Baby name thread

scaredunprepared

Got any top contenders?  Names you like but aren't using?  What is the story behind them (if there is any)?  Name categories you are leaning toward (Vintage? Victorian? Modern?)  Need help getting inspired? 



I am starting this thread selfishly because I am struggling so hoping to gain inspiration from you guys!  Lol

scaredunprepared

My top girl names:
Noelle
Naomi
Brook
Meadow
Willow
Aubrey
Morgan

Hubby has vetoed every one except Meadow, but I feel like it's only a matter of time. 

Top boy names:
Forrest
River
Fox
Emmett
Everett
Graham
Oren
Asher
Cameron
Caleb
Maximus

Hubby hates them all (he thinks they will sound ridiculous later in life when going for an interview, etc.)  The only one he hasn't completely written off is Maximus.

As you can probably tell, I tend to lean heavily in favor of nature based names.  But I am also in favor of names of saints.  We thought about family names but we aren't attached to any of them. 

etnyah

Ahhh another reason for private groups! We decided on a name but I won’t share it here. I did share my son’s name back in the day but I’m more cagey online than I used to be.

Our criteria is super specific so I’m actually amazed we already found a name! My husband is less picky, for me, I want a name that’s traditional but preferably uncommon, has to work in both English and Norwegian (preferably Nordic origin) and not too difficult to spell. Here are some names we considered that didn’t make the cut:

Hilma (probably our second choice)
Hedda (my third choice)
Frida (apparently my ILs used to have a cat with this name so my H objected, lol)
Tuva (she’d forever be called Tuba, so nope)
Solvei (H not a fan)
Evelyn (H not a fan)

Tilde (H not a fan… okay, maybe he’s the picky one)

etnyah

@scaredunprepared I don’t think any of those names will sound silly later on! They’re all names that are currently being used, without being too common. I love Willow for a girl and Emmett for a boy from your list. 

And I’ve met several adults and kids with a few of those names! I have a friend named Caleb who is a librarian, I’m sure he aced his job interview back in the day

nsk489

@scaredunprepared some really pretty names on your lists! I actually also have Everett and Cameron on my lists. What has DH suggested?

We will be using family names so I won't share here until it's a private group, but here are some of the names that we won't be using this time but maybe in the future! Although one of the girl names might end up being a middle name. I'm Greek and we have an Irish last name so I generally lean towards names with either Greek origin or that sound good with an Irish name 🤪

Girl names:
Nora
Sloane
Caroline
Hannah
Shannon
Quinn
Jacqueline 
Alexandria (I've always loved this name but will prob never use it because we have a million Alexa devices in our house 🙄)

Boy names:
Cameron
Conner
Henry
Andrew
Everett
Chase
Leo

etnyah

@nsk489 Nora was on our list briefly too. I love it, but H vetoed it because of his previous cat named Norma and he felt it was too close. What is up with his family using all the names I like for their dumb cats???

Someone in my previous bmb named her daughter Sloane, I looove that name. Wouldn’t work for me (Norwegians would have trouble with it), but I’m always in favor of it! 

nsk489

@etnyah lol I totally get that--I have some names I can't use because family used them as dog names (Haley and Bella, I like Isabella which is too close!)

iiirene

Theodore is the only name on our boy list. 

For girls we have
Matilda
Norah
Margaret
Eleanor
and Amelia

its funny how family pets can ruin your baby name ideas. My husband and I both like Lucy but it was my moms dogs name and I just can’t bring myself to even put it on the list. 

enw1028

We have a boy & a girl name picked out. We have had the girl name for many years, but recently changed the middle name. Boy names are much harder for us, but this time it came to us quickly too! I'm happy to share once we switch to a private group

We lean more towards traditional names. I would have loved to use a family name but...um...our family names are.... interesting haha! Sorry not naming my daughter Gladys or Judith or Mary (my MIL and husband's grandmother's name) and not naming my son Bill, Wayne, or Elden 

gingerbunny23

Names are so hard! It feels impossible to figure out the "right" name, and every time we add a couple to the list I think we remove just as many

Current boy names:
- Rowan
- Jasper
- Cayden/Kayden
- Jaxxon/Jackson

Current girl names:
- Laurel
- Juniper
- Hazel
- Aurora

nonlinear_function

My husband's family does the opposite of family names, you can't name your child after anyone that anyone still alive remembers. So 3+ generations are out. None that are big losses, imo.
With #2, I really liked Silas Apollo, but we didn't end up using it. Silas means "wood" or "forest" and Apollo is "destroyer" and "God of fire". Given that we live on a decent bit of acreage, I didn't think having a son named "Forest Fire" was a good idea. 

acleverusername

@nonlinear_function LOL. Yeah, I think you definitely want to stay away from "Forrest Fire"... especially if you're on the West Coast

scaredunprepared

@nonlinear_function lol yeah good thing you steered clear.  I might steal Silas though!  

@gingerbunny23 I love your girl names!  All nature inspired

iiirene

@nonlinear_function 😆 forest fire. Bummer because that’s an awesome name. I hadn’t thought to look up name meanings until I read that and then I thought looking them up could help me narrow down girl names but nope. They’re all pretty great. 

@gingerbunny23 I know a Hazel and a Juniper and both are the sweetest little girls. 

gingerbunny23

@scaredunprepared, yep! lots of nature inspiration all the way around....we're both lovers of the great outdoors
Rowan, which might be my leading boy name so far, is a deciduous tree...Jasper (one of partner's faves) is a gemstone.....and both have some connection to the color red since we're keeping our toes crossed little one inherits hubby's gingerness

scaredunprepared

@gingerbunny23 I love that!!!

v_flowers

We’ve decided on our girl’s name, but I’ll save that for later! Here are a few favorites that were on the list:

Harlow
Merritt 
Willow
Emma-Gray
Evangeline 
Emerson 
Ellison 

*We clearly had a thing for “E” names, but the name we landed on is totally different. Boy names were such a challenge. I’m pretty sure we would have combined some family names (Lyle Capers was our only idea lol). 

scaredunprepared

@v_flowers oooh I love Emerson and Evangeline!  Pretty!

v_flowers

@scaredunprepared I noticed Everett on your boy name list. I love that! 

nonlinear_function

@v_flowers not sure if this is what you're going for, but I love names like Evangeline, because she can be unique with the name as is, or go by Angie, if she goes through a conformity phase. 

shoogapoff

@scaredunprepared I lean more towards nature names too. I love Willow and River a lot. @v_flowers I saw that you have Willow too!

I am a little limited by our last name. It ends in an "o" sound, and the letter it starts with is commonly at the end of a lot of first names. So we don't want names like Margot (as much as I like that name) because it would be too rhymey. And a lot of other names just don't flow right with the first letter of our last name. 

nonlinear_function

My husband's family is Slavic, with a medium Slavic sounding last name. I am a mix of European, nothing east of France, I think. He keep suggesting all these incredibly Russian names, like Ekaterina or Demetri or Vladimir, that I think combined with our last name would sound ridiculous coming from my non-slavic mouth. I keep saying, "Imaging my mother calling that out at the playground!" 

acleverusername

@nonlinear_function what about something like Anton? It’s Slavic but I’ve also been hearing it in French and elsewhere. 

acleverusername

I’ve got a 4-syllable Irish last name, and we want to use our first names as baby’s middle name (H’s if boy, mine if a girl) and that’s also 4 and 3 syllables, respectively. So we are really wanting a name that’s 2-3 syllables at most.

Boy choices:

Jacob

Noah

Wesley

Philip

Timothy

Joshua

Charles

William 

Theodore

Thomas

Girl choices:

Alexandra 

Natalia (“Tasha”)

Eleanor (“Nora”)

Catherine 

As you can see, we’re keeping it pretty traditional / no “tragedeighs.”

etnyah

@nonlinear_function ha, that’s exactly why I want a Nordic name, but with an emphasis on “needs to work well in English too”. My husband is of Norwegian heritage so it wouldn’t be too weird with a completely bonkers Norwegian name, but if even he can’t pronounce it properly… 😅 

scaredunprepared

@shoogapoff our last name ends in an "oh" sound too, so I get the difficulty.  Hubby's name actually rhymes with his last name I don't know what his parents were thinking!  Lol  I think finding a boys name that works has been harder for us... but my top 2 girls names would rhyme with our last name, so I probably need to rethink that!

allykat92

We have a shortlist, and I think we decided on one but we still have until Aprilbefore they come!

For a boy we wanted Oliver Troy. I have always loved the name Oliver. And Troy was the name of my husband's cousin. He passed away years ago and my hubby wanted to honor him.

For a girl, we are deciding between these. With middle name Lea, for my mom. She passed away in 2019 and I want my daughter to have a piece of her grandma with her forever. We like names that have a classic feel, but we also like a lot of kodern ones too 😅

Hannah Lea
Gwendolyn Lea
Elora Lea

scaredunprepared

@allykat92 I love Oliver Troy   And all your girl names are beautiful.  Gwendolyn Lea is my favorite.  I really think it's wonderful you are choosing to honor family that has passed.  

acleverusername

My friend just told me about this: 

https://youtu.be/WXcemBEgqB8

marksarah2022

We are have a boy via csection april 11th we chose Robin Bjorn Hunter as babies full name 

babybmom0421

I'll share some of our girl names w/ the inspo and vetoed boy names...I'm not gatekeeping but we've decided to keep his name a secret for now!

GIRL:
Piper (charmed)
Caroline (vampire diaries)
Elena (vampire diaries)
Vivian
Alessandra

BOY:
Victor
Roland (The Dark Tower series by Stephen King)
Warner (legally blonde)
Pierce

babybmom0421

@nsk489 I love your names! Especially Leo but unfortunately that's my dogs name so my DH wouldn't allow it to make the list lol

babybmom0421

@nonlinear_function we are of Portuguese descent and it is bad luck in our culture to name a baby after a relative that has passed...but it's good luck to name them after a living relative!

ladyofarlington

We have a first name selected! I’ll share when we move to a more private group. What I will say is that DH very strongly prefers the Spanish spelling of the name to honor his heritage and while it is not my preference, I’m willing to go with it (and select the middle name 😉). 

acleverusername

@babybmom0421 Ooh! I like Victor! 
@ladyofarlington when can we move to a private group? Lol. I'm so happy you've selected a name.

We're still a ways away from selecting the one. I actually don't want to pick too soon since I don't want to overuse it and then fall out of love with it. Anyone else feeling that way? 

scaredunprepared

@acleverusername we always have at least 2 names to choose from.  When baby is born we try out the names and decide what feels right.  With our daughter we knew immediately.  With our son it took almost 2 days to decide!

etnyah

@acleverusername I was afraid that would happen with my son and it didn’t, thankfully! Hoping that’s the case now too.

Don’t share a name with family until you’re pretty sure though, is my advice. I learned the hard way. We were leaning towards one name and my ILs keeps bothering us about names, so I told them but said “we really haven’t decided yet, but that’s the current front runner”. Then we switched, and they got annoyed because they had told all their friends the other name and now it’ll be confusing. Come onnnn. I know you’re exited but stop blabbing and making assumptions!

scaredunprepared

@etnyah that's why we never tell our #1 pick!  That and because we don't want anyone's opinions to ruin a name for us.  I know that people have VERY strong feeling towards names and once we have a short list we can't risk other voices making us second guess our picks.

etnyah

@scaredunprepared see I’m all about testing out and crowd sourcing! The name we picked for this little girl, while I love it, unfortunately she shares it with a Norwegian politician I hate. I had to ask my Norwegian family if the name was “too” claimed by and associated with the politician or if it was okay to use. No one in the US will know, but my whole family is over there! Thankfully they said it was fine.

Similarly, with my son we picked a Norwegian name that is kind of hard to pronounce in English. So we tested it out on American friends and the ILs to see how they’d respond before we decided. 

If I really loved a name and someone else really hated it, I’d probably still go with it though, ha.

ladyofarlington

@scaredunprepared ditto not sharing with anyone IRL. Happy to share with my internet friends haha but we kept DDs name a secret until she was born and plan to do the same with this baby. People are less likely to share their (unwanted) opinions when you introduce them already named. 😉

Also, if for some reason we change our minds, the baby will not end up with all the monogrammed and named things for another name like my nephew, when SIL changed her mind about his name while in the hospital. 😉

acleverusername

People are less likely to share their (unwanted) opinions when you introduce them already named.

Yes, that's why I'm not sharing any of the names we've picked with our friends or family. Lol.