Anyone who has given their child an unusual name ...

[luvsJack]

I don't like unusual names or spellings. My internal reaction to hearing one is a combination of an eye roll and pity.

I tend to think the parents were trying to be "cool" or "edgy". I can't take parents who do it seriously and I feel bad for their kids.

This is, of course, just my opinion. I would never say anything to someone, but that's what's going though my head.

ETA: By "unusual" I'm thinking of my friend who named her kid "River", not the one who named her kid "Cassandra". I actually love uncommon traditional names.

Ohhhh, I love the name River. I know a lady whose name is Moon--that I don't like but everyone knows her around here and you definitely remember her name once you meet her.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

DD is Grace and we thought it was pretty and old fashioned and not too common but we have found it to be more common than we thought, at least in our area. Every night she looks to the heavens and gives thanks she was not born a male child, to whom DH was determined to give the name....OTTO!!!

DH's family is German and Otto is also my DDad's middle name so it would have been a tough fight!...whew!

For the longest time Grace was the name my first daughter was going to be no matter what. I still haven't counted it out since I don't have kids but Grace had been my go to name for quite some time. Now Alyssa has taken over.

 

[OK!]

I don't LOVE love my name, but I like it. I hate that no one ever spells it correctly, though. It's Jodie. I always spell it for people, and I don't know if they just tune out or assume they know where I'm going with the spelling or what, but I invariably end up with Jodi or Jody.

I do like that if someone calls my name in a crowded room, 10 to 1 it's me they're looking for.

 

[surfergirl602]

We have three girls.

Our oldest is named Jaelyn Reid. A lot of people mistake the "e" for a "c". Especially at the doctors office. She's almost 10 and back then we'd never heard of it. Now, we've known like... 5 others, but they've all been boys. Reid isn't after anyone in particular. DH's brother came up with it and it just stuck.

Our middle is Julia Marie. Common. DH and I couldn't decide on a name for her. Marie is my mother's middle name. Julia fits her though. She's full of spunk and life.

Our youngest is named Joelle Morgan. Joelle "Joe - elle" (L) is mispronounced all the time! I really didn't think it would be. She gets "Joe - lee" a lot. We were going to just name her Joey, but DH said she should have a proper name. She fits "Joey" to a T, and her sisters call her Jojo. I know only one other girl with the name Joey, short for Josephine.

I'm preggers now with our fourth. If its a boy, it will be Jacoby Gavin. We've had this name picked out for years but never been able to use it. If its a girl, .... I have no idea what we'll name her! I want to get away from the J names, there aren't any more that I like, but DH insists on the J's! (His dad is named James, and we don't have any boys, so its kind of like paying homage to his dad.

Oh, and an interesting fact.... all the males on DH's side of the family have the middle name Harrison. All of his brothers do, my nephew does... it goes waaaayyy back and no one knows the reason why!

 

[MiniGirl]

My new daughter is named Josie (not Josephine) - not a common name, but certainly not unusual. I haven't met another Josie younger than 65 though.
I wanted to name her Emaline, Amelie, or Beatrice, all of which my DH vetoed as too unusual.

My dd is a Josephine and we call her Josie. Both of my girls have very classic, old-fashioned names. Makes sense as both were named after their grandparents.

I never met anyone with my name growing up. Now, I hear it all the time -- mostly in the 6 and under crowd. I never thought my name would be back in fashion. Who knows, maybe my dds' names will be, too.

 

[wenrob]

My eldest DD is Tiana. Thirteen years ago it was unheard of and we've maybe ran into two in her life time neither spelled the same way. Now look, there's a Disney princess named Tiana. There will be a flood of Tianas now! However ours is pronounced Tee-anna not ahhna. She loves her name.

My youngest DD is Breelyn. I had originally wanted to name eldest DD Brianna and never got over wanting a "Bree" name. We chose "ee" over "i" because we didn't want people calling her BrI-lyn. The Lyn part comes from my middle name as DH wanted to name her after me. (I didn't want a "Jr." lol!) She's too little to know at the moment but I hope she feels it's special like her sister does.

My boy is common, William. He's named after my Grandfather and Father and the only one who actually goes by William, no nickname.

I have a very common name for my generation, lemme tell ya, I've run into my fair share of Wendy Lynns! Even so I've always loved my name because my Dad chose it.

On a side not my Grandma was Tarma and I had an Aunt named Kelma and one named Taza. All names I've never ever heard before or since even with older named becoming new again. There's a fair amount of little Coras (another Aunts name) running around these days but never heard the other three. My eldest DD would probably would have been Tarma but my Grandma said no way, she hated her name.

 

[moon]

I hate, HATE rare, hard to pronounce names with a "special" spellings. Esp when it's given as an only name, and the child has no alternative but to use it. The reactions, the need to explain it and spell it over, and over, and over again....why do it?

I don't mind so much if it's a word which it's not commonly used as a name. Remmember "Splash"? When the mermaid wanted to be called "Madison", Tom Hanks was shocked amd told her it wasn't a name. Nowadays, it's used as a proper first name. It's a known word, and most people would know how to spell it.

But otherwise....poor kids

 

[camreesmom]

When I named my daughter Kendall, I didn't know of anyone with that name. Now, I hear it all the time. For the most part, they are little kids. DD is 21. The name seems to have gained popularity.

We have had a few problems with people thinking she is a boy. In high school they assigned her to share a locker with a boy based on her name.

LOVE the name Kendall! We have a cheerleader at our high school with that name and one other little girl who's only 4 in town whose name is Kendyl.

Our youngest is named Joelle Morgan. Joelle "Joe - elle" (L) is mispronounced all the time!

I have a friend named Joelle pronounced the same way. She was named after her grandfather Joel. I'd never heard the name before her.

Our middle daughter is Camree (pronounced Camry like the car).....her real name, not a nickname. She gets called Camryn alot but it doesn't bother her to correct people. It suits her. Our youngest is Chloe which used to be uncommon around here but seems to be getting more popular lately.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

All three of my girls have unusual names..DD 11 is Remy Kaelynn, DD 5 is Holland Elisabeth, and DD (to be born in Jan) will be Koi Isabella. Both my oldest girls adore their names and no one has ever made fun of them or given them a hard time. If they find they don't like them later in life they can go by their relatively "normal" middle names for all I care lol.

My 5 year old dd is Holland Elisabeth!

 

[PebblesMK]

My name was unusual when I was born. I'm a BrookeLynne...my brother is Brant Romain. His child is Bronwyn.

And my child is Maysain Kendylle. (Mason Kendal). I thought I was having a boy and was told I had to name her so I threw out a name and her dad (not such a smart person) gave her the spelling. I didn't like it but it has grown on her. Too bad it's a boys name and people tell me so all the time.

On the plus side, when we went to Disney in October, I guess I left all of my packages on the plane. When I returned home there was a message on the machine and it said "This is airtran, we found your packages on the flight. If it hadn't been for the ornament with Maysain's name on it, we would never have been able to figure out who the packages belonged to (because it's an uncommon spelling)"......so go her dad for not knowing how to spell things phoenetically correct!

 

[Hyonlyf]

Don't have children, but I do have a name that is WAY uncommon for my age group. I have never met another Joyce my age. Though I do hear "my mom's name is Joyce!" a lot. I hated it growing up, but I'm happy with it now.

And as far as people understanding what I'm saying, folks often just hear 'Joy' over the phone. And once, at Starbucks, 'Troy'

I hear you, Joyce!! NO ONE in my high school except the teachers (and me)were named Joyce. I like Joy so much better, but Joyce I am

 

[FayeW]

All three of my girls have unusual names..DD 11 is Remy Kaelynn, DD 5 is Holland Elisabeth, and DD (to be born in Jan) will be Koi Isabella. Both my oldest girls adore their names and no one has ever made fun of them or given them a hard time. If they find they don't like them later in life they can go by their relatively "normal" middle names for all I care lol.

Angela, I hope you know that I adore you from when you posted regularily on this board years ago, and this is not meant in a mean way:

Remy and Holland are lovely names, and while not necessarily common, not what I would call unusual.

Koi, on the other hand, goes way beyond unusual. Seriously, naming your child after a fish? Have you really thought this through? Kids are mean, teenage girls can be horrible. I can think of a dozen awful jokes the poor girl will undoubtedly endure as a teenager. She will not thank you for this.

 

[RyeCrimsonMoon]

I have a VERY common first name (Emily), which is only annoying when everyone else has the name and someone calls them out in a crowd and I think they're talking to me. People wonder why I don't respond to my name too often

But I have a VERY uncommon middle name. All the kids gave me a hard time about it, so I stopped telling people because I was so embarrassed about it. At work I had a guessing game going on for about two weeks, who ever guessed it right got $20. No one even came close.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

I have a VERY common first name (Emily), which is only annoying when everyone else has the name and someone calls them out in a crowd and I think they're talking to me. People wonder why I don't respond to my name too often

But I have a VERY uncommon middle name. All the kids gave me a hard time about it, so I stopped telling people because I was so embarrassed about it. At work I had a guessing game going on for about two weeks, who ever guessed it right got $20. No one even came close.

Are you going to start making us guess also?

 

[T16GEM]

My DS2 is Harley and my DD4 is Shelby.

Shelby is very uncommon in the UK, and many many people say "oh that's an american name" but actually she is named after Carroll Shelby.

DS often gets mistaken for a girl but his name is also pretty uncommon here too!

 

[susykt4]

C'mon RyeCrimsonMoon! Tell us! Rumpelstiltskin?

My name is Susannah, no middle name, shortened to Susy. No one has ever spelled Susy correctly (except my current boss who also has an unusual spelling) including people I have worked with/for for years. Even MY DAD has misspelled Susy! Even when Susy is on a form in front of their face people misspell Susy.

Thinking Kayla and Kaitlyn were too popular, we named our daughter Kaylin. She likes her name and is the only Kaylin in her school, but EVERYONE calls her Kaitlyn and she has to correct them 100 times.

My son is Logan. He is miraculously the only Logan in first grade at his school, but everywhere we go he's turning when all the other Logans are called.

 

[aprilgail2]

.

Koi, on the other hand, goes way beyond unusual. Seriously, naming your child after a fish? Have you really thought this through? Kids are mean, teenage girls can be horrible. I can think of a dozen awful jokes the poor girl will undoubtedly endure as a teenager. She will not thank you for this.

I have to agree with this- I can't imagine the torture that the poor child will endure throughout school being named after a fish....not only from the girls but from the boys--she will be the butt of many jokes.

 

[The Orchid]

My name is Elayna. People sometimes say it wrong. I have had people call me E-lay-ni-a. How they get that is beyond me. It's E-lay-na.

My daughter is Robin. I had many names picked out, but when she was born she just looked like a Robin and still does. She likes her name because she is androgynous and appreciates a gender neutral name.

 

[MomNeedsVacay]

I am Jaime--- everyone always "corrects" my spelling and spells my name Jamie.... NOPE- its Jaime...

my oldest has an unusual name for a girl... my maiden name is Nolan and I always said I use it for my first child's name boy or girl. Well, Nolan Elizabeth is only 6 years old and she has met a couple of Nolans here and there, but they are always boys....She seems to like it....she is defnitely the only one in her K class. Middle DD is Anibel (Ani- pronounced Annie). Baby is Bennett..I have met a couple of Bennett's here and there... but still seems a little different.

 

[bballmom56]

I have an unusual name and I don't understand why people have such a hard time with it - 5 letters, none silent, pronounced phonetically but people cannot get it right. Even after telling people, they still butcher it. At least I know the people who really care about me - they get it right.

So I was determined my kids would not go through that. AND they would have gender specific names. I was tired of people not knowing if, when reading my name, I was male or female. Both of them have easily recognizable gender specific names and appreciate it after seeing what I go through.