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!

Hey spookierookie - you do so know a John! That's what it says on his birth certificate anyway

DS2 has an unusual but not invented name. Conversations go like this:

'Stirling? never heard of that name!'
'Stirling Moss?'
@well I've heard of him of course'

!

DS2 likes it, he is in a sea of kids called Lewis / Jake / Josh and complicated coversations to establish exactly which Josh we mean are the nirm here, so it has its benefits. We area family that likes F1 though so that helps.

The others have common names, though Samuel is always getting cards to Samule from a friend of mine (he is not a donkey!). harold chose to call himself Harry, and we shorten Sebastian to Bas. But common names, though nobody else called them in their school (though Hary has only a class of 12 or would have many I am sure)

Oh I know a Wanklyn.

it's his Grandma's maiden anme apprently. Possibly unfortuante nonetheless

My dd is the only Lucy in her class but the year she was born I knew three other women (friends of friends) who called thier children lucy/lucie and i thought on no!!

I picked philippa for my second dd who as many know passed away. i never hear any children called that

my ds is joseph but we call him joe and there seems to be loads of both

but back to original post saw one this week
jayceon now is that jason?!!

What the OP effectively seems to be saying is that you have to give your child a name that lots of other people have given their children?

Well, a name is surely just one word that is used to identify a particular child. It is a word that can have a meaning or a nice sound. Why on earth does it have to be the same word that lots of other people use to identify their children?

If you WANT to do that, then fine. But it is rather silly and shortsighted to say that unless you choose the same identifier as lots of other people, your choice is somewhat inferior. Why? Because you don't go with the pack?

Also, this is ridiculously closed-minded. Unless your child stays in your social circle, country and culture, your child may well be considered weird or outlandish.

More annoying to me is the top twenty naming trend where you end up with a zillion Imogens or Oscars who are forever marked as belonging to that culture, time and place.

Stirling is a very cool name. I love it.

BTW, I'm a Katharyne ;)

what I find a bit strange is that the first person who called their offspring Oscar sometime in the early 90s would have been extremely cruel according to the OP

(I mean seriously, do you remember what Oscar used to sound like, before there were hundreds of them?)

yet by a lucky chance hundreds of people caught on

which means that the choice was not cruel after all, but completely normal and sensible

otoh when did you last meet an infant Mark or Fiona?

We took a few days to name DS2 and used what I thought was the 'right' spelling, the way my childhood friend spelt it and a politician spells it. But it wasn't in the baby's names book like that, but Alister was.... I realised very quickly we/he will be spelling it for the rest of his life.

I think wrong spellings are either people can't spell, or trying too hard.

I always say Catherine with a C when I say my name, but unfortunately have always been Kate with a K, now I do get it spelt with a C since Cate Blancett.

I once read an article about short girls names being seen as friendly, and long names more professional. So I use the long one professionally, and do find it too overfamiliar if people use the shortened version when I don't tell them that's my usual name.

I was desperate to give a DD a long name that could be shortened, but had 2 boys so it didn't matter!

And I did like Mark.....

Whoops spelt Blanchett wrong?!?

LOL

In my clas of 13 girls for PE,8 (including me) were calledC laire. I quickly learmned if I wanted to get my own homework back (that I would have to change my name spelling, so I dropped the E and became Clair; someone else changed the C to a K

It was for rather practical reasons but now I an never remember how I should be spelling my own name and slip between the two.

you guys gonna love me here my sons name is simon and spelt like

cymon, but its a middle name

Each to their own I say...

There seems to be a backlash against names that are perceived to be 'working class', 'middle class', 'upper class', whatever.
Can't really blame people for wanting to come up with their own.

Feelings on a name are based on your culture, life experiences, etc. So of course you're going to love some names and despair of others. Don't forget other people might hate your DC's carefully chosen name. Do you care? Should they?

It's really not worth loosing sleep over...

In DD2 reception class there is an
Immaggyn.

WTF.

Imogen is generally accepted to be a misreading, so I don't think it's unreasonable to do another one. Live and let live (says the mother to an Imogen and another ever so slightly made up named child!!)

I actually quite like the names Imogen and Oscar. I didn't mean anything personally against those names.

Totally agree with Nahla. Names are very personal. It's a shame people are quite so judgy/narrow-minded. Although rather hypocritically, I do find myself rolling my eyes at all the Kayden/Brayden/Jayden derivatives around here

I love entering completely made-up names into thinkbabynames.com and finding out how they are pronounced and whether they're male or female.

For example, who wouldn't want to name their pretty little DD Cungeonboard or Flangewidget?

Or their tiny defenceless little DS Umsquat or Mudgepan?

Cory I think that the first Oscar may have been before 1990. Ever heard of Oscar Wilde ?

I think its important to distinguish between unusual "English" and the misspelling of names.

My three mini beasts all have aboriginal Australian names, because they are half aboriginal and I always have to advise ppl of the correct spelling. But DH and I felt it was important that their names have a link to their origins, the names are quite common amongst the aboriginal community in Oz.

I have to admit though, that I detest made up spellings of traditional names. e.g Shawn. Maybe I am just a grumpy old women, but it really irritates me

My 21 month old ds is called John and we called him that because I didnt know of any other Johns the same age as him. I liked the fact that he would probably be the only John in his peers, yet it was a name that nobody would struggle with.

Flappy - now I know where your name comes from
Placenta? Seriously? Seriously?

Doesn't it rob the child of the fun of being an 11 yo, when you re-invent yourself from a Kate to Kayt, and from a Susannah to a Soo, etc, perferably with a newly practised signature and a little flower as part of a letter?

It's another example of parents just not growing up and crossing the great divide between adolescence and parenting, perhaps.

We struggled to find baby name books and websites that weren't full of super crazy unusual names. We finally went for Matilda Mae as it's traditional but maybe not such a popular choice. I just didn't like 'May' but I believe Mae is a legitimate spelling!

However MIL still asks if it's Mai (Welsh spelling)!! Grrr

Love Stirling... will store it away in case we have a boy next!