Beware of 'unusual' names...

[EricNorthmansMistress]

your children may not thank you for it...

I have a very popular (well it was in the 70s) name and always knew others with me name. Never bothered me in the slightest at all. Certainly have no :( about it. It never crossed my mind to be bothered by others sharing my name.

Dd has a fairly popular name in terms of top 100, etc. although has the less common spelling. Despite it being a s called popula rname we know of no othrs - not in her school nor in the school I work at, or aminst our friends and family.

You can just never tell.

mind there is a pop star in the Staurdays with DD's first and surname, inc DD's spelling, and DD loves the fact and comments on it when ever she hears of them.

IME children don't mind knowing of other people with their name.

On the other hand it doesn't bother DD that she can't uy keyrings and ,ugs with her correct spelling on. You can get hold of so much personlised stuff where you choose the spelling it is easily rectified.

My name is very unusual - never even heard of another one - and I hate it. I hated it even more growing up and really found it an ordeal every time a new teacher took a register. I was definitely singled out for it and made a target for bullying. I coped and do think it made me a strong character but do you really want to put your child in that position for what I believe is your own vanity: "ooh how original of them". I agree that common names are not ideal but there is a happy medium.

I'd forgotten, but I used to get teased mercilessly over my middle name (an old lady name, after my Grandmother), to the extent that I still feel a bit funny about people finding it out in case they laugh, even in my 40s. I don't use my middle initial in my signature and don't put it on forms etc unless legally necessary, eg passport application. I would get rid of it like a shot.

I have a very unusual first name, it's old fashioned and was more popular in the late 19th C / early 20th C. I have only ever met one other person with the same name as me. That was on my first day at secondary school and I was gutted as it meant that I suddenly had to start using my surname (or at least the first initial of my surname) after having had 11 years of being the only X which everyone knew.

The only problem that I have sometimes is that my first name can be a female first name or a surname and my married surname can be a male first name or a surname. This means that sometimes people get my names the wrong way round or get them the right way round and incorrectly assume that I'm a man but I usually get round this by putting my title at the end of letters / emails etc.

Overall I love having an unusual first name, especially as now that I have got married I have gone from an equally unusual surname to a very common surname. I would definitely look for unusual first names for my children because of my common surname, but old fashioned unusual names which obviously relate to one gender or the other rather than random words out of the dictionary.

Hate my first name. Don't like it. Don't think it suits me. Mum told me when I was a teenager that she agreed and they should have gone for something more unusual.

When I was young it was very popular but no where near the top 100 now. Goes to show!

i have a very unusual first name (have never even heard of another), am named after a very very minor character in a fairly popular book, and I love it! (I'm not telling you what it is because I don't want anyone else to have it!)

Yes, kids used to take the piss when I was younger, but they did that to everyone - I remember a girl called Louise being in tears after being told she was named after a toilet!

I was the only one with my name in the entire school and I always hated it. I used to get teased for it a lot. It's a very 'old lady' name but reading some of the baby name threads on here it seems to be creeping up in popularity again. I like it a bit better these days, although still wouldn't say I was madly keen on it.

And for what it's worth, I used to hate never being able to buy anything with my name on it

I was the only girl of my name throughout school and have never met anyone with the same spelling as me - and I love my name. Yes, I have spent years spelling it, but I don't care.

My only suggestions when choosing unusual names would be to keep them short (so quick to spell) and easy to pronounce, so anyone can get the name right, even if they have never seen it before.

I soon got over not being able to buy a 'personalised' pencil case btw. I remember three Melanie's having the same 'personalised' pencil tin in my class! My garfield pencil case was more unique.

I know a Merrily! NN Merry

I have a common as muck first name, and rarely found mugs etc with my name as half the girls born in the 1970s were named this! DH has the name that half the boys got, so between us we struggle! So it works both ways. My mum, bless her, buys us name stuff whenever she sees it! So we have socks, pens, mugs. And we're in our 30s. It's really funny.

DDs have names that are in the top 100, but DD1's name is not the most common spelling, so we struggle for name stuff for her. DD2 is only two weeks old so have yet to look for her things! Think last year her name was about 75th so we shall see!

Bronte is beyond hideous.

Merrily seems silly, ditsy, girly.

Bridie, on the other hand, I love as a nickname for Bridget. I longed to call DD Bridget, but was vetoed by EVERYONE :( DD's middle name is Ivy though so maybe I am a bit of an old lady at heart.

Not keen on nicknames-as-full names, should have gone for Bridget.

It is a rubbish article, too.

All of my dcs have unusual names, so far they are delighted.

Merrily isn't that bad. she's still a child and I doubt her work colleagues or uni mates will sing songs to her to tease her.

The situation is far from unique though:

It happens all the time