Help me avoid a common name!!

[rusmum]

Hello. I named my daughter Ruby Mae 4 years ago, when this name was still quite unusual, However it is now No2 on 'the list'. I hate this fact!!!!! I want to aviod this with number 2 due in July. I fancy Oskar but fear this may go the same way (Eastenders!!).and nave no girl ideas at all. Any ideas for unusual but not wierd names!!

Its true, there is nothing you can do to avoid a name becoming common if its nice.

I called Ds George. there are now at least 2 in every oplayground.

called DD Eleanor, i hadn't heard of anyone under the age of 25 with this name till i named her. now i hear it yelled across the aisle at Asda (although i take pleasure in knowing they probably have elinor/elena )

unless you find something utterly unique like Spaceship or herpes someone will hear the name, tell someone else who will think its lovely who will tell someone else etc etc

I've just found out, Dittany is a herb type plant. Like mint.

Grace was a very unusual name 10 years ago when I named dd2 but one of the top girls names now.
DD1's also called Eleanor and when we named her 12 years ago I had only ever come across 1 child in my career of 10 years teaching with that name.
Very common now.

Iljkk - you mentioned my brother's name, one of my sister's names and two x bfs names in one sentence .

I always wanted to call my first-born son (I don't have a son yet!) Royston but after a League of Gentlemen, it's been ruled out of the equation. you can never tell when a name will go icky.

Eleanor seemed to be quite popular in 1998 .

one of my friends called her daughter (born 1997) Billie - not after Billie Piper but her Dad who was in fact called William. loads of people assume otherwise though.

I recently came across a name I would have loved for ds2 (but boring old dh would have vetoed it): 'Jolyon' from the Forsyte Saga.

Better than Soames .

Fleur was another nice name from FS.

Felix is quite common here. Ds knows at least 2.

Names which were popular when I was a child don't seem too popular now but I like a lot of them.

Girls
Ruth
Karen
Sarah
Emma

Boys
Mark
Matthew
David
Simon

I know one little David and that is it on the above list.

The second list is a bit Biblical .

Ignoring Matthew, that's my three bosses' names as well . No, I don't work for a religious organisation.

I can't read the name Ruth without thinking about Nancy in Swallows & Amazons. Pirates are ruthless so therefore she called herself Nancy .

Titty anyone?

I agree, if you want an uncommon name, go for a lovely classic name that happens to not be popular at the moment: David or Paul or similar for a boy, Sarah or Mary for a girl.

my gynaecologist was called Ralph and said no-one had ever named their boys after him.

anyone say Portley yet

Oh no we have just called our new dd Martha and thought we were being original! I guess everyone feels like this, but you have to get it from somewhere (I stole it from someone I knew vaguely who named her baby this) so then it spreads...

There will probably be 7 Martha's in her class in 5 years time!

Oh and her middle name is Erin, obviously another one going up the popularity stakes...

My niece is called Robyn - I really like that name and not too common yet.

Cremola, perhaps because of Judy Blume's Forever?

There are two Erins in DS2's music group.

tracy
sharon
lisa

havent met a litle one of those in a good while

Agree with Nicky - you could call your child Algernon and then suddenly find 2 years later it was all the rage. We gave DS what we thought was a fantastic and unusual name - NO ONE had it - we know know of 3 other small boys with that name (one named after DS!) and I've got a feeling it's going to be everywhere. Our one consolation is that his is actually a short version and his full name is something even more unusual. So that's one solution - use a completely wacked-out name that can be shortened. Then your child will have a madly unusual name but be able to use a slightly more normal version for everyday. So for example they could be called Wolfie, full name Wulfric.

Oscar was at number 39 on the England & Wales top 100 names for baby boys in 2007 - so it is already pretty popular. If I were you, I would avoid any name that has been on that list for the last 5 years. And if you are really enthusiastic, avoid any name from the US and Australian lists either.

BTW - Ruby was at number 50 in 2003, just to give you an idea of how quickly names can move up the list

Clara - you are right, Martha went from 99th place in 2006 to 87th in 2007.

bookwormmum - yes, I love Fleur. Doesn't work in French though, and I needed a name that worked well in both languages.

Fintan for a boy
Catherine for a girl

sorted

nicolette sounds like an aid to stop smoking

how about dianette? verandah? patella?

sorry

love real words that sound like they could be real names ..favourite is effluvia

My sils are called Anthea & Philida (Fleur), both lovely names.