I don't think that most parents set out to give their babies bizarre names but sometimes it happens by accident in the 'nick name phase'.

My nephew's name is Brian Andrew and his father was adamant that no one shorten his son's name into 'Bry'. Somehow around his first birthday, the nick name 'Bubba' started and by the time he was entering pre-school, it had stuck. He was a solid little boy, but by no means chubby. I don't know how a Dad so opposed to a shortened name tolerated his son being called Bubba!

A few parents do choose unusual names. I babysat for a family of four children once in the 90s who named all of their children starting with the letter D. These children were named Destiny, Diamond, Dusty and Dinky.

Dinky was a boy too. Can you imagine that name on a grown man?

When I was young I wanted to have a boy and a girl and I planned to name them Dallas and Odessa. Then for a little while I thought Arista (like the record label) would be really cool name for a baby girl.

I've always appreciated names that buck the system. I can't imagine following the popular baby name trends and or choosing something really common like Heather or Ann or Robert or Bill.

One practice that leads to some odd baby names has grown in the last decade or so and that is taking common names and spelling them phonically. Stephanie becomes Stefanny.

When I asked a friend who planned named her son Sighman why she would want to take such a simple name as Simon and ruin it, she replied that she just wanted to do something unusual. I told her that if she followed through with it, that I would have to name my first son Airwreck.