To be surprised that pretty much everyone I know has given their child a ‘wacky’ name?

[custarddonut]

I’m reluctant to give specific examples as it would be potentially outing but by way of comparison I mean that none of my friends’ kids have names that were fairly standard when I was growing up in the 80s. E.g. Rachel / Sarah / Lucy / Daniel / Matthew / John / David etc.

I appreciate that names go in and out of fashion, and I understand (to a degree) that parents perhaps want their kids to stand out (or at least not have what are perceived as ‘boring’ or totally run-of-the-mill names, but more often than not the names in use now (in my circles at least) are, in my opinion, pretentious at best and verging on the ridiculous at worst! Worst-case is where they are sort of just random words, rather than actual names, e.g. ‘snowy’. Or names like the Geldof children e.g. ‘Pixie’ etc. Then you get names which are like old age pensioner names but not necessarily the trendy ones …they seem so dreary to me! (e.g. Phylis) OR names which to me sound really American (and names that you’d need to be quite cool to pull off, or a bit more grown up – they don’t seem to suit kids IMO) e.g. Harrison / Grayson etc. When I think of it, not a single friend of mine has given their kid what I would consider to be a ‘normal’ name.. and this is of a circle of say, 25 kids.

AIBU to feel a bit disappointed about this? I know, each to their own, live and let live, but to me it seems a bit of a shame that ‘normal’ names seem so unfashionable these days…OR, if I were to call my child something like ‘Anna’, would I be setting them up for standing out (in the wrong way) when they go to school? Will the inverse happen and names like ‘John’ become the weird names?!?

Many, many years ago I did a job where I was working with very large datasets, like population level. The names were fascinating, as you could see a newly favourable name appear, gradually peak and then crest like a wave and fade back into obscurity. There were a lot of British Marilyns born in the 1950s.

I don't want to disadvantage them by naming them Maksymililian or Karamel.

Not sure about Karamel, but Maksymililian is simply the Polish spelling of Maximilian. I'm sure you don't want to disadvantage them with parental small-mindedness though, eh?

My DD has a popular "old lady" name. It was a name that I loved from a child, and is also my great aunt's name who died just before DD was born.

Her middle names are also pretty old fashioned/unusual, but again she is named after family members.

I should imagine quite a few of the kids with old fashioned names are named after older loved ones.

My opinion is that non-traditional spellings are worse, as a child growing up will have to frequently correct people about the spelling.

@Amibeingnaive

I did the same with Doctor and Professor

My Dsis chose 2 classic names but then shortened one to a cute version which will NOT suit him as an adult 😂

How do you know what will suit them as an adult.
A lot of snobbyness around names here.Somewhere somebody is laughing at your choice of name

@dustarr73 because it’s a very very cutesy version of a lovely name, the shortening is very nice but it’s really babysish IMO. Not snobby, it’s just a name for a small child and I doubt he will use it when he is older but he doesn’t have to because it’s just a shortening. I will come back in 18 years and tell you he’s not using it.

I know a 12 yr old Jason which always makes me smile ,there were loads of Jason's in the 60,s and 70,not so much now .

@EssentialHummus isn't there an extra "il" in that spelling though? I thought the Polish version was Maksymilian not Maksymililian as in the original posters version.
Disclaimer: DC has a Maks from Poland in their year and this is how I've seen it written down but I don't speak Polish so no offence meant if I've got it wrong!

What bugs me is when parents give their sons sensible names but their daughters outlandish ones, as if the girls don’t matter as much and they’ll never represent someone in court/stand for MP/remove an appendix. James, Robert and Tinkerbell. FFS.

Most of the kids in my DCs school seem to have names that are well established names, although these don’t tend to be the same as the top names popular in the 1980’s. So more like Amelia, Isabella, Jack, Oliver than the names OP’s listed.
Given that name popularity tends to be cyclical you wouldn’t expect a classroom to be filled with names that were in the top 10 most popular 1980’s names.

There’s a lot more children with surname type names than there were when I was a child.

The names that really annoy me though are the ones that are deliberately misspelled.
The ones where the parents do something like naming their DD Aimmelei, (pronounced Emily), because they want their DD to have a unique name. A popular name spelt differently is not the same as a unique name!

My little boy is junior school and called Michael. It’s so ordinary he’s ended up being super unusual 😂😂

@SluggishSnail like the priest!?

A school near me has children called Tuna and Beyoncé. I'd question the sanity of parent's calling their children either of those names but for different reasons 🤣

I don’t think that’s necessarily true about boys getting off lightly. I’ve come across a Blue.

Plenty of traditional names around here. Sophie, Alice, Jacob, Will, Oliver, Jack, Justin, Emma, all very popular in my kids' classes and where I teach.

I don’t think that’s necessarily true about boys getting off lightly. I’ve come across a Blue

But how awesome is that, you've got a whole theme song, and every time you introduce yourself you'll get Da Ba Dee in return!

Never thought of that! I like the idea of a PM who has that playing every time they walk into parliament

I just called my kids what I like. My 2 dds names were very unusual at the time, but are much more popular now. Ds name remains unusual so much do that it featured on the nethuns list of ridiculous names 😂😂
In each of my children’s years there’s a mixture of all names. Definitely seen a real surge in surnames as forenames ie Reily, Bailey etc and names like Jayden, Brayden but nothing off the wall

Unique names are terrible and mostly the kids are entitled little shits. Worse still are parents who change the spelling of a common name to be different. 1. You’re an idiot and your child isn’t different or unique at all. 2. You’re setting your child up for a lifetime of having to explain how their name is spelt.

Thehop dd would have been a Michael.

My DC have traditional Scottish names and I often get ‘what kind of name is that?’ Yet they’d probably be ok with Harleee or Neveah 🙄

@baublegirl454 Tuna? Tuna? Really?

mostly the kids are entitled little shits.

I don't think that's fair, or true. I have a friend whose parents made up her name and she's lovely.

There's a couple that live near me who have 4 daughters, whose names all have the prefix Princess, followed by a Disney type name.
I shudder to think how they'll feel about their names as they get older.
They also have a son with a relatively normal name.