Thoughts on having a really rare name?

But to answer the question -

I find it is always misspelled both in long and short form

No merchandise growing up

My child’s called Penelope which is, in my opinion, fairly normal and commonly used. The number of people who read it as Pen-lop is ridiculous. Don’t go for something unusual.

My name is odd in that it's very rare in that I've only met 2 others in nearly 40 years

But it's always mentioned in a very positive way on Mumsnet, never called horrid or common always referred to as classy. Still it's never been popular though shorter/similar versions of it seem more popular these days,

@Winterwonderland12 ABCDE, Apple Orange Banana Fruit Salad, Blue, Mihkeyleigh etc.

My name has been in the top ten for the last 20 years or so but was not common in the 70s or 80s as it was considered an old lady’s name then and I was the only person in my school with the name the whole time, at both primary and secondary. I really liked having a name that stood out, people always commented saying things like, you don’t hear that name much these days. I think it’s a bit like the old fashioned names that are coming back in. I know of someone who has named their child Ada which would have been unheard of 20 yrs ago but nobody who has got a Brenda or a Shirley, but then in another 10 yrs who’s to say they won’t start making a comeback. My eldest has an old fashioned name which is not common. There were only 9 registered the year she was born but it’s not a particularly weird name, and everyone in her school knows her as she’s the only one which she quite likes. My mum wasn’t very keen when we told her the name but after a while it just becomes them and you don’t have any other associations with it. If they are names you really love, go for it.

I would have chosen a real but rare name. Except we wanted to honour a family member with a common name who sadly died in an accident. So DS has a very common name with a rare nickname which he can use (or not) as he sees fit. If I was having another child I’d totally choose a rare name though!

My daughter is called Aurelia and my son Dhruv. I think their unusual names but not rare. However they can never get their names on any plastic tat without me paying for it bespoke! They seem to like their names and so do we!
If we had another girl I love Phyrne. I've never met another one of those! My husband also like Quade for a boy but I wasn't sold on that!

I have an unusual name although it has been made a little more popular due to a famous film star having the same name.

I won't say what it is, but people always get it wrong and call me Angela which really annoys me. They can't seem to be arsed to read my name properly. It isn't even hard to pronounce!

But for the record I like my name.

I have an uncommon name. As a child I was bothered by it, and often used to asked to be called Clare (my middle name) at school.

Now as an adult I love it! My last name is fairly rare too, I did find a website once that tells you how many people in UK share your name (based on electoral register) and I am the only one.

Ariadne is lovely, I associate it with the story of the minotaur. I think many people will recognise it. I have a very unusual foreign name. I like it and get lots of compliments although I often shorten it for simplicity.

My name was rare enough growing up. I've only ever met one other. It was annoying coz I could never get personalized plaques or badges or pencil cases

Ariadne is a nice name, even nicer because it's actually a real name

What would be a fake name ?!

Ref Starbucks ...

Ariadne is a nice name, even nicer because it's actually a real name. Wouldn't have trouble spelling or saying it, but I know my Greek mythology.
Her nn might end up being Ari , are you ok with that?

As for name on things, DD has a boring,common, traditional name (by other people's standards) we can never find things with her name on it!

I know an Ariadne, it's not common but I wouldn't consider it super rare or unknown. And it's a nice name. Like PP said, Ariadne Oliver pops up quite often in Poirot, and she definitely appeared among the main Greek myths we covered at primary school. I think the biggest issue is that people might mistakenly read it as Adrienne, though that wouldn't put me off

I've never heard the name Olan, would instinctively guess it was Irish. It doesn't sound at all strange to me though - blends in well with Arlo, Noah, Milo type names.

Do you have any Greek connections or just like the name?

OP, my parents were WTF (but in politer terms) when we told them our name choices.
But then I pointed out my name !

Children are used to unusla names now. In DD school it is a sea of Noah and Alfie’s, or Ellie and Gracie’s or the other extreme and the rest have unusual names.

For what it’s worth I had a friend called Abigail (lovely name) and she was picked on at school and called Abbey National Bank!! If kids want to tease they will find something. Being call sarah Smith is no fail safe against it.

Let’s teach the kids not to tease people rather than names everyone the same so we all fit in!

I have one very good friend that just cannot pronounce my name - and she tries. 15 years and she is still trying

What's your name

I gave my DD a name that only 3 girls were named the year before. It's now top 25.

Ariadne is a very good name!

It strikes the right balance of being fairly rare but still recognisable as a 'normal' name. Especially if you have a common surname. Autocorrect even allows it

I am less keen on Olan, autocorrect doesn't allow it & I can't imagine my teen DS being keen on it.

I have an unusual name and I like being different. I think it helps that it's a name that sounds like a name, if you see what I mean... so not Princess Consuela Bananahammock or anything weird like that!

I do have to spell it but luckily it's only 6 letters and I've got used to it. We live abroad so my DH has to spell his pretty traditional name too.

In Starbucks I use an abbreviation to speed things along.

I love Ariadne!! It was on my short list for dd1.. The only reason we went for Anneka instead is that our surname starts with an "ee" sound and it flows into one word.

Also Aria is very popular at the moment so if she wanted to blend in at school she could always go by that as a nickname.

Its Arriette in The Borrowers!!

I've got an unusual name. It is a 'real' name but I've never met anyone called it, although relatives that live where my parents came from tell me when they occasionally see it in the birth announcements.

I like having an almost unique name and don't mind having to spell both my first name and surname (my husband's). I get asked where it is from frequently and explain that it is from my parents home country.

Sometimes when I've initially 'met' people online, e.g. emailing colleagues that work in other location, they are surprised when they meet me. I think as I have 2 non-English names, they expect to meet someone non-white and / or with an un-English accent.

I've not heard Olan before but it sounds fine to me. Personally I'm not keen on the spider connations of Ariadne but I'm sure if I met an Ariadne in real life I would just then associate it with her IYSWIM.

I should add one of mine has a name that there are 0-3 of born a year. We've only ever had one rude comment, from a child. Everyone else seems to like it or keep quiet.