Should you reconsider choosing a unique baby name?

Alessia (pronounced uh-LESS-ee-uh) took to a blog on Popsugar to share the biggest gripes she had with her hard-to-pronounce, probably-even-harder-to-spell first name.

Here’s just some of what she said:

"Over the years, I've made it a habit to introduce myself to people by saying my name slowly - careful to enunciate all four syllables - only to have them repeat something totally incorrect back.

"When I was younger, I'd dread the first day of school, knowing that I'd have to correct my teacher in front of the entire class when they inevitably mispronounced my name off the roster.

"When I was a soccer player, I had to listen to my coach call me Alicia for years because eventually my correcting him became pointless.

"When I graduated from college, my name was butchered - and thanks to bad acoustics, echoed several times - in front of thousands of people (including my parents who named me).

"When interviewing for jobs, I worried about being dismissed in the first few seconds of the interview because I had to correct a potential employer after they read my name incorrectly off my résumé."

Alessia concluded in her essay that these recurring events gave her anxiety, and the unapproved nicknames she got from strangers as a result of the un-obvious pronunciation drove her downright crazy.

So, she really encouraged parents to think about ease of spelling, counterintuitive pronunciations and the impact of uncommon names before making it official.

Hmmm ?

We agree so far as to say it’s definitely worth giving your baby name choice a lot of thought.

But you can never REALLY know if your child will grow up liking their name, right?

It’s a total game of chance. If they have a one-of-a-kind name, they may resent being so unusual, or they could end up embracing what makes them different.

If their name is super common, they might be annoyed that several other children in their class have the same moniker.

No matter what your name is, people can still spell even the most common of names wrong (just look at Sarah/Sara), invent nicknames or pronounce it incorrectly. Which is JUST as annoying.

Have your say

Do you or your child have an unusual name - and do you get what Alessia wrote in her article? Or do you disagree and think unusual is better?

Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, or in the comments below.

Read more:

• Tips for choosing an unusual baby name
• Have you used a baby name generator?
• Simple baby names make your child 'more trustworthy'