Weird children's names

[India's Mum]

It seems that name advice usually consists of suggesting how the child will feel if bestowed with an unusual name but parents should also be advised to give consideration to how they will feel if met with negative reactions to their choice. The more unusual the name, the more likely people will object to it. I don't think that most people will hear the negativity directly (this is an online forum and people are far more eager to offer views which would be withheld in real life) but it isn't nice to be amongst a group of parents and have people ask your child's name and whereas "that's lovely" or "I wanted that" is heard after earlier responses, to have you child's name met with silence can be hurtful and feel as though a personal attack has been made on your child.

I consider DD's name to be less used name rather than unusual but I am aware that it isn't popular with older people so I prepare myself for the reaction (or lack of it) when asked.

Most of us want the names we select to appreciated and not mocked. Only a small minority want the names to shock (didn't someone in the US name his child Adolf Hitler and complain when a bakery refused to make a cake with the name on it?) I think if you deliberately chose a name based on the amount of controversy it will create then perhaps you are being selfish and not thinking of the the child but I think that would be very rare. I think most unusual names are genuinely loved by the parents who bestow them and done so with the best of loving intentions, just as all parents do. I do wonder about celebrity children's names though. You might as well call the kids "Look at Me!"

The unusual ones I came across recently were Pixel (boy) and Qwerty (girl).