Names

ChristenMA83

@runrinserepeat I love the baby name voting idea - totally stealing it.

LLynde5

@KratzyInLove our daughter has a “rat pack” name and we were just talking about possibly pairing the next baby with one too if it’s a girl!  

kelseyyh

@runrinserepeat I don't know if I'll actively consider traits but I've always been someone to be like "hmm they look / don't look like a "insert name" and I visualize certain characteristics with some names.

@artemis618 I know someone who used some inspiration from Greek mythology for their baby's name, and I could see myself doing that - I had such an interest as a kid, it was a fun part of my life to explore that. 

I don't know if I'll consider this too much, but ever since I was about 4 or 5 I've been really interested in name meanings. My parents had my youngest sibling then and they involved us older 3 kids in the process, so my sister and I spent so much time looking at name meanings (she was probably the one reading as lol I was 4...). My own name is meaningful to my birthplace, so it's kinda cool to have connections like that. However there's just some names that are nice but they mean things like "pillow" or "man with nose". 

CecilB93

kelseyyh said:

I don't know if I'll consider this too much, but ever since I was about 4 or 5 I've been really interested in name meanings. My parents had my youngest sibling then and they involved us older 3 kids in the process, so my sister and I spent so much time looking at name meanings (she was probably the one reading as lol I was 4...). My own name is meaningful to my birthplace, so it's kinda cool to have connections like that. However there's just some names that are nice but they mean things like "pillow" or "man with nose". 

My name means "blind", as in dumb. So I hate my name meaning, but I do enjoy looking them up! I've never thought to base name choice off of the meaning though!

mischief-managed

@AGK2015 I totally agree about the on trend name.  My name is Heather and it was so trendy in the early eighties and then immediately fell out of popularity.  So, when I hear anyone else is named Heather, she is almost always within a few years of my age.  I seriously think it is one of the top 5 early eighties names.  I feel like Heather, Ashley, Tiffany, Brittany and Jennifer just scream - I am now in my early to mid thirties!   I wonder if all the Harlow, Harper, Ava and Mia babies will grow up feeling the same way...

CecilB93

@married_to_a_muggle my sister is Heather, she was born in 97!
ETA there is a story, it's not just because of popularity. My mom worked with a gal who told her she looked like a Heather, so she always called her Heather (not in a mean way, mom wasn't offended). So when my mom had another girl, she used the name Heather!

artemis618

@CecilB93 Funny coincidence, I actually just re-watched the movie Heathers this past Sunday night because DH had left for a work trip.  I don’t even know how I would take being told I looked like a “Heather” (in that context ).  They we all very well put together, I suppose.

I was born in the 70s and knew plenty of Heathers growing up too though.

AGK2015

@married_to_a_muggle yuuuuup. My graduating class was only 67 people (30-odd girls) and we had 2 Brittanys, 3 Heathers and 4, count 'em, FOUR Laurens... all born '85/'86. Only one Ashley, shockingly, but definitely when I got hired for my first "real job" out of college, I was the 3rd Ashley in a row to hold that particular entry-level fresh-out-of-school position (are you shocked to hear that the guy who hired me was kind of a creep?). 

CecilB93

@AGK2015 I was born in '93, my high school class '11 (so born '92 and '93) had I think 5-7 Taylors (both boys and girls). I can't remember all of them off the top of my head, could even be closer to 9. It was ridiculous!! ETA our class had 250 people.

maureenmce

Hey guys, name nerd alert - the new social security info for 2017 just came out today! Here's the new top 1000 names!

Edit - NEW LINK! It won't let me link to the actual list for some reason, but if you go to this page, you can select 2017 and can search for the top 20, 50, 100, 500 or 1000 most popular names, and with a different search you can search for changes in name popularity over time! Fun!

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/

mittenlove86

@married_to_a_muggle my name is Heather too! And I was born in 86.  I’ve never seen another heather born in the 90’s or later either. It wasn’t super popular in my area either. I only knew a handful of other Heathers growing up. 

PensiveCrayon

My name is Emily. Sigh. My freshman year of college there were 3 Emily S’s (my maiden name initial) on my floor alone. 

hkom

Hillary (me!) was most popular in the 80s / early 90s as well, but luckily not too popular (it's peak was #132 in 1992).  I've met maayyybe like 2 or 3 other Hillarys in real life.

trucksntutus

Hehehe, rarely anyone has my name! (Heavne -- pronounced Heaven) My parents aren't even religious they found it in a baby name book. Nevaeh is getting quite common and I've found others with my name but it's few and far between.      My daughter has a common name, and this baby's name boy/girl are both on the top 10 list... whatevs.

CecilB93

Ugh guys idk what we'll do if this baby is a boy we've got our girl name, have had it for months. But there's just no boy names that stick out to me in a "that's it!" way. Same with DH. Not looking for suggestions, mostly just ranting lol. Can it be July yet? Lol

kadeephd

My husband and I tried that naming quiz last night that someone (maybe texas_t?) posted a while ago.  We had 0 matches for both boys and girls names in the top 500.  My husband is apparently SUPER picky!  He only picked three girls names and two boys names.  And one of the names, Logan, was on both his lists.  The only name he picked that is mildly acceptable to me is Annabelle.  This is going to be tough.  How do people ever agree?

kadeephd

I also agree about the on trend name thing.  One of the first things I do when I like a name is look up historical popularity to see if it's spiking or has recently spiked.  It's hard to pick something that you like that isn't too common, but also isn't bizarre.

maureenmce

@kadeephd Yes! The social security website has a change in name popularity search feature and that is my favorite thing because you can see if something is really spiking in popularity or is more slow and steady or constant. It's interesting because sometimes even names that don't seem that popular at this exact moment, like a number 200 name or something, could actually be in the middle of a huge spike because it wasn't even in the top 1000 five years ago and is on a crazy trendy trajectory.

As for me, after looking over the 2017 top 1000 names, I'm just psyched that Katherine has fallen out of the top 100. (I'm not too picky about popularity, but ideally, I like names to be below the top 100.) And the one kind of trendy name I like is holding steady at 83 or something like that, so it's not TOO terribly popular. All of my other top 5 names are weird and maybe only I like them because they're barely (or not at all) in the top 1000! Anyway, fun times! I love name data. (I may be a nerd, haha.)

AGK2015

Ha.  Boy name is #4 (next boy's name is only #27). My two potential first name options for a girl, on the other hand... Florence is sitting pretty at #980, Marion hasn't been in the top 1000 since 1988 (an alternate spelling made a brief appearance at in the top 1000 at #735 in 2000, but since my great grandmother's name was spelled that way, a potential daughter's name would be, too). Not exactly unique names, just apparently not particularly popular, I guess.

maureenmce

@AGK2015 If I haven't told you already, I LOVE Florence. I think it's just such a lovely name.

runrinserepeat

Lol I know a little girl named Florence. 

I used to care so so much about popularity and trending. And now... eh. There are two little girls in DD’s class named Elsa. She was born two years before Frozen came out, and the name at that point was 547 on the ssa list. Idk how you guard against something like that. 

But I’m also resigned to the fact that I have ...odd taste (especially in our friends group), so even if I pick a name higher on the popularity list, I’m not all that worried about it. 

omnommer

@tumbleweed-1 @runrinserepeat Just as an FYI for you two talking about hair color of the babies and perhaps changing/basing names on those... I was born with a dark brown mop of curly hair. It all fell out within a month and came back white blonde. Then it slowly darkened over the course of like 15 years. 

AshleyGemini24

Also an Ashley. Most other Ashley's are my age. So i agree. That's why we gave DS an unpopular name. 

katy0990

My name is Katie and from kindergarten to senior year of high school I was never the only Katie in any of my classes. We love the name Olivia, but are struggling with how popular it is right now.

CecilB93

omnommer said:

@tumbleweed-1 @runrinserepeat Just as an FYI for you two talking about hair color of the babies and perhaps changing/basing names on those... I was born with a dark brown mop of curly hair. It all fell out within a month and came back white blonde. Then it slowly darkened over the course of like 15 years. 

Yes! My son came out with super dark hair, he's now a blonde. Mine was practically white it was so blonde when I was born, and while I'm not technically a brunette, my hair's pretty much dirty blonde now, much darker than when I was a baby.

echo-charlietango

kelseyyh said:

@runrinserepeat I don't know if I'll actively consider traits but I've always been someone to be like "hmm they look / don't look like a "insert name" and I visualize certain characteristics with some names.

^ That’s why we’re waiting to name LO only when it is out, and we’ve all rested a bit. But no characteristics in mind. DH thinks kiddo will have my dark eyes, dark hair, and olive complexion. I think it’s going to have DH’s pale eyes and skin. Either way, we can’t imagine naming a dog without meeting it -much less a real human!

Re: Hair
I'm not sure about DH, but I was a bald eagle until age two. I’m pretty sure he was a little blonde until puberty. Luckily I can ask his mom after we spill the beans. 

Re: Name popularity
I only look at Top ### Lists to avoid names. DH’s name is ultra popular, my name is not. I have enjoyed having a normal name that isn’t heard everyday, and I think DH is on board with LO having a non-trendy name. I like looking at names that are medium popular in other countries (#100-300). Otherwise a lot of my friends are doing the color/botanical thing. I know two Violets, a Rose, and a Grey. My family has contributed to the increase of Brooklyn, Mia, Jayden, Olivia, and Sophie. 

I think that when asked, I'll tell folks that we were thinking about their name. Example: if Bob asks, I’ll say that we were thinking of naming LO Bob because it’s just so nice. They know I use the sarcasm, they’ll survive (if they dare to seriously ask me). 

ab_canada

My favorite girl name (Elizabeth) has been "taken" by some friends that just had a baby a year ago. I'm probably overreacting and it's probably not a big deal.. my second favorite name (Catherine/Katherine) is way too popular among our friends. I think I know 5 Catherines or some variation and I think it could just get awkward, lol.

For boys, I think I have a winner but I haven't discussed it with DH yet (we haven't talked names at all - maybe after we know the sex). If it is a boy, I think we should name him after DH's father. *TW* He has a health condition and is slowly deteriorating, and it's not very likely that he will make it to see his first grandchild *end TW*. I'm just not sure how to bring that up. Maybe DH is thinking the same thing and it will be a very easy decision. 

maureenmce

Thought I'd bump this, since we're starting to find out gender and may be getting more specific on names. Also, because I would love some advice!

So, my husband and I picked our our boy name on our honeymoon, so we're very sentimentally attached to it, but we didn't get to use it last time because we had a girl. And now that we're having a boy, I would love some opinions on our boy name and the conundrum I've been going back and forth about.

So, the name we picked out on our honeymoon is Fox William. Fox is a family surname on both sides, William is my dad's name (he passed away when I was very young.) We LOVE the idea of using Fox as a first name, we love the nature connection between Fox and Rose (my daughter) and side bonus, we both grew up as huge X Files fans, so that's a fun connection too. The only downside is that I casually mentioned the name to my aunt when we were TTC and she haaaaaates it. She insists that he will be mercilessly teased, and wants us to name the baby William Fox instead. I like William Fox fine, but not nearly as much, but I don't want to doom a kiddo to a lifetime of teasing. I know baby names are much more adventurous these days, and I certainly don't think Fox is too weird for Los Angeles where we live, but what do you guys think? Is Fox William okay, or should we switch to William Fox?

Thanks in advance for any opinions!

texas_t

@maureenmce Well, opinions are just that.  Personally, I don't care for most non-traditional name so it's not my taste.  I tend to go for names that look good on a resume    That being said, y'all have some cool reasoning behind the name and he will have William attached to it, so if he wants to go by F. William, well, there ya go. I don't gasp in horror at the thought of it, so I suppose that's good? Hahahahaha

maureenmce

@texas_t Lol, yeah, I figure William in the middle spot would give options if he ever wanted to go by his middle for resume reasons, etc. I think my respectable name radar is probably different than most because I work in a creative field (and like, literally the most successful guy in my graduating college class is name Bear, haha) and live in Los Angeles where I know babies named Arrow and Copper, etc., so that's why I wanted opinions from people outside LA and the entertainment industry! So yes, if you don't gasp in horror, that's a good thing! That's basically the reaction I'm hoping to avoid. Not my style is fine!

morgantu

@maureenmce I think fox is a totally fine name. I know a kid named that and he seems to get along just fine. I think on the spectrum of non traditional names, it's pretty benign. And I agree that he can always go by William or will or whatever derivation thereof when he gets older. Also why we're not telling the name until it's already on the birth certificate lol:) 

maureenmce

@morgantu Not telling the name til the baby is born is usually my policy as well! I should never have told my aunt! Oh well, haha.

runrinserepeat

@maureenmce like @texas_t said, it’s not my style. I don’t think you should worry about dooming your child to merciless teasing, however. If anything, I think Fox would be one of the cool names. Do what makes you happy, he’s your son to name, not your aunt’s. 

texas_t

@maureenmce I was thinking, oh, and when he's a baby you'd call him Foxy, and then I thought, Foxy Loxy, and then the sky was falling.     This brain, tho.

maureenmce

@texas_t Hahaha, I was thinking as a baby we'd call him Lil Fox or Foxtrot (because I'm a dork and was in JROTC as a teen and I still have all the military letter jargon in my head, haha.) But I'm sure he'll get called Foxy at some point. The only thing that has me leaning toward William Fox is I think Billy Fox would be a precious nickname when he's little (my dad went by Billy too when he was small) so that'd be cute.

I'm probably honestly going to just wait until the baby is born and see if he looks like a Fox or a William. That's what we did with my daughter (she looked like a Rose more than a Tess.) But I basically want reassurance that neither option is like, HORRIBLE, haha.

texas_t

@maureenmce Awww, Foxtrot is cute! Maybe you'll figure it out once he starts wiggling around in there!

tumbleweed-1

@maureenmce either Fox William or William Fox is fine. I don’t think teasing will be any more of an issue than a “traditional” name. Kids will find a way to tease each other if that’s their goal. I had a toddler in my class once named Fox (a girl toddler). I don’t live in LA, but I’m also on the west coast (Portland, OR area), so I agree that it’s a totally fine name for this part of the country. Keep in mind while reading my opinion that I’m considering Phoenix as a totally acceptable name for my baby (boy or girl) Lol If that gives you an idea of my view on non traditional names. 
and @texas_t already solved the resume thing for if he isn’t in a creative field when he grows up. He could also choose to go by his middle name as an adult, if he wants, without legally changing his name. Lots of people do that. 

misscheapandchic

I know my girl name is for sure Coraline, boy names I’m more stuck on. It needs to be a good sib set with my son Zeke (Ezekiel). I like Wyatt, Ezra and August the most, but I’m not in love with any of them like I was Zeke’s. 

maureenmce

@misscheapandchic I LOVE Coraline so much! One of my dear friends has a little girl named Coraline and she just turned 3 today! She's the only one I've ever met with that name and it's just lovely.

CecilB93

@maureenmce agree that Fox isn't really something I'd personally pick, but I love the significance behind it! And I think either way you put the names sounds fine honestly. I can't imagine Fox would be too picked on, there are some way worse names out there imo...