Given the fact that I know about a gazillion marijuana strains, you’d think I’d have known that simple fact…
So Shirley and Eleusis have done their ignorance disspelling for the day!
I’m a “Michael.” I’m even a II, so I know that my parents weren’t in the mood to be creative with my name.
I am going to name my first son Glencannon. Or Angus.
Just avoid ‘Glenfiddych’.
It’s all in how you present. My oldest is named ‘Kathleen’. I got it from a combination of Lady Chance’s name and my moms.
But we call her ‘Kate’. There have been five other variants on ‘Kaitlyn’ that are her age…but none of them go by ‘Kate’.
And the youngest one we named ‘Gwen’. Nice, unusual and with luck will stay that way.
I was named after my grandfather’s middle name, Andrew. It’s a great name, never unusual, and never trendy, always just there in the background.
I have no idea what I would ever name my kids, other than possibly naming one of the boys James after my grandfather.
There are many reasons I pronounce “Kaitlin” the way it looks like it should be pronounced in American English (Kate-lin), not least of which is that is what my parents named me. I like the name “Kathleen” a lot but that’s not my name.
I’ve also heard that it’s pronounced “coith-leen,” which just sounds jarring to me (as does “cot-leen”). There are many things I’m anal about, but the original pronunciation of “Kaitlin” is not one of them. 
Our oldest girls name was in the top 20 when she was born and may actually fall out of the top 100 in the next couple years. Youngest daughters name didn’t make the top 1000 till 4 years after she was born. It’s getting more popular every year, but still a long way from the top.
Current rankings
Amber (74)
Harmony (592)
Elizabeth (my name) is always in or near the top ten. I have only known a few and most of those went by Beth, Liz or some other nickname. I always go by Elizabeth and I think that’s pretty rare.
My son’s name, Charles, was ranked 50 the year he was born, but we don’t know any other Charles or Charlies.
Both names are those classic, never trendy, but never obscure types of names.
Fiveyearlurker, I think I know what name you’re thinking of; if I’m right, it’s the same name my wife and I have picked out for any potential girl we may have. However, we’re thinking of using a slightly less common, but not weird, variant spelling that’s still outside the top 300 in popularity. Maybe you can do the same, and keep the same basic name whil still giving your daughter that little trace of uniqueness?
I visited some friends who had a metaphysical shop at the flea market. They had a stand of bumper stickers, like “Ankh if you love Isis” etc. One sticker was labeled “Kali - A Necessary Evil”.
Pronounced Kal-ee right?
This woman saw the sticker and started laughing. She brings her daughter over to see it, and the girl stuck out her lower lip and pouted. Her name was Kali as in Kay-lee. I doubt her mom knew that Kali was the Hindu goddess of murder.
We had the identical experience, and went ahead and named her that.
The first shock was when we found out that the character in the historical romance was not just beautiful, romantic, heroic, but also a bit of a courtesan.
At which point we pretended that we’d never heard of the book.
Fortunately, that connection died out before she went to school.
But instead the name was becoming popular.
Then it became referenced a couple of times with dumb models.
And then it became respectable again when a couple of starlets with talent had the name.
And now it is just like any other name.
The life cycle of name.
And through it all she never cared or noticed.
But if we’d picked one of the names popular when I was a girl, like Fanny, she would never have gotten over it.
As a 27 year old Colin, I’d like to put forth this plea: Don’t go with Collin. For every person that names their child Collin, that’s another person I’ll meet that will pronounce my name wrong. “Well it doesn’t have two L’s, it MUST be colon!” Colin Powell isn’t helping, either, but that’s another thread.
Normally, alternate spellings of names don’t bother me, but this one actually affects the way people pronounce my name so it annoys me. If you’d like to hear more, I can show you about 300 other guys who feel the same in the “Colins Unite!” group on Myspace.com
This is my youngest nephew’s middle name. My mother was ticked when I told his older siblings about Kali.
My brother has one named Lilith and one named Kali. And he DOES know their origins.
I figure he deserves everything they hand him in their teenage years! 
So Collin and Colin are pronounced the same? If so, tell them the second ‘l’ is silent. That’ll slow down those mouthbreathers!
(And we got the blessings of my 92 Year old Full Scottish Grandfather to name my son Collin. Just don’t spell his last name with a ‘p’ - Thomson)
Names sure can be a funny thing to people. I hated that my first and last initials were the same.
Be Careful what you mention out loud. My Wife was a triplet, her Mom was a Twin, and I was bad at Math. We just wanted a ‘perfect girl’…ended up with two boys (Great, wonderful, trying boys).
Never was the phrase “and lookie what we have over here” uttered with such emotional impact than when we got that first Ultrasound.
When I was a child, no one that knew me knew anyone else with my first name.
When I hit HS, I started hearing about all these babies being born that were given my name.
Now, between the two variant spellings it’s been in the top 10 names for girls and is probably consistently in the top 50. And if I meet someone with the same name, they are always at least 13 years younger than me.
That’s funny… my very good friends have 8-month-old twins (to whom I’m very close) named Sophia and Aiden.
Anyhow, I have a 29-year-old cousin named Caitlin (pronounced kate-lin). Poor thing. Her 33-year-old sister is named Meagan, which I don’t think I’ve ever encountered anywhere else.
We went for uncommon, but not unusual. as of 2003, they’re 431, 72 (boys) and 483 (girl).
But dang if there ain’t another 431 and 72 in our neighborhood. That’s O.K., though just one other is a kind of validation.
That would be Bennett, Owen and Janelle
That’s funny… my nieces are Caitlin and Meghan. Younger than your cousins, but the same names.
Shows what I know. I didn’t know which was the variant and I always assumed it was the one with one L, not two, since I’ve noticed more Collins than Colins.