DadTalk

Name game: I'm the only Merrily in the village!

Rachel Halliwell gave her daughters unusual names but Merrily doesn't like hers at all – and wants to change it when she's 18

The first sign of trouble came when Merrily was four and her reception-class teacher pulled me to one side to say she was refusing to answer to her name. "She's surrounded by Charlottes, Annabelles and Lucys," the teacher said, before adding, somewhat pointedly, "At this age children really don't like to feel they stand out."

A family trip to the zoo with Merrily's sister, Bronte, caused a further stir. "Why aren't our names on any of these mugs?" she said in the gift shop on the way out.

Merrily was rather more forceful. "Why did you have to give us such stupid names?" she wailed. It's a question she has repeatedly asked ever since.

Read more at the Guardian.co.uk