BABY NAMES, what are your faves?

[AOEforme]

I'm Slovenian, so we have a lot of crazy names in our family. But, there are several I think are really pretty. My favorites are Maruška (pronounced Mar-ush-ka) and Isabella.

[em_adpi]

Should I ever have children (ha!), I hope I give them decent but not overly common names.

This is coming from a girl named EMILY of all things who has two siblings with names that are NOT common in North America, at least. I joke that my parents got the baby name book after I came along.

[LttleMsPrEp]

The first three are what I hope to name my children. I have no idea why but when I think of girls' names I always have to think of a middle name to follow it.
Emberly Hayden
Ellodie Carlisle
Emory Kensington
Rylie Addison

For girls I've also always liked

Emmelie
Baylor
Yale
Scarlett
Ember
Leigh
Lily
Piper
Lilian-Elmherst
Willow

For Boys:

Addison
Caleb
Alexander
Blake
Xander
Aiden
Emmett
Talan
Ryder

[ZetaGirl22]

Boys: Liam, Aidan, Eamon, Connor, Sean, Gabriel, Ciaran (pronounced Kieran)

Girls: Siobhan, Catherine (Cate for short), Mairead, Brigid, Dierdre, Colleen, Sinead

Yup we are gonna have some Irish named kids LOL!

DH and I have already definitely decided if we have a boy, the first boy will be named Liam Olin (Olin is his granddad's middle name. He was in the 101st airborne and was dropped on D-Day)
The first girl will be Siobhan Ruth (Ruth was my grandma's first name)

[honeychile]

bump

[thewasher418]

I'm an obstetrician so I get to see name trends as they unfold, so to speak. One of my favorite things (but kind of mean) is when new parents are clearly smug about their "original, unusual" name choice, only to find out that new babies with that name are a dime a dozen.

Once a dad told me, "We're going to name her 'xyz', bet you don't hear THAT one often." And I got to truthfully respond, "Oh, she's not even the first 'xyz' I've delivered TODAY."

I think it's appropriate to be in love with and proud of the name you choose for your child, but don't act like you're a genius for coming up with it. I guarantee it's been done.

[joliebelle]

A friend at worked emailed this out today:
http://deadspin.com/5924827/american...ing-even-worse

I will say that all of my potential baby names (ex. Ava, Isabella, Ethan, Alexander) probably won't be used because they're really popular now.

[KSUViolet06]

I think it's silly/dumb when people say "Well, we liked *insert name here* but decided not to go with it because it's soooooooo popular now."

I really don't understand. If you like that name for your child, what does it matter if it's popular? Naming a kid isn't a "who can name their kid the most obscure thing" contest.

Any name you can come up with, like people have said in this thread, has already been done. I just think it's a very annoying hipster thing to say that you love a name but won't use it because you heard how popular it is. But then again, this is coming someone who likes common, simple names like Claire, Harper, etc.

Is that a generational attitude (wanting your kid's name to be unpopular/obscure?) I feel like my generation is full of Jessicas, Brittanys, etc. and our parents were fine with it.

[Tulip86]

The names I pick for my children will have to be easy to pronounce in both English and Dutch since my significant other and most of my family are Dutch. My name isn't and I hate having to spell it out, or people giving me nicknames because they can't pronounce it.

I've always loved Dixie for a girl but unfortunately Porta-potties are called Dixies in the Netherlands so that's not going to happen.

Girls names I love:
Alex
Sienna
Sophie
Claire
Scarlett
Lauren

Boys names I love:
Alexander
Bastian
Cooper
Archer
Beau

[DreamfulSpirit]

My DH and I are looking to start working on our family soon. We have picked out 1 boy name and 1 girl name: Patrick and Samantha.

I really don't care about picking a name whether it's popular or not. If I like it, I like it! This is no offense to anyone, but I really can't stand really "out there" names. I love names that are pretty, simple, and isn't hard to pronounce.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

I don't think that you should go out of your way to be really weird, but I understand avoiding the most popular name of the day, too. It's just a pain to be one of six Suzies in your grade school class or whatever. As someone mentioned, in my day, everyone was named Jennifer.

[KSUViolet06]

^^^Or in 5 years when every other kid in kindergarten is Bella after the Twilight character. lol.

[IndianaSigKap]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

^^^Or in 5 years when every other kid in kindergarten is Bella after the Twilight character. lol.

I am a high school teacher and had 5 Ashleys in one class of only 22 students, with 4 different spellings (Ashley, Ashleigh, Ashlee, Ashlie). Thank goodness their last names all started with a different letter. I just referred to them by their last name or last initial.

[joliebelle]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

I think it's silly/dumb when people say "Well, we liked *insert name here* but decided not to go with it because it's soooooooo popular now."

I really don't understand. If you like that name for your child, what does it matter if it's popular? Naming a kid isn't a "who can name their kid the most obscure thing" contest.

Originally Posted by Jen

As a Jennifer from the '70s, I really wish my parents had chosen a name a little less overused =)

^This explains why I feel this way. I don't want to choose some obscure ~special snowflake~ name or anything like that. I have a name that is unique, but still "normal" and I want my kids to have that too.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by joliebelle

^This explains why I feel this way. I don't want to choose some obscure ~special snowflake~ name or anything like that. I have a name that is unique, but still "normal" and I want my kids to have that too.

Yes, and 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.