r/Names • u/Competitive-Piano398 • 16h ago
unpopular opinion
The overall opinion on reddit seems to be anti "hippie" or "made up" names. Think plants, places, words, themes etc. I'm 26 and I have a "hippie" name. Nobody in my city has my name. I actually know the a girl in the city an hour away has my name because its so rare that I've been told. These aren't small cities. I think mine is maybe 500,000 people? Other one is over a million.
I LOVE my name. I have always loved my name. I remember always being thankful I didn't have a regular name. Nobody ever had to use my last name so people would know who they were talking about which in high school made me feel so cool. I get a ton of compliments on my name and I get to talk about my parents when people ask about it. I'm proud to introduce myself.
I had a best friend named after a pepper because her dad grew peppers and she also loved it. We're adults now, we still love our names. I have 2 friends with regular names that had unique names on their short lists and both wish they had been named the unique names. The obsession with "applying for jobs" is really odd to me. I've never had a problem and Im sure in 20 years problems would be even more rare. Who is reading a name and judging the candidate based on that other than maybe a racist?
This conversation has also always been super confusing to me because all names were never names until they became names. what makes Rose, Lily, Azalea all normal names but Zinnia, Lilac and Tansy hippie names? All are flowers.
I have my own personal opinions about name trends that I just think are stupid, like im sure everyone does. What gets me is the way certain names are talked about like its a moral failing to name your kid that and that the kid will hate it. Why would a kid hate a unique, cool name? I love my name. I wonder if the people saying the kid will hate it or won't find a job have a unique name themselves, because it sounds like they are just assuming.