The Strangest Baby Names of the Last Ten Years

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lovely-baby-wallpaper_1600x1200_78554_1024x768When naming your new-born baby, you’ll be forgiven for thinking that a conventional name such as John, Emma or Robert won’t do: you want your child to have a unique name. While spotting the numerous signs of pregnancy, you’ll be thinking about what name is right for your child, as well as what you’d like to call them.

Over the past ten years, parents’ tendencies to choose exotic names for their kids have grown spectacularly to the point that some of them are becoming as common as a John, Mark or Laura. Choosing a weird and wonderful name takes just as much thought as it would picking a more conventional name, and those who do often choose to as a way of showing how wacky and leftfield they are.

Aside from wanting to help their children establish some sort of individuality, there are other reasons why exotic names are chosen by parents. They often do it in homage to a celebrity who’s already given their son our daughter a weird name, do so to reflect their beliefs or after something they like. They even do it to make sure that they don’t have to share a name with anyone.

One popular trend in baby names is naming a child after a celebrity. Naming a boy or girl Rooney, Cobain or Bowie is something which has seen a real surge in popularity in recent years, and is set to continue. Fashion is another inspiration, and names such as Denim and Armani have become an increasingly popular name choice for mothers and fathers who have a love affair with clothes.

A poll conducted by Bounty revealed that as many as a third of parents said they had tried to give their child an unusual name. However, more than one in ten who responded said they had later regretted their decision. Another result showed that one in ten children given a weird name didn’t like it, and 14% of those asked to change it, while 85% of parents said that other people’s reactions to their child names have mellowed over time as the child got used to it and developed a matching personality.

A list of the 20 most popular weird and wonderful names of the past decade was released by Bounty, and some of the results are more surprising than others. Top of the list is Shy, which is closely followed by Unity, Bean, Zowie and Puppy. Some of them have become commonplace, while others on the list such as Porsche, Maroon and D’Andre are still seldom seen or heard.

*This post is brought to you by our friends at Bounty

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