This is a timely thread for me as I just had our family genealogy charts out and saw some interesting ones on there. Perhaps this thread is more about modern names though... There was a Dorcas in our family history. My favorite by far is "Zebulon" which is biblical (I think), but sounds more like a visitor from outer space. Zebulon lived a couple of hundred years ago...

On my dad's side of the family there were a lot of traditional Scandinavian names which meld into more common modern names over time. On my mother's side there are a lot of names that may be biblical and many that I do not know the origin of. My mother, her mother and father all had rather unusual names and spent their lives correcting people and spelling them. My name is rather common, and seeing what family members with unusual names went through, we gave our daughter a common enough, traditionally spelled name. I don't fault people who choose unique names though, it's just not my thing.

tackycat, I don't believe I've ever heard anyone pronounce my name incorrectly here, therefore I've never corrected anyone. In real life when I do tell someone how to pronounce my name, I am not criticizing, just informing. ;)

I had a great-great-grandfather whose first name was Esquire, often referred to as Squire. In doing research, I found both versions used several times in ensuing generations, but not in my direct ancestry.

A friend from childhood (we're still friends) has the middle name of Shamrock. His family calls him Rocky.

I had a couple of older female co-workers who went by the names Andie and Dana. After seeing their written signatures, I learned Andy was short for Andromeda, pronounced Andro-MEE-da. Dana was short for Mundane.

I gave my younger DD my brother's middle name. In his generation it seemed there were more males than females with that name, but it seems to have reversed in her age group, so some day that name will be probably be considered predominantly female, the same as Shirley, Evelyn, and Beverly are now.

I agree with Raye and others who get it. The goal of being a parent is supposed to be to equip and guide their kids for success and happiness in their lives. Giving them a difficult to pronounces name, an unusual, ancient or quirky name, or a difficult spelling, isn't the world's biggest deal but it works counter to that and the issue is easily avoided. Pretend it isn't the case and it's still the case.

matthias, I don't know (and you needn't mention) the origin of your name. I'm familiar with it as a name common in German speaking areas, the German form of Matthew. In German, there is no TH sound, it's pronounced as being just T. As an example, the state of Thuringia is pronounced Too ring ee aa. So Matthias is, as of course you know and you've said, ma tee us.

And a similar argument can be made that equipping your child to successfully encounter and weather the adversities they may come up against while growing up makes them stronger and more self-reliant. Having a unique or uncommon name is just another hurdle of growing up and I seriously doubt it leaves any child with life long scars because their name was "different"!! It sure hasn't affected any of the kids (or adults) I know that have unusual names. They all pretty much relish in their uniqueness.

Not scars but avoidable problems. A self-inflicted wound.

A Boy Named Sue is supposed to be a funny song (written by Shel Silverstein) and maybe even one with an obvious message, not advice for living.

garden, did you give your kids offbeat names or conventional ones? That's maybe a way to end the discussion, are you trying to protect your own actions?

Once knew a woman who was so drugged up during delivery that, when the nurse showed her her new baby and ask what name to put on the birth certificate the new mom exclaimed "oh she is precious!" So...Precious she became!

First, a boy named Sue is an extreme so not a valid comparison here. Boys now or in the past have never routinely been called Sue.

And I have NO need to protect any of my actions!! Or justify my opinions! And by virtue of many of the other comments here, very few find unusual or uncommon names any kind of a social handicap. There is nothing wrong with being unconventional and many prefer it to being commonplace and ordinary.

And while I had no input in the naming, my stepdaughter (who I raised) does have a pretty straightforward and conventional name - Emily Morgan.

Given names go through fads and cycles so what were common names in previous generations are now coming into 'fashion' again. According to Psychology Today, Millennials in particular favor uncommon names. They grew up with the cultural message that standing out is better than fitting in. They became used to hearing that they were "special" and were advised not to care what others think of them. Millennials remain interested in having their children stand out. So they give them fewer common names, making it less likely that their sons and daughters will have to "share" a name with a classmate.

A classmate of my brother was named Frank Van Stein and was obviously teased about it quite a lot. Sometime I imagine him going on to become a scientist, and cackling "With this new invention, I will make them all pay. Mwuu ha ha."

I imagine Elmer was teased quite a bit too, being named after a popular cartoon character. :-)

Shortly after moving to Virginia I met a older woman and her cute little dog, and they was introduced as "Muffin and Emma" I mistakenly assumed that the little dog was obviously the one named Muffin.

A college acquaintance of mine was named "Zeus" and he had a brother named "Apollo" and sisters named "Athena" and "Porsche" IIRC.

A sister-in-law is named "Claude" which to her French parents was a name that could be for either gender, but in the US its considered more of a boys-only name.

When my mother was telling me about her childhood, she described her grandfather as so well respected that everyone just called him "Farmer" instead of his real first name. Turns out, Farmer was his real first name.

When I was working my way through school I was a unit clerk in the hospital. Sometimes I would be sent to the maternity unit, and one of my tasks was to fill out the birth certificate forms. Sometimes the mothers would know the name they wanted (this was a time when D' whatever was popular -- D'juan, D'neal, Dejohn, and so on) but not how they wanted to spell it. So I would write a few versions of spelling on a piece of paper, and they would choose the version they liked the look of.

bob, my actual birth name was Bugs Bunny. I legally changed it because I got tired of being taunted by people saying to me "Eh, what's up, Doc?"

" a boy named Sue is an extreme so not a valid comparison here. Boys now or in the past have never routinely been called Sue. "

Except YOU said " equipping your child to successfully encounter and weather the adversities they may come up against while growing up makes them stronger and more self-reliant " which is precisely the satirical and not-serious premise of the song's story.

The Millennials I know are very different from what you're describing. Given a choice, they would shudder at having an odd or difficult name, it's contrary to their desire to conform and have peer acceptance. Like us and youngsters since, one manifestation of that is that they like fashion and brand styles (for items of all kinds) that others have. They want to know the rules of the game (especially job related ones) and want to be coached to succeed. Want to be recognized for accomplishments. Truly, in a group setting, they want to be like everyone else and don't like being singled out. Except, they like talking about extreme life experiences others haven't done, that's something others admire. And many will deliberately have such experiences not because it interests them but because it gives them something to talk about. I've validated that phenomenon more than a few times.

In the vein of Tom Thomas and Alan Allen, I went to school with a kid whose mother was Faye Fay.

Our friends named their daughter Maire. Mary to the rest of us.

A child in my kids' school was listed by his nickname, IV. He was evidently a "the fourth" because his dad's name was Trey and I'd heard of his grandfather known to be a "junior". But I never did know how to pronounce the child's name. Four? 4? Iv? I. V.? To top it off, saying I. V. with his last name, could sound like a country club or a housing development. (Remember Charlie Brown meeting a new friend? The kid said "hello, my name is 5." CB says "Five?" The kid says "no, 5.")

When I started a new job down south, I had a coworker named Dillon. Only, that was his LAST name. He must have thought me terribly rude when I called him that for WEEKS before I realized his name was Forrest Dillon, not Dillon Forrest. As a Yankee I'd never heard of Forrest as a first name (this was long before Forrest Gump) . And I had another aquaintance named Thomas Russell Gregory. Or maybe it was Russell Gregory Thomas. Or...how many permutations are there?...I couldn't remember, and didn't know him well or long enough to have to deal with it.

I had a classmate whose last name was Fair, and he married his sweetheart, Fairfax. They really were the sweetest couple.

I have known over a dozen women whose name is pronounced Sherry or SherEE, and none of them spell it the same way. I love that! (It's a language appreciation thing for me)

I don't judge names, I just find them interesting. Oh, I went to a musical the other day. Among the cast members, there were 4 Alex (3 guys and a girl), 1 Alexandra, 1 Alexis, and 1 Alejandro. Definitely a generational thing!

Elmer and I rarely agree, but I do agree with him on the subject of names. I've hated my own name my entire life. It sounds pretentious - I would have preferred a simpler name. My mother (a classical musician) named me after a french opera star she once heard. My parents then compounded this by giving me TWO middle names. Yes, I am well aware that in the English Royal family, have 4 names is not odd at all, but I was born in Missouri. To make matters worse, one was a distant family name - Pickens. Yes, I was ridiculed and as a sensitive only child, it hurt. Now, it's not a big deal at all, but then I'm now 75 and over the years have developed a far thicker skin.

When a friend was asking her son what they had named their baby, she was told a name that was a bit out of the ordinary and which greatly clashed with the surname (a typical Irish surname). They had chosen a very Scandinavian name. Her reply was, "Interesting! What led you to choose this name?" They said they wanted "something different" and my quick-witted friend then said "Then you should have named her Mary - no one has used that name in decades!".

The first time I became aware of changing ones surname was when I was in school in NYC. A friend explained that her grandparents were born in Poland and that their last name was "Jaweroski", but her father, an insurance salesman, legally changed it to "Jason" as it was easier for people to pronounce. A salesman need this!

Much depends on ones social class and the area of the country in which one lives. Naming a boy Beverly or Evelyn or Kim in England would not be odd, particularly if one was from the upper classes. It would be hard for a boy in the US in nearly all regions unless it was the NE and his family was very old and very wealthy and he went to private schools his entire life.

Biblical names and those of the Kings and Queens of England will usually stand one in good stead...okay, perhaps not AEthelred. Ethelred the Unready is one of my all time favorite names of a King!

My name is Cleo which you can see from my username. But most people, including close friends and relatives, will call me Chloe often enough that I don’t even correct them anymore. My own family even uses it as a nickname in jest because so many people flip my name.

It is almost self perpetuating now because I dont correct people, so others nearby who know my actual name then think they have it wrong and start using Chloe as well. It must be a brain flip thing.

Someday, I hope to meet a Chloe and ask if the same thing happens in reverse.

My name was so common in the late 50's, that I had four other girls in my class with the same name. The teachers always referred to us as 'Jane' and our surname initial. But in the schoolyard, the other kids called us by nicknames that differentiated us physically, which we all hated. So I decided to give my own children more uncommon names, (but with traditional spelling) to avoid the frustration I experienced in my childhood.

Elmer, you wrote "The Millennials I know are very different from what you're describing. Given a choice, they would shudder at having an odd or difficult name, it's contrary to their desire to conform and have peer acceptance."

My children are all millennials and all 3 of them love their names, for not being common. My eldest said he would have hated having the name Christopher, because he had 3 in his class, pretty much all through school. My middle child always had 3 Jennifers in her class, and my youngest had 3 Justins and 3 Jasons in his class! I actually really like all of those names and could easily have chosen them for my own kids, which would have made their classrooms even more confusing.

So I'm very thankful that my choice to go with less common names made my children very happy and probably their teacher's as well. They all tell me that people often compliment them on their names, which wasn't my goal, it was just for them not to have the popular name of their birth year and the few years before and after it, like the name I was given. Obviously my mother named me with the best intentions, so I never complained in front of her, about how much I disliked sharing my name with several classmates, and now friends, until this day, lol!

My father was given a very old fashioned and unusual name by his educated and well-read parents....so unusual that when I use just his first and middle names (not the family surname) to do a Google search, all kinds of information on Dad and his family comes up. And that's all, lol.

So, I'll share only his middle name here....I've always liked it. Junius.

His name never held him back, made him the brunt of childhood teasing, nor did it damage his psyche. He somehow managed to turn out to be a warm, successful, and fun loving adult in spite of the burden of an obscure name.

One of his grandsons is named after him and he has worn the name with dignity, too.

Edited to add that my name is unusual, too, and I've always been grateful for it.

One of the many advantages of being southern is that it hardly matters what you get named because odds are no one will call you that anyway in the country of nicknames.

example, My great Aunt named Elvira at birth disliked her name so when she started school she renamed herself Mabel, a name she legally changed to eventually though she no longer liked it but that didn't matter because no one called her that, they called her Short because she was tall.

My aunt, born in the 30's, was christened Julia. But so many people called her Sally as a baby that it stuck. She eventually had it legally changed, and has always been Aunt Sally.

Speaking of southern nicknames, DH has an uncle Max. I was in the family for years before I learned that his given name is something else, which nobody uses.

One thing that so far no one has mentioned is the use of initials as names or in place of names. Similar to G in that tv show. I have known several J D's all from the South for some reason. When asked what their real names were they all said that was what they were born as. Not certain what their birth certificates showed.

I don't mind slightly unusual names but like to see them spelled correctly (the traditional spelling of the name). I also prefer name that don't carry a string of nicknames. I was careful to name my son a name that did not have a diminutive nor was it a diminutive of another name. A strong, solid single syllable name. I have a nephew with a completely made up name. However it cannot be turned into anything else, is easy to spell and pronounce and is a solid, single syllable. masculine sounding name. DD on the other hand has a diminutive for her name that is not common. Occasionally she is asked if that is her full name but other than that her name has served her well both as a child and an adult in the workforce.

My grand kids are exposed to just about every culture under the sun at their school and preschool. They are used to hearing all sorts of names. DGD has a short first name and a very long middle name that my DD sort of made up but happens to be a last name in my side of the family culture. Grandson has a name that has gained and lost popularity through the years but it suits him well and he doesn't have any classmates currently with the same name. It's a name that doesn't have nicknames or short versions either.

amicus, fortunately none of us spend our lives in the 1st to 5th grades but rather as adults. How many theses and thoses were in kindergarten or other primary grades with the same name hardly matters, and I scratch my head about why any adult would remember and want to talk about such an irrelevancy.

My own thoughts (before being sidetracked by A Boy Named Sue) were, like Raye's, focused on name choices for people with professional, team-oriented, public-facing occupations. How people compliment someone on their name is by remembering it and using it with ease. The retail car business in my diverse and accepting area is maybe a simple example. Car sales attract many immigrants and most work hard to succeed and assimilate into the community. Hang Yuen becomes Hank. Abdulaziz becomes Al. Hussain/Hossain become Henry. Et cetera. Why? Ease of use and easier to remember.

If you named three boys Billy Bob, Nebuchadnezzar and Flavius Justinius, then swell. My kids, each with one or more competitive advanced degrees and in public-facing professions, all have conventional names. If they had become car mechanics, equally good. It's a choice. I can only relate my experiences from my own demanding professional career, as opposed to several of you who who offered personal views but not workplace-related experiences and some without experiences with naming and raising kids with those chosen names in place. What was clear in my long work career was that colleagues, contacts, and clients with difficult names, who didn't make it easier for others by adopting nicknames or easier forms, were at a disadvantage.

I'm a little late to this post--but I'll share the worst name I've heard. I was working in a medical office in the early 80's, and a military family came in with their daughter . Her name was Latrina.........

Ugh! I'm wondering if they thought this through and made the connection. I hope they didn't--that's just not a nice name to give a child.

It was a custom in a old settlement of the Welsh to name the boys names such as Thomas Thomas, Evan Evans, Jones Jones, William Williams...they did put in a middle initial to keep them apart.

Tv, that name probably means something else in another language.

Funny Elmer. DS landed a job as Director of Cyber Security not with his normal given name but based on his cyber name. Once they found out and made the connection of his cyber name to the man applying for the job it was an immediate elevator ride to the top of their hiring list. So don't paint with a broad brush.

My kids (later Gen X) had a similar experience during their school years as Amicus's kids. They liked being unique. By his second year of high school DS took on his cyber name to use most anywhere off campus. And I had also a very similar experience to her growing up in the fifties with my name which was common for the day.

I was a pretty confident child and my name was unusual for the time. I was always pleased when a new teacher called the roll for the first time and paused ... I knew that was ME.

phoggie, I saw that same soft of situation of first and last name being similar with a differing middle initial on the Scandinavian genealogy on my dad's side of the family. The other trend that was very apparent was when a baby or young child died, the next child born of that gender would then be given that same name, though the middle initial would be different.

I thought of a name so familiar to me it no longer stood out but might to others - first name Prosper. DH worked for this man for a while shortly after we were married, and he went on to a very successful career as a highly regarded intelligent man, active in his church and later mayor of the city he relocated to. He did indeed prosper, but to us he was only Pros ;0)

I live in one of the most diverse areas of the city. I also work in an area with immigrants who are 99% from the Middle East and Asia. "Different" names have been normal for me for many years. I find them quite often, to be easier to remember than a simple "normal" name.

watchme, in the geeky technical, online world you're describing your son works in, so-called "hackers" (the original use of the word) can develop reputations and all follow the tradition of using a nom de guerre (cyber name). Done to help preserve anonymity.

The broad brush remains valid. And again, I'm relating my sometimes daily experiences in an work environment of ever changing people over many years. Not just an opinion.

Elmer. Directors of Security and other jobs in IT may have been hackers/crackers in their youth but they are well paid professionals. However their cyber names do open doors not often available to your basic computer science major. The highly recognizable names are hardly anonymous these days. These aren't pajama boys living in their parent's basement. LOL

The point is that an odd name, even a made up one, doesn't hold anyone back from financial success today. The days of Bob Jones in the 3 piece suit are no longer necessarily a sign of success. That ship sailed in the early 90's.

watchme, I spent my career in Silicon Valley but in business/finance/management areas and not deeply submerged with techies. I've shared my own EXPERIENCES about names. These aren't from third party information, stories I was told nor opinions. If your's or anyone else's firsthand real EXPERIENCES over decades in professional workplaces (as I had) and other similar environments are different from what I saw pretty consistently, great. It doesn't change anything. It's not something to argue about.

Long ago Texas Governor James Hogg named his daughter "Ima".

My brother teaches abroad in international schools, and said I could share some names from his current list of students. Naturally, since they come from around the world they are not necessarily "Tom and Sally".

Brothers Pea and Pae,

sisters Boeing and Airbus,

Folk, Team, Farm, Gase, Assma, Bolly, Dash, Snowy, Time, Witty, Merlin, Knight, Pink, BinBin, Dong Dong, Ding Ding, Till Till, Tan Tan, Dian Dian, Jang Jang, Ping Ping, Baimon, Hermione, Kitty, CD, JD, KK, Otto, Army, Oo-Jee, Arty,

Luke (real name Lu Ke, goes by Luke for the English-language school)

Eclair, Ski, Kobby and Elvis

Amicus, everyone has opinions and they often differ. That's fine, also interesting. Despite the choruses of Hallelujah accompanying your last comment, I can disagree with your thoughts (and those of your son) and that's also fine. I know many in academia, friends and family and in families of friends. I'll leave it at that.

What annoyed me in this thread was people disputing my own real experiences (not opinions) with no apparent basis to do so other than their personal wishes or opinions. Huh? Maybe I didn't explain myself well, that's something I often do when responding quickly.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Had a great uncle Delmas, his son is Delmas Ray.

I knew a young man we knew as Bob. He actual first name was Sperm. He had it legally changed as an adult. I think that is the worst I ever heard. What were those parents thinking?

I had an aunt named Apollonia, but when my grandmother's sister went to register her, she decided to name the baby after herself so on her bc she is listed as Gracillea. My mother was named Rosaria but went by Sarina.

I had an uncle who's middle name was Eleven. He was the eleventh and last child of my grandparents.

What were those parents thinking, indeed? Just what I thought when I saw a checker at the big box store whose name was Felony.

Felony? Wow! That takes the cake.

My husband reminded me of two Alabama politicians, Young Boozer III, our state treasurer and bible wielding Twinkle Cavanaugh, who runs for something every chance she gets. Both of those are their real given names.

Then there was a cashier in a fast food restaurant....her nametag said Diesel. When he thanked her using her name, she sighed and said, "It's pronounced Di-selle'." Oh, dear.

I do genealogy research for people at our historical society. I am always on the lookout for unusual names ( from long ago). Our favorite first name is Clotworthy. Just recently I was looking for a woman whose first name was Experience, and her sister was Consider. Some names should just never happen. Can you imagine naming your son Strange or Manlove? I loved reading about the marriage of Olive Melick to Jeremiah Pickles.

I aplogize to anyone who might be descendants of any of these folks. I truly enjoy the names.

rhizo, you've reminded me of a former co-worker who's last name was Booze. She and her husband wanted to attend a New Year's party at a local hotel that included champagne, a buffet dinner, entertainment and breakfast the next morning. When she tried to book a room they asked for her name. When she told them her last name was Booze, they refused to book a room for her.

I think they thought that either she was prank calling them or that she was a high school kid out to cause trouble, but she was very unhappy about the situation. Not sure how that was resolved. They either ended up doing something else or appeared in person to book the event and the room.

Maifleur, I had an uncle with the name JD; one of my Dad’s brothers. There were a couple of other unusual names in his family. It must have been a thing in the early 1900’s with his mother and Dad. My Dad had a common first name, Edward, after his father, but his middle name was odd. His oldest sister also had an unusual name, Vylitta (pronounced Vy-letta, and we called her Aunt Vy). Maybe they were trying to name her Violette. The old census records have a different spelling so who knows.

Perhaps ‘Felony’ is pronounced like Baloney? That’s a new one!

Just a week ago, a friend was telling me about someone she works with who told her about a family member who had a son born with red hair. She named him Fyre. No kidding. My friend works in NC. That mother will never be able to yell at her kid in a crowded place. You can’t make this stuff up.

A co-worker's last name was Duck, and her hubby's name was Donald. He had to pull out his i.d. lots of times with people questioning it.

Names go in and out of fashion. At least through much of the 20th century and until now, commonly found names do have demographic patterns. You can see that via the various ways you can slice and dice population demographics - by geography and regions, or by division by socioeconomic factors, or by education level attained by parents, by ethnicity, and many others, etc., You're unlikely to find the affluent Robertson family in Manhattan or Boston or on the Main Line naming their baby Joe Bob Robertson, nor the blue collar Robertson family in (you supply the lower economic location) having a kid named Arthur Stanley Carrington Robertson IV. No rocks and stones, of course there are exceptions, but there are patterns. Dumb or embarrassing/ridiculous names ? I'd say, dumb parents not thinking of or caring about the potentially negative consequences those names will have on those kids through their lifetimes.