Ugh, Marilyn_c. What in the world were they thinking?!? Yup - Jay Mez for sure.

My niece's last name is Land, and when her daughter was born, she told her husband, "Go ahead and fill out the birth certificate with the name we've decided on." Instead, he named the little girl Allison Wanda. He said he had always wanted to name a daughter that. She goes by Ali now that she's in college. I went to school with a girl whose last name was Munday. Her name was Betty Blue. That, I think, was the first really "unusual" name I'd heard. My nephew's two little girls, ages 1 and 2, are Lilly and Violet. If they have another girl, she will be Rose or Daisy. I knew a set of triplets named Hope, Faith & Charity. I remember Neva and I, when we talked about our names, saying that we were happy our twin nieces (5 months older than we) were born first and got the "choice" names of Nelda and Zelda. Now, I somehow think my name is pretty nice. :) Also, I, like a poster above, absolutely mean no disrespect to anyone with the names I've mentioned; just my personal opinion. Oh, and another opinion I have about names: If I had twins, I would not have their names rhyme.

I'm not fond of rhyming names either, or families with 5 or 6 kids who name them all with names that start with the same letter (a family in my home town has children named Mona, Mitchell, Melvin, Mark and something else I can't remember).

I had 2 distant cousins named Exie and Nedra (both girls) - we used to laugh and laugh at those names when we were kids and thank goodness that our parents didn't name us that, LOL.

Strangest name (as in what was her mother thinking???!!?) is Crystal Ball, a girl I went to school with. She still lives in my hometown but has married and taken her husband's name.

My name is Frances Rose but I go by Fran. When my SO (who is a barbershop singer) found out my middle name, he began to sing "my wild Frances Rose".... he still serenades me with that from time to time.

Fran, that is so cool!

I was born in the 60's and my parents named me "Lolita" after the famous book,movie,(:)) I have only meet two others with the same name. It is not so common that you would remember it or you would forget it. My grandmother was named Pinky, I believe it was an old Choctaw Indian name and we have a great aunt Pearl.

I've seen a woman named Rose Bush, known a girl named Tarantula, and many others. Names are names. Better than Ima Hogg. Poor thing.

Melania has been a popular name in recent years but I suspect we'll see more little girls carrying the name Ivanka.

There's a Seinfeld episode where George reveals if he has a child he wants to name it "Seven"... sure enough one day I heard a father call his little girl Seven on the playground. She was about the right age that she was probably named after the episode aired.

Shook my head at that one.

My name wasn't common either and I really don't like my middle name. My mom and grandparents joked around and called me Gertrude. Not sure if that was some old people joke I didn't get haha But I would not mind being named Gertrude. I had a friend call me Gertie after I told him the story. I like classic and or nerdy names. :)

I had a friend that worked in a pediatrician's office that swears up and down that someone had a daughter named Shithead. Pronounced ShiTheed. Someone must have hated that poor kid. At one of my jobs someone had named their kid Nicolas Cage ______(<--whatever the last name was). I don't get it. :\ Ok name your kid something interesting and unique but don't make things weird or difficult for them.

I have the plainest name ever-Jane Ann. Most people call me Janey, which I like much better than Jane.

Strangest name I have heard is "Baby Girl" - that was the actual, given name. Poor girl. I would have changed that for sure when I got older. I met her as a young adult and she still had that name.

What I do not like is sweet little baby girls given boy names. I know of two girls named Riley.

But, about my name:

As you might guess, my name is Sue. I was born into a large family and Susan, (my grandmother) was already taken. But bear with me for a minute and I will tell you a little (true) story about my name. I wrote this for a writing class I was attending 10 or 12 years ago. This is the short version.

"MY NAME IS HER."

At about age five or so, my name seemed to undergo a magical change. Any time any of my older sisters (there were 4 of them) wanted to go any where, Mama would say, "Yes, if you take HER," nodding in my direction. They were always wanting to go to the park, or swimming, or to the movies. "Yes, you can, if you take HER." I didn't quite understand why I had suddenly become known as HER, but it was OK.

Being HER, I got to go a lot of places!

Way back when, I was told two stories about names.

The first was the woman who called her child "Pislum Civ" She said it was from the BIble--Psalm 104. Another biblical name purportedly was "Adultery."

We have friends who have 5 daughters. The mother named the first 4, but the father wanted to name #5. What did he pick? Chanel, of course.

Littlebug - now that, is creative. I like it!

Some of these are really winners! Here's one that this thread made me remember. Checking out at one of the big box stores several years ago, I did a double take when I noticed that the cashier's name tag read "Felony". Poor child!

Allison Wanda Land? Oh, now that is just cruel.

My name is Anne Elizabeth. I like it, but I've spent my whole life saying "with an e". And my married last name is a very common man's name, but everyone misspells it. So two very simple. common names, I have to spell.

My niece named her daughter Edith a few years ago. I'm sorry, I'm of the age to remember Edith Bunker. She named her son Edison, not quite as bad.

I like Victoria. Feminine names for a girl. Not Keegan or Payton.

My brother had a friend in H.S. in the 1960's who had the last name Thomas. What did his parents give him as a first name? Thomas. I bet they thought they were so clever. He went by the nick name Tom Tom.

My wonderful dentist was Thomas J. Thomas.

As a pediatric nurse with 23 years' experience, I've seen more than my share of strange names. I've taken care of a Scotty Pippen C.___, Sir, Prince, Lady, Fat Daddy, Cinderella, Mesmerize, Sapphire, Diamond, the cutest little newborn Vietnamese twins whose parents didn't speak a work of English named Bob and Tom, and many others that aren't coming to me immediately. Oh, and my first crush was on a boy named Richard Richardson. :)

I love old fashioned names. Where have all the Marys and Toms gone? Hoping that Downton Abbey will bring back Mary, Edith, Ethel, Violet, Marigold and all the rest.

DSIL was adamant that their DD would not have a stripper name. No Crystals, Tiffanys, Skyes, Candys, Lexies. Tabithas or even Tamaras. If he could mentally announce them as strippers they were nixed. LOL

Probably a good thing since little DGD is a natural diva. She is always bursting into song and dance. Her latest is doing a belly dance shimmy out of the blue, anytime, anyplace.

Lol, watchme! I've always thought that the most lead pipe cinch sure to be successful way to name your children is to choose the names of English royalty or to choose Bible names.

Why would a parent name their child with the a first name that is also their last name? Thomas Thomas? Richard Richardson? William Williams? I'm serious… Do they really wish for their child to go through life with that? It seems cruel to me and that they really are intentionally being mean to their child, knowing that he will likely be ridiculed. I'd like to believe that's not true but what other reason would there be for someone do that? I guess that's a rhetorical question.

I feel similarly about other names here like Allison Wanda Land, etc. Seems that they're having sport at the baby's expense. Poor kids.

I am really enjoying this thread. Such a wealth of experience and opinion being shared. I too definitely know of a Thomas Thomas... My sister was a teacher in an urban area and each year would share some of the more interesting names, kind of the same genre (and some actually the same names) as Loretta shared as a pediatric nurse.

By the way, I am really liking the name Loretta and would bet that it will soon be on the trending horizon. I never heard of Marigold but that's pretty. Not sure I would use it but it's pretty. (Shades of keeping up appearances with Hyacinth).

Ronnie - my Aunt Veronica (the best person on the face of the earth) was a twin and her sister's name was Irene - Ronnie and Renie :)

I knew a woman who was going to name her newborn son Shalom. I appreciate the sentiment but thought it was odd for Asian parents. I told her that I thought he might be teased in school as other children can be mean. She said she never thought of that. She named him Robert.

I love the name Shalom. My mother talked me out of naming my son Uriah. I still love the name Uriah.

I knew a guy named Neil O'Neil in high school. And my ex's cousin Jane married a guy with the last name Janes so now she is Jane Janes. I would have kept my maiden name!

Harper is one favorite of mine but was soon a s I like one, it becomes too popular like Debbie was in my day.

Harper is one favorite of mine but was soon a s I like one, it becomes too popular like Debbie was in my day.

One of my friends in high school dated a guy named Richard Dick (and he was). I know a woman now, whose name is a variation of Rose and she married a man with the last name of Rose. It's a little bit odd, but who doesn't love the image brought to mind by roses?

I never liked my name, so when my daughter was born I named her Elizabeth and called her Lisa.

As she grew up, she used nicknames for a while. I remember Beth, Liz, Liza. Finally she settled on Elizabeth and has been using that for a very long time. She is 45 now,

I failed big time when I named my kids; Megan, Joshua, and Taylor. I don't think I could have picked three more popular names for their time period. Ugh.

My daughter's name, Megan, was chosen because my best friend used the name I had in mind, so I found another one I liked. Turns out both names were miserably popular.

My middle child's name, Joshua Caleb, was picked the night before he was born. Originally we were going to name him Caleb Michael. The poor kid had 4 Joshua's in his homeroom in 7th grade. Sometimes I wish we hadn't switched it at the last minute, but he hates his middle name, so it may have been a blessing.

My youngest son, Taylor, was named after an author of a book I was reading at the time. I didn't know how much that name was being used for baby girls that year or I'd never have used it. He took a Taylor (girl) to the Senior Prom. I wonder if someday he'll marry a Taylor. Older people tend to call him Tyler.

An old friend of mine (back in the day) wanted to name her son Micah. She already had one son named Joshua. Then, her sister said to her 'I can't imagine coming to the house to visit and bringing the boys a little gift and saying " this is for Josh and this is for Micah".

Formica. She named him Matthew :)

My first name is Betty..after my aunt..so I was called Betty Ann..HATED it..at 15 I told my teachers to call me Ann..62 now and most of the time it's Ann..some older relatives still slip and say Betty Ann..never met a Betty that wasn't at least 25 years older than I am..I get credit card offers for Betty and Ann..on the same day!..my mother put ZERO thought into our names..my brother named my sister Donna..he was 3!..wonderful mother (83 now) but not so good with names..lots of nice names mentioned..2 little girls in my family with names I like..Madeline and Adriana (rhymes with piranha)..

I love the name Betty! And also Betsy! I can't wait for Faye and Mabel to make comebacks!

Thanks Annegriet!..wish I would've loved it but..pretty funny that I changed my name myself when I was 15..Faye was my husband's grandmother's name..

Ida. I love the name Ida as well.

I went to school with a kid whose last name was Fay. His mom''s first name was Faye.

When we were young, my best friend and I used to play 'Let's pretend,' as we were sitting at the table drinking coffee or tea. Someday we would be old ladies, gossiping, and still together, saying things like, "Well, Mabel, did you hear about that neighbor down the street?" "No, Mildred, tell me all about it!" We still keep in touch and call ourselves by those names sometimes. I too like the name Mabel, but not Mildred.

My mother named me Andrea, in the 50's, I don't know why, and I had to write about it in 6th grade. All I could find was that it meant manly, so I said it was the feminine form, meaning womanly. Doh. I have since studied ancient Greek. It comes from the word 'man' (aner, andros, etc) but means courage and strength. (as opposed to anthropos which is 'human') My late husband named his first daughter Andreia bc she was only 3 lbs at birth and she needed to be that way, as she did become. But my name is also a man's name, in Europe at least.

My mother's name is Audrey. She is 81. I had never heard of another person with that name until recently. It seems to be trending.

My paternal grandfather's name was Sigfreid Oswald. I don't expect that to start trending any time soon. LOL

I had a good friend called Gertrude. She went by Trudi mostly.

As a child in the 1950s, I attended a small private school for girls in the English countryside. It was run by three elderly sisters, the Misses Roberts. Since they all had the same surname, we had to address them as Miss Eleanor, Miss Gertrude, and Miss Margaret..

I was named my father's middle name which is one of those names that(especially in Britain) which can be either sex but is very hard for small children to pronounce. I hated it for years and would have loved to have been named Victoria. As a matter of fact, when I was very young I renamed my self and my whole family called me that, except at school where I really wanted it.

Our closest neighbor's name is Faye Thomas Ham***. Everyone calls him FT. Our other neighbor's name was Laverne. He was a cool older guy. His cows used to wander up to our house.

I was named Susan in the late 50's, like so many other little girls. We all had to use initials in school and everyone insisted on shortening our names. Being called Sue H. was extremely annoying and gave ammunition to the other kids to tease me with. Ugh. This is probably why I hate being called Sue.

Mabel? Really? Cringe and gag! Faye, I love, Just goes to show that our own opinions are ours alone, and so good that we can all do as we please in this respect.

My next door neighbor had 4 boys and when she became pregnant with her 5th she prayed that she would have a girl. She did and named her Patience.

I grew up in a neighborhood that had many Catholic families. The father of the family who lived behind us was William Williams, and went by Bill. The Mother's name was Mary and her nickname was Kitty. They had 11 children - all the boys were given the first name of William and all the girls were named Mary. Since the kids all went by their middle names there wasn't too much confusion.