To think that parents who give their children unusual names are egotistical...

[Crouchendmumoftwo]

I live in an area where there are lots of children with unusual first names, one might say contemporary or ever preposterous. Names such a Lux, Brutus, Fire, Ace, Rudy. Most of these children are mild mannered and don't stand out in any particular way. I wonder if the name giving is more to show other parents the: "we are creative and middleclass and bit different". I feel that the parents havent given their children much consideration in later life. A man in his 50s called Brutus doesn't have the same appeal as a small boy. I guess that is why David Bowie's son changed his name from Zowie back to Duncan.

jamie yes i do think of the children as boring aswell. Boring parents = boring kids.

My mother was going to call me Rufus if I was a boy she said, thank God Im a girl, I cannot bear that name. Reminds me of people with big gaped teeth and ruddy cheeks for some reason - like Pug of the Bash Street Kids. Rufus with a lisp too Rufush!

sleds I definitely wouldn't class Peter as a very unusual name, far from it.

I have noticeda real difference between home ed names and school names.

Most ofmy sons friends names at school are jack,ben,jacob(about 20 jacobs) whereas in home ed group it was Zephr,Indigo,Hal,Ettienne,Orinoco.

The school my kids go to is in a middle class area with a mixture of middle and working class families,most of the home ed kids were V.uppermiddle class hippy types

!Nothing wrong with either,just pointing it out.

"I had an unusual name, not whacky, I was the only one with it in school and I would have preferred to have been a Kate than my name."

That's one experience. I was the opposite, I had a name that about 4 other girls in my year had. Annoyingly my mum considered giving me a much more unusual name, but got talked out of it. I've always wished I had that name instead.

I've seriously considered changing it over the years.

Should also say, my mum was the least egotistical person I know. She liked the unusual name because she thought it was lovely and it suited me. And it did. Luckily my mum decided that as she couldn't have that name she gave me a slightly more unusual spelling of my name instead, as a compromise.

I do think that as one of 4 of my name in my primary class, I'm drawn towards more underused - although not unusual names. I've had a few people mention that DS's name sounds like someone in their 30s, I guess a lot of "popular in the 70's/80's" names will be due a come back soon as Jamie said.

If you have had a very common name and been one of several with it, having other people with exactly the same first, middle and surname on your uni course, and then also born on the same date so not even able to distinguish that way (sigh) then you know common names just leads to your DCs being known by a nickname, not the name you pick.

Also on the 'odd' names front, I know a man called Randy Sessions.

I love the name Peter,very cute and classic and carries well all the way through life

Fluffy why the :( ? I know two female Sids (well, Cyds). I fail to see the problem tbh. My own son has a name that can be used for both boys and girls - it's more common these days for girls but it really, really hasn't caused any problems.

Another little girl I know voluntarily (as in it was entirely her own idea) to change her name when she started school and discovered she was one of four Evies.

YABU OP. There's nothing wrong with James or Harry or Olivia or Evie or whatever name is popular where you are, but nor is there anything wrong with something a little less commonplace. The only no-nos in my book would be something like Fuckwit, and I've yet to meet anyone named that (although I've called plenty of people fuckwit in my time ).

I have one of the normal names pointed out on this thread, in the 70's it was considered very strange. My dc's have just names because as far as I'm concerned a name is just a name.

Unfortunately 3 of my dc's have the same names as several other kids in there school class ( when they were at school) but two of these went through school being called mr xyz as opposed to first names. The others have not yet had school friends with the same names.

But they are all still just names that were carefully considered for each child just the same as every other parent does.

I recently heard of a baby Sarah and met a little boy Robert. I was stunned. I like Mary and would be confident any future DD of that name would stand out.

DS has a real proper non-made up name with a proper reason for giving it him (family related) but it's still something like 700th in popularity. I don't know if that makes me 'egotistical'

I think, as social media grows, people will benefit from having an unusual name as it is easier to find them on LinkedIn etc. I am one of about 10 people with my name (surname is more unusual than first name).

Orinoco? Seriously?

Was he/she named after the river, or the Womble?

I bet not too everlong

I would love to meet another person with my name though!

OP, my brother gave his daughter an unusual name. She is the ONLY person with that name in the UK. My brother, his DP and his children are about as far removed from 'Middle Class' as it is possible to be! God, if he was still alive I'd be beating a path to the phone to tell him

Thank you for giving me such a laugh on a miserable rainy afternoon

I love the name Maverick. You just know though, that he will end up being an accountant.

Exactly, DecandAnt. It's not. But among his school friends, it's almost unheard of.

People do sometimes think, ooh, pretentious, you just want to be different, etc. But I wish they didn't.

My point was, it wasn't fashionable when I used it for him, nor was it madly odd, but I just liked it and didn't know anyone else who had used it for a baby.

Ds2 has a far more unusual name, I sometimes regret that as again people look at me like I'm trying too hard. And ds3's name is going to sound super odd to most people but I don't care any more...it's the only one left that I like!

Also wondering if my unusual name is someone else's on here.

I'll start. 4 letters.

Hmm. I have an unusual one too but I know there's at least one other on here with it, from a thread a few years ago.

My parents aren't any particular class - mum found it in the births column in the Telegraph, it obviously belonged to some rather posh baby, but that wasn't why she used it. She said she just liked it.

7 letters! It stood me in awful stead at our rough primary school...piss ripped out of me constantly.

When I was a child all I wanted was to be called Julie like everyone else

I gave my daughter the name of 2 tv characters, i've also Known a, Bliss, Boden, Eden, Lavinia, to name a few.

Also i actually like, Odin for a boy. weird.

Ps I also know of a Rudy.

I wanted to be called Sarah! Sarah in my class had long brown hair and was perfect, and everyone liked her

Names like the one's in your OP belong to the offspring of look at us, aren't we cool, successful, trendy... middle class parents AND the offspring of common as muck other folk. I personally think some names sound ridiculous.

I do think it's nice to give your child a name you feel they can own, and one that excites you. Not just 'Oh let's just call him ....' because you can't think of anything else.

But not everyone really cares, it is after all just a name.