BABY NAMES, what are your faves?

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by StargazerLily

I can't STAND last names as first names (Parker, Miller, Reid, Ford, etc) and I'm not particularly fond of gender neutral names either.

I'm guessing either you don't live in the South or you're frequently annoyed by the names of lots of boys. I'm not a fan of it for girls, but it seems very normal to me for boys -- if, that is, the last name in question is a family name. I don't see the point otherwise.

We were all about family names. I'm named for a great grandfather. My wife is named for a great aunt. My son's first name is for his grandfather, but he goes by his middle name -- a surname found on both sides of the family (my grandmother's maiden name, my wife's great grandmother's maiden name. My daughter is named for her grandmothers -- one grandmother's first name and the other's maiden name.

[IrishLake]

Originally Posted by SydneyK

Adam? Aaron?

(No, but you just guessed my husband and his brother...lol)


Nope, none of you have it yet. It's uncommon, but not unusual. (I'll give a hint... it was a name featured in a Paul Rudd comedy not too long ago...)

[Cheerio]

Originally Posted by IrishLake

My sons name is pretty old fashioned and begins with an A. Kudos to who guesses it.

Aristotle?

[Sciencewoman]

Abraham?

[Low C Sharp]

I also think you should give your kid the most obvious spelling, when there is one. You kid is not unique because you replaced an i with a y or the like.

Help me Lord, I cannot STAND the cutesy spellings! I am speechless when I see educated people pulling out "Alicyn" and "Brittni" and the like. What are they thinking? Do you really think your child won't come up with a better way of distinguishing herself? I even know a "Liisa" with two i's...in other words, absolutely everything associated with her appears to have been badly edited. No thanks.

[Sciencewoman]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

Help me Lord, I cannot STAND the cutesy spellings! I am speechless when I see educated people pulling out "Alicyn" and "Brittni" and the like. What are they thinking? Do you really think your child won't come up with a better way of distinguishing herself? I even know a "Liisa" with two i's...in other words, absolutely everything associated with her appears to have been badly edited. No thanks.

I'm with you. Both my husband and his sister have common names, which my in-laws decided to spell weird. His has 2 of the letters reversed from the norm. Even his middle name is common, with a weird spelling. It's a real pain to always have to stress the spelling during customer service/business transactions.

We had a near-crisis when his passport arrived with his name spelled the usual way...it had to be redone, weeks passed, and it finally arrived 2 days before a trip to Australia. We had to call our Congressman's local office to intervene with the passport office to get it expedited. My mother-in-law actually felt guilty about that.

[WCsweet<3]

Alan
Anson
Augie
Aldous

[IrishLake]

Originally Posted by WCsweet<3

Alan
Anson
Augie
Aldous

lol, you got it Sweet! Augie.

[IrishLake]

We are the same for names. All are family based. Oldest is named for my husbands Paternal grandmother, middle is name for his great-great-uncle and great-grandpa (my maternal opa), and youngest Baby Girl is named after my husbands middle name and his paternal grandmothers first name.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by IrishLake

We are the same for names. All are family based. Oldest is named for my husbands Paternal grandmother, middle is name for his great-great-uncle and great-grandpa (my maternal opa), and youngest Baby Girl is named after my husbands middle name and his paternal grandmothers first name.

We are a same name family too. It gets a little confusing.

Try to illustrate using fake names:

My middle name is Jane.
Cousin = Jane Suzie.
Her sister = Nicole Jane
Another cousin = Amy Suzie
Aunt = Patty Ann
Another 2nd cousin = Leah Jennifer
Cousin (that aunt's granddaugter) = Lisa Ann
Yet another 2nd cousin = Molly Jennifer

[SWTXBelle]

Names I like for future granddaughters which my daughter also likes:
- Amelia
- Dorothea

(Guess two of my favorite novels?)

One side of my family has a long tradition of naming boys with a biblical name and a presidential name. My eldest son's name - Jackson Peter - keeps up the tradition, and as mentioned earlier, also follows the southern tradition of using family names as first names. (As an aside, we are descended from Andrew Jackson's brother David, so there's that, too.)

[IrishLake]

Yep, my mom is a Mary _____. She has an aunt who was a Mary _____. I wanted one of my daughters to be Mary Charlotte, Mary Claire, or Mary Margaret. My husband vetoed.

[barbino]

Originally Posted by IrishLake

Yep, my mom is a Mary _____. She has an aunt who was a Mary _____. I wanted one of my daughters to be Mary Charlotte, Mary Claire, or Mary Margaret. My husband vetoed.

In my family there is a Mary Margaret (nickname Molly), a Mary Laura (called Mary) ,and a Mary Kathleen (another Mary), all under 15 yrs. old. Mary Kathleen's father said it honored his heavenly mother (Mary), his mother (Kathryn), & his godmother (Eileen). We also have a Kelleen (nn Kelly), and another Kelly. I like longer names that have nicknames.

If I had a daughter, I would have named her Zoe (no nn) or Anneliese (nn Elise). I also like Biblical names, but for middle names, although for boys some of my favorite names double up on Biblical names; like Matthias Stephen or Jude Elijah. Most of the names I like tend to be the more traditional Greek names like Alexander/Alexandria, etc. I have a friend from Greece named Andronikos; we sometimes make fun of his name and give him fictional nicknames.

[thetygerlily]

I'm named after three great-grandmothers. Both of my parents had a grandmother with the same name, and then they picked my mom's favorite grandmother for the other name. It's nice from a family heritage perspective, but I don't remember meeting then, I don't even really know my grandmothers (and barely know my aunts/uncles/cousins) so family heritage isn't something ingrained in me, and the names are old fashioned and often misspelled. It's also annoying to go by a nickname- trying to figure out when you have to use your legal name and when you don't.

Having said that, I do have a pseudo-adoptive grandmother (passed away several years ago) who I would consider naming a girl after- either first or middle. I'd change the spelling slightly, though. it's partially because I like the name, and partially because she's the closest thing I had to extended family growing up- even if I only SE her a few times a year.

One last comment on family names. My dad and bother have the same exact name. While technically my bother is 'the second', mail is just addressed to the name. You never know who it's meant for- even if one goes by a nickname, it goes back to the legal name/nickname fun I deal with. My dad's dad has the same first name, and now my nephew has that as a middle name. My dad was upset that his grandson didn't get to be 'the third'. I don't like that kind of pressure- or confusion.

One thing that will come into play for me when the time comes is international pronouncability. My husband is from another country and all of his family are there, so we need to ensure they can pronounce any names we'd choose. Some names that are fine in English don't translate well in another language or pronunciation!

And last thought. I know I'm not actually naming names, but it's hard! Especially for boy's names. I feel like for every boy's name there are 20 girls names to choose from. Girls names have so much more creativity. It feels like boys names are all either biblical or conquerors. As an agnostic I'd rather avoid an overtly biblical name, which leaves very few options! So in a way a girl would be easier- more names I like to choose from I do avoid girl names that are big names with an 'a' or 'e' or whatnot in the end to make them feminine.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

One last comment on family names. My dad and bother have the same exact name. While technically my bother is 'the second', mail is just addressed to the name. You never know who it's meant for- even if one goes by a nickname, it goes back to the legal name/nickname fun I deal with. My dad's dad has the same first name, and now my nephew has that as a middle name. My dad was upset that his grandson didn't get to be 'the third'. I don't like that kind of pressure- or confusion.

This is the case for my stepdad and stepbrother. My stepdad says he regrets giving his son his name. So confusing! Even when my stepbrother visits and I try to address one of them, it can be quite confusing/annoying for them.

People ask why I refer to my stepbrother as ____ Jr., as I tend to do this even when they don't know my stepdad and/or he's not around. It's purely out of habit, because I know how frustrating it can be when they're both together.