Curious for those who have what would be a considered a unique name, has it cause any issues in daily life? Would you have preferred a regular name? And for those with what would be considered a regular name, do you wish you had a unique name??
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I can relate to this. [name_f]My[/name_f] given name isn’t necessarily unique, but isn’t as common as say, the name [name_f]Jessica[/name_f]. I would love to have a unique name! But I’ve heard that it can cause problems for people in everyday life. I read a post where a girl liked her unique name, however she was very easily found on name finder sites where it can show personal address and place of employment. Her name was the only one in existence her country. Crazy!
[name_f]My[/name_f] name was considered unique when I was growing up and then boomed in popularity, so I’ve kind of been on both sides. I wish my name hadn’t become super popular. When I was growing up, I got compliments on my name constantly. It’s not that I need compliments, but it was fun when my name was exciting, and now it’s considered boring. It’s funny, though, because I didn’t like my name growing up, because I thought it was too girly 
[name_f][/name_f] I guess the grass is always greener on the other side.
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It was a Reddit post so I know she wouldn’t have posted it on there. Lol
[name_f]My[/name_f] answer is: it really depends!
[name_f][/name_f]Where I live (Greece) my name is really unique (I’ve never met anyone else with my name, other than my grandmother who I was named after). But it has a lot of familiar sounds! So it’s unique without being “strange”. I get a lot of compliments on it when I introduce myself.
[name_f][/name_f]On the other hand, when I lived in the UK my name was still unique but[name_f][/name_f] the sound of it was unfamiliar, and in that case it made me uncomfortable having to constantly explain the spelling/pronunciation.
[name_f][/name_f]TLDR, I think unique names are great and quite easy to live with, as long as they still feel grounded and familiar
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Heya
[name_f][/name_f]Great question!
[name_f][/name_f]I do not have a rare name but my daughter is [name_f]Lilia[/name_f] and it’s relatively rare despite being a variant of [name_f]Lily[/name_f] and the increased usage of [name_f]Liliana[/name_f]. Anyways as mama to three year old [name_f]Lilia[/name_f] I feel I have experience in regards to this so here are my answers
[name_f][/name_f]We have said some instances of difficulty where her name was mispronounced/butchered so badly in A&E that I didn’t respond to her name being called out which means we have on more than one occasion waited longer for treatment then necessary. Aside from that no other issues concerning her name.
[name_f][/name_f]I have had moments of name regret and have wished I had given her a universally classic choice that feels mainstream in an [name_f]English[/name_f] classroom. When I’ve experienced feedback of ‘oh that’s rare’ or ‘how do I say that name?’ or ‘never gonna get this one so I’ll call her Lily’ a nickname I do rely on to prevent butchering and create an easier life when encountering the general public this regret deepens. However on the whole I love Lilia!! [name_f]My[/name_f] girl suits her name.
[name_f][/name_f]I cannot imagine myself being called anything other than [name_f]Victoria[/name_f]. I do like my name and wouldn’t change it for a rarer option mainly because of familiarity.
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I have a religious name from my parents’ home country, so where I live, it’s very unfamiliar and hard to pronounce for some. (I don’t know about how popular it currently is in my parents’ home country, but it is like the equivalent of [name_f]Mary[/name_f] or [name_m]Joseph[/name_m] in the US). It doesn’t cause big issues, but there are endless spelling mistakes and pronunciation errors (to the point that there are two almost distinctive pronunciations of my name, the family (correct) version, and the “outside” version). Pair that with a hard to pronounce (in English) last name, and my name is butchered and misspelled all the time. I like my name and its significance to me and my family, and I definitely wouldn’t change it though.
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My name is pronounced as [name_f]Michelle[/name_f], but it is a rare spelling that is extremely differently for most people I come across to comprehend – and I think there are 6 six different pronunciations depending on where your family is from. When looking at it, no one can pronounce it. When attempting to spell it, even when spelling it out for them, most people can’t spell it (even my dad can’t spell it 9/10 of the time – and he’s the one who gave me the spelling). It didn’t help in school when I was younger (I had a teacher who gave out prize every hour on the hour if she got your name wrong during the previous hour and I got something every hour for a year except one – she didn’t even try to say my name during that hour). When I go into places and have to sign in, when I’m being called up (think: doctor’s office, jury duty, etc.), I’m addressed by my last name only after I watch them triple check the name (and I even worked in one of those places).
That said, I prefer a nickname for most people except those who are close to me. It saves time and prevents the people at work from struggling to find me on paper or how to address me when looking at a name tag or signature. I worked somewhere for 6 years with the same 20 people… and they didn’t know who I was on paper when I was leaving.
When I was younger, I wanted to change my name (even if it was only the spelling). I wasn’t allowed until I was 21 per my family. By that time, I was struggling to stand on my own two feet and couldn’t afford to pay the fees to do so. While I can’t imagine a different spelling now, I simply choose to go by a nickname due to the familial issues it would cause now. If I had to do it all over again, I would have found a way to change my name’s spelling at 21 to something more normal for my pronunciation.
Due to my struggles, I have decided that, when naming my own children, their names will be familiar names that are easy to spell. We won’t be doing a rare spelling, even if there are a multiple spelling variations for it (both standard and rare). In addition, I will not be putting names that either I (or my SO) can’t easily spell on my (our) children as that wouldn’t be fair to them or to us. Also, the pronunciation has to be fairly straight forward; I know there are variations based on where you are in the world, and I don’t mind that, but I want a fairly straight forward pronunciation for the areas we are in most (not 20 pronunciations for 1 spelling).
If anyone is thinking of unique names, I would recommend not doing so. If you are giving a standard pronunciation, don’t try to be cute (read: unique) by spelling the name differently (I’m not speaking of international spellings of the same name). While it may suit your love of having your child not be 1 of ## in their school or friend group on paper, it is a headache because so many people look at it and don’t bother to even attempt it most of the time. Pick a name that is spelled normally, even if it is rarer in your area. Make it a name that your child can easily be identified by as they will often be relating to people who may expect perfection in their own names from other people, but will often not return the same courtesy.
If you are thinking of a unique spelling (again, not an international variation of the name), go into a Starbucks (or somewhere that deals with names all day long) multiple times and test out the name. Have them put the name you’re considering, spelling and all, on the cup and see if they even attempt to pronounce it. If they can’t easily or don’t even try, you might want to try a different name or a different spelling (you might opt for the international variation of the spelling that is unique to your area).
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[name_f][/name_f]
Micarah Tewers on YouTube has mentioned having similar problems with being easy to look up. This is why for my own future kid’s first names I won’t use anything that doesn’t show up on the extended SSA data because if its being used less than five times a year then it’s definitely too rare for them to be able to be anonymous and my list generally tends to be more in the high middle region of the data anyways so this rule works out.
[name_f][/name_f][name_f]My[/name_f] own name is very common but I didn’t actually know that until I was in my late teens, so I grew up being the only on in my area and then kind of had the disappointing surprise of “oh, its not actually special” later which sucked but I do still like my name. Im not sure how I would feel about it if I had been dealing with being one of multiples in my class my entire life. I imagine I wouldn’t have felt my name was special, might have felt it suited me but have felt pretty neutral towards it, or might have resented having to be “Sam last-initial” my whole life and ended up disliking my name for being boring. I do appreciate that my name is easy to say and spell, I have friends with equally common names that have multiple common spellings and having to spell their name all the time is super annoying for them.
[name_f][/name_f]Ultimately, for future kids I absolutely will avoid anything truly unique in the interest of privacy and safety, I have a strong preference for things that won’t require very much spelling or pronunciation correction, and while I intend to avoid super common names, I’ve survived it so I know its not the end of the world if a popular name happens to be The Name.
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My name is extremely unique. I believe I’m one of less than 5 people in the entire US (can’t remember the website that had this data to re-confirm) and it’s not a name anywhere else either. Maybe five or so people have said it correctly on the first try in my 25 years of life. It’s really not difficult, but people make it harder than it needs to be because it’s so unfamiliar. People often struggle getting the pronunciation of my name down upon meeting me. I frequently get called completely different names by people I’ve met a few times (or they just don’t remember it, but I don’t think that’s usually an issue with my name, a lot of people struggle to remember names).
I hated my name for a very long time and wanted to change it when I was old enough. I have a lot of posts on here from 7/8 years ago about it haha. While all of this bothered me a lot growing up, it hasn’t really the last 5 or so years. I don’t mind my name and the issues with it really aren’t that big of a deal to me anymore.
I think for my own children, I would prefer to go with a unique, but familiar name (although my love for a name trumps its popularity).
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@m-jadey[name_f][/name_f] honestly I think any name that isn’t mainstream like [name_m]Smith[/name_m] or [name_f]Patel[/name_f] has the ability to be butchered. [name_f]My[/name_f] daughter has the first name [name_f]Lilia[/name_f] with a complicated hyphenated surname which consists of one [name_m]East[/name_m] African name and one Gaelic name but she goes by her [name_m]East[/name_m] African surname predominantly. Anyways I think even with her mainstream completely unbutcherable middle names her name is a lot[name_f][/name_f] for many people. It’s challenging but honestly I’m trying to install pride in my daughter about her heritage/identity which includes her name.
[name_f][/name_f]However your situation is different you have intense emotions about your name and it doesn’t feel right for you so you should change it. You finding a name for yourself will create a new identity that you can sit and you’ll feel happy with even if you have to correct a more unique name a lot! Anyways wishing you all the best with choosing a new name 
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[name_f]My[/name_f] name isn’t unique per se (Amelia, a very common name in my birth year) however I have a nickname that I go by that isn’t really traditional for that name (Emmy). A lot of people get the wrong idea when I say my full name and think I chose something different on purpose. I do wish my parents had went with the [name_f]Emilia[/name_f] spelling or nicknamed me [name_f]Amy[/name_f]. It gets confusing for people in everyday life when they don’t know my full name and assume it’s [name_f]Emily[/name_f] or [name_f]Emmeline[/name_f]. It always bugs me a bit inside when I see people on here using very stretchy nicknames because for me it’s caused a big disconnect from my birth name that i wish I didn’t have. I am planning to get my name legally changed to [name_f]Emilia[/name_f] at some point.
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[name_f][/name_f]
I know the feeling. [name_f]My[/name_f] first name is rare enough, but I have come to find out there are only two of us in the world with the same FN LN combo, both from the same country. I was born into the name combo, while she married into it. [name_f][/name_f] Come to find out (thanks, LinkedIn) that she is from the general vicinity my mom’s side of the family is from.
[name_f][/name_f]Absolutely crazy!
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Whoah!!! 
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[name_f]My[/name_f] name is [name_f]Valerie[/name_f]. I have never met one [name_f]Valerie[/name_f] except for a 5 year old in my kindergarten class that I cadet teach at. I like not having to share a name. I am unique and usually no one has to ask me how to spell my FIRST name (last name is different). I love my name and its very vintage and unique. I don’t have to be known as the second of someone and that’s great! Overall very happy!
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