And that is exactly what happened to my mom, except, as you might surmise, she didn’t discover all the other Matthews until she got out of the hospital.
Bleccch! HUNTER! It’s just … it’s bloody ridiculous.
Ditto, CODY. Down with CODY!
Max Torque writes:
“…my esteemed bread-flanked brother.”
LOL, and you have a point about it getting a little out of hand. A name like Jefferson is a tribute to someone, rather than simply a name someone thought sounded nice.
If my husband and I had been blessed with a girl, I would have liked to name her Claire. I just love that name, and the meaning of it (light).
We, naturally, ended up with three boys, and I tried to do my best naming them. Hubby is not happy with Son #1’s name (Ty - just Ty…not Tyler, Tyson, Tyrone, etc.) His middle name is my maiden name, so he’s Ty Butler Davis. Son #2 came out with a more historical name, Ethan Alexander Davis. We went for a more traditional route with son #3, Joseph Matthew Outar.
At home, they are Ty, E, and Joe. 
Naming that third son was a tough thing, though, after having taught school for a while. Every possible name my husband could recommend was forever tied in my mind to a horrid/spoiled child.
Some interesting ones I have seen in class?
One year I had three Corrie/Coreys…one girl and two boys.
I had Dana and Dayna…a boy and a girl
Trashonda (I always wondered what possessed some mother to put the word trash in her daughter’s name)
Hunter, Bailey, Laci, Lindsey, Taylor-all girls
There was the year of the Megans! I had three girls all named Megan. The weird part was their last initials started with A, B, and C…so that’s what we called them. Megan A, Megan B, and Megan C. 
LaRaine (pronounced Lorraine)
Teaching exposes you to all manner of irksome names.
FaerieBeth
My brother (now 27) went to school with five other Craigs. One year there were four of them in the same class.
I haven’t met too many people with my name (Deanne) and I love it!
One great thing about an international marriage is that your name choices double. As long as we picked names which were easy to say in either language, we were fine. So we have a son called Katsuyasu (but everyone back home calls him Katsu), a daughter called Tahli Mai, and a baby boy called Kaishu (who everyone calls Kai).
I for one love unusual names.
Have indeed been seeing little Avas in my preschool. I happen to adore that name. I hope your prediction comes true and that Ava will just be a low-grade fad.
I thought the name Ethan was fairly unusual 20 years ago when I had my first kid, and it seems to have turned into the ‘sorta popular’ category. Ah well, better that than a name which, have heard it, people give you a doubletake.
I think I posted this in another thread long ago, but I once taught a pair of twins named Destiny and Ecstasy.
I think in the BBQpit you could find some similar threads on naming children. Except that big bad bugabear “racism” rears it’s head, so on second thought, don’t go there.
It’s ok to make fun of white kid’s names, let’s just relax and enjoy ourselves shall we ?
oh, btw, my son’s name is Ian. I don’t really know where that falls in the spectrum of “out-there-ness”. It’s the Scottish form of John, which is my name.
ok, yeah I liked Jethro Tull too
My kids are Claire and Andrew. Both are not so common and I kinda like that.
Bailey, whether male or female, to me, belongs on a dog, not a child.
Blech.
YMMV. No slur intended, any guilt inferred is your own.
I saw a guy on TV a few days ago whose first name was Athol. I turned to my friend and said, “What do you think his sister’s name is? Thlut?”
My youngest child’s first and middle names mean “beloved world ruler” and “dark ruler”.
Any idea what his name is? Great trivia question.
I went through this last year when naming Aaron.
Airman and I were bound and determined to stay away from the trendy. The problem was that Airman is of Irish extraction, and we were initially looking at Irish names. Most of the trendier names seem to be Irish, so we had to eliminate those right off the bat. We didn’t want our child to be one of six Megans or Caitlyns or Connors or Rileys in their class.
One of the reasons we chose Aaron is that it’s a fairly common name but not so common that he will be one of several Aarons in class. It’ll also grow up with him; it’s a name that works both for a child and for an adult. And because it’s not trendy, he won’t be dated by his name.
Robin
Um… Gandhi Hitler McDEVA.
Very clever try, Lefirret.
Any other takers who actually did RESEARCH or posess general KNOWLEDGE?
My vintage (born in 1975) was definitely the year of Melissas–I never had a class in school without at least three of them. There were quite a few Jennifers that year, too. Guys’ names were pretty standard–lots of John/Jonathans (of which I am one), Stevens, Keiths, etc. There was a big run on Nicole and Kristin a few years later.
My sister, born in 1985, has a lot of friends, every female one of whom is named Brittney (or some variant spelling). I remember that my mother (whom I love, but who was never one to buck the system) went into the hospital intending to name her that, as well. She went with Emily instead, which wasn’t all that common that particular year but has been in spurts ever since.
A friend of ours who is getting ready to sprout has picked the name Piper Brooke for her little girl. CrazyCatLady and I are split on it–I like it, and not just because of the Phish song. She doesn’t care for it so much, not least of all because we have a friend with a dog named Piper.
Another friend recently named her daughter Schyler Fayth. (That’s “Skyler”). That’s right out. I like “Skyler”, and I’m not opposed to Faith–her middle name is Faye, so they’re playing on that, I think. Still, I have a thing about extraneous “y”'s.
Another friend (yes, everyone we know is pregnant) just had a daughter named Katherine Grace. I really liked the simplicity of that–but, as I’ve learned in this thread, that appears to be the new trend.
Dr. J
Jabuhlon Satan von Devaton
Seems like people take more liberties with their daughter’s names than with their sons. I have nieces named: Aubrey, Ali, Portia, Myra, and Natalie. My sons are much plainer at Kevin, David, and Eric.
In our family it was Sharla, Sheree, and Shirlee. Or to give the full flavor - Sharla Mae, Sheree Lyn, and Shirlee Ann. And that was back when alternate spellings were considered to be odd instead of cute.
Oh, and an in-law has recently named their daughter Sydney. It was the name they had picked whether it was a boy or a girl. Either way, my cat had it first.
Dr. J, I have a daughter named Katherine Grace, but she is 9, so maybe your friend just hit on a nice name and no trendiness will follow.
My other daughter is Mary, and 12 years ago, everyone, but everyone responded with, “Oh. That’s so traditional.” I have noticed quite a few little Mary’s running around these days, so perhaps we were ahead of the curve.
I tend to refrain from criticizing the name anyone picked for his or her child, but there is one I simply must comment on. My mother is a nurse and one day she was giving shots to a little boy. She asked him his name and he replied “Nilknarf.”
Fortunately, his mother explained that his father’s name is Franklin and they spelled it backwards to get Nilknarf. But I can’t help wondering what people call him…Nilky? Narfy? I mean, that one just has to be made fun of.
Thank you, Eve.
My husband and I have agreed on Alessandre for our daughter, and Alexander for our son (depending on who’s born first).
There’s a woman I worked with briefly who’s name is Krimsen. I think that’s very pretty.