Unusual names are good....

Some objections make me go: huh?

Wow. You object to the sound of its translation? I find myself wondering if you refuse to eat potatoes (pommes de terre) too.

This I knew about:

Yeah. And there’s the freaky woman who just goes by “Tempest”–used to be on Howard Stern, I think. That’s one of two big reasons to toss “Tempest”–the other being that it suggests a chaotic or destructive personality.

Ok, since no one seems to like the name Echo for a girl, I must voice my opinion that I absolutely love it. It’s so pretty…I remember it from a novel I read, “Ready, Set…Ok”. Anyhow, kids make fun of everyone’s name as someone pointed out, so one might as well pick out an original one that YOU like.

Love Echo, mut remember that one.

I’m not doing this to make fun of your choice of names, but to point out how other kids will make fun of your kid’s name if you name her Boadicea. See this thread. That’s the first thought I had when I saw that name. What you find lyrical and filled with meaningful classical context, kids will find as a target to harass your child.

I grew up with a relatively uncommon name: Libby. Not too bad, until that damned company started that “If it says Libbys, Libbys, Libbys on the label, label, label” ad campaign. It drove me nuts for years starting around 5th grade. (And would you believe my friggin’ gynecologist started singing that to me last time I went in for a check-up?)

I also felt sort of cheated as a child because other kids could get all sorts of personalized items, but they never made pencils, lunch bags, etc. with “Libby” on them. Ahh, the scars of never having had a personalized toothbrush…

Also, consider that you may be condemning your child to never having her name spelled (let alone pronounced correctly.) I won all sorts of awards during my school years. I estimate that my name was spelled correctly on fewer than 30% of them. “Libby” became “Libbie”; “Lib” became “Liz” or “Liv”; when they used my full name, they generally spelled my middle name “Ann” when it should have been “Anne”; and my last name also had a common variant spelling that was used just as often as the correct one. Awards just don’t mean quite as much to you when the people giving them don’t give a damn enough about you to bother to spell your name correctly.

Just a few thoughts from an unconventionally named kid…

I know lots of Libbys, so I never thought of it as an unusual name. They did get the “Libby’s, Libby’s Libby’s” thing a lot, though. :frowning:

I also know the pain of never having anything with my name on it, unless it was special-ordered. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of life, but when you’re 8 and EVERYONE has stuff with their name on it that was easily picked up in the drug store, it hurts.

I have a friend named Anne, and she really hates when she gets “Ann.” If she says, “Anne, with an e” she (sometimes) gets weird looks and then gets it spelled “Enn.” And some people think she’s the weird one for having an ‘e’ on the end!
Of course, that’s just basic stupidity. My daughter’s name is Sarah, and she gets “Sara” a lot. Some people are truly amazed to find out you can spell it with an ‘h’ on the end. If she says, “Sarah, with an h” they usuallly get it, but one time I did that and got “Shara”. Once, I even got “Sahara.”

As mentioned earlier, I got called Kimberly or Lindsey a lot. Spelling was usually okay, once they actually remembered my name, since it’s pretty much spelled like it sounds.