Splendid names you've come across

[whatausername]

I recently heard of an Elphinstone Dalgleish. Have also met a couple of kids called Star.

What fun/marvellous/slightly wacky names have you come across?

The doctor that delivered my baby was called Dr Zanussi

And although not totally out there my mum was called Jonquil

There was a girl at my daughter’s nursery called Lady Cigourney - she’d be in her twenties now.

I went to school with an Alan Allen...

There’s a place near where we live called Fenton Barns. My friend’s sister always say it sounds like a male character from a Mills & Boon book “oh Fenton!”

I know of a Summer Day.

I know a girl called Bluebell, a boy called Bonnie, another girl called Echo & a girl called Lance!

I once came across a Persephone and her brother Florian.

I went to college with a girl called Io, which I always though was a cool name.

Also knew a couple of girls with the surname Twatt, which seemed a tad unfortunate.

Zenith
Grey
Ariadne
Apollo
Ludo
Torin
Loki
Leopold
Runa
Elvis
Primrose
Thalia
Tulip
Bliss
Octave
Octavia
Magnus
Isolde
Seraphina
Athena
Casper
Sterling
Ernest

I heard of someone with a baby Ezmai & wondered where the name was from. It turned out to be an alternative spelling for Esme.

@TheAbbotOfUnreason

I went to college with a girl called Io, which I always though was a cool name.

Also knew a couple of girls with the surname Twatt, which seemed a tad unfortunate.

Is it pronounced 'Eye-Oh', @TheAbbotOfUnreason? I've never actually met one, though it makes me think of Zeus shagging someone who'd been transformed into a cow and saying 'Ew'.

Oberon Christmas is a contributor on an FB page for a town not far from me.

If you've got an unusual/ interesting surname why not own it and go the whole hog.

I've just remembered I knew a child called Gandalf Thwaite -- his family were living on a narrowboat in Oxford when I was a student.

The strangest one I think I met was Lisma, just Lisa but with an M in it.
Apparently her mum liked Lisa but “wanted to make it a bit more unusual “

In a long-ago job I typed a letter to Mrs Rachel Memory.

@TheAbbotOfUnreason

I went to college with a girl called Io, which I always though was a cool name.

Also knew a couple of girls with the surname Twatt, which seemed a tad unfortunate.

I knew a family of Pratts

In the early eighties, there were two singers whose names I always remember:

Randy VanWarmer - he was born Randell, so definitely real name.
Lou Rawls - bet he was in demand at the beginning of the pandemic!

Talking of Irish names/pronunciation like Siobhan; I went to school with a Grianne - which if you said it phonetically would be lovely, but it’s actually pronounced Gron-ya.

I used to work at a bank with a Gordon Bennet

DP's friend has a baby nephew called Tiberias. I think that's excellent.

@2389Champ

In the early eighties, there were two singers whose names I always remember:

Randy VanWarmer - he was born Randell, so definitely real name.
Lou Rawls - bet he was in demand at the beginning of the pandemic!

Talking of Irish names/pronunciation like Siobhan; I went to school with a Grianne - which if you said it phonetically would be lovely, but it’s actually pronounced Gron-ya.

I think you're thinking of Gráinne -- which is phonetically pronounced (in Irish) and pronounced 'GRAWN-yuh'.

I grew up in quite a slow/sleepy part of the UK and my sister had a friend called Lasagna. Her parents had never travelled outside of the UK and had gone to Italy on their honeymoon and fell in love with the word lasagna. No joke. Should add, this was in the days before ready meals had arrived at supermarkets and there was no local restaurant serving up anything as flash as fancy Italian fare.

My DCs had friends called: Rocky, Rainbow and Bramble and Indigo.

I knew an Alister Finnister and a Donald MacDonald

Some of these names e.g. Comfort, Blessing, Loveday seem to be common in some African countries. I've worked with some called Admire, Freedom and my favourite Sweet. Without giving too much away Sweet would have gone fantastically with my surname.

Re: pp Eustacia Vye. Thomas Hardy would have been all over this thread - Diggory Venn, Bathsheba Everdene, Fancy Day, Angel Clare…

I always thought former DG of MI5, Stella Rimington, had a name well suited to a James Bond novel!

A chlid in one of my dc’s year at primary school in late nineties was Lenny O’Keefe - always sounded like a name from another era!

There’s a lady on the checkouts at a local store who’s name badge says she is called Jez’ebel. She’s my age (late middle age!), so quite unusual for our generation.

Growing up I knew twins called Dawn and Eve Knight.