Uncommon Names

[Danielle]

Does anyone in your immediate or extended family have an unusual name (first, last or middle)? What is it? Do you know the origin of the name and how they came to be named that?


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In my family they are both in my immediate family. One I chose and one I married. LOL

Takara is a Japanese name that means "precious jewel" and I just fell in live with it when I saw it in the baby book. It took some time for it to grow on dh, in fact, I'm not sure he's 100% sold yet LOL.

My dh is Bertram, middle name Balfour. I really don't know anyone else with these names as first or middle names, just as last names. The funny thing is that our last name is a common men's first name so the telemarketers always reverse it and ask for Mr. B--- Bertram. Yes, and his initials are BBB.

[Amy J]

Nothing really unusual but my mom's name is Henrietta. You don't hear a lot of that name around here. Rosalia is a little unusual too. It's just because nobody uses this version of her name. Just for clarification, her name doesn't rhyme with Somalia. That is one thing that drives me batty!

[tidee]

my granpa's name was norval. i haven't heard any more of them, then they named mom norma. :)

my sis is named alyssa. there's tons of alyssa's and alisha's and alicia's now, but she was the first one around here. i think mom saw the name on some jeans or something.

[Kristi]

My Grandma has a sister named Geraldine (Which you do here sometimes) But my Grandma's name is Glendine which I have never heard of or seen anywhere else

[Danielle]

Oh, I forgot, my mom is Glena- NOT Glenda. I don't hear that very often either.

[Beka]

I have several and most of them because I named them :rofl

my eldest daughter is Chase - blame the dc-marvel loving geek of a husband for the one

Jude is obviously biblical but little used here, his middle name of Zidane is what you get letting a final fantasy 9 playing 5.5 year old chose a middle name at 3am when you're in labour.

Dylan has a normal name, it's just usually a boy one... yes i like boy names for girls and i'd do it all again too (loks would have been Evan or Tate if he were a girl) my reason? I hate frilly, girly, traditional names for us.

Loki got that from David loving norse mythology, Jude having marvel super villain obsessions and my love of Kevin Smith films (and the fact my sister hated it :giggle ) his middle name of Auron- Chase gave him from final fantasy X as she said he's Judes sequel :giggle - apparently it also means mountain of strength- which is quite fitting as he was my largest baby.

I have a cousin called Xena (yep after the warrior princess) an uncle Marion, my nans middle name is Maude-Lluella, I have a nephew called Eden (which you hear mostly for girls here) and a niece called Clea-Kaur ... few other unusual ones too but only because they're muslim/pakistani names in the extended family.

[Desirae]

The only unusual one I can think of is Sean's second cousin Callahan. It just doesn't seem like a first name to me, but I am liking it more and more. lol

Oh wait, my cousins Aurora Borealis and Sky Jasmine... Those seem odd to some.

[Mary]

My Irish great-great grandmother was named Doten O'Hara.

John-Zachary's name is pretty unusual. I don't know that there's another one in the entire U.S. I Google the name occasionally and, so far, the only matches I can find are people whose first name is John and last name is Zachary. Obviously the names, by themselves, aren't unusual but the combination as a first name is very.

Dh and his brother have unusual ('unusual' in this case meaning 'awful') middle names. Dh's middle name is Hesketh and BIL's is Fell. *gag* They are family names; last names of people way back in the family tree. They used to name the first son in the family after the paternal grandfather so dh is Robert Hesketh J. II. If we'd followed tradition then JZ would be Frank Hesketh J. III. Umm....NO.

My step-grandmother (from Arkansas) is Merle Virginia. She goes by Virginia, though.

Oh, and one of my great-greats way back was named Delight Samantha Sheldon. :)

[Beka]

Mary Chase is in class with a girl named Comfort

[Jejune]

Most of the unusual names in my family are from the side that left the shtetl. Hendel, for example, which is a Yiddish nickname for Hannah. I can't remember some of the others, but there were some unusual names on that side.

There are a lot of unusual nicknames in my extended family. One branch goes exclusively by nicknames that sound very twee to me. Unusual enough nicknames that I will not mention them here, lest my family be especially vigilant at googling themselves. ;)

They're not unusual names, but my great grandfather and great grandmother were named Joe and Rose Kennedy. They were not THE Joe and Rose Kennedy, of course.

My sole first cousin is named Silver. She's a lovely person.

[Jenny]

interesting to ead all these. I am trying to think.... but can't think of any in my name.

Would Cornelius count? Its my brothers middle name and I actually love it. My mother's middle name is Constance These are kinda normal in Holland. My grandpa's name is Boen-Hoe not like the garden tool/skank, but "hoe" is pronounced "who". Its a chinese name. I guess I do have unusual names in my family. My uncle's name is Sin-Yan, but he goes by Jan, which is a normal Dutch first name for a male (its my Dad's name too).

My late uncle's first name was Anders and his daughters name is Fanny which is funny in English but common in Swedish.

[yummymommy]

I hadn't heard of any other Rylans when I named Rylan, but then at our old place there was a Rylan right across the street! Other then that though I haven't met any others. People always tell me Liam is an unusual name, I don't really think it is, but really I have never met another Liam that I can remember. My grandpa's name is Helmut which is very unusual over here, but not in Germany I guess. Everyone else has pretty normal names in my family!

[Danielle]

I know loads of Liam's Heather, from my age to babies. It's very common around here :).

[Jeri]

Mye is unusual. I go by Jeri, but my full first name is Jerianne. I've run into a few others, but usually with a different spelling or with two words. I was named after my Uncle Jerry (short for Gerald). My mom didn't like Geraldine and she has a cousin named Marianne, so she put them together. I also don't have a middle name at all, which isn't very common.

I don't think Liam is an an unusual name (I've met plenty, including one in my Liam's class with the same first initial of his last name), but people really seem to have trouble with it.

I've also met a couple other Rhiannons, but it is pretty uncommon. I have a hard time convincing people I didn't name her after the Fleetwood Mac song LOL.

Aidan is about the most common name in the world these days. I hope he doesn't hate me when he's in a class of 20 kids and 3 other boys and one girl have the same name as he does LOL.

[Jo]

My soon to be niece is going to be named Palamee. My SIL is Thai and it means something or other...can't remember what in Thai.

Mira is fairly unusual but not weird. I have only known one other Mira IRL and that was my grandma.

[Intuition]

Mine is unusual, and my dad's middle name is Llewelyn.

[Brooke]

All of our names are pretty common. The only "different' one is Alexander's nickname, which is Xander. Most people forget he's really an Alexander. LOL

My BIL is the only one with an uncommon name. It's Terron. (pronounced like "Turn-on" with the "n" in the middle)

[Amber]

My brother's wife's name is Brittan. Not BrittanY, just Brittan. That's kind of unusual. My paternal grandfather is named Carroll Don (rather odd for a man), and my maternal grandfather is named Parks Lester.

[Maggie]

Andy's grandpa's middle name is Ignatious. I thought it was hideous the first time I heard it, but I actually like how uncommon it is. It's starting to grow on me a bit, and I may even think about using it as a middle name should we ever have a boy.

[Jejune]

Maggie, I considered Ignatius or Ignacio as a possible middle name for a boy at some point. It may be a bit too unusual for me, though, and is probably too Catholic for an atheist to use.

[Maggie]

Kristen, is Ignatius the correct spelling? I've found conflicting answers. Andy's grandpa is Ignatious, but I've always wondered if it was the correct spelling.

[Erika]

My dad is Hungarian so we have a very unusual surname. And, all my siblings have Hungarian versions of normal names. Andras (Andrew), Jozsef (Joseph), Ilona (Helen) and dávid (David). My brother Andrew also has an unusual middle name - Béla.

My daughters name isn't exactly usual either. Well her actual name is - Alexandra. But the nickname we go by is and unusual form of it - Sasha.

[Faith]

I have a cousin with the first name Garcia...he was named after the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia. ;)

My sister's name is Sammie...not short for Samantha just Sammie!! :) My dad's name is Sam and he chose her name to be Sammie. The nurse in the hospital actually told my parents they couldn't just name her Sammie, because it wasn't a proper name. :lmao They got another nurse after that...;)

[ArmyDad]

My grandfathers middle name is elder that is about as crazy as it gets

[Kate]

Here we go...

My real name is Catriona (not desperately weird, but very Scottish, and very uncommon out here - plus no one can pronounce it or spell it)

My sister? Ailsa (see above comment)

My stepsister? Merrynda (a totally made up name, basically a take on Merryn)

And of course - Maia. She's never met another Maia, although I know it is getting more common, but I doubt it will ever make the top 100 name list.

[Brooke]

Kristen, is Ignatius the correct spelling? I've found conflicting answers. Andy's grandpa is Ignatious, but I've always wondered if it was the correct spelling.

Yup, the typical spelling is Ignatius. The high school I went to was St. Ignatius College Prep. :D

[Lisa]

Rhayan (ray-ann) is my daughter
My brother Eric's middle name is Hugh.
My dad's name is Norbert
Patrick's grandmothers middle name is Belle
His great grandmother's name was Garnet

[Christal]

My cousin named her daughter Vanian, pronounced Van-ee-an. I have no idea what it means :)

[Erika]

Kate, you would love it over here :D Catriona is a very common and pretty name here and we can pronounce it without having to think about it LOL

And Ailsa. As in Home And Away?(yes, I'm owning up to that :giggle).

[Kate]

You got it. Both names led to dramas at school for both of us.

[hillsturner]

I have an aunt named Willa and a nephew named Greyson.

My girlfriends father's middle name is Brumby, but I think it's common in cajun families to give their sons as a middle name their mothers maiden name. Does that make sense?

[AlexG]

Noah's middle name Fintan is very unusual over here - I've not met another and most people haven't heard of the name before. Thats all I can think of at the moment. We're pretty middle o the road round here ;)

[Drewsbabygirl]

I dont know if this is unusual or not, but my daughters name is Braylee Elexys (pronounced Alexis). And my sons name is common but spelled different than most and I have never seen it anywhere else. His name is Austin, spelled A-W-S-T-Y-N.

[giana]

Im Janina...Its common in Brasil but not here thats why I go by Jana. My oldest dd is Valentina which is a russian name and my youngest dd's middle name is Alix which is Alice in latin. My grandma is Dilva and my granpa Natalino both not so common italian names...And the coolest thing is that I have an uncle named Guido...I know its a racist slang to refer Italians in general but it makes me giggle since its so common in Italy.

[kcmomma]

Dh and FIL's middle name is Maynard. My niece's have alternate spellings of their names, Kathryn, Jordyn and Lauryn that I'm seeing more and more. My grandmother was Henrietta with a brother Henry, common at the time. My other grandmother is Minnie...and there wasn't a mouse around at that time. Other than that we've got pretty normal names...although I was the only person in my entire school district for 13 years with my name. I finally work with another...and it's pretty cool.

[stormy]

My sister's name is Siobhan - pronounced shiv-on. It's Gaelic. I absolutely love it and think it's beautiful but she gets a ton of mispronounciations of course.

It has a funny story behind it too. My mom's family is Irish and after she named me Danielle my uncle sent her a plant with a tag that read "what the hell kind of Irish is Danielle?". So when she had my sister she wanted an Irish name (not just because of my uncle). One of her nurses in the hospital was from Ireland and made a list of Gaelic names for her and that was the one she and my dad picked.

It's unusual here, but getting more popular. She's met a few other Siobhans now.

[Shana]

My dad is Wesley Norman. Not too common. I have no clue as to why my grandma named him that. My brother named his first son Wesley however, and my sister's youngest son is Noah Wesley. Soooo, we are carrying on the tradition of the name Wesley, even though we have no clue where it came from LOL

[Danielle]

My sister's name is Siobhan - pronounced shiv-on. It's Gaelic. I absolutely love it and think it's beautiful but she gets a ton of mispronounciations of course.


I love the name Siobhan, I also love Roisin (ro-sheen).

[Val]

The strangest one I can think of is my fil who has the same first and last name- like Tom Tomson. It's not surprising that he goes by his middle name.

[stormy]

Me too Danielle! I considered it if we had a girl.

[Jessa]

George's grandpa was Cassiano (which I love) and his mom is Bonita. Of course, he's George, which hasn't been popular for boys in ages, but he's the IV'th in the line of them; the line which we put a halt to when we decided to go with Caleb. We did keep George as the middle name though. Lorelei was at the time we used it mostly unusual, but I've seen more and more of them, or at least seen people considering it.

[cglow9]

My son is Alexander Angus (hideous husbands last name).

Because of the strong Scottish last name (most of which are NOT UGLY) we thought oh, what the heck. Go large. So he got Angus as a middle name.

[almsthr]

Wow, this has turned out to be a very interesting topic.

[sophiechat]

My grand father name was Bernardin.It's the only one I could think of! ;)

[Sam]

I am having an Esme, not sure if that is uncommon or not? I know it is over here.

[wendygrace]

DD is Danae, which was unusual when we picked it but has become more common.

Dh is Bruce which is unusual for our age but his parents were in their 50's when they had him.

My mother's middle name is Maris which is unusual and I like it and considered it as Danae's middle name.

My sister's middle name is Paola which you don't hear very often.

Nothing too far fetched but a lot of mildly unusual's in my family.