Do you like having an unusual name?

[WeAreNow]

Just that really.

DP thinks it’s mean to give baby an unusual name as people will struggle with it. All of the names I’ve suggested are unusual. My name is really common, there were 4 of us in the same class with the same name at school and I always wished I had an unusual name.

So my question is if you have an unusual name do you like it or do you wish you were called something a bit more ‘heard of’? If you don’t like it, why not? I know there will be usual problems such as not being able to find things with names on in shops but I’m not sure of other reasons!

YABU: no I don’t like it
YANBU: I like it

I have an unusual name, it was very big in the 1920s and 30s, and a film came out a few years back with my name as the title.
I don’t hate it, but it’s a PITA as nobody can ever spell it correctly unless they’ve ever met another person with the name or seen the film.
It also gets misheard for a very common name often, you do learn to live with correcting people all the time, but it’s annoying.

My children have lovely names, they’re very ‘normal’ without any quirky spellings, I didn’t want them to live with the same annoyances I have!

That being said I love names from mythology, and one of our daughters was almost called Juno!

I know someone who changed theirs once 18 as they hated it, few more go by nicknames or middle names.
My sibling hated not being able to find anything with their name on when everyone else on school trips did.
There’s plenty of scope without going for a top ten name. I read on here once to imagine it on a professional business card and that always stick with me.

My name isn’t unusual in the grand scheme of things but it’s unusual for my generation and I hated not being able to get stuff with my name on as a kid! It also gets mistaken for a more common variant all the time, super annoying. I was so jealous of my sister having a top 10 name.

And I say very big, but in reality I mean that’s when it had its spike in popularity, it wasn’t the Claire-Louise of the 20s by any stretch of the imagination.

Mine is a actual name but it’s Welsh and rare even in Wales.

Luckily it is phonetic and hard even for English people to get wrong. It’s memorable and I love it.

I have a not common name but not unique either

I like my name but it's the spelling as there are multiple ways to spell it.

Also find out if the name means something else in another language

My name is very unusual. It is not spelt phonetically, it sounds male rather than female, sounds like I am saying my first name and surname at the same time and is a nightmare over the phone. I hate it and now go by a nickname.

I have an unusual name. I absolutely hate it. I was such a shy child and it was awful having to correct people.
It's an Arabic name and I was a blonde haired blue eyed child living in a rural village.

@tweettweettweettweet

I have an unusual name. I absolutely hate it. I was such a shy child and it was awful having to correct people. It's an Arabic name and I was a blonde haired blue eyed child living in a rural village.

Tweet tweet, I was a shy child too. It was horrible every time someone asked my name. Having to go through the whole rigmarole of how it was spelt, how it was pronounced(they still a pronounced it wrong), where it came from.

I grew up with a male Sandy (sp?) and although it now sounds utterly ridiculous I'm sure his sister was Silkie. They both changed their names.

I kind of like my name. (Has taken me decades to like it!) It’s very unusual and quite pretty. I’ve never met another person with my name. Growing up was miserable-I was teased constantly because of it. Most people call me by my nickname; have done since I was about seven. It now feels a bit odd when people say my proper name.

My name is unusual in this country and very, very common in another.

I love my unusual name. Even though people mispronounce and misspell it, I love it.

DD's name is an absolutely classic name that's fallen out of favour. It'll be unusual in her class, but cross culturally, it's about as common as you can get. I hope she likes it.

Mine's uncommon in this country but v like a common one. I like my name and like that it's slightly more unusual whilst not being "out there." But as a child, even though I've always liked my name I HATED never being able to find anything personalised(pens, bedroom door signs etc), only the common version. Think Louisa / Louise.

I also find people assume I'm the common version and call me that. Even when emails/letters etc give Louisia, the replies 90% of the time are "Dear Louise." It gets wearing correcting people, so after the first few times I tend to Iet it slide, but get mildly irritated every time.

I certainly wouldn't give my child an extremely unusual name. Went to school with a Mikael pronounced Michael, and he got a lot of stick.

I've never met another person with my name. Hated it growing up. Also felt sorry for the million Hannahs/Beckys/Amys in my year. Have made an effort to name my kids something not 'common' (i.e. not top 50) but something recognisable/traditional.

Don’t do it.

My name is perfectly acceptable and known in France but unless you love opera most people have never heard about it.

I hated it as a child. Most thought I spelt it wrong or it was a nickname. I was really cross with my mother for years.

As an adult I still receive my share of letter addressed to Mr. as people don’t know that the name is female. I got used to it and can laugh it off but when I was pregnant I insisted on a name which is clear how it is written and that it is a male or female name without doubt.

We chose a name which was nowhere near the top 100 but it only has one spelling and no doubt that DD is female. So far we never encountered another girl with this name in the last 14 years in our area.

Some names could be hard to live up to like Adonis, Samson, Achilles etc

Yes my name is unusual. For UK, that is. I like it. Some people mispronounce it but most people try, it's no biggie.

A blessing and a curse. Always mispronounced or misspelt but I always find people remember me and I'm recognised with just a first name, much like Madonna.

As a child I longed for a boring name but I later grew to love it. Even if you have a "normal" name there can be a multitude of spellings. Jayne/Jane, Claire/clare etc.

I don't see my name as unusual.... It's linked to my heritage. I like it. Some people don't. Those people usually make it clear. It's not made up for it's own sake. It's a name. If you're given to othering others for something that doesn't fit into a box then that's pretty shit. So, the best question would be to ask, why are you asking strangers? Who are you trying to please? Are you going to raise a child to think the same way? Would you say "do you mind being black/ hispanic/ Russian?". If not, then why not? A name is linked to ones identity. Small minds..

As a kid I didn't like mine, people couldn't spell it and often mispronounced it and I was called a few names over it. As ive gotten older I've come to appreciate that I never had to share my name in the classroom and in my entire lifetime only come across one other with my name. When people say my name they know who I am and don't have to clarify which one of me it is. That's pretty cool.

My name is unusual as are my siblings. I always like my name and so did they as far as I’m aware. My kids had what were unusual names when we gave them their names, except that now they are not! We have already told our kids that if they weren’t keen on their names they could change them but they all like their names. It’s a hard decision to name someone based on your preferences rather than the person they will become but we certainly vetoed a lot of names by saying them out loud with our surname.

I have a Danish name, very hard for a non-Dane to pronounce. At school no one could pronounce it and I always wanted to be called Catherine. But now I have to say I love my name. Still no one can pronounce it but it’s a conversation starter and everyone says how nice it is.

I hated having an unusual name as a child. However, as an adult I quite like it.

Growing up in the 70s though, things were different.

I work in education now and so many children have unusual names - mostly "normal" names, but uncommonly used. We live in a more multicultural society, so there is a much wider pool of names to choose from.

I love mine. I've never ever met another one and everyone can read it and pronounce it easily.

Bane of my sodding life. People pronounce it wrongly or only use half of it. It’s a family thing to have the first half, bloody pita.

I think worse than mine, which at least is spelt traditionally, is a traditional/accepted name spelt oddly because the parents think it’s cool. Headdesk.