What's in a name?

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"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." is a famous Romeo and Juliet line, and while maybe not quite the point of my post, it brings my mind to the question, why do people name their children what they name them? For somewhat private reasons, I won't be saying what my son's name is. I've mentioned his name in the past, but the older I get, the more I'd prefer not to plaster it online, especially since his name is more unique. It makes him easier to find. I got my son's name by combining names that were more common that I liked to make a more different name. My name isn't outrageously different, but it's not super common either, and growing up, there was a girl in my class from kindergarten up through 12th grade who I shared a name with. In elementary school, we had one classroom per grade level, so she was in my class every single year. It got so confusing, and I swore if I ever had a kid, I was going to give them something a little more unique so they didn't have the same problem, and I have to say it worked. My child has always been the only kid in his school with his name, at least with his spelling. My son loves his name; he loves that it's unique. I actually looked up his name with his spelling, and there are only like 12 other people in the US currently with his exact name. There have been kids with the same name who had different spellings, but there aren't many with his exact spelling. My son absolutely loves that. It's not that I don't love some traditional names; I just wanted my son's name to set him apart without being something crazy like Audio Science or Pilot Inspector. I wanted different but not bizarre. I also didn't give him some weird spelling, which is why I'm always so surprised that his spelling isn't very common. It is spelled like it sounds. I never understood the weird spellings of a basic name. I had a classmate who named her kid Madison but spelled it with extra letters, and I mean that's fine, people can do what they want, but I never wanted to make things harder than they had to be. My mom named me after my dad and a name she liked. She combined the names much like I did with my son, only my name isn't super unique. It was very much a name other people had. I realized years later that my name actually sounds like my dad's name when you say it with a lisp. I was amused when I realized that. Working at a school, one of my favorite things to do is to look at all of the names that pop up on the dismissal board. It's actually more common for people to be more unique when naming their kids now, and older names are making a comeback too. There are a lot of older classic names coming through the grades. It seems like a lot of names are either super old or super different. When I was looking at my family tree, I found that most of the names were very common names like Jonathan, James, William, Sarah, Emily, Elizabeth, etc., but then a random name would pop up, and it would be so different and unique, and it would throw me because of the time period. There are just names you don't expect to see until the 1980s and beyond. I have found that a lot of the time, when someone had a different name, it was actually the maiden name of the mother or another family member. I am still trying to figure out why someone would name their son Herla (no joke). There were a few other interesting names like Pearl (a boy) and Stannard. I still don't know where those names came from. I found a Ransalier, which I did figure that one out. It's just interesting to see people in the 1800s through the early 1900s naming their children something more unique. You expect Jacob and Sarah; you don't expect Herla and Stannard. Do you like unique names? Or do you like more traditional or popular names? I like a bit of everything, but when naming my kid, I wanted something unique but not outrageous. There are some really unique names I liked, but I wouldn't actually name a child.