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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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LetGoOrBeDragged · 08/12/2015 13:40

Bertrand, the person being named is too young to have an opinion on it
Seriously though, a parent cannot possibly know what their child's preferences will be when they grow up, so you can't really factor that in, except to give them a proper name that people are unlikely to make negative judgements about (unfair though that is).

CeriBerry · 08/12/2015 13:46

I know four Romillys, don't think of it off the wall at all! Lovely name though

BertrandRussell · 08/12/2015 13:56

"Bertrand, the person being named is too young to have an opinion on it wink"

Exactly. Which is why people need to put aside their egos and choose a name which does not have the potential to make that person's life any more difficult than it has to be. As you would do for any decision you are making on behalf of somebody unable to consent. If you have to think for a second "am I brave enough to choose this name?" then don't choose it. It's not you thAt has to be brave.

BendydickCuminsnatch · 08/12/2015 14:01

FattySantaRobin I often go on that site but can't work out how to see how many babies had the same name as my DS? It says 0.0004% of all babies born in 2014 had my son's name (he was born in 2015), but how do you convert that to an actual number? It says it's ranked 4632 in 2014. But how many babies are named it then?

Sorry I'm crap with charts and data and stuff.

FattySantaRobin · 08/12/2015 14:04

Just click the actual graph. It should come up.(I'm on my phone) I know my DD was one of only 9 Bernadettes born in 2013 if you can't figure it out you are welcome to pm me details and I will find out for you. (Obviously that's only if you want to!)

ceeveebee · 08/12/2015 14:08

My DS has a fairly uncommon name (just checked the link above and his birth name was 4632nd most popular name, the abbreviated version which we use for him doesn't rank at all) and yes people often comment, or ask me to repeat or spell, but I quite like the fact that he's fairly unique and likely to be the only one in his school. His twin sister has a more commonly used name but just outside the top 50 so not likely to have many in her class.

LetGoOrBeDragged · 08/12/2015 14:10

Bertrand I would have thought it goes without saying that responsible parents will choose a name that won't hinder their child in life. I guess not though...

I stand by the point that the parents should love the name and not try to please granny etc.

MagpieCursedTea · 08/12/2015 14:11

Bendy I'd been on before but only figured out today (because I actually bothered to read the instructions ) that if your hover your mouse over, or just tap on it if you're on a phone/tablet, it'll show you the data.
There were 9 other babies with DS's name in the year he was born, more than I thought! It's a real name, just a very old German one.

CastaDiva · 08/12/2015 14:20

Bertrand, you can only choose an 'ordinary' name within a certain culture or set of cultures you are familiar with, though.

I have a very ordinary Irish name - it was probably top five, if not top three, in the year of my birth, and my parents chose it for its extreme ordinariness (though this was the 70s - no one in rural Ireland at least was yet doing the Yooneek Name). But they weren't to know I would spend my entire adult life living in different places outside of Ireland, in which my name is exotic, unphonetic and unfamiliar. In England, I do have to spell it, and be alert to the way in which it can be mangled when called out at GP surgeries and the like, but I have to say I fail to understand why this is such a big deal. In my London GP surgery, I was surrounded by Turks, Kurds and Africans who were presumably all having their names mangled by the receptionist too without any of us falling apart about it or thinking it laid an axe to the roots of our being.

LemonBreeland · 08/12/2015 14:22

Romilly is not really 'out there' I think it is a really pretty name. I also love Xanthe.

Two of my DC have very 'normal' names and the other one has an unusual name. We live in Scotland where most people seem to think it sounds Scottish and think it is a great unusual name. My family in England were less keen. One of my DGMs aasked where we got it from. My other DGM didn't like any names so it didn't really matter what we named him.

I wanted to call DD Clementine, but in the end she got something top 10. I can imagine we would have had some good reactions to that one.

Helenluvsrob · 08/12/2015 14:27

Eldest (22 now) had an almost unheard of name ( if you know my old user name you'll know it!). Sudden surge of popularity and there are many preschoolers with this name now!n

Crazypetlady · 08/12/2015 17:07

Nobody had the same name as ds according to the link. I haven't had any bad comments.

BendydickCuminsnatch · 08/12/2015 19:55

ceeveebee my DS's name was ranked 4632nd as well...! For 2014. So does that mean they have the same name?? That is so funny given the subject of this thread

Claraoswald36 · 08/12/2015 20:01

I love romilly. And heathcliff I have name envy!
Dd1 has a really unusual name which is hardly ever commented on. Dd2 has a French name which isn't common but occurs in this country and everyone thinks it's made up. Sigh. It rhymes with melody.

ceeveebee · 09/12/2015 07:22

BendydickCuminsnatch ha that would be funny - does it begin with R? Suspect there will be a lot of "joint" 4632nd names though as every name with only 4 that year (or whatever the number is) will be ranked equally

BendydickCuminsnatch · 09/12/2015 09:35

Oh yeah. God I'm bad at statistics. No not an R name!

lucymootoo · 09/12/2015 09:50

Yes we did. Sometimes people have to hear it repeated a few times then will ask "Mollie? Millie? Mila? Mia?" (not her name but for example) and I start to get a bit pissed off

I've had a mixed reaction, some love it and some really seem to hate it. Most don't care.

If you type the name into Wikipedia there are only 4 famous people with the name. I don't expect to hear it on anybody else but at the same time I don't expect people to have not herd of it .. If that even makes sense

Fannycraddock79 · 09/12/2015 09:59

My ds has an old fashioned uncommon name ( a poet) which really suits him. It is a name that people in Waitrose say "I LOVE it" while people in tescos say "oh,that's ....nice/unusual". I'm not making that up, it's my genuine experience! For me, I wanted my dcs to have names that if you had to phone them, you'd have a vision of an intelligent successful person. Romilly is unusual but as an itv viewer I have heard it and think it's really pretty

RedToothBrush · 09/12/2015 17:48

Took me 6 months to get used to DS's name.

Now I wouldn't have any other.

Romilly, is not that out there. Promise.

People are ignorant. Don't let their ignorance make your world smaller or less creative.

mathanxiety · 11/12/2015 05:06

What CastaDiva said (Irish name perfectly fine in Ireland, mangled beyond recognition elsewhere).

Also, Romilly is definitely not outside the bounds of British experience. It's nothing like a madey uppey Mormon name, for instance.

You can't name a baby in hopes of avoiding confusion among people who don't get out much, don't read much, don't pay much attention to the world around them, and may also be a bit thick.

DecaffCoffeeAndRollupsPlease · 11/12/2015 05:19

I got fed up of my unusual name and changed it for the name of its first letter. My dd's name is unusual, I shorten it to Kit but, she loves her full name and won't allow other people to shorten it.

Romilly is pretty. And hey, if she hates it she can always pick something boring for herself when older, like I did...

Domino777 · 11/12/2015 05:24

It's a stunning name!

Domino777 · 11/12/2015 05:25

I've heard of it before also

Burgatroyd · 11/12/2015 11:12

Whats wrong with made up names? There are some beautiful ones out there

Original poster

Bue · 11/12/2015 13:18

My ds has an old fashioned uncommon name ( a poet) which really suits him. It is a name that people in Waitrose say "I LOVE it" while people in tescos say "oh,that's ....nice/unusual".

You've more or less hit the nail on the head there

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