OK, everybody. Time for a public service thread. Post real names that are unusual but not so bonkers that the poor child will have 80 years of explaining, spelling and justifying to deal with.

[seeker]

Clemency
Timothy
Edith

are my first 3.

seeker i'm going to be sorely disappointed if there isn't a Kevin and a Daryl as well.

Isnt it weird how barry is so different from harry. i know a fabulous barry. My age. not child. i like robert, richard, julian.

Jason?

Damon. Cressida. Agnes.

Roger is a fab name!! It was my dad's name and it is my cousin's name.

My DS' name is Art

Art short for Arthur is a perfectly OK name. Roger is a slang name for vigorous sex, so is not a perfectly OK name........

My son is just Art on his birth certificate, not Arthur. OK or not OK? And I refuse to think of my dad's name in relation to vigorous sex .... I get what you're saying though!

I know an Aphra! :D

Also my daughter's name has appeared on this list. :)

haha @ "Roger is vigorous".

lovely mrs mcenroe

Eli
Tobias
Boaz
Elias
Josiah
Sebastian

Talitha
Elvina

Though people do manage to spell and pronounce the very simplest of names regardless. My baby is called Eli and I have numerous times sat in a doctor's surgery or at weigh in and taken a moment to realise that the 'Ellie' the staff are calling for is us. Two syllables, says on his medical records he is a boy I'd've thought and it would be a very bad spelling of Ellie if that's what it actually was!

Joel, Jude, Gabriel, Christian, Christopher, Andrew

Rebecca, Helena, Leah, Catherina, Marianne, Emilie, Emmeline

I know an Afra rather than Aphra which I much prefer
I may die pretty soon if BoF doesn't tell me the wonderful name though..... Can anyone who knows it please let me know begs

Sorry, Afra's out.

If a name has a "normal" spelling then choosing a spelling with means a child has to say "no, it's X, but spelled Y" means it doesn't make the cut.

"My dd's doll is called Roger! I've no idea where she heard that name!"

Probably when the tennis was on.

Roger is a very old name, it cam over with the Normans

My 6 month old is Phoebe Florence Echo
Florence after my paternal grandmother, who I never got to meet.

Other names we love to pieces include

Lyra
Elphaba (from Wicked!)
Wednesday
Paloma
Fae
Luna
Freya (but maybe too popular)
Delilah
Nemi

boys are harder. Hmm...

Luca (in evolutionary terms it stands for last universal common ancestor- always thought that was pretty cool!)
Milo (from the Phantom Tollbooth)
Ulysses
Hawel (after Howl's Moving Castle)

DH and I operate on the basis that we want a reasonably different first name, and they can get more outrageous from there. When they're teenagers and embarrassed by us, they can pretend their second middle name doesn't exist, and once they're grown up enough to appreciate it, it's there waiting, lol...

I too want to know what this unusual name is!!!

May I be so bold as to suggest my own name (Tess) fits this criteria?

Fairly unusual as a given name, definitely not bonkers and so easy to spell that I'd worry about anyone who couldn't spell it correctly first time!

Tess is an excellent name. Tessa is good too.

Rusulka- sorry, most of yours don't meet the criteria. And I'm afraid that you have been unilaterally banished to Outer Monglia for suggesting Luna. You only have to watch Harry Potter to see what her little friends would make of that!

Meg
Innes
Faye

Travis
Jonty
Rufus

We wanted names that everyone would be able to spell and would have heard of, but that weren't currently popular. We've ended up with a Ruth and a Hazel.

My favourite girl name is Cressida, but it clashes with our surname .

Peter is lovely for a boy, I can't understand why it isn't more popular. Also love Timothy.

I have a Jude. It's obviously my favourite name for a boy but I also like Hugo. My neighbour's DS is Dexter.

Aphra is gorgeous! I love Bo for a girl and DS would have been Bo if he were a girl.

sorry but to me, Timothy will always be Tim, nice but dim

Jesus

Sylvia
Maude
Ruth
Esther

Nicholas
Edmund
Wilbur
Hugh

One of my DC's names is on this thread. The others are slightly more popular, though just as "solid".