I’d be interested in people’s thoughts/experiences, on whether people with more unusual names are more or less likely to go with conventional/popular/safer choices when they have their children, or whether it has no impact at all.
By unusual names, I mean either just names that are rarely used (like maybe not even in the top 1000), made up names, unisex names where the name is more commonly used on the opposite gender, gender bending names, etc, etc.
I have a somewhat unusual name (I believe it was in the 300’s when I was born, and it’s slightly lower now), and I think it’s made me realize that rankings are pretty arbitrary. I didn’t meet a single person who shared my name until I got to college, and then it seemed like I was meeting someone else with my name every other day. There had to have been at least a dozen of us. It really put things into perspective- statistically, I should have encountered only a few (maybe 1 or 2) women who shared my name every year. Instead, I knew literally NO ONE with my name, and then over a dozen all within my first year of college (about half of them I knew pretty well). That experience has made me more wary of rankings- in life, they really don’t mean too much. So now, I’m equally likely to consider [name]Isabella[/name] or [name]Isis[/name]- for me, it just comes down to what I like, not popularity ranking.
An even greater affect my name has had on me is the fact that it is, technically and etymologically, a male name (in addition to being a rare surname). I remember being in fourth grade absolutely MORTIFIED in science class when learning about a man who shared my name. The name now is really only used on girls (it hasn’t been in the top 1000 for boys in nearly 100 years), but I still don’t like that it isn’t a feminine name. I’m proud of my femininity, I consider it a part of who I am as a person, and I wish I had a name that reflected that. I wouldn’t give a daughter a male name for that reason.
Not sure really! I’ll let you decide: My name is Evalda and my kids names are [name]Daisy[/name] [name]Hannah[/name] and [name]Joel[/name] [name]Matthew[/name]!
I personally as a kid disliked have an unusual name mainly because it was always mispronounced and I got fed up with correcting people so ended up shortening it into something more familiar ([name]Val[/name])! However, the nickname has stuck and I do go almost exclusively as [name]Val[/name] now even though I do prefer my full name. My kids have names which are not extremely popular but that everyone will recognise. They are both still babies so I can’t tell you their reactions!
I’ve been thinking about this topic over the last few weeks, as we try to pick a girl’s name for our baby.
My name, [name]Annalise[/name], was very uncommon growing up, it didn’t break the top 1,000 until I was about 20, and it’s just now becoming common enough that I’ve actually seen a couple of birth announcements with my name. My husband’s name, on the other hand, is [name]David[/name]. It was number 4 the year he was born. We’ve both always loved our names.
Our sons both got very traditional names, [name]Jonathan[/name] and [name]Carlos[/name], in the top 100, but not the top 10. For a girl we’re running into a problem. My husband thinks that [name]Elizabeth[/name] is great, but I want her to have something more unusual. Growing up with a unique name, I seem to feel that my daughter should have her own unique name as well. It will be interesting to see how we end up compromising between familiar and uncommon.
That will be interesting for sure. I hope you tell us 
Is one possibility to go with a less common name that can be reduced to a more common nickname?
I think we’re going to end up reaching back in time. Right now [name]Agnes[/name] is a name that we’re both really liking. [name]Augusta[/name] and [name]Penelope[/name] have been discussed as well.