I disagree.
My child has an unusual name because I thought it was a beautful and unique name and I didn’t see any reason to go along with the crowd and give her a name that dozens of other children would have.
My whole family has unusual names, and I think they’re all rather beautiful. I wouldn’t call it attention-seeking behavior on the part of my grandparents, parents, or myself.
I’ll take that into consideration, actually. The names aren’t bad for adults, but for a little girl, they’re dull. However, since they eventually become adults anyway, I guess that point is moot. 
If we do end up using one as a first name, I think I prefer Susan. If it’s a boy, then I’m off the hook. He’ll be named Robert John, after my father and my husband, respectively.
I always wonder what a little baby Dagmar looks like. It’s a perfectly normal grown up name, but for a baby it seems odd. I dunno - I still like the name though.
Argh! :smack: That is exactly where so many people go wrong! Little LaBeautamé will be a “little girl” for about 15 per cent of her life. For the remaining 85%, she will be saddled with a ridiculous and inappropriate name.
I’m at school today. In my class, at this very instant are: Rainey (girl), Winter (girl), Sunshine (girl), Stoney (boy) and Tristan (boy.) Tristan has told me before he got teased about his name “a lot” when he was younger. He’s 14 now. :rolleyes: Not sarcastic, just eye rolling as in “can you believe this crap?”
I have an unusual name for the culture I live in. I used to hate it, but then I grew up! I think different names are nice, I’d hate to be JOhn or Mary. Apologies if you are John or Mary.
You must have missed the sentence immediately following the one you quoted, in which I said: “However, since they eventually become adults anyway, I guess that point is moot.”
Unless you were just speaking about other people who use that logic, then ignore this post.
LOL - I’ve got a Celtic name, too. But it’s because I’m celtic 
‘Ciarah’ is a misspelling. But of ‘Ciara’. ‘Keira’ (which I’m presuming you’re alluding to) is the real bastardisation, now presumed to be the ‘correct’ spelling by many people, thanks to Miss Knightley.
(And it’s one of the names I was thinking of when I mentioned wrong pronunciation, after hearing an American Ciara call herself “See-ar-rah”. :dubious:
Stoney: doomed to the life of the Big Lebowski
People get annoyed with me at work when I ask them to spell their name. I don’t care if your name is Mary, I’m going to ask you to spell it because of all the idiot parents who misspell their children’s names.
I guess I’m one of those people - I’m having a baby next month and we’re naming him Zayden. Yes, I know it’s weird. No, I’m not changing it. No, I didn’t make it up.
We’re giving him a normal dull middle name that he can switch to if we have truely burdened him but I just like the name. It’s a little weird like his parents, easy to pronounce, and flows well with the rest of his name.
Am I heading for a huge mistake and just don’t see it?
It’s a fine line. I’m Amy Lynn (like SO many other girls in the late 70s/early 80s), and while I’d love a more exotic name, mine has never attracted much attention. I think unusual names are okay, but names that sound made up (like Zayden) are just asking for trouble.
I met a Dagmar the other day. I didn’t know that it was a woman’s name (glad I didn’t say anything). She seemed perfectly normal, but for all I know she likes to put on Viking horns and sing opera in her room. 
I think that’s objectionable. Just because a name is unusual or from an unfamiliar culture doesn’t excuse any ‘trouble’ it causes. (My name would probably look ‘made up’ to many people. But it’s not.)
(And FWIW, Zayden sounded neither familiar nor odd to me - I had to Google to find out its origin, but I wouldn’t have thought twice about it if I’d seen it on paper in a normal context.)
Now, what would make you do something like that, Rez? I think you need to look deeeeep inside yourself and think just what that might be…Hmmmm…
taps chin
…What could it be? What could it be? Could it be…ZAYDEN?!!
I mean…SATAN?!!
ach…I never did do a very good church lady impression.
Hee - yes, we’ve already had the bystander say “Did you say you were going to name your child Satan!?!?!” To which I replied. “Yes. Yes we are. We are devout Satanists and thought it was the best way to repay the favor of conception.”
It’s gotten to where it doesn’t even seem weird to me or my friends or workmates anymore.
But between Zayden, Keaton, Joshua and James, James seems the most left out. (It’s a mix of step and half brothers. We’re like the Brady Bunch with only boys.)
Which one is Marsha?
As a Jennifer, I can certainly appreciate the desire to come up with an original name.
It’s just that you have to avoid the pitfalls. Like for example, in Oakland, it seems that many, many people gave their daughters names ending in -eeka or -eesha. As in Tamika, Monika, Shireesha, Taneesha, Clonika, Moneesha, etc. You get the picture. While technically these names are original, in reality they are about as original as Jennifer spelled with one “n”. That is to say, not really original at all.
Same with names like Caitlin. And Savannah. They seem original, but when you look more closely, you realize they’re actually just trendy. At one point just a few years ago, I knew three Savannahs all born within the same year. I was convinced that “Savannah” is the “Jennifer” of the future.
So go ahead and name your kid something original, but exercise caution.
The bizarre spellings just for the sake of being different really aren’t doing the kids any favor. I write kids’ books, and when I do a book signing, I am often asked to personalize the books. You’d be amazed how many grandparents ask each other, “how do they spell that?” I have to wonder how many kids are getting personalized presents with their names spelled wrong.
I know some names have a lot of variant spellings (Aron, Aaron, Erin…), but making up strange new spellings of common names (Soo, Dav, Aimie…) just causes trouble for the kids.
My name is Christina. Perhaps you aren’t aware, but it is neither new: Queen Christina of Sweden nor uncommon (in 1960s when I was born it was the 75th most popular name). By the way, despite this, I have spent my life being called Christine, having my name spelled Kristine. I love my name, and like it a lot better than Christine, but its been a pain in the ass.
I don’t much care for made up names, but I think it’s mostly because they aren’t crafted very well, and just sound hideously ugly to my ears. Some real names irritate me, too, so it’s not a specific beef with their “fake” nature. Inglebert? Ruprecht? Gaylord? These are very real names I’d never give my kid.
Tolkien made up a lot of names that I find quite euphonious, but they’re completely the product of his imagination. It’s an aesthetic thing, for me.