Why do people do these mad bodyswerves to avoid names?

hunker!

I can count on the fingers of one hand how many people I have met with the same name as me (though quite a few with the longer variant) - and I NEVER got tat with my name on as a kid

Agree with FJLA. Know a child with a name which is fairly unknown in this country (haven't met anyone else with it) and lo and behold there is another child in his class with the same name!

Things have got way out of hand in the UK with weirdly spelt made-up names being inflicted on kids who may well be teased in the future over their parent's insistence on being different.

Having said that my parents knew of a couple who named their daughter Semantha when 'Samantha' was very popular in the 60's so maybe it isn't just a modern phenomenon.

Does anyone name their kids Samantha or Jacqueline or Julia anymore ? I personally think they're nice names for girls and if parent's must be different why not use these instead of made up stuff like Chanelle and Chantelle or Princess Tiaami do-dah. Chances are high that they'd be the only Samantha at nursery/ in their year at school if that's really what the parents are trying to achieve.

I'm with Hunker on the "campaign to bring back real names"

I help do the book bags at Ds's nursery and there are 5 children called Louis, 6 called Lucy and I think 4 called Oliver and Lily. Their stuff always gets mixed up and there have been a few issues with party invites, so personally I would avoid a name in the top 25.

Ds1 is Noah. I'd never heard of another one when we named him, but within 3 weeks another child in our church was called Noah (and his mum's name is the same as mine!). There was a Noah at nursery with him, when we went to Australia for 3 months we met 2 Noahs. When he started school in September in a school with a reception intake of 20 there are 2! We went to the park the other day and of the 2 children in the park who weren't mine one was called Noah.

Fortunately, I still think it's a great name.

Dd (nearly 7) has been known to cry over the fact that she doesn't know anyone else with her name.

DD's name is very unusual, but only because it was the only name dh and I could agree on. We didn't set out particularly looking for an unusual name. Ds' name is far more common!

Out of my four, three have fairly common names (we know of at least more than one other child with their name). Dd2's name is so unusual that most people have trouble pronouncing it (not helped by the fact that it is similar to a much more popular girls' name!).

But the names suit them and we like them all.

When I was at school there were three Sarahs in my class, two Lisas, two Andrews and three Marks. They all got known as things like "fat Sarah" , "smelly Mark" etc (nice people I went to school with ) and I vowed I would not give my kids common names for that reason. However it seemed less of an issue as I grew up , though I know for a fact that dd1 is known as "quiet x".

(and btw I know loads and loads of Matthews - very popular name where I live!)

we had no idea how popular dd's name was when we chose it. She is the only one in her nursery class but there are two or three others at nursery and another in the after school club they run. Bothered? Nope.

I have a name that was very common amongst my peers at school but oddly I don't know any others with my name in RL now.

I always maintain that I will choose names that one can buy printed on Mugs etc. I loved pre-printed name tat as a child and now dd can recognise her name she loves it too. Why deny her the pleasure in an effort to be different?

My ds1 name was really unusual when i named him; now i have met at least 2 others in local parks. I called ds2 a very normal name and db3 due in 8 weeks also is having a very normal name.

I have no spelling trouble with ds2 name, thank god, was starting to drive me potty with Ds1.

Ds' name is in the top 10 or 20 of several newspaper name charts. Apart from one friend whose second child has it too, he is the only child we know with it.
Dd's name is also apparently rocketing in popularity year on year (which may mean she can pass for five years younger in later life ). She is also the only one we know, although we know one child with a variant.
Agree hunker, we chose names we liked

I'm actually quite drawn to baby names topic TBH

I prefer "jack or toby" threads to "choose me a boys name"

I chose family names for mine - for ds1 on purpose becasue I had a wonderful great uncle with that name, and for ds2 by chance the only name that dh and I could agree on was my grandad's name. Anyway have got them the wrong way round, my quiet self-effacing intelligent great uncle's name has gone to total loon of a ds1 and gregarious, fun but not thoughtful grandad's name has gone to bright and contented ds2. Shame you don't know a bit more about their personailities before you name them!

The thing is, you can't guarantee that your child (with his/her unusual name) will be the only in their class. There is one Jack in the whole of my son's school and the only name duplicated in his class is Nadine.
There are two Marthas in my friend's DS's year 1 class and no name in the top 10.
Everyone is trying so hard to be different these days that Digby, Caspian and Juniper are more predictable than refreshing.

I just chjose names that I liked. I found choosing a girls name quite hard and eventually went for a surnamey kind of name that people have referred to on here as a bit chavvy.
The only other people I knew with it were very succesful publisher and a cahracter in a film!
But it doesn't matter anyway-she's a bright little button and I still like the name which is why I wouldn't post on here!

good choice, of course

(oh the shame)

hehe

I only chose Matthew becuase there are 3 in DS's nursery - its actually a name I love, so well done, good choise

I didn't think Matthew was overly popular when I chose it thanks MamaG .

There are 4 of ds1's name in his year alone. When we realised that we had chosen very common names for him we just had to accept that there would be others with those names in among his peers. When we came to choose names for dd and ds2 we decided that we weren't bothered about others being called the same, and went with names we liked.

I have only once met someone with the same name as me in the UK, and TBH have at times been fed up with having such an unusual name - spelling it out and still getting things wrongly addressed, having to repeat it a million times and still getting it mispronounced, forever relating its origin, and so on. So I have no objection to my LOs having ordinary - but beautiful - names.