Babies being given unusual names.

Doodledog

We deliberately named our children so that they had a choice of whether to use a shortened version (which we used when they were small) or the full, more formal one as adults. So far, they have both stuck with the shorter names, but they know that they have the choice to change if they want to.

We did the same. Two sons use the shortened name and the other prefers the longer one. As another poster said, some names can sound quite baby-ish and could be a bit embarrassing if you were a lawyer/doctor etc. It's good to have an option.

Weren’t there some pop stars children-Zowie Bowie?- who changed their names as soon as they were adult?
DH taught and used to comment on a year of Elvis/Kylies.
When naming ours I thought about it being difficult to pronounce or say (working in a Court having to call out names could be difficult although folk weren’t as sensitive as folk seem to be now!)
Also would it suit them as adults whatever they decided to be/do?
And imagine how they would feel when marrying and having to say their names as their vows.
Also was I prepared to shout the name out in public-when they go AWOL which DD2 did regularly?
I thought there was a prescribed list of names in France so you couldn’t just call the poor soul after an entire football team for example?

GrannySyb My DIL has the same name, it’s such a beautiful name.

One of my DGS is named John after his late GF. He’s the only John in the school. Turn the clock back 60 years and he’d have been one of many!

I was always asked to spell my unusual first name and have never met another. However, a writer with this name has recently hit the best seller charts and so I no longer feel unique.

Zowie Bowie was never named Zowie. He was Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones.

I rather like unusual names. All 4 of my children are blessed with them! Not had any complaints yet. In fact 2 of my grandsons have unusual names as well.

The spelling of my name is not a common one. I’ve always had to quickly spell it out when it’s been needed. For a very long time I was the only person I could find with this spelling although that’s changed now to a degree. I’ve always hated it and vowed with my own children that they would have much more conventional names.

I have a French Christian name. People often spell it strangely!

From this morning’s DT
^ Former favourites close to extinction^
Top five boys’ names
Oliver – 4,225 (no change)
George – 4,100 (no change)
Arthur – 4,052 (+1)
Noah – 4,042 (-1)
Muhammad – 3,710 (+2)

Top five – girls

Olivia – 3,640 (no change)
Amelia – 3,319 (no change)
Isla – 2,749 (no change)
Ava – 2,679 (no change)
Mia – 2,303 (no change)
Top 100 between 1924 and 1984, but now with fewer than 45 registrations
Keith – 5 (peaked at number 14 in 1944)
Graham – 8 (in the top 20 in 1954)
Jane – 18 (peaked at seventh in 1964)
Christine – 21 (third most popular name in both 1944 and 1954)
Colin – 27 (top 50 name between 1934 and 1974)
Marie – 44 (top 50 name in 1974)

Fewer than 30 registrations in 1996 but now in the top 100
Finley – 2,613 (16th place, boys)
Ivy – 2,166 (6th place, girls)
Willow – 1,982 (12th place)
Arlo – 1,908 (27th place)
Roman – 1,776 (26th place)
Elsie – 1,772 (19th place)

Apparent,y there were no “ Nigels” - I wonder why?

Working in schools you come across all sorts of names and you can often tell what a child is going to be like from the name. We all used to groan when certain names appeared on our class lists. Usually, our predictions were right.

Our 6th DGC was named Charlie. I thought we used to say that someone «was a right Charlie»-not complimentary!
But it really suits him.
A lady I sing with, retired primary school teacher, said, when I told her of Charlie’s name that she’d taught several
Charlies and they all had a twinkle in their eye! Our Charlie does too!

I have an unusual surname - my husband wasn't English - whenever I am asked for my name I automatically spell it without being asked!

I heard an unusual name when I was visiting my ds in the US - a small boy called Awesome. He was getting up to mischief in a shop and his mum kept calling on Awesome to behave.

When I told my ds about this he rolled his eyes and said ‘Mum, I suspect his name was actually Orson.’

I gave each of my sons one slightly unusual (though traditional) name, and a very standard middle name (one is James, one Philip) in case they preferred that. They have not chosen to use the middle names, and are happily known by the more unusual ones.

Hetty58

Elusivebutterfly, because popular names are 'safe', reliable, uncontroversial - parents with little imagination?

I think nowadays a lot of people try to 'prove' their creativity by giving their children outlandish names.

The most creative person I know called her children Jane and Edward. Her artist daughter has children called Niamh (very standard name here in Ireland) and Alice.

M0nica

My sister had an unusual name. Quite simple, spelt as pronounced, but she got so many other versions of it she started telling people her name and spelling it (it only had 6 letters, until, she said, the felt the spelling was becoming part of her name.

Then someone with her first name hit the headlines and all her problems vanished!

You’ve piqued my curiosity now MOnica ‼️

Actually it’s not just unusual names that need spelling!
Think of Lindsey.

With an ‘a’ or an ‘e’?
With or without a ‘d’?
An ‘s’ or a ‘z’ with perhaps a ‘y’ or an ‘i’ at the end?

A nightmare name isn’t it‼️

Urmston It was 'Imelda' at a time decades before Mrs Marcos. At the time a name known in the Irish catholic community, but not much used.

She got called Amalda Amelda, Amanda, Amolda, Melanie, you name a variation she got it.

Sadly she died when the name was becoming known, with Imelda Marcos and since then we have, of course, had the actress Imelda Staughton, but not in my sisters lifetime.

i am 58 and still have to correct people, my name is not unusual but it ends in lyn not ine, when people read it out and still call me the ine and i have to correct them, and if they still won't say it properly then i ask them to call me mrs nexus. i just find it annoying when they are reading from a bit of paper. i do feel sorry for the children who have or are given some of the unusual names that i have been reading about lately such as bear, cricket, dune, horizon and ridge, these are some of the predictions for next year, some non- binary names are holland, juniper, lux and scout, they are prediciting some of the old victorian names will make a comeback due to some of the tv series like bridgerton.

lemongrove

When naming our children we tried to give them names which would suit them at whatever age they were.
A lot of names suit cute young children but may sound daft on an older person, and extremely daft on an elderly person.?

Yes - this. There are no such things as 'baby names'. You are naming someone who will, in most cases, be an adult for the largest part of their life.

MayBeMaw Apparent,y there were no “ Nigels” - I wonder why?

Yes, according to R4 'Lucifer' was more popular than 'Nigel'

I think a lot of people given way out names as babies, often change them to something more usual when they become adults.

There have been a number of the offspring of pop stars lumbered with strange 1960s psychedelic names who have quietly changed them in adulthood.

Ah thanks MOnica that was kind of you to let me know.
Curiosity dealt with.
?

Petera

MayBeMaw Apparent,y there were no “ Nigels” - I wonder why?

Yes, according to R4 'Lucifer' was more popular than 'Nigel'

I heard that. It’s hard to imagine a couple looking down at a new baby and thinking ‘I know, let’s call him Lucifer’, isn’t it?

My friend has a friend named Imelda, I love it and wish it were my name.
You can’t get much plainer than Ann, without an “e” and no middle name.

My DD's name is not unheard of, but not common place. I specifically chose it because it fitted both of the cultures she came from.

I was out and about once, when she was a toddler, and there was another girl with the same name. The mother asked me anxiously how I spelled my DD's name and was relieved when I gave the obvious spelling, saying 'My DD's name is spelled in a really unusual way. No one else has one the same.' Which I thought was a bit silly really.