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Having spent the past 70+ years spelling my name for people who have never heard it before, I am particularly observant of unusual given names.
Though I wanted to be a Billy or Tommy when I was a kid, I'm okay with Arvid. It has served me well over the years.
My ancestors came to the United States from northwest Germany's East Friesland region and from the Netherland's Groningen and Friesland provinces. My mother, named after an aunt, was given the Old Country name Harmina (hahr-MY-nuh.) Harmina Catherina. Mom claimed she didn't like her name but I thought it was beautiful.
My maternal grandmother was named Marijke (muh-REE-kuh) when she was born in the Netherlands. As a girl her family and friends called her Rikki but as she grew older her given name was anglicized to Marie. I thought Marijke was a lovely name, too.
One of mom's brothers also received an Old Country name. Uncle Stoffer was named for one of his uncles.
When I was a kid popular names included Mike, Doug, Jimmy, Sally, Linda, Debbie. Our church operates a pre-school and I recently noticed a hallway bulletin board listing current students. There wasn't a Mike, Doug, Jimmy, Sally, Linda or Debbie in the bunch.
An article in USA Today earlier this year reported on 2026 baby name trends identified by Nanit, a baby monitor company. Nanit analyzed profiles of more than 1 million parents to arrive at their list which reflects a liberal use of old names.
Nanit's list includes Jack, Henry, Charlotte, Charlie, Leo, Olivia, Noah, Luca, James, Cooper, Emma, Oliver, Lucy, Liam, Theo, Brooks, Bennett, Lily, Amelia and Ella.
I don't expect to see Arvid on this list... ever.
The Social Security Administration also keeps lists of top baby names from Social Security card applications at birth. Again, parents are often choosing older names for their babies.
Social Security's most popular boys' names of 2025 (listed 1-10) are Liam, Noah, Oliver, Theodore, Henry, James, Elijah, Mateo, William and Lucas.
Social Security's most popular girls' names (listed 1-10) are Olivia, Charlotte, Emma, Amelia, Sophia, Mia, Isabella, Evelyn, Sofia and Eliana.
Earlier this year we met a teenager at a fast-food restaurant named "Ananna," pronounced like "banana." Some parents today are selecting unique but good names like Fleur, Deacon, Holland, Brea, Maple, Phoenix and Amiah.
Other parents these days are bolder and choose more exotic names for their children. A list of such names from Google includes girls' names Aislinn, Kalliope, Seychelle and Zuri. Boys' names on the "exotic" list include Caspian, Zephyr, Zaire and Banyan.
Gender-neutral names can be challenging for teachers and news reporters and the "exotic" list includes three - Dechen, Jothi and Kalei.
And then there are downright weird names given to children in recent years. In Germany, baby names must be approved by the local registry office (Standesamt) to ensure they protect the child’s well-being and future.
Here in the United States, naming laws are more relaxed but courts and state vital statistics offices have restricted some specific names. Among names that have been rejected are Jesus Christ, Santa Claus, King, Queen, Majesty and Messiah.
Roman numerals are generally rejected as legal first names as are special symbols (@) and numbers. All have been attempted.
When Cindy and I were tasked with naming our children we wanted them to have names that would serve them well in childhood as well as in their adult years. We settled on Dirk and Dena. Dirk was named after his great-grandfather and Dena was the name of a great-aunt as well as a popular name on our family tree.
My mother told me that my father named me. He had a cousin with that name and liked it. Over the years the name has been abused by people who addressed me as Arid, Avid, Marlin and a host of less desirable monickers. (I answer to any name when called to supper.)
One sad soul said, "I've had my name mispronounced so many times I'm not even sure if I’ve been saying it correctly."
(Arvid Huisman can be contacted at huismaniowa@gmail.com. ©2026 by Huisman Communications.)