As my kids have grown up and widened their circle of friends to include kids outside our own neighborhood, I've met children with some quite unusual names.  "Whatever happened to Sue, Patty, John and Tom?" I'd wonder.  We know some kids with traditional names, but many, many more with unique ones.   I know a Jaylyn who's a girl; my son had a male classmate named Jalen.  My kids know kids named Kelsey--yet another name that can be used by a guy or a girl.

That's even before you get to the nicknames like Gus, Gigi and Trey--all kids in my younger son's school, and the alternate spellings of more-common names.  (What's up with that?  One family I know has three boys:  Justyn, Brandyn, and Gavyn.  Try getting anything personalized when your name's not spelled the "regular" way.)

But the unusual names are not confined just to kids, I've discovered.  Recent emails from parents in charge of committees for school activities bear that out.  I've gotten requests for help with school activities from Misty and Kiki, and I noticed that another parent on the mailing list is named Scarlett O'Hara.

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