unusual names for children these days:

We had a neighbour called Arnem Cross, after the battle which his father fought at. and another Windsor Gates!!!!

yes but Strontium is a radioactive element. We were all very worried about it's effects in the nuclear testing years.

My favourite awful names, and I have a long list of awful names that I have come across, belonged to a couple of little blonde darlings of 3 and 1, The oldest was Ebony and the second Trinity. So Ebony, like calling a black child Blanche, or Trinity which means 3, and she was one of two children. I honestly think the mother had no idea of the meanings of the names, just thought they sounded nice.
I remember saying to my DIL when she was expecting her first child. Picture a school playground, go out into the playground and call out the name you are considering. If everyone falls about laughing or looks puzzled, wrong name.
Luckily we have Jeanne Beatrice and now Charlotte Rose. A lot of the old names are coming back like Ivy, Martha [always loved that name], Matilda etc. When I worked at a medical centre a lot of ladies who'd be born in the 1930s were called Phyllis, so I daresay that will come back too.

I agree with you Dorset I think it is important to think about what the teachers and pupils at school will think about the name. It should also be easy enough to spell. I worked for a man in Surrey who gave his sone a completely unspellable Welsh name and I felt really sorry for the little chap.

My parents called my brother by his second name, which they wanted to be his first but didn't want him to have the initials A.I.L. so named him I.A.L.

We know a couple whose GCs are called Sam and Ella,(true) which does seem a bit unfortunate.

Strontium 90 is a radioactive isotope of Strontium. I don't think Strontium itself is radioactive. I have to take Strontium Ranelate to prevent osteoporosis developing as a result of taking steroids and slow or reverse the progress of existing osteoporosis.

Isn't strontium uised in fireworks for it's red colour?

Frank Zappa's son was named Dweezil - and he likes it because people remember him, he says. I don't know what his sister thinks of her name - Moon Unit!

The latest addition to our extended family is called Zelda, which made me think of Nintendo games, however, I've been informed that it was also the name of F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife.

Grammar However, Zelda Fitzgerald is not the ideal role model.

Grammar Zelda is a pretty name.

People often see the names in those little books and then don't know the connections that others will make. Isadora immediately conjures up visions of scarves and bugattis but Zelda for me indicates wild excess which I think is a good thing. Martha is always the poor drudge. I always had to call my mothers friends auntie so and so and they were all Marjorie's Beatrice's and Hilda's . ( ipad is throwing in handfuls of apostrophes) when I was at school Susan Norma and Gillian seemed to be the most frequent.

Going back to calling children after the place of their conception, we had a friend whose daughter had the initials M.G.B. for that very reason. DH had an MGB but we decided we could never manage to do the same without the risk of serious injury.

When I was in primary school, the girls were largely Ann(e), Margaret and Elizabeth with a couple of Helens and a Mary thrown in.

Jane ,Imelda, bernadette, were favourites at my junior school.

My son in law's brother in law's surname was Gordon so he called his son Flash (they're American!!!) Despite everyone's misgivings he seems to have grown up quite normal.
My daughter was once criticising a family we knew. One child was called Imogen and the others had similar slightly archaic names. "Fancy giving them such odd names" she said, so I pointed out that as Eugenia Maria Antonia she was hardly in a position to comment. Her own children are called Roman and Luca which are at least easy to spell.

I believe that both of Frank Zappa's kids changed their names when they grew up - don't blame them!

1920's & 30's names are having a resurgence:I know of several under 5s called Ivy, Stanley, Bertie,Mabel, Connie,Elsie and Esme

my pals at school were Jacqueline, Janice, Carol, Helen, Mary, Jeanne, Josephine Kathleen and Dorothy. Close friends now & of similar age to me: Patricia, Lyndsay, Angela, Corinne, Jill, Maggie, Janet, Jennifer(Jenny) and Peter,Paul, Hugh, Brian , David, John for the men!,

David Bowie called his son Zowie, but changed his name to Duncan in later life...

I can't understand anyone calling their child Satchel (Bruce Willis and Demi Moore's daughter).

I worked with a Thor , Woden , twig and Branch, that were all new traveller children, a poor child called Ocean, whose surname was White, so sounded like a paint colour, and dear little thing called Champagne, who really wasn't

When my mother was expecting me she asked my brother, then aged 4, what names he liked, my father was reading him stories about King Arthur and after thinking about it said if I was a boy he wanted Galahad and if a girl Guinevere! Fortunately, by the time I was born he had forgotten about it and my parents settled on Sheila

When I was expecting DS2, I was into all things Arthurian and seriously considered Gawain and Galahad. Luckily exOH had other ideas.

When I was young(er) my favourite names were Tutankhamen and Nefertiti!
My kids don't know how luck they are!

Prior to having children I made an effort to use up all my favourite names on family pets so's I couldn't use them on any unfortunate offspring, although most of them were quite inoffensive and would possibly be quite normal now.

I used to work with atruly beautiful girl called Crystal and YES she did marrya man with the surname Waters.

My niece has just produced her fifth child. A girl at last. She may stop now. She has called her Ezri, which I gather is Hebrew for helper? If she's hoping that shell take after her name, I just hope she's lucky!

My granny was Fanny (known as Ida, her middle name) - thankfully I wasn't named after her!