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Thinking names?

10K views 187 replies 71 participants last post by  tracymom1 
#1 ·
How many of you have been thinking of names for your growing little one? Does your family have any naming customs? Leftovers from previous children? Do you name after loved ones? What are your inspirations? Do you wait until after you meet the new baby to choose?
 
#103 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by astar326 View Post

we have an ongoing list that we will continue to add to as we come up with names. ds chose his name a few hours after birth. i am sure we will do the same with this lo. our last name is common and 1 syllable. we have a few middle names, but will have to come up with more. the stared are my favorites. i like to have a nickname already picked out. we are referring to the baby as baby snap pea right now.

girl

Amara Perl *

Alivia

Isola Elle * (FIL's mother's name meaning island girl)

Kiran

Zoe

boy

Octavius Keegan

Vaughn

Leonus

Xavier

Finnley

Audric

Nikolai *

Alexei * (i had a dream i had a ds named Alex, but i'm not too fond of the name, but dh suggested this with Lex for a nickname)

either

Maven
In terms of nickname for Nikolai, our Xavier's middle name is Kolya. Its the nickname for Nikolai. DH's side is Russian Mennonite - he had a great uncle abducted by the KGB in the early 1900s, sent to Siberia and never heard from again. A sad story but also very intriguing and a neat way to honour family history. Everyone referred to Nikolai as Kolya and that's how we chose the middle name!

Love your names! Especially Xavier, of course ;)
 
#104 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by fjc View Post

In terms of nickname for Nikolai, our Xavier's middle name is Kolya. Its the nickname for Nikolai. DH's side is Russian Mennonite - he had a great uncle abducted by the KGB in the early 1900s, sent to Siberia and never heard from again. A sad story but also very intriguing and a neat way to honour family history. Everyone referred to Nikolai as Kolya and that's how we chose the middle name!

Love your names! Especially Xavier, of course ;)
i love family names that aren't on the top of the ss list. i never heard of Kolya before, but i really like it. i was just thinking we would call him Niko. i forget that nicknames don't have to be part of the 1st name. that's a good idea to use the middle name.

Xavier is a great name. it was dh's and the majority of our family's #1 choice for Vlad (before he choose his own name).
 
#105 ·
Great names everyone! I've also been compiling a list for over a year hehe. Middle names will come from family members and here are some of the ones we agree on for 1st names:

Boy:
Max
Bailey
Bodie
Nico
Neilan
Dylan

Girl:
Charlotte
Ruby
Milana or Milena
Mina
Brody
Bailey
Kenzy
Morgan
Rowan
Ayla
Euna
Evina
Zia
 
#106 ·
So we really haven't shared our names but we have a pretty firm list. We will be waiting until we meet the baby to choose...

Girls -
Coraline Lily
Josephine Dani
Cecily Skye
Rowen Sage

Boys -
Jasper Rhys
Phoenix John
Tanek Gage
Rowen Shea
 
#107 ·
I've been thinking alot about name too. Boy name is easy - we plan on naming after DH.

For girl names I have so far - having a hard time coming up with a name that we both like:

natalie

temira

trinity

mia

kara

kyla

brittany

caressa

Our first dd we had decided on her name long before we even were pregnant, so that was really easy. This time much harder.
 
#108 ·
I think we have decided firm on Oliver Felix for a boy. I'd prefer to keep it open until after baby gets here, but DH is a "we need to decide" personality. It wouldn't be so bad except that he vetoes 98% of what I come up with. Girl is still up for negotiations. We both like Mina. I've been pushing hard for Evangeline, but DH is not a fan. I also really love Cora and DH is not a fan.
greensad.gif
I'm getting a bit nervous about the name Oliver though. It's showing up as #10 for names in 2010 and on the rise according to babynames.com. Not that popularity should be an end all be all deciding factor. But we chose Ayden for our first and the poor guy is going to be thrown in with multiple Aidans, Aidens, and Aydens everywhere he goes...lol! We had no idea it was so popular - it was the only name we could agree on when he was born! So I'm trying to give this next LO a less popular name!
 
#109 ·
We found out last week that we are having another girl. Figures, because we could only think of boys names we liked! Both our son and daughter's name end in "el" so I'm debating if that is a trend we need to follow or not. Right now our very short list consists of Mia and Ariel. I really like Mia, but Ariel fits with our other kids names better. Thankfully, we still have months to decide! Middle name we're still clueless on. Maybe Anne (my middle name).
 
#110 ·
I love Oliver Felix! What about just switching them around if you're nervous about Oliver becoming too popular? I know 1 Felix - its such a cool, dapper name! :)

Quote:
Originally Posted by swimming-duck View Post

I think we have decided firm on Oliver Felix for a boy. I'd prefer to keep it open until after baby gets here, but DH is a "we need to decide" personality. It wouldn't be so bad except that he vetoes 98% of what I come up with. Girl is still up for negotiations. We both like Mina. I've been pushing hard for Evangeline, but DH is not a fan. I also really love Cora and DH is not a fan.
greensad.gif
I'm getting a bit nervous about the name Oliver though. It's showing up as #10 for names in 2010 and on the rise according to babynames.com. Not that popularity should be an end all be all deciding factor. But we chose Ayden for our first and the poor guy is going to be thrown in with multiple Aidans, Aidens, and Aydens everywhere he goes...lol! We had no idea it was so popular - it was the only name we could agree on when he was born! So I'm trying to give this next LO a less popular name!
 
#111 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by fjc View Post

I love Oliver Felix! What about just switching them around if you're nervous about Oliver becoming too popular? I know 1 Felix - its such a cool, dapper name! :)

Quote:
Originally Posted by swimming-duck View Post

I think we have decided firm on Oliver Felix for a boy. I'd prefer to keep it open until after baby gets here, but DH is a "we need to decide" personality. It wouldn't be so bad except that he vetoes 98% of what I come up with. Girl is still up for negotiations. We both like Mina. I've been pushing hard for Evangeline, but DH is not a fan. I also really love Cora and DH is not a fan.
greensad.gif
I'm getting a bit nervous about the name Oliver though. It's showing up as #10 for names in 2010 and on the rise according to babynames.com. Not that popularity should be an end all be all deciding factor. But we chose Ayden for our first and the poor guy is going to be thrown in with multiple Aidans, Aidens, and Aydens everywhere he goes...lol! We had no idea it was so popular - it was the only name we could agree on when he was born! So I'm trying to give this next LO a less popular name!
Thanks. I think your idea is fantastic. I've actually considered this and I really love Felix as a first name. But I don't know if DH is going to go for it. Gah - difficult DH - maybe I'll just knock him out when it comes time to pick a name for the birth certificate!
 
#113 ·
Sigh. We all but decided, quite painlessly, on Liam David - David being my father's name (and he had six girls, so we feel he deserves a namesake!). But then I found out Liam was the top baby boy name in New Zealand last year. Not just common... number one. So now I'm thrown. I prefer to avoid trendy names - Rowan (DD's name) is much less common over here than it is on MDC! - but I really love the name. So, I'm not sure what's going to happen.

Other possibilities include Miles, Lachlan (although, amazingly, that's pretty common here too!)... I quite like Fynn, but I suspect I might go off it in a few months... DH thinks Linden is too girly... I like L-names, because I think it's a gentle sound without being "girly". (I know, I'm weird.) So - anyone have any awesome, preferably Anglo-Saxon or Celtic-derived boys' names starting with L, other than Liam, Lachlan and Linden?

Our girl's name, which we may well have changed before the time came, was Katie Rose - well, Katherine Rose, but I liked the idea of calling her Katie Rose in everyday life. Not hyphenated, though, so I dunno if the Rose would have stuck. I thought it was pretty, though. :) So if anyone here wants it - !
 
#114 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelly1216 View Post
Right now our very short list consists of Mia and Ariel. I really like Mia, but Ariel fits with our other kids names better. Thankfully, we still have months to decide! Middle name we're still clueless on. Maybe Anne (my middle name).
My dd is Mia Neshama. I never thought I'd choose such a popular name (Mia was #16 last year in our province, I think), but the name just fits her so well. It's a beautiful name (and I have yet to meet another baby Mia even close to her age!).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Smokering View Post

Our girl's name, which we may well have changed before the time came, was Katie Rose - well, Katherine Rose, but I liked the idea of calling her Katie Rose in everyday life. Not hyphenated, though, so I dunno if the Rose would have stuck. I thought it was pretty, though. :) So if anyone here wants it - !
Katie Rose is beautiful. My ds1 was very into the Alfie and Annie Rose books by Shirley Hughes before dd was born and dh and I were smitten with the name Annie Rose but in the end it just didn't fit her. Still a beautiful name, though. :)

We think we're having another girl. She will likely either be Sophia Etelka (after dh's grandmother) - we'd call her Sophie - or Elizabeth Jade (after my grandmother) - we'd call her Libi...all our kids so far are named for people in my family so I will probably have to give dh the final say here as this is the first time he has expressed interest in naming after someone in his family.
 
#115 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smokering View Post

Sigh. We all but decided, quite painlessly, on Liam David - David being my father's name (and he had six girls, so we feel he deserves a namesake!). But then I found out Liam was the top baby boy name in New Zealand last year. Not just common... number one. So now I'm thrown. I prefer to avoid trendy names - Rowan (DD's name) is much less common over here than it is on MDC! - but I really love the name. So, I'm not sure what's going to happen.

Other possibilities include Miles, Lachlan (although, amazingly, that's pretty common here too!)... I quite like Fynn, but I suspect I might go off it in a few months... DH thinks Linden is too girly... I like L-names, because I think it's a gentle sound without being "girly". (I know, I'm weird.) So - anyone have any awesome, preferably Anglo-Saxon or Celtic-derived boys' names starting with L, other than Liam, Lachlan and Linden?

Our girl's name, which we may well have changed before the time came, was Katie Rose - well, Katherine Rose, but I liked the idea of calling her Katie Rose in everyday life. Not hyphenated, though, so I dunno if the Rose would have stuck. I thought it was pretty, though.
smile.gif
So if anyone here wants it - !
Smokering...that's quite a predicament. Hmm. I personally don't have a problem with popular names, but number one? Eek!! I don't know what i would do. I think it "might" be a deal breaker, especially if my other child had a more uncommon name. I don't know.

We are likely going with Liam for this baby, and although we live in switzerland where it is totally rare, it actally bothered me a lot when the NZ name rankings came out! Haha i am a world away and i was sad that it was number 1 "somewhere". So i totally relate!

I also really like Miles and Lachlan...both excellent choices. I also think Linden spelled the way you have it is more a girl's name, although the tree theme is quite nice. :)

What about Callum? I love that it means dove. Nice nature theme there. Or maybe Logan? That's trendy in the US but what about where you are? It means small hollow (i love nature themes! Haha) and should be plenty manly sounding for your DH. Haha

I also like Finn/Fynn...that is my two year old's name. And Rowan has been on our (boys) name list twice now. It seems we have very similar taste!

Good luck!
 
#116 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by elisheva View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelly1216 View Post
Right now our very short list consists of Mia and Ariel. I really like Mia, but Ariel fits with our other kids names better. Thankfully, we still have months to decide! Middle name we're still clueless on. Maybe Anne (my middle name).
My dd is Mia Neshama. I never thought I'd choose such a popular name (Mia was #16 last year in our province, I think), but the name just fits her so well. It's a beautiful name (and I have yet to meet another baby Mia even close to her age!).
I'm a huge fan of Mia too. Love it! It wasn't common at all a few years ago, now it's cropping up everywhere.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Smokering View Post

Sigh. We all but decided, quite painlessly, on Liam David - David being my father's name (and he had six girls, so we feel he deserves a namesake!). But then I found out Liam was the top baby boy name in New Zealand last year. Not just common... number one. So now I'm thrown. I prefer to avoid trendy names - Rowan (DD's name) is much less common over here than it is on MDC! - but I really love the name. So, I'm not sure what's going to happen.

Other possibilities include Miles, Lachlan (although, amazingly, that's pretty common here too!)... I quite like Fynn, but I suspect I might go off it in a few months... DH thinks Linden is too girly... I like L-names, because I think it's a gentle sound without being "girly". (I know, I'm weird.) So - anyone have any awesome, preferably Anglo-Saxon or Celtic-derived boys' names starting with L, other than Liam, Lachlan and Linden?

Our girl's name, which we may well have changed before the time came, was Katie Rose - well, Katherine Rose, but I liked the idea of calling her Katie Rose in everyday life. Not hyphenated, though, so I dunno if the Rose would have stuck. I thought it was pretty, though. :) So if anyone here wants it - !
I love your names, but #1 popularity would put me off too. :/

A few suggestions:

Lyndon (different spelling)

Lawrence

Latham

Landon

Henry

Finnegan

Nolan

Rory

Kieran

Flynn

William (could be called Liam for short)

Elliott

Colin

Eamonn

Declan
 
#117 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smokering View Post

So - anyone have any awesome, preferably Anglo-Saxon or Celtic-derived boys' names starting with L, other than Liam, Lachlan and Linden?
What about Landon/Landen? Dunno if it counts as "awesome", but it's a start. :)

I'm in such a quandary. A month ago I thought our name picks were perfect, but now I'm having second thoughts! After poking around on ssa I realized that our girl name (Amelia) has been steadily rising in popularity. It's already close to my arbitrary cut-off of being "too popular" - what if 2010's rankings come out and it's crossed the line?! Should we stick with a popular name and run the risk of it being EVERYWHERE when she's growing up? Or switch, even though we really like it?

This is what keeps me awake til 2AM...
 
#118 ·
If, in 2003, I had known that Liam was not only popular but rising in popularity I wouldn't have given the name to my son. Just a look through this thread tells how popular it is! We have never met an abundance of people with his name and to me he is THE Liam so I don't regret it. It's a great name but a personal preference to not choose the ones that are in fashion.
 
#119 ·
That's kinda how I'm feeling. DH is seriously annoyed with me, though - he really likes the name, and doesn't understand why its popularity bothers me. I don't even know why it bothers me. My name was #7 the year I was born, but somehow I survived. And DH's name has been in the top 20 since... forever. Maybe I should just accept my mainstream-ness?

Grrr... I'm really not looking forward to another tour through the baby book section, either.
 
#120 ·
The popularity thing annoys the crap out of me too... but if I absolutely could not find a name I liked as much/better, I would go with the popular name. I don't want to go through my kid's whole life thinking "Man, I wish I could have named you ___ but it was too popular".
 
#121 ·
Quote:
What about Callum? I love that it means dove. Nice nature theme there. Or maybe Logan? That's trendy in the US but what about where you are?
I like them both as names, but sadly they have connotations... an obnoxious kid from church, and an obnoxious classmate from my youth, respectively. :p Doesn't help!

I actually really like "Calvin", partly from A Wrinkle in Time, plus just the combination of sounds... but we happen to be Calvinists, so it would probably come off as kind of fangirlish or something. My inlaws would definitely not be impressed!

I'm a Sarah, and having such a popular name did annoy me - I was always Sarah M in class, along with Sarah J and Sarah T and Sarah C, you know? Then again, we do plan to homeschool, so if we had a Liam he would be the only one in his class... so maybe it wouldn't be such an issue? I don' know! I'm not so keen on William, just because I don't like Will or Willie as nicknames (and my family has found through bitter experience that controlling a nickname is easier said than done!).

I quite like Hunter too - it's a family name (well, surname), but that's also trendyish at the moment; and DH is unsure, anyway. It certainly doesn't help that he vetoes 99% of the names I like, and has suggested precisely one boy's name - Alejandro - which seems unsuitable to me for a kid with next to no Spanish blood in him! (And doesn't really match with Rowan, if you ask me.) The fact that we AGREE on Liam is definitely a point in its favour! And yet, and yet... arrgh.
 
#122 ·
Smokering- what about Llewellyn?

Llewellyn is a Welsh name, one that I particularly love, but my DH doesn't. You could use Lou for a nickname- i happen to like Lou as a nickname but i think that's all about positive associations. But the name does have an L start, and is not at the top of any lists, i don't think-
 
#123 ·
I've considered it... I love the way it looks, but I worry that it would sound too much like "Lou-Ellen" to a person who isn't familiar with the name (ie. most people).

Sorry; I'm not trying to be difficult, vetoing everyone's suggestions! I'm just very picky/weird about names... there are so many names that I love on other people's kids, to the point of thinking "Oh, what a lovely name" every time I see it, and yet I wouldn't use them on my own kids. It makes no sense. :p If I saw you had a Llewellyn I'd undoubtedly be thinking "Awesome name!", but - I dunno, I just can't picture having a son called that. You know? Names are a crazy thing!
 
#124 ·
So where do you guys get your name statistics? babynames.com is the list that told me Oliver was #10 for 2010, but I realized this is just based on people's lists, not on what people are actually naming their children, so that doesn't really carry any weight as far as I'm concerned. babycenter.com has Oliver at #68 for last year and that's based on people who use babycenter.com and share their children's names. I looked at the social security administration site, which would be the most accurate, and of course the 2010 statistics aren't in yet. But in 2009 Oliver was #98. I'm hoping the stats come in before DD so that we can see where it stood last year. So, I don't know, Oliver might still be in the running. I'm okay with it being in the top 100 names, but I don't want something that's in the top 10. Although, I was surprised that for 2009 Ayden (my DS's name) was not in the top 10. But they don't combine spellings, so that would probably change things! I've definitely met Ayden's everywhere, but I don't feel like I've met a lot of Olivers.
 
#125 ·
names are like music, it's really hard to describe why you do or don't like them. i don't mind at all that you don't want to use Llewellyn, just throwing it out there. i think the ssa website is the best for u.s. stats anyway, and i thought they did show related names so you might be able to see aiden/aden etc for Ayden, unless maybe they haven't linked that spelling. but i did see variants on the side bar when i searched clara.

dunno where everyone gets international stats.

can't wait to see what everyone does name their babies. we must post the names afterwards! with the sib names, i love to see what combinations people use. my friend has a Lydia and i'm reallyhoping she'll name her boy Jasper for some reason, but haven't told her that. Or Joseph. i think those go well with Lydia.
 
#126 ·
I also use the SSA website for baby name rankings. http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/ They don't have the 2010 name rankings up yet, but the 2009 rankings are a pretty good indication of where a name will be in the whole range of possibilities. They also do the rankings for the last 11 years for a specific name and they'll offer similar names. You just have to type it in. Sometimes they don't have all of the alternate spellings so you may have to experiment with more unusual names until a match comes up.

I just had a conversation with Baby Daddy about baby boy's name. I'm pretty much set on Samuel Edward, but I am willing to compromise. However, he wants a "good ol' country boy" name like, Colt, Rusty, or Stetson. Uh no. First of all, we live in the city. In a pretty huge city. We are not good ol' country boy kind of people to begin with. Secondly, I refuse to name my child after a brand name. It would be like naming him Whirlpool or Nokia. My child is not free advertising for guns or cowboy hats. And then there is the whole issue of the name that a person has affects the way that other people view him or her. That means that college entrance, hiring for jobs and ultimately future earning potential can be either raised or lowered depending on the name that a person has. If you haven't read Freakonomics, I highly recommend it because they have whole chapters on how names and income and social status are tied together.

I'm sure some of this sounds snobbish, but if I know that I can impact my child's future by giving him a name that is considered to be low class vs one that is upper or middle class, I'm going to choose the one that is upper or middle class. One of Baby Daddy's kids is named Diesel and I was forever explaining to people that the child is not my child and no, I did not name him. I have yet to meet one person who thinks it is a good idea to name a child after a type of fuel.
 
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