To call our baby Huckleberry?

[queenmools]

We are really struggling to think of boys' names for our second baby (due in 3 weeks.) We have no idea if it will be a girl or boy. The girl's name is all sorted but we already have one boy and have kind of peaked with naming him. My husband came up with Huckleberry and says he is not joking. I really like it but don't know if I'm brave enough. We are not American and feel it is a very American sounding name so maybe would be out of place. Also would it work for an adult? Would an adult named Huck sound like a complete tosser? I should point out that we live in a very alternative area with lots of unusual names around.

I like it.

It's not just the British who sometimes like odd names. There is a member of the Bundestag, the German Parliament, called Caius Caesar.

Caius isn't odd. It is a name for a human Huckleberry is odd. It's a plant.

most of the names in this thread are pretentious and smack of a desperation for parents who want to show how 'different' they are.

just sayin'

Agreed, rethink it now before you have landed your child with a nasty and embarrassing name!

Caius isn't odd. It is a name for a human Huckleberry is odd. It's a plant.

What about Holly, Iris, Rose? While I still don't love Huckleberry myself, there is a long tradition of naming people after flowers and plants.

Ignacious?

Cassius?

It's what Huck, the inevitable nickname, rhymes with that would bother me most.

I think the tradition of naming people for flowers/plants is almost solely directed at women, generally speaking.

My dad's school had four houses named after saints. Three were normal like Peter, John, Paul.

He got Ignatius House. Even into adulthood he was still scarred by the teasing that house got from the rest of the school. How much worse would it have been if it had actually been his name?

One of my favourite characters is Ignatius Reilly in A Confederacy of Dunces

Again, there's no way I'd saddle a child with that name because he's a weirdo.

I think the tradition of naming people for flowers/plants is almost solely directed at women, generally speaking

It is, but this is Mumsnet and therefore the concept of boys' names and girls' names is outdated cultural imperialism.

Oh and Iris is from Greek mythology not botany.

Re plant names there's Basil for boys but the etymology of that name isn't from the herb.

Tarragon would make a very fine name. The French for tarragon is Estragon, which is used as a name in Waiting for Godot.

Herb names:

Angelica
Bay
Basil
Borage
Chervil
Cicely
Coriander
Dill
Hyssop
Lavender
Lovage
Marjoram
Sage
Sorrel
Tarragon

Narcissus is a boy's name. And it could be shortened to Narc, which is a word a lot of posters are keen on.

Also, thinking of my dad, he really liked the name Peregrine . It's a saint's name and it means 'wanderer' which appealed to my dad's quite mopey nature.

But my mum vetoed it for my brother. Lucky escape there - he went to quite a tough school.

My dad got his revenge by nixing her favourite name, so she called the cat it instead.

You'd never get near the bathroom with a son called Narcissus in the house.

I've never really got over poor Peaches Geldof and her husband calling one of their sons Phaedra, which is not only a woman's name but not a very auspicious one either, if you know your Greek tragedy. Why, just why? Poor little chap.

I love Cassius and Julius but we're not nearly posh enough to carry them off.

re: herb names, you missed one of the most obvious, Rosemary

I also knew a Minty (short for Araminta)

I like the name Dill but would not name a child that due to it obviously becoming Dill-do in teenage years

heartisaspade

limited, a lot depends on the surname, doesn't it? Cassius Bloggs just doesn't work. (Incidentally, is Bloggs a real surname? I've never, ever met one.)

phantom, can't believe I forgot Rosemary! Araminta is a very.... striking name. Would work very well on a cat. There's a Dill in Rugrats, isn't there? Might be Dil, and if so perhaps short for Dilbert.

... or even Dyl/Dill short for Dylan/Dillon.

Yes Mimsy I know an adult with the middle name Jezebel and 15 year old called Delilah. I really like those names in my rebellious moments but you just wouldn't, would you?

I also like Salome, but apart from the unfortunate backstory, I'd be driven insane by people mispronouncing it and so would any daughter. Sally would probably be a blessing. I like Lilith too, but the same unfortunate connection goes.

I worked with an Antigone, so I know how to pronounce it. Otherwise I wouldn't. I didn't have the benefit of a classical education.

limited, I am one of the most cautious, risk-averse people on the planet and I am also a pedant. If we had had the slightest inclination to use an unusual name for my children* I would have looked obsessively at all the connotations, I would have tried to make sure I had the right pronunciation and I would have tried it out with our surname, looked at the initials etc etc etc. With the internet at our fingertips now it has never been easier to find this sort of stuff out. But hey! it would be a dull old world if we were all the same.

*We didn't. We gave them two of the commonest names ever used amongst English-speaking peoples.

I say I don't have a classical education but I kind of do because I've seen Jason and the Argonauts countless times.

I knew someone called Atalanta who someone else in my office mocked for having parents who couldn't spell Atlanta. I didn't like to say that not everyone names their children after places - although there's nothing wrong with that or naming them after things, before people start on me.

Like Paris for a boy. Or Nike for a girl.

I heard of a Chanel Duck once.