GTKY: How did you come up with your kid(s) names?

nittanyllama

Just a random GTKY question... But how did you come up with your kids names? Where did you find the name? Family tree? Baby name book or website? TV or movie? Literary character? Historical figure? Liked the meaning or just the sound?

I'm not sure if this will lead to interesting stories or not... but there are a couple around here I'm curious about

nittanyllama

I mentioned this on a post yesterday, but I saw the name Gavin on Friends -- Dermot Mulroney's character who takes over for Rachel when she's on maternity leave. Obviously we didn't name him after the character, but that's where I first thought about the name. MH vetoed all of my other names but he liked this one a lot. And I like the Celtic roots of the name because my family is Scottish and English. MN Michael is my brother's name.

Spin313

DS's name is a family name (FN on DH's side, MN on mine). DD's name was a compromise...DH picked a name from my top names and he picked the middle name.

Helenahhandbasket

DD is named after my late FIL, Jose. 

If I am being honest, I wasn't sold on Josephine as a FN in the begining-- as it sounded like an old Italian lady's name to me.  We considered other Jo names-- Johanna, Jocelyn and Jolene, but none felt right.  We also considered Josephine as a MN.

In the end, we took 3 names to the hospital, and when she was born, Josephine just felt right.  The adorably cute NN Josie helped sell me. 

Her MN is Pearl.  We just liked the name.

stahlop

Everett Lawrence - we had his name picked out before we were even engaged (so a good 3 years before we even conceived). We liked a lot of the tt ending names but we really liked this one. We later found out that it is a distant cousins name of my DH. Lawrence was fory uncle who died when I was 9.

Piper Helen - We're always team green and we had a boys name picked out just fine, but we were having such trouble with girls names. We needed a P name to honor my grandfather (Jewish tradition) but all the names I loved my DH didn't. We had Eden Pearl and then Eden Piper for awhile. Then I suggested Piper as the first name and DH really liked that. DH wanted to use his grandmothers name for the mn, but it was Martha and our last name starts with an S so the initials would've been PMS which wasn't going to happen. We chose his grandmothers sisters name instead.

capulet

DD''s FN is my mom's last name (Italian and feminine-sounding).  Several of DH's siblings have family surnames as FNs, so we had talked about using it as a FN for a while before we even started having kids.  Her MN is Ruth after DH's grandmother.

DS is Lincoln.  We had a hard time coming up with boy names we both liked, so I went through a baby name book and made a long list of names I'd be willing to consider and DH really liked Lincoln from that list.  It was one of our final choices (I wanted to use John, DH's grandfather's name), which we ended up using for various reasons, largely because I felt like with DD's name coming from my family DH should get more say on #2's name.  His MN is my maiden name.

emnoahmom

Our dd is Emma. Emma is the first name listed on my grandmother's written family history and it was used for years until about the 1940's when it became "old lady" I guess. We thought it was beautiful and decided to keep it going in the family with us.
 ds1 is Noah. We thought it was simple and sweet and sounded perfect with Emma
 ds2 is Isaac. We loved that it meant laughter
 ds3 is Asa. We decided to keep the biblical theme going and loved it in our sib set.
 ds4 is Asher. Again biblical, great meaning
 ds4 to be Jonah. I always loved this name but thought it was too close to Noah. Now that they won't be so close in age I'm going to use it anyhow:) And if I'm wrong about what I saw on the a/s and it's a surprise girl she will be Alice, a name we've had picked out since our first son.

seana627

My dd, Carys Julia, my friend saw Carys in a gossip magazine because it is Michael Douglas and Catherine zeta-jones daughter's name. Julia is after my step- mother who passed. My ds, Asher David, my best friend found his name in the Bible and I loved it. David is after his dad's uncle who passed away.

strawberrytree

Full disclosure- first time I heard DS's name was when I lived in Ireland and was watching an episode of Dancing On Ice, and it was the name of a contestant. That same year on Strictly Come Dancing there was also a contestant named Gethin, which I also loved and suggested. DH wasn't big on it, though. 

We decided on his name after we'd been dating for only a few months. I showed him my baby name list and he hated every boy name on it, so I started just offering up random suggestions that were always nixed. When I mentioned DS's name, DH said "Wait, I actually like that one!" He looked up the etymology and history of the name and was sold, so it became our boy name. His middle name is my grandfather's name. We're still undecided on DS2. 

catahoulatte

Gabriel was a name MH has loved forever. The archangel Gabriel and the "oldness" of it appealed to him. He's a huuuuuge history buff. I like the same things about it, though I wasn't sold on it being "the" name for a while.

scoutkate

Elizabeth is technically a family name but to be honest, we really just chose it because we wanted to call her Betsy.  Her middle name, Everett, is MIL's maiden name.

BLPL101

My daughter's name is Caroline. We both just liked the name. There is no significance to it. Her middle name, Ruth, is DH's grandma's name. We adore her and wanted to honor her! 

GingerBear1128

Our son is Jett Andrew.  Andrew is my older brother. 

I can't remember where I saw Jett.   We both wanted a short name and it had to have a little punch to it to take away from the last name which honestly was a struggle.... I love my man but his last name made it tough.

I love his name though.  I can't imagine any other name on him.

Pepper6

Our daughter will be Gwendolyn Claire.  We didn't really start looking until after we knew she was a girl, and I just started reading names I liked off the SSA list and H would either say yes or no.  We had it narrowed down pretty quickly and decided within about a week and a half that that's the name we both liked the most.  For her middle name, I really started liking the name after reading Outlander a few years ago, and I thought about using it for a FN, but since our LN is so common, we wanted something out of the top 100, but it ends up working nicely as a MN.

Skeemer

DS2 is Jude.

It's a strong Biblical & masculine name. Both of those were important to us.

Lovenyc

I won't lie. My husband and I loved the movie Madagascar. We used to imitate King Julien all the time. So when time came to come up w a boy name we brainstormed and all of a sudden Julian came to mind. We were sold immediately. It is the perfect name for him!

Now, with 2nd son, I cannot find a single name I loooooove.

nittanyllama

Lovenyc said:

I won't lie. My husband and I loved the movie Madagascar. We used to imitate King Julien all the time. So when time came to come up w a boy name we brainstormed and all of a sudden Julian came to mind. We were sold immediately. It is the perfect name for him!

Now, with 2nd son, I cannot find a single name I loooooove.

I kind of like this story -- cute

emmy236

Before we even tried to conceive I knew I liked using family names. My sister made her son a III and I think it always bugged my dad. I wanted to use his name somewhere. Then one day my SIL and MIL were talking about baby names and in a phase where they hated everything I did or said. I mentioned my dad's name and my grandmas name were choices. My MIL made a face like I shoved a lemon down her throat. Her comments were so rude and hurtful, I vowed that they would be my children's names FNs. DH agreed if I gave him middle name say. When we were finally pregnant years later his sister flew into an actual jealous rage and it was quite obvious we weren't going to use any names from his side. I have a very dear uncle who isn't in the best health and I really wanted to honor him. So I used his name as DS's middle name. The ILs probably still aren't fans but they should of probably thought about that before they were jerks.

They still want to hate everything I say no matter what. If we have another boy DH gets to pick and he picked Sullivan as his top choice. His parents told me what a terrible choice again I was making. I had to politely tell them they need to bash their own son's tastes this time.

catahoulatte

Pepper6 said:

Our daughter will be Gwendolyn Claire.  We didn't really start looking until after we knew she was a girl, and I just started reading names I liked off the SSA list and H would either say yes or no.  We had it narrowed down pretty quickly and decided within about a week and a half that that's the name we both liked the most.  For her middle name, I really started liking the name after reading Outlander a few years ago, and I thought about using it for a FN, but since our LN is so common, we wanted something out of the top 100, but it ends up working nicely as a MN.

Claire! I love the Outlander books! I'm actually only on book 3.

Lynnja616

When I was in high school, my gym/Health teacher had a baby boy named Russell and I loved it, thought it was the cutest name ever.  Fast forward 12'ish years and as it turns out, Russell is a family name on DH's side (grandfather and uncle) so there was never any question about the name we would use.  Cole is DH's middle name and that was what he wanted, I agreed.

Both of us just like the name Hazel, and Anne is a family name on my side (my Mom's middle name).

Our choices for this LO:  boy name is James Alan.  James is FIL's name, Alan is my Dad's middle name.  Girl name is June Eloise or Mae Eloise, depending on month of birth.  We both just really like the names June and Mae, and Louise is a family name on DH's side.  For some reason, I also wanted a one-syllable, short and sweet name for #3.  Kind of like the period at the end of our sibset?   

JMU_Bride09

I'm far too paranoid to share the actual names, but I will share our stories!

DS1's first name is a variation of MH's name. I dont like Juniors but wanted to name our son after his father. MH and I love wolves, so his middle name means "wolf."

DS2's first name is MH's middle, and his middle name is the masculine version of my middle.

C12H22O11

With DS, we both wrote down our top 5 names prior to discussing them at all.  Ethan was on both lists.  Middle name (Michael) is a family name.

We tried that same technique with this baby, but apparently our girl naming styles were pretty different.  Norah was on DH's list, and I didn't have anything I *loved*, and so that's what we're using.  DH would be totally ashamed to admit this to anyone IRL, but Nora is a character in a comic book he reads (I made him add the "H").  Middle name (Jewel) is a family name.

BlueRidge8

My apologies to those who have heard this 34 times, but I went on an awesome trip to Ireland several years ago and secretly wished for a baby girl on these wishing steps in Blarney. I was pregnant soon after and when we found out it was a girl, we named her after the town and manor I stayed on during the trip (Adare)

BC&LM

We just started talking about names, and this one came up.  It's a fairly common name--it's in the Bible, some famous people have it, etc., so that's probably how we were aware of it.

LadyXaverian

DH really wanted to name her after his grandmother Elinor. I really loved the name Nora. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of a pre-planned nickname, but it was a really good compromise.

vulpini

DS is named after DH's grandparents.  Ethan as a modification of his grandmother's name, Ethel.  The MN is his grandfather's FN.

Robi1

I heard Bria for the first time in a Star Wars novel. She certainly wasn't "named after" the character in there, so I never tell people that's where I found it. It just stuck with me for a long time, and it fit my criteria of unique without being made up or difficult to spell/pronounce. And DH liked it too!

The other names on our list for future children are all just ones we happen to like, none of them have any significance. Bria's middle names, and all future middle names are family names, however. 

ctmommy333

DDs name: Kaylee

Dh loved the name Kayla, I loved the name Lilly. We were sitting in the Wendy's drive thru and dh said put them together; you get Kaylee. Also, dh's middle name is Lee, and we also incorporated my middle name; Elizabeth.. so there you have it, Kaylee Elizabeth. It all came together while getting my fast food fix on!

Worcbride

my daughter is named after a former coworker's daughter....heard the name and just never could get it out of my head.  Her middle name is my husband's mother's middle name;  she died long before I even met my husband.  My son's name is my godmother's maiden name;  she died of brain cancer in her 30s.  His middle name is the first name of both my dad and my husband (they have the same first name).

Dr.Loretta

We wanted a traditional irish name with traditional Gaelic spelling. We really liked Ciara, but we knew people would pronounce it Sierra, and I hate that name. We were going to give a girl the boy's version (Ciaran), but on looking at more names we found DD's. I fell in love with it, and so did DH. Then he saw it written down (there's a minor celebrity with the same name) and he was hooked

ah625

Our daughter is named after/by her Grandmother (my mother-in-law). 

Her first name is a coincidence really. I loved a very similar name, then my husband pointed out that is was one letter different from his Mother's middle name and it was decided. 

Her middle name is another story. We had originally picked Seraphina. It was "set in stone" and revealed to our families. Then about 4 weeks before she was born Grandma called me to tell me about a name combo she ran across at work. (She does some data entry for the Gov.) It was DD's first name paired with Celeste. I'd loved Celeste when we were looking at FN choices, but my husband didn't. I was sure I wanted to change her middle to Celeste, but we never outright agreed on it. Then the day she was born the nurses asked us to write her name on a white board in the room, if we had one. 

The moment of truth: I'm laying in the bed, snuggling her and he's starting to write. The top of the C and S look similar so I wasn't sure which he was writing, but left the choice completely up to him. He chose Celeste after all! We're both extremely glad his mom kept mentioning names even though we'd already chosen one. (Funny enough, she's named the last 3 grandbabies in one way or another!)

nittanyllama

ah625 said:

Our daughter is named after/by her Grandmother (my mother-in-law). 

Her first name is a coincidence really. I loved a very similar name, then my husband pointed out that is was one letter different from his Mother's middle name and it was decided. 

Her middle name is another story. We had originally picked Seraphina. It was "set in stone" and revealed to our families. Then about 4 weeks before she was born Grandma called me to tell me about a name combo she ran across at work. (She does some data entry for the Gov.) It was DD's first name paired with Celeste. I'd loved Celeste when we were looking at FN choices, but my husband didn't. I was sure I wanted to change her middle to Celeste, but we never outright agreed on it. Then the day she was born the nurses asked us to write her name on a white board in the room, if we had one. 

The moment of truth: I'm laying in the bed, snuggling her and he's starting to write. The top of the C and S look similar so I wasn't sure which he was writing, but left the choice completely up to him. He chose Celeste after all! We're both extremely glad his mom kept mentioning names even though we'd already chosen one. (Funny enough, she's named the last 3 grandbabies in one way or another!)

I LOVE Celeste!

MaineMama33

Little Ambrose is named after his great great grandfather. It grew on me throughout my pregnancy and i think it really fits him. To be honest, I hadn't thought about the femininity of it until a gentleman thought that I had said his name was "Amber". Meh. I love his name and think it's really classic and handsome.

Funny story--my favorite girl name was Ada (it's a song by The National and I just think it's so pretty). I didnt realize until after Ambrose was born that Ada sounds like "ate a", and our last name is a variation of Dickson. Her name would have been "Ate a dick-son". Thank goodness we had a boy!

Lilly&Co

Clara - From Heidi - she is a girl in the book and was a sweet gentle soul. I liked the name ever since reading the book and I think its just a clean pretty name

Elisabeth -  Its a family name and it was a toss up between Rachel and Elisabeth and when she was born it fit her well.

Kathryn - after my best friend- always had name envy growing up with her and loved the name.

TBD on little guy - he is making his debut in 4 weeks about...

joyfullyfound

I originally noticed it watching Little House on the Prairie with DH when I was pregnant... it was the name of one of the characters and even though I'd seen it before, in that context it just totally popped for me. 

We had another name as our first choice, and DD's name as our back up. However, when she was born and in our arms, the name that had been our favorite for so long suddenly didn't feel right. That second choice name was totally right for her, and we've never looked back. I'm completely in love with her name, and really hope we can find that perfect name again for #2! 

Zimger

DS #1- DH and I both liked the sound and meaning of his first name (Liam). We didn't realize until much later that the name had become really popular. We do not regret our choice because we feel the name really suits him. His mn honors my grandfather.

DS #2-We named him after he was born. I had a very hard time choosing his name. We went in with a list but none of them sounded right. DH suggested one of my favorite names (Eliot). He had originally vetoed so I was pleasantly surprised. His mn honors my FIL.

Cricket Bug

I come from a long line of nerds... So when I was in university and doing a paper on Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, my grandmother decided that she would (re)read the book as well. After that we formed our own little 'book club'. Our discussions always segued, and through this I really got to know my grandmother, and recognize her for the strong, inspirational woman that she was. She always kept going back to Jane Eyre (found a new edition/memory failing), and we must have re-read it half a dozen times in the last years of her life. We named our daughter Charlotte as a way of honoring my grandmother by celebrating that memory of her.

Ann is a family name, as well as being the MN of a number of incredible women in our lives.


 

Chapter79

My H literally had zero names in mind, whereas I've been into names since around the 90's or so. So he let me pick a "master" list of names that I loved. Basically, these were names I've loved awhile, names I saw online, on naming websites, etc.  I came up with maybe 15 boys and 35 girls. After that, he went through the list and crossed off names that he really disliked.  Left just a few boys and around 15 girls.   Then we decided to pick a middle name, and knocked out the first names that didn't go with it at all.   Left with very few names, and then it just clicked with us.. and we ended up with Alexis Mariel

==N==

Ds's name was picked by his dad. I wanted to spell it differently but he liked such awful names that I went with his spelling because at least he'd given up on naming our son Vicious. It's not a wrong spelling but it makes it a noun name instead of a regular established name and changes the meaning.

Dd's name we got from looking at ssa lists from other countries.

Both middle names are family names.

nittanyllama

krysbb521 said:

I first heard Olivia on Law and Order SVU and instantly fell in love with it. Plus Olivia Benson is a BA! Her middle name is Brielle, I went to school with a Brielle and I thought it was a perfect fit with Olivia. I loved its meaning too... God is my strength. 

Olivia Benson is awesome!

Keri Marie

Their first names are family tree names that we really liked. Their middle names are after my parents.