Names you love but were not brave/crazy enough to call your child/children.

[Sharney]

When I was pregnant with my daughter I really wanted to name her Calypso. It was opposed from every corner and I gave up. I don't regret this as I love my daughters' name but I often think, if I could give her a sister it would be Calypso. Anybody have a regret?

[LieInsAreRarerThanTigers]

Yes I can see that Calypso Warthog would raise a few smiles
I didn't think Coral was 'out there' just not really mainstream. Only ever met one (aged about 40 now) and heard of another (prob in her 60s now).
continuousexpansion I wouldn't worry about how posh you are. DS has Xander in his class with a brother Toby - definitely about as far from posh as you could get! (Not a snob, just a social observer, honest)

[nameymcnamechanger]

Araminta
Persephone
Tallulah

[hulabula]

I too wouldn't worry about 'poshness' because many names that were 'posh' 10 years ago are now quite mainstream. And more importantly, a name cannot be posh (a person, perhaps) and as others have said any name soon becomes associated with the child and becomes the norm.

I love Thaddeus, Quentin and Orion sounds cool too . For girls Araminta is lovely (Minty), as is Persephonie (Sephie) - lovely names and so much nicer than Evie or Grace or any other top 10 name imo.

[sarequill]

I have always loved Yoshi for a boy, we had a girl so who knows...

[KatieWatie]

If I have a boy I'd love to call him something really old fashioned. I've floated 'Titus' but DH has veto'ed it. I might try Obidiah tonight and see how that goes down!

[seeker]

You won't believe this, but people thought I was seriously wierd when I told people what we were calling our dd 15 years ago. There were lots of phone calls rounf the family anf attempts to talk us out of it because it was so old fashioned and grannyish and she would hate it.

The name? Grace!

[poppydaisy]

I'm surprised seeker as you always seem so keen to avoid names that are 'different' or too old fashioned (as Grace would have been 15 years ago).

But yes, you're right you can never tell which names are going to rise in popularity.

[seeker]

No, I love different and unusual. I just think that we ought to give our children names, not collections of letters, unique spellings, babyish nicknames or something out of the Ikea catalogue

[pamelat]

I wanted to call my 'to be' daughter Grace from when I was about 10, and then it went and became so popular.

I am wondering if I will live to regret not just using it, as its so beautiful and I only know ONE little girl called it.

We opted out of the following for fears of what others would think

Poppy (babyish?)
Elsie (I loved this, everyone hated it)
Flora (butter )
Maddeleine (felt we couldn't take her name )

[JemimaMop]

I would have loved to have called my DC Alexander (nn Xander), Ptolemy (nn Tolly) and Hermione.

They actually have very common normal Welsh names. DH would have probably divorced me if I'd suggested any of those. But I can dream...

[MeantToStopAtTwo]

Loveday

[MayDayChild]

DS middle name is Thain because I'm not out there enough to have used it as 1st name
It's my Nanna's maiden name tho

[Dessie12]

I wanted to call my little girl Heaven, after my favourite character in a book I loved or Heaven Leigh, still we settled for another unusual name so I can't moan. Only ever met one other of DD's name.

[pink4ever]

For a girl I really really wanted Agatha(sob) but dh vetoed.Also-
Cecelia
Clothilde
Wilhemina

For boys I loved-
Tristan
Julian
Christian

But again dh got his won way. Our dcs do have quite unusual names but not outlandish.

[seeker]

"Grace wasn't hugely out there 15 years ago was it, my first ever class are now 17 and 18 and there were 2 Graces, also a Grace in my next class too. I taught in London."

It was round here lockets - all the other little girls were called Emily, Emma or Megan!

[dustyhousewithdustypeople]

Wolf. He's mental dynamic and brave and it would have really suited him.

[SheWhoIsCalledPenny]

1st time round, if we'd had a girl I would have loved to have called her Fushia after the charactor from the Gormenghast trilogy but dp vetoed it.
with this pregnancy I love Casper and rowan for a boy and Dominia/ Dominica/Dominie or Zinnia for a girl. Dp is considering Zinnia so might get my way this time!

[RoyalWelsh]

Oh I love so many of these names... Tierney I adore, but I think that was just because of Maura Tierney in ER originally. I also love Persephone, but I don't think I would be brave enough to use any of them.

My favourite of all names ever is Faith, and I will be using it. Iknow it isn't an 'out there' name, but it is the reason that I love it and the connotations behind it that make it feel brave for me, IYSWIM?

[diggingintheribs]

I wanted DS to have Napoleon as a middle name. Had to drop it to get my first name of choice!!

[Rosemallow]

Ooh, love calypso and Orion!
Mine were:

Girls
Kitty (with DP's surname DD would've sounded like a 50s movie star)
Persephone
Arwen
Ishtar

Boys
Torran
Chiron
Thane (think these are really masculine sounding names - one is DS's name but I won't say which one!)

Chose a pretty common one for DD but it really suits her :)

[MayDayChild]

Oh Rosem
Please say it's Thane (same as mine but diff spelling) as I'd love to know it's not quite so strange afterall....

[Obamaniqua]

Cuthbert I blame the Catholic schooling.

[mumoftoomany]

Some lovely names on here. Particularly like Cecilia, Persephone, Calypso, Atticus, Orion and Ivo.

[DumSpiroSpero]

I know a Kaspar & a Faith (and a cat called Telephone!)