Names, anyone? - Page 2 « Back to Group Discussions

[snozzberry]

Originally Posted by porcelina 

Have you heard of www.nymbler.com? It's pretty cool. You enter in the names you like, and it finds more like that. Fun to play with, though sometimes the same names keep coming up.

There goes my night!!!

[lenny1027]

Originally Posted by BeagleMommy 

Does anyone have any good resources for choosing names? Or even choosing names that go with the existing names in the family?
My husband dislikes virtually all names I suggest so this is a frustrating process.
We're looking for a very traditional name that is not too common and easy to spell since our last name is a hard to spell name no one has ever heard before. There are literally two other people with out last name in the entire state and they are my in-laws!

I know what you mean. There are six other people in the U.S. (probably the world) with our last name, and they are all my in-laws. It's a made up name that came from Americans not being able to pronounce my father in law's family's Hungarian name two generations ago. :)

[PrincePJ]

We were TTC for so long we had tossed around a few names. We still had our lists from Petey. We had made a list each, switched them and crossed out the ones we didn't like and then made a list of the names we agreed. So we found our combined list, crossed off the names we no longer like, added a few new ones and here we are! * means family name

Boys:

*Henry

*Theodore

*Cassius

*August

 Sawyer

 Luca

 Lawson

Girls:

*Eloise

*Ida

*Anais

*Dahlia

*Freya/Freja

*Sofia

 Eden

 Charlotte

 Jude

 Elizabeth

There's a lot of pressure from DH's side of the family to use a family name because everyone is named after someone, even if the name is altered a little bit. And sadly, my DH is one of the youngest, and many of the 'normal names' have been taken up by his nieces and nephews (Luke, Emily, Abbey, Josh, Tommy). Some names we're pretending to consider - Herman, Wilhelmina, Kiefer, John, Victor, Mary, Simon, Bernadette, Harold...
 

Edited by PrincePJ - 11/3/12 at 5:40pm

[BeagleMommy]

That's funny, lenny! Our name is fairly common in the Netherlands, sometimes even Van Lastname, but in Kentucky? Not so much. I couldn't pronounce my husband's last name until after our first date!

I'm working the above resources, but with little success so far. But we've got time, right?

[kimble]

There are some great ideas here!

After tossing around name ideas since we started TTC, we finally got formal this weekend. I charged DH with making a Google doc so we can both edit columns for maybe and vetoed boys and girls.

We both like the idea of going with a family name, and are fortunate enough to have some geneological sleuths in the family. DH's grandmother actually wrote 3 books on their family tree, including an index of first names for the "common" family name. She also put a lot of interesting details about peoples' lives in there, which makes it a fun read (Everything from how the Empress of Austria noticed a distant cousin's paintings while walking around Copenhagen and had to have one to modern cousins being in elementary school plays). We both spent some time with the major book from her works this weekend. My aunt has covered my mother's side back to the 1700s where possible, but my father's side remains an untapped line.

I'm looking forward to the process itself as much as the end result. I think we will end up with a couple short lists and not know for sure until we meet him or her.

[BaileyB]

For girl: Penny June

And I had 2 boy names picked prior to being pregnant (Josiah and Asher) but DH and I were having a conversation the other day and I said something about it being so dusty and now this baby's name is Dusty. Probably Dusty Lawrence after Dh's recently deceased g'pa.

[radiowave]

We've been talking about names since our first (Mirah, now 4) arrived! And I think that we are settled on basically the same first name for a girl or boy, but different spellings.

Girl: Neko

Boy: Nico

Middle name...for a girl, Jean, for my mother in law, and for a boy, Mychal, for the beautiful priest who died on 9/11 (Mychal Judge)/

[SilaMarila]

Lurking for girl names lol.

We have a boy name chosen and NO girl names AT ALL that seem right. Take that back, there is one, but it is my name with the first letter changed. But rhyming names and a lifetime of confusion? Not doing it. Middle name maybe.

Lenny1027 - Your chosen girl name may or may not be my name IRL (I hate to give my name out online lol) except my middle name is Marie :) So I think you have made a great choice!

[porcelina]

I was looking through The Baby Name Wizard (Laura Wattenberg) last night, and I really love that book. She talks about how these name trends go through our culture, and groups names in to style categories. We have used the biblical category for both previous boys, so it makes sense to look there for inspiration. Then, she has a list of names with the origins and typical sibling names, which are likely to accompany them. What a fun read!!

I used to love the name Ketzal for a girl (got idea from Ketzal Levine, NPR, rhymes with pretzal). DH nixed it from day 1. Sigh! I also thought of using the Spanish spelling for the rare bird, Quetzal, and thought it would be so cool to be named after a beautiful rare bird. So, maybe someone else can take this inspiration, if it appeals to anyone!!

Ultimately, though, we are going to find out the sex, so I think I'm going to hold off on final decisions for after 20 weeks.

Oh, and here is another awesome resource for popularity:

http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#

Check it -- Baby Name Wizard came out in 2005. One name I keep seeing on these boards is Isla. This name is sortof highlighted as a possible name that would catch on, and since she suggested it, it totally has, starting after the book came out. Really cool stuff.
 

Edited by porcelina - 9/19/12 at 8:44am

[MarieWalter]

I second nymbler.com and babynamewizard.com, both the voyager and Laura's blog are GREAT (http://www.babynamewizard.com/blog)

In addition I love http://swistlebabynames.blogspot.com/. Much less of a big time blog but Swistle has fantastic insight into names and addresses questions like "every name I suggest, the husband nixes" although I can't find the link right now. Also, she's hilarious.

I am kind of into names, but this doesn't mean I've made any progress! I like Thea for a girl. Our joke name for a boy is Arvo. Thought about Juniper, but I have some reservations.

[aHikaru]

i kinda like Mae, which is obv fitting. 

[tbarnett]

my personal favorite place to get lost in the name game is www.nameberry.com  there are fantastic lists there, a constantly refreshing list of names on the homepage of names being looked at in that moment.... oh it is SO fun!  

some of my favorite names have been gaining such popularity and that frustrates me... my son's name was original to us and in the months since his birth I've heard several variations of his name...grrrr....lol

We have a first name for a girl, done and decided.... it has a familiar sound as a word name, but a nice ring as a name... you just have to be super careful about the middle name to not have it be cheesy.... her name will be Ever.  still working hard on that middle name.

if it is another boy... we are leaning towards Knox, but that is still undecided.  middle name will most likely be Anderson after my father-in law.  

go ahead ladies... get lost on nameberry... and give me some girl middle name suggestions or boy first name suggestions to go with Anderson.   

[jacquelinej]

Originally Posted by tbarnett 

go ahead ladies... get lost on nameberry... and give me some girl middle name suggestions or boy first name suggestions to go with Anderson.   

Oh darn, I'm gonna lose another night...

I asked DH what he was thinking in names, and all he said was "Oh right, names."  LOL, he's a scientist and his head is in his science 24/7.

[bmcneal]

Originally Posted by tbarnett 

[b]some of my favorite names have been gaining such popularity and that frustrates me... my son's name was original to us and in the months since his birth I've heard several variations of his name...grrrr....lol[/b]   

I know, right?!? When we had DD, her name was not even in the 100 top, but now, I hear her name *everywhere* She even won't let me call her by my favorite nickname for her because "That's the name of a girl in my class!!!" :(

[MarieWalter]

Originally Posted by bmcneal 

I know, right?!? When we had DD, her name was not even in the 100 top, but now, I hear her name *everywhere* She even won't let me call her by my favorite nickname for her because "That's the name of a girl in my class!!!" :(

Swistle is great on this topic - How to Tell if a Name Will Get Popular http://swistlebabynames.blogspot.com/2010/09/baby-naming-issue-evelyn-and-how-to.html

and Avoiding a Name That's About to Get Popular http://swistlebabynames.blogspot.com/2010/07/baby-naming-issue-avoiding-trends.html

[pastormama]

We keep it traditional and just go with family names.  We named our first Vicki Jo, after my mother who died in 2005.

If we have a boy this time, he will be Jeffrey Todd Grammer III, after my husband and his father (who died in 1991 - we would call the baby "Todd" after my husband's father).

If it's a girl - Mary Rose, call her Rosie.  My husband's grandmother is named Rosemary, it is a common tradition in our family to name a girl "Mary" and then call her by her middle name (for example, my sister is Mary Nelle, called Nelle), I have a sister named Mary, an aunt named Mary, and a great-aunt named Mary.  One of my grandfather's sisters is named Rosie.  My stepdad's wife is named Rosalie.  My best friend's middle name is Rose.  My mother-in-law's middle name is Rose.

So, Mary Rose seemed right.

My husband and I have virtually NO discussion about these things - we were totally in agreement the first time, and again the second!  How refreshing.

[cadybh]

DH refused to talk names till we knew gender last time, and so far I've not been able to convince him that we should be "team green" for this little bean so we've had ZERO name discussion so far.  So frustrating!  sigh :)  We like family names, ones that match our random mutt heritage (Irish, English, French), and ones that are not super popular YET are easy to spell and pronounce.  DS is named Bradley, which is my mother's maiden name.

"Leftovers" from DS are as follows, new ideas with a ?:

Girl (MN probably Shea, O'Shea is MIL's maiden name):

Eva (Eva was my paternal grandfather's mother's name)

Ava (my all time favorite girl name from childhood, but it's a no-no for us as it's way too popular)

Erin (but doesn't flow with our last name)

Emily?

Charlotte?

Claire?

Lilian?

Annabel?

Vivienne?

Sloane?

Boy:
Ian (DH's random favorite)

Jackson (Jack is what FIL named John goes by - but this is too popular)

Niles? (my father's middle name)

Either:

Winslow is my maiden name, I think it'd be a neat middle name for either gender maybe?

[cadybh]

Sorry, meant to reply specifically to PrincePJ!

[cadybh]

Originally Posted by PrincePJ 

There's a lot of pressure from DH's side of the family to use a family name because everyone is named after someone, even if the name is altered a little bit. And sadly, my DH is one of the youngest, and many of the 'normal names' have been taken up by his nieces and nephews (Luke, Emily, Abbey, Josh, Tommy). Some names we're pretending to consider - Herman, Wilhelmina, Kiefer, John, Victor, Mary, Simon, Bernadette, Harold...
 

Oh dear, I feel you.  

The family names we have to consider: Harold, Ernest, Shirley, Janice, Lee, Arthur, Archibald, Leonard, Edward, Mary

They're... less than idea, shall we say.  To us at least, apologies if anyone here is dead set on Shirley or Archibald!!! :)

[Hadleychick]

Miera Rose is our choice for a girl, prounounced Mee-ra.  

H