Importance of names?

[JunebuginDecember]

Hey all, so I'm finally expecting my first baby years of trying and have just now discovered that DH and I apparently have very different ideas as to what kind of name is best.

DH has a very common name - think along the lines of Steve, Mark, that kind of thing - and always wanted something a bit grander.

My name however is Juno. I've come to kind of like my name in later years but I'd be lying if I said I didn't suffer with it a bit. (The film coming out when I was about 11 didn't help)

I've always said I'd go for a much more sensible name than what I've got, but DH of course wants something more out there.

I'm curious to know if anyone here genuinely feels that there name has shaped them in any way, whether it be a common or unique one.

My name was very common in the community I was born. I didn't give it much thought when growing up until I moved to a different town at 14.

And then it was suddenly unusual, too masculine, and easy to mock. Then at 20yo I moved country and let's just say I hardly ever use my real name since.

As we live in a global world, my priority when choosing a name is that it travels well. I don't mind boring (common) if it's going to help not to make the kid's life harder! 🙃

My name ranks 6000 and somethingth

It is really unusual but easy to say and spell. It's more common in America.

I haven't met someone else with my name. I feel like it's very much 'mine' because of this. I like it and when someone I know tells me they know someone else with my name, I get an uncomfortable twinge - I am quite unreasonable though 🤭

@Star05 It feels silly to admit but I do feel weirdly territorial over my name 😂I suppose it feels so unique to me that on the one occasion I met another Juno it felt weird.

I have a rare name so does one dc they go through love hate with it but overall likes it

you need names in that "unusual but not weird" category so I would look at names in around 1000.

Names like

Carolina
Eloisa
Heather
Liliana
Martina
Belinda

or
Leyland
Clyde
Stefan
Maurice
Niles
Conrad

Names people know but they don't come across many of. It will give you both what you want something unusual but not something different :)

My cousin and his girlfriend are naming their son due in January Ernest after her grandfather a name that's to often heard these days but has meaning for them. So perhaps look in your family trees too?

@JunebuginDecember Haha me too, how dare someone else have MY name. Cheek of it !!

Names are meant to identify us. Very difficult if you're called Steve, Mike or Sarah. Very difficult to build up an online 'brand' if you're one of the thousands with the same name, especially with a common surname.

I have a fairly unusual name and I've always loved it. People find it more memorable and seem to remember me.

And yes to the 'Unusual but not weird' names suggested above!

@Enko Really love a lot of those boy names!

My name is unusual and it feels weird if I meet someone with the same name. DC have names that were very popular, but that was not intentionally so.
I'd have preferred a more usual name.

I have a very common ,classic, name for women of my age, it never occurred to me to mind , in fact I quite liked being part of a club of sorts and was pleased not to have to spell it out .
DH had an unusual, albeit known name that is easy to pronounce and spell. He is very much a top of the class / rugby captain type and yet he hankered after Mark or Steve and felt resentful of his mother for what he saw as her vanity in picking a name that seemed to need explanation.He would have been happy to call our DC the most commonly used names as a result.
We chose names we liked that are known, DD's name subsequently became quite ubiquitous,DS1's hasn't taken off and DS2's is possibly having a moment now but he is over 20.
My main regret over names is not to have used a family name as a middle name for DD. I stayed away from the issue to avoid family upset but am a little sorry.

My name is a classic but quite of its time too. I’m never far away from someone with my name, there were lots of us at school and there are lots of us at work. I honestly never really minded as I felt that it allowed me to fit in easily. I was a shy child and I’m not one for being centre of attention as an adult so I do like having a very normal name that doesn’t draw attention and people know how to pronounce/spell. It can get annoying and confusing sometimes though when there are too many of us in one room for example. I do like the actual name too and like that it can be shortened in many ways.

My mums name is very unusual and she was a shy child too. She hated it then and she hates it now. It definitely led to her choosing a popular name for me. I actually rather like her name but then I’ve not had to live with it.

My own DD has a top 40 rather than top 10 name so hopefully has the best of both worlds. Her name can also be shortened in a variety of ways.

I have a name that was unusual for my generation and I was always jealous of people with common names as a child. I’m still bitter about not being able to get a pencil, letting etc with my name on

DP’s name is a nickname not the full name. It’s a young sounding name and he feels people don’t take him as seriously as if he had the full name. Think Tommy, Jake, Ollie etc.

We will be going for a moderately popular full length name for DC!

Letting = keyring

There's definitely a middle ground to be found with names nowadays. A friend of mine has picked very American names for her children, think Miranda, Laurie etc. so with them living in the UK, their names are much more unique, but most people have heard of them and they don't sound too out there

I have a name that was very popular when I was born. When I was a teen I hated being one of several "Kuviras" (not my real name obviously) in the school year or circle of friends and I wished I had a more unusual name. But since I've got older, I've grown to like and appreciate my name more. It has a clearly feminine sound and it travels well (it's a saint's name so it's familiar across Europe and the Americas), which I like.

I think names that are familiar/traditional but uncommon represent the best of both worlds. I wouldn't want to use a name that's so unusual, it evokes a chorus of "what?" or "how do you pronounce that?". Or a name that's so trendy it becomes time-stamped to a particular generation à la Sharon and Karen.

I have a very popular name - the most popular name for my generation (80’s baby). It hasn’t actually bothered me ever, Ive always liked meeting people with the same name. It’s like we have a little club. Even so, I didn’t want quite such a popular name for my dc. My husband has a rarer name and I don’t think he loved it growing up, so he didn’t want anything too out there. For our children we both had names that we have loved forever, and we ended up going with those. My only ‘rule’ was not a top 20 name, which luckily none of the names we loved were. I think popular names are ‘less’ popular now though than they used to be, so even the most popular names you’re not likely to have two in a class.

Yeesh, not sure I’d factor online branding potential into my choice of a kid’s name.
Actually, no, I am sure, because I didn’t.

@JunebuginDecember Ive got boys, and all their friends are boys so that’s my frame of reference. One of my sons has an unusual grandpa name (eg Albert, Humphrey, Edwin etc etc, it’s literally his grandfather’s name) and my other son has a more “canonical” name (eg Robert, John, James, Thomas etc) and tbh I’m happier with the latter, and when I think of the other little Toms, Ben’s, Williams etc I think their parents have done them a good turn in giving them baggageless names.
Ive got a fairly baggageless name myself and have never had a problem being remembered. Indeed I’ve never had a problem with people forgetting my name or forgetting who I am, because I just don’t particularly mind. I forget other people’s names often enough. I think I possibly forget the more unusual names more readily.
PS I should add that son 1 is very proud of his weird old man name.

I hate my name, its old fashioned and bleugh,it makes me cringe when I hear it.

DC1 has a rather outlandish name, he has never been bullied for it and now he is a young adult its probably quite cool. I dont think it will hold him back in his career.

DDs name was about the 60th most popular name when we had her and is now about the 30th.

I think DS's name was too mad and DD's is a bit safe. It is nice for her to be able to pick up personalised tat though!

The thing with personalised stuff though is I don't see that being an issue these days when you can go on eBay, etsy etc and get anything you want with any name on it.

There certainly were zero things with Juno on them when I was a kid and it did make me feel a bit left out but that was before the internet met all our desires.

It's not an issue. My children have 2 of the names I suggested on my unusual but not weird list. We have never struggled to get personalised stuff for them.

The only thing you can't do is pick them out in cheap crap shops. however, why is that an issue?

My own name I am in my 50s and Ive yet to meet another of them So I get your "it's my name" sensation.

To be honest it probably didn’t need to be a problem when I was a child either - I was born in the same year eBay was founded! - but I felt left out and weird for having a weird name.

What you said about getting an "uncomfortable twinge" when you hear about someone with the same name reminds me of something a friend said. He's a very tall man (6ft 8ins) and he told me that he doesn't like it on the odd occasion he's met someone else who is as tall as him or taller. He said he knows it's a bit unreasonable of him to feel like that, but being tall is his "thing".

Ha ha, I’m 6’5” and whenever I see someone as tall or taller I always think “look at this lanky twat”.

Juno is a fabulous name!

Me and DH are the same except that I like unusual names and he likes less unusual names.

DH has a very classic name, always known as Name Initial rather than Name and I have an unusual name - but only in England, it's Welsh and well known in Wales. Only ever met one other.

There's about 6000 names for each gender on the ONS stats, so lots of middle ground between top 10 and extremely unusual.

Some names are well known but not used much currently - Juliet, Edmund, Serena, Clarissa for example. Something like that may work for you both?

I didn't mind not having much personalised stuff as a child and these days Etsy makes getting personalised stuff for someone with an unusual name very easy.