I thought it might be interesting to make a list of names that we’ve encountered only once. As far as you know, no one else in the world has this name. You never heard the name until you met this person and you’ve never seen it anywhere (not even on a list of What Not to Name Your Baby). These should be people you actually know, not just an unusual name from a Doper thread or a website.
Yeah, I thought it would be more interesting to share one-of-a-kind names. Not celebrity baby names though or Biblical names. I knew just one Delilah but I’ll bet there’ve been thousands of Delilahs.
My dad had a ‘double’ aunt & uncle (his mother’s brother married his father’s sister) named Herman and Lucy. Their oldest daughter was named Herma Lou – a bit Okie (unsurprising, since they were Okies) but not extraordinary. Their oldest son was named Luehen (pronounced Loo-in), which I’ve never seen or heard anywhere outside of my family.
My middle son is named Jamison. I’d never seen it except as a last name when I named him it, but I’ve seen it as a first name since. I still love it 15 years later- we call him Jamie.
I know both several Clemente (that’s the male form) and Clementina (often called Tina, that’s the female form). Also a Sola, although Sole (short form of Soledad) is much more common.
Recently I read a book where one Hispanic-American character was named Valencia. That’s a town’s name and not linked to any saint or similar, so if you tried to name your kid that in Spain the clerk would be obligated by law to try and disuade you on grounds of “dissuading names that may induce mockery,” but well, Americans do call their kids Dakota and Nevada, so… in that context it’s believable. Weird as all get-go to me, though.
Oooh, I’ll have to tell my neighbor there’s another Ginevra in the world – different spelling. She said she’s never known another and she doesn’t know where her parents got the name. She goes by Ginny.