#8: "just another kid among the other 10..." always seemed weird to me. There are tons of notable Peter's, John's, Anne's, and Olivia's in the world. The converse is of course the mistaken idea that a remarkable or unique name makes a remarkable or unique person and at least anecdotally in my life I've seen more young people find difficulty in the attention given to their uncommon name than I have people finding difficulty being unnoticed for having a common one.
#9: As parents you actually have a ton of control over nicknames when the child is small. I know a number of Jonathans who don't go by Jon, Joshuas who don't go by Josh, Daniels who don't go by Danny, etc. You 100% can't manage the names people use to TEASE your child (as you addressed in earlier points) but you can teach your child and those around them that initially you and then ultimately your child does have ownership of how their name is used.
Agree with the rest of your list, just wanted to give my 2c on those two!
I have a somewhat unusual name that's related to a common name. Think Jeremiah. Even though I have that as my email address and sign off as Jeremiah, people frequently reply to me as Jeremy or Jerry or even Jer.
Yeah you sort of have ownership of your name, but people are still going to butcher it or abuse it if there's opportunity.
Just don't do it. Nobody is going to use it and it will mess up when you have to fill forms.
Common uses of middle names in the UK include to give a child a name of a God-parent or other significant non-family person, or to record the mother's maiden name, or to give an alternative name a child can use (if they prefer that name) later in life without having to change their name, or to disambiguate (John Frederick Smith, son of John David Smith, son of John James Smith -- they might all go by John outside of the family and be Freddy, Dai, and Jim at home, for example).
Middle names (especially unusual ones) make name collisions much less likely.
This is an underrated reason for a middle name.
Even worse is that where I am from there is no legal way to get rid of it (and believe me - I tried). This means that until the end of my life I am stuck with a name that no-one uses, I personally very much dislike, I always have to enter in forms and can't get rid of.
Kayode (no accent) is from Africa. I’m white. Oops. Also Lycaon is short for Lycaon pictus… African Wild Dog. Double oops on the first name.
And confusing!
Having my name as a kid was horrible! I was constantly harassed and made fun of for it.
As an adult, it rocks! Close enough to other names to be familiar, but different enough to be memorable.
Part of the problem was that we wanted a name that would work in both english and spanish, and wasn't too popular or trendy.
I found that I hated most boy names, especially the ones that are trendy today (Aiden, Jaiden, Zaiden).
Feel free to name your kids whatever you want, but here is my advice to anyone who is trying to name a child:
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1. Do not tell anyone what the name will be before the child is born. They will try to talk you out of it.
2. If your family is not a native speaker of your language then present them with a list of a bunch of names that also includes the ones you want. Then ask them to pronounce all the names. That will let you know if your family will be able to accurately pronounce the name.
3. If you are going to give them a middle name make sure that their initials don't spell out something embarrassing like Carl Otis Winslow.
4. Do a google search of your child's first and last name so you don't accidentally name them after a serial killer or some other controversial person. Also google their initials so you don't accidentally name them after a company or a chemical.
5. Consider how their first name can used against them by other kids. Does it rhyme with something? Is there some famous fictional character with the same name?
6. Try to delay giving your child a name for as long as you can before leaving the hospital. This will give you time to decide which name best fits this person who is now in the world. (I thought I would name my son one thing, but decided that he didn't 'look' like some one with that name)
7. Do not leave the hospital without naming the child (unless you have a good reason to do this). I know some one who waited a month to name their child and they wouldn't recommend doing this.
8. Consider how popular the name is. Most of the names in the top 10 are popular for a reason, they tend to be good names, but do you want your kid to have a unique name, or just another kid among the other 10 Liams and Olivias in their class?
9. People are going to give your kid a nickname the instant they are born, whether you like it or not. Are you okay with people calling your kid Bobby, Danny, Mikey, etc? If not then consider a different name.