# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/21 "2022-02-07T04:47:42Z")
I have a “classic” name that is not only in the Bible, but has two common spellings - and a plethora of uncommon spellings. It never fails to amaze me how people can bungle it. When I was in college, I wrote a letter to People magazine that they printed - and they spelled both my first and last names wrong! That’s why I didn’t, like, tell everyone I knew about it, and buy 10 copies for my mother at the same time. ---
**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 7, 2022, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/22 "2022-02-07T04:58:29Z")
I have an uncommon first name. It’s uncommon enough that if you Google my full name, you find me, and not much else, even though my last name is extremely common. That has advantages and disadvantages. I get really pissed by review sites that want to list me by first-name-last-initial. I would prefer being able to leave a semi-anonymous review. I mean, if they made everyone give a recognizable name, maybe I’d be okay with it, but i really hate being the only person in the site who is required to publish a completely recognizable name. On the other hand, if an old friend ever wants to get back in touch with me, they’ll succeed. My first name gives baristas enough trouble that i always use my last name. (Which is common and easy.) ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/23 "2022-02-07T05:24:57Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > But if you are called Featheringstonehaugh or Siobhan, and someone mispronounces your name; why the anger? This confuses me. It always has. Probably because a lot of people don’t bother trying. I used to have a work colleague named Jacques, sounds a bit like Shark. It was embarrassing the number of people who just refused to pronounce it correctly when they new damn well how to pronounce it. “Jacks”, “Jackees”, “Sharkes” etc. IMO it is the most basic level of courtesy to at least attempt to say someone’s name correctly. Inevitably people who do try but fail may get mistaken for those who don’t bother trying. Worse is when people don’t spell your name correctly when the correct spelling is _right there in the email signature_. My name isn’t unusual but there are two different “standard” spellings plus a bunch of non-standard spellings. I once had to write a letter to HR because somehow the incorrect spelling of my name had made it into the HR system and it was taking over, like a virus. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/24 "2022-02-07T05:30:52Z")
> [@susan](#): > > I always have to spell my surname, so what do I care if I also have to spell my first name? I have to spell my surname because it is unusual. I would like to be asked how to spell my first name, but no one does because they think they know how to spell it. Ironically when I spell it out for them, they look at me and say, that’s an unusual spelling. No it isn’t fucktard, you just don’t know how to spell a common name and you don’t even know you don’t know how to spell it, so you don’t bother checking or asking. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/25 "2022-02-07T05:44:34Z")
I say good wild, but always have an easily pronounced and spelled nickname on standby. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/26 "2022-02-07T06:21:12Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > My only issue with unique name is the curse of always having to spell and/or pronounce it. I had a coworker once whose surname was Stoeckeniusillspellthatforyou. I heard him identify himself on the phone that way many many times. He always introduced himself as Stoeckeniusillspellthatforyou. ---
**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 7, 2022, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/27 "2022-02-07T08:40:01Z")
Eh, my name is hard to pronounce, i just correct people. Unless you get it wrong several times you won’t offend me. Life’s too short. Ironically, my name was easy to spell until spell-check. If you make the obvious guess you are right. But since my name isn’t in the dictionary, software routinely “corrects” it to something that is. I just keep changing it in correspondence until they get it right. I almost never bother to say anything. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/28 "2022-02-07T11:22:39Z")
Right—leaving aside the intricacies of making up a completely unique name from scratch, if people cannot be bothered to try to spell or pronounce a bog-standard Arabic or Irish or Chinese or Spanish name, that is firmly their fault. If I am not sure how to spell or say someone’s name, I will politely ask them. As for making up names from scratch, there should be more of an art to it than concatenating syllables randomly. If you do it, IMO do it well. ---
**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:** [February 7, 2022, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/29 "2022-02-07T11:47:47Z")
The discussion about naming our child was long and complicated. We wanted to give her a name that: - Was an actual human name - Reflected our family heritage, but - Wasn’t a name anyone else in the family had - Was easy to spell/pronounce - Wasn’t an immediate class identifier (i.e. didn’t automatically peg her as posh, working class, etc) Quite happy with the result, although I’ve since discovered that it’s a name that has gone out of fashion in the Old Country (as it were). There’s a Famous Person with that name (we didn’t name her after the FP - I mean, they seem nice but I’m not specifically naming my child after a celebrity) and we’ve encountered a few others, but it’s pretty rare. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/30 "2022-02-07T11:47:49Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > if people cannot be bothered to try to spell or pronounce a bog-standard Arabic or Irish or Chinese or Spanish name, that is firmly their fault. You are wildly overestimating the intelligence and education level of the average person. I’m on the extreme end of language facility and I struggle with Irish names every time, since they are not spelled with the slightest concession to English pronunciation conventions. How they get neeve out of Niamh, or seersha out of Saoirse remains mysterious to me. They are, to me, only possible to remember by not looking at the spelling at all, but memorizing the sound. ---
**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:** [February 7, 2022, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/31 "2022-02-07T11:49:59Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > I’m on the extreme end of language facility and I struggle with Irish names every time, since they are not spelled with the slightest concession to English pronunciation conventions. How they get neeve out of Niamh, or seersha out of Saoirse remains mysterious to me. They are, to me, only possible to remember by not looking at the spelling at all, but memorizing the sound. I have a friend whose name is “Kirsten”. It’s pronounced “Shasteen”. Apparently this is a thing. ---
**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 7, 2022, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/32 "2022-02-07T11:55:28Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I have a friend whose name is “Kirsten”. It’s pronounced “Shasteen”. Apparently this is a thing. - Look what Raymond Luxury-Yacht goes through. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/33 "2022-02-07T12:17:40Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > My own opinion is that names should be easy to pronounce and easy to spell. If they’re not easy to spell, e.g., Niamh, then they should follow the traditional spelling so that someone looking for the spelling has some kind of authoritative source other than some hipster parent’s unique version. > > There’s someone at work called Thywillbedone. I think that is an incredibly cruel thing to do to a child. > > Edit: I don’t know Thywillbedone, he may have had a perfectly good childhood, but I think his parents did him no favours at all by giving him that name. My name is Swedish/Finnish. Marita. My parents gave it to me because they heard it while visiting her friends in Finland, where she grew up. They meant for the Finnish pronunciation - MAR-ih-tah, more or less. They gave up and went with Mah-REE-tah fairly early on. It’s **phonetic** but I get told “oh, it’s too hard to pronounce”. " It’s too hard to remember “. " I’ll just call you Rita; it’s easier”. And **no**. You can learn my name, you lazy ass. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/34 "2022-02-07T12:49:40Z")
Back in the 60’s I grew up with two kids name Tiger and Beaver. Tiger was a cool and unusual name back then for a boy, a strong name. It was cruel to name his sister Beaver as she received much inappropriate sexual innuendo about her name from an early age. She eventually married a guy named Catfish. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/35 "2022-02-07T12:58:34Z")
Like I said, I have had to ask people to repeat their names. I do not think it was too awkward. I definitely do not know every conceivable language nor am sure to parse the name correctly the first time they introduce themselves or I see it written down. I do not see it as a matter of high or low education level; in my case I honestly do not want to mispronounce the person’s name (it’s pretty embarrassing when that happens!) ETA as for Irish, I think the _Scottish_ names seem to be less spelling-reformed, so you get your Leagsaidh, Bhioctoria, Buaidheach, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/36 "2022-02-07T13:09:02Z")
You can simplify this by saying that _Gaelic_ names do not conform to English spelling or pronunciation. Whether Irish or Scots Gaelic. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/37 "2022-02-07T13:11:46Z")
I also think it’s not reasonable to expect someone to use the foreign language pronunciation in the country language. My last name has a Polish pronunciation. We decided to go with an English pronunciation (there are various that are possible) before I was born. Pronouncing it in Polish sounds a bit out-of-place in the middle of an English sentence. Honestly, to me it sounds wrong pronouncing my Polish name in Polish when speaking English, but I guess that’s also to do with what I’m used to. So we go with whatever attempt the person makes at our last name, though we’ll give our particular Anglicization the first time. I don’t particularly care if the first syllable comes out as “POE” or “PAW” or “PAH”. It does sometime irk me when an “L” gets put into the pronunciatoin or spelling, because, for the life of me, I don’t know where that comes from , but it’s common enough. I guess they want to make the first syllable “Paul,” but they’ll spell it “Pawl”, so they’re mostly right and just throwing in an intrusive “l.” But, yeah, I know most people do care, but I don’t give a shit how you say my name as long as it’s in the ballpark. My names takes interesting forms abroad, as well, and it don’t bother me none. ---
**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 7, 2022, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/38 "2022-02-07T13:20:45Z")
I’m also in the “it’s ridiculous to expect random strangers to understand how to pronounce your name” category. Yes, if someone i regularly interact with doesn’t make an effort, that would offend me. And i agree that it’s completely unreasonable to make up a nickname for someone else because you can’t be arsed to say three syllable. But if someone who doesn’t know me guesses my name wrong, i just correct them and move on. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/39 "2022-02-07T13:30:30Z")
The uniqueness of unique names is considerably diminished when just about everyone has them. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017/40 "2022-02-07T14:58:27Z")
Unique can be OK, but don’t spell it like you’re illiterate or throw in random apostrophes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-you-give-your-baby-a-unique-name/959017.md?page=3)