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My wife is expecting, we are having difficulty choosing names we both like. I consider myself between rarely and never on my scale of how common a name is and I would like our child to have a name of similar rarity. My wife who has a very common name would like to choose a common name.

I personally like my name and my wife likes hers. I believe its important to like your name and was wondering whether the rarity of a name effects this.

This is a poll for given names that you have grown up with, if you have changed your name for any reason then please answer based on your given name.

Thanks

Maybe a few examples on what you consider an uncommon name?

Think about the childs professional life, as you don't want them to be judged because of an uncommmon name.

According to this thread: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/610510.page There's a dearth of Hodors; you might want to look into changing that.

 Sasori wrote:
Maybe a few examples on what you consider an uncommon name?

Think about the childs professional life, as you don't want them to be judged because of an uncommmon name.

Yep. Imagine meeting a businessman named xXSéphìróthXx.

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Sasori wrote:
Maybe a few examples on what you consider an uncommon name?

Think about the childs professional life, as you don't want them to be judged because of an uncommmon name.

Yep. Imagine meeting a businessman named xXSéphìróthXx.

Oh him, I heard he's been having an argument with xXxDarkShadowDestroyer69xXx lately.

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Sasori wrote:
Maybe a few examples on what you consider an uncommon name?

Think about the childs professional life, as you don't want them to be judged because of an uncommmon name.

Yep. Imagine meeting a businessman named xXSéphìróthXx.

"I like to work hard and pwn nubs, and I'm all outta nubs."

When I was born, my parents could not decide whether they should name me after my father's father (Kirill) or my mother's father (Elia). So after much squabbling, they decided to do both and name me Cyril-Elia (that is Kirill-Ilya in Russian). That is two names, not one! I must be the only Russian with a double first name And already posessing a hyphenated family name, that means my full name consists of no less than 5 words (two first names, a patronym, two family names). That is horribly ineffecient to write or say! (though it does sound fancy).
Luckily, my first name is made less worse because I can contract Kirill-Ilya to Kirya, which also happens to be a normal nickname for Kirill.

 Sasori wrote:
Maybe a few examples on what you consider an uncommon name?

Think about the childs professional life, as you don't want them to be judged because of an uncommmon name.

What is common to me may be less common to you, I'm certain Dave is pretty rare in China. What's important is how rare you consider your name. I think an uncommon name is a benefit to both professional and social life and can help make you more memorable, but it has to be a "real" name to be so. Calling a kid Pepsi for example is just stupid.

And its a kid I have to name not a gamertag

I'm Alex and I don't meet many other Alexes.

Some depends on how odd your last name is as well. If you have an unusual one, you might want to stick with a more normal first name.

Make sure the initials don’t spell anything odd/obscene
Make sure the full name rolls off the tongue. You will be shouting it from time to time, and need to make sure you can belt it out before the kid runs into traffic.

If you do go for something odd, you might want to restrict yourself to middle names. Less likely to scar the kid.

When The Boy was born, I argued heavily for “Danger” as a middle name. The Wife vetoed that at the time, but in years since, admits that I might have been correct. We ended up with a much more traditional name.

I like my name, it helps that english speakers suck at pronouncing it.

Jos.

My name is ok. Don't meet too many people with it though there are a few. Not really a fan of my middle name - always annoyed when I ommit it from forms but they pull it from somewhere else and put it in my information anyway.

A good compromise would be a variant spelling of a common name. My son will walk this road- his name is Rhys, but it is most often pronounced the same as Reese, which is a fairly common name. The only one with a similar spelling we've ever met was born to an acquaintance of ours about 9 months later- he calls this child impostor Rhys.

My name is Samir and I have yet to meet another one in person. I've heard of one on TV and there is one in WoW. Never in IRL, though.

 TheCustomLime wrote:
My name is Samir and I have yet to meet another one in person. I've heard of one on TV and there is one in WoW. Never in IRL, though.

iirc, there was an islamic terrorist in the Netherlands that was called Samir

I've never met another Steven anywhere. Variations on the name, but well.

 thenoobbomb wrote:
I've never met another Steven anywhere. Variations on the name, but well.

"My name is Steven."
"Stephen?"
"No, Steven; with a 'v'."
"Vtephen?"

 Avatar 720 wrote:

 thenoobbomb wrote:
I've never met another Steven anywhere. Variations on the name, but well.

"My name is Steven."
"Stephen?"
"No, Steven; with a 'v'."
"Vtephen?"

The struggle is more real than you might think!

 Soladrin wrote:
I like my name, it helps that english speakers suck at pronouncing it.

Jos.

Jos. Jos. Jos.

My name is Clinton, which other than hearing "Mr. President" as my nickname I don't mind at all.

I myself have always wanted to name my son/daughter Darth.

I like my name... actually my problem is the name I give people when I introduce myself... some people I say 'Frank'... others I tell 'Francis' I'm not sure what drives it. Really I prefer my birth name Francis but I think I give 'Frank' because its a bit faster to say or something. It can be confusing when certain people I know meet for the first time.

 SilverMK2 wrote:
My name is ok. Don't meet too many people with it though there are a few. Not really a fan of my middle name - always annoyed when I ommit it from forms but they pull it from somewhere else and put it in my information anyway.

HI Ok!

I have a somewhat unusual, but recognizable first name and an extremely unusual nordic middle name. This has worked very well me. I'm not a fan of hyphenated first names, but we gave my son two unusual middle names, one of which is my middle name and the other of which is a name from my wife's family. He has a "normal" first name that is less than common.

Really, with names, I think you want to consider a few things.
1) Are you naming the kid for their benefit or for yours?
-If you Answered "yours" pick a different name.

2) Are you giving the kid a name that will be a help or a hindrance?
-If you answered hindrance, think very strongly -possibly reconsider- your choice of name.

3) If you lean toward unusual names, is it a name that has cultural significance or familiy history?
-If it's unusual, but not with a "meaning" consider a different name.

As both the names you are considering appear to be family names, either would probably be a good choice. No matter how rare the name, being named after your parent is always something honorable to hang your hat on.

Full name of Rhys Aubrey Hughes, nobody has ever managed to spell it right first time without seeing it.

Children with common names are more likely to get hired and/or promoted and less likely to commit crimes.

 Cheesecat wrote:
Children with common names are more likely to get hired and/or promoted and less likely to commit crimes.

So what you're tell me is that when my kids (Optimus Prime and Megatron) grow up they're going to start a global civil war for the fate of the human race?

having worked with kids for some years, i'd say
1)avoid names that sound like a stripper
2) don't name your kids after a video game (i'm looking at you, person who named their son after a mortal combat character)
3) don't use something that sounds more like a pets name
4) changing out a y for an i doesn't make the name any fancier, neither does doing the reverse

 thenoobbomb wrote:

 Avatar 720 wrote:

 thenoobbomb wrote:
I've never met another Steven anywhere. Variations on the name, but well.

"My name is Steven."
"Stephen?"
"No, Steven; with a 'v'."
"Vtephen?"

The struggle is more real than you might think!

So weird, I'm a stephen and I've only met a few people that spell it that way. It's Steven almost 95% of the time.

 Cheesecat wrote:
Children with common names are more likely to get hired and/or promoted and less likely to commit crimes.

That's more because certain types of names are symptomatic of socio-economic background. I'm pretty sure it's not a causal link.

I was born 'Ricky' and I've never met anyone else with the same name.

I go by the name 'Rick' and I've only ever met one other Rick, and his name was actually Richard (imposter, stick to Ritch, or Ritchie!).

I like having a name that's uncommon.

Incidentally, my middle name is weird, and apart from enjoying baiting people with "my middle name is weird" I hate it.

I suggest you choose a name that is respectful of your child. Giving your child a "funny" or "cute" name isn't very respectful. Nor is naming said child after your D&D character or some character from a novel/movie. Like Ashiraya alluded to, you wouldn't have liked growing up with xXSéphìróthXx for a name so don't do that to your child.

On the other hand, unique names can be pretty cool, as long as they're tasteful and respectful. For instance there's an actress named Fairuza who was in The Craft.