A school teacher has revealed how she found a quirky name for her daughter - and wants to make sure all her children have a unique moniker. April Hamilton, 34, had always been set on naming her two-year-old daughter - Juneau - inspired by the Elliot Page hit movie 'Juno', the capital of Alaska and the Roman Goddess. She had always felt it was important to give her children unusual names to give them a sense of uniqueness - after growing up not knowing any one else with her name.
April and her husband Graeme, 35, work as teachers and know the difficulty of having several children with the same name in their classes so wanted to explore less popular options. The pair wanted to see how popular the name Juneau was before settling on it. April stumbled upon 'National Record Scotland' which allows expecting parents to see how popular their favourite names are.
She discovered there have only been two Juneau's since records began and is now using the site to look for a name for her second child. April said: "Always in my head I knew my first child would be called Juneau. I wondered if anyone else had been called Juneau and I came across National Record Scotland.
"Since records began, there have only been two Juneau's in Scotland."
By searching the site, April soon discovered there were records dating back to 1974 and a graph tracking the popularity of names. She said: "You go onto National Record's Scotland and click on baby names. Once you're on baby names, click babies' first names - the 2020 one.
"Then go to interactive chart, on this page you can type in any name and it will tell you how many people have been named that name since records since records began in 1974."
The mum, who is pregnant with her second daughter, soon became fascinating tracking trends and noted names from when she grew up in the 80s were no longer popular. April said: "There have been no babies called Stacy since 2012.
"In the year I was born there were 800 Laura's but it's tailed down. In my head it's still a popular name but the data proves it isn't. If people want a unique name, go back to the 80s, they're dying out.
"It's interesting to see how names such as Ava and Olivia have come back."
April and Graeme are expecting their second child this summer and want to find a unique name with a 'May' route - following in the footsteps of April and June. April said: "I want it to be a unique name but not too out there that I'm going to have spell it out to everyone.
"Graeme and I are both teachers and we see trends - it's tricky in class when there are four people with the same name.
"As much as I'm fussy, everyone should just choose a name they truly love."
