THANK YOU!!! I agree COMPLETELY with you. I don't have a problem with people being creative with their child's name...it burns me when they do so THOUGHTLESSLY without considering the consequences. I don't have a problem with unusual names, as long as there is a reason, a thought process behind the selection that you can tell your kid why you picked the name you did. As someone with a unusual first name, I can tell you from experience that it's disappointing being told by your parents that your first name was just a whim of letters. (My middle name, Chanel, was from the French designer of the same name). I'd rather have a common name and be told that I was named for someone that was admired/loved/noteworthy than have a name that was just conjured up on a whim.
My first name is completely made-up. It's unusual, but not all that bad...at least in India, where it means "star."
(my parents never knew that...I found that out when an Indian coworker told me last year) Some of my very good friends have confessed to me that when they first heard my first name, they immediately assumed I was ghetto.
Luckily, they got to find out the REAL Ladyjag, but I sometimes wonder about those folks with more unusual names than mine. It's hard enough to be black and discriminated against without giving people a reason to discriminate us BEFORE they even meet us.
A lot of the names mentioned on this thread sound beautiful, but is there a purpose to them? Are they names of people you admire/respect/love (relatives or not)? Do their names mean something significant to you or translate into something in another language? Is there a specific reason why you selected it? You need to be able to answer that question, but one day your children WILL ask where their names came from...please have something better than "I just liked the way the letters looked together." That worked in Toni Morrison's "Song of Solomon" but I doubt your kids will see it that way.
Just my $19.13
Threaded Mode