When I was young, I planned on naming my first daughter Sapphire. A couple of years later, I fell in love with the name Hunter and thought it would make a great girl’s name. Then for awhile I went through a phase of liking catchy two-word names like Mim Pi and Kaiya Eve. What I loved about these names was that they were not totally weird but they were unique. I thought that I would always feel this way. Now that I’m older, though, I’m actually a much bigger fan of plain old normal names like Melissa and Jennifer.

I know that there are pros and cons to giving your baby a unique name. The positive aspects include that the child will feel special, she may be at less risk of identity theft down the line and she could feel very close to her name. The negative aspects include problems with misspelling of her name her entire life, the potential to be made fun of in school and the fact that she’ll always stand out a little bit.

Although I’m aware of these pros and cons, they aren’t actually the reason that I feel like I’d choose a normal name for my children. I think that the pros and cons are actually weighted about fairly evenly. But, for me, it’s a matter of preference. I used to need to stand out to get attention. I don’t feel that way anymore. I think my desire to give my kids slightly odd names reflected a preference for that way of life that no longer suits me. So, it’s really about me and not about my kids at all.

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