Today I met a woman who wants to call her baby...

[Sidge]

...Cedar or Cameo.

Whether it's a boy or a girl

Now that's two of the most unusual names I've heard for a while. Whaddya think?

Thanks Dragonbutter, we like 'em .

It is harder with boys to give an unusual name I think but I am pretty sure that teaching the kids I do and living in such a multicultural area has kind of desensitised me to so-called 'odd' names. Cameo? Love'elle? sure!

Just got to make sure we don't move to Surrey now.

There's always Devon. Anything goes here.
I kick myself at DS1's normal name when i see it alongside the other children's names at nursery.

Dragonbutter - stop kicking yourself and remember to ask him when he's 15 if he's sorry you gave him a "normal" name!

i agree dragon

one horrible member of my family made me change ds1 name as i was too insecure to cope with the silly comments ...

he IS 15!

I like cedar.

I also love Aphra and Skyler.
is there a difference gender-wise between Skyler and Skylar?
I liked it when we were thinking of names for baby number 2 but dp didn't

And have you asked him whether he would prefer to be called Mercedes-Benz, Starfish, Mercury, Cedar, Cameo or Tom?

Aw, their names are their names - you can always give him an embarrassing nickname !

But don't all children hate their name at 15 anyway?

(I know I did and made up exotic spellings and anagrams for my very normal name so when I ran away it would be my new name)

Thanks Fingerwoman - am totally outing myself to anyone who might know me here!!

Skyler/Skylar/Schuyler are all unisex. Started as male name but very common in US for both. Personally I see Skylar as female and Skyler as male (Tyler?).

I don't know anyone with an unusual name that hates it, Seeker. Brother-in-law changed his name aged 11 to his middle name which is slightly less common than his first. I suppose I am hoping my Skyler will grow confident and resilient enough to cope with an unusual name.

My dd is Skye, after the isle of Skye (dh's family are scottish) people always leave the 'e' off the end. I love her name, there is no-one else in her school with it.
I think if you tell people the names you've chosen before the birth, there will be negative comments, but once the baby is born, generally people are too polite to say anything!
My nephew is called Jude (after Jude the Obscure, sil's favourite book) They announced it before he was born, and nobody liked it (even me) but I love it now, it really suits him.

Seeker, he's 3. If i asked him if he would prefer to be called starfish, I don't think he'd give the answer you want to hear.

Sorry - I was asking PaulaYates to ask her 15 year old.

3 year olds are supposed to want to be called Starfish, or Spiderman - my ds is called Patrick, does that count? Not after spongebob, before you ask...........

not clemency then?

Clemency Starfish - I like that!

Actually, I might very well have called my dd Clemency if I had though of it in time - and if I could have got it past my dp! The big difference between Clemency and Starfish is that people have been called Clemency since Puritan times. Starfish, however........!

my step sister is clemency

seeker - ds1 has lots of siblings with what i term 'giddy' names

he wonders why his is so ordinary

Mercedes is a lovely name

But not for a boy, paula........

We have a Skye as well.

My hairdresser's friend has called her daughter Fennel

We used to wind people up when I was pregnant saying we were going to call girl Chlamydia and boy Zanzibar

Going to holler "Ozymandias, come here this minute" after DS is he runs off in Asda on Saturday just for the hell of it

NOTHING wrong with unusual names in general. Don't want to upset anyone

err no