What's in a name? « Back to Group Discussions

[jasmin85]

So our little guy is 2.5 weeks old and we still haven't settled on a name!  We have until Tuesday to turn in his birth certificate...

I really like the name Dominic but we've gotten lots of comments where people assume he should be Italian or African American to have that name...so my husband isn't sold.

He finally mentioned a name today, Kirin, which is a Japanese (and a Sanskrit) name which means Giraffe in Japanese and represents the Qilin which is a mythical creature that brings good luck, or in Sanskrit it means Poet.  Now, my problem is that it is the same thing as Kieran, which had originally been on my name list but I didn't like the meaning of "dark one" in Irish, however, it is a more common form which people recognize versus Kirin which people don't.  My given name is Brittany which is always being misspelled because people tried to be all unique with the spelling, I always hated that growing up and wouldn't want to do that to him...Anyway, it's the same name, does the meaning really change because the spelling is different?  And, does it matter?

Also, he wants the middle name to be Jedi....yes, Jedi.  He's not even a fan of Star Wars so don't ask me why...but, it is a real form of a Hebrew name which means, "beloved by God"... 

Any thoughts on all this??

Here's a picture of my little man:

[meesh933]

Oh man he's cute! I'm jealous you get so long to  name him - we get 5 days here. We settled on Jack by day 2, but I'm still not sure sometimes. I think we should get longer to get to know them first! At this point, we'd have to go to court to change it though....so I'm trying not to think about the fact that I'm not 100% sure it's his name.

Anyway, I like Kirin. I understand your feelings on the spelling, though. I'm Michele - just one L. Irritating growing up. People would be forever thinking the E in Kirin was accidentally left out and "fixing" it. And I actually don't hate Jedi, but people will constantly make Star Wars comments...

[jasmin85]

Originally Posted by meesh933 

Oh man he's cute! I'm jealous you get so long to  name him - we get 5 days here. We settled on Jack by day 2, but I'm still not sure sometimes. I think we should get longer to get to know them first! At this point, we'd have to go to court to change it though....so I'm trying not to think about the fact that I'm not 100% sure it's his name.

Anyway, I like Kirin. I understand your feelings on the spelling, though. I'm Michele - just one L. Irritating growing up. People would be forever thinking the E in Kirin was accidentally left out and "fixing" it. And I actually don't hate Jedi, but people will constantly make Star Wars comments...

Technically we were only supposed to have 10 days, but we kind of stretched past it and the midwives never got back to us about what options we had, so we're just waiting until his 3 week appointment.  I'm not sure what the state/county can do about it if we haven't submitted yet...

I like how Jedi sounds, but don't like the reference...but it's possible that my little boy will think it is super cool, of course, perhaps not as an adult...of course, it may be perfectly usual for this generation.

[KayPea]

First thing I thought of when I heard Kirin was "like the beer?" I didn't think of Keiran at all, actually, but I can see now how others would.  It's a little too close in sound to my own name (Kirsten) which I am ambivalent about, so I have a hard time being objective about it, but I always think that if it means something to you, and you like it, and it seems to suit your little guy, you shouldn't have to worry about things like if it might get misspelled in the future. Every name has something like that, and often we don't even think about them beforehand. Our little guy is named Oren, and while I totally thought about Orange and Owen etc, EVERYONE mishears me when I say his name and thinks it's Warren. And that never even crossed my mind when we picked it, though maybe it should have (I DETEST the name Warren). Oh well, I still love it. 

[KaliShanti]

He's a doll. And I like the name Kirin Jedi.

[jbk21]

I thought of the beer too    I think it's a great name, but also wonder if other people would make star wars comments.  Not that it matters, and it's his middle name and not his first so how many people would know, right?  

Question:  What have you been calling him?  Like, a nickname?  Just curious!  I thought for sure it would take me forever to name this baby, but suddenly a name came to me in the middle of pregnancy.  I always wondered what we'd call him in the meantime until we decided a name, though.  Now we just call him Peanut anyway, instead of Dylan.  Lol.  

[birdhappy85]

I'm a big fan of the name Kirin! But I'm a little biased because we named our daughter a Japanese name too (Sora)! I might have to present the name Kirin to my DH for a future son... I wouldn't mind keeping the original spelling. I like that it's unique but not wacky or confusing! And honestly I bet people would even misspell Kieran sometimes. Use the spelling that you're most drawn to and really like. As for the middle name Jedi, I agree with Jbk that it's just a middle name and doesn't matter as much as far as what people think about it, nor would that many people know. At first thought, I wasn't too sure how I felt about the name Jedi but then I saw the picture of your little boy and totally love the name with Kirin now! He really looks like he could be named Kirin Jedi and it would fit really well. Let us know what you decide!

[Jaimee]

Originally Posted by jbk21 

Question:  What have you been calling him?  Like, a nickname?  Just curious!  I thought for sure it would take me forever to name this baby, but suddenly a name came to me in the middle of pregnancy.  I always wondered what we'd call him in the meantime until we decided a name, though.  Now we just call him Peanut anyway, instead of Dylan.  Lol.  

This was so us with our first two as well.  They didn't get called by their real names until over a year old.  Kirin is unique... I like it.  Jedi... well I think there will be a lot of Star Wars references, but it is only the middle name.  What is you dh's reason for liking it if not for the movies?

[meesh933]

Originally Posted by birdhappy85 

 At first thought, I wasn't too sure how I felt about the name Jedi but then I saw the picture of your little boy and totally love the name with Kirin now! He really looks like he could be named Kirin Jedi and it would fit really well. Let us know what you decide!

Exactly that. I wasn't 100% sure about the name, but when I saw his picture, it totally fits.

[LunaLady]

I think Kirin Jedi looks perfect for him! What a sweet looking baby! Very handsome and thoughtful face he has 

[FaithF]

Kirin Jedi is a great name! I think people will forever misspell and mispronounce even the most normal names. 

[xakana]

I will say first that Kirin (kee-reen) is not the same as Kieran (keer-en) and "little and dark" just refers to coloring, not moral alliance ;) (I've always liked the female form of that name--Kiara). Just in case that helps. (I grew up with Japanese as the second language in my home--I'm far from fluent, but pronunciation is easy). My second daughter's name, Naomi (which we say Nay-oh-mee) is pronounced Now-mee or Nah-oh-mee (very quickly) in Japanese. Totally different pronunciation system from English.

You have a gorgeous little boy, btw. And I agree with the others that I was dubious about Jedi until I saw him!

Edited by xakana - 12/17/11 at 12:04pm

[ZippyGirl]

Beautiful boy!  I love Kirin, but I am biased:  My daughter is 1/4 Japanese (I'm 1/2), and I gave her a Japanese name.   Speaking of Japanese names, etc., I thought this was HI-larious:

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/j-pop-talk-show/1362560

[Sasha's Mama]

He is so cute! No help but I like Dominic and Kirin. But since Kirin is close to what was on your original list, I'd go with that. Not that I'm really the best one to give advice - we switched the baby's name from Maxim when he was born and ended up putting Indiana James on his birth certificate... and a month later we're calling him Luca (a name I've always loved that my husband finally came around to, but he's been Noah, Mateo, Max, and quite a few others in the last month!) 

[jasmin85]

We went with Kirin Jedi  =)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about it, I really do like the name.