to ask what is wrong with ordinary baby names and spellings?

[FlappyTheBat]

Ok, why do people have to have outlandish names for their children?

Or choose a name that has a completely differentmadeup spelling, so that their child will spend their entire life going "oh no, it's spelt xxxxxx"?

Is there some sort of hierarchy of baby names?

What is wrong with ordinary and easy to spell names?

I'm sure that some people must go out of their way to find the most obscure name possible and post it on mumsnet, just to see what the reaction is!

I'm a teacher. I don't shudder at any name, I treat kids as individuals. Maybe because I teach in Inner London, maybe because I am not a narrow-minded prejudiced twat who I wouldn't want teaching my kids.

I suspect the Freakonomics stats/crap teachers judgements are related to class (think names you see on Rikki Lake/Jeremy Kyle), not the actual blimmin' names .

The thing is a name that is in the top ten now might have been considered a bit way out only a few years ago.

The 2 examples I can think of are Emily and Ruby. Both very popular now but many years ago when a friend told me her dd's name was Emily I almost said to her are you sure, do you mean Emma? because nobody under 90 was called Emily. The same was true a few years ago with Ruby I was stunned when a friend called her dd this as I expected her to pick a more modern name!!!
Proves you never can tell.

adair good post I would gladly let you teach my children.
Although I would not do the made up spellings I would definitely not judge someone for doing so besides which it is their child their choice my opinion is of no importance my SIL called her son by a really common name I would not have chose it but all that says to me is that we have different tastes.

I would not say anything about someone choosing to drink tea or ask what is wrong with water why waste electricity blah blah I just accept that they like tea. If we all liked the same things there would be no fun in life.

My DS is under 10. He is called John. (In answer to a query on the first page.)

Agree about the weird spellings - know an English Tomas, which I think must have been hard when he was younger "No, I haven't forgotten the 'h'"

I think you just have to go with what you like. I called DS1 (3) Jack in the full knowledge that it had been the number one name for ten years - but I really wanted it. I hear the name shouted out a lot in playgrounds, etc. but no friends have a Jack and, so far, he has not had another Jack in his group at pre-school or nursery (loads of Jakes though). DS2 (1) has a reasonably unusual name (definitely not top 100) but we have one friend with a DS of the same name and there's another one at playgroup (few years older, though). I think you just can't tell.

I recently came across a Cathryn for the first time. Now I've met

Katherine
Katharine
Catherine
Catharine
Kathrin
Cathrin
Kathryn
Cathryn

Wow! However it is one of those names with a lot of traditional variants so people expect it. However JAIMES is silly, JAEDIN also silly and KORTNI = OMG!

There was an interesting article in the Guardian on Saturday about the effects a child's name can have - here.

Much more far reaching than we may all imagine....

I once met a lady who'd called her daughter Nevaeh.

(It's 'heaven' backwards'. )

Theres a boy in my DS's School who I've always thought was called Harry, we live in the East End and being Cockney sometimes drop our h's. Turns out his name is actually Arry now tell me WTF is that all about

I have no idea what this means but my dd went from a primary school in a very 'challenging" area, where her classmates were called Cody and Katisha and Aysha and Kayley and Kai and Bradlie and Cain to a selective grammar school where her class mates are called without exception names on the Charlotte, Emily, Sarah, Alice, Sophia wavelength.

Can we lay the blame with celebrities then?

It's an old article [http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article2130988.ece but lists some weird names]]

oops
some weird names

ddS NAME IS A PAIN IN THE ARSE. sorry caps.

her first name is not common but well known wih 2 different known spellings and one recently coined one.

I didn't know any when we had her but now know quite a few,all spelled differently.

our surname is also a pain in the arse in that it is an ordinary name with a different from ordinary spelling.

next time around i am going to call him/her john.

oh double , think I'll go and hide!!

can I blame link failure on my astonishment that tweedle dum and tweedle dee have survived to "sing" again next week???

some weird names

if this doesn't work, I won't try again I promise

People often think I've given my DD a 'trendy modern' name (incl. my DM).

However it is a very old-fashioned name that fell out of favour for many years. I didn't realise that it was rarely used, only that I came across it as a teenager, loved it and stored it away for use 20 years later when DD was born.

I hope people don't get all judgy about DD now. .

off you go floppy.

I've had a quick look on the TES site and saw this

philosoph:
minxyfish:
I know it's so wrong (and often untrue), but I love checking out the names and guessing what they'll be like.

If you were a betting person, it could be a fun (if politically incorrect) staffroom sweepstake on the first day of a new school year!

But wait for the backlash from Mumsnet if previous years are anything to go by!

I'm always getting comments on how old fashioned my ds name is and how you dont hear it now adays when i say its spelt alUN rather than alAN it then becomes unusual.

I dont agree that unusual names are always chosen in order to be 'different' anymore than 'normal' names are chosen in order to be safe or fit in etc.

People generally chose names because they like them. I like my DC's names and they are a little unusual but not chosen for affect. I didnt choose DS2's name, he arrived with it. Its generally believed to be beyond the pale on MNs but its an Hebrew name and v.old.

I dont see the point in messing about with spellings though. There are variations but to create an odd and nonsensical version is just asking for years of confusion. If you really want an unusual name why not have one, why take a 'normal' one and mix all the letters up?

I came across a souixzannnee once = susan.
Felt that was a bit strange. Whats wrong with Susan?

teameric, is it definitely Arry rather than Ari? Ari is a perfectly normal name in Hebrew, Icelandic or Armenian.

nope definately Arry

SPIDERMAMA... Dont look on the TES site then, its quite shocking somt of the stuff being spouted on there

My mum has just retired from teaching. In all her years in the classroom (30+) she still remember a girl in her first ever class who was called....Pearl Button. I kid you not, I have seen it written on the class photo.

I was also at school with a David Davis - so I guess a bit of imagination in naming children is not always a bad thing...

babyelvis - i get thesame trouble bu the other way around - my name is Sara (but pronounced Sarah) so I either have it said or spelt wrong
Cursed my DM for yars for it.
But when expecting DS, I liked the name Callum, but didn't like the different spellings (Callum, Calum, Kallum, Kalum)
so I spelt it Calem. Not because I want to be different but I just prefer the way it looks to the others.