To give my child an ungoogleable name?

[MrsMogginsMinge]

Admittedly I'm only about five minutes pregnant, so this is still at the level of a general muse rather than a real dilemma.

DH has a charming, plain, frequently occurring (especially in Wales) surname, which sounds like a first name. You know the sort of thing. My taste in first names is pretty conservative, especially for boys - I like the old school classics, preferably biblical (despite being a godless atheist myself). So future DC is likely to be one of many many people with his or her name.

Is this condemning him or her to a life of mediocrity or secretly a stroke of genius? I'm convincing myself that the greatest gift one could give a child of the 21st century is relative internet anonymity. AIBU?

(Yes, I know, we should just choose a name we like. But I'd be interested to hear thoughts)

We used to tell DS he had a really long set of names so he was unique, but had to come clean when he told a teacher his 'full name'......

DD has the same name as a fairly notorious US sleb - of course, when we named her 24 years ago, we had no idea this person would appear, but it does make her fairly ungoogleable.

Another tech-related thing to consider when naming a child is what their email will look like - I once had an email from someone called Lee Rather....

I know a Johnny Depp.

I haven't yet managed to find him on google. He's a nice, fairly average window cleaner and apparently people always think he's a scam because of his name!

I like the idea of a non google able name...wouldn't want the sort of stuff I was wittering about with my friends to be easily found decades later!

I'm un-googleable thanks to sharing my name with a very high profile (in her field) lady.

We're roughly the same age too.

I'm well hidden :D

Well, I've just discovered googling my name shows you lots of topless pictures (not of me) then I found a video compilation from a youth project when I was 15-16 and possibly the most pompus interview any teenager has ever given kind of wish I hadn't checked that now.

I think an ungoogleable name would have been a great gift.

I have a very common name that is also the name of a famousish (but not Hollywood star) actress. I have googled and went as far as page 20 and no sign of me - results were a mixture of the actress and other people with my name. (Weirdly a girl I know with same name appeared as about search result number 5 - not sure why).

I love being unfindable! Also like having a name that no one ever has any problems spelling or pronouncing.

I have a very unGoogleable name; it's great except no-one can ever add me as a friend on Facebook as they can't find me!

I inherited a nice Welsh surname when I married dh. Prior to that I had a very unusual one. So much so, my parents named me something very ordinary (think Jane) with no middle name.

I now have a name that tens of thousands of other people have. I love it.

The only problem I had was as I was lying in the Drs once having my coil checked, another woman burst in with the same name as me. It soon became clear she was in the wrong room though.

It's bliss not having to spell it out to everybody and I also like the idea of being unfindable.

I've just googled my son's name. He is the one single result (somewhat unusual surname with the least common of two possible spellings, plus an 'unpopular' but real first name.)

I suppose there could be advantages and disadvantages to this.

As he is 25 years old, it wasn't a factor when we named him.

All four of our children have 'boring' traditional names, ones that have been used for hundreds of years and have survived the various fads and fashions of other names in that time.

14, 12 and 10 years on, they are all very happy with their names and we have no regrets.

I have one of those Welsh surnames and a classic first name - I'm totally ungoogleable, there are millions of me

Do it! DH is the only person on the entirety of Facebook with his name.. freaks me right out!

My children have v. boring first names - but are very googleable. I blame their dad (who's also googleable). It's the surname wot dunnit. Unless you change the surname you're unlikely to be able to give your children googleable names.

My mother has the name of an american porn star. Makes googling her interesting.

I am the only person in the UK (most likely the world) with my name, and it makes me feel uneasy about having any internet presence with my real name.
I think anonymity by being one in crowd is a great idea!

I have a very googleable name - I don't think there's another of me, so there is something to be said for the anonymity aspect. My maiden name could not have been less googleable!

Why do you want to be non-googleable?

Surely it depends what job you do, I work in an area (academic) where people are identified by their names and it's extremely handy to be able to type in a person's name and find their work immediately- having multiple people with the same name is a distinct disadvantage.

That doesn't mean you have to splash yourself on Facebook/social media, I don't at all. If anything, the fact I am found easily means I am much more careful about what I would put on the internet- so that means nothing except work!

My children both have completely unique names, not designed like that but I don't see this as a disadvantage for them, more an advantage- people will remember them and find their business/work/other things easily.

Tiggy is right.

BTW, before I got married, I googled myself once, and an escort girl came up. Which was interesting, and a rightnlaff with friends and all, until my IT-illiterate mother/mother's friend also tried googling me, and assumed that google is psychic and only shows you the droids Tilly you're looking for.

That was not a nice phone call that I received!

DS's great grandfather comes up when you google for DS which is very appropriate.

It's far better to have a common name than something so unique that a simple google will bring up your whole life.

My ex had a very unique name. Everything he'd ever done was there online - the races he'd entered, the websites he'd visited, his work - plus some really twatty comment he'd made on a thread when he was about 18 and which he simply couldn't get deleted. It used to really stress him out especially as he was a lawyer and being professional is hugely important.

I agree with Tiggy, you should give your child a name rather than a random made up thing.

I'm not sure why the lecture needed to be on this thread though since the OP is planning on giving her child a run of the mill popular name.

OP I really wouldn't worry about internet and goggling. The face of social media will have changed many times over before it becomes a concern for your child. Give them a name you love and that suits them when they are born. So long as you teach your child to keep privacy settings high and not to litter the internet with drunken photos and random crap then they will be fine.

I share my not very common but not that unusual name with an American porn star and a dead dog (there's a whole website devoted to this dog, it's life and death!). It takes a lot of googling to dig up anything related to me and even then it's just my professional profile.

My DS's name is not very common, he has his dads surname not mine. I plan on fiercely drilling in the importance of maintaining a 'clean' Internet profile as he grows up. I think it's going to be a problem for the younger generation....

I'm guessing that search will be smart enough that "Dave Smith I met in the pub and who once worked for Barclays in Southampton and who knows my mate Andy because they played footy together" will find you.

yanbu. I would focus on picking a name that you like, but I can see some advantages in a relatively anonymous name in the era of google etc.

I tend to google other professionals I am dealing with, partly out of idle curiosity, partly to get a better idea who I am dealing with, and have come to the conclusion that people with very unique names should be careful to monitor what is on the internet.

I have a relatively uncommon surname but a common first name and I think that makes a reasonable balance but I am still careful with my privacy settings etc.

ungoogleable names can go both ways, in some professions it's really valuable to have your name come up in the first google results, or to have a unique/easily identifiable name. (thinking of scientists, but I guess also artists?)

but yes, statistically I guess your child is more likely to want to be anonymous.