# Should you give your baby a unique name? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 7, 2022, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017 "2022-02-07T00:36:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/181 "2022-02-25T16:55:37Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > then my Dutch friend shattered everything by telling me it’s actually pronounced something akin to Ffon Hyoch. \< clears throat \> ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2022, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/182 "2022-02-25T17:53:43Z")
Exactly! ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2022, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/183 "2022-02-25T19:32:35Z")
Yeah, for the longest time, if I saw that someone was named Emma, I’d assume they were either a Brit or really old. Some names stay popular in particular ethnic groups though. For example, my mom’s name was Irene and she had a sister named Martha (plus 5 other sibs), and I didn’t know anyone named either name except Latinas. Marta/Martha and Irene/Irena were quite popular names for even young Latinas. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2022, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/184 "2022-02-25T20:06:48Z")
Rather than try to hew too strongly to one side or the other, we tried to give our kids options. Because we have our views of the issue, but our kids views of the same issue could be very different. Neither of my parents go by their given first name, but found it upsetting when I changed mine. Go figure. My son has a name that is very familiar, and for the past 120 years has stayed around the 200th most popular name. So, not super popular, but solidly familiar. He has a very unusual middle name for the US, but one that is amenable to a nickname that is a very common name. He goes by a short form of his first name. My daughter’s name is extremely popular in another country, but virtually unheard of here. In 2020, there were only around 300 kids given the name. It had never entered the top 1000 before 2019. But, it has a nickname that’s in the top 30. She also has a familiar but not common middle name. She currently goes by the super common nickname, and regularly meets other kids with the same name. If she tires of that, she’ll have options. All of the names are easy enough to pronounce. (Two of them might require a little help on the first try, but no one has had persistent trouble.) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2022, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/185 "2022-02-26T05:16:03Z")
Options are good. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2022, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/186 "2022-02-26T10:33:32Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > At least his parents didn’t name him [Salmon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_P._Chase). There were a bunch of people whose r parents didn’t name them salmon, so [they changed it themselves](https://www.intrafish.com/salmon/taiwanese-are-changing-their-name-to-salmon-to-get-free-sushi-and-the-government-isnt-happy-about-it/2-1-989968) For my daughter, we were able to get something that worked in Japanese, Chinese and English, but we couldn’t for my son, so he has both an English name which is uses in Japanese as well, and his Chinese name. My daughter’s name is uncommon, but easy to spell and my son’s isn’t as common now but also not old fashioned or unheard of. It’s still in the top 200. We gave our daughter a very common middle name to balance out the uncommon first name. She likes both names so it worked out. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/187 "2022-02-28T23:27:32Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > If a fascination with Victorian England develops, we could be seeing males increasingly named Ezra, Jasper, Lionel and Zebediah. Girl babies could increasingly be blessed with Clementine, Dorcas and Cordelia. Victorian names have been popular for about twenty years in the UK. Apart from Lionel and Clementine. none of those would stand out as an unusual name for anyone between 0-25 in the UK. I know a Jasper and Clementine and have met tons of little and not-so-little Zebediahs. The one stand-out thing in British naming culture right now is really really short names. You get the occasional very long name - again, Zebediah wouldn’t stand out - but it would be more common to meet a Zeb. > **[These are officially the most popular baby names in the UK right now](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/body/a26971152/most-popular-baby-names/)** > > Looking for baby name inspiration? We've got you covered! Apart from Mohammed, you have to go a fair way down to find a name that would stand out on a WWI war memorial. A couple do really stand out - interestingly enough more among the boys’ names - but it’s not a lot out of 100. I remember some Americans laughing about Prince Harry and Meghan’s son being named Archie, but his name isn’t in the list because of them, really, it was already very popular here. (Cosmo got their list from the Office For National Statistics, which I know because I’ve seen it - anyone can, but it’s not a link that’s as easy to see the top 100 for this year at a glance from as the Cosmo link). ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/188 "2022-03-01T00:54:25Z")
I meant to say “apart from Lionel and Cordelia…” ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/189 "2022-03-01T01:07:24Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > “ Today, you excel not by fitting in, but by standing out. “Parents are thinking about naming kids more like how companies think about naming products, which is a kind of competitive marketplace where you need to be able to get attention to succeed,” Wattenberg told me. And whether or not parents nowadays choose a name with an eye toward its Google-ability, search engines and social media have certainly changed the way they think about the value (or the downsides) of having a name that is different from that of other internet users. I doubt what you name your child has a significant impact on their success in life. If their parents are middle class then Zorn Smith will probably also grow up to be middle class. Apple Martin (Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter) would likely not be any more or less successful at life were she named Susan or Marcia. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/190 "2022-03-01T02:58:57Z")
That is probably true for the child of a famous person. It may well be true in general. But not everyone or every parent has that perception, and that is the basis of the article. If there is an effect it is probably indirect. And it probably no longer makes as big a difference as it once did. But there are certainly many times it has. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2022, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/191 "2022-03-01T04:58:09Z")
I named my son, born in '99, “Walker”. The name just came to me driving home from work not long before he was born; I got home and asked my wife if “Walker” was a name. She agreed it was, and not a bad choice, so we went with that. It suits him and he’s 23 now. This was a couple years before GWB was named president of the US. 🤯 Darned kid walked at 9 months. 🤦‍♂️ Next kid (there won’t be a next kid) will be named Sleeper. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/192 "2022-03-08T12:39:33Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > (Cosmo got their list from the Office For National Statistics, which I know because I’ve seen it - anyone can, but it’s not a link that’s as easy to see the top 100 for this year at a glance from as the Cosmo link). Speaking of Cosmo, I saw a plaque referencing this former Archbishop of York recently: > **[Cosmo Gordon Lang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmo_Gordon_Lang)** > > William Cosmo Gordon Lang, 1st Baron Lang of Lambeth, GCVO, GCStJ, PC (31 October 1864 – 5 December 1945) was a Scottish Anglican prelate who served as Archbishop of York (1908–1928) and Archbishop of Canterbury (1928–1942). His elevation to Archbishop of York, within 18 years of his ordination, was the most rapid in modern Church of England history. As Archbishop of Canterbury during the abdication crisis of 1936, he took a strong moral stance, his comments in a subsequent broadcast being wid... Not sure if Kramer brought the name back into fashion, but apparently there were real Cosmo’s out there. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/193 "2022-03-09T04:19:53Z")
I’ve seen Ezra, Jasper, Clementine, and Dorcas for baby names in my area in recent years. There’s a 30-something woman in my apartment building named Bertha, which was my grandmother’s name, but my neighbor is definitely Hispanic and probably Puerto Rican, so that name wasn’t so unusual there. ---
**Author:** ![frognot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frognot/32/8752_2.png) [@frognot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frognot)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2022, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/194 "2022-05-11T13:03:00Z")
I worked in a NICU for 32 years and random apostrophes were called “up top commas” by most parents that use them when naming their baby. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2022, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/195 "2022-05-11T18:48:40Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > There’s a 30-something woman in my apartment building named Bertha, which was my grandmother’s name, but my neighbor is definitely Hispanic and probably Puerto Rican, so that name wasn’t so unusual there. Yeah, a know a ton of Latinas who have what are often considered old-fashioned names (Martha, Helen, and, yes, Bertha). ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/196 "2022-05-12T01:09:54Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > In the UK, we pronounce the painter Van Goff, so I was surprised to hear that in the US it’s Van Go, and then my Dutch friend shattered everything by telling me it’s actually pronounced something akin to Ffon Hyoch. According to a couple of documentaries I’ve watched, he started signing his paintings Vincent because everybody was mispronouncing his last name. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/197 "2022-05-12T03:03:56Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Yeah, a know a ton of Latinas who have what are often considered old-fashioned names (Martha, Helen, and, yes, Bertha). That’s funny, because in the UK Helen is a name that is not in the same generation as Martha and Bertha at all. Bertha and Martha are very much born before 1930 or born after 2000 names, but Helen is such a common name for people born in the 70s and 80s that they end up being called things like Tall Helen to differentiate from the other Helens. I think our Helens may be your Heathers. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/198 "2022-05-12T15:18:28Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I think our Helens may be your Heathers. LOL. It’s always interesting to see which names catch on and which don’t. And, I can’t believe I forgot! Another more common “old-fashioned” name among Latina women I know is Irene. And that was my mom’s name. Durr. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/199 "2022-05-12T15:42:35Z")
My name isn’t quite creative: it’s an anglicized foreign name (for which there was already a common English equivalent, but oh well). It conforms 100% to English spelling rules, and yet gives people no end of trouble. The most common assumption seems to be that it’s a creative spelling, so people ignore my pronunciation and go with what feels right to them. For an equivalent, think “Mare.” People insist on correcting it to “Mary” or “Marie,” when it’s really a badly anglicized “Maria.” But it is in fact “Mare” and while that should be very easy for an English speaker to manage, it’s not. I was really pleased to have a student yesterday introduce herself with her Chinese name, including a sound not made in English and a tone. It will take me a while to learn it, but I’ll do it: I’d so much rather have a Wü¹ (not the real name) called Wü¹ than a Wü¹ who feels compelled to call themselves “Roderick” for my benefit. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/200 "2022-05-12T17:22:06Z")
I’m seeing a lot of throw back names in little kids this year. Evelyn, Karen (!!) Jane, Billy, Henry, David, Robert,Temperance, Claire, Charlotte, Emma, Ella, Fiona, Barnaby, Clifford, Camille, Vivian and Alice. But then there’s also the imaginative Sturlyng, Izyk, Icesis, Rocklyn, Kenzleigh, Vail, Zyler. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017.md?page=11)