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The lines separating an unusual name from a more normal name have become less and less defined over the past 15 years as parents have continued to be more apt to give their child something other than a “traditional” name. In fact, substantially fewer children receive one of the top ten names on the census lists than in years past, with parents opting for more unusual or unique names.

The baby name question parents are most likely to worry about is how an unusual name will affect their child as they grow up - will they like it, hate it or grow into it?

Psychologists who have studied how children react to having grown up with either traditional or more unique names say there really isn’t much of a difference. People with unusual names do not like their names any less than people with ordinary names do.

There is some evidence that girls tend to like having more of an uncommon name than boys do. And girls are statistically more likely to have an unusual name because there is a larger pool of girls names to choose from than boys names.

Girls are more likely to talk about names and find that others like distinctive names, and this affects their acceptance of the uniqueness of their names as well. In one survey, more than 23 percent of women didn’t like their name because it was too common.