Names?

[jenangelcat]

Deleted by user.

[rmzbm]

We have 2 DS's named Zachary & Brandon and 2 DD's named Madison & Avery. We do already have names picked this time - for a girl, Zoe and for a boy, Dominic.

[ORLY?]

Names, names, names, names....

For a boy we like and agree upon the name "Caleb" but when it comes to the middle name... Hubby wants "Elan" (which I like, but we can't agree on the spelling and are fearful people will pronounce it "Ellen" or "Elaine") and I want "Ellis" as the middle name. Hubby thinks it's an odd name but I try to explan to him- that's what middle names are for! I fear "Elan" because my middle name is "Iva" and no one ever gets it right- they always say "Ee-va". I don't want my son to go through that. (Although I love my middle name now, it was my grandmother's middle name)

So either "Caleb Elan" or "Caleb Ellis".
For a girl we are set on "Emmah Lane."
Our last name begins with a "T" and has two syllables so we try to have the middle name has two or less. Yeah, we are totally OCD.

[rmzbm]

I love Emmah Lane! And for the boy's middle name I like Ellis better.

OP- FWIW, I like Hayden best!

[ORLY?]

Originally Posted by rmzbm

And for the boy's middle name I like Ellis better.

Finally, confirmation! Can I quote you on that? I'll tell hubby when gets home tonight from work!

[rmzbm]

Originally Posted by ORLY?

Finally, confirmation! Can I quote you on that? I'll tell hubby when gets home tonight from work!

Sure!

[sadiejane08]

We had a terrible time with boys' names for #2 (whom we knew was going to be a boy). In fact, we didn't settle on a name for him until less than 24 hours before he was born, and then only because we really had to! (I was induced at 33 weeks after PROM and passing a large blood clot.)

Our difficulty is compounded by the fact that we will only consider names that are "normal" (enough) in both America and the Netherlands, AND that are pronounced roughly the same way in both countries.

Whatever first name we choose, the middle name will be another maiden name from my side of the family (they already get their last name from DH's side ). I'm debating between my maternal great-grandmother's maiden name or my paternal grandmother's.

So far we have a Sophie and a Ben (and a Meghan, but she's from my first marriage before the Dutch thing became a requirement ). I'm thinking of Lucie and Liam this time around, but DH is not bowled over.

[violamama]

We have a boy name picked. (we had it picked for the last birth, when we had a DD!):

Liam McLean (McLean is a family name)

The girl name is tricky. We have tossed around several names:

Moira, Giada, Freya, Emily WHO KNOWS!

We didn't pick our daughter's name until she was born. (Fiona)

Kathy

[rmzbm]

I love the names Sophie, Meghan AND Lucie!

[rmzbm]

Originally Posted by violamama

Moira, Giada, Freya, Emily WHO KNOWS!

Emily!

[ORLY?]

[QUOTE=sadiejane08;8796610] the middle name will be another maiden name from my side of the family (they already get their last name from DH's side ). I'm debating between my maternal great-grandmother's maiden name or my paternal grandmother's.[QUOTE]
I've always wanted to use maiden names for boys' middle names. *sigh* But all my family last names are either German, Norwegian and very, very, "clunky" or "harsh" sounding or English and are very.... well... "special" (one of the names is "Furry" let's leave it at that). But if you have been blessed with great surnames use them!

I really like the name Lucie/Lucy. Beautiful name.

[sadiejane08]

Orly, your "Furry" story makes me think of the business partner of a friend of mine, whose last name is Anus. His parents named him Harold. He goes by Harry. He is of Hungarian descent and of course his poor parents had no idea what their surname (actually pronounced Ah-NOOSH, but who's gonna do that in the US?) meant.

So far we have Benjamin Megahee (Muh-GAH-hee, clearly one of those colorful invented spellings from Ellis Island; it's originally Scottish, and my maternal grandmother's maiden name) and Sophie O'Brien (paternal paternal great-grandmother, if that makes sense--my paternal grandfather's mother). The surnames-cum-middle names in question this time are Cutler and Bannister.

What's kind of spooky is that my grandmother's grandfather was named Benjamin Megahee, and my great-grandmother was named Sophie (Jane) O'Brien. We didn't know either of these tidbits when we named the kids!

violamama - oooh, you've already got Liam scoped out! I guess it's going to be a popular name this year. I really like Emily, too.

[ORLY?]

Originally Posted by sadiejane08

Orly, your "Furry" story makes me think of the business partner of a friend of mine, whose last name is Anus. His parents named him Harold. He goes by Harry. He is of Hungarian descent and of course his poor parents had no idea what their surname (actually pronounced Ah-NOOSH, but who's gonna do that in the US?) meant.

Oh, geez. That is seriously funny!

I heard somewhere that in Germany you have to register a baby’s name and get it okay-ed before you can use it.
Does anyone know if this is true, or just an urban legend?

[rmzbm]

Originally Posted by ORLY?

Oh, geez. That is seriously funny!

I heard somewhere that in Germany you have to register a baby’s name and get it okay-ed before you can use it.
Does anyone know if this is true, or just an urban legend?

Most of my family lives in Germany & I've never heard of that. COULD be true, but I doubt it.

[sarahmck]

Originally Posted by ORLY?

I heard somewhere that in Germany you have to register a baby’s name and get it okay-ed before you can use it.
Does anyone know if this is true, or just an urban legend?

That's still true in some Scandinavian countries, I think. Either that or I recently heard it was done away with just in the last year or two. Not Germany, though.

[linguistmama]

Originally Posted by sadiejane08

Our difficulty is compounded by the fact that we will only consider names that are "normal" (enough) in both America and the Netherlands, AND that are pronounced roughly the same way in both countries.

DH is from Mexico so this is our challenge for Spanish and English. We both think this one is a boy and have chosen Emilio so far. We'll see if the baby wants another name!

[Sagesgirl]

Germany does have laws regarding acceptable names, but I don't think they have an actual list. I think NZ has name laws as well. I often wish this was the case in the US.

Anyhow, everything is open to change, but right now if we have a girl, her first name will be Evangeline. Don't know beyond that.

We don't really have a clue about boys' names, but last night we were joking about Connor Tiberius. Beaucoup geek points to anyone who gets those two names.

[Ironica]

DH just said tonight "Ok, now we have to get serious about names." We have a TON of criteria:

* Both our first names (mine and DH's) start with M, so no Ms. Too cutesy.
* Our surname starts with W, so no Ws. Again, too cutesy (and I was a double M for the first 12 years of my life... actually switched to my mom's maiden name to get rid of it.)
* Our son's name starts with a D, so no Ds either!
* We have to like the meaning of the name. Can't be too religious or... I dunno, stupid? ;-)
* The name can't be *too* popular. We check the past 30 years of trending on the Social Security Baby Name list (http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/ for those who aren't familiar). Any name that is too high up is out. Any name that is going up in the last few years is out.
* By the same token, it can't be too weird. ;-) You have to be able to say it if you see it. We were considering "Helena" for a girl last time, except that it could be HEL-in-ah, hel-AY-nah, or hel-EEN-ah, and that just sucked. Same reason we knocked out Lyra, our first choice, because we thought it was LEE-ra and everyone else said it LIE-ra. (Except my MIL and my cousin, who couldn't remember it; another hint that it was a bad choice.)
* Can't rhyme with or look like anything that's too easy to tease with.

We chose our son's name, Donovan, by literally going through the SSA Baby Names list starting at rank 40 and just taking down every name we liked. We got six finalists that met all our criteria, and then practically did eeny-meeny-miny-mo between our two favorites. Then, AFTER we picked it out and he turned out to be a boy, we found out that our midwife's surname was Dunivan, and our birth instructor's husband's surname was O'Donovan. ;-)

If he'd been a girl, he would have been Elena, but now DH doesn't like that name anymore, so we're completely back to the drawing board.

Since our son's name starts with the same letter as his paternal grandmother, we're considering having the next one start with the same letter as my mother, which would be an R. Randall is getting consideration for a boy's name (it was on the final 6 last time).

[Sagesgirl]

You know, Ironica, you're not too bad on the rules.

Here are ours:

1) No R, S, B, L, E, or M names.*
2) No single-syllable first names, as our last name is a single syllable, so it would sound too abrupt.
3) Cannot end with long E, short A, or ER sound, as those are the ending sounds of our first three kids' names, & rhyming is out. Last time around I was just trying to avoid long E & short A sounds, and that one rule knocked out a lot of girl names.
4) Cannot be in the top 100 popular names on the SSA's list, and preferably not in the top 200. (Our most popular name is Esther, at 298.)
5) Preferably doesn't have an obvious nickname, as our first three names don't.
6) Should follow this rhythm: 2 syllable first name, 3 syllable second name, 1 syllable third name. I'm flexible on this one, though.
7) The pronunciation has to be readily obvious from just looking at the name. I grew up having my name mangled by nearly everyone I met; it's not something I'm going to inflict on my kids.
8) No funky spellings.
9) Has to have a good meaning. (Linda does not mean "pretty", by the way.)
10) Family member or friend's name far preferred, but no one's grandparents.
11) The name has to not only be uncommon, it has to be obviously a real name. Random nouns and made up names need not apply.

*Yes, I am fully aware Evangeline violates this rule, & #6 as well. I can't explain it, but this name came to me before I knew I was pregnant, possibly before I was pregnant.



Oh, & I love Randall. I just don't like the nickname Randy, which is why we had the name Randolph for our boy's name the last two times.

[Ironica]

11) The name has to not only be uncommon, it has to be obviously a real name. Random nouns and made up names need not apply.

We have this guideline for boys' names, but not so much for girls' names. For girls, if the name is pretty enough (and fits all the other social acceptability rules, like not rhyming embarrassingly and being pronounceable), it'll work. For boys, not so much. There's much stronger conformity pressure there, I think.

See, I LOVE my first name. I also love the rest of my names (I was given five at birth, and added one, dropped it, added another ;-). So I know that it's really nice to have a name you're happy with, and also cool to have a couple back-ups just in case.