When Darin and I were looking for a name for our first child, we finally decided upon Sophia, because it means “wisdom,” because it’s beautiful, and because it’s not that common.
Well, two out of three ain’t bad.
Uncommon names aren’t so very much so anymore. The name Sophia is part of a trend towards old-fashioned feminine names — just today in the park there was a Sophie (of course), a Gabriella, and an Arabella. My niece Madeline is unlikely to be the only Madeline in her class.
There are quite a few Sophias out there, and even more Sophies. Fia gets called “Soph” and “Sophie” all the time; she usually stares at whoever’s calling her that until they use “Sophia.” The nickname Fia suits her so much — to me it speaks of being “defiant” and “fiery,” and reminiscent of the French word for proud, “fier.”
Boys don’t seem to have as wide a range of name choices. In Sophia’s preschool class there are two Maxes, and there are only 12 kids in the class. Max is over, okay? Same thing with Jack. Go to a playground, yell out “Jack!” and count how many kids turn around.
So far we haven’t run across too many Simons. In fact, so far: none. Well, except in Britain. Everyone who works on Teletubbies is evidently named Simon.
Some friends of mine named their boy Atticus, which is wonderful and unusual. Surprisingly, I have discovered three or four other Attici.
Today in the park there was also a boy named Seneca. A few years ago I knew a woman whose son was named Demetrius.
Other unusual names: I’ve met one girl named Symphony, a boy named Neo (I didn’t ask his mother whether she took that name from The Matrix or not), and a girl named Brontë, as in Charlotte, Anne, and/or Emily.
I have a friend whose stepson was named Ocean (I have since run into a few other Oceans) and whose son is Horizon. I thought Horizon was an odd name at the time, but you know what? Now I think it’s kind of neat. Also, they live in Northern California, where he’s less likely to get teased for that sort of thing.
There are several girls named Emerson. Where that is coming from I have no idea.
I like really unusual names. I realize this may not be a popular position. And I guess if a kid has a really weird name, then they’re open to teasing. But who can judge what a really weird name is?
There seems to be this school of thought that kids need “normal” names, like Anne or Jim. Joanne Jacobs says that she chose her daughter’s name “to avoid teasing in first grade and make it easier for her to run for president of the United States.” My college roommate said she had to choose names not only for President of the US but for President of Ford or some other Fortune 500 company.
Maybe if there were a wider range of names available, we wouldn’t have to worry about the teasing aspect.
And you know, I doubt Condoleezza Rice has suffered from having an offbeat name. Although filling in those little circles on the name portion of the SATs probably sucked.
hi, I personally cant stand when boys have girls names, Taylor, Tyler and please I dont mean to offend anyone ., except someone mentioned she would rather date a Taylor anyday compared to a joe… I dont know but where I come from Joe is a cool name, Taylor definitely is more for girls , and a little too waspy for my taste.. but I do like strange and exotic names for girls…
I love the name Lola=well thats my daughters name and let me tell you, we got some negative feedback from some not all family members… but I didnt care.. now whem i tell people her name there pretty impressed … My son definitely has a traditional name Salvatore, and thats how I like it for boys….
I am 42 and so is my husband. We are trying to get pregnant and are hoping for a boy? I have a 16 year old daughter Caitlyn from another marrige. My question is are there any boy names out there and if I had a girl I would name her Sand. What do you think about that for a boy, I am a surfer……….
omg! i love unique names soooo much. some of my favorites are…
girls-Madylen payge~Braylen Cassity~Roan kaye(said like rowan) ~lakelynn renee’~brooklen elizabeth~ & maddison chayce
boys-~caleb~hayden ross~trevor neal~lucas tristen~thomas cade~hayden ross
i really want to have 3 kids (2 girls and 1 boy)
i would like to name my oldest daughter lakelynn renee’. my next daughter will either be brooklynn elizabeth or madylen payge. i want my youngest (which will be a son)to be named trevor neal.
i love names soo much!!!!
Me and my husband are thinking of names for our baby boy who i will be giving birth to soon. My name is Jakaline (said jack-a-line) any my husbands name is Vactor ( like Victor but pronounced with an a ) we were thinking of putting our names together with my first 2 letters and my husbands first 2 letters. If we do this it would make the name Java we think it is a cool name and nobody we know has that name. We would like to hear some of your comments to see what you think about the name Java.
thanks
I have 4 kids, a pair of twins (boy and girl) and 2 other girls. My oldest girl is called Amiel(said am-e-ell) and my younger girl is calld Angel. When we were thinking of names for our twins we wanted names that would clash just like our friends who named their twin boys Toby and Tom. Of course this is harder to do with boys and girls so we finally decided on Caley and Cody. I will be having my 5th child soon if it is a girl we will call her Abigale, if it is a boy we will call it Cary
i would love to hear your comments
i will be giving birth to a boy or girl very soon and we cant think of any names can you please help me. I dont like popular names like Emily or Max,i perfer to have unusual names but not to unusual. I would love to hear some comments from you and please help me find a good name
I will be having my baby on February 1st, 2006 (that’s the due date of course) but me and my boyfriend come from totally different backgrounds. He’s Chinese and I’m Canadian plus 1/8th of Japanese *my biological father is Japanese* but anyways because of the two different backgrounds we have decided to have the first name as a Canadian name and the middle as a Chinese name. So if we have a baby girl we are going to name her * Oceianna Yumi * and if we have a baby boy we are either going to name him * Jayden JIA-din *.
what does this name mean??
Hi my name is Renee from Australia. I stumbled on this site as I named my sone Jessee and my daughter J’kayla (Jakayla as I have just found out) I came up with the name J’kayla or so I thought until a friend told me her friends daughter had that name. Upon searching the internet I have found a web site, a doll and many more sites with the name Jakayla (spelt different but that was my plan for uniqueness as well as is Jessee my son). I have a step daughter her name is Satika which we thought was also made up but again found site with this name. I am yet to come across the same spelling of J’kayla as I have used but I’m sure in time. Love all the names. Kids love unusual names I think, My daughter gets called Jack or J’k which I love and so does she (when she’s in the mood) otherwise it’s J’kayla only. Well thoughts from Australia keep the names coming it’s great to have a site for unusual names. By any chance does anyone know the meaning and origin of both J’kay;la (jakayla) or Satika?
Hi all, its me again. lol Well i thought i would run a couple of names by ya’ll. Well i was talking 2 my friends when i realized ya’ll may think some of their names r ckooll. Such as my best friend’s name is Melancholy, her boyfriend’s name is Bridges, and my aunt’s name is Katina not Katrina. Well hope ya’ll like the names, plz give me some feedback on em and 2 Jeff Taylor, ur kids have beautiful names and thanx 4 the comments on mine. Well byes. 🙂
I love the names Ender and Clementine. My husband has vetoed Clementine though. I also like Irelynn, Ariana, and Lorien has just been added to my list. I fell in love with the name Aidan, but it has become so popular, I’m not sure where I stand on it now. I have a ton of girls names, but I need a good boys name instead of Aidan.
i am pregnant, due in march, and live in the uk but love all the american baby names. if i have a girl i will love to call her ‘leilani’ (which means heavenly child) and if i have a boy i will love to call him ‘zachary.'(zach)
i have been to vegas several times and i guess this is where my obsession comes from. i also love corey for a boy and kaitlin or kaleigh for a girl.
at the end of the day you will be saying their name for a very long time to come, so you have to love it!!
my names is esme and i would like to know what it meens and where it comes from if you know please reply to my email addie (adress)
i do not like my name because everyone at school looks at me weired when they ask me what my name is.
My supervisor’s grandchild’s name is Indigo Skye
Hi, Im Brianna Nicole with a long a sound on the first a in anna. Im still young but if I were to have a boy his name would be Dawson Lakelyn and a girl would be Kiersten Elizabeth or Payton Richelle.
Those are my top picks for boys and girls. Another boy name is Keaton James. Another girl name is Valery Montanna.
When I have a little girl I would like to name her Ashlyn Marie. It is a combination of a lot of things. My dads sister’s middle name was lyn and she died before I got to know her. He says that she was really cool. My mom’s name also starts with an A so it would be cool for another girl with an A name. Also my moms middle name is Marie. Fo a boy I like the name Logan Thomas. Who knows kids are a long way off for me.
hey i just think that unique names are cool-my name is pretty strange and i have always been very happy with it!!!! I dont know about in Scotland but i know that here (in America) if you named you daughter Glenn she would hate you for the short time that she had that name before she changed it herself!
My mom wanted to name me India with no last name or middle name or Paidyn-which when i have kids I will name my little girl-and always thought that those names where really cool even though i have never tired of my own name
Hey, another Marielle passing by! I was just searching for the meaning of my name and to my surprise I’ve found many pages where they claim that it means…….bitterness! Can you believe that?! Such a beautiful name with such a meaning. I guess i’ll just go with the one page that says that it means “Wished for-child” 🙂
The names that I plan to name my children are as follows beginning with the girls: Margo, Stella, Margarita, Addison, Clementine, Lynk, Riley,Moli, Scarlett, Milan,Cozette, Arden, Aurora And the Boys: Ender Holden, Dieter James, Tyler Roscoe, Afton, Landon Achilles, Micah, Stolden,Skylar.
I like unique names, like for instence my name Trinity, i meen how many people have that name?
And my daughter, Cheryl, that is a really old name and i dont see many Cheryl’s around!
Hi, my name is Siobhan-kind of rough growing up with that but I’m turning 20 on the 14th so I’ve come to deal with it now. When i have a daughter i want to name her Cadence Jade. I’m not too sure about a boy yet….
I love a lot of the names here. I just found out I shall be with child soon and I’ve always had a name for a girl *Nova* and since my husband likes Ashley it will be Nova Ashley.
Boys names are harder personally I want the name Chaos, Damian, Atom, or Orian but he wants something more……normal. I know the reality of naming a child Chaos would not be so good but it just sounds cool to me.
We both like science type things and the names people have on this forum so far are great.
Growing up in the USA as a girl named Shannon, I can tell you it wasn’t too fun. “That’s a boy’s name”, or “you don’t look like a Shannon.” Ha – if they only knew it was a mucky river in Ireland… My dad named me Lisa Shannon (double ugh), but my mother wanted to name me Angelina Sophia (she’s Italian, my dad’s family is Scot-Irish). My mother’s father called me by my full name, and when he died, that tradition died with him. Besides, he was the only one to call me by my full name. My children, 2 each, are named pretty traditional names: Victoria Maitlynn (Mate-y), Jon Trace (husband and I are/were diehard race fans / Dale Earnhardt fans, and his car # was 3… three, tres, trace…), and twins Jack Anthony (Tony) and Lauren Grace (Gracie). When I was a little girl, I wanted to name my daughter Marigold, after a story I read in grade school. Don’t know why, but it stuck with me for years. Then baby number one came along and Marigold was the furthest from my mind. As an aside, don’t leave it up to your husband to give the nurse the spelling of your child’s name for the birth certificate. My best friend’s husband misspelled their first daughter’s name – and now the 12 year old is plagued with Brittanny instead of Brittany. Their youngest daughter is Kaitlyn (rhymes with her best friend’s (my oldest’s) name Maitlyn!) Someone also mentioned the anagram thing too. I was LSB (sounds like LSD, or Lesbian), and the monogram was even worse for an overweight teen – LBS! I looked through my own genealogy at names, and I remember a lot of the names of my dad’s aunts and uncles. Some families stick with a single letter. In their case, they used E. As in Ellis, Elmer, Escaline, Ernestine, Edgar, Edward, Earlayne, Erie and Eunice. Oh yeah. A friend named her kids all J names: Jessica Marie(Jessie, since she was a huge Rick Springfield fan), Jonathan Michael and Jillian Madeline. I attended school with a girl who was one of 8 girls, all with K names: Kelva, Kerri, Karla, Kristine, Kathrine, Kimberly, Keisha and Katrina. Other names I’ve liked: Addison, Josephine, Gillian, Laird, Tucker, Mason, Annabella and Egan.
As a guy, I got teased plenty with my name and was often assumed to be a girl too – starting new schools (that type of thing) was painful. I even got assigned to a girls school trip once when the boys and girls went to different places. So I guess I am biased, but my wife and I will be naming our children more traditional names that do not blur gender lines.
My husband’s name is Nayland. I’ve never met anyone with his name before and I love it. My step kids names are Izabeau Sophia and Dante Valentino. We are thinking of the following names for any kids we have in the future; Alexander Cruz or Aidan Christopher for boys and Zoey Elizabeth or Georgia Christine for girls. I have a girlfriend whose name is Shalon (Shal-lyn). I think that is pretty and very unique.
Go to http://www.behindthename.com/. I love their forums. It’s one of the best places to get name ideas. The guy who started the site really looks into the names before he puts name into the database so the names are all real names there, and the database is still huge.
Also names are usually popular from 10 to 20 years, then become less popular so it’s easy to tell which names are going to be popular and which aren’t. Go to http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/ it’s the best place to find out which names are popular at least in the US.
My son’s name is Easton Edwin – Edwin after his late grandfather. We’re pregnant again and I like Abygayle for a girl, or Isabel, but that is almost getting too popular now. I like to keep things a little different:)
According to the book “Freakonomics” the higher you are on the socio-economic scale (income, education, etc.) the more unusual your children’s names are. The lower you are on the socio-economic scale, the more likely you’ll pick names that were popular 10 years before. Interesting!
With a name like Jane Smith, I wanted unusual names for my kids. But their names ended up being pretty popular. Where I live, there are a lot of children named Willow, Hayden, Cedar, Alder, Juniper, Emerald, Clancy, Brogan, Trinity, Ayla, Solana, Sonora, Anais, Dawson, Lawson, Sailor, Lyric, Kellar, and even a Fisher.
When I was younger, I always wanted a daughter named Anndrew and just call her Drew. But my husband wouldn’t buy it. We ended up naming our daughters Kyra (keera) and Rylie. If we have another, I told him we’d have to name them something that has a Y as the second letter pronounced with a short i sound, like Dylan, Lyndsey or Sydney. Then we’d have all the Y pronunciations covered! It’s interesting that most girl names started out as boy names, like Lauren and Shannon. Riley is more popular for girls than boys now. I’m just glad the McNames trend is slowing down (McKenzie, McKayla, etc.)
Hello everyone. My name is Desiree, and my husband and I are expecting a little boy at the end of December. We are thinking about naming him Gratian Mannix Gomez, and I just thought I would ask for some opinions. This seems like a ligitimate site to post this asking for an opinion, since so many were previously stated!! I loved some of the names on here, but my hubby is VERY picky, and everything I mentioned to him was shot down! Hopefully I will get some responses!! Thanks for your time!
My name is Ashley. I was born in 1985 and I have a brother named Michael who was born in 1984. My parents, believe it or not, thought our names were pretty uncommon when they named us that. After we started school they then realized that they had chosen the most popular names of those years. Then, when my sister was born in 1990, they decided to name her Kayleigh… only to discover that name’s rising popularity.
Oh well 0/3.
Since my boyfriend is French, my children will have a French last name. So were thinking Sophie (Phie for short) Hélène and Joël Denis. My grandmother’s name was Helene (like H-leen), so I thought the French version would be cute. My mom wants a kid named after her and her middle name is Joyce, so I thought maybe Joie (joy in French) would be a cute name too. And my boyfriend’s friend is named Joel (English version), so we thought we’d French it up and call our kid Joël (Jo-elle), Joë (Joey) for short.
Those aren’t unusual names, though, but it’s an unusual twist.
I dont like the name sohea jack is sooo much better buy the way you sould not make fun of someones name you can say i dont like thet name but thats it dont go all over the plase and say JACK I bet only one kid would tern aroud someone made fun of my name becuse it means bitter I told the teacher and she sent them to the princable they got in troble and one more thing i ont like the name sohea
GRETTINGS….MY INITIAL POSTING IS #64 FROM 2004. The new granson is named Cooper Jaeger Max Love. With 13 grandkyds now ….I don’t think there will be any more. I always hoped for a grandson named Zane or Akiva or grandaughter named Piper or Beauty. I think it is good to have distintively different names but not something that would make the child an oddity. Perhaps some one is looking for names will like Zane, Akiva, Piper or Beauty and use one of them. I’ve been trying to think of an unusual name for the surfer gal. She wanted a boys name. How about something from surfer talk, brand of board, a surf manauver or along those lines???
It took years for me to to truly like my name snd now am appreciative for the family history used in developimg my name an get alot of comments on my lovely but unusual name. My first married name was Hill and when the first son was born my ex was determined the child was going to be named BUNKER HILL. Thank goodness the alternative name of Gavin prevailed.Bunker Hill–what a burden to bear,
Well happy name hunting to all the perfect name sleutes on this site. May you find name Nirvana .Bye for now, Garla Q. or just GG to all the kyds.
My name is Shonda. I always enjoyed being the only Shonda because I never had to be referred to as “Shonda G.” or “Shonda #2” in class. (Some classes would have 3 Ashleys, so the teacher would dub them “Ashley S.” or Ashley with glasses) I always get compliments on my name, but it doesn’t have an origin. (Unless you consider it a form of the name “Shawn, Sean, Shon…” So when people ask, “Oh that’s a pretty name, what’s the origin?” I just say, “My mom!”
Growing up with a unique name has been a blessing!
I know a better site then behindthename. Go to: http://www.namepedia.org/ It’s a lot more professional then behindthecrap 🙂
You can find there famous people, meanings and lots of intresting stuff.
Hi, I’m the mother of a Marielle. Fascinating to find so many Marielle’s in one place! I have never met anyone who didn’t like the name I picked for my daughter. And almost everyone who meets her comments on what a beautiful name it is. I also prefer the meaning “wished-for child” to bitter. It fits – she certainly was wished for. We actually picked it because another meaning for the name is “little Mary”. I am named Mary and my husband wanted to name her after me. My mother is also named Mary and I thought three Mary’s in a row was a bit confusing. I have never regretted the choice of “Marielle”.
My husband and I love the Orson Scott Card science fiction series, Ender’s Game, and we both decided that we wanted our first son to be named Ender. We didn’t want that to be his first name but more of a nickname and so we decided on using Ender’s real name from the book. So if we have a son his name will be Andrew Key (Key is a family name) and we will call him Ender for short. None of our friends like the name and think we’re crazy but Ender is such a strong leader and character in the books so we felt like it would be a great name.
To the people who are whining about kids names (Evangeline, Ender)–You’re idiots. Especailly the person who said that Ender sounds like “half a name” becuase it “can’t even be shortened”. My name is Erin. Go ahead–Try to shorten that! Er? In? Eri? Don’t be stupid. Just because a name isn’t to your liking doesn’t mean that it’s ugly. It isn’t your child and, chances are, you’ll never have to humble yourselves to “tolerate” the “ugly” named children that these people are having.
I want to name my first son Ender. I also love the names Evengeline, Keagan, Sion (see-on), Madison (maddie for short), and Emerson (as in Ralph Waldo). Elizabeth is another favorite, but it is my middle name and I don’t want to name a child after myself. David and Thomas are family names. One of them will probably be the first name for my first son, as I feel that I can always call him Ender and he can choose to go by his more “normal” first name or use the middle name. All of my children will probably end up with an odd middle name and a more traditional first name. I’ll give my kids names that I love, but I don’t want them to resent me later for giving them two traditional names or two unique names. They’ll get the best of both worlds and I’ll leave the final say to them.
Hi this blog is really cool! Its fun to see what people have written over the past couple of years and from different parts of the world.Its funny to see how some names are common in the states but not in other parts of the country. My name is Kiirsti pronounced (Ca-iir-st-e) its weird. Its a finnish name (my grandparents from Finland) I didnt like it so much growing up because I had to correct everyone even to this day and there are people I have known for years who still can’t say it right. I work in a resturaunt and everyone I tell my name to loves it.
I have a son Austin Christ (Pronounced Chris with a T at the end) Its is his fathers and grandathers middle name. If I have a girl I want her to be Kyra Lynn (Lynn being my last name) I think it is cool to use family names it gives them a sense of where they came from. My nephew has my dads middle name LaRoy.
I like unusual names if I had another boy I want it to be Tai or Ethan.
I am a 27 year old mom to three and one on the way.
I have a boy and two girls.
Avant Douglas
Leilani Skye
Oriana Katharie
and baby #4 Ilya Renee-Marie or Talon Lawrence
I like unique names but I give them something common to fall back on if they don’t like their name.