Dad said my son would be bullied when I shared his name and I’ve had people burst out laughing too, but I love it
CHOOSING a baby name can be devilishly hard.
And one mum's unusual choice has left people in fits of laughter and her dad worried that his grandson will be bullied.
Chelsea Paul, 32, and partner Jake Prince, 30, are proud parents to three-year-old son Huckleberry Bowie Carol Prince.
And while some might struggle with her choice, Chelsea, a nurse from Manchester, says she loves her son's unique name.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Chelsea, said: “Jake and I agreed when we found out we were expecting that we wanted an unusual name and both loved Huckleberry.
"We didn’t know anyone with the name, and neither of us had read the book Huckleberry Finn!
"I was worried people might try to put us off it, so I told people we were thinking of 'Israel' - then just sprung it on them after he was born.
"Most people loved it, but a few were very blunt about not liking it.
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"My dad said he would be bullied and one elderly patient of mine burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter!
"When we've travelled to the USA, we’re always complimented on his name.
"I think it’s more common over there because of the book. One day, I'll read it!
"His middle names are Bowie, my dad Stephen's nickname, and Carol, my mum’s name, which can also be a man’s name.
"We’re both really proud of putting more thought into Huckleberry’s name, rather than just opting for something obvious and boring. He’s such a lovely little boy and it really suits him to be a bit different!"
But Chelsea isn't the only mum facing stick for her baby name.
After The Sun revealed Josie Barnes, 27, chose the name Lucifer for her "miracle" tot after suffering 10 miscarriages, we meet four parents who shunned traditional names for their kids in favour of ones that you couldn't forget.
Onicoren Sequoyah
Mum Chelsea Jones, 29, and dad Leon, 26, from Hull, East Yorkshire, made up the name Onicoren for their firstborn son, now three and a half years old.
Chelsea, who is a stay-at-home mum to Onicoren and his brother Rueben, 18 months, says: "Leon and I have always had a massive thing for trees and when we found out we were expecting, we spent endless nights searching online for name to link our passion.
"Finally, we came up with Onicoren, which we still love.
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"'Onic’ is a shortening of the word ‘babylonica’, the Latin name for a weeping willow, Leon’s favourite tree.
"‘Oren’ means pine tree, ash tree, and also 'light' in Hebrew.
"We chose the name before he was born, but didn’t tell and friends or family until we introduced him – most of them loved it, but a few seemed a bit indifferent and didn’t make any gushing comments.
"Nobody was openly negative, at least!
"We really felt we wanted our child’s name to reflect us as individuals, and hopefully that will mean Onicoren will inherit our love of trees.
"His middle name is ‘Sequoyah’, the native American masculine spelling for sequoia, the world's largest tree, so some friends call him 'two trees' or 'little tree' which is nice.
"Of course, whenever I tell people Onicoren’s name I spend a while explaining it - never a short story - but I enjoy telling it and I think it helps people understand who we are. We wouldn’t change his name for the world."
Zephyr
Abi Wells, 32, and partner Chris, 35, from Sevenoaks, Kent, named their 14-month-old son Zephyr.
Charity fundraiser Abi said: "It sounds a bit strange, but even as a teenager I had a thing about the name Zephyr – although I didn’t know anyone with the name, something about it just grabbed me.
"It’s the Greek god of wind, or the dictionary definition is ‘gentle breeze’, but I just loved the sound of the actual word.
"When we were expecting, I told Chris about my name obsession, and he didn’t seem too impressed as he’s rather traditional, but he could see how important it was to me, so didn’t completely shut the door on the idea.
Tips on how to choose your baby's name
THEY'VE got it for life, so there's a lot of pressure on parents to pick the right name. Here we give you five tips to help you choose.
- Think about the initials. Experts at Nameberry urge parents to make sure they don't accidentally give their tot the initials STD or similarly embarrassing.
- Make sure you know what it means, says The Tot. You might love the name Cecilia, but did you know it means "blind," or that Cameron means "crooked nose."
- Avoid a name that rhymes with or is too similar to their surname. Charlotte McClure at BabyCentre UK says: "You don't want your child to be called Robert Roberts or Harry Barry."
- Check if the name belongs to a celebrity - and that you're happy with that if it does.
- At Whattoexpect.com, parents advise thinking about what the name is likely to be shortened to - because that could happen whether you want it to or not.
"We narrowed our search down to two boy names and two girls names.
"Zephyr was 15 days overdue, and while waiting for him to come along, we had a soothing playlist. When he finally arrived, it was the Red Red Hot Chilli Peppers tune ‘The Zephyr Song’ playing - a complete coincidence!
"We didn't tell anyone the name for two days because we expected some negative comments, but the grandparents loved it.
"Some older relatives seemed rather surprised, saying ‘Oh, how unusual!’, but I think everyone’s come round to it now."
Zebedee Valentine and Marigold-Clementine
Sarah-Jane Cox, 45, and her husband Sam al-Kadi, 44, who run a TV and film services company and live in East London.
Their five-year-old twins are called Zebedee Valentine and Marigold-Clementine.
Sarah-Jane says: “The twins were IVF babies who were a long time coming.
“Before we found out their sex, I had thought of Marigold and Clementine as names for twin girls.
“So, after the 20-week scan, when we discovered we were having a boy and a girl, I put both names together for one, very long name for our daughter.
“It’s so long, there often aren’t enough boxes on official forms to fill it in, which is going to cause her problems in the future.
“My dad, Peter, always grew marigolds. Our garden was full of them, so I think I’ve always had an association with them and all the girls’ names I thought of were floral, but the more unusual ones.
“Zebedee was the only name my husband liked and although we’re not religious, we thought the meaning - gift from God - fitted in with our IVF journey.
“We get a lot of comments about the Magic Roundabout cartoon and have to explain he wasn’t named after the character.
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“Some family members said we couldn’t call him that but they’re on board with Zeb, which we call him at home.
“At school he proudly asks friends to call him Zebedee. Valentine, his middle name, is one I’ve always liked.”