General Chat

HI HERES A FEW FROM MY FAMILY WITH GIRLS DARCY KENNEDY CODIE DEVON KIRBY SAVANNAH KERRIE KADYLEIGH BROGAN SHAWNA ISLA TIA TO NAME BUT THE FEW I CAN THINK OF AS DIFFERENT

Same subject, different sex. Just seen on the telly; a young woman in our region has just had a boy, is calling him Rooney (thought about calling him Wayne Rooney, but decided against that). No comment! Carol's friend could always find out where the little girl was conceived (viz. Brooklyn Beckham, Rome(o) Beckham)...and take it from there......mind boggling or what? Brian

hi carol..a woman after my own heart lol i love listening to what people call their children.im called cherie(pronounced sherree)like mrs blair i got cherry,sherry,sheryl,cheryl,cherry coke and hundreds more variations.My middle name is clair so i called myself that for a few years much to my parents disgust!!although neither call me cherie,i get chez or chezee.my point is i hated my name as 28 years ago it was unusual,i vowed to name my own children "normal"names but ended up with Natalia,(nat-nat,natty or nat)Mason(macey-moo,or mace) and Logan,(logie,logie-bear,or lowg)Which at the time were unusual..i gave them all normal middle names as being blessed as a clair proved helpful to me!!names i had in the past b4 i chose Natalia,include... Brogan,Nyla,karis,shayna,Tanisha,karsen,kia,kyla,Ardie,Dayna,Niela,and Harley.wish her all the best and let us know what she chooses.xx

i love the middle names my kids got, obviously, i wouldnt have called them by them otherwise. elouise and byron. my son has complained about byron since hes been small, only when i call him it. he shocked me recently by saying hed call his son frank or stan. i think he may have been pulling my leg as byron is after a mountain in the falklands, he once said thank god dad wasnt posted to stanley then, such a quick witted child.

Why not look back on her family tree (if she has one or borrow yours?) There are some lovely old names that have gone out of fashion now and would by todays standards be unusual. I wish I had done this when my children were born as I wanted names that were different for them. Noone wants to be one of many do they? we all want to show how special we are and your name is the first thing people often know about us. Perhaps though some of those old names should be best left alone, thinking of the poor daughter called 'Enough' and of course names like 'Fanny' and 'Gaye' Hope this helps, Penny

No one ever seems to like the names they are given!! I am Jillian (with a J) and only get called my full name by my family! Dont like it...rather be Jill. I love slightly unusual names and have a mixture for my children. Elliot - fairly unusual up in scotland Louise - fairly standard traditional name Finlay - this is the tricky one! Finlay is a girl and her name is a traditional scottish boys name! They all suit their names perfectly! I was also one that didnt particularly like the thought of their names being shortened, but.......they are Elli, Lou and Fin (amongst other nicknames!) I think that sometimes a really unusual name sounds daft if you have a plain surname, so I'd take that into account too. Please let us know what your friend ends up deciding to call her baby!! It will be interesting to see if indeed she opts for an unusual name! Jill x

My kids are Ian (which is rarely used, he gets Idge, Jonah or Joe - as our surname is Jones), Aimee (who is usually called Aims) and Luke (who I had to force myself to stop calling Lou-Lou when he went to nursery!!). I love the name Lucy and have made my eldest promise to call his first girl that! I also loved the name Bailey for a boy when I was having Luke, but my "better" half, was dead set against it. I don't usually listen to him, so I don't know why I did this time - must have been my hormones! Carol

I called my children by names that I thought could not be shortened. Jane and Mark. I call them Janie and Markie???? The grandchildren 1) Joel became Jo. 2) Jessica became Jess 3) Samuel - Sam 4) Jennifer - Jen 4) Sally is still Sally. Great granchild Caitlin to me became "ginger" ( for obvious reasons), but she has renamed herself Harry Potter and I am Ron. Point is how much love you can put into a name is what counts.

My name is Chloe (duh), and when I was born this was not a popular name. My parents got it from the bible for crying out loud!! No one could EVER spell it. I still have some people who can't spell it. My nana called me 'it' for the first year of my life in protest because she hated my name so much. I have had all types of spelling, Klowe, Cloe (a way of spelling it admittedly), the most common one is Chole.... doesn't even look like Chloe!!! Same with my surname, everyone spells it wrong, they assume it's 'Perrin' but it's not!! LOL. My aunt even put umlauts over the E or O.... I've told her countless times there's no need for it!! Having had that moan, I still want to name my child something different. If it's a boy I like Levi, Benjamin (normal), and Oliver (normal). If I have a girl I like Briseis, Lily-Grace (normal - but named after my two grandmothers), Eowyn, loads more but I forget most of the time!!! Chloe

My family used the name Medora a lot in the 19th century - it comes from a poem by Lord Byron called The Corsair - unusual, but pretty and not a 'made up' modern name. For what its worth I agree that children with weird names suffer at school - you know how cruel kids are. Unusual is fine, but you have to be careful not to go too far and name the child something that she will be teased or bullied over. Most of the children in my kids' classes with unusual names are either Asian or West Indian - and some of the West Indian children have VERY traditional 'English' names! I can't think of any who have a really shockingly weird name thank goodness! The most unusual I suppose are Cherry-Rose and Lucy-Anne. There are 3 girls called Paris in my son's year - most of the unusual names become fashionable, then they are not so unusual! Maz. XX

OK, here we go... I'm afraid I fall into the "normal" name category. I hate it when people make up their own spellings of names (sorry, I think Jaide falls into that, IT'S SPELT JADE lol). I'm quite the traditionalist lol Saying that, some of the above are nice, and my neice has just called her baby girl Taylor, which is usual but nice.

Sue I'm laughing when you said Iain can't be shortened. You've no idea how many Ian or Iain's I know that are known as Yan. Aileen you'll have to move up to Scotland, lots of Aileens up here. Christine

My children and grandchildren have fairly'normal' names (I think) but most names will get shortened or lengthened. Matthew (Matt or Mattie-Poos!) Kathryn (Katie or Kate, although Irish Grandmother-in-Law calls her Kitty!) Gemma Louise (Gemmy-Lou, Gems or Gem) & James (Jimbo or Jay). Grandchildren are Rebecca (Beck, Becky, Bex) Emma (called Ems or Emmy- Lou even though her name isn't Louise!) Abigail (Abbie or Abbs) & Owen (O). My brother's name is Iain (can't shorten that!) Kilpatrick, but he's always known as Killy! No matter what name you give a beautiful baby, it will almost always be changed by someone! I have been trying to think of any of my friends or relations who are always known by their birth name. I can't think of any apart from my Grandad who was christened Harry and always was Harry to everyone! Sue (Susan Ann) P.S. Just remembered a friend of my daughter is Christopher but always known as Crusty - poor boy!

I chose both of my children's names, Christopher and Elizabeth, so they at least had a choice of how they referred to themselves later - I've now got a Chris and a Libby. The variations are endless and they had many to choose from. But (there is always a but) the leader of the local YHA where Chris used to go as a young teen couldn't remember his name and called him 'Sid' and it stuck! His mates refer to him as Sid and Chris signs himself Sid if he contacts them - you can't win! Libby was also 'Sidette' for the same reason but fortunately for her it didn't stick lol

Unusual names don't have to be a problem, provided they can be pronounced! I've only ever met 2 other people with my name (pronounced Ayleen). All my life I've been called either Eileen or Elaine and having to correct people all the time is extremely frustrating so I really have grown to dislike my name! Aileenx

My mother wanted names that suited us and chose Abigail, and Saul and Gideon for my twin brothers. They suit us perfectly but my brothers' nicknames for one another are Sid and Basil. Mum gets very put out because if she had given them those names they would have used something else so you can't win. It is so difficult to give babies names. We struggled with both of ours and only named them after a week but I have to say getting to know them a bit first was a good idea as they both absolutely fit their names!! Abigail

I remember reading a few years ago that if you named your child with an unusual name, they stood out more at school and tended to do better??? I don't know the reasoning behind this. I had one friend who named her daughter La Toya and she was teased mercilessly for it. I named all my kids with pretty ordinary names, but what does annoy me is people shortening them. Son Darren often gets Daz, Nicola gets Nic or Nikki, daughter Kirsteen people always think its Kirsty or Kirsten and now my youngest Lewis, I hear his friends at nursery call him Lou or Lewy. Christine(Chris)Grrrr

You will never get everyone to agree on this one! My Grandchildren are called by 'old fashioned' names - Christopher, Jeremy,Gregory (shortened of course by friends to Chris, 'J' and Greg, James (called Jamie) and Sophie. My great nieces are called Leila, Emma and Leah. You need to be careful as to what they can be shortened or lengthened to. why are you finding names for your friend's baby? or does she just want ideas? Ann Glos

I do not want to offend anyone but I agree with Brian. My christian name is Lindzay, note the spelling. Not even the teachers at school could get it right or pronounce it correctly. I got teased something awful. I would never hurt my parents by changing my name. The day my baby sister turned twenty one she had her name, Nora-Lee Anne legally changed to just Lee. When her daughter was born she named her Storm. I could not believe it. My poor niece! My boys are called Daniel and David, common everyday names. Spelt the same in both Portuguese and English but pronounced differently. Each unto his own! Lindy:-))))

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