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Unusual
Baby Names

Crombie Jardine
PUBLISHING LIMITED
Office 2
3 Edgar Buildings
George Street
Bath
BA1 2FJ

www.crombiejardine.com

This edition first published by
Crombie Jardine Publishing Limited in 2010

Copyright 2010, Stewart Ferris

Written by Stewart Ferris

All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

eISBN 978-0-85765-658-2

Contents

Introduction

Unusual Names for Boys

Unusual Names for Girls

Unusual Names for Boys or Girls

Appendices

Top 10 Names for Most Intelligent Boys

Top 10 Names for Most Intelligent Girls

Top 10 Names for Most Popular Boys in the Classroom
Top 10 Names for Most Popular Girls in the Classroom
Top 10 Names for Baby Boys
Top 10 Names for Baby Girls

"Any child can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name is so he can tell when he's really in trouble."
Dennis Frakes

Introduction

I F you want to give someone a name that will stand out for life, look no further than this book. Each of these names has been carefully researched and selected for its originality, rarity, beauty, poetry, meaning, symbolism, humour, or for its downright weirdness. Growing up with one of the names in this book will not be run-of-the-mill. Carrying an unusual name is like having a head start towards celebrity, a label that identifies a person as being special.

Why bother to give a name that is so common that it has to be shared amongst whole swathes of the population when you could choose a name that is so rare that it seems to be reserved for one person alone? How many times have you met someone called 'Golden', or 'Otis', or 'Marmaduke'? Some celebrities don't need to be referred to by both names: when their first name is sufficient for everyone to know who it is, that's the sign of an unusual name. Ringo doesn't need 'Starr'. Elvis didn't need 'Presley'.

Remember that the name given to a child determines their identity for life. It also determines how other people will perceive them. Names have connotations and associations that force preconceptions upon their innocent bearers. Parents usually take care to avoid names that have obvious bullying or teasing potential (celebrities are the exception to this rule), and that is why potential nicknames are listed with each name in this book. But it's vital to remember that the inventiveness, creativity and sheer ability of children to tease their friends in the playground knows no bounds.

A name that is entirely innocuous at birth, with no known teasing potential whatsoever, can become a source of ridicule a few years down the line due to the arrival of a notoriously dumb sitcom or film character with that name. Even advertising campaigns can change the perception of a name: imagine being called 'Humphrey' in Britain during the 1970s Unigate milk promotion ('Watch out, watch out, there's a Humphrey about').

In deciding what constitutes an 'unusual' name (in the context of English-speaking countries), it would have been easy simply to raid the phone books of exotic lands and fill this tome with Chinese, African and Inuit names. Whilst there are inevitably many names that are of foreign origin in this collection, what I have attempted to do is to restrict the listings to those names which have some degree of familiarity due to their relevance to the culture and history of English-speaking lands.

There are many wonderful names that are familiar to us from the works of Shakespeare yet which rarely see the light of day in the modern world. There are historic people from the Romans to the Victorians whose names trip off the tongue in a delightful way when rediscovered. There are Biblical names that are wonderfully evocative and poetic. Additionally, there is a new category of unusual names spawned by celebrities who seem to have a knack for finding (or coining) bizarre and interesting names for their children.

'Unusual' in this book therefore doesn't exclusively mean names you won't have heard before. The hope is that most of the names are ones that are rarely encountered in daily life and which will trigger a pleasant reminder of something long forgotten.

Unusual Names for Boys

Abraham

Origin and meaning

Hebrew origin, meaning 'father of many nations'.

The descendants of the Biblical Abraham are said to include both the Arab and the Israeli nations. Abraham Lincoln, President, and Abraham Simpson, cartoon character, are the best known American examples of the name.

Potential nickname alert

Abe, Ham, Hamster.

Adolf

Origin and meaning

German origin, meaning 'noble wolf'.

The name is now tainted by its association with Hitler, making it an extremely unusual name for anyone born since 1945.

Potential nickname alert

Fhrer, Hitler, One-ball.

Agamemnon

Origin and meaning

Greek origin, meaning 'resolute'.

In Greek mythology Agamemnon is a hero, and appears as a character in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.

Potential nickname alert

Aggie.

Aladdin

Origin and meaning

Arabic origin, meaning 'nobility of faith'.

Aladdin is one of the ancient stories told in the collection known as The Arabian Nights, and is now best known as a Disney animated film and a popular pantomime theme.

Potential nickname alert

Al, Laddie.

Alonso

Origin and meaning

German origin, meaning 'noble and ready for war'.

The name is associated with a character from Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Potential nickname alert

Al, Lonny.

Aloysius

Origin and meaning

German origin, meaning 'famous soldier'.

Also the name of a teddy bear that features in Evelyn Waugh's 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited.

Potential nickname alert

Louis, Delicious.

Alvin

Origin and meaning

Old English origin, meaning 'friend of elves'.

Other than Alvin Stardust, the name is best remembered for its association with animated chipmunks.

Potential nickname alert

Al, Vino, Vinny, Chipmunk.

Apollo

Origin and meaning

Greek origin, referring to the Greek and Roman god of music, medicine and enlightenment.

The Apollo space programme succeeded in landing twelve men on the moon and bringing them safely home.

Potential nickname alert

Polo, Pillow.

Aramis

Origin and meaning

French origin, first coined by Alexandre Dumas in his novel The Three Musketeers as the name of one of the protagonists in that book. Also the name of a brand of fragrance.

Potential nickname alert

Miss, Ari.

Archibald

Origin and meaning

German/French origin, meaning 'faithful' or 'brave'.

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