[ashark]

This is one reason why I advocate giving your kids (if in America, at least) really boring names. Just scratch anything remotely strange off the list, and forget about it.

If you can't imagine a Kennedy or a character on 1950s US TV having the name, don't use it. Having a "special" name is unlikely to bring any benefit, and may well have significant social costs (plus having always to repeat yourself and spell your name, correcting misspellings on forms, et c.)

With my three young kids I already regret the very, very slightly unusual name we used for the first one (ordinary spelling for the name, name has a long history but it's almost homophonic with a 20x more common name, which we should have just used instead). Just don't do it.

[klodolph]

There are plenty of people who regret having the common name, too. Hard to find them online, sometimes you get a mixup with someone else's arrest warrant or credit report, etc.

[DisposableMike]

Male with the most common American male name from 1950-2000 here (and top 5 for the last 100 years or more). I don't even hear my name when spoken in public, I only hear familiar voices or my last name (I usually give a fake name when ordering food or waiting for tires, etc). I went to a large high school and a small college. There were 3-4 persons with my same name in every class. Eventually everyone refers to you by your last name or a nickname. This has not stopped even into adulthood.

Even as a professional working for a small business, I get re-introduced over and over again to the same people. I'm sure that my words and appearance play a role in that as well, but surely my name is not helping.