Os that is cool, well done young Os lads.

 

Blake who will start year 2 this year(sorry don't know what that is in old school).  He went ffrom level 1 reading at beginning of last year to level 8 in November.  He is trying so hard but it is alot of work for him.  They learnt about dinosurs(sp) las year and he can tell you all about them.  It is amazing what he has remembered.  He can name them all, whether they eat meat or grass.  Also which ones will kill you.  We got him acouple of great books on them for Christmas and as soon as he looks at there photo he will tell you all about it.  Even how tall tehy are.  In like house size etc.

 

I am hoping this year he does another topic that he get really inoto like this.

 

Alana is 2 years away form high school.  When I joined this board she had just started school. I cannot believe where the time has gone. She just got glasses so is reading heaps more.  She slowed down her reading cos her eyes hurt and she did not tell me for ages.  She looks so much older in them . 

#205 & #207 I will add to that. Having a very unusal name is annoying but IMO having an unusal name with an unusal spelling is worse. My name came alittle into vogue when I was 10 and more so when Shortland Street went to air but it is still misspelled regularly because of the ie instead of a y and sometimes because people think I have written it down wrong!

 

Honestly it was the 3rd day of a 3 day camp before all of the adults realised my name was Kirstie not Kristie. This is dispite Heather correcting her teacher everytime the parents names were mentioned for most of the term. Phil has the same problem to a lesser extent as most people think Philip has to have 2 Ls.

 

That is why my kids have uncommon rather than unusal names. Still you would be amazed how many people think my kids are Hether, Beckey and Arther.

 

My advice pick a name you both like and pick the most common correct spelling and if the first name is unusal make the second name more common.

My Thomas is Thomas.  Anyone tries Tom or Tommy gets corrected pronto.  Some take a short while to get it, other's have to be told "His name is THOMAS.  Not Tom" (or whatever other bastardisation they used.)   There is only one person on the planet who gets to call him Tom, and they have been friends since babies.  That guy is profoundly deaf and can't hear the s.  So he is immune but anyone else will feel my wrath if they don't call him the right name after being told what it is.

 

Pet family names by family members are also exempt.  Tona is my name for him and his brothers use it too. 

Alana is Alana, Blake has speach trouble and calls her la. 

Blake is Blake. 

Luckly there names are short enough not to shorten.

 

Friend has just had a daughter and they have called her  Devon..   Poor poor poor kid

One of my cousins has a son by that name.

 

I have been helping out with a couple of mainly music groups for 18 months now. With over 80 preschoolers on the combined roles you would be amazed at the double ups and oddities.

The most common name would have to be Oliver followed by Olivia and Samantha. There are 2 Ethans, Conners, Lucas', Micheals and Ellas. Among the oddities are Gai (japanese boy), Muriwa (not a maori name, girl), Bjorn, Barnaby, Marlena, and Elih

Ha ha! My little one is Daniel - not Dan, not Dan the Man, not Danny or Danny Boy etc.. 

When he is older, it will be his decision of course, but even now he is quick to say "No, my name is Daniel"  and if they still get it wrong he gives them the full name, first, second and last name

Mum was one of a few who called me Tracy  I always get called Trace.  My dad always called me tupance(the old money thing).  David gets Dave except from his mum and dad who use his full name.

I hate to say it Macca, but there is a little boy called Ethan in Tangimoana (grandson of a work mate) and another workmate has an 11 year old called Ethan.  Maybe the Mission Impossible movies and Ethan Hawke bought back a resurgance of the name.

 

You have to remember that picking a name is a lot like when you buy a car.  Before you never noticed how many cars of that model were on the road until you have one.  With names, once you look at a name you suddenly realise how many other people have that name.

 

I had a conversation with Caitlin a couple of weeks ago.  She wondered why she wasn't the only person in the universe called Caitlin.  I explained to her that when she does meet another Caitlin (we know of three others), it's pretty cool.  She agreed that having another Caitlin at kindy was fun.  It's nice to have a not so common name, but one where people 95% of the time get the spelling right.  Both Caitlin and Jack also get excited if they hear their 'name' on TV.

 

Jack is a dag, there is a cartoon called Samurai Jack - he calls it Samurai Me.

 

As for Jack, I'm expecting him to be one of many Jack's at school.  But it was a name we'd always decided on so whether it was in fashion or not at the time was not an issue.

 

As for Eben, it will be interesting to see if we ever come across another Eben - in New Zealand anyway.

 

 

My nephew Caleb started kindy before the holidays and has rapidly become best friends with ... Caleb. Who would have thought that would become a less than rare name?

Blake is the only one at his school and Alana was until last year was but now there is 3.

We had a boys name for Alana when she was born because after 3 generations of Rowlands she was the first girl born first, all others had 2 - 3 boys before a girl came along.  It took acouple of days to came up with a name we could both agree on.

 

Blake was the only name we both wrote down on paper. He was named months before he was born.

Don't think anybody else will be using our kids names....Tyler Harrison, Ashton Madison, Brannon Alexander and Cassidy Sheridan.  Patrick hates being called Pat and really gives the evil eye to anyone who dares call him Paddy.  I tend to go by Shazzi nowdays which doesn't bother me.

According to one friend, if there is an All Black (or any other high profile sports person) with an unusual name (like Caleb) then it will become popular pretty quickly.  There are quite a few Tana's, Sean (Fitzpatrick) and Daniel's around at the moment too.  In our extended family we seem to have an abundance of Michaels and Toni/Tonys.

And no my little guy was NOT named after Dan Carter.  His middle name (Stacey) is not from a certain league player either, it is after a friend of ours that killed himself while I was pregnant.

 

The only boy Stacey I know is the little foster kid who lives around the corner.  He's passed from pillar to post and back again, yet he is an absolute honey.  Complete darling - we'd have him in a minute if there weren't so many people making so much money off his little back.