Our daughter's little girl is named Jolee -- which I think is a pretty neat name.

Naming 13 kids has been a real trip. My husband wanted to be really involved in naming them but the problem was that he had no clue about what children are named now--he kept suggesting fifties names like Debbie.:rolleyes: Also, since the first 2 girls had middle names starting with C, he insisted that we (meaning I) should come up with a C middle name for each girl.

He was very agreeable about the boys' names but it took forever to name the girls! I swear that we will have at least one more girl, though, and I know what I want to name her even though he doesn't care for the name because his hippie cousin suggested it. She will be:

CHESSA

Hmmm... Names I love but might not actually use...

How about:

Devon
Tegan
Laine

Personally I think you can go cute on girls names but should stay traditional for boys so I don't have any suggestions there.

I agree that it's easier to name a girl something more unusual. Some names I like:

boys:
-Brennan Marshall (after my two favorite Supreme Court justices)
-Benjamin (traditional but very, very good)
-Teague (means "poet" in Latin if I recall correctly)
-Tobias (or Toby for short)
-Holden

girls:
-Anicca (if I'm remembering correctly, it's a Pali word that means "impermanence" and it's always been my dream name for a girl, although I'm not so sure I'll ever have a kid)
-Noelle (my middle name which I think is darn cool)
-Sage (would also work for a boy, I think)
-Thoreau
-Camille

for twins, a little cheesy, but:
Franny & Zooey :D

Baby names was something that was discussed at length in one class I had my senior year of HS...

names I like

Girls:

Penelope
Melinda
Alli
Tara
Katie (not Kate)

Boys:
Van
Anson
Gus (had a camper this summer who was really cool named this)
Graig (like Greg)
Brandon
Thomas


On the whole I like shorter nicknames for girls, but not for boys (my little bro is Daniel not Dan, and I prefer David over Dave, Thomas over Tom, so on and so forth) with the exception of my own...who knows maybe when I start Grad school I'll go back to Geoffrey, but for now Geoff or even Geo.

hehe, what a cute thread!!!
Girls:
Madison, Mackenzie, Mercedes, Ryan, Carter, Taylor
Boys:
Bryce, Taylor, Sebastian,

Be sure to check out The Institute for Naming Children Humanely

It is good satire, but the guy makes some valid points.....Lord knows I have had to spell, spell and re-spell my name for people my entire life (not to mention correct their pronunciation...) :rolleyes:
------------------------------------
What Are We About?

The Institute for Naming Children Humanely is a non-profit organization dedicated to achieving a better society through better names for children.

How Can Better Names Improve Society?

A child's name is the most important label he or she will ever receive. It will stay with the child throughout their whole lives. Parents who choose names poorly create misleading labels for their children. These labels can cause their children to be mocked, stereotyped, or ostracized. Mocked, stereotyped, and ostracized children grow to become demented adults.

What Constitutes a Bad Name?

The crack research staff at the Institute have isolated several different types of bad names. These names are listed by category below.

The "Scrabble Draw" Category
The "How About Another Last Name?" Category
The "Unfortunate Connotation" Category
The "Bogus Blue-Blood" Category
The "Found It On This Here Map" Category
The "Abstract Quality" Category
The "Common Noun" Category
The "Multicultural Mish-Mash" Category
The "Let Me Spell That For You" Category
The "Named Him After My Favorite..." Category


Special Categories of Bad Names

The "Aw, Any Middle Name Will Do" Category
The "Funny The First Time" Category
The "Twins? How Cute" Category

Not my top choices, but personal favroites...

Girls:
Alyce (Alice)
Ryan
Lily
Janelle
Lydian
Serene

Boys:
Miles
Xavier
Patrick
Jaime
Anson
Christopher

Aww... come on... what's wrong with that??? ;) I've got some of the best names from road signs:

Marianna Prosperity
Zekiah Swamp

Ok, seriously... I love the name Elizabeth Ann, but I will never name a child that, because that is my husband's mother's name, and I REFUSE to use "family names" for our (future) children.

My favorites for girls are
Kindle
Rebecca


My favorites for boys are
Landon
Hunter
Dayton
Matthew

All right, I've already sent a compilation of these suggestions to my respective sets of expectant parents and they are getting extremely postive responses. Jolee and Chessa actually have both gotten a big postive response.
Which is good because this set of parents were considering Jemima as their front-runner for a girls name. Now, I don't want to offend anyone if their given name is Jemima, but really, can you think of anything but pancake syrup hearing that name?
violets

got to weigh in on this one...

I HAVE one of those romance-novel names: Carlisle Elizabeth. My first name is pronounced CAR-lye-el. It's an old family name, although the last Carlisle in the family, my father's aunt Carlisle Florence, hated it so much she went by her middle name.

It's been interesting growing up with an unusual name. I'm okay with it now that I am an adult, but when I was a kid I couldn't stand it...I'm wavering as to whether I'd recommend that anyone else give their kid that name. To this day, people can't spell it, and often they ask me what my first name is. Guess I fall into that "How About Another Last Name" category :) And forget personalized anything. I guess the name you grow up with colors your perspective on baby names. I think my kids are going to be named Michael and Emily, or Harry and Hermione (Her-my-oh-nee), ha ha.

Edited to add: From someone who has a non-gender-specific name, give your kid one that is. I get a lot of mail addressed to Mr. Carlisle ____, and I got a letter from the Selective Service in high school asking me why I hadn't registered. Sorry, sir, I couldn't pass the physical.

When/If I have children, I want to give them names that are original enough that their aren't ten classmates with the same name, but not so unique that they get their a$$es kicked. :p

Girls' Names:
Amalie
Caroline
Elisabeth
Katherine (Kate)
Madeline



Boys' Names:
Robert Christopher (If I have a son, he will be named that after my father and my now-boyfriend-hopefully-soon-to-be-fiance's father)
Laurence (after my grandfather)

for girls I like:
Skylar
Caitlin
Brynn
Kylie

for boys I like:
Bailey
Reilly
Brady