Should we stay safe, or go for the name we love (that's seen as 'made-up' and 'chavvy')?

[MushroomWorld]

What the title says! I'd rather not say what the unusual name is, as it's rare. I like 1 spelling of it.

Or Olivia

I like Olivia, but love the other name. Should we just go for it?

You have said that you really love it, and as it isn't offensive then I think that you should go for it.

And no, I don't think it's horrible.

My name has an unusual spelling. Nobody would ever spell it right first time and it's such a pain always having to spell it for people. Olivia has my vote!

I won 40 quid in a sweep stake when amberleigh house won the grand national, so I quite like it!

But she'll be telling people how to spell it every day for the rest of her life and she won't thank you for it. Or she'll shorten it amber and be done with it.

(Haven't rtft so don't know if the racehorse has been mentioned)

Amberleigh makes me think of tobacco as in Amber Leaf

I think it looks better spelled Amberley or Amberly

Olivia.

Amberleigh sounds like the name of a village up north.

She's your DD, call her whatever you like :)
I like quirky names, and if she doesn't like it it's easily shortened to Amber or Leigh. It'd be boring if we all had the same names, why not go for something a little different. When you said chavvy I was thinking 'Sambuca' or 'Chanel', I don't think Amberleigh is chavvy

OK so I googled to see what it means (if anythng) and the top of the google list

www.amberleighcare.co.uk/ "Amberleigh Care is a centre of excellence for young males who have exhibited inappropriate or harmful sexual behaviors."

Also www.amazon.co.uk/Amber-Leigh/e/B0034PU76K?tag=mumsnetforum-21

So a care provider for young males or a writer of porn - not great when your little one is old enough to google.

Amberleigh is awful op, sorry.

Do you like the name Hanalei? It's a place in Hawaii and Amberleigh reminded me of that.

If you like Amberleigh then you should use it. If you like Olivia then you should use it. Ignore the vipers here, it's completely different, judging a hypothetical name, to being introduced to a real child with that name.

For most of my pregnancy I wanted to use a rather 'out there' name (Kester, nn Kit) but about a fortnight before my son was born I realised that I couldn't see myself using that name in the playground, etc. I went for a much more traditional/popular name in the end, and don't regret it at all - I do believe that the child will become the name and then the name you choose will be the name of your child (so inelegantly worded, but hopefully you get my meaning.)

It could be the case that your daughter, in her teens, decides to just go by 'Amber' or 'Leigh', but then that can be said about most names - Olivia could decide she wants to be 'Olly' or 'Livvy' or something completely unrelated.

In short; You do you.

I think you should go with the name you love - sod being safe! You'll only regret it if you don't. X

Hey, there's no vipers here! The OP wanted honest opinions.

You could think again, and have a look for some alternatives, if you think Olivia is too popular and you have reservations about Amberleigh, OP. I think it just looks like a bad spelling rather than some little used, unusual gem

I know 30+ year old twins called Amberlee and Annaliese

I live near Camberley......Amberleigh is like a place name.

Truly awful.

Olivia is lovely and Liv is a gorgeous nn.

I actually like the name. But as an 'Alessandra' myself, just think of your daughter going crazy having to spell it out to people all the time. So annoying! And could never get any personalised key rings etc (not a big deal I know but which seemed unfair when I was little)

I actually like the name. But as an 'Alessandra' myself, just think of your daughter going crazy having to spell it out to people all the time. So annoying! And could never get any personalised key rings etc (not a big deal I know but which seemed unfair when I was little)

I was on a bus to Camberley the other day. Cockney got on and said this going to....?

Olivia is grossly overused and screams lack of imagination-please tell me why I'm wrong?? IMO Olivia has been growing in popularity for the last 20 years and now it's everywhere! It's like Isabelle, Ellie May, Lily...all perfectly lovely names but done to death to the point they've been cheapened!

Yes, you're quite right, Olivia has been top 10/5 for approx 20 years. I don't think it necessarily signals a lack of imagination to use one of these popular names. The parents may use them for a number of reasons; the name may not have been very popular, or even top 100, when they chose it, they don't know how popular the name really is (you see that on here a lot), they may like the name enough not to care about popularity and are confident in their choice. It might be a family name. Etc

There's plenty of not so popular, 'proper' names though, somewhere in between. It doesn't have to be the number 2 name in the country or Amberleigh

If you google Amberleigh, the first result is this:

"Amberleigh Care is a centre of excellence for young males who have exhibited inappropriate or harmful sexual behaviours."

Always worth checking associations with unusual name choices.

Well, you can probably find negative associations with any name if you look long enough - or hang around a playground long enough.

My SIL wants Flora for her next DD. I was immediately reminded of the Inter-Flora joke from a Jilly Cooper novel I read years ago.

(I do prefer 'Amberley' though.)