If you named your baby an unusual name

[GorgeousLadyofWrestling]

And they’re now older, how is it?

Just curious really. I was idly reading through some of the posts on here and for anyone asking about an unusual name, there’s a lot of posts warning the child will hate it/ they’ll be teased etc etc. So just curious about how it worked out for you. My DD has an unusual name and it’s very polarising on MN but she’s now 7 and suits it down to the ground.

2 of my 8 have uncommon names, I wouldn’t say they were unique or unusual though, but they aren’t popular on Mumsnet and I remember asking about one of them when I was pregnant ten years ago and getting an absolute bashing for it 😂 but I’m so glad I used that name and my daughter loves it too.

Only ever had nice comments too, I’m sure there must’ve been people over the years who didn’t like it but they didn’t have the balls to say anything and you get that with all names!

Absolutely fine, only challenge is finding tat with the right initial as it’s not a common letter either!

I also think names should just be spelled properly but that’s probably because my name was spelled differently and it pisses me off.

If you are looking for someone to admit they made a mistake then mumsnet is in the place to look.

My best friend at school had an unusual name and was fine with it. She does have to spell it for some people but then I have a bog standard name and I have to spell my name too (along the lines of Catherine/Kathryn). Oh (shocker) she's in a very conservative profession and no-one has had an issue taking her seriously at all.

On MN though there is a lot of opinion on what is unusual. For instance lots of Irish/Scottish names are dismissed as being too unusual and difficult to spell but that's only the case in England, they're perfectly normal in Ireland/Scotland.

Mine has definitely been a real difficulty. No one can say it properly so I’ve ended up just being called a name that is similar in spelling but pronounced very differently a lot of the time.

I also hate not having the option of anonymity.

I do think my name indirectly led to a lot of problems, although that’s probably because of where I grew up as much as anything else. Jayden would have similar problems at eton, I imagine.

Surely once a name is used so much in your family you all have to start spelling it wrong it’s time to think of a new name 😂

I have a very unusual name and when I was a child I was teased and laughed at because of it. It really affected my confidence as a child and I'd often make up a different name when meeting new kids, just to sound "normal".
I don't have this problem as an adult (maybe because I moved abroad and here nobody knows this name is unusual) and I actually like my name now.

Mine name is unusual (as in 4 people named it in the year I was born) I'm now 27 and I love it, it can be shortened very easily though and I have a about 30 nicknames.
I admit as a child I was embarrassed telling people my name as they'd 90% pronounce it wrong or not believe me

I called my son Balonz and he is now a high court judge.

The names mentioned here aren't so different.
How would you feel if your parents called you 'Wolf'?
Something that caught my eye a while back...

My eldest has quite an unusual name and youngest a very common, traditional name, both because we loved the names rather than choosing a name due to how popular/unpopular it was.

Neither have caused any issues, although it is simpler not having to spell the common name. The older child likes their name though, and can go by an abbreviation which is the same as an abbreviation of a very normal name so they have the option of that if it ever bothers them.

I went to school with a Richard Richards. Funnily enough in the sixties no one really battered an eyelid

I wanted to give my daughter an Irish name but I was worried about her being subject to sectarianism and/or her having to correct people all the time.

Her dad also wanted to give her a particular name I didn’t want because it matches other names in my family too closely.
We compromised on a common first name and went for the Irish spelling of the name my husband wanted for the middle name.

It is selfish, self-indulgent, attention-seeking and cruel to give your child a wacky name. It is done by parents who are thinking only of themselves, relishing the idea of their new "accessory" (aka their child) being different and special, with no regard to the challenges that child may face in the future.
Yes sometimes the child develops a personality to match their wacky name, but many don't, and are then stuck with an attention-seeking name, when in fact they just want to be ordinary.

Our children don't belong to us. We create them and look after them until they are old enough to be independent, but ultimately they are individuals who will make their own lives and choices. Giving them a name to fulfil our desires to be a bit "out there" is selfish, needy and pathetic in my opinion.

Well there you go!

i hasten to add my child’s name is spelled in the traditional way for this country, very much say as you see and spell as you hear. When we were in london there were a couple of others i knew. It’s only here that people treat a name from outside the top 100 as completely bizarre. A lot of new people have moved to our school post pandemic (wfh lets them) so the name pool has suddenly diversified greatly which is nice!

I'd be over the moon! Short and to the point, nice meaning if you like wolves. But I do like a name with a clear meaning (and not a fan at all of 'alternative' spellings. A name is the name it is, however you spell it, iyswim)

I do, however, we agree with the PP who says it's good to have the anonymity that a more 'standard' name brings.

OP, please yourself as long as the name does not have a horrible meaning and is reasonably easy to spell. Giving baby a more usual middle name is a good solution - they can use that if they have an issue with the name themselves when they grow up.

A friend at uni hated her unusual name (chosen by her father) so just called herself something else.

The first we found out about her bonkers first name was when we phoned her at home in the holidays and her father said that nobody of that name lived there. She had been using her chosen name since starting secondary school and her father was an arse.

DD has gone through phases re a very unusual name (for this country). She has to spell it for people but so do I with a non-British surname. We also get a range of pronunciations because my accent is different from the one where I live. However, I’d still make the same choice.

There's different kinds of unusual though - to consider recent threads on here I can think of three main types:

Something like Heather that is well known but just isn't popular at the moment.

Names from other cultures that aren't familiar to many in the UK but have a long history of use elsewhere.

Names like Lukkey-Grrl, that, well. Y'know.

They'll all have different experiences. No one will bat an eyelid at Heather and it'll come up the charts again at some point in her life. The name from another culture will get plenty of both curiosity and bigotry. And Lukkey-Grrl, well, we wish her well.

Name changed for this.

My name is Fern. Born and raised in Scotland. To this day, I've never personally met another Fern (I know they're out there lol). I hated it as a kid as things never had my name on them and it was so unusual, all the teachers would remember my name immediately so I was never able to just be amongst the class in school (might sound weird but it really was like this every year that the teacher would be learning names but mine was always learned first). Everyone told me how unusual and lovely my name was growing up but it didn't make a difference. As a teenager, I got used to it and it didn't bother me anymore.

As an adult, I quite like it now. But I live abroad and the amount of times I have to repeat my name and pronounce it the English / American way is a bit annoying as no one here can pronounce it the way my Scottish family and friends do.

I'll add, this may be the reason I picked common and traditional names for my two boys 😅

DH has an unusual name. I think there are three in the UK and two are him and his dad!
It's a family name passed down five generations which ceased with the birth of our DS and DH absolutely hates it. He's known always by his middle name, so his name stated in full whilst proclaiming our wedding vows was an eye opener for many, cue many side glances and raised eyebrows.

I always find it funny when parents declare they obviously made the perfect name choice ‘because it suits them’. By the time you’ve said and written your child’s name thousands of times of course it suits them - it IS them.

My kids’ names would be declared boring by many on MN but they’re less common where we live and they tick our boxes of being a classic name with the traditional spelling.

Both my kids have relatively unusual Scottish names. Ds has never said anything about his name tbh (he's 16) but Dd (12) has said before she wishes she was called Amy but that might just be a name she likes rather than a reaction to the unusualnsss of her name iyswim.

Fwiw I had a VERY popular name - at school there were LOADS of us and I despised it.