To wonder if other countries have the same desire for unique baby names

[daimbarsatemydogsbone]

Heard a Dad on the radio this morning saying he wanted to call his kid Lucifer as it was “unique”. Does this happen in, say, China?

@CounsellorTroi

Only a matter of time before someone calls their child Saten.

Or Loocyfer? Lewcifer?

I think there's a Seitan or Seytan somewhere.

Isnt Seitan a vegetarian /vegan food made from gluten?

As a coeliac I always find the Satan/seitan bit quite amusing.

But for a kid it’d be like naming them Quorn only with more misunderstandings.

I have a English name and a Chinese name from birth. Many Singaporean Chinese parents follow this model. The Chinese name is generally more traditional- with a character shared by the generation and then another character usually with a quality- beauty and virtue for girls, strength for boys etc. My generation character is the Chinese word for poem, followed by a character that translates as 'clever'. My sister's name has the same generation character, followed by the Chinese word for 'sunny' as she was born at noon.

My English name is an extremely common name as my parents feared that I would get made fun of. But there are parents who give their children unusual names, I have known girls called Apollonia (her nickname was apple), Shakespeare and Dewdrop. There was a plastic surgeon called Woffles Wu (it still makes me giggle a little as it's a name for a rabbit not a man).

Isnt Seitan a vegetarian /vegan food made from gluten?

I think so but I also think I've seen it (or Seytan) as a name. Can't really remember.

There's also a vegan restaurant (I think) called Temple of Seitan. Could be for both the food and great wordplay.

There was a twitter thread about this recently which made many people look like sheltered ignorant knobheads - they mentioned 'ridiculous' names and spelling that are in fact ordinary names in a different language. I had someone going on about the Irish name Siobhan and how it had such an odd spelling blah blah blah - this person is generally quite normal and nice so it really surprised me that she wouldn't realise there are other languages in the world that have their own names and ways of spelling things. The snobbery around names in the UK can be incredibly juvenile and small-minded. Every name was new and different at some point - the only difference between James and Jayden is that James is an older name. That's it.

I think it's nice there is more variation on names now. Very different from when I was at school with 4 other girls with my name, as well as multiple Claires, Sarahs, Kellys and Emmas.

My ex was one of 5 in his year with the same name, along with Dave, Steve, Mark etc.

Looking through his family tree and it was all William, Frederick and George for generations!

Variety is definitely better.

My home country (in Europe) has this trend among somewhat poorly educated people. Just what is regarded as "unique" is what popular film or tv show has been trending. There are quite a few Kevins after Home Alone.

Also i personally know a middle-aged Lucifer. He's always been embarassed by his name and goes by Louis.

In Spain you can use almost any name, unless is derogatory for the child. This is sometimes left to the opinion of the registrar and the issue about Lobo (wolf) comes from this interpretation, as there’s an old Spanish name, an “established” name, Lope, with the same meaning.

Anyway, some people want a very unique name for their child, so there are babies named Daenerys (hahaha, unique!).

What I really find ridiculous is the “adaptation” of some names in other languages to the Spanish pronunciation… some parents do it, some not, so you can find Ethan and Ízan in the same year at school. Also Nathan / Néizan, Brian / Bráyan and horrors, imho, of similar proportions.

I work in the Middle East. One of my classes (of 25 girls) has 9 Fatimas and 5 Asmas, so I think some cultures definitely value religious/traditional names rather than originality!

@Eealoty

OP why do you think a name was chosen because it's unique? That's quite a sweeping assumption and quite ignorant of society where people have many heritages and cultures. Not a nice thing to assume. It's not a "fad" for someone to refer to who they are.

Because the Dad who chose it said he wanted it as it was unique - as I said in my post. On a wider scale loads of baby name threads on here are about how parents want a name because they think no other kid is going to have it.

In the US there seems to be a trend of coming up with unusual spellings for more normal names - Madisyn instead of Madison, for example. (Often involving the letter Y.)

@3scape

One dad wants a unique name, now it's something the UK is defined by. Sure love. I'm sure that's how it works.

Nice sneering - maybe take a look at some of the bay names threads on here then you can come back and tell me it’s not a thing.