Renesmee Tracey & Raylene - The Key to Finding Truly Unique Names

So sorry to all the closet 'Twilight Moms' who will hurriedly read this post after seeing the name Renesmee but this post isn't about twilight names. Its just that as far as names go the name Renesmee has struck a chord with me lately. It's just so unique. A word that is becoming more and more relevant as baby naming evolves.

So after doing a little "market research" I have been hearing the word a lot. Apparently it is what all expectant parents are looking for in a name. But if all expectant parents are looking for are unique names then unique names can't possibly be unique after after all because everyone will have them. This begs the question; by searching for uniqueness do we commit ourselves to be ordinary?

I remember chatting to my Nan about this when I was 6 months pregnant. She told me that when choosing a name for my mother, her and my grandfather fell into the pattern of basing their decision on the unique qualities of names. Eventually when they settled on Tracey they were satisfied that it would be unique to their baby. It turns out that Tracey would be one of the most popular names for that year.

So to prevent your unique name from becoming popular it would be a good idea to just invent a name-ish sounding name right? I would have thought so too - until recently.

I have met many Raylene's of Baby Boomer age and never once considered them to have a unique or unusual name. However, unbeknown to me, Raylene is an invented Australian name and I would bet the parents of Raylene # 1 settled on such a name because they wanted little Raylene to be unique. Little did they know that she would be unique regardless of the popularity of her name.

Which brings me back to Renesmee. I know it's a bit dorky for me to know this but the name Renesmee is a combination of Renee and Esme and was chosen by her parents Bella and Edward because it was a unique name for their unique half vampire, half human baby - which to me feels appropriate. Now whilst the author of Twilight might be experiencing a bit of fan backlash for choosing such a 'weird' name at the moment, eventually parents will continue to search for something even more unique and will invent a name even 'weirder'. By that time Renesmee will be another Raylene or Tracey and look like plain old Tom next to Bono's Elijah Bob Patricius Guggi Q. Then in time, if the human race survives that long, according to all those who advocate the slippery slope argument, Elijah Bob Patricius Guggi Q might make it into the top 100 names!

So I advise you, don't pick a name simply because nobody else's kids will have it. Pick a name because you love it. Then, if it turns out your name isn't as unique as you thought it was, you will love it anyway. It may have sucked being 1 of 9 Sarah's in high school but I would rather that than don a name like Glorcy or Nancia (Nancy + Gloria)to the playground if my parents had opted to do what Bella and Edward did. So maybe then, if we are not trying to be unique, we are being truly unique! It doesn't matter anyway because every body is UNIQUE!!!! :D

Love and Happy Naming!,
Sarah

PS. I know their are some of you rolling your eye's in disgust at the mention of twilight. And it is for you I would like to clarify that the name Renesmee is pronounced (Ruh-Nez-May) and was a name created to honour Bella mother Renee and Edwards mother Esme.