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Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

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Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Baby names

Why do people do these mad bodyswerves to avoid names?

105 replies

hunkermunker · 13/02/2008 14:07

Just give your child a name you like and don't go all-out to avoid anything someone else will choose.

OP posts:

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fedupwasherwoman · 13/02/2008 15:32

Things have got way out of hand in the UK with weirdly spelt made-up names being inflicted on kids who may well be teased in the future over their parent's insistence on being different.

Having said that my parents knew of a couple who named their daughter Semantha when 'Samantha' was very popular in the 60's so maybe it isn't just a modern phenomenon.

Does anyone name their kids Samantha or Jacqueline or Julia anymore ? I personally think they're nice names for girls and if parent's must be different why not use these instead of made up stuff like Chanelle and Chantelle or Princess Tiaami do-dah. Chances are high that they'd be the only Samantha at nursery/ in their year at school if that's really what the parents are trying to achieve.

I'm with Hunker on the "campaign to bring back real names"

GrapefruitMoon · 13/02/2008 15:32

Agree with FJLA. Know a child with a name which is fairly unknown in this country (haven't met anyone else with it) and lo and behold there is another child in his class with the same name!

hunkermunker · 13/02/2008 15:32

But by doing that, you aren't guaranteeing that your child won't have a same-named classmate. They may well not.

And you might just deny yourself naming your child something you really love.

OP posts:

Miaou · 13/02/2008 15:32

hunker!

I can count on the fingers of one hand how many people I have met with the same name as me (though quite a few with the longer variant) - and I NEVER got tat with my name on as a kid

hunkermunker · 13/02/2008 15:33

That was to princess, btw.

OP posts:

fedupwasherwoman · 13/02/2008 15:34

Apologies for the misuse of apostrophes and mis-spelling but I can't find my specs at the moment and so didn't bothering previewing before posting.

GrapefruitMoon · 13/02/2008 15:34

washerwoman - I love some 70s names - e.g. Lisa and Karen. (Anyone remember the chapter about where have all the Lisas gone in Freakonomics?) But one of my friends had already called her dd Lisa and there are several (grown up) Karens in the family already...

purpleturtle · 13/02/2008 15:37

They'll come back round when we're all in our 80s. And the proud new parents will be feeling ever so original, while we chortle to ourselves because we went to school with half a dozen or so!

fedupwasherwoman · 13/02/2008 15:40

See, I've only got boys but before we knew they were boys I'd already thought of Eleanor/Elinor, Elizabeth, Ruth, Rebecca Louise, Elouise, Lisa, Lucy, Charlotte, Helena/Elena, Marianne and Eve as possible choices.

I'm clearly showing my age (or maybe my class

berolina · 13/02/2008 15:41

ds1's name is uncommon in Germany, but in the top 10 in the UK. I didn't know this when we named him, and I'm glad I didn't as sadly I just might have been put off it (I might not have, but OTOH I might have) - and it suits him so perfectly.

ds2's name is unusual in both countries.

berolina · 13/02/2008 15:43

Oh, and Matthew is a lovely name I considered a variant of it for ds2.

princessosyth · 13/02/2008 15:51

No that is true, I don't mind if there are others with the same name, I just don't want there to be loads as it gets confusing. Saying that the other day in ds's book bag he brought home a painting by Freya and a valentines card by Francesca, I was cursing the person who put them in by mistake until I remembered that I was on book bag duty. .

Naming your child is a real pain, I also get lots of people asking me if we are scottish because of ds's name and I feel embrassed that we aren't. Some people seem to think that we don't really have a right to call him a name that originates from a country that we don't have any history with. If we have another boy I have always liked Beckett but now Stella McCartney has named her one that and people would probably think we were trying to copy cat celebrities! In the times register yesterday there was a Pheltomy (sp?) which made me chuckle as I thought it must be a MNer!

TheHonEnid · 13/02/2008 15:55

there were 17 dd2's in the prep school she went to

none in her new state primary

GrapefruitMoon · 13/02/2008 15:56

I hope no one here has given their lo this name but I was reading a magazine article recently and a couple had called their ds "Chipper".... I am still scratching my head about it.....maybe they were too posh to have heard it as another name for "chip shop"

princessosyth · 13/02/2008 16:04

Chip is really popular in the states isn't it? Never seen the appeal myself. I like a name to sound like a name.

I'm glad that I was not a teenage mum, when dh and I were still teenagers (many moons ago!) we said that if we had a boy we would call him Osyth (after the village in Clacton where we met)

margoandjerry · 13/02/2008 16:05

Someone on a US website I use has named their son "Crutcher".

GrapefruitMoon · 13/02/2008 16:09

Yes and there's a Chip in the ORT books isn't there? But this couple were definitely English.... I have noticed that a lot of nicknames from the US have become popular here in recent years as given names.

AdamRomANTic · 13/02/2008 16:28

But hunker - in response to your OP, why does this not seem to stand for those of us who have chosen an unusual name for our DC because we like it (i.e. not as a deliberate attempt to be unusual, but simply because we love the name)?

MamaG · 13/02/2008 16:31

ooh hunker is like that pub on Gordons Kitchen Nightmares "campaign to bring back real gravy"

hunkermunker · 13/02/2008 16:32

It does still stand.

As I say, DS1 has an unusual name. Well, not that unusual - but not very common (not top 100 in England and Wales).

I think it's a lovely name and wouldn't have called him anything else.

But DS2's is more common - and I love it equally - but I did waver about it and wonder if we should look for something more unusual. Then I thought that was daft and we'd be denying ourselves giving him a name we loved.

OP posts:

AdamRomANTic · 13/02/2008 16:40

That's good to hear . We're the same - DD has a fairly common name and DS has an unusual (but ancient) name.

But there are several posters on here who are interpreting this thread as a "stick to 'normal' names" campaign.

TigerFeet · 13/02/2008 16:43

I would love to know what all your dc's are called [nosey]

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hunkermunker · 13/02/2008 16:44

Well, they shouldn't be

It's a "name your child a name you love and don't feel you have to out-ponce anybody or strive for something that nobody else has ever called a child" campaign.

OP posts:

TigerFeet · 13/02/2008 16:52

But what if you love the name Princess Tiiaarmmeeee or whatever - with no poncy intent?

hunkermunker · 13/02/2008 16:54

Then you are beyond help.

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