Bonkers name?

[Stangirl]

I like very unusual names and am considering calling my soon to be born son Atticus - after the noble lawyer character in To Kill A Mockingbird. Any views? The other front runners have been Phoenix (like the hippyness) and Lydon (after lead singer of Sex Pistols).

Not sure what is bonkers about Atticus, Phoenix or Lydon . My favourite would be Atticus but I also quite like Lydon. Perhaps you could look at last years' (or 2009) list of all baby names to get an idea as to how common they are.

Stangirl, you leave your DP, I'll leave my DH & we'll just raise our kids together. My DH has disliked the name Cosmo ever since I mentioned it, so we've settled on it being a middle name.

I've got a very unusual first name (only ever 'met' seven other people on facebook with it, we've got an exclusive group and everythunk)...so I'm all for giving kids the most unusual name you can!

Also, the whole point of naming something/someone is to identify it/him/her, so giving your child a name already used by thousands others will not really identify him/her (without having to add an initial or other adjective).

I really like Atticus. Lydon is okay. I think Lydon Tiberius is really cool, actually! I have no reference point re the Sex Pistols though. :)

Lydon = Lie Down. Which as you will be saying it quite a lot to a small boy anyway, is quite apt.

You could go with John Tiberius and call him Johnny?

why not name him "Boo" ? He was ultimately a great character in the same book!

Quite cool and unusual.

I have an unusual name, never met someone with the same name, but still not too keen on it. Unusual doesn't mean nice.

What about Ludo? Still fairly unusual despite being a very old name.

To be honest if you want something really unusual you're better off going for something like Nigel or Clive.

Ambrose is nice.
and Linus.
Inigo?
Horatio/Horace

I needed unusual names for a slightly different reason, and I'm very glad we chose what we did, and we gave them each a very traditional British second name too. Their third name reflects their cultural heritage, which is very mixed.

Cosmo?

Thank you all very much for your replies - and for your offer awomancalled horse.

swanker we both love Horatio but DP's boss' eldest son is called it, his second son is called Hector - another favourite of ours. DP has even volunteered to leave the company so we can name DS Horatio - but I said he can't give up working to take care of the kids that easily (which is what he wants to do).

I didn't mention Hector as it is quite popular these days!

Also the meaning of Hector (Bully, tormentor) is pretty bad - I think that would put a lot of people off.

Ooh I love Digby thats a great name. Atticus fine too but not Phoenix and Lydon not strong or positive sounding enough for me.

Love, love, love Atticus It's not bonkers at all!

Cosmo Tiberius sounds great

Sorry don't even think past Ancient Rome when I hear the names Atticus and Tiberius - a philosopher and an emperor - hope the boy likes Classics

I like Atticus if you're going 'unusual' but Atticus Tiberius sounds like a Roman emperor :)

atticus is on our list too, im not wild though to be honest. i find boys names so hard. either seem to be boringly over-popular (if i hear of another bloody oliver or thomas i might slit my wrists, another ben and i might be on the roof of a car park) or just a bit TOO obscure. wish we would hurry up and get to the stage of evolution where we can use plants and flowers as boys names.

Ilovekitty, have a look at the ONS list of ALL boys names used last year (or 2009) and you'll find lots and lots of lovely classic boys names that aren't already used by thousands others. I agree - I cannot keep track of all the little Jacks, Charlies and Bens I meet these days (there are just too many!).

Like atticus. And horatio but can see that giving up a job is a bit of an extreme length to go to for a name

I wanted ptolomy or inigo for ds1 and ds2 but dh vetoed them each time. Thought that for ptolomy you could end up with PT or pete or tol or toly or lomy or all sorts of nicknames.

Also wanted jethro (how did autocorrect turn that into bethel?) as a second name for ds2 - he was called ro-ro as his bump name and for several weeks after being born as we couldn't decide what to call him. I quite fancied keeping roro or having jethro if it had to be a proper name but dh didn't like. Roro was also from classic literature - ds1 was allowed to choose the bump name so named it roro after his favourite song - row row row your boat

Atticus is lovely

I know of a recently born one - wonder if it is the same baby! Not too popular (at least round these parts).

There was a peverel on tv the other day - not many of those around...

I know an Atticus and a Digby and a Cosmo! They are all very unusual, I think.