So, I love unusual names, but I don’t want them to be TOO unusual.
What are your opinions on:
[name_f]Genevieve[/name_f]
Gwenaelle
[name_f]Arianwyn[/name_f]
[name_f]Ophelia[/name_f]
[name_f]Wilhelmina[/name_f]
[name_m]Soren[/name_m]
[name_m]Lars[/name_m]
[name_m]Birch[/name_m]
[name_m]Galileo[/name_m]
Marik
[name_m]Just[/name_m] tell me whether you think they’re too unsual, too long, etc! Thanks!
I personally think that all of those names are usable. [name_f]Genevieve[/name_f] is not unusual at all: I know four different Genevieves and have heard of several more. [name_f]Ophelia[/name_f] and [name_f]Wilhelmina[/name_f] are also not that unusual. [name_f]Arianwyn[/name_f] I’ve seen, spelled with an e instead of a y and Gwenaelle is the only name I haven’t seen. Still, it seems close enough to a lot of other names.
[name_m]Lars[/name_m] is actually quite popular, depending on where you live. [name_m]Galileo[/name_m], [name_m]Soren[/name_m], and [name_m]Birch[/name_m] I’ve seen around, but I don’t know anyone with those names. Marik to me is spelled [name_m]Merrick[/name_m]. So yeah, all usable to me. But then, I like it when people are creative and not copycats of others.
trina14 thanks! I’m guessing we live in different sides of the country, because out of my list the only name I’d ever encountered was [name_f]Ophelia[/name_f]! But good to know that the names aren’t too unusual because although I want my next child to have a unique name, I don’t want it to be too hard to pronounce or spell!
None are too unusual! I love them all honestly. They’re all beautiful names, and they’re all familiar to me, with the exception of [name_m]Birch[/name_m], it’s a rare nature name. All kids are different so the name can be as well 
Nowadays people are naming their children all kinds of names and I think that’s a good thing, so go with your instinct!
theresa thanks! And I do really love the way [name_m]Birch[/name_m] just reminds me of the [name_m]Birch[/name_m] tree! I also have a friend with a cat named [name_m]Birch[/name_m] but that’s the only person/animal I’ve ever met with the name!
Np! And same for me. I’ve never heard it as a name before but I think it’s beautiful!
I would only avoid Gwenaelle and [name_f]Arianwyn[/name_f] b.c. they sound made up, would always be misspelled and mispronounced, and look misspelled anyway.
[name_f]Ophelia[/name_f] to me is like naming your son [name_m]Orestes[/name_m] or [name_m]Judas[/name_m] or your daughter [name_f]Medea[/name_f] or [name_f]Niobe[/name_f].
I like the others.
From your list I like:
[name_f]Genevieve[/name_f]
[name_f]Arianwyn[/name_f]
[name_f]Ophelia[/name_f]
[name_f]Wilhelmina[/name_f]
[name_m]Soren[/name_m]
[name_m]Galileo[/name_m]
Marik
I have never seen Gwenaelle, the pronunciation seems a little ambiguous, and it does somehow look misspelled. I think you’d get a lot of weird pronunciations and incorrectly addressed birthday cards.
I have seen and heard [name_f]Arianwyn[/name_f], but only spelled [name_f]Arianwen[/name_f]; I don’t necessarily think it makes it easier to decipher, but I do prefer the E ending. I also think you might get some weird pronunciations here.
Other than that, none of these are unusable or “too unusual.” Honestly, some of them are pretty tame.
I don’t think any of them are overly unusual - I love the less common/typical kind of names myself. All of these (with the exception of Gwenaelle perhaps which is a lot less known) are fairly recognisable and relatively easy for the average person to remember the pronunciation and spelling of.
Thank you to all who replied! I know a lot of the names aren’t too unusual, but I wanted to see if anyone thought they were a bit out-there! Gwenaelle was a name that I found on another baby-naming website, and I know it sounds a bit made-up, maybe it would be better with a different spelling? Same with [name_f]Arianwyn[/name_f], even though I like the ‘wyn’ ending it may be better to change it to ‘wen’ for the sake of pronounciation, spelling, etc! And, [name_f]Ophelia[/name_f] is a little tragic, so that one’s gone down the list a lot of places! I recently found the name ‘[name_f]Aurelia[/name_f]’, and I think it seems a bit less tragic than [name_f]Ophelia[/name_f], so I might use that instead! Also, I’m not very good at boys’ names, so that may be the reason some of the ones I thought were unusual were actually a bit more common!
Gwenaelle
[name_f]Arianwyn[/name_f]
Only these two girl names are unusual
[name_m]Birch[/name_m]
[name_m]Galileo[/name_m]
Marik
Only these three are unusual
Others are normal usable names
NOT too unusual:
Too unusual:
Wow I didn’t even notice the [name_m]Birch[/name_m] to the swear word similarity! Thanks for pointing it out! Also thanks to everyone who responded to this thread!