We're hippies at heart, and I regret choosing such a 'normal' name for DS1 - help please for DS2?!

Unfortunately when you look at your baby you have no idea whether they are going to be a strong enough character to live happily with the name, so I would always err on the side of caution and at least give them a fairly dull middle name and then they can change to it if they want to. Since I have become interested in family history I have discovered a name running through the generations that I am a bit disappointed to have missed, as an adult. When I said this to my mother she looked very doubtful and asked if I would really have liked it as a DC, and to be perfectly honest I would have hated it when young.

Well, NotanOtter, I think your name is lovely, and I've often considered it for a DD.

Araminta Cane and Perdita Weasel can join the cast of "Rainbow Jones, Nuclear Scientist". I think that Araminta Cane may be the sidekick, but Perdita Weasel is definitely going to be the evil boss of the rival research laboratory .

Ahem. Will stop hijacking Sushi's thread. Both Malachi and Micah are lovely names, though oddly enough I've known two Micahs, one male and one female.

Grendel yes my name is oft admired

I do get your drift re Rainbow .....- i think it is the noun bit that does it iykwim

my dcs have different names esp the last 3 dcs...many raised eyebrows now but people will soon get used to them

I am learning to cope with the silences when i tell people their names for the first time .... odd really because I always gush whether it be Fred or Ferdinand

If you like biblical names Suhsi star

what about Malachi (or with y at end) or Micah? solid old testament names

With a name like mine I would have made a good sidekick to Rainbow Jones Nuclear Physicist actually. So do I get the part ?

yes you get a lot of "oh xxxxxx" with a name like that. I want to see that show

Actually I'm coming round the idea of Rainbow - "Rainbow Jones, Nuclear Physicist" sounds like a great title for a 60s tv show. The show could end each week with Rainbow saving the world and then doing something clumsy like knocking her coffee off the table, and everyone around her would say "Oh Rainbow" and laugh.

Rainbow Jones. I can tell you it is very wearing phoning up and saying your name and nobody takes you seriously in meetings. Some real data for seeker.

Just popped back to see if anyone had read my post of 6.25 this morning - but it's obviously a case of "real life examples that agree with me are data and should therefore be taken seriously, real life examples that don't are biased and therefore should be ignored"!

But if it's what I think it is, I wouldn't actually have described it as particularly unusual or eyebrow raising ... I must have really way-out standards!

NotanOtter - Well, that's perhaps true. The problem is that my mum wanted to call me Rainbow, which I think is a nice name for a little girl or teenager, but which I think would make for a somewhat pugnacious, chippy young adult. I think that the name 'Rainbow' comes with certain connotations to those who hear it for the first time, and that I would be fighting against those connotations - not a problem with friends, because they would be used to it, but I think in my job, constantly phoning people up and saying, "Hello, this is Rainbow Jones, and I'm phoning about the very important XXX project" would be wearing. Whereas a colleague has a highly unusual but 'real' name, and I don't think that any of the connotations of it are negative.

And I think I know what your name is, NotanOtter, and I think it's lovely and ... much admired ?

Cyradis: Definitely Garion for a boy!! (No surprise with your username!) Been petitioning dh 11 years now to use that name!

"But I do actually know real life people who've had very unusual names in their pre and early teens. Does anyone else?"

Yes, seeker - Me! I love, love, love my unusual name, and always have. It often gets commented on, and people are always interested to hear the story behind it. As a child and teenager, I frankly felt sorry for all the Katies and Sarahs at school - no disrespect to Katies and Sarahs! - because they had to be distinguished by their last initials.

Power to you, sushistar!

grendels mum but isn't that a bit of a 'chicken and egg' argument

the name your mum wanted albeit 'stupid' and 'hippy' would have just been your name had she given it to you...you would have grown with it. as would your peers. it would most probably have been neither of those adjectives in that situation

my name is on the different end of normal

not silly but not to everyones taste

raised few eyebrows in my youth

by some accounts shakespeare 'invented' or 'made it up' does that make it stupid now?

Ethan and Ashwyn sound good together as sibling names.

Ashwyn/win means 'light' in Hindi - I have also seen the meaning as first star of the night.

'No one will ever say,"Oh, that's unusual!" EVERY SINGLE TIME she gives her name for the rest of her life.' - They certainly won't and some people hate having a commonplace/ boring/ ordinary name.

'Maria's staff won't snigger behind their hands at her name, or make jokes about her name. She will never feel the slightest hesitation at giving her name to someone, even if she is a spotty undersized 12 year old. Or a tubby middle aged grandma. And the staff in the old people's home won't laugh at her.' - You can guarantee these things?

We choose names for our children based on many criteria. I realise that you can't please all the people all the time and so the only thing I can do is choose a name for my child which I love and the initials of which do not spell something unpleasant/ isn't a medical term/ made up/ rhymes with my surname etc etc.

The one thing I wouldn't attempt to do is a choose a name everyone would like, that really is an impossibility. I have a name that is widely liked on here but funnily enough I have always been embarassed telling people, not because it is an embarassing name but because I feel it doesn't suit me. This is not something my parents could have anticipated. I also used to get teased at school with other words that rhymed - again if someone wants to tease they will find a way.

The OP has obviously thought long and hard about her DS's name and has regrets. Are the regrets worse if the name is more unusual?

My mum wanted to give me a hippy name, and my dad vetoed it and went for an unusual but real name instead.

I have to say I do like having an unusual but real name, BUT I realise that a lot of people don't remember what it is, and tag me as "Unusual name beginning with certain letter". So if my name were Hortense, say, I constantly get called Horatia, Harriet, Hester - and I answer to all of these as I know that's what they mean. I do sometimes think this means that I've ended up with a rather less personal and individaul name than my mum wanted!

I'm so glad I don't have the stupid hippy name my mum wanted to call me as it just doesn't fit with my personality.

I agree with Seeker. I was blessed with hippy parents and thus a hippy name. I have never met anyone with my name. It has always been commented on. I found it especially hard to be taken seriously in interviews. Be careful, I wouldn't wish my name on anyone no matter how pretty. There are plenty of articles online that show that sadly people can't help judging people as less likely to be sensible/hardworking/wellbehaved when they have an unusual name. Sad but true.

Ivo - both an English and a Breton saint. St Ives was named after the English one.

a pal of mine,who ive not seen for a while has kids called breeze,bracken,fern

Hi sushistar.

I'm loving lots of the names on this thread but when I saw you liked Soren another name popped into my head.

How about Stellan?

As far as I know it's Swedish, there is a fab actor called Stellan Skarsgard. I love it. I think it's so strong and masculine. I think it would go really well with Ethan.

Hey Besom I wonder if that's the same male Eden I was at primary school with (in west yorkshire)? It's funny, he never got teased about it. He was a fun, funny, mischievous person and no one ever batted an eyelid at his name.

I think it may be true to an extent that if you value an unusual name for your child, you'll place a high value on individuality and ploughing your own furrow and your child may absorb those values and be happy with an unusual name. Whereas if you think fitting in is really important, you'll pass that message on to your DC and a vanilla name would probably be best for them, as they'll feel a desire to be normal too. Of course not in every case but there's probably a correlation.

I would try and get something that sounds nice along side ethan, so that if someone says eg Ethan and Orc, Ethan doesnt feel bad because his name stands out. I know a lot of people dont like to match sibling names but I would consider Ethan's feelings were it me.

As already suggested Soren is unusual but would go well, as would Aiden and Saul.

The only Eden I've ever met was a man, so it can be both.

What about Toran (celtic I think)?