advice needed......dilemma.....

[witt]

Ok I have a dilemma, my mum died six years ago and I loved her dearly, she was young - 58 and died of breast cancer. And she was awesome!!!

When she died, I felt like I had lost everything........ but life goes on and missing her is bearable now.

If we have a girl I would love to give my girl my mum's name but her name is awful. She never liked her name either. It's Gwenda which is really old fashioned and I don't know about the wisdom of burdoning a wee one with it. My mum's middle name is June which she really hated...... we used to tease her about it, so I can't use her middle name either. But I would love something of my mum to carry on for my babies.

This may all be a moot point, i'll probably have another boy, but I'll love some opinions................. we don't use middle names really here so it wouldn't be used.

What do you think?

[turtlemama77]

I think the name Gwenda is kind of cool, so maybe I'm the wrong person to ask! What if you used your mom's initials somehow, and came up with names that started with G and J (I know you mentioned not using middle names...but you could anyway). It would still be a kind of tribute to your mom, and it would be a fun story to tell your little one someday about how she was named.

[Mama Dragon]

How about just Gwen for either the first or middle name?

[Mama Dragon]

oops, double post

[ice_chick]

I like the name Gwen also. Using the initials is also a good idea & you could do that even if you have another boy. We are having the same problem with baby names since this will be the first grandson & there are four grandfathers whose memories we would like to honor, but all the names are so old fashioned. We are trying to narrow it down to the two that have the most nicknames & hopefully as our son grows up, he will grow into his name or a suiable nickname.

[Kirsten]

Originally Posted by Synthea™

How about just Gwen for either the first or middle name?

That is what I was thinking too (sorry, not in your ddc but saw under new posts). I think Gwen is really a nice name.

Other ideas....

How about the month of her birth as a middle name - since your mom's middle name was June? Of course some work better than others.... Or any month name as a middle? April? May? I think June is nice myself.

What about her maiden name as a middle name? I think that is always a cool idea.

Or you could take the letters in Gwenda June and see what other names you could make. Dawn? Jade? Jane? Wanda? Anne? Jenna? Nadja? (I have a friend named Nadja and she is really a cool person.)

My mom died when she was 41 and I wanted to use her name too. Her first name does NOT work with dh's last name AT ALL. Her middle name was just TOO teasable, and her last name was unusual and didn't "go" with dh's last name either. And I have THREE girls! But what I did was use a name that sounded very similar to my mom's first name as a first name for my dd3. Same last three letters, same number of syllables and letters, includes the same rarely used letter. It was as close as I could get!

Good luck figuring something out. I think it is neat that you want to honor your mom that way.

[witt]

thanks everyone, I'll keep thinking about it................. hmmmmm

[LadyMarmalade]

I just did a quick search - Gwenda means 'white, fair, blessed', so perhaps you could pick a different name with the same meaning? Off the top of my head I know that Bianca means 'white'.

[Mama2ABCD]

i was also going to suggest using your mom's maiden name. And i also agree the Gwen is a good name.

sorry you lost your mom. i lost mine mom too almost 25yrs ago.

[LadyMarmalade]

I did another search (can't help myself, I love names).

There's a really cool site here -

http://pregnancy.parenthood.com/babynames.html

you put in the meaning you like and it returns names which have that meaning. So, for 'blessed' it gave me 90 names - the female names are Benita, lots of Ben- names with variations (Benecia, Benedetta etc), Gwyn, Gwyneth (and all the variations), Brachah, Elisia, Elisse, Elyssa (plus others which are similar), Jensina, Maymunah, Mubarika, Sina, Winifrid. It returned hundreds of other names when I searched for 'fair' and 'white' (Ella was there, so were Fiona, Guinevere and Isolde).

Good luck

[momsmyjob]

Gwendolyn?

[gumby74]

I like Gwenda and think that your child would love to know "she" is named after soemone who meant a lot to you. I hate my middle name "lou," but recently I found out that I am named after one of the nicest women in the world, my great-grandmother, and I love the fact I was named after someone so special. If it is a boy, is there a possiblity you would be able to use your mom's maden name somehow in his name?

[witt]

thanks everyone

thanks all, you've given me lots of ideas now i just need to make a decision

[bu's mama]

As Gwendalyn, I feel I need to chime in here . It's a perfectly wonderful name.

I have to say it did take awhile to grow on me, but now I love it. I think because growing up it was so unique & nobody knew it. Combine that with a very unique last name & it got a bit much. Now I think with the popularity of Gwenyth Paltrow, it's seen as more normal. I go by Gwen or Gwendalyn, but you could also use the nicknames Lynn or Wendy.

I also named my dd for her two grandmothers (although both are still living)...my mother's middle name is Hannah and my mil (well, stbx-mil)'s middle name is Jane. I love to keep names in the family (within reason) & think it really honors a person. And dd is so proud to be named after her 2 grammies. The 2 grammies love it as well. Actually, I told my mother what we had picked out for names (we didn't find out the sex before the birth). She later told me after that she was so hoping dc would be a girl so she could have the name.

[witt]

thanks Gwen I think you have just pushed me over the edge towards using Gwenda

I too like to keep names in the family and my mum was really great.

I never thought about lyn or wendy - interesting.

Thanks again everyone

Now I just need to wait and see what I'm having.

Big hugs to all of us who are mum-less. Mums are so important and losing them sucks.

[SparklyMoose]

Why not one of the other names that might give Gwen as a nickname? Offhand I can only think of Gwendolyn and Guinievere, but I'm sure there are others. I also like the suggestion of using initials. Good luck, whatever you decide!

My father and grandfather are still living, and yet my son bears the same middle name they share. I think it's great to honor relatives without directly naming after them.

[bu's mama]

Claire - congratulations on the birth of your little one! Was curious as to what you decided about her name...fill us in!

[Yin Yang]

Originally Posted by bu's mama

Claire - congratulations on the birth of your little one! Was curious as to what you decided about her name...fill us in!

:

[witt]

ha ha was surprised to see this thread again!!

Cerys (pronounced Kerris or Care-iss ) welsh name meaning love and Gwenda as her middle name

i just decided to go for it, we don't use middle names much here in nz and you know it's kind of nice seeing my mum's name again, my mum would have loved it and I will just make sure I tell her what a wonderful grandma she had! <tears in my eyes now>

[PancakeGoddess]

I love the name - the whole thing. Good for you and your mama