July 2019 Baby Name Thread

ordinaryunicorn

It feels like it's a long time until July, but I know it will be here before we know it! What names are you you guys thinking about for your little ones? Do you plan on something classic  and traditional or are you planning something kreeative and younique?  What ground rules do you and your partner have when it comes to baby names? Any names that you love, but was the name of weird kid who ate glue in your partner's 2nd grade class? Let's name chat y'all! 

ordinaryunicorn

For my partner and I, we have similar taste in girls names and these are our current top contenders:

Girls:

• Vera (a family name for me and currently our number one pick)
• Juniper 
• Oona 
• Eleanor 

If we have a boy, he seriously might be going through life as Baby Boy "Our Last Name" because it seems like every name that my partner really likes, I'm meh on and vice versa. Also, his best friend very rudely named not one, but two dogs the one baby boy name I've loved and had my heart set on since high school (Arlo) so that is out of the running for us.

Boys:

• Alfred (a family name on his side, we’d probably go with Alfie as a nick name)
• Felix
• Oscar 
• Theodore
• Hugo

Our general rule is that we don’t use a family name for anyone who is still living, and we’ve agreed to give our little one a Spanish middle name to honor my Hispanic ancestry. 

tsa208

We're so screwed. We are having a boy and have no idea what to name him. We have a 13 month old daughter, and we had our girl name picked out before I was even pregnant. But with a boy, literally nothing sounds good to me or DH for a name for our son!

mamanbebe

We haven't begun to narrow down the list I've been building for YEARS. I like names that are real names with traditional spellings but beyond that the most important part is not being remotely popular right now. I run everything through The Bump name search and generally won't add something to the list unless it's 1000 or worse on popularity. 

My son's name is one of those that became surprisingly popular. I'd never met anyone with the name. I pulled it out of a Social Security name list from the early 20th cen and we've since met many friends with the same name and within a year or two of his age. For the next beeb I'd rather it be like my name which is really normal but I never had any friends with my name. 

ordinaryunicorn

@mamanbebe Not being super popular is another criteria for us as well. My name is in the top 40 for my birth year, so there were a couple of times in school where I had to go by 'My First Name, last initial'.  

A woman I used to work with has a 12 year old named Liam, and was so annoyed that his name went from being fairly unknown in the US, to rocketing to the top of the baby name lists within a few years. I suppose that's a risk you take for almost any name. 

tundra_tromper

My boyfriend's brother passed away suddenly almost a year ago and I'm very aware that, if we have a boy, his mother is likely going to be pressuring us to name the baby after him (grandma is going to be VERY pushy). I'm all for remembering loved ones who have passed away and honoring them by naming children after them, but am not sure how i feel about having my child share a first name.
...any words of advice?

ordinaryunicorn

@tundra_tromper  That is a tricky one, especially with a very pushy grandma but I think you might have a good explanation since it was your boyfriend's brother (assuming that the baby is going to have his surname of course). I would just tell Grandma that it's too soon for you and your partner to be hearing his brother's full name every time you talk about your baby, and you want your baby's name to bring joy to the family not painful memories. 

tsa208

tundra_tromper said:

My boyfriend's brother passed away suddenly almost a year ago and I'm very aware that, if we have a boy, his mother is likely going to be pressuring us to name the baby after him (grandma is going to be VERY pushy). I'm all for remembering loved ones who have passed away and honoring them by naming children after them, but am not sure how i feel about having my child share a first name.
...any words of advice?

Same boat. My husband's brother just passed away a few months ago and we're having a boy, so I imagine there will be some pressure or at least hope. My younger brother passed away a while back, and I know my mom would love for him to be remembered this way. Honestly, I feel like it places an unfair burden on the kid to be saddled (for lack of better word) with such a strong memory. I want our son to have a fresh start. Luckily both husband and I feel strongly about it, so it's a united front.

My only advice is be gentle and patient and give them room to be upset about it. Having lost my brother and watching my mom go through it, a parent grasps for ANYTHING that will let the memory of their child live on, anything. It's painful in a million ways, one of which is knowing their existence in this world is fading away. Explain that you of course love and miss the brother, but you want to give your child a fresh start too, a way to stake out his own identity. Putting it in terms of what's best for the baby can help deflect any anger/disappointment.

hestia-is-wearie

My sister isn't named after my grandmother, but she looks exactly like her. My grandmother passed away when we were little, and ever since my mom has made comparisons between her and my sister: "Oh, she's doing that thing Ma used to do," "Don't worry, your grandmother didn't get good grades either," or "Maybe you'll grow up and do hair like she did!" My sister has formed this identity that she's a mini-Grandmother and it's almost like she relies on that for affirmation from my mom. It's really sad for me to see. 
Anyway, my point is I can see why grandparents would push for a new baby to be named after someone who passed away, but definitely keep the child's own identity in mind. You don't want them to go through life thinking they have to live up to the reincarnation of someone that the family wishes were still around. 

strickland8052

@tundra_tromper - Maybe there is a way to incorporate it somehow, but not do the entire name?

My mother-in-law was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer around the same time we got pregnant with daughter three years ago. We knew she would probably not have long after baby was born. MIL's name was Lynda, but everyone called her Lyn. We named our daughter Evelyn in part because of this. Eve meaning "life", and lyn after MIL. Not on purpose, but her middle name is Rose. In hindsight, I feel that has special meaning as well since she was a beautiful flower in a very thorny time for our family. 

strickland8052

For a girl, we are really loving the name Genevieve Claire. For boy, we like Lincoln James. But... we will not set anything in stone until we see him/her. I have a fear of naming a child pre-birth and then them not "fitting" that name. haha. 

strickland8052

Oh! And we both really like the name Nancy, and it was my husband's grandmother's name. BUT, I worked with an absolutely horrible person named Nancy, so now it is out. 

nopegoat

We tend to go more classic names and try to use family names in some way if possible. 

Our current kiddos are 
-James Mathieu - James is H's name, Mathieu (pronounced Matthew) is from my side. He goes by Mathieu. 
-Everett William - Everett is a family friend and William comes from both sides of our family.
-Charles Gregory - Named after H's grandfather and uncle
-Russell Albert - we both just like Russell Albert is from my side.

Our rules in the past has been NO repeating initials, so for this one any name with J, M, E, W, C, G, R, or A would be out. I don't think that's going to happen with this one.

For a boys H really likes Joseph Lafayette. It's his  great, great grandpa's name. I LOVE Joseph but that means the J would repeat and I'm not totally in love with Lafayette but its a family name soo...

For a girl I really love Astrid Pearl and also like Sybil Lucille. Astrid repeats with the A and H isn't sold because it has no family meaning behind it. Sybil is H's grandmother but all the L endings is a bit much (our last name also ends in L) so I'm not entirely sold on it. 

ameliabedelia-2

@ordinaryunicorn, Vera was my top pick and I also really like Veda, and my husband has said absolutely not to both of them. I am so so so sad. So cute and unique. 

bartonolivia

I already have 2 boys. 
3 year old is Ezra Dean. Dean is a Family name on my husbands side. Ezra we just really loved. 

We also have a 2 year old named Elias Parker. No reason for him name. We kind of just settled on it bc we could not agree on anything. 

This one for a girl we have Ruby Jane. Jane is my middle bane & my mamaws. We just fell in LOVE with ruby. Probably won’t change. 

For a boy we have Henry Rowan. No reason. Just love it! This may change though. 

hoodevil0611

I always wanted to use Wells, my mother's maiden name, for a boy, but there was a really annoying kid in my law school section named Wells, and H hates it anyway.

In any event, we are having a girl.  My favorites, like Emma, have gotten too popular for my taste.  I'm a huge fan of unisex or family names for girls so will likely be going with one.  I really like Evan for a girl, but H's brother used that for their little boy, so that one's out too.  Avery, Hadley, Devon, Rowan, Carter, Corbin, Parker, Brett, Reid, Reagan...  As far as not so unisex, I'm okay with Emmeline and Anna

Amphibious22

@nopegoat you wouldn't like our family then. All three of us have names starting with J. With DS, we didn't do it on purpose, he was named after both of our paternal grandfathers, but now I'm not sure which way to go. We can either go full Kardashian and embrace being a family of J names or try to avoid it and pick something else. 

Luckily the name conversation isn't too tough here since we just had it like a year ago. For a girl we like Juniper (@ordinaryunicorn you're the first other person I've seen mention that name) or Cecilia. A boy is harder since we didn't talk much about other names. The only one we can agree on right now is Owen. MH wants to commit to the J thing and is pushing for Jonah, but I'm not in love with it. 

brake09

@hoodevil0611 I also like unisex names for girls. My top ones are:

Sloane Evelyn (Evelyn is my great gma’s name and grandmothers middle name)
Blair James 
August Evelyn 
Elliot Grace
Harper Lucille 

The only one DH and I can agree on is the first one. Luckily we are set in stone with Sebastian Lee if it’s a boy.

nerdtoyourmother

We've had Micah earmarked for another boy for a while - middle name will likely be Allen after an uncle I lost to cancer. 

I thought we had a girl name hammered out, but apparently hubs wanted to jump ship. *sigh* It's looking like Chandler is the frontrunner (sort of a nod to his dad, Charlie) and middle name Elizabeth for my two best friends who share the name. 

tl;dr
Micah Allen (boy)
Chandler Elizabeth (girl)

foodislove

Kiddos are all a quarter Persian, through my side. We have two names picked out for a boy or a girl, Persian first name this time around (M's middle name is Persian).

For boy, Naveed, meaning good news
For girl, Nazreen/Nasreen, meaning wild rose

Amphibious22

@brake09 I have a niece named Harper. I love that name! 

Bear14+

Anyone know the swiping app for names that links to H's phone?

For girls, I'm so lost... for boys I have a better idea: 
Greyson (not a huge fan on Greyson, but I love love the nn Grey) 
Noah (H not a huge fan) 
Jude
Cameron 

Girls...maybe Avery, Mia, or Elle??? No idea... 

anomasqrl

So I love Nicholas, and would love to use my dads name Richard, but H and I just cannot name our kid “Nick Dick” 😆

Panaceia

DD was one month old before we gave her a name. I didn't lover her name initially but we named her for my FIL who passed before she was born. I love her name now and can't imagine her having any other name.

This time SO has a name he's stuck on. He wants to name baby for his uncle...whether girl or boy. I think I'm more ok with it if we have another girl...but my cousin's son's name is very similar so I don't think it will work for us if we have a boy (which is secretly a good thing because I have a name I love that I'm hoping to convince SO of if it's a boy). I love the name he wants but I'm not totally sold. I'm hoping to find out next week if it's a girl or boy so I can start thinking seriously about names. I would love to be able to name this baby a bit quicker than DD:)

vanillalatte89

I absolutely love Reid for a boy and I’m so sad my DH said it’s a hard no for him 😭. I also love Jonah and of course it was shot down. So if this baby is a boy it’s gonna be a struggle to find a name. Our girl name is set - Hope Alexandra. I love Hope and my daughter picked Alexandra. I originally presented the name Alexandra hope to my dh and he liked it better flipped so that’s how we settled that. If only boy named were as easy for us. 

rgn12

I’m loving all these name ideas. My hubby and I haven’t agreed on anything yet 😂

hannahdaawn71

Hubby & I agreed on Weston James before we even got pregnant  Weston is after hubby, Wesley. James is a family name from his side. 
For a girl, I’ve always loved Aubriella Grace and hubby fell in love too. But now that I’m pregnant, it’s just not seeming as great.   also considering Embrey, which is a family name from my side. 

cindler

@Bear14+ the app is just called baby name.

DH really wants the initials TJ whether boy or girl. They are family initials. We thought we had a boy name picked out, but we're starting to rethink that. Girls names are harder. There just aren't any T girl names that jump out at me. Suggestions? 

ordinaryunicorn

@Amphibious22   I've loved the name Juniper as a name since I was a girl! One of my absolute favorite books growing up was Juniper by Monica Furlong and I was so pleased that my partner likes it as well. 
 
@cindler
Ooh T names are tough for a girl. Here are a few I can think of that I personally like. 

• Theodora
• Tabitha
• Talia
• Tamara
• Tegan
• Therese/Theresa 

mamanbebe

@cindler

taylor, tulula, tia, truly

mrscammack

Hubby loves Adelaide for a girl and I really like it but I’m just not 100% sold. As far as he’s concerned that’s the name if it were up to him. I do like the nickname addie a lot and our daughters name is Charlotte so I think having a “Charlie” and “addie” would be super cute.

I love the name Lucy and would probably do Lucy Michelle after my mom, he likes it but isn’t sold so we have some more debating to do. I was 100% sold on Cleo before I got pregnant but now I’m not so sure. 

We’re sold on James for the middle name if we have a boy since it’s my dad’s name and dh’s dad’s middle name. So far I like Oliver James, Elliot James, Levi James or the name Jack but I don’t like the double J’s so we’d do 2 middle names in that case and it would be Jack Samuel James, Samuel being after my grandfather. Hubby isn’t crazy about any of the boys names I like but he hasn’t proposed any great alternatives so we’ll see!

We already have a Charlotte Grace so whatever we do I want it to sound nice alongside her name. 

NicholeL16

We are using Chandler Alton if we have another boy. C.A.S are my husband and his grandfather’s initials. Alton was his grandfather’s middle name. My father in law will be a puddle on the floor if we use this name.

For a girl we will use Lorelai Aubrie. I’m torn on the spelling for Aubrie but we need to nail it down quick since we are announcing the name and sex at Christmas if our blood test results come back in time. 

nolemomma14

We were able to come up with our first two boys’ names pretty quickly. We have Cole Benjamin and Cooper James. Never planned on having the same initial, but I love their names. 

So far we have Owen Alexander as the front runner for a boys name. Girls have always been tougher for us. I really liked Hayden Reece, but not sold on it anymore. I also love the name Emmy, but my SIL is emily and goes by Emmy a lot so I feel like it would be confusing. 

Were going to be team green this time, so we will have to have one of each name! 

pizzaplz

Well, add me to the Juniper club. It’s been at the top of my list for the last month or so and I love it...any thoughts on where we got the idea for that name, @ordinaryunicorn and @Amphibious22 ? I never see it on baby name lists. Maybe because it’s Christmastime and there are lots of evergreens around!
Anyhow, my baby will most likely get my last name as its middle name and share my husband’s last name. Because of that, I like the idea of not giving it another family name, but letting it have its own name. I just know for sure if it’s a boy we are not naming it after DH’s dad, because every other boy in his family is (middle name)!

Panaceia

@NicholeL16 I have taught a few Aubrey's over the years spelled with a Y. But I don't think you can go wrong either way. With the ie it looks like it matches with the ai in the first name which is cute:) I like them both so I'm no help...but here the more common spelling with the girls I have taught seems to be Y. Not sure if that helps one way or another.

NicholeL16

@panaceia Thanks! We don't like to get too creative with spellings but I think I agree that the ie looks nice with Lorelai. My husband is open to either spelling, just not Aubree.  

wineandcoffee

@tundra_tromper my cousin’s husbands brother passed a few years ago. Their daughter has his first name as her middle name (it actually suits her) and now their son shares his middle name. 

brake09

@NicholeL16 Chandler is one of my favorite names ever! DS was supposed to be named Chandler, but my husband wanted to change it to Jaxon at the last minute. So now we have a Jaxon Chandler instead. Everyone thought it was after Chandler Bing from friends, but actually I loved it from All My Children from when I was growing up!

snootles

ordinaryunicorn said:

For my partner and I, we have similar taste in girls names and these are our current top contenders:

Girls:

• Vera (a family name for me and currently our number one pick)
• Juniper 
• Oona 
• Eleanor 

If we have a boy, he seriously might be going through life as Baby Boy "Our Last Name" because it seems like every name that my partner really likes, I'm meh on and vice versa. Also, his best friend very rudely named not one, but two dogs the one baby boy name I've loved and had my heart set on since high school (Arlo) so that is out of the running for us.

Boys:

• Alfred (a family name on his side, we’d probably go with Alfie as a nick name)
• Felix
• Oscar 
• Theodore
• Hugo

Our general rule is that we don’t use a family name for anyone who is still living, and we’ve agreed to give our little one a Spanish middle name to honor my Hispanic ancestry. 

Love your names! I already have an Alfred nn Alfie too.

NicholeL16

@brake09 My husband is a huge Friends fan so getting him past that name association took some convincing! I only know one other little boy named Chandler so I’m excited it’s not too popular.

meandlittleb

My brother passed away when I was 16, he was 17 and we were the best of friends. I made a deal with my sister that I got the rights to his name haha. So 12 years later I'm banking on a boy so we can carry on his name, Jeffrey Michael. I can't imagine how emotional it would be for my family, but in a good way being able to say his name again in a happy light. 

We're liking simple traditional names for a girl. So far Anna Rose is the front runner.