Do you have a "hippie" name?

I am expecting a daughter soon and want to give her a "hippie" name.  I am not really a hippie but the name leans more to that genre.  I chose the name because of a song.  This song puts our life into perspective as far as the past 2 years (which were the roughest we've seen) and what the arrival of our daughter represents.

I have an uncommon name: Rhiannon, and I LOVED having the name.  It made me feel special growing up and unique.  I didn't mind it when people asked upon hearing my name if my parents were Fleetwood Mac fans (they have a song titled "Rhiannon") or when my teachers started singing my name whenever they saw me.

My question is:  Do you hate having a "hippie" name?  What do you say when you tell people your name & they ask if your parents were hippies?  Does it bother you?

One of my friends from high school is named Anneliese Dandelion. I always liked it. She was embarassed about her middle name and no one could spell/pronounce her first name.

I also like the name Lorelei...

And my best friend when I was a little kid was named Rhiannon.

Just don't name your kid Moonbeam....or Golly Happiness, I've heard that one before too.

Hippie names lead your kids to being leeches upon society (a/k/a hippies).  :D

I don't have a hippie name, but I have lots of friends who do (we were all born in the 70s).  I don't know a single person who likes their hippie name, and most people I know choose to go by their middle name if it's a little more common.  I think hippie/nature names make great middle names, but they can be a little much as first names.  A name that's connected to something really specific (like anything from nature) may communicate a message that the child (and future grown-up) may not connect with. It can also inspire other kids to make fun of your name all the time.  I know what that feels like, because I have a name that was a lot more common in the early 20th century than it is now.  I've never felt a strong connection with it.  I've always wished my middle name were my first name, instead.  

What is the name?

Original Post by dnrothx:

Hippie names lead your kids to being leeches upon society (a/k/a hippies).  :D

 hey, hippies aren't all bad. lol but i guess some of them are...

I HATE having a hippie name, and I HATE having a song name.  I do not appreciate it at all when people sing the song containing my name, and I do not appreciate the little "witty" remarks and comments people make.  I hope your child will have a lot more patience than I do if you decide to name the child with an unusual hippie name.  My name has been a source of lifetime frustration.

I used to have a friend at school called Harmony Peace.  I thought it was a lovely name.  I think it depends on exactly how "hippy" the name is though.  I also think it's probably easier in the playground for a girl to have an unusual name than it is for a boy.

i do not have a "hippie" name or even one that is truly unique, but in grade school when i was the "outsider" (moved into a small town) the kids found a way to use my name to make fun of me. so do not let potential kid cruelty taint your name choice. they will do what they will do.

i have found it similarly true that you can't try to guess if you kid is going to like the name given. i've known people who had "regular" names that they abhorred. i do agree with the idea of using at least one "regular" name for the child. that way as they get older they can choose which they want to go by.

we gave ours 3 names each, not counting the surname:

William Benjamin Sane - goes by Benjamin

Thomas Cillian Cotton - goes by Cotton

then of course there are always nicknames. Benjamin frequently becomes Ben Jamin' (we're hoping for a musician here. lol) Cotton is most always Cottonball. because when we first told his big brother about the name he said "like cotton balls?" in hindsight his only experience with "cotton" at that point was cotton balls.

good luck with the small!

I used to know of a "Forest Barefoot".  I think his family might have been American Indian.  I also had a bank teller who's name was Dawn Breeze; I thought it was a pretty name.

I don't know about "hippie" names but I live near Sedona AZ ( Sedona btw was the wife's name of the founder of the town) and there are a lot of kids with what I would call "earthy" or "New Age" names.  We also have friends who are Hari Krishners and their kids have some very unusual names -

I have some great nieces and nephews with different names, one is Noble, one is Islah (girl)  My oldest daughter has a different name Alessandra but we've always called her Ally

I say be careful as others have said a name in the young school years can make or break a kid.

I just met a beautiful child named  Promise...thought that was lovely.

I had a friend once called Ultra Violet.  The name and her personality fit perfectly together, lucky for her.  I don't recall anyone making fun of her, but I didn't get to know her until high school.

I like the idea of a normal name and an unusual name.  That way the kid has a choice later on.

Original Post by danaofdoom:

Original Post by dnrothx:

Hippie names lead your kids to being leeches upon society (a/k/a hippies).  :D

 hey, hippies aren't all bad. lol but i guess some of them are...

 most of the hippies i know grew up to be capitalists.

Original Post by glamgram:

I just met a beautiful child named  Promise...thought that was lovely.

but what if it were an ugly child named Promise?  or a pessimistic child named Hope?  or a petulant child namd Joy?  the potential for irony increases dramatically when you go with a "meaningful" name.  i mean, suppose you name your kid Destiny and then she has a disfiguring accident?

i think names can be interesting and original without being loaded.

My Dad says they considered naming me Rainbow but didn't go through with it...I guess the acid wore off, ha ha ha. (I don't know if they were aware of the LGBTQ associations with rainbows)

If I had been named Rainbow it would have been ironic because in high school I wore all black. But I probably would have shortened it to Rain. I hooked up with a guy named Rain once, come to think of it...

I have a hard-to-pronounce first name because my parents wanted something reflecting their heritage.  No one ever made fun of it, but people have a hard time saying it.

My sense is that kids on the playground can be obnoxious.  If they want to pick on a kid, they will pick on that kid.  If her name is "Sunshine" they will pick on her about that; if her name is "Jennifer" they'll pick on her backpack or her lunchbox or her socks or her eyebrows or the way she walks or something if they really want to find something to pick on her for.

Original Post by vegetariangeek:

I have a hard-to-pronounce first name because my parents wanted something reflecting their heritage.  No one ever made fun of it, but people have a hard time saying it.

My sense is that kids on the playground can be obnoxious.  If they want to pick on a kid, they will pick on that kid.  If her name is "Sunshine" they will pick on her about that; if her name is "Jennifer" they'll pick on her backpack or her lunchbox or her socks or her eyebrows or the way she walks or something if they really want to find something to pick on her for.

i agree: some kids are just pick-on-able.

but hard-to-pronounce names can pose a whole different problem.  an assertive kid might be willing to make the correction thousands of times, but less confident kids can give up.  i think it can be an identity issue if you have to compromise on something as fundamental as your name.

i have a good friend, kirsten (keersten).  the spelling of her name is ambiguous, so it's understandable when people read it and pronounce it wrong, but a lot of people close to her don't even bother.  they're just too lazy, and she doesn't correct them.  she says it doesn't bother her, but it drives me insane.

i hate it when i meet someone with a difficult or ambiguous name and i ask them how it's pronounced, and they tell me, "Whatever.  It doesn't matter."  of course it matters; it's your name!

I have an accidentally hippie name. (Kaja --> pronounced like Kaya)

Parents named me after my great grandmother, but this name is also the title of a popular Bob Marley song...because it is a slang term for marijuana. A lot of people sing my name to me and/or make assumptions about my parents.

When I was little, I really resented the fact that I never saw my name on those racks of pre-printed name pencils, keychains, etc, but since then I have really come to appreciate it.

i love the name kaja ;)

my name is maria.  do you have any idea how many songs there are that feature my name?  my orthodontist sang the one from westside story to me every time he picked up my chart for the seven years that i saw him.  every year around christmas it's the one from the sound of music.  over and over and over.

my favourite is the brooks & dunne song, but very few poeple can sing it well.  i hate the madonna one.  and then there's one that i've never actually heard for real, but that's just horrid.

counting crows has at least two, but they're pretty inoffensive.

Come to think of it, there was this bank account manager whose name was Coral Reif.  Yep, it was pronounced that way.

She wasn't a happy person. :D

...and then there was the Gunn family back when I was a week buck.  They named their son and daughter Tommy and Bebe (no joke).  Not sure how they turned out...that was 30 years ago. :D