Whay do peopel give their children 'unusual" names?

[seeker]

I am prepared to bet (unfortunately there is no way of testing my theory so I am on pretty safe ground) that the vast majority of children would much rather be one of 2 Toms or 3 Emilys in their year at school than the only Halcyon or Sequoia.

I also think that people are very disingenuous when they insist that they are choosing made up or off the wall names so that their children are the only one in their year. I have a Grace, who is one of 2 in a school of 1420 girls,and a Patrick, who is the only one in a school of 430 children. I don't know why people choose off the wall names, but uniqueness can't be the real reason.

i would far rather someone said ' i am sorry i did not catch that' followed by 'what a lovely name' than not iyswim

i have to spell mine a lot and it is only shakespearean

never bohtered me for more than a millisecond = why would it?

I have an unusual name. It's Irish and isn't even that common in Ireland though a fairly well know actress has it. As a child I was very shy and hated the mispronounciation/taunts. However, I have grown into it. An unusual name sets one apart somewhat - that can be a good thing.

Have also given ds an Irish name. It's easy to pronounce because we anglicised it slightly. It was a compromise. Also gave him a "normal" middle name so that he can choose when he's older which name to use. Incidentally I have a "normal" middle name too and have used it before when I can't be bothered to deal with the "how do you pronounce that".

ds2 has a name that people say 'oh i've never heard that before', so I say@haven't you heard of stirling moss?' and they say @oh. yes. forgot him'

pmsl

had that covo so many times.....

he likes it, and as we're all landed with a bizarre surname they're never goibg to be average name wise anyway

Everyone will do a double take at some point.

Call a girl in the English speaking world Abishag and you will raise eyebrows.

It just depends where you, and the name are on the curve.

We didn't really think about school when we gave our daughter her name, other people did so I asked the kids in our family who all loved it! We thought about names that we liked and could imagine calling our child as she grew up. She has a fairly normal name that's creeping into the charts but she's going to have to spell her name all the time - just like I do with the most popular name of the mid-70s to mid-80s!

I got to add this in as an aside. Tinkerbelle is her IRL nickname a lot of people use it more than her real name (my sister says Stink ) and you would be surprised how many people take it to be her real name. Kids seem to accept it, but adults go lol

Tinker- my children all have nicknames that are more used than their "real" names. My bil once asked my 9 yr old nephew (not his son, my sister's older child, so he hadn't known my daughter since birth) what Dill's (let's say that's her nickname) real name was. Nephew just raised his eyebrows as though bil was having a senior moment, and said "Dill, of course!".

He didn't have any more idea than bil what his cousin's name was...

duchesse was just having a nosey at your profile - what's the school called that your boys go to?

On my course we were talking this week about our names, why we're called that and what we are known as.

One lady is called Danielle and until she started school thought her name was Danni. On her first day her mother told the teacher "this is Danielle" and she was confused about who her mother was talking about!

Another woman always uses her middle name and also didn't know until she started school it wasn't her real name!

I asked my neice what my daughter's name is (this is the one who came up with Tinkerbelle) she did a and said "Isobel Tinkerbell bells" (s is her surname)

am i being unreasonable to think its a parents choice what they want to call their kids and some folk should get a life and live and let live. This has been done over and over again and getting a bit boring. If you want to call your kid something common then cool do that but stop slaging off those that dont want common names.

am i being unreasonable to think its a parents choice what they want to call their kids and some folk should get a life and live and let live. This has been done over and over again and getting a bit boring. If you want to call your kid something common then cool do that but stop slaging off those that dont want common names.

Rupert, Thalia, Kevin, Pearl, Otto, Bruno, Simon, Meryon, Jacqueline, Andrea, David, Thaddeus, Clemency, Richenda, Eunice, Freda, Norman....I could go on.

And I like all of them except Kevin and Norman.

No you're not being unreasonable, doublethink, but a)I'm not slagging anybody off and b) nobody forced you to click on the thread - it's title is pretty self explanatory!

I hated always having at least two other girls with the same name in every class or group I was in I'd have given anything to have an unusual name and have therefore gone for unusual names for my dds .

Names are such a personal thing. Frankly I would avoid saying I don't like a name just in case someone has named their child it. I am less diplomatic in other areas though.

I'd say Thaddeus, Clemency, Richenda were all a bit strange myself, I prefer some of the weirder names we;ve had on here myself!

And I once knew a richenda..

Richenda

I would actively NOT choose a couple of those for the sole reason i fear them becoming popular Seeker

Because I wanted to my kids names to say something about them, about how special they were. My Mum is a teacher and once taught a class with 6 kids called Thomas in it!!! What does that say to the child? Gee honey, I had 8 months to choose your name, and in the end I just plucked it off the top ten list....

Nah, not for me. My kids aren't 'Tinkerbells' or 'Warriors' by any means, they are normal names that aren't common in their generation, though sadly my youngest sons is becoming popular...

The point I am trying to make is that you can have a name that is s a "real" non-made up name that's been in existence for lots of years and has a history but is still unusual and your child will still probably be the only one in his or her year. I have NEVER said that people ought to go for the names that everyone else is using - but that you don't have to go down the Sequoia, FifiTrixiebelle, MoonUnit, Peaches, Apple, Brooklyn route!

Thase were the first names that came into my head that fitted my criteria - there are lots more!

but sequoia and fifi aren't made up names.

all names have to have some 'foundation' they were once all made up

Sequioa and Halcyon are names I made up (well, I didn't make them up, obviously - they are a tree and the Greek for a kingfisher) as a sort of generic description of the sort of names I am talking about.