# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/201 "2022-05-12T23:31:17Z")
Some children are named Uniquaa ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/202 "2022-05-12T23:52:54Z")
I recently had an Instacart driver named Unique. (Yes, it was spelled conventionally, like the actual English word.) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2022, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/203 "2022-05-13T07:49:38Z")
I think the European countries that have lists of approved names are heading in the right direction. It should be simple and free to get new names onto the list e.g. foreign names. But the various weirdnesses that are all about the parents, not the kid, shouldn’t be allowed. > [@eschrodinger](#): > > I’m not sure about the other Scandinavian countries The Danish pronunciation is closer to the English than the other Scandinavian ones (unless you were excluding Denmark from “Scandinavian”) but even _that_ has a slight _kh_- rather than _k_- quality to it. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2022, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/204 "2022-05-13T12:25:29Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Yeah, a know a ton of Latinas who have what are often considered old-fashioned names (Martha, Helen, and, yes, Bertha). To my ears, the Spanish pronunciations of Bertha and Martha is much prettier than the English. ---
**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 13, 2022, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/205 "2022-05-13T14:40:06Z")
Me, too! ---
**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:** [May 13, 2022, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/206 "2022-05-13T15:28:39Z")
Freedom - is the right to call your baby that. Don’t tread on me! Freeeeeedom! Freedumb. Freedledeedom. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2022, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/207 "2022-05-13T16:38:07Z")
Not a big fan of the /th/ sound, huh? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2022, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/208 "2022-05-15T03:59:52Z")
My post from a related thread of the days of yore. > [@Weird, pretentious, or bizarre names...](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-pretentious-or-bizarre-names/696566/43): > > A writer’s first name is “Icess”. [Here’s how she “explained” it to someone](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/04/starbucks-write-names-correctly?commentpage=1). > > > [@](#): > > > > “I-c-e-s-s. You know like the goddess, but spelled like ice”, I explained. > > > > > “What?” she asked again. > > > > > > Maybe she needed another reference. Here’s a popular one: “The cartoon? Oh, Mighty Isis?” > > > > > > Silence and a farrowed eyebrow. > > Actually, “Icess” looks like “female ice” to me. > > And what the heck is a “farrowed eyebrown”? Maybe she meant “furrowed brow”. Some writer. > > It’s one thing to have a “creative” name. It’s quite another to blame other people’s difficulty with it on THEM. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2022, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/209 "2022-05-16T20:45:42Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > I named my son, born in '99, “Walker”. The name just came to me driving home from work. I had a car like that once. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/210 "2022-05-17T22:19:32Z")
I used to be a substitute teacher, and one girl was so pleased that I pronounced her name, “Siobhan”, correctly. (I knew how to pronounce it from a soap opera character. I did not tell her that.) ---
**Author:** ![mtnmatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@mtnmatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mtnmatt)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/211 "2022-05-17T22:34:20Z")
I had friend in high school who was > [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > I used to be a substitute teacher, and one girl was so pleased that I pronounced her name, “Siobhan”, correctly. (I knew how to pronounce it from a soap opera character. I did not tell her that.) I had a friend in HS who was about to leave for her first year of college and was very concerned that she had been stuck with some “weird foreigner” as a roommate, due to a name she couldn’t pronounce. Fortunately I (a year older) had encountered a Siobhan at my college and assured my friend that her future roommate was likely from the same background as everyone else she knew. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/212 "2022-05-17T23:35:44Z")
> [@mtnmatt](#): > > I had a friend in HS who was about to leave for her first year of college and was very concerned that she had been stuck with some “weird foreigner” as a roommate, due to a name she couldn’t pronounce. Fortunately I (a year older) had encountered a Siobhan at my college and assured my friend that her future roommate was likely from the same background as everyone else she knew. I would be more concerned that her reaction to possibly having a roommate of a different background wasn’t pleased excitement or even mild interest, but upset at the idea of having to room with someone not just like herself. One of the benefits of going to a live-in college is that one gets to live with people different from the ones they grew up with. ---
**Author:** ![mtnmatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@mtnmatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mtnmatt)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2022, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/213 "2022-05-17T23:47:09Z")
Totally agree - but I cut her some slack as she was a 17-year old, and this was 40 years ago. I hated the homogeneity of my north east Jesuit university, especially after growing up in a really diverse place, for suburban NJ. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2022, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/214 "2022-05-24T19:25:38Z")
> [@mtnmatt](#): > > I hated the homogeneity of my north east Jesuit university My central MN Benedictine university seemed quite diverse to me (coming from a small south central MN town (where ever other Christmas there was a Black man (married to a local girl) in church), due to its pipeline of students from Bermuda. Still a tiny percentage, but way more then I was used to being around. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017.md?page=10)