What do you consider an 'out there' name?

[allrags]

Just wondering, as I don't want something too unusual for DD. It's not always easy to tell what would be regarded as 'out there' from the baby name statistics as some perfectly well known, 'normal' names are only used a few times each year. Examples much appreciated.

I think it has to be a name you feel totally comfortable saying, not one you feel you have to "get away with" IYKWIM.

It is hard to give xamples without seeming bitchy.

examples even

Anything that has been actually made-up. Or has a stupid kreaytiv spelling. Or is a random noun appropriated as a name. If it's an actual name, then that's fine, no matter how rare.

Please, please, please, give some thought to how the child might feel about their name when they get older. Don't let your desire for originality make their life a misery! What's In A Name?

I would consider Biba, Bibi, Phoenix, Star, Red, Trixie, Tallulah out there names. I don't dislike the names but they are certainly not super popular and generally children with such names belong to creative parents.

Quite right, sugar - I think a good measure of a name that is too 'out there' is one that wouldn't suit a child, but is perfect for a pet.

Hence why our dog is called Bibi!

The worst name for weirdness in my honest opinion is Sholto. I think it sounds like a horse.

I disagree strongly with aliportico. There are many, many rare 'actual names' that I would consider to be completely unusable and ridiculous and that would potentially make the bearer a laughing stock. Equally,there are lots of made-up names that fit in with current trends.

I think it's all about context really. I'm from Scotland but live in SE England and many of the names that would be considered quite commonplace and attractive down south are utterly ridiculous up north.

Atticus, Ptolemy, Quentin, Horace, Cordelia, Cecily, Ophelia, Persephone. Funnily enough I'd say Star, Tallulah, Red are much nicer and not as "out there"! But then I'm not very posh and a bit of a hippie :o

Bibi 'out there' it's on our list as a nn for Beatrice. Oh well

I guess it's what you are used too hearing.

All the names that are frequently on there boards that MNetters pretend they love but I bet would never use. Like Ptolemy and Percy and Horace and Hadley and Waterfall and Ariadne.

Ptolemy is a great name!

Lol @ yellowflowers. Freerange, you're completely right that there are plenty of absolutely terrible real names! I suppose I just meant I wouldn't be rolling my eyes at them. Still don't think I like any made up current trendy names though :o

(But then I have a child with one of the names mentioned here, so am clearly a fruit loop :o )

step, Quentin is not one little bit 'out there' . We have one and he is very lovely!

I'm sure your Quentin is as lovely as you say rachel :) Names are so subjective and there are many factors as to what sounds "ordinary" or "out there" to a particular person. Agree with freerange about location having an influence.

You're right, Step. Our perception of names depend very much on where (which country) we grow up, where we live/work and who we've met with that name.

Where we live (and work) in London I hear names from all over the world, so perhaps I'm used to hearing more 'unusual' names.

'Out there' names might be

Ulysses
Amadeus
Socrates
Hubertus
Hildegard
Obelix

I walked into a breastfeeding support group when dd was 4 weeks old and the first two babies I met were Percy and Ptolemy . I live in fife which with the best will in the world can at best be described as down to earth place to stayy (apart from st andrew and i don't stay there ) anyway, i've got to know these mums and now think of both as perfectly normal names. Like others say, knowing someone with a name changes your perspective of it
I still think fifi trixibelle is a bit much though

My niece is bibi.

poppydaisy obelix I wouln't be surprised if the next celebrity baby is Asterix!

Never met a Waterfall (!) but I do know a small Ariadne, and very lovely she is too.

Out there to me is certainly not names like Cecily or Cordelia. To me it's names that have to be spelled or said twice or three times to everybody like Cai-Onn or Kobi (actual names of boys I knew).

To me a lot of names on here are not 'out there' - I know of real life Cecilys, Cordelias, Quentins, Phoenixs and even a Persephone.

I agree, dubz, once you meet a 'real life' Ptolemy, Percy or even an Obelix, you associate the name with that person, and if their are nice, then you automatically like the name.

I know a Jaxx, Zee and Smirnoff - personally they are rather 'out there' to me!

Also know a rainbow, a snow, a stone-rose, a nevada (girl) and a raven (boy) again out there names

We named our son Gabriel and we had alot of raised eyebrows, people often stare at us when we call his name, and i was told by a look-alike Junkie in the supermarket that i was up my own backside for calling my toddler that.

At my daughters school there is a Soren which many think is a little out there too....

Someone in our town called their bay boy Wurzel ! ( and yes we do live in Somerset), poor little chap having to deal with that one all his life !

I love the name Gabriel and Soren is a popular Scandinavian name, not unusual there, but Smirnoff?, Wurzel? honestly, what are people thinking?

I think on the whole babies grow into their names and just become them. Something that sounds a little out there on a baby then becomes cool and unique.

We have a Ralph near us and eyebrows were raised at that on a baby but now he is our lovely Ralph. It suits him.

Gabriel is a lovely name. It sounds very angelic to me.