Names! - Page 13 « Back to Group Discussions

[katiesophie]

I had a list of names long before we got pregnant.  Una, Kaya, and Fiona made it to the short list.  Middle name will be Sophie - my middle name and my mother's and grandmother's, etc.  For a boy we want to name him after my FIL, Leon, with a middle name that we could possibly call him.  When I told my SIL about the name, she was horrified "you can't call him that, make it the middle name."  

SInce her reaction, I have been more hesitant to tell people the names we like.  At a family gathering with relatives we only see at weddings and funerals, people seemed shocked and/or insulted that I didn't or wouldn't share names with them.  Such an interesting response.  I didn't mind sharing our name ideas before, but people's reactions have been so weird and intrusive.  I might be a little sensitive but now I want to keep it a secret until the baby is born.   Once the kid is here people seem less inspired to share their honest opinions :)

The 3 yr old I nanny for has his own suggestions: Pizza, Mac & cheese, football, and Thomas (like the train)   

[Brambleberry]

Originally Posted by katiesophie 

The 3 yr old I nanny for has his own suggestions: Pizza, Mac & cheese, football, and Thomas (like the train)   

I know a family that let their two older boys give their new baby brother his middle name.  Cannonball.  Apparently it was a really fast labor and he shot out like a...

He's all grown up now and um... well I believe he may have a meth issue.  Probably had nothing to do with the name, though.

So far DD has volunteered Simi and Rhodie for our twins :)

[Teles]

Middle name appears to be chosen: Sivan. It was DH's mother's name before she had it changed when she moved to Holland and nobody could pronounce it.

Mila Sivan (Me-lah See-vaughn)
 

[rachieface]

So, after having *almost* settled on Molly, we're unsure about baby's name now. Violet came up, and we kind of love it. As a bonus, we then found out it is February's flower. Now we are so torn: Molly Rose or Violet Elizabeth? I'm not telling people the names in real life, but I really love both of them and wish I could use them both. LOL. Maybe in the future? I guess we can wait and see what she looks like. Molly Rose I've loved for a long time, and Violet is beautiful (and Elizabeth is one of my names so that's a plus). Hmmm. Thoughts? Anyone else having trouble deciding as we get near the end? I KNEW my son's name from 20 weeks on, so this is new territory for me.

[buko]

Well, Violet was the name of one of my great-aunts, who was totally awesome, so I'm biased!

I'm sure I've told my story above, but...  We settled on the girl's name (full name and nickname) forever ago, but struggled a little more with the boy's.  We THOUGHT we were settled, but then DH admitted a couple of weeks ago that he was conflicted about it. 

Both the girl's and boy's (first) names are very "ethnic" Filipino but the girl's has special significance to his family, whereas the boy's is just one we found that we like (especially that *I* like) and that starts with the "right" letter (lots of specific requirements).  DH claimed he actually did like the boy's name, but it's so unusual, and doesn't lend itself to an easy nickname like the girl's... and it also ends with an "A," which reads feminine (to many cultures) on top of everything else.  Of course, I brought up Joshua, Ezra and the ones that end in "AH," like Josiah, but still.

Gah!  

I told him he had until January 1st to come up with something better or I didn't want to hear it, LOL.  I'm already pretty attached.

It turned out mostly that he just wanted to talk through his feelings, so we're sticking with the original choice, for now.

I still feel bad, though-- I really wanted us to love the boy's name like we do the girl's, because I have a preference for a girl (DH is truly neutral on sex preference).  I didn't want it to be like, "Oh, we have a boy, so we have to use our less-favored name."  I mean, I don't think I'll be disappointed to have a boy, but it's like yet another thing that would make having a boy feel like getting our second choice.    I don't want that at all.

Plus...  I JUST realized another issue.  Although he'll probably generally go by a nickname, as pronounced, the whole first name sounds almost exactly like an alcoholic beverage.  It doesn't look like it in print, but I'm afraid that if he has to say his first name, it will be like*:

"What's your name?"

"Wodcah B---"

"Vodka?"

"No, Wodcah.  W-O-D-C-A-H"
 

Okay, not as obvious as that, because, unlike with Vodka, our alcoholic drink also rhymes with another name you may have heard of (so it's not quite that distinctly alcohol-sounding, if that makes sense).  But I still don't know why I didn't think of it before.  Now I don't want to bring it up to DH, because he'll probably INSIST on changing it, but...  WE HAVE BOTH DONE SO MUCH RESEARCH IT'S INSANE!  Neither of us can find another native Filipino name that starts with the "right" letter and that's any good...  Not even a native Filipino word that wouldn't be too bizarre as a name.  Ergh.  I don't know what to do, and it's making me nuts.

Of course, if it's a girl, no problem, and we have a 50% shot at that.  But I don't really want to gamble in that way.

Help!

*Not the actual name.  

[Gillmoro]

I like Violet a lot too. DD has been campaigning for this name for a while if we have a girl. I like it a lot but DH isn't sold and has another favorite for a girl. I like to have a couple names for each sex and have added it in as one of my two choices for first name but we'll probably go with the other one since I want DH to like the name too. But I think it's very poetic that it's the flower for February! Molly is very pretty too and I love it coupled with the middle name Rose. You'll have a flower girl either way:-)

[rachieface]

Originally Posted by buko 

Well, Violet was the name of one of my great-aunts, who was totally awesome, so I'm biased!

I'm sure I've told my story above, but...  We settled on the girl's name (full name and nickname) forever ago, but struggled a little more with the boy's.  We THOUGHT we were settled, but then DH admitted a couple of weeks ago that he was conflicted about it. 

Both the girl's and boy's (first) names are very "ethnic" Filipino but the girl's has special significance to his family, whereas the boy's is just one we found that we like (especially that *I* like) and that starts with the "right" letter (lots of specific requirements).  DH claimed he actually did like the boy's name, but it's so unusual, and doesn't lend itself to an easy nickname like the girl's... and it also ends with an "A," which reads feminine (to many cultures) on top of everything else.  Of course, I brought up Joshua, Ezra and the ones that end in "AH," like Josiah, but still.

Gah!  

I told him he had until January 1st to come up with something better or I didn't want to hear it, LOL.  I'm already pretty attached.

It turned out mostly that he just wanted to talk through his feelings, so we're sticking with the original choice, for now.

I still feel bad, though-- I really wanted us to love the boy's name like we do the girl's, because I have a preference for a girl (DH is truly neutral on sex preference).  I didn't want it to be like, "Oh, we have a boy, so we have to use our less-favored name."  I mean, I don't think I'll be disappointed to have a boy, but it's like yet another thing that would make having a boy feel like getting our second choice.    I don't want that at all.

Plus...  I JUST realized another issue.  Although he'll probably generally go by a nickname, as pronounced, the whole first name sounds almost exactly like an alcoholic beverage.  It doesn't look like it in print, but I'm afraid that if he has to say his first name, it will be like*:

"What's your name?"

"Wodcah B---"

"Vodka?"

"No, Wodcah.  W-O-D-C-A-H"
 

Okay, not as obvious as that, because, unlike with Vodka, our alcoholic drink also rhymes with another name you may have heard of (so it's not quite that distinctly alcohol-sounding, if that makes sense).  But I still don't know why I didn't think of it before.  Now I don't want to bring it up to DH, because he'll probably INSIST on changing it, but...  WE HAVE BOTH DONE SO MUCH RESEARCH IT'S INSANE!  Neither of us can find another native Filipino name that starts with the "right" letter and that's any good...  Not even a native Filipino word that wouldn't be too bizarre as a name.  Ergh.  I don't know what to do, and it's making me nuts.

Of course, if it's a girl, no problem, and we have a 50% shot at that.  But I don't really want to gamble in that way.

Help!

*Not the actual name.  

This naming a real person thing is stressful, isn't it?  I wish we had that "this is the right name for sure" feeling that both DH and I had about my son's name. FWIW, his name is Judah and I thought some about the feminine "ah" ending thing but really, it is very common (at least in this culture) and his name gets a lot of good feedback.

[loveandgarbage]

It would never occur to me that Judah is too feminine!

We're still set on our name and have been since before we even had the gender scan. That's unusual for us. With my other two we didn't settle on a name until around this time in the pregnancy, and even then it wasn't as 100% as it is this time around. At least that's a relief for us. I also got to tell my great aunt over xmas that Lou's middle name will be after her late husband (my wonderful, wonderful uncle) and she was very touched.

[buko]

Rach-- I think it's that it's an unfamiliar "ethnic" name, so ending with an A (not even an AH) might make it sound a little feminine to "Western" ears.  

I am officially done with my freakout.  I told DH that I had been keeping something from him-- the Vodka/Wodcah thing-- and he just kind of laughed and said, well, he won't often be (verbally) introducing himself by his official first name anyway (DH goes by a nickname 99.9% of the time, himself).  And he reaffirmed that he likes the name just fine.  So...  I think we're okay.

Jean, that's the nice thing about all of our name choices, and the reason I think we are both fairly happy with the boy's name, even though we like the girl's even better.  They are all about honoring family!  Okay, in their own weird ways-- but still.  We are doing the (Ashkenazi?) Jewish thing and using the same first initials (for either sex of baby) as loved ones who have recently passed on.  In this case, my two grandfathers, who passed away in 2008 and 2010.  So we have that. 

Then the girl's name itself is a town important to DH's family (very rarely used as a name, but we have found some people in existence with that name-- all women).  The girl's middle name is the feminine of the name that is both DH's middle and my brother's middle name-- and which comes from DH's great-grandfather and my great-great-grandfather.  

In addition to the same-initial thing, the boy's first name is also native Filipino, and we like the meaning.  The boy's middle name is Yiddish and has a meaning very significant to my Jewish grandfather, so that is also very cool.

It's all going to take a lot of explaining, but I am so proud of the thought that went into these names, and the fact that they honor our families and heritages.

[loveandgarbage]

Originally Posted by buko 

It's all going to take a lot of explaining, but I am so proud of the thought that went into these names, and the fact that they honor our families and heritages.

I agree. It's pretty cool! We always do a family name for the middle name. It will be cool for our kids to grow up and feel like they have a special connection with relatives, alive or passed. I've always been jealous that my sister's middle name is after my great aunt :).

Also the Wodcah thing is cracking me up because that's how you pronounce vodka in Polish!

[buko]

Originally Posted by loveandgarbage 

I agree. It's pretty cool! We always do a family name for the middle name. It will be cool for our kids to grow up and feel like they have a special connection with relatives, alive or passed. I've always been jealous that my sister's middle name is after my great aunt :).

Also the Wodcah thing is cracking me up because that's how you pronounce vodka in Polish!

I had that same thought, LOL, but couldn't come up with a better example. 

My BFF's family does what you do, except with last names.  Like she has her g-grandmother's maiden name as a middle name, and her sister had her mother's maiden name as a middle name, etc.

[joyriders]

I like molly rose and violet elizabeth and honestly don't think you could go wrong with either!

we have our name set. the first name will be my dad's name... but not his actual name, the nickname he's had for over 50 years that actually has nothing to do with his real name (he actually hates his real name). long story..I'll explain once he's born.

middle name will be the full name of a friend (who went by a nickname) of ours (but moreso a friend of my SO) who died under tragic circumstances 3 years ago.

our baby's initials will be GGKK, by fun coincidence.

[waywornwanderer]

Originally Posted by rachieface 

So, after having *almost* settled on Molly, we're unsure about baby's name now. Violet came up, and we kind of love it. As a bonus, we then found out it is February's flower. Now we are so torn: Molly Rose or Violet Elizabeth? I'm not telling people the names in real life, but I really love both of them and wish I could use them both. LOL. Maybe in the future? I guess we can wait and see what she looks like. Molly Rose I've loved for a long time, and Violet is beautiful (and Elizabeth is one of my names so that's a plus). Hmmm. Thoughts? Anyone else having trouble deciding as we get near the end? I KNEW my son's name from 20 weeks on, so this is new territory for me.

Both are so beautiful! I especially love Violet, but that's just because it's on the short list for my own little one. I'm a FTM and never knew how hard naming could be! My husband is pretty settled on one particular name, but I keep doing this weird cycle of settling on a name only to second guess myself and come up with an entirely new name to love.

The ones we've discussed as serious contenders: 

Margot Clementine (husband's favorite, probably the number one contender)

Rose Beatrice

Nora Rose (middle name not set in stone)

Violet Anne

I just don't know!!! We've been calling her Maggie for a long time now, so it feels like it could be right. But I'm so indecisive that I can't commit until I meet her! Also, my mom is set on the name Emma and keeps calling her that half-jokingly, and so the name Emma has sort of permeated my naming.... and even though I know Emma is super popular, I also love it. Arg.

[Chloe'sMama]

If this little one ends up defying modern technology and is a girl, her name will be Emma (middle name not decided, but DH likes Jane as a possibility).

We have decided on a boys name (at least one of you has this name for your older children), but just in case people I know in real life track this down, I am not sharing it.

It is a long time favorite and we just decided to go with it, even though it is popular.

Happy we have finally decided!!!!

[rachieface]

Originally Posted by waywornwanderer 

Both are so beautiful! I especially love Violet, but that's just because it's on the short list for my own little one. I'm a FTM and never knew how hard naming could be! My husband is pretty settled on one particular name, but I keep doing this weird cycle of settling on a name only to second guess myself and come up with an entirely new name to love.

The ones we've discussed as serious contenders: 

Margot Clementine (husband's favorite, probably the number one contender)

Rose Beatrice

Nora Rose (middle name not set in stone)

Violet Anne

I just don't know!!! We've been calling her Maggie for a long time now, so it feels like it could be right. But I'm so indecisive that I can't commit until I meet her! Also, my mom is set on the name Emma and keeps calling her that half-jokingly, and so the name Emma has sort of permeated my naming.... and even though I know Emma is super popular, I also love it. Arg.

LOVE your name choices. And I say go with popular if you love it...but I understand wanting to avoid that too. 

Since Violet is February's flower, now I wonder if she's supposed to be Molly on the off-chance she's born in January? A sign of some sort? I think I'm grasping at straws. I guess two pretty names that we love equally isn't the worse problem to have.

[Gray's Mommy]

Originally Posted by rblakley 

I'm needing help coming up with a girl name. We are having identical twins in Feb. and have pretty much decided on Acacia for one of the names. Pronounced Uh-kay-sha. We don't have any middle names picked out yet. We don't like anything trendy or top 20 and also want each girl to have their own unique name (nothing that rhymes or sounds really similar). Also want to somewhat shy away from doing another "A" name as we would then have 3 daughters with "A" names and one without... Last name is Blakley with a long a. Any help is appreciated. 

One of my college friends was named Acacia. It is a lovely name.

I am starting my list and have some names for girls (maybe 5) and an even shorter list for boys (3). I have taught for 15 years and have a name association issue. We have a Grayson Alexander, Brian Patrick, and Liam Joseph...another boy name is killing us!!! I swear naming a child is harder than birth--hee hee!

[loveandgarbage]

rachieface and waywornwanderer, I love your name choices! Violet is just so pretty, for lack of a better term, but then again, I like Molly too. www, if you've been calling her Maggie then I bet that's what you'll go with :).

Chloe'smama, glad you've decided! Can't wait to hear what it is.

Gray's Mommy, I can't even imagine trying to come up with a name if you've know SO many children over the past 15 yrs! I hope you find something you love.

So my kids sort of hate the name Lou, which is a bummer. They really want his name to be Max. I'm hoping they just... go along with it? Or they come up with their own nicknames for him. I hardly ever call my sister by her name (Allison who goes by Al) and instead call her Wittle (long story). My kids call her Aunt Wittle and when she has kids I'll be Aunt Big. This is sort of funny because I'm a pretty small person who doesn't even have a "big" personality or whatever. It's pretty cool to have special names for one another, and if my kids follow that path, that's cool too.

[rblakley]

Gray's Mommy- Acacia will be the name of our youngest twin. I love it! The elder twin will be Cambrie. I agree naming is so hard! These will be our 3rd and 4th girls and it has only gotten harder.

[kellybeth]

my husband and i finally picked a name for our little girl. it's funny to me that all of the names that were serious contenders or were on our list of possibles were just knocked out by one that was never considered or thought of before. we like the name a lot, but decided that we won't actually love a name until it is hers. i am so happy! 

[LadyCatherine185]

just think.. in a few weeks (or less!) we will have a new thread with all the babies and their OFFICIAL names/stats, etc... =D