When Darin and I were looking for a name for our first child, we finally decided upon Sophia, because it means “wisdom,” because it’s beautiful, and because it’s not that common.
Well, two out of three ain’t bad.
Uncommon names aren’t so very much so anymore. The name Sophia is part of a trend towards old-fashioned feminine names — just today in the park there was a Sophie (of course), a Gabriella, and an Arabella. My niece Madeline is unlikely to be the only Madeline in her class.
There are quite a few Sophias out there, and even more Sophies. Fia gets called “Soph” and “Sophie” all the time; she usually stares at whoever’s calling her that until they use “Sophia.” The nickname Fia suits her so much — to me it speaks of being “defiant” and “fiery,” and reminiscent of the French word for proud, “fier.”
Boys don’t seem to have as wide a range of name choices. In Sophia’s preschool class there are two Maxes, and there are only 12 kids in the class. Max is over, okay? Same thing with Jack. Go to a playground, yell out “Jack!” and count how many kids turn around.
So far we haven’t run across too many Simons. In fact, so far: none. Well, except in Britain. Everyone who works on Teletubbies is evidently named Simon.
Some friends of mine named their boy Atticus, which is wonderful and unusual. Surprisingly, I have discovered three or four other Attici.
Today in the park there was also a boy named Seneca. A few years ago I knew a woman whose son was named Demetrius.
Other unusual names: I’ve met one girl named Symphony, a boy named Neo (I didn’t ask his mother whether she took that name from The Matrix or not), and a girl named Brontë, as in Charlotte, Anne, and/or Emily.
I have a friend whose stepson was named Ocean (I have since run into a few other Oceans) and whose son is Horizon. I thought Horizon was an odd name at the time, but you know what? Now I think it’s kind of neat. Also, they live in Northern California, where he’s less likely to get teased for that sort of thing.
There are several girls named Emerson. Where that is coming from I have no idea.
I like really unusual names. I realize this may not be a popular position. And I guess if a kid has a really weird name, then they’re open to teasing. But who can judge what a really weird name is?
There seems to be this school of thought that kids need “normal” names, like Anne or Jim. Joanne Jacobs says that she chose her daughter’s name “to avoid teasing in first grade and make it easier for her to run for president of the United States.” My college roommate said she had to choose names not only for President of the US but for President of Ford or some other Fortune 500 company.
Maybe if there were a wider range of names available, we wouldn’t have to worry about the teasing aspect.
And you know, I doubt Condoleezza Rice has suffered from having an offbeat name. Although filling in those little circles on the name portion of the SATs probably sucked.