unusual names for children these days:

A minister I knew went to Africa some years ago, where he met Helicopter and Jam Sandwich! The parents just liked the sound of the words.

I knew someone who called her daughter Tuppence.She really liked the sound of the name Semolina but changed her mind at the last moment.I also knew someone once who was called Rainbow (his surname was Sky )his mother having been descended from a Red Indian.I rather like this combination of names.

I used to work with a woman called Misery and another Memory.

Perhaps Moth and Cobweb are named after the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Lots of countries have either an approved list of first names or a list of names that may not be used. I think Germany is very strict about names being gender specific. New Zealand bans all names that are also titles, such as Prince, Count and Earl.

I like a bit of originality in a name, but I think that original middle names might be best, giving choice to reveal and use (or not) as the owner prefers. Three of my grandchildren have unusual middle names - Ruby Anna Love, Theo Felix Rock and Bruno Felix Brave. I like the idea that these more unusual names may reflect their characters as they grow up.

I have the two dull middle names of Kathleen Margaret and went to great pains not to mention them when I was growing up. I would have willingly swapped them for a Tinkerbell or a Tigerlily just to be exotically different. Is it too late now I'm nearly 60?

Haha! Think I have said on another thread my DGSs middle names are road names of significance to their parents: Hamilton & Hallam!
I have taught children with unusual names: Bless Me, Button and Lark being the ones I remember most! I do not have a middle name and wished I had added one when I changed my surname name by deed poll! Only cost about £17 at the time

My name is fairly unusual and I always felt uncomfortable having to 'own up' to it. My surname was not easy for people to get right either. I loved it when someone decided that I should be called Kitty and was sorry that it didn't last.

DD3 has come up with a corker for her second if it's a girl - we hope it's a boy - although we don't know what she is thinking of for that! [worriedemoticon]

Oh dear. I've always been glad I'm just Plain Jane.
We gave our children solid British names (one each) - someone once said 'What regal names your children have'. The thinking being they could always adopt a bizarre name if they so wished.
I suppose if all the children in the class have names which would have been considered unconventional 20 years ago, they won't feel different from anyone else, so in a way it's come full circle.

I named my daughter after my favourite place.she was supposed to have been conceived there, but it turned out to be her brother and we didn't think he'd like being called Venetia!

I knew a boy called Hawthorn because he was conceived under a hawthorn bush - thank goodness it was not a rose bush!

I also temporarily looked a fter a girl whose middle names were Railway Station because she was born on a station.

My neighbour's boy is called Clay, and their D is called Sky. I always find I have to stop myself calling the little boy Mud when I am trying to remember his name!

I am not keen on these weird names - it makes life at school more difficult than it needs to be. Better to keep them as middle names if you cannot resist including them - though why you would wish to defeats me!

There was a case where a child applied to the courts to change her name from the one that her parents gave her, which was Tallulah Does The Hula In Hawaii

I can remember being flabbergasted years ago, when I read that the actor David Carradine had named his baby son Free Seagull. Don`t these people stop to think of how their children will feel about these names in years to come?

And I thought my grandchildren, Antigone, Cassius and Atticus had unusual names!

Brilliant thread. In all my years antenatal teaching the weirdest I came across was Strontium.

Seven Greek?

I remember a lady called Conceptual, she had about 14 children!

extra L got in there somehow!

Must be the Bristol accent coming out!

The worst I have come across (not at liberty to say where) was Ikea.

My second GD has the middle name Ophelia which I think is very pretty, but hope isn't an omen. My first sister and I have middle names which are respectively my paternal and maternal grannies' maiden names. I'd never thought of calling a child after the place of conception. If I had, DS1 would be Kahawa which also happens to be Swahili for coffee.

If I'd done that with Venetia shed be Walsall!

I think the Beckhams have a lot to answer for - Brooklyn

We've talked about naming children after their place of conception before. Apart from this being too much information, even in the case of Florence Nightingale, I shudder every time I realise that I might have been called Clacton.

If I had named mine where they were conceived both of them would be called Ilford!

My sister would have been Aberyswyth.