how unusual would you go?

[firesoup]

just wanted some opinions really, I am expecting our 2nd baby in a few weeks and have choosen names for a boy and a girl, boys names more difficult to pick and we have 2 still in the running I think but either would be fine, reasonably common but I can live with that.

the girls name we choose when I was pregnant with our first, and still love it, it is a name i heard a long time ago but only once, it is a real name and comes up with several very old poets etc when googled but doesn't appear in any name books/lists. I think it is poss German or French. I love it but am it, but is our daughter likey to hate us choosing such an unusual name??

DS has a name that is never going to be top 100. I think as long as it isn't going to be an obvious target for teasing (Cuthbert, Fanny etc.) then it's fine. I'm not keen on Yu-Neek names either but that's just me being a snob :o

I love names like St John and Peregrine but wouldn't ever use them. Hope you are braver than me!

there is nobody in the country with either of my children's names . Doesn't bother me at all.

Is it an old hebrew name by any chance? When I was pg I fell in love with Hephzibah for a girl which I'm sure wouldn't be to everyones taste but we reckoned that we could use Eppie or Effie for a nn which are perhaps a bit more pleasing to the ear to some people.

As it is we had 2 ds's! They have fairly unusual first names but have really quite dull traditional middle names in case they grow up to be boring!!

A story for you ...

My ex found his dad at 19 because of his unusual name.

An older friend of mine met him as a baby and knew how to contact his dad - he'd moved abroad. If he'd had a traditional / boring name, my friend would never have twigged who he was.

He met his dad and gained a huge, welcoming family of uncles, aunts and cousins.

My DC has an unusual name, I thought of this when deliberating over his name.

I'm the only one of me on Google.

I'm also the only one of me on Google :)

I reckon that will matter more the bigger the internet gets. (And let's face it, it's only going to get bigger!)

I love the name Hepzibah (and Bathsheba).

My kids have names that are uncommon(ish)

I chose them because I liked them though. If I liked the name John i would have chosen that regardless (no offence John, I dont hate it).

I would love to know what all of these uncommonly named children are called!

I had an unusual name growing up which is now really common!! The only problem was constantly having to spell it. I think you can get away with more unusual names for girls but maybe less so for boys although of course does depend on the name! Saying that, my DS's name is much less common than my DD's (is becoming ).

Would love to know the names you are thinking about...!

I am the only 'me' in the world (uncommon first name + uncommon last name) I was one of 5 in the UK prior to marriage but now the only one in the world. My DDs all have uncommon first names so are also probably the only ones in the world with the first+last name combination. I like uncommon names (not because I want to be 'youneek') but because I like old names (eldest is named after the first woman and no it's not Eve!) and names that mean something to DH & I.

THe only problem is if DC4 is a boy he will have a living relative with the same name (though a different middle)!

What's wrong with Cuthbert?

Cuthbert

The Office of National Statistics only records names registered more than 37 times (or something) ... Dc4's name is not listed But I'm not sure I would have been so bold with DC1 or 2

The Scottish government record all names, and they tell you how many times each name was used. The rare ones make great reading :)

I am not going to go off and google it though, as I'm meant to be studying. If I find the link to a large list of wonderful unusual names, I'll never get any work done!

JustHecate - can I ask how you know that? Am intrigued how you find out

AKMD Nope, still don't get why you picked on Cuthbert. Several people in that thread say they like it, and to me it's no worse than Wilfred which seems to be quite popular on here. I'm not particularly keen on it, but I think there are far worse names out there.

oh, there's a site you can use that gives you the number of children given each name in a particular year. It only lists names where 3 or more people have the same name, so if only 2 people or 1 person have that name, it won't be present. - the link was on mumsnet actually. But I can't remember where the thread was. Neither of my children's names are present in any year. They also don't make any names list, there's nothing on google and nobody has ever heard of their names.

But I suppose there could be others. But if there are - they won't be many!

Oh, I should say that I am going first name + surname. Our surname is also very weird!

When you google me, with the "" around my name, I am the only person that will come up. So I am the only first name-last name of me on the whole internet

and no results at all for my children's names with the "" around them.

So I'm fairly sure it's only them

(How desperate are you to know what they are, eh? )

Presumably the site is for birth registrations; it can't guarantee that there is no living person in the country with the same name as there is no residents' register which could provide this info.

Well no, but it doesn't really matter or anything I don't go round waving a flag or have t-shirts made up and force my whole family to wear them, or anything it's just a wee snippet of borderline interesting information that I haven't been able to find anyone with our names.

Which started only because there was a thread on here oh do you know you can check all this out. Oh, that's 'interesting' stops me having to do the housework I'll have a go, oh, there doesn't appear to be anyone with the names X or Y.

it's not like I'll sink to my knees weeping and beating my chest if it turns out there's a 90 yr old bloke in a nursing home in Galtrigill who shares the name

This is where you find the registered birth names.

Yes, it doesn't give you an idea of how many kids with the same name will be at the same school when you get there - but if only 5-10 babies a year are registered with a certain name, the likelihood of all of them ending up at the same school are fairly slim, yes? As is 25 of them immigrating to the same area at the same time and going to the same school. Just sayin'

CAUTIONARY TALE! My parents lumbered me with a truly horrific name that caused endless embarrassment every time I started a new school (which was often!)
Both I and my sister went on to change our names... I wrote a post about this just the other day, if you're interested :) wp.me/p1J9Lk-1cW

Didyoupack - it is most unreasonable to dangle an horrific name in front of us and not actually tell us what it was.

I do love the name you changed it to though - that is you on the about me page of the site you linked to?

Apologies JustHecate, but such was the severity of the trauma I suffered, I prefer to leave the name buried in the mists of the past. Considering I waited all those years to rid myself of it, I'd be mad to start publicising it anew.
Thank you for the compliment, that is, indeed, me on the About page of my blog.

It's a bloody gorgeous name. You chose well.

If you ever feel like getting the old name off your chest, you could pm me. I would then perform a burning ceremony and remove the name from the universe.

DidYouPackThePassport I'm sorry that you were saddled with a name you hated.

However all unusual names are not necessarily horrific.

Several of my friends have unusual / non-English names. Some because their parents chose to honour their non-English heritage, some because of hippy parents

They all say they like their names.