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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask if you'd find this odd

165 replies

coldeveningwarmpudding · 06/02/2017 17:29

Family with two children, one has a name in the top 10 for that year and fairly consistent in popularity throughout history (biblical name - think Matthew and so on.)

The second has a name that's very, very rare.

OP posts:
JustDanceAddict · 06/02/2017 19:25

My son has a v common biblical name & DD has a less common name although I have heard it more in recent years (tv characters, in books etc). She can never find anything with her name on in shops!

museumum · 06/02/2017 19:26

Yes, I think it's odd.
Normally parents are either traditional name sorts or unusual name sorts.
And normally use names similar culturally.

You don't get many Niamh's with brother Mohammad. Or Rainbow with sister Louise.

NotYoda · 06/02/2017 19:27

Cornish names

Some of them really lovely

PNGirl · 06/02/2017 19:28

That's a weird and clunky enough name for it to be quite unfair I think. I've often wondered the same in my family having relatives called Nancy and Candice with sisters called Jane and Joanne.

harderandharder2breathe · 06/02/2017 19:30

Wow that is unusual!

I always hated my unusual name as a child, although I don't remember anyone negatively commenting on it. I have an extremely common middle name to make up for it! My sister has a more common (now more so than the 80s when we were born) but still fairly unusual name. If ever she found a souvenir with her name on and I couldn't I was very upset!

I still don't really like my name tbh but I'm used to it.

I think anyone giving a child such an out there name as Jowanet should think about how the child will feel and how people will react to that child and their name.

MrsTarzan1 · 06/02/2017 19:31

I would. If someone had a James and a Levi (for example) I would find it unusual to have such a combination

BaronessBomburst · 06/02/2017 19:33

Having read that list, at least they didn't call her Beaten.

reuset · 06/02/2017 19:34

I can only find one Jowanet on the whole of Ancestry website and she was born over 500 years ago. Though I'm not at home and can't search properly. Hmmm.

RoughBeast · 06/02/2017 19:34

Honestly, I would assume that the kind of people who worried about their children's names 'going together' would be gruesomely doctrinaire matchy-matchy types who like a nice neutral room with red 'pops' of colour. Hmm

Children aren't some kind of tea-set.

reuset · 06/02/2017 19:36

I agree. They really don't need to match

KnittedBlanketHoles · 06/02/2017 19:37

I resent my parents for giving me the odd name out of three siblings. Changed it to the plainest thing possible now. Think it was selfish of them.

DaphneDeLaFontaine · 06/02/2017 19:38

My favourite ever were the triplets.

Faith, Hope and Kevin.

seafoodeatit · 06/02/2017 19:38

I've never understood this weird obsession with names matching or going together, who as an adult, much less a child, been asked what their name is and what they're siblings are called and then remarked on how well they match or don't match? children are individuals.
Our DC 1 has a name that's not in the top 100, DC 2 has a name in the top 10, we went for the name we liked not the rarity or whether they match.

NavyandWhite · 06/02/2017 19:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Fanciedachange17 · 06/02/2017 19:44

No. My Dc have fairly unusual names which suit them and actually are considered very pretty by anyone who comments on them. Both names have been the first one at each school and between them they have attended 4 different ones.

Mummyoflittledragon · 06/02/2017 19:48

Thats not an attractive name. Can't she just shorten it to Jo? Perhaps she will change by deed poll when she's older. Poor kid thinking her parents don't like her. She sounds very confused. Her parents named her this probably before she even came out.

lljkk · 06/02/2017 19:50

Oh, someone I know had a DD named Amelia -- which I think of as the ultimate middle class stodge "safe" name.

Next kid was called Willow. cue Shock look from me.

KurriKurri · 06/02/2017 19:57

I quite like the girls name - but I have a friend who's little boy is called Jowan - the make equivalent. Family is Cornish though - bit odd if you aren't Cornish.

I guess the parents have reasons for calling their child an unusual name and can explain those to her - that they chose it because it is special or whatever.

My DS has a traditional name, and decided he didn;t like it because it was odd (actually it was less common when he was school age as trad names weren;t in vogue) I just bigged it up, said that it was the name of a very brave king and other such stuff - and he was happy. Now he likes his name. DD has a more unusual name (very unusual when she was little - more used now) very old fashioned name. She has never batted an eyelid at it - just totally accepted it as her name.

Which to me indicates that some children will always hate their names and want a different one whatever that name may be, and some children will always feel they are 'not liked' whatever the case may be. Some children have quite a negative outlook on life (sometimes justified sometimes not).

NotYoda · 06/02/2017 20:00

seafood

I don't think it's a simple as the fact that children are individuals. The parents choose the child's name without knowing the child as an individual.. Sometimes then they are choosing to project something onto a particular child that the child might not choose for themselves. So I can see why a child might wonder why they were called something very different from a sibling.

For instance, one child might be upset to be names Edid after their granny, whereas the parent might see that as a lovely memorial to a dead relative.

I haven't explained very well but hopefully you can see what I mean.

NotYoda · 06/02/2017 20:00

sorry, that was meant to be Enid

Puremince · 06/02/2017 20:03

I know a family in which the father is Scottish, with a very Scottish surname, and the mother is French. DD1 was named Elizabeth after Scottish granny. DD2 was named after French granny (not giving the French name because it would be identifying). The names sound very different but both were named for the same reason - to honour a granny.

NotYoda · 06/02/2017 20:03

... names are always chosen by parents to say something about them (the parents) not about the child, who they don't yet know. That's why I find choosing baby names really interesting, and such a big responsibilty and why I think it's really unfair to call your son Maverick

Sparklezz · 06/02/2017 20:03

I think its all down to what you like at the end of the day. we made a list of the names we liked and then narrowed it down by the meaning behind them. I like to think that the meaning reflects the character they will grow up to be.

I never went with anything unusual because mine is, and although i don't actually hate I have never really liked my name and i hate having to spell it but also tell people where its from and why blah blah blah. Novelty wore off!

NotYoda · 06/02/2017 20:06

Sparklezz

In general I agree, but

I think I'd hesitate to choose a name that would burden a child with an idea of what you hope they'll be

eg Grace, Spike, Atticus and Maverick (above)

NavyandWhite · 06/02/2017 20:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.