@achanceintime my kid sister’s name is Caroline so I’m very partial to that name. I love the Rory nickname, too. I’m a big sis so my nicknames for MY Caroline were (and still are, I’m 40 and she’s 28) Pickle and Scarebear. 😂
@rachelredhead Penny is the sweetest NN. I wasn’t ready to give up my favorite name for DHs fave but then we started using the NN for it when referring to her and it completely stuck. Can’t imagine naming her anything else now.
@rachelredhead aww I love that! Rory also happens to be a family name, and my husband loves Gilmore Girls, so it works for us haha.
@morgantu I’m so glad my husband is completely on board with the name pick, because I was pretty set from the beginning that this is the name I wanted. He had the big vote if it was a boy, and I really didn’t like his name choice…so doubly glad it’s a girl lol
Now that we know we're having a girl, I am finally letting myself get excited about names!
@jessier19 I am late to the game here, but I have lots of thoughts on your question about the name "Neve". Since I am Irish heritage, and lived in Ireland for years, I always wanted an Irish name for my children. Problem is, the only irish girl names I love are: Niamh (pronounced NEEEve) and Tara. My husband doesn't like Tara. So we both love "Niamh" but there is no way the proper spelling will fly here in Ontario Canada. We considered "Neve", but worried it would be pronounced to rhyme with Bev; which is still nice, it just isn't what we want it pronounced as. The spelling of "Nieve" reminds me too much of the word "naive"..... Also adding to the fact that my Irish family would probably be offended anyways that I didn't spell it Niamh..... anyways....we pretty much all but abandoned the name at this point although if I had a way to make it work I still would. I am just worried my daughter will spend her life correcting spellings and pronunciations if I go for it. Are you interested in the name as well?
We're in the process of creating a short list right now; so far we've got Evelyn, Rose, Grace.... still adding; not settled on anything yet!
@realhousewife519 I've taught a few Niamhs over the years. The first one had to correct me but then I learned:) I have a few friends whose children have the traditional spelling for their names (Ceilidh, Siobhan, Maire etc) and I LOVE the names. I say if it's a name you love go for it!
@realhousewife519 thank you for all of those thoughts, I really appreciated hearing them! I think Neve is our top contender right now. I had long loved the name Niamh, but the spelling had disqualified it for me. I was excited to learn that Neve existed as a common anglicized spelling, but still was slightly worried that the English spelling felt somehow made up or illegitimate. BUT all of that changed for me when I found out that my husband had long liked the Italian name Neve (traditionally spelled just like that in Italian, pronounced “Neh-vay” in Italian, but anglicized to “Neeve” in English). The language convergence kind of clinched it for me, making this spelling feel real and legitimate to me. Especially because my husband has Italian heritage and he had hoped to honor that heritage with an Italian name.
I do still worry a little about the pronunciation, but I polled basically everyone I know on how they would pronounce it, and slightly more than half of them said “Neeve”. Among the ones who said “Nev” a lot of them said it was because they’d heard of Neve Campbell. But she’s already past her prime haha, and I feel like as this baby gets older fewer and fewer people will have heard of her, and so I’m hoping more and more people will naturally say “Neeve”. And anyway those are all the details on how I talked myself into naming this baby Neve!
And I agree with @Panaceia, if you love Niamh I think you should go for it. For me personally, choosing a name with such an unusual spelling felt wrong for us partly because it’s not my heritage. If I were Irish I think I might have gone with Niamh. I have a first name where I usually had to tell people how to pronounce it growing up, and honestly it never bothered me. As a kid I felt proud of the distinction, like it made me special. (Jessie isn’t my real name, that’s a kind of a nickname)
@jessier19 Awwe I’m so happy you’re going with it. Such a gorgeous name. I didn’t know about the Italian version but it is beautiful as well. And I agree that Neve Campbell, god bless her, won’t be a household name for our young ones! I will put Niamh back on my shortlist (even though my iphone autocorrects it to Miami). @Panaceia thanks for weighing in from a teachers perspective. I guess the name isn’t as unusual as I thought!
@realhousewife519 If it helps at all, my oldest is named Mila, which I assumed was a *known* name and pronunciation. Ha! When people first asked her name who hadn't heard it before or weren't familiar with it thought I either said Amilia or Mia...and at pretty much all of her extra curriculars and even school soooo many of the instructors/teachers called her My-la...like Maya with an *l* and she or I had to correct them constantly (when she was younger she was a pretty shy kid so half the time she didn't even realize they were calling her name and just wouldn't answer). Our neighbour still calls her Mia and she's almost 8....My name is also a pretty common French name but people mispronounced it allllll the time and I still have to correct people. Like @jessier19 said I always kind of liked the distinction of having to correct people...even if I thought it was pretty obvious what the pronunciation should be! So even if you choose a more common name or common spelling you can still end up with people not knowing how to pronounce it:)
Choosing a name is hard for us too. We want something that can be pronounced in English and Spanish. So we’re thinking of Amari. We also want only A names 😅. @realhousewife519 I have to pronounce my name differently to English speakers. My name is Araceli and it’s pronounced ahh-rah-se-li, but people say e-rah-se-li. It can’t be helped, some people just can’t pronounce it. The English language is very different
Jumping on the pronunciation train, my husband is pretty adamant that this baby have a name that exists in Brazil. He was born and raised there and our son’s name (Truman) has no Brazilian equivalent. He really loves T’s name as it’s a family name on my side. But he wants our daughter to have a name that’s more recognizable to our Brazilian loved ones, especially since we hope to travel back and forth more once they’re older.
@rachelredhead my coworker is Brazilian and also due in March. She had the same criteria for picking a name. I am pretty sure they picked Nina as their girl name. Does Penny/Penelope work in both countries? I still love that or Johanna ❤️.
@kgg2241 Penelope definitely works as it’s a common name in Brazil. Johanna would work, too, even if it’s less common. But I think Penelope’s familiarity in Brazil is a big reason why that’s husband’s favorite. 😃 I’ve started think about Penelope Johanna. Or Penelope Joanne. Or Johanna Penelope. Hmmmm…
Now that we know we’re on the boy train again, we’ve started really looking at our names. (I feel like boy names are so much harder, my girls list is always double the size) so far our current top favorite (it’s hard for us to both really like one) is a SUPER popular name right now. Like in the top 5 for the last while. But we both love it. I just don’t know how I feel about a super popular name 😂 for reference DS is Theodore (Theo) which became more popular around the time we chose it anyways. So maybe no matter what we’re “doomed” 😆 But (and I may get pushback for this but from what I’ve seen at work people naming their kids and a teacher sister..) I’m REALLY against weird spellings, weird names and things people can’t easily say/pronounce/spell. So I guess that may limit us anyways.
@nursejenn5 I totally get the hesitation with a popular name. One thing that made me feel better was looking them up on the social security website. The number of babies named that might seem huge but usually the actual percentage is pretty small. Plus it is popular for a reason 🤷.
@nursejenn5 I am also against usuing popular names for my kids haha. About 18 years ago, I fell in love with the name "Logan" but now it's WAY too popular. I don't want my kid being one of 4 or 5 Logans in the class. So we didn't use it.
In Elementary we had Stephanie O, Stephanie P, Stephanie B, and Stephanie S. And we had Ashely M, Ashley P, Ashley S, Ashely A, and Ashely R. Plus all the Jessica's.... Often most of them would end up in the same class.
But I also don't use "unique" spelling for names. (Cultural names are obviously wonderful and totally awesome. That's not what I'm referring to. I don't understand parents taking a common name, and changing the spelling to something unreadable that is going to make their child's entire life a nightmare..)
@nursejenn5 Totally agree with @kgg2241 . As a high school teacher even when I have kids with super popular names I still rarely have 2 kids with the same name in one class. The most I ever had was 3, they were all named Keagan but all spelled it differently...and it was the only time I had more than 2 in a class with the same name (I've been teaching for almost 20 years and have about 100 students each semester...so about 200 students a year). So I definitely agree that even with super popular names you won't necessarily see that many people with the same name. I think it's always better to choose a name you love!
I’m obsessed with this website. It will tell you the popularity of any name by state. This is Penelope in Minnesota. I was concerned our names were too popular but when you think about actual numbers of babies, even popular names aren’t THAT common these days. https://www.everything-birthday.com/state-nm/minnesota/Penelope
There are so many great names in this thread! There's a little girl named Penelope at our preschool and I love the name, but used to get very confused when my son talked about his friend "Reffy". Turns out the little girl (they were 2) couldn't say her own name and neither could any of her friends, so she has TONS of nicknames!
I have a huge list of names so far, but nothing has really stuck out. We're not finding out the gender, so we need both names. My other 2 are Charlotte Suzanne and Robert Preston. This baby was a surprise for us, so I like the meaning of Jasmine, but don't love the name itself because it makes me feel like I'm having a Disney princess.
My husband found the name "Chas" (pronounced CHAZ) in his family tree and is in love. I HATE it. So, that's going to be a fun argument one of these days.
So I think we’re 99.9% stuck on this little one being Oliver. I keeping reading through name lists thinking well add more to it and can’t find any I like as much. And DH will randomly say “yup I still like Oliver” out of the blue.
I think we settled on DS1 this way as well 😂 middle name options are hard. My dads name is DS1s middle. So I’m hoping for something from H’s side. His middle name is Harley after a grandpa. (Which I would’ve even entertained as a first name. But H didn’t like. For a girl I was gonna try Harlee too😂)) so middle name tbd but Oliver Harley doesn't sound bad at all to me.
So I wasn't really sold on the middle name (which we had decided would be my last name) because I felt like it was just too different from the girls' (who both have A_a middle names). The only boy name I like that follows that pattern is Asa but with Sasha as a first name I would never be that mean...I did find a name we both love that starts with A though so we decided to change the middle name to Arik (pronounced Ah-rick). I'm liking it better.
@nursejenn5 Yeah it's a name that comes from a bunch of different cultures and I know in a couple of them they pronounce it like Eric. I like the Norse pronunciation though since it matches the girls more:)
@Controlaltdelete I like Jack and Owen. But I think of Jack as a nickname so I’d assume his birth name was John. And I don’t blink an eye at two short names, i.e. Jack Dawn. I think it sounds fine. Personally, I’d spell Margot with the T.
We added another name to our list of favorites: Iris Isabel or Isabel Iris so our tops right now are Penelope Jane, Robin Charlotte, Isabel Rose, and Iris Isabel
@rachelredhead I love Iris especially paired with Isabel ❤ Your names are all gorgeous and you can't go wrong no matter which one you ultimately decide on ❤
We finalized our name as Travis. The other contenders were Colton and Wesley. We are going to do Nicholas as a middle name after DH’s father who passed when he was a baby. MIL doesn’t like Travis and Nicholas together, but I don’t care. How often do you actually say your middle name?!
Re: The Great Name Thread!
Oh my gosh, I called DS a little pickle all the time when he was first born and my husband made fun of me so much for it that I stopped lol
@jessier19 I am late to the game here, but I have lots of thoughts on your question about the name "Neve". Since I am Irish heritage, and lived in Ireland for years, I always wanted an Irish name for my children. Problem is, the only irish girl names I love are: Niamh (pronounced NEEEve) and Tara. My husband doesn't like Tara. So we both love "Niamh" but there is no way the proper spelling will fly here in Ontario Canada. We considered "Neve", but worried it would be pronounced to rhyme with Bev; which is still nice, it just isn't what we want it pronounced as. The spelling of "Nieve" reminds me too much of the word "naive"..... Also adding to the fact that my Irish family would probably be offended anyways that I didn't spell it Niamh..... anyways....we pretty much all but abandoned the name at this point although if I had a way to make it work I still would. I am just worried my daughter will spend her life correcting spellings and pronunciations if I go for it. Are you interested in the name as well?
We're in the process of creating a short list right now; so far we've got Evelyn, Rose, Grace.... still adding; not settled on anything yet!
so far our current top favorite (it’s hard for us to both really like one) is a SUPER popular name right now. Like in the top 5 for the last while. But we both love it. I just don’t know how I feel about a super popular name 😂
for reference DS is Theodore (Theo) which became more popular around the time we chose it anyways. So maybe no matter what we’re “doomed” 😆
But (and I may get pushback for this but from what I’ve seen at work people naming their kids and a teacher sister..) I’m REALLY against weird spellings, weird names and things people can’t easily say/pronounce/spell. So I guess that may limit us anyways.
I am also against usuing popular names for my kids haha. About 18 years ago, I fell in love with the name "Logan" but now it's WAY too popular. I don't want my kid being one of 4 or 5 Logans in the class. So we didn't use it.
In Elementary we had Stephanie O, Stephanie P, Stephanie B, and Stephanie S. And we had Ashely M, Ashley P, Ashley S, Ashely A, and Ashely R. Plus all the Jessica's....
Often most of them would end up in the same class.
But I also don't use "unique" spelling for names. (Cultural names are obviously wonderful and totally awesome. That's not what I'm referring to. I don't understand parents taking a common name, and changing the spelling to something unreadable that is going to make their child's entire life a nightmare..)
I have a huge list of names so far, but nothing has really stuck out. We're not finding out the gender, so we need both names. My other 2 are Charlotte Suzanne and Robert Preston. This baby was a surprise for us, so I like the meaning of Jasmine, but don't love the name itself because it makes me feel like I'm having a Disney princess.
My husband found the name "Chas" (pronounced CHAZ) in his family tree and is in love. I HATE it. So, that's going to be a fun argument one of these days.
middle name options are hard. My dads name is DS1s middle. So I’m hoping for something from H’s side. His middle name is Harley after a grandpa. (Which I would’ve even entertained as a first name. But H didn’t like. For a girl I was gonna try Harlee too😂)) so middle name tbd but Oliver Harley doesn't sound bad at all to me.
Haha, oh man, I see why ‘Asa’ was out.
Arik is cool though.
My concern with Jack is it’s too short to go with our last name (rhymes with Lawn)
My concern with Owen is it’s too “matchy” with big brother Noah.
Am I overthinking? Which goes better with sibs Noah and Lucille (Lucy / lulu)
Thanks everyone!
Also open to middle name suggestions for both - 8 letters preferred!
Also also - Margo Rose or Margot Rose for girl. Decided on name - just not on spelling
We added another name to our list of favorites: Iris Isabel or Isabel Iris
so our tops right now are Penelope Jane, Robin Charlotte, Isabel Rose, and Iris Isabel