Would this name work on a boy or girl?

[victorianhouse]

Ages ago I decided that I would give the middle name Danum to one of my DC due to personal reasons, DH likes it so no problem there. We are expecting but won't find out the sex so we are working on both boy and girl names.

We would definitely want a more normal first name to balance it out with the middle we chose. However we can't decide whether this middle could actually work as a unisex name and be used for either a boy or a girl or if it sounds more suitable for just one of the genders.

Any first name ideas (boy/girl) would be greatly appreciated!

Also I think as there is a special link to the name it's lovely, better than a child explaining they have the middle name Louise for no reason other than the parents liked the name or that it was common in the 90s.

Op it's fien, it's a middle name so rarely used, and most people will prob assume it's a famy surname so acceptable anyway.

I would make sure if it's a girl it's a feminine first name so I'd avodie Lesley Danum or Robyn Danum but Olivia Danum Smith or Jessica Danum Jones is fine

My middle name is a place name in Jamaica. I have never been to Jamaica, but my dad moved there for 17 years. I have a conversation very similar to the one @Orphlids described surprisingly often (far more often than once every 3 years). My name at least isn’t connected to a rundown post industrial town that is known flooding and a dodgy council!!

I would say it is more masculine but tbh names are so versatile nowadays it would work for a girl too l am sure. Just doesn't sound v girly to me.

@BikeRunSki, I was trying to think how often my middle name comes up in conversation. But I think my uncle, whose middle name is Thickness, would probably feel his middle name was revealed more often than he would have liked. Although I don’t suppose his was met with the same positivity yours was, tee hee!

Thickness is a ....remarkable.... name @Orplids!!

I think the only way to escape the crippling embarrassment when revealing it would be to announce it with a sort of Austin Powers style suggestive raising of one eyebrow.

Worst wedding I ever ever to - memorable for there being no food for non-family guests I mean literally none. Service at midday, family only lunch, evening reception. Everyone except the b&g expected 7.30pm reception to mean “evening meal”, most guests had fine 200 + miles and were staying 2 nights. The after party in the Chinese chippy at 9pm was fun though!

Best wedding I’ve ever been to, memorable for plenty of food and the children’s playground in the village hall garden. Venue chosen for the playground. Service at 3, quick group photos, afternoon tea in village hall whilst b&g had family photos done, speeches with fizz and wedding cake (centrepiece of the afternoon tea), dancing, huge buffet, more dancing, fish and chips from village chippy (b&g set up a tab). There were lovely, quirky and age apropruare gifts at every child’s place too. Hugely well thought out.

I have no idea if either wedding had a photo booth, glitter bar, sweetie trolley, matching turtle doves, drag act... or even sugared almonds. Full tummies, something fur everyone to drink and happy children is what you really need to aim for.

I’d have no interest in a photo booth or glitter (especially not glitter now).

Wrong thread!

To be honest it made me think of ooh Danone straight away too.

*ProfessorPlumInTheLibrary
*
I should also admit that future DC middle names will more than likely be Borneo inspired too. Gaya, Mantanani, Tabin and others so hopefully they'll manage to forgive us by the fact they'll have normal first names

I think it's lovely and would work for both sexes.

'A lifetime of ridicule' made me spit tea all over my phone. I know it was unintentional but that was very funny.

It's just a middle name
I think it's absolutely fine
I think some of the people being rude in the replies haven't appreciated it's just the middle name not first name

*Orphlids
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I actually have a similar conversation when I introduce myself to people from a certain country as my name is a place in said country so I have to explain the exact opposite. I usually have to tell them I have no links to this place and my parents just liked it! (It's a normal name where I'm from)

BikeRunSki
Do you like having a middle name connected to a place that you've actually never been to? Or you just feel absolutely neutral about it?

bridgetreilly
I love some of your suggestions! Harriet Danum somehow looks absolutely beautiful to me and Philip Danum as well! Definitely adding these to my list

Just consider that the traditional naming pattern in Scotland means children are given their family member’s maiden names as second names. There are a host of surnames I’d prefer not to have foisted on me as a middle name eg Hislop, Backup, Snoot, etc. Yet the parents are not ridiculed nor the children routinely teased for this.
If it has meaning for you, go ahead.

Mmmm danone, sorry couldn't resist.

It looks nothing like Danone?

No, but it sounds like the jingle of the advert.

As Danu is a goddess, I would use that for a girl.

Danum for a boy

Since it's not an actual name I don't think it matters. If I heard it I'd think it was a traditional family surname that had been included.

@victorianhouse, to be honest, I hated it fir a long time, and grew to be ambivalent about it in my 30s. It’s a very distinctive @lace not person” newest, and I feel weird hace this connection with a place I’ve never been to, and am unlikely ever to. DSis has a Jamaican place name as her office nsne too, but its also an established girls name and she never has to explain it. DD’s middle babe is also a place/established Yorks mane, but it’s somewhere that DH and I lived before we were married and not very far from where we live now. We go there often andbDD knows it is “her” valley and has a connection with it.

Awful for either sex.

The first 2 names that popped into my head as first names were James & Catherine... I guess classic, slightly boring because they have the unusual middle to go with it

Mmm Danone

Or Paul Danan

Starting of The Rugrste intro.

Both say far more about me than you and would likely be unknown by your child and their peers.

All I think of when I hear that name is the "mmm Danone" ad 😂

I think as it's a middle name with a different pronunciation and related to a place that has meaning to you then go for it OP. It's definitely more interesting than Mae/Rae/Rose etc