I remember when this comic strip in my local paper, "Baby Blues", picked this as the name of their new baby after many weeks of agonizing over what to choose. They wanted something unique and special and there was a whole arc about how they couldn't decide on a name. They even had a huge bin of suggestions from people that they were drawing names out of and talking about. I was in name heaven every week. This was back in the early 90s I think. I was sooooo disappointed in their choice of
Hamish, haha. I was very young and definitely not interested in "old man" names yet, and
Hamish seemed so dorky and awful! Of course, I didn't know it was pronounced "HAIM-ish" - all I knew was that they called the kid "Hammie" as a nickname and I was so appalled by that. I assumed it was said exactly as spelled: HAM-ish.
Well, fast forward a few (many) years, and I now have an appreciation for this name. It's still very old man, but this time I like that about it. It's also very British Isles so it's kind of exotic. I've never met a
Hamish. It's one of those names that is both sweet and sophisticated - I could see it on a tweedy scholar type or a gruff, no-nonsense farmer.
I still don't like Hammie as a nickname though.
Fun fact: the family eventually had three kids -
Zoe,
Hamish and
Wren.