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Baby Names!
162 Comments | Posted by Ashley in Uncategorized
Just because I haven’t made my mind up about this whole kid thing doesn’t mean I don’t have a few choice monikers stashed away for a rainy day.
So when The New York Times published an article on last year’s most popular baby names, I was pleased to see that my picks weren’t at the top of the list. Something about being an “Ashley” in a second-grade class of, like, seven Ashleys, really scarred me. (Violens, right? Life is so hard.)
Anyway! Moving on … According to the Times piece, “Emma” has knocked “Emily” out of the #1 spot for baby-girl names. Apparently, “[Emma] has ranked in single digits since 2002, as it also did in the late 19th century.”
For the baby boys, “Jacob” continues to lead, as it has since it bumped “Michael” from #1 in ‘98. Interestingly: “Jacob was also the only name to be given to 1 percent or more of the babies born in 2008.”
Despite Barack Obama’s popularity, there were too few baby Baracks to get the name included in the 1,000-most-popular-baby-names ranking. “Sasha” and “Malia,” however, rose to 363rd and 345th, repectively. “Michelle” dropped to 1o3rd — the name was 94th in 2007.
Other notables:
Hillary (as in Clinton) jumped to 715 during last year’s presidential campaign from 961 in 2007. Jayden, which was No. 75 only five years ago, was 11 last year, thanks, in part, to Britney Spears, who chose the name for her son born in 2006.
Aldo recorded the greatest drop among boys’ names, but that was before Brad Pitt played Aldo Raine in the new Quentin Tarantino movie, “Inglourious Basterds.”
Among twins, the most popular names were Jacob and Joshua for boys and Gabriella and Isabella for girls.
In my home state — Texas — the #1 baby-boy name was “Jose,” though on a national level the number of Hispanic baby names has declined, which the Times attributes to “a greater effort at assimilation.”
So — unless you’re a nasty name-hoarder, like me (totally understandable) — what are your picks?
I loooove baby names! The ones I like are generally slightly old-fashioned and reasonably uncommon–I’m really not into trend names, for the most part. Here are some names I love:
Girls:
Penelope, Violet, Faye, Gwendolyn, Augustine, Tamsin, Evelyn, Charlotte (Lottie for short), Beatrice, Daphne, Evangeline (Evie for short), Lydia, Noelle, Riona, Mariella, Faustine, Hazel, Ivy, Victoria, Flora, Juliette (Lettie for short)
Boys:
Soren, Julian, Ciaran, Daniel, Adrian, Axel, Matthias, Lloyd, Owen, Darien, Dante, Ansel, Corbin, Sebastian, Seth, Neal (or Neil, haven’t decided yet), Elijah, Willem, Vaughn, Gabriel, Ephraim, Thaddeus, Quinlan (Quinn for short), Ewan, Rafferty, Micah
I love the name Penelope! Not only because it has so many great associations for me as a Classicist, but also because I love the nickname Penny.
I’m thinking Penelope Violet or Penelope Gwendolyn for my first girl.
My fiance wants her to be named Nadia Faye….maybe I’ll let him name the second kid.
Evangelina is probable seen as a derivative of Evangeline, and thus not worth it’s own listing. Or another languages version, and same thing.
Charlotte is a nice name, and seems to be coming back somewhat, but Lottie just sounds really niney-years-old. I think it’s a shame to ruin a nice name like Charlotte by removing the first part. :)
I like that your names are actually names – that seems to be rare these days.
I just checked, and they have each spelling variation of Kaitlyn, that has the same meaning and origin, has its own listing (Pure, Irish). So I don’t think that can be it. Maybe it’s just so incredibly uncommon.
Awwwww you think Lottie sounds like an old lady name? I don’t think so at all.
I mean, it’s not Mildred or Ethel or something like that!
I think Lottie is super cute.
Wow, you have both the boys and the girls name that I picked for my future children in there, plus, one of my cats is called Penelope.
I love the sames Sebastian and Charlotte, man. But it weirds me out that Evangeline is on babynames.com and Evangelina isn’t. Especially since I have a friend with her name and I adore it.
But my absolute favorite girl’s name is Ivy.
As a vastly increasing mother-to-be I am constantly noticing names. I am also reasonably consistently horrified by the names given to poor unsuspecting children by parents who want their kids to have ‘unique’ new names. Why? Why does everyone have to have a different name? Doesn’t that make the name less a recognisable name than a random word?
I object to calling children names that should be for dogs (Fifi.). I object to calling girls names that should be for boys (and I don’t mean unisex names, I mean, for example the little girl called ‘Brian’ who I met.) I object to stupid spellings of names (Eleezabyth, Jaykob). I object to random word names (Story. Creedence. Candour.) Most of all I object to people thinking that my life has been any less exceptional because my name is Heather and therefore have encountered others with the same name.
My little baby is being called Henry or Elise. Which may make me a horrible unimaginative mother, but at least they wont be generationally or socioeconimically marked with a ‘trendy’ name.
I agree with pretty much all of your points!
I also hate names that are words spelled backwards (like Nevaeh…ugh!) and names with tons of apostrophes and hyphens in them. And people naming children after fruit. I mean, what IS that?
Every time I see Nevaeh (ugh, I feel douchey just TYPING it) I cringe. Literally. It was the name of a spa in my old hometown, and I had to pass the sign every day, pitying the obviously clueless owners, and think “how idiotic to name something as important as your business in a way that no one can pronounce without asking! Obviously someone didn’t think that through; that is such bad business…”
When I reallised people were naming their child that, I realised that “not thinking names through” was even worse than I thought
Also, wouldn’t the reverse of “heaven” be something like “hell?”
Something to think about before you accidentally sign your kid over to Satan through your addiction to “specialness”…
A name I really don’t like is Alexia – it is a degenerative condition of the eye that disables the sufferer from reading. It is also a pretty word – like Chlamydia.
AH!!! when my aunt had her son 18 year ago, she shared a room with a 15 year old mother who wanted to name her daughter chlamydia, because “it’s a pretty word! I don’t think anyone really knows what it means!”
When my aunt left, the nurses were still setting her straight…
If there is a n18 yr old girl in central Canada named chlamydia—I’m soryy, we failed you
As a side note, this list of bad celebrity baby names is great for a lught:
http://www.babble.com/33-Worst-Celebrity-Baby-Names-Cautionary-tales-from-Audio-Science-to-Zuma-Nesta-Rock/index.aspx
*laugh
Lught? Seriously? Maybe that could be a bad baby name, who knows…
If only the Aimee’s and Jazmyn’s of the world had you as their mother.
“Aimee” spelled that way is French.
Whether actual French people use that name, I do not know.
I worked in France with a British girl called Aimee, who of course had all her life pronounced it the same as ‘Amy’. But when she began pronouncing it the way the French say aimée, all she got were weird looks. it’s like walking up to someone and saying “Hi, my name is Loved.” Weird.
I named my baby Nora. :) I too hate all that “unique-ey” misspelled garbage. I just saw the other day someone mentioning their daughter “Baileigh”. UGH. And yeah, that “Nevaeh” is horrible. I thought Nora was a bit unusual but easily recognisable and spellable. How do you like it?
I like it!
But then again, that’s probably because it reminds me of a children’s book I adored as a small child called “Noisy Nora”.
The test of a good name, to me, is something that works on an 85 yr old and 5 yr old equally well. A timeless classic, if you will.
I can pretty safely say that there aren’t a lot of kindergarteners named Linda or grandmothers named MiKayla. For me, those would fail the test. Kate, on the other hand, would pass.
I love you. And I love the name Henry. I don’t ever want kids but if I had a boy, Henry would be the name.
Go to Toys R Us and check out all the personalized crap. My name is Anita and I used to be upset at finding nothing with my name on it but now, looking at all the Dakota’s and Mykyknies, I’m grateful to my parents.
WTF is a Mykyknie????
When I was a little girl in the 80’s in rural Australia none of the personalised stuff said Heather.
I never even met another Heather until highschool.
Then I came to Canada and constantly have to explain that ‘Heathah’ is the same name as ‘Heather’ with a funny Aussie accent!
I don’t understand what’s objectionable about the name Creedence, probably because the first time I heard it, it was as a person’s name. So it identifies in my brain as a name, but also secretly a word.
I actually spelt ‘Credence’ wrong. It means cred, as in street cred although the correct definition is:
n.
Acceptance as true or valid; belief. See synonyms at belief.
Claim to acceptance; trustworthiness.
Recommendation; credentials: a letter of credence.
A small table or shelf for holding the bread, wine, and vessels of the Eucharist when they are not in use at the altar.
So aside from having a dumb meaning, it reminds me of a band.
Would make a good name for a horse though.
“Creedence” is how CCR spells it
is MY real, parent-given name. And I don’t look like a horse. I suspect my parents were trying to name me after CCR and got the spelling wrong.
It makes me CRINGE to see my name in the top ten. Stupid Abigail Breslin. Growing up I was the only one in my grade. There’s something kinda special about that when you’re a kid. Until the year 2000 it wasn’t even in the top 1000.
Additionally whenever I’m around a child named Abigail she is ALWAYS being yelled at by her mother (usually in stores), “Abigail! Get over here! Put that down! Stop it!”, moreso than any other named kid. It’s funny because I was a terror too. I totally believe it comes with the name.
Haha yes lol, so was my cousin Abby (a terror :P)
LOl my daughter is Abigail (Abby for short) but in Miami, where EVERYONE is Jessica or Melissa (or Yessika and Mehlyssa,) it is incredibly uncommon. I know 1 Abby other than my own!
I feel your pain. Sydney is really popular nowadays, sadly. :’^(
I named my daughter Abigail Rose nine years ago. But the story behind her name started when I was in fifth grade. A new girl Amy had moved into our neighborhood mid-year. Her mum had a baby girl named Abigail. I love that baby girl and knew then that my first daughter would be named Abigail. Love that name! My son is named Stiles. He’s named after a Lake in Spencer, MA. My name is Shanna, like banana. I’ve only met one other Shanna in all my life. Well, I thought I met two but her name was ShaNay! My Brother is Ethan, never heard that until he was much older and my sister is Brittany. She likes to say they started name trends!
Obama totally destroyed the uniqueness of my name. I’m still kinda pissed about that.
You do not want to come over to Russia! I’d say about 8% of the population, male and female, is named “Sasha” here…
Sasha is short for Alexandra. Incidentally that is my daughters name =)
And Alexandr here!
I personally love all three variants
The Lithuanian contestant for Eurovision 2009 was called Sasha too :P
My name’s Sarah and I’ve hated it all through school. It was one of the most popular names the year I was born and there were always at least three other Sarah’s in my grade, even at my small school where each grade level had no more than 25 kids! If someone yelled “Sarah!” out in the middle of the hallway I didn’t even turn around because there was always a whole slew of us around at any given time.
Sometimes my teachers would get angry that there were so many of us and would make all but one have some sort of ridiculous name.
I don’t really like super super weird baby names, but I would never give my child something really common after my experience.
I love being named Sara. No “H” must be the difference :)
Yeah I’ve never understood the Sarah thing, when I lived in USA (Texas) there were millions too! And Sara is just as dull SueEllen :P Mind you, I’m Dara so I can’t speak XD
I once had 6 other Jennifers in my class in elementary school. THAT was an overdone name in the 80s!
Katie, Jenny, Sara, Lindsay….
We just SCREAM 1980-1985
I am another Jen – born 1985 – I like having competitions with people to see who has the most celebrities with their name. Lucky my surname is very unique in Australia – where I live.
I’ve never met another Robin anywhere close to my age, everyone I’ve met has been in there 40’s or 50’s. I hated that when I was younger, but I really like it now because there’s really no one that I can be confused with.
Anyway, I love unique baby names if I did end up having a baby one day if I was a girl I’d name her Panda or Irelynn. I’m not so sure about boys names though.
I meant in THEIR 40’s…
Panda? PANDA? Like in a panda bear?
Hah, well, yes.
Not that I want my child to be a furry little bear, I’ve just always had this weird attachment to that name I named all my baby dolls that when I was little.
But I’m really never planning on having children, so I’ll probably just use the name on a puppy.
I was about to say that my best friend is called Robyn and she’s not that old but then I remembered that she’s 36 and I am rapidly getting old myself. That pesky adulthood, sneaking up on me like that!
Well, on the bright side, she would be the youngest Robi(y)n I’ve ever met.
I come from a bilingual region in Spain – we speak Catalan and Spanish. Catalan is a small language not spoken by more than 10 million people in the world, in Southern France, Eastern Spain and some parts of Italy. I am a native Catalan speaker and I am proud of it. I always thought my children would have a Catalan name. However, my boyfriend is English. We are very much in love and have no problem discussing baby names because we can totally see that happen. Problem? He wants an English name and I want a Catalan one. We have had to find names which exist both in Catalan AND English. So far, we’ve agreed on Stella and Alex, because they can be found in Catalan language as well -spelt Estela and Àlex-, so even if they’re not spelt in Catalan, at least my parents will be able to recognise them as names in their own language. I say it because my grandfather was a Spanish-speaker from another part of the country and he had trouble when I was born, he had never heard of my name and couldn’t pronounce it very well.
My picks in Catalan?
Girls: Mireia (like me, heh), Laia, Isolda, Aloma, Pau (that’s unisex), Elionor, Victòria.
Boys: Pau, Cedric, Roderic, Àlex, Bernat, Arnau, Jordi.
My picks in English:
Girls: Emma, Amy, Ella, Victoria, Eleanor, Jamie.
Boys: Jack, Alex, Matt, Scott, Cedric.
P.s.: Jose as a name sucks. It’s ooolddddddddd.
P.s. 2.: Fuck, that was long. But at least now you know what happens when mummy comes from one country and daddy from another :D
Isolda is spelled “Isolde” and is a very old English name as well!
(I mean spelled with an “e” in English, not Catalan)
Is Catalan Andorran too?
Yah shit I forgot, the only country in the world where it is the official language lol
Yep, I’m a native English speaker and my husband is Spanish. We are going to have this same problem in a couple of years — I think the key will be to avoid those troublesome letters, like j, g, h, that are pronounced so differently (or not at all) in the two languages.
I’m English and my husband is Argentinian which makes for even more fun – he speaks Spanish but has and Italian name and passport too. We’re going with Lily (his mum is Liliana) and Leo (short for Leonardo). They can be pronounced anywhere and are pretty darn nice too!
Leo and Lily is a great set! My husband is Mexican, I am Estonian/Hungarian (born in the USA). We named our son Leo (Leonardo) – and are now looking for good sibling names for our second. We love the name Lily. However, it’s out since our dog is named Lily, having arrived pre-Leo, already named by the breeder. We liked it so much at the time we didn’t change it…now we wish we had!
My son has a pretty common name; it was in the top 10 for his birth year and it’s been up there for a long time. It can be a pain sometimes. There are two kids with his name in his preschool class which is 10 kids. I’ve scared little kids in public while telling him off because they think I’m talking to them. The other day we were at Ikea in the self-serve area and I shouted at him to get out of the shelves and a very startled man a few feet down the aisle said “guess we have the same name, huh?” Rather embarrassing!
I really don’t care though. We picked it because it’s special to us, not because it’s popular and trendy. At least he won’t be stuck spelling it all his life. I have to spell my name all the time, especially when I’m in the UK because most people there either try to drop the ‘h’ or add an extra ‘d’. My surname is unusual too in that it is pretty common but spelled slightly differently from the common spelling so I always have to spell it out.
My name is plain, common, boring, if you will…but it fits me. I was almost named Rachel and I’m kinda glad my parents didn’t pick that name instead, because I don’t think it would fit me (but I guess I wouldn’t know the difference if they had!) I was always one of several Jennifer/Jen/Jennys in school and in jobs past. I named my daughter Natalie because I like the classic name, I like its meaning, and it’s not super common….of course, since I’ve had her (10 months ago) I’ve had people tell me they know other babies with her name…so I guess sometimes when you try to be more unique, without being ridiculous about it, you can’t win!
Also, has anyone else noticed the “-iyah” trend? There are an obnoxious amount of kids in my area with names like “Joniyah”, “Neriah”, “Josiah”, etc…. I think Octomom named all of her kids like that? YIKES!
most women in the philippines are named with the “-lyn” at the end part. i’ve met so many jennilyn, judilyn, annalyn, cathlyn, donnalyn and miralyns in my entire life. you’ll also be able to spot a few men called “baby” here, “whitey” and “honey”. filipinos are also very fond of repeating syllables for names, “lin-lin”, “jun-jun”, “tata”, “san-san” and “ton-ton” is a very common name here.
another thing i also find funny about how filipinos name their offspring is the way they incorporate holidays into the names, there is a celeb here who’s named love (real name) and heart (screen name) because she was born on valentine’s day. a lot people here are also unfortunately named after certain qualities, like “precious”, “lovely”, “lucky”, “sweetie” and “happy”.
i like the way my parents named me, me and my siblings have spanish names. i was named isabel, my brother alfonso and (unfortunately) my sister pacita. very classic names. personally, i have a fondness for russian names, i really like paulina, soleil, andrei, sabrina, alexi and ornussa for girls. sergei, rafael, josef, jakob, oliver, and montgomery for boys.
Pacita? Is it a misspelt form of Paquita? And by the way, Paulina is also a Spanish name :)
no, it’s a spanish name, it’s a twin of paquita, i think. her nickname is cita. ;D
yeah, i love paulina. so pretty!
filipino names are definetly a little on the “out there” side. my mom is filipino and she is 1 out of 11 kids and all of the girls first names start with maria and then they have a second name. the majority of my uncles are named joe, including my brother. i wanted to go with really strong names for my 3 boys so i named them Maxwell, Rocco, and Leonardo. All of which incidently are italian! Even though I don’t have a drop of italian blood in me i love those names!
dont plan on having a girl but ive always had names ready: Violet, Alexia, Lily, and Serena are my picks
My name is Jennifer and I’ve always hated it because it’s so common. I’ve never been in a class ever in my life when there wasn’t at least one other Jennifer, but usually there were 3 or 4 or 5 or more. And a lot of people couldn’t even remember my name because I was quiet, so I got called Jessica or Heather a lot. Maybe if I’d had a more distinctive name I would have been a little more memorable! That said, I’m against the totally weird celeb baby names like Bronx Mowgli and Rumer. Names (especially girls names) should sound good when you say them out loud, and not be terribly difficult to spell.
Jennifer is on my ‘no way’ list because I knew a girl in HS called Jennifer and she died on skin cancer when she was 20 years old. Negative connotations for me there.
I absolutely love my name, because it IS kind of unusual (although there were three in my high school) and because it not only sounds pretty, it MEANS pretty. For my future kids, I want Hebrew- or Yiddish-based names with good, strong meanings or stories behind them. My current faves are Nehemiah (G-d’s compassion) or Naphtali (one of Jacob’s sons, “struggling”) or maybe Zebulun (another of Jacob’s sons, “dwelling of honor”) for boys; Ma’ayan (spring, fountain), Shiran (happy song) or Aviva (spring), maybe Lior(a) (I have light) for girls.
I used to volunteer in my temple’s library, and one of my favorite passtimes was looking through a baby naming book and making a list of names i liked. wish i could find that list now…
Girl:
Scarlett, Briony
Boy:
Landon, Hayden
How would you pronounce the second girl’s name?
I was thinking Bree-oh-nee, is that right?
No, it’s pronounced with a long I. It’s essentially the name Brian with a y at the end.
I just watched the movie Atonement recently. That’s the first place I heard it.
Yes, it’s from the book Atonement.. When I was reading it I imagined it said “Bree-oh-enee” and it really suck… Briony is more english and although I like that too, I think i’d stick with how I imagined it. :)
I truly don’t understand some people. I have 2 boys and a girl. All three are relatively traditional (Eli, Isaac, and Madison). I have a neice that is named Zeyairaha Shaelynn (pronounced Sierra like the mountains). That poor girl won’t be able to spell her name until she is in high school. We all love her to death and I don’t think that anyone on her father’s side calls her by her first name. Which there lies another issue, will she know what her real name is when she enters school? Poor children.
I hate any name with “quisha” at the end of it. Laquisha, Shaquisha, ect.
My fav girl name is probably Jenel. Not many people have that one.
Oddly enough, I’ve known three Jenel/Jenelle/Jennel ’s (all said the same)
Boys: Indigo, Julien, Finn
Girls: Isla, Marie-Éve, Juliet, Freya, Lucy
My name is Joelle, and I have only met a few!
My husband went to school with several “Baby Girl”’s when he was young…enough said.
Where on earth did he go to school?
Well, I’m Juliana and that’s a pretty common name in brazil, there were always ate least one more in my class when I was growing up… Julia is also pretty common, so there were always a few “Ju”s around… It’s never really bothered me…
I think about naming my girl Theresa (maybe with a “z”, maybe no “h” in the middle, I’m not sure about the spelling I’m gonna choose yet) because it’s a very “Lyrical” name in Brazil. There are quite a few beautiful poems and songs to different Theresas.
For boys I like french names, like Thibaut (pronounced Tibô), but it would be so much trouble for him…
Funny enough, just a curiosity about brazilian culture: americanized names like Jennifer, Jonathan, Mary, Michael are usually only given to “simple”, poorer people that are trying to give their kids a fancy name. Usually it’s misspelled, like Méri (Mary) and Maicon (Michael).
I have to say I’ve never met many other people named Alice.
It’s my grandma’s name, but I’ve always liked it. It’s much more classic and charming than the oft-used “Allison”, in my humble opinion.
However, it reminds me of the Alice in Alice in Wonderland, and she always annoyed me for whatever reason.
That’s my sisters name, she is 12 :D
Alice is one of my favorite names (Alice in Wonderland is my fav book) – I have a little kitten called Alice – part of me wishes I kept it in case I have a girl but I can reuse it.
My all-time favorite female baby name is Jillian. If I ever end up adopting, or having a surrogate baby, I’m going to hope for a baby girl. Jillian, here I come!
If it’s a boy, I’ve always liked John or James.
Awww, Jillian is cute.
I once babysat an adorable little girl named Jillian (her parents called her “Jilli Bean”!!), so it’s a name with positive associations for me. Nice choice.
I loathe plain “American” names…only because of my own.. I know Lynda (linda) is spanish for “pretty”..but its so.. redneck-y. Ya know? I have a friend whos daughter is named Nevaeh! I never knew it was ‘heaven’ spelled backward! I really love Hebrew, Arabic, and Japanese names.
No lie, I was at work and changing in the locker room one day. One of the surgical staff had a picture of her granddaughter on her locker, with a magnet under it with the little girl’s name “Abcde Flores”. Yes people… Abcde!! Pronounced ‘absiddy’!!! I feel so bad for her!
What is a plain “American” name, pray tell? Jacob comes from Hebrew, FYI, and so does Michael.
Well those particular names are so common in the US, how can you really tell its over a different origin? Maybe I mean “plain” is in “common”.
I’m a HUGE US History buff, and the Civil War is my specialty- I’ve already decided that I need a basketball team worth of little boys running around with names like Ulysses, Abraham, William, Jefferson, Ambrose, Robert, James..
Although I’m deadset on naming my son in honor of my grandfather- Harold. Definitely old fashioned, but he can be Harry or Hal … or “Roldy” like in Harold and Kumar! So something like Harold Ulysses or Harold Tecumseh.
Hopefully my husband/baby daddy is a reenactor or fellow civil war buff.
And for girls- I like Varina (civil war inspired), Pearl, Alice, Miranda, Julia…
I think old fashioned names are going to have a HUGE comeback after the last 20 or so years of crazy, ridiculous names.
I wouldn’t want to change my first name because I’m used to it, although it’s unusualness was occasionally distressing to me as a child. Plus whenever I meet people at work (I work in a v large organisation) they say “Oh, YOU’RE Crishna!” which is quite nice.
I was due to be either Maria or Ian right up to the birth, but my dad was reading a book about the philosophies of different religions, came across the name Krishna and had a lightbulb moment. He spelt it with a C instead of a K because his name began with a K – and he didn’t want our mail to get confused!
I’m a female, Caucasian, and raised Roman Catholic – so having the mis-spelt name of a blue skinned Hindu prince/god (who was quite a lothario!) made me rather conspicuous to the nuns at school! One of the priests actually refused to use the name and called me Cristina instead.
If I had a penny for every time someone has said “that’s an unusual name” and asked how to spell it, or where it comes from it would practically be a regular income! As I was born in the 60’s I usually just shorten my explanation to “hippy parents” even though that’s not really true.
On the other hand, it makes googling yourself much more productive!
I know I’m going to name any future daughter I have Camille Theresa. Both are family names (like mine, which is Elizabeth), and rather special to me.
I also like Caroline, Cappucine (yes, taken from the cute cute french girl!), Clarice, and Alice.
For a boy, I don’t have a set name. But I do like Henry.
My name is Shawn. I hated it growing up, I always wanted something more feminine. But I like it now.
My son was at the park playing & meet another little boy. He (my son) asked the boy what his name was & he said Shawn (probably Sean) & my son said that’s a girls name! I thought that was kind-a funny.
We named our daughter Bella. Not Isabella just Bella. I say that because that’s the 1st thing people ask her or me. I liked her name at 1st (she just turned 7) but not as much now. Because of that question & it’s soooo common. I wanted something a little less common but not weird.
We named our son Van. I’m the opposite w/ his name. I didn’t really like it at 1st but like it now. I was a week over do & we’d just moved into our new house & I was a hormonal mess. My hubby & I couldn’t agree on any names & I was crying & he was watching Van Wilder on TV & suggested the name Van. I didn’t really like it but we didn’t have anything else & he was born later that night so I went w/ it. He’s going to be 6 soon & the name seems to fit him well now though.
The only problem (or irritation) I’ve had w/ his name is about 2 months after he was born I got a minivan & EVERYONE said–Now you have 2 minivans! And thought they were soo cleaver. >:-(
Lastly referring to several comments up my newest niece is almost 6mos old her name is Jillian & we call her JilliBean too!
You know, I think the most popular name is actually ‘Kate’ or ‘Katie’ to some extent, but there are just so many ways of spelling them (Katheryn, Katharine, Catherine, Catheryn, Catheryne, etc; Caitlyn, Kaitlyn, etc). Because I can’t walk one step without poking a Kate in the ass.
My favorite names: Jasmine, Lily, Michael, James, and Olivia. I also really like Arabic and Indian names.
My favorite name for a girl is Jayden. And I’ve liked that name for a loooong time. Britney is a name stealer. Haha. Jk.
Also, for guys I like Cooper and Carson.
So my name is Makenzie and I have only had one person spell my name correctly and it was a worker at Starbuck’s. I have since vowed that when I have children I will spell their name the most common way. I get Mackenzie, Mackinzy, MaKenzie, McKenzie…..
My sister is a Kaetlin
My mother is Kerri
I don’t know why my family like to do this.
I love the crazy baby names. You get used to them eventually. I want something unusual, but not really too stupid. The problem I keep having is that the names I like turn out to be the names of other people’s cats.
Maybe I should just call my kids Puss and Fluffy and be over with it?
Wonder how a little boy named Fluffy would do in life?
Probably better than a little girl named pussy I’d imagine ;-)
XD ahahahahahahhahaah…
We’re pregnant with #2 (our #1 is Abigail)
My girl name choices are: Molly, Penelope, Alice and Zooey
Boys are: Henry, Anderson, Matthew, Connor and Nathan
I like Alice. It’s both classic and classy.
And it’ll be so popular due to Twilight ;-) One of my friends online said she has a friend with a Bella and an Alice. She had a baby girl after Breaking Dawn came out. She called the poor child Renesmee. I choose to believe that she made that up and that no mother could possibly be that cruel.
no way. that’s crazy!! i didn’t even think about the alice/twilight connection. aaarrgg lol i’m a nerd and first said “ooh alice” when the name was used on Heroes lol
I hope you mean Zoe.
nope, Zooey… as in Franny and Zooey (the Salinger novel) or Zooey Deschanel.
Zooey is one of my favorite characters EVER. Good choice — and best of luck!
My name is Elba, I’m spanish and my parents decided to call me after an italian island, what I find kinda cool and exotic. I always felt special as a kid, because I couldn’t find anybody who shared my name and nowadays I only know 5 or 6 more Elbas. I’ve found that it is a huge common name in Central and South America, but at least where I live there aren’t a lot of Elbitas around. lol
My picks for baby names at the moment:
Girls: Verónica, Nora or Iris
Boys: Elías -I think it’s Elijah in english- or Roberto (I really haven’t thinking a lot about baby names for boys).
i know an elba!! but i’m in miami :-D
I always hated my name, since it wasn’t really the whole name, PAtricia, and it was SO common where I lived (There were THREE other Tricia’s in my class of less than 150 people – only one of whom was a PAtricia). Plus the fact that my mother told me I was named after Nixon’s daughter…lol.
I have two boys, and I tried to give them classic, yet recognizable and spellable names, although I get questioned more than I imagined about my younger son’s name, Donovan. The older one is Gregory. I never had a girl, but I always had a few names waiting in the wings – Caitlin, Evelyn, Bronwyn, Rhiannon.
Wow – I don’t have Celtic heritage at all, do I? heh
Rhiannon is my middle name of choice if we ever have a girl.
Those are all lovely choices. My dad’s side of the family is mostly Irish, so I love I have an affinity for Irish/Gaelic names as well. I adore Ciaran for a boy–but almost nobody knows how to say it! I guess I could always used the Anglicized spelling, Kieran, but I think Ciaran has more panache.
In any case, my future children are just lucky I’m not a stickler for using the Germanic names from my mother’s side of the family. There are too many women named Ingeborg, Helga, etc. on the family tree already!
Oh, I love Ciaran! Probably for the same reason that I prefer the original spelling for Caitlin, because that’s how the name is supposed to be spelled. Sometimes I feel like the constant “new” and different spellings of classic names are why we have a hard time pronouncing ANY of them now.
I’m probably going to get slammed for saying this, but I’ve picked my kids names from my favorite television shows or movies at the time I was pregnant with them. With my first son, we were watching Tombstone after we’d gotten the 20 week ultrasound done and decided we really liked the name Wyatt, with James as the middle name. With my second, I was addicted to Firefly and so sure I was having a girl, so had planned on naming her River. Well, River turned out to have a penis so I named him Malcolm with Joseph as the middle name. Neither of the names are too common where we are so it’s worked out nicely so far.
My top girls name is Willow but that’s OK because I’ve never ever watched Buffy and it would only be weird if my top boys names were Xander and Caleb.
OK they are and I’m a total Buffy freak. It’s only weird if you pick wacky names or take the whole name like River Tam Smith or Hoban Washburne Smith ;-)
My son is named Malcolm Reynolds. We went whole hog with that one.
For clarification, Malcolm and Reynolds are both family names also, so it was a perfect name all around. I’m not sure we would’ve gone whole hog otherwise.
At least they’re common names and you could claim total ignorance of firefly if someone was really making a stink about it. Now about those people who are copying Twilight and calling their baby girls Renesmee….
Haha! We love Capt. Reynolds so I don’t mind if people make the connection. At least Firefly was good writing.
Now about those people who are copying Twilight and calling their baby girls Renesmee…
*grin*
My name is Mary, it isn’t popular in the under 25 crowd but people always know how to pronounce it and spell it! (It may be, as I’ve been told many times, everyone has an aunt Mary).
My husband was one of six boys in his school with his name- Sokol. It’s a very popular Albanian name, along with Arber, Miri, Prell, Eddi.
My husband and I want to name our first boy after his father, Mark. For a girl we like Florentina since we meet in Florence.
We named our daughter Rowan; for the tree and for a camping location close to my husband’s heart (but not for the Atkinson, or the comedy team). I like it because it is not immediately recognizable as female, because it is a strong name with Irish Gaelic myth and mystery behind it and because I don’t know any other little babies with it right now. My other girl choices, Maeve and Abigale have become very popular as of late where we live. Boy’s names included Rowan, Kai, Liam and Cypress.
Oh, and for Blurry’s comment: I imagine she’s chosen Zooey as in ‘Franny and Zooey’ by J.D. Salinger, or for Zooey Deschanel who was named for the book anyway.
thank you!!! at least someone got it :-D
In the book/short story, Zooey was the older brother. It’s only my opinion, but it’s not a particularly great name to saddle a boy or a girl with. It may sound cute now, but these kids will one day grow up and deal with this name.
Zoe, on the other hand is a lovely name and can be carried without shame by a child or an adult.
My ex wanted to name our daughter Candy. He thought it was cute. I insisted that she be named Candace. She is now a Captain in the Army and guess what she insists on everyone call her? Yes, Candace.
Leave your children some options, people!
Zooey is pronounced Zoe. What’s the difference?
Whenever she gives her name she’s going to have to spell it because 99% of people will just write ‘Zoe’ instead of ‘Zooey’ and she’ll probably encounter a number of people who aren’t sure of the pronunciation either. The first time I saw it in print I thought it was meant to be pronounced zoo-ee as in ‘like a zoo’ because it makes no sense to stick a couple of extra letters in there and have the exact same pronunciation. If you want to call your kid Zoe then just call her Zoe and save her a lot of hassle. It is no fun at all having a oddly spelled name and having to spell it every single time you give your name anywhere, especially when a lot of people just assume they have it right and don’t bother checking.
So, why isn’t your name just spelled “Ronda?”
Um, “Rhonda” is actually the correct and original spelling of the name (historically). “Ronda” is a misspelt version.
Likewise, “Zoe” has been used since the 11th century and earlier, making it widely regarded as the standard and original spelling. “Zooey” is a fairly recent creation without much history, therefore plunking it firmly into the ranks of “made-up spellings”.
Obviously, I am not one of those people who believe that there is “no such thing as a misspelt name”.
That’s odd, I’ve never seen Rhonda without the h. And I feel very protective of that specific name, since me and my best friend have made it somewhat of an inside joke, as we hope to someday meet (in person) someone named Rhonda.
@ Syd – I believe the word you’re trying to intelligently use is “misspelled” and not “misspelt.” I don’t think there is such a word as “misspelt.”
Actually, there is. It’s a good idea to look those kinds of things up BEFORE you say bitchy things that turn out to be wrong.
Cause then you just look bitchy AND stupid.
both are correct and mean the exact same thing.
But catty much?
Sure, Zooey for Zachary. But the pronunciation is debatable, and I don’t think it’s a ‘cute’ name so much as an interesting one. Zoe could rhyme with toe, if that’s what you wanted.
Candy. My father wanted to name me Harvey, after the invisible rabbit.
Would you dislike having that name, due to its source?
At first I was like ZOMG I WANT THAT FATHER, but then I realized maybe not everyone likes that name, or that movie…
oh and i totally forgot to say–i babysit for this one family very regularly and have for 6 years now. Their first child is Summer–and it fits her completely. Next is Charlie–more and more popular these days. It also really fits him, and he’s a great kid. And with a name like Charles Bernard, I can totally see him with an “Esq.” at the end of his name someday (their last name also totally goes with the lawyer feel).
Now, they have a third child, a 9-month-old. When they were talking about potential names, the mom mentioned Oscar, and i was like HELL NO DON’T DO IT!!!! I even threatened not to babysit for him! I was all, oh he’ll get “oscar meyer weiner” all the time, or be called “oscar the grouch” whenever he’s upset! Of course, while i am a friend, I am just the babysitter, and on december first Oscar James came into the world. And you know what? I totally fell in love, despite the name, and now i love that too. He’s generally Oskie to me, his mom likes to call him O-dog. He’s the cutest baby i’ve ever seen and I can already tell he’ll be able to deal with the grouch jokes when they are made.
I love my name, I have only met a few other Laras… (And I actually went to a Halloween party dressed as Tomb Raider). When I get married, I’d like to walk down the aisle to Lara’s Theme from Dr. Zhivago. ha ha ha.
My sister is Sondra, and we are forever getting called Sandra and Laura. gets annoying. I hate having to tell people that it is pronounced LA-RA, not -LO-RA. But having my name mispronounced is a whole nother can of worms….
I already have baby names picked out. Have since I was about 14. If I have girls, They are going to be Charlotte (nicknamed Charlie!) or Olivia. and If I have boys, they will be Maxwell or Samuel. I love both of those names for boys because they can be shortened to something fun and hip (Sam and Max) if they decide to be rockstars or something, but can also be very mature and impressive if they decide to be lawyers or the president or something.
I used to have Oliver on my list of names for boys, but then my friend had a baby boy and used it. I don’t hold it against her, tho. That’s why I have backups!
:)
I love Charlotte! Except I’d call her Lottie for short. ^_^
I know at least 3 Laras, it’s the name of my boyfriend’s cousin too. I find it is a beautiful name.
:)
My name is Ciara Tamay, and as far as I can tell I am the only person I can find (searching online) with that name.
Ciara is Irish, and pretty common in Ireland, but Tamay is a native- south american indian name, my dad called me after a friend of his who wrote to him the day I was born.
I like that I have never come across anyone with my name, but it is really really annoying spelling it out everywhere I go. Even in Ireland, where I’m from, no one understands the Tamay part and thinks it’s Tammy. And outside Ireland, no one gets the Ciara part and thinks it’s “Kira” or “Keira” or else that it’s pronounced “Sierra”.
But I like that I never had to put numbers in my email address! Also, if you add my three-part surname onto that, I can confidently say I have a 100% unique name in the world. which I like.
Very cute name!
haha that’s funny. I’m a Kira. I had never met another Kira (spelled any way) until I was in college, but she spelled it Ciara. It was pretty unusual, I suppose, the year I was born and in the the area (I’m from the Yukon, in Canada).
I love my name because nobody (that I’ve ever met) has it. Most people are Kathrines or Katies or Kathleens with the nick name of Kate. But they never have just ‘Kate’ on their birth certificate. Although it does peeve me a bit when I meet someone and they say their name is Kate. I get excited, ask if its really their name and they always say no. I though you were supposed to introduce yourself with your real name and then tell people your nick name when you got to know them better.
I feel bad for any future kids of mine though. I like the names Nero and Draconis.
“Kate”, just like that, is my middle name. I used it for most of my life but then got sick of all the Kates and Katies surrounding me and started using my first name instead. Let me tell you, nothing pisses off your friends and family like insisting they call you a different name.
That’s kinda silly. You introduce yourself to others by the name you wish to be called. If the whole world calls you Kate, then why would you introduce yourself as Katherine, and then make the person go through a test period before they know you well enough to call you what you prefer?
Sure, if it’s a diminutive, or family, or close-friends nickname, you’d have a point, but then I’d still introduce myself to everyone as Kate, if that’s how I went in the world and leave my close friends calling me Kitty or whatever.
My name is Maille. It’s pronounced ‘Molly’. I don’t care at all having to tell people to spell it. I like being unique. Assuming a child will hate their name because of its uniqueness all of their life is kind of limiting to you and to them. All kids hate their names at one point or another and want to change them.
That doesn’t even make sense though.
When do an ‘a’ and an ‘i’ next to each other make an an O sound?
Maybe it isn’t english? I’m guessing only…
i love otis or charlie for a boy and mabel or bessie for a girl. i am a huge blues fan, and all are names of great blues singers. my best friend named her boy huckleberry after her favorite book, and he is such a huck. it really suits him.
I went through a very hormonal period in my pregnancy when I wanted to name my baby (if it was a boy) Huckleberry or Buckley. My family vetoed it though, and although I always think it’s cute when I hear the names, I’m glad they did!
I nevet met another Holly until my freshman year of high school, and I didn’t even MEET that girl, she was just in front of me in line one time and I never saw her again. She was asian, too.. Weird. Anyway I’ve still never met anyone else named Holly.
And speaking of baby names, I’m gonna name my son Addison.
I could hug you right now!!!
So many people are convinced that names like Addison (and Madison, for that matter) are exclusively girl names when in fact they were originally boy names! It’s nice to see that they are still being used for boys.
Tons of names have been stolen by the girls. I hate how people just appropriate over to the girls side. But after a certain point, it seems worthy to just concede defeat, rather than saddle a boy with a name that will be known to everyone else as girly forevermore.
I mean, Lindsay and Courtney were originally boy names, but who would try that now? More recently, I’d no longer call a boy Taylor, even though I grew up with male Taylors. Unfortunately, that one is lost as well.
I always liked the names Addison and Madison for boys until I realized that they were strangely popular as girls names! I named my son Austin Benjamin Truth, but was surprised when I recently met my first female Austin.
Does the internet count? ‘Cause my name is Holly. :)
My parents gave me the name Anna-Marie (with the hyphen) and that was before the hyphen hype. I ended up changing it legally to Annemarie because I was having some strange complications with the hyphen. I grew up in Texas and was always called Annemarie or Anamaria (mostly the latter), so I went with Annemarie.
Trust me, I hated Anna-Marie and felt it was unnecessary. I would always go by Anna, and I still do for the most part.
I think Anna is beautiful–classic, simple, and sweet. My best friend already dibsed it for her future daughter though, so it’s not on my list.
I’m originally Kira-Lynn (also at a time where there were no other hyphenated names around) but no one gets to know it now! I always ad it pronounced like Carolyn but teachers and older women.
My own name is incredibly common: Sarah. Overdone and overused. However, I am absolutely in love with my sister’s name choices for her children: Charlotte Josephine (Josephine is our Grandmother’s name) and Jack Tennessee. Now, the Tennessee part comes from Charlotte. When asked what she thought her little brother should be named, she always replied with an enthusiastic “TENNESSEE!” Granted, at the time Charlotte was just over two years old. When picking the first names, my sister aimed for specific emotions. She wanted something soft, intelligent, and slightly old-fashioned for a daughter, and something strong, clear-cut, and all-American for her son.
The biblical names are always old standards. On the plus side, they rarely have the wild times when every single kid is named the same – just a few steadily each year.
While I like the names mentioned, (and am glad Tennessee went to the middle :D), it seems a little unfortunate that the girl-name had to be soft, and the boy-name strong. Way to pidgeonhole…
True, the names can come across as stereotypical. I think I was more impressed that my sister went for a certain sound as opposed to following baby name trends. I also want to emphasize that she was really interested in “how the name rolls of the tongue,” more so than gender roles, but that still doesn’t refute your point…
I’m confused– the name “Jacob” has been number one for years. Just in my two social spheres, there’s at least six Jacobs.
Oh, but you did say rarely. Hmm.
My name is Aliya (pronounced ah-lee-yah) and I’ve always loved it. Nobody else has my name, it means something awesome in a language linked to my heritage (I’m scottish and east european jewish lol), and it gives me something to laugh about when I have substitute teachers in school. As they go down the list of names, they inevitably stop and go “uhhhhm… uh…” and I just say “here” without even needing to hear them attempt my name. It’s fun. There is an incredible feeling to having a unique name. However, sometimes I wish my mom had named me her third-choice name, Isabeau (she loves the movie Ladyhawk and wanted to name my brother Navarre) simply because it’s such a beautiful and vintage-y name. Of course, I’d be called Issa-beyou, which is quite a bit worse than Ah-leye-yuh.