Do you think that you can get used to almost any name?

[Sparring]

No matter how strange it may appear at first?

Just thinking of people I've known with unusual names. It didn't take more than a day or two to get used to them.

Examples being a man called Fudge. Another called Elton. (I thought of Elton John for a day or two then it was just his name.) A girl called Sunday. One called London.

Does it take you long to get used to unusual names?

yes

when I was pg with DC5 the older ones picked the name Yoda.
Yoda Shark for a boy, Yoda Yogurt for a girl🤣
When people asked what names we might choose I brought up that convo so many times I started to quite like both options 🤣

@HalfTermHalfTerm

It was, with a dated but relatively normal ‘filler’ type middle name. They were massive fans of the show and the book series but I don’t know why they couldn’t have named the child Arya or Margaery or elite rally any other name. Even Georgia after the author.

Lovely girl though, and lovely family, very easy going cheerful people. I always wonder if she might use her middle name in future, as I think it would be a lovely first name while being a bit overdone as a middle name.

I’m not sure. I know a woman called Sweetie. Not a nickname, that’s the whole of it. I’m still not used to it and I’ve known her several years.

@ApplyWithin

I’m not sure. I know a woman called Sweetie. Not a nickname, that’s the whole of it. I’m still not used to it and I’ve known her several years.

Bizarrely enough, I know two... I can't refer to either of them by name. I just hear Jennifer Saunders in my head and feel a bit of a fool 🤣

My brother was at nursery (a posh one!) with a Bunny-Love and Candy-Darling (sisters). I couldn't get used to that!

@cafedesreves

My brother was at nursery (a posh one!) with a Bunny-Love and Candy-Darling (sisters). I couldn't get used to that!

God, that's seriously bad 😬

I think it depends just how ridiculous it is.

A name you didn't like on a person you really like ? Yes, readily.
A completely ridiculous name - nope.

I think you can - was at school with a Caramel and it was only funny for the first couple of weeks.

Also know an Asian family who have given their kids some quite odd English language names. Plum anyone?

My niece and nephew have very unusual names. Niece's name is made up. Shes 3 and it has grown on us all. Nephew is only a few weeks old and I'm sure his will as well.

We hope they grow up confident and outgoing because they will get strange reactions to their names. And privately think BIL and wife were a bit barmy.

Honestly, I think if you live in ethnically diverse places and/or travel, you grasp that 'normal' is very culturally and linguistically-relative. The baby in my London NCT group who stood out was the one was called 'James Ethan'. We had a Thiago, a Tadeusz, a Greta, an Iris, a Caoimhe, a Phineas, a Soren, a Kofi, a Zuri, an Ada and others I can't remember. DS was possibly the only child with his name born in the UK that year (is it three or fewer where they don't give an exact number?) but it's common enough elsewhere in Europe.

Having said that, I did encounter years back someone whose children were called Bibi-Dee and Betsy-Mae (and two other cutesy girl names), which I thought should get some kind of twee prize.

Yeah. I have some friends with unusual names and I totally forget and when I mention their name and get a shocked reaction from someone who doesn’t know them it confuses me until I realise.

There is one name I just can’t get used to though. It’s not even unusual. My friend has a baby boy called Walter and I wince every time. I don’t know why but I just can’t get used to it.

I like Walter!

You might get used to it but the rest of the world might not.

I could never get used to Balonz.

@jaundicedoutlook

You might get used to it but the rest of the world might not.

I could never get used to Balonz.

If you were living somewhere where Balonz was the equivalent of Jack, you presumably would. I mean, I have a visceral loathing of the name George, which for me conjures up podgy, mad Hanoverian kings, gout, joints of mutton and thread veins, but I'm able to publicly control my mystifiedness about its popularity.

@Kanaloa I’m imagining Khaleesi Rose or Khaleesi May!

I actually think this is true, or at least it was for me. We didn’t know if DD was going to be a boy or a girl, so we had two names picked out - one male, one female. We ended up calling her a combined version of them when in the womb - so eg the names were Jonathan and Catherine, we called her ‘Cathathan’ for about 7 months. By the time she arrived, Cathathan had really grown on me (we did go for our ‘Catherine’ name though, I’m not totally mad)

You might get used to it in the same way you get used to anything you dislike, find annoying or roll your eyes inwardly at - but you might still wonder ‘what were their parents thinking^ from time to time - and of course, they’re going to meet many new people over the course of the next 80 years who will think ‘you’re called what???’

I knew someone called Monday and I didn’t get used to it. Had a conversation with DP yesterday where he was trying to convince me Amethyst was a normal name because he’d met one so evidently he’d got used to that.

Sweetie is a very common Indian name, as is Pinky.

@Poochnewbie1 someone I used to work with named his baby son Ian and I still can’t get over a baby being called Ian! All Ians are at least 40 to me.

I knew a young girl in dd school called Sunshine. Always thought what a happy positive name but also a lot to live upto.

I know/knew a Garnet and a Feral.

Oh, and a Sparkle!

Feral!

@GreyhoundG1rl I know! She thought it meant wild ( in a good way) the child was in one of my forest school groups…