Why do people give such basic names that will be an administrative nightmare?

[ThatFraggle]

If you have a 'bog standard' surname, why would you give your child a bog standard first AND middle name?

I'm not saying you have to call them Fifi-Tinkerbelle, but why put the person in a position that there will be dozens of people with the same name and date of birth. E.g. A name from the most popular names, (Chloe, Liam, Jack, etc.) plus common surnames (Smith etc.)

At least go for a middle name like Esmeralda, or Phoenix or whatever you feel like. You can have two middle names if you really want granddad Henry to be honoured in the name.

🤨 what?? People choose names that they like.
Why does it matter if others have the same name? It’s still highly unlikely that a person with the exact same name lives anywhere near you or that you will ever meet them.
Better than some made up younique nonsense that no one can spell.

Why would having a common name be an "administrative nightmare"? Very odd.

Pretty sure all the Johns/Sarahs/Andrews/Elizabeths have coped up to now without being called a stupid name for easier administrative purposes 😁

When someone with the same name and date of birth as you get into some sort of trouble, it's not always easy to extricate yourself. Bailiffs etc.

The only way I can see this being an administrative nightmare is if you have twins (born on the same date) with near identical names and middle names. Otherwise who cares if you’re Jack Smith?

No I agree actually. My friend was one of two “Emily Smith”s in the same class and there was another one in the small primary school. I don’t think she’s especially bothered by it though and it’s easier to “hide” in the age of google than if you’re called Amroliwala Drinkwater or something.

probably more annoying for other people who have multiple “Tom Davis” in their phone/lives and have to remember which one is which all the time

This really isn't a thing. Bailiffs don't just turn up at any old house because someone called Clare Smith lives there.

I research my family tree and the Phoebe's, Esmeralda's and Cinderella's are much easier to trace!

Yes well DH has two middle names but that didn't stop his NHS records from being mixed up with someone else who shared 3/4 names with him, born in the same district. On the same fecking day.
Think something like
DH : David Thomas Matthias Jones.
Other guy : David Thomas Jones

There’s something to be said for being hard to search for/find on the internet.

Ds has an unusual first name but shares first and last names with a sports person so any search only comes up with that person.

When someone with the same name and date of birth as you get into some sort of trouble, it's not always easy to extricate yourself. Bailiffs etc.

FIL parents gave their 4 sons first names all starting with same letter and no middle names. It's an usual surname all people with it are family in some way and FIL is a twin.

Only once has FIL had to step in with bank during a meeting and point out that was not his financial information with bank but his twins and they stopped an immediately apologised.

We had issues with last GP - DD1 name was on rise but years prior had been considered old ladies name - and we did have them confuse her with an old lady with a more modern name no letters in common different address in town- turned out they were DH third cousins and we just told GP surgery to stop doing it but I did have some concerns round it.

I think bailiff and credit scoring is name and same address not just DOB and name - as in 67 million there will likely be duplicates in names and DOB.

I'm familiar with a case where the debt got mixed up with someone with the same name and date of birth.

I actually have a very uncommon first name. Had met two others in my life (one being a very posh man 😆) then started a new job and there was another woman with basically the same name (slightly different surnames).

The amount of calls and emails we each got intended for the other was unreal! Having an unusual name is not protection from this

We were threatened with bailiffs to our house because someone who shares my husband's (common) name and date of birth hadn't paid a fine and it has been referred to a debt collection agency. Just because you haven't come across it, doesn't make it not a thing. Would have saved us considerable stress if it wasn't.

I agree with the poster who said that being Emma Smith is better in this day of Google because you can be afforded more privacy on the Internet.

My daughter has a reasonable uncommon first name and a surname shared by only a few hundred people in the country.

There is one other person with her first name-surname combination in the UK. No relation. They live in the same town as us...

I think you’re talking about me. I have a common first name and surname. It’s not administrative nightmare, far from it. It’s great. I’m at a doctors surgery in a large village, never had a problem with checking in using my surname and DOB. I don’t need my first name. I worked in an organisation with about 12,000 people. There was two of us with the same name. They used my middle initial in my email and her email was the abbreviated version of the first name. There were less than a handful of emails that got sent incorrectly to one of us and we just forwarded the email on. I can give my email over the phone and people get it first time, I don’t have to spell it out.

My name is easy to spell. It’s easy to pronounce. In an increasingly digital world, I am really hard to find. Which means future employers can’t find my FB (not that I have anything on there but I like keeping my professional and personal life separate). It means that people can’t easily find me on LinkedIn, they have to be adding endless people or have actually come into contact with me.

My husband has a unique name. Old name for his age and rare surname. If you Google him, he pops up straight away, you would know where he went to high school due to an old news clipping, where he works, where he lives, what his parents do for hobbies as again he pops up in an old article about it. People can’t spell his rare surname, can’t pronounce it. We use my name for booking taxis or a table because it’s easy to spell and easy to hear over the phone.

Our DD has a double barrelled surname but as people start to drop a name, we’ve both agreed his is the surname to drop. She can then hide behind the anonymity of her ridiculously boring and common name.

I agree with you OP.

This. My first name is unusual, my surname is common but doesn't 'go' culturally with my first name so the combination is incredibly unusual. I'm not especially notable in any way but every result on the first page of a Google search for my full name is indeed me. For me this is fine but it could be really detrimental. I also have found it irritating to go through life having to spell out or correct the pronunciation of my name constantly. So my children have 'bog standard' names. Maybe they'll hate that and I'll have grandchildren with 'unique' names, just as my mum gave me my name because she hated her very common one - and so it goes on...

What a load of tosh 😂

I'd much rather have a nice, 'bog standard' name than a made up, ridiculous name just because my parents wanted to be different and edgy.

One of my dc has a pretty common name, the other doesn't. The only time it causes problems is when one can find a bookmark/fridge magnet with their name on in the gift shop and the other can't.

We picked them because we liked them. Try not to be so influenced by what other people do.

I rather like the anonymity of generic first name and generic surname.
Good luck finding me on social media stalkers!

There wasn't nearly as much life admin. Databases where your information could be incorrectly merged didn't exist. And there were less people to begin with. Plus there weren't Indian call centres - you could talk to a human to sort out problems if they occurred.

Because people don't want to have to find a really unusual name that they like just to make their child stand out, they choose names they like even if the name is common. Giving a child a crazy middle name is fine until the child has to give their full name in class, which caused much amusement when my friend gave his really stupid middle name.

I'd prefer the anonymity. It has been hard work extracting myself from Google searches because of a decade-old newspaper article I took part in. If I'd have known, I would have given a fake name!

Like a pp further up, it is a bother trying to spell it on the phone and for taxis and things like that I will use my husband's surname, but on the whole it being unique is what makes it special to me and is linked to my heritage, so I'd never change it.

Anonymous is good.