The names Oliver & Amelia share the top spots for 2015 name choices, according to The Office for National Statistics figures. Looking at the lists, they’re very similar to previous years, and there are many names of newborn babies on there that I’ve photographed!

But Amelia features in this article in the Guardian as being a name that mothers often regret (no doubt because they then find that there are 3 more Amelias in their nursery class). I often wonder with the wackier names that parents pick out, will they later regret the name choice? These parents renamed their children’s names, mainly because people couldn’t pronounce the name correctly – These Parents Changed Their Child’s Unusual Name Because No One Could Pronounce It

When I had my first born, a daughter, I was working as a teacher and I associated so many names with children I’d taught. However, we had picked out William for a boy and Isabelle for a girl. So Isabelle it was. Yet, just two years later we had a son but we had changed our minds on the very traditional name, William. Instead, I’d begun looking for more unusual names. But it was tricky, to get the balance of finding a unique name that wasn’t too crazy and a name that he may grow to resent us for giving him! But when we found the name Cohen, we knew we’d found our son’s name.

Now, eight years on, I do still love the name Cohen but there are most definitely some drawbacks to having a more unique name

1) my own Dad pronounces it wrong!

2) Cohen can never find any personalised pencils, books, bookmarks etc with his name on in gift shops

3) his name is often spelled incorrectly

But there are benefits to having a more unusual name:

1. there’s unlikely to be more than one in a class at school (unlike the many Sarahs that I shared my name with in school)
2. it gives a child a sense of uniqueness – so if you want your child to stand out from the crowd, be independent, and a real individual, a unique name is one way to show him that you value those qualities
3. people remember you more – and that can only be a good thing for job interviews!

 

Did you choose a different name for your child? If so, leave a comment about why you choose the name that you did and have you noticed any benefits for your child?!