Scientists, sociologists, institutes and child development organizations all made tests and studies to show whether or not the way you name your baby has any effects on his childhood development. Well, all these tests, studies and surveys don't mean squat, when compared to common sense. We'll use common sense in the following article, rather than scientific formulas and numbers, in order to determine whether or not the way you name your baby has any effect on his childhood development.
Pre-kindergarten Period
Having a weird or uncommon name as opposed to having a common one probably won't make any difference during this period. A child of this age is cute and cuddly regardless of his name and the only people he will come in personal contact with are his parents' close friends and relatives, which shouldn't feel any different about your little one because of his name. At worst, you could get a reaction from them that goes by the line of "Wow, that's an unusual name...how do you think he/she will feel about it when growing up?". And although most will probably think the above statement, 90% of them will probably shut up about it.
Kindergarten Period
Your child develops a great deal through kindergarten because it's the first time he gets an organized education and it's the first time he spends extensive periods with other kids his age. This is when the name of your baby really starts having some visible effects. Kids start reasoning during kindergarten and they start developing raw social skills, but they also have two traits that can have a negative effect on your child's development: they always speak their mind and they are mean. Yes, children are mean to other children even at this kind of age. How often have we seen a kid hitting another kid, just because he took his playing spot or because he wants to play with that particular toy. Having a weird name won't help stop other kids being mean to yours, on the contrary, it will encourage them. Getting physically and verbally abused every day starting from kindergarten because of your name, won't bring you up as a sturdy character and it will most likely have a negative effect on how you develop as a person.
The fact that they always speak their mind could also have a negative effect. If you named your daughter "Feather", she won't think there's something wrong with her name until he ends up in the same room with several kids. They'll start taunting her almost immediately as they find out about her name and this could drive your daughter into solitude or bar her ability to improve her social skills later on.
Primary, Mid and High School Child Development
In most countries, the entire school process lasts for 12 years, from age 6/7 to 18/19. It's the time your child develops his character, personal skills and it will have a great effect on how he will manage later on in life. It's also the time he can suffer most from his awkward name. The "cool" factor is very important to kids this age and having an awkward name severely reduces that. No one will want to be friends with the "dude with the weird name". On the other hand, having a unique name (as long as it's not weird) can be an advantage as he will stand out of the crowd in class and it could also enhance that "cool" factor we talked about earlier.
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