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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

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Original poster

Those who named their babies an unusual/uncommon name...

127 replies

Bue · 05/12/2015 13:20

4 month old DD is named Romilly. Obviously DH and I knew it wasn't a very common name, but I don't think we appreciated just how unknown it is. We get a lot of comments like "Romilly? Well that's certainly unusual!" or "Hmm is that a name from your country?" (I'm from abroad). When people know the name I immediately think they must be an ITV viewer (Romilly Weeks), very posh (it was quite an upper crust name at least in the past), or a Mumsnetter . But I get the impression most people think we have made it up and I'm some sort of kre8tiv namer .

Has anyone else felt a twinge of name regret having given their child an uncommon name, and do you just learn to let it roll off your back? I'm feeling bizarrely defensive about it and am starting to dread telling people her name when they ask!

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MamaDuckling · 05/12/2015 13:24

Interesting, this name is on our list for DD due soon!
Also have a more traditional, well known name on the list which we're leaning towards...
Don't regret it though, it's a beautiful name. She can always be a Milly at school if she likes

WutheringFrights · 05/12/2015 13:32

DD has a slightly unusual name, (lead female character in Grey's Anatomy) DS has a name (associated with my username) that here on MN people totally totally hated.
In real life people always react with interest to both, saying they are lovely, unusual and usually ask why we picked them. My mum finds it difficult to tell people DSs name which I find really funny...she isn't embarrassed it's just a very big name for a small boy.
With DS I am always prepared for raised eyebrows but to be honest I get more comments about his beautiful hair and the fact people think he is a girl!

cece · 05/12/2015 13:39

I did with DD. We gave her a name that we thought was well known yet not used much. After naming her though I had many people asking if we had made it up. Sigh. I also got asked what it was short for a few times too. I used to dread telling people in the end. She is a teenager now and her name is now rather popular! Well it's Top 100!

GastonsChestHair · 05/12/2015 13:39

My dd's have slightly more uncommon names. 2 get complimented all the time. The other one, we've had a few Barry Manilow references over the 7 years she's been around (I'm sure you can imagine the name) but I don't care. I think it's rather funny when they do because she looks at them like

LaurieLemons · 05/12/2015 13:40

She has the option of Milly so I wouldn't fret if she ends up hating it! I know exactly what you mean. My sister has a really unusual name and a lot of people think she is foreign or her parents made it up.

LaurieLemons · 05/12/2015 13:41

If it's any consolation I actually have the opposite problem, didn't realise how popular DS name is these days!

winterswan · 05/12/2015 13:42

I have an uncommon name, to the point where I can almost tell someone's level of education as to whether they pronounce it correctly and/or find it remarkable.

Depending on where you live and where you want to go it either opens doors or closes them.

bobsalong · 05/12/2015 13:46

DD has an unusual name to the point we've never heard anyone with it. She has my name as her middle name which is a more unusual version of a common name.
The only mild annoyance- I can't say regret because I don't regret her name at all- is that both her names have an a at the end. People seem to have a permanent problem with getting my name right and seeing the a at the end and I'm sick of correcting them when they constantly call me by the more common version (not being a snob it's just not my name!) so I feel bad for her that I've passed this curse onto her twofold.

BessieBlount · 05/12/2015 13:49

Isn't romilly a place in Stockport? Possibly spelt differently but I remember attending a wedding there. It's a very pretty name regardless. It's certainly a proper old name rather than something made up.

Gaston, I am making the assumption that your dd's name begins with an L rather than an M?

VegetablEsoup · 05/12/2015 13:55

dc1 has a very unusual name.
if often crops up on here as a good second name, but so far we have not come across anyone with that name.

georgetteheyersbonnet · 05/12/2015 14:07

I know a small Romilly too! It's a lovely name and there are plenty of options for her to shorten it when she is older - Milly, Romy etc. I would just enjoy the fact that her name is so pretty if I were you :)

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 05/12/2015 14:10

Romilly is gorgeous, don't regret it!

I have never actually met a real one though .

It's so nice to hear rarer names amongst all the Emily's, Isabel's, Chatlotte's, Imogen's.

GastonsChestHair · 05/12/2015 14:13

Bessie, Yes

Op, Romilly is lovely. Don't have regrets.

Original poster

Bue · 05/12/2015 14:17

Thanks I feel a little less alone now with my crazy name thoughts. I don't truly regret the name, I love it and would choose it again, and there are lots of nickname options. I just don't think we thought through some of the more tiresome implications of a very unusual name (or rather one that is known within a very narrow segment of society). I don't expect everyone to like it, it's more that people might think I've made it up

Wuthering is your DS's name Heathcliff?

Bessie I think Romiley is a place in Stockport, yes. Romilly is a village in France so it was indeed a place name first.

OP posts:

stuffthenonsense · 05/12/2015 14:21

my younger children have unusual names, i love them, it did take a little while to stop being irritated by constantly having to repeat/justify/spell their names to people who asked (usually strangers) but now they are a little older they fit their names like gloves, i couldn't imagine them having a 'normal' (boring) name now and certainly they have never complained about their names (unlike me, my name gives away my age and social standing at birth and id change it in a heartbeat).

FattyNinjaOwl · 05/12/2015 14:23

My DD has quite an uncommon name for a baby (well she's very nearly 2) I love it and wouldn't change it for anything. She's called Bernadette.
I get comments on what a beautiful name it is and how it suits her. And how you don't hear it often enough.
Romilly is a gorgeous name.

BessieBlount · 05/12/2015 14:25

Yes, I thought it may be spelt differently as I only visited once about 10yrs ago. Either way, it's pretty and a real name. I know what you mean about people thinking you've made it up though. One of my boys is Kit, short for Christopher. He has always been Kit though. I have been accused many times of making it up. I try to explain that a few hundred years ago it was as common a nn as Bill/William but I just get funny looks.

Danglyweed · 05/12/2015 14:25

My dd has a classmate called romilly, its not a name I would've thought of, but I do like it. I myself have an unusual name, hated it when I was growing up "oh thats unusual" blah blah blah

SouthYarraYobbo · 05/12/2015 14:28

Dd1 has unusual spelling (a nod to DH country ) which when spelt out doesn't flow very well. Only realised once she was born how often you need to spell a name out loud (dr, hv etc).

Even now and she's nearly 5 l feel like I'm just saying vowels out loud

MagpieCursedTea · 05/12/2015 14:29

DS has a very unusual name. I love it but I didn't quite realise how unusual
It was when we chose it. I do get sick of having the same conversations with people about his name.

BendydickCuminsnatch · 05/12/2015 14:32

DS has a name which people seem to think is unusual, although I can think of 3 off the top of my head: England cricketer, creator of Buffy, barista man in our local Costa.

I get a lot of 'pardon??'s and people pronouncing it wrong. One mum at a baby group actually refused to call him by his name, which I thought was fucking appalling behaviour to be honest. Needless to say, her DS had a very middle of the road name (DS' middle name actually, so a nice enough name, just plain!). But for the most part have had positive reactions, and most people are polite anyway aren't they.

We and the whole fam love his name, and he absolutely couldn't be anything else. Love him :)

BendydickCuminsnatch · 05/12/2015 14:36

PS Bue, Romilly is a lovely name but I so relate to your last sentence in the OP! Ah well, fuck em! A name is supposed to be used to identify someone, we can't all be Isabella and Alfie can we!

Vajazzler · 05/12/2015 14:42

I know a Romilly. It really suits her. I have an unusual name. I've never met another person with my name.

CastaDiva · 05/12/2015 15:03

There were no other children with my DS's name registered in England and Wales in the year of his birth (or at least it didn't appear on the lists, which means there were fewer than three, or something?). It's one of the less used Biblical names, and very common in another European country with a slightly different spelling.

Exactly what winterswan said, really, though without the pronunciation issue, as it's phonetic. But the education (by which I don't mean exam-passing, but a general level of informed exposure to the world at large) of people who say 'That's unusual' and glare balefully because you didn't call your child Harry like theirs, tends to be low, in my experience.

Romilly is nice, and not wildly unusual, is it? I don't know any personally, but am aware of it as an established name. It's hardly Nevaeh.

GoldPlatedBacon · 05/12/2015 15:15

My dd is Xanthe. Nearly always misheard as Zante/Nancy. Have to say ' no, we're not Greek' - it is getting on my tits a little but I love her name (Romilly was also on my list!)

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