Beware of 'unusual' names...

[EricNorthmansMistress]

your children may not thank you for it...

"not only had we produced a beautiful child, but also we now felt extra clever because we had branded her in such a way that immediately set her apart from all the other beautiful babies born that day."

Postnatal logic....beware!

meh, am sure there are just as many kids out there who "hate" their boring, common names too.

just doesn't make as interesting a headline does it.

My maiden name is very similar to Halliwell and it's a very tricky surname noone can every spell the wretched thing, sounds rubbish with lots of first names.

Why on earth call your child

Merrily Halliwell - almost impossible to pronounce!

You can love or hate an unusual name or a 'classic' name. What people seem to be frightened of is other people's opinions of the name.

You can't choose a name that everyone will like - the best you can do is choose a name you love and hope the child will love it too.

I was teased about my name even though I am one of the Jessica/ Rebecca/ Jane ilk. Children tease other children and I expect Merrily would still have been teased about her name if not something else if she had been called Victoria. The problem is thinking you can avoid it by giving a certain sort of name - doesn't work in my opinion and experience.

Children don't know that Merrily (for example) is more unusual than Olivia (for example) if they only know one of each. Its not that common to have more than one child with the same name in one class and it would be very unusual to be the only girl who had a name unique to that class. DD is in a class of 30 and there are 29 different names, she isn't surrounded by any paticular one.

I don't thank my parents for giving me a common name. There were 4 of us in my class .

My dc's have slightly unusual names. I believe they will cope.

I agree Meglet. When I was younger I wanted to be an Emma or Claire like the millions of others in my class, but as I got older I was so glad to have a name that not everyone else has. My name is not unusual, just no very well used.

DS1 has a pretty popular name, DS2 has a name that is unusual. Not sure what DC3 will end up with yet.

As we didn't live in Wales I could never find mugs with my name on either,

Agree that if it's not a name they'll find someone else.

I was in a class once at schol that was full of the "classic" names - and one boy with the name "Cosimo"......he was extremely popular - not because of his name, just because he was. No-one ever teased/bullied him because of his name.

Yet one of the Claire's (we had 3 in our class) was bullied (and her name often used as part of the teasing).

My DS's names are unusual (here in the UK)

DS1 is 10 now - and has yet never been teased for his name

I once encountered a woman called Merry.

Merry.

She married a Mr Cox.

So her name when I met her was Merry Cox.

Hah, Merrily is changing her name to my first name!

So she'll spend the rest of her life correcting people who insist on calling her Vikki.

ffs.

Mrsgordon - 192 throws up more results for Merry than Merrily including a Merry D Ash and a Merry Scott , oh yes found the Merry Cocks too

I hated my name when I was 8, I was adamant I would change it, never did and I like it now...

I can understand someone not wanting an outlandish, off the wall name but at the same time I can understand parents/children not wanting a name that will be shared by 4 or 5 other children in the class.

Currently in the DCs school there are 6 boys with the same first name in a KS1 of 60 pupils. They are forever known as .

my first name is pretty common for girls born in scotland in the mid to late 70s (then again more recently in the US) but not so common in england, i went from being one of many in my home town as a child to being unique among everybody i knew in london as a young adult. now back in edinburgh it's relatively common again and i have to use my full name at work with surname all the time.

i preferred being unique.

But while it's easy to presume that there has been a huge increase in unusual names recently ? certainly if celebrities such as Jamie Oliver (Buddy Bear), Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (Suri) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Apple) are anything to go by ? actually, that's far from the case. The top names chosen by parents remain remarkably stable, with no new entries in the latest list of the top 10 boys' names, and just one, Evie, among the most popular girls' names.

Actually she's wrong about that - the proportion of children being given the most popular names is a fraction of what it once was.

i'd like to give my children an 'unusual' name but not one that is a word in the english dictionary (no nouns particularly)

fluffle - my mum has a name that is in the English dicitionary.

She once rather upset a neurologist when she was involved in some research stuff for Parkinsons Disease.

Asked to give a list of words beginning with "F" and she reeled a load off - including her name.

She was stopped in her tracks and told that wasn't a word - and she told him to get a dicitionary -and there indeed is Felicity

I'm sure there's probably more like that........

I don't think that Merrily is such an unusual name, but combined with the surname it is quite difficult to pronounce.

My DC have unusual names (not for UK but we live abroad) and like having unusual names. DD has said that she is glad that she is not called Sophie or Laura like so many of her friends.

I hated sharing my name with 2-3 others in my class at school, always being known as little XX or XX surname initial. I honestly wish my parents had spent a bit more time finding a more 'special' name just for me .

I've met a Merrilees before but never a Merrily...

I don't like my name that much, but I do like that it is unusual. I like that all my friends only know one - me. So when I leave a message I just have to say S called not S Smith IYKWIM.
I can't believe that not being able to buy a mug with your child's name on it would put someone off using a name but it does!

I think there will be at least as many, if not more, children who hate 'sharing' their common names with loads of others. I did/do.