Could you you use a nearly totally unique name?

[AlexanderS]

I've thought of a girls name I really like. It is used as a surname, and is not on the 2011 baby name charts for England and Wales at all, but I googled it and found details of one person - a writer - with this name so it is 'out there'.

The name is gorgeous but I don't know whether I'm brave enough to use it! It sounds like a first name, can be shortened to a reasonably popular diminutive and I don't know why more people haven't used it, but I can imagine myself going to mother and baby groups, introducing my baby and being met with blank looks. There is a certain comfort in using a name that dozens of people have used before you.

Could you use a name like this?

[RooneyMara]

How was she harsh?

[amillionyears]

My DDs best friend at school had a made up name, which had a letter added to a more common girls name. Both mother and daughter still like the name.
though I have had times and moments, when I just cannot remember the name for the life of me, as have no other reference

[AlexanderS]

I think Bettany is a bit better than Crayon!

[RooneyMara]

I think she was just musing!

[AWimbaWay]

I really like it.

[hf128219]

There was a thread on this! Sept.

[booklava]

I like it as well, my dd1 has a very unusual name which I also try to find in baby name books same as AlphaBeta82. Problem with dd's name is nn is Matty and teachers at school (esp supply) used to think she was a boy. 1 even asked if she was sure it was her!

[ChestnutsRoastingonaWitchesTit]

I think Bettany is nicer than Crayon too!

I wasn't being harsh, just offering an alternative opinion.

[tilder]

I don't think the link to the herb was harsh. Betony is a herb. You did ask what people think of the name and for some, like me, it will remind them of the plant.

I do appreciate that choice of a child's name can be sensitive, but I think if you choose an unusual name you may need to be prepared for people having a different take on it than you do. Although doesn't need to be unusual for that either.

If it worries or upsets you that people may have a different take on your chosen name now, will it worry you when your child is born?

[Floggingmolly]

Bettany instead of Bethany and you reckon it's "totally" unique?
It really is not out there, if this is your first criteria.

[AlexanderS]

Flogging, when I said it was out there I meant it has been used, i.e. it is out there in the world, not that it was weird and wonderful!

It's fairly unique in that in seems not to have been used by anybody except this one person, though there probably are a few others floating around somewhere.

[Pixieonthemoor]

I think Betony is rather sweet!

In answer to your original question, we named our dd a name that is, using your phrase, almost totally unique. It doesn't shorten to anything usual either but I have never regretted it for a minute, even though I quite often have to spell it and we do get some unusual interpretations!! Therefore I would say go for it esp as I think you say somewhere upthread that you have a common surname (as do we). Lovely to be a bit different.

[Puremince]

As a fan of the Chalet School books, it makes me think of the wonderful Joey Bettany. So I like it. If I met a little Bettany, I might ask if her mother was a fellow Chalet School.

However, I think unusual names work better as middle names. (DD has a top 20 first name and a unique middle name.)

[TuftyFinch]

I've been in a film with Paul Bettany.
Just saying.
At least I'm not being snitty.
I like Betsey.

[Puremince]

• a fellow Chalet School enthusiast.
  
  There's Bettany Hughes, though the first time I saw her name written I was surprised, because I'd thought she was a Bethany.

[Snowflakepie]

I thought of Bettany Hughes too, which is fine as she is an intelligent woman and I enjoy her tv shows.
Couldn't use it myself as we have the same surname though, that's taking hero worship a step too far.
People might mishear it but then they can mishear anything, I have to say my own name, surname and DDs name repeatedly and they are not weird in anyway. So don't worry about that. I think it's a lovely choice.

[seeker]

How about Maynard- shortened to Maynie?

[LegArmpits]

I actually really like it. I'm not even sure it's that unusual, although I don't know anyone named it, if that makes sense.

[BikeRunSki]

I have a unique middle name (I check periodically, but it has never appeared on name lists in the UK since I was born) and loathed it. Children don't like unique, children like to blend it. I used to tell people my middle name was Laura.

As for Bettany - I agree with the potential for Bethany confusion and that it doesn't sound very feminine.

[LittleBearPad]

Seeker

If you had a boy OP you could call it Russell

[pinkposey]

I like it and think that it sounds beautiful. My son's name is totally unique. I made it up. Reddon. It sounds like a name but it isn't, or wasn't. It isn't really that out there, people always tend to think that it must be an old family name. He suits it and everyone (now) loves it.

[jellyrolly]

I like it.

I have a first name that sounds like a more common one and always have to correct people. It doesn't really annoy me because I spend most of the time with people I have met more than once, not total strangers.

(I know someone who had a fling with Paul Bettany, just saying)

[Journey]

I don't think it sounds very unusual because it is so like Bethany. I think some people might think you're trying too hard to be a bit different though by using a slightly different version of a very well known name.

[diddl]

Sounds like a surname to me.

Or someone not saying Bethany properly.

[diddlediddledumpling]

There's a tv presenter called Bettany Hughes, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned her yet.