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!!

Hunker both my DDs names are pretty common it didn't bother me - OP asked for unusual names though.

For what its worth my name is one of the most popular of my generation. There are always other people with my name wherever I go. Only downside is due to my above average height I always get called 'Big ' to distinguish me from the other 'little '.

Not very flattering

HT, I know, I just get annoyed by the endless striving to give a different name that goes on. Why avoid a name you love, just because it's common? And there's no guarantee that a "common" name will be found in your child's year either - mine is massively common and I was the only one in a year of about 200 children (OK, half were boys). I started a thread on this topic in this subject yesterday.

Dustine, thats DFs name.

My sis is called Anona - not many of them around!

FWIW me and my other sis and brother have VERY common names but we have survived.

best way to avoid completely common is go for something that was last common in the eighties.......they are all names now that most wouldn't dream of calling their child, yet would still be out there on those 'named thingies' that kiddies so like to buy!!!

either that, or go for the no1 name from 5yrs ago, as that will have dropped completely by now as got too common, and when your LO starts school he/she will be the only one in the class.

FWIW, when we had DS2 I had heard of no-one with the same name.....until all the lists came out and he was in the top ten, and he is now one of 3 in his class alone!!!!

at least he doesn't have to spell it out to anyone.....

seeker did you know Grace is the most popular girls name for 2007?

It wasn't in 1995 - I obviously rode the Zeitgeist. Watch this space got Patrick zooming up the charts!

But that sort of reinforces what I said we only know personally one other Grace and there are only two in the school. Even if it is the most popular name in the country, you are still not likely to bump into enough of them for it to be confusing. There's no practical need to call your child Abednigo!

its odd though I don't know any. Maybe there is one town where everyone is called Grace! I do not a few Patricks though. I only knwo one Jack too. There were loads about 7 yrs ago but its still number one. Chloe is still high and I don't know any ones under 5

I have given up on all names English/European. DS is 8 now and there are 3 other Daniel's in his class. The next one is due jul 18 and I have decided to go for something totally different. I have been looking at
Bindi for a girl
Marlli for a boy
Nylia for a girl
or
Romanie for a girl.

My rl name is not common at all in this country and I must say that I am fed up at people either not being able to pronounce or spell it. It's not long or difficult or anything, but it does confuse people. I like common names like both my dc's as I know they'll never have to explain to people how to pronounce or spell!
My brother chose a v. unusual name for his ds. Had never heard from it before EVER and now 5y on it's no1 in the Belgian boys chart. So like someone said before: you never know when an unusual name will become a popular one!

Emmy - Bindi is a brand of Italian manufactured desserts

belgianchocolates - I think I knwo the very unusual name your nephrew that is now no. one (assuming it's the flemish name charts) - and yes, I know a couple of babies born a couple of years ago with that name, it suddenly became very popular

Bindi may be a chocolate but does it taste good?
I have also had it pointed out that Nylia is an African deer!

When DD1 was tiny I used to take her out in her pram round the local graveyard as it was the only quiet green space nearby. That's how I chose what was nearly DD2's name (only someone put me off it). Mine have Polish names because DH is Polish and we live in Poland but the problem is the same - we chose names we'd hardly ever heard before and now there are loads of them.
If we had a boy though he would be Bruno, I love that name. I like Samuel too but I hear it's v. common in the UK, and DH won;t anyway. For a girl I like Jamila or Poppy (what I wanted to call DD2 but DH said he got it mixed up with puppy, so as dog was pg too the puppy got named Poppy). And there was a Jonquil I was at university with. And what's Zoe like these days in the UK?
Of expats here, there is one family with a Martha, Ginny (Virginia) and Lola, and a Canadian couple with a little boy called Milo. There is also a little Ryan, an Esther, a Sarah, an Eli.

Bindi is tiramisù and pear tart and things like that

Anna8888- god it does sound good!

I have a slightly unusual speling of a very ordinary name. I have to spell it every single time I give my name to anyone - and it is SOOOOOO boring!

I just don't understand why people want to condemm their child to a life time of saying This is Jacob Smith. No, it's Jakkob. Yes it is unusual, isn't it? Yes, I think my mother must have been temporarily insane...My second name? It's Baltimore...no as far as I know I wasn't conceived there...no surprisingly enoughyou're not the first person to suggest that..."

I think the main reason I want to give number 2 a different name is cos mine is so boring. I would have loved to have had a different and unusual name!

I know what you mean seeker. I chose nice but classic/ordinary names for my dcs. Someone I know named their daughter a very unusual name - its actually a place where the parents went on their travels. Its quite pretty but I just couldn't be bothered with every conversation with someone new at babygroups/nursery/school etc being 'What's her name? Sorry? How do you spell that? Oh thats an unusual name isn't it? Where does that come from' over and over and over...

When I married Dh I acquired a pretty unusual surname that requires repeating, spelling and the obligatory 'thats an unusual name where does it comne from' conversation EVERY TIME! SOmetimes it can get a little bit tiresome

Make one up. Simply take a random collection of syllables that you like the sound of and stick them together. Many parents appear to take this route at our school. It will be unusual for sure, but whether it will fail to be common I can't say .

Its quite common in some places I believe to make names up from splicing together the parents' names or even all four grandparents. You could try this?

traditional biblical- we went biblical with the boys names (family thing!) and people to this day still ask where we thought that up from fgs boys in the family are: Jacob, Samuel, Isaac, Elijah, Matthew, Joseph and Luke!!

Belgo, you're right I meant the flemish chart. I'm pretty sure it was no1 last year, but it might have been 2. Anyway, it's now v. popular. My own name is not uncommon, but by no means popular, yet I shared my name with 3 others in my year at school and my neighbour!