Emily, Sophia have all been around for hundreds of years.

I didn't realise people thought other parents were 'brave' for naming someone else something unusual.

It does explain a lot though.

I would class names that you had to be 'brave' to use as being grandiose mythological ones. So names like Phoenix and Blaze are unusual and out there, but most people would let it past without comment - or at most 'that's unusual'. A person called Beowulf on the other hand probably gets a sinking feeling every time they have to introduce themselves to someone. I think there is a wide margin between yet another Jack and going full Beowulf.

Both my DS have unusual names and ordinary middle names. So far everyone has loved them. When they're older they can use their middle names if they wish or change them altogether, it's up to them.
I have a boring v 80s name and I HATE it, wish my parents had had a bit more creativity, I don't even have a middle name. Wish I'd changed it.

Incidentally there's a Ragnar, a Loke, and a Tor (Thor) at kindergarten 😁

It sort of depends though.

Ds is born and will probably be raised in Sweden. Dh Swedish, I'm British. Originally we wanted to go for a name that worked well in both countries but actually we couldn't think of anything that:
A. Wasn't taken by immediate family
B. Wasn't too weird in either language
C. Pronounceable in both languages easily.

Loads of girls names - Anna, Sofia etc that would have worked great. But only about ten boys names that worked and all were either dads/uncles/cousins.

So in the end we thought 'fuck it' and went for something that's not toonuncommon here but sounds a bit Full Viking in English (it's not Ragnar, or Loke, but it's of that ilk.)

That did take a bit of bravery because it felt like we were sort of cutting off his Britishness. So yes, there was a sort of 'let's be Brave' moment for us.