What motivates your SO's name preferences?

mlrafiki

So we all know what sort of names we like: be they traditional, unique, unusually spelled, literature-inspired, or clearly ethnic-sounding. But what are your SO's preferences and why do you think he has them? I've heard everything from naming kids after sports teams, to feeling stronger about boys names than girls, to being very adamant about honoring a family member.

We haven't gotten TOO deep into names yet, but so far my DH seems concerned with two things: one, staying in his comfort zone: he does NOT like unique names, at all, to the point that I find his choices downright dull. And two, he sort of wants to have a play on our last name, which sounds like "rude." That just scares me.... 

bumpuser5823822

Like your husband mine likes to stay in his comfort zone too. He is not very traditional (john, thomas, benjamin etc) but he doesn't like you-neek. He likes to play the middle ground between traditional and modern (Maddox, Diesel, etc).  I've also learned he hates "old lady names"

LaineyPaney

Hubby and I are still working out our differences in the name arena... But let me tell ya....the first girl name he's thrown into the ring is Judy. Ugh!!!!

Candyshel13

DH like names that are uncommon but not weird. If he knows someone with the name, it's usually out. MNs he likes family names if they aren't "old people" names. Our last name is very common so he wants something different.

Names he likes are:
Tate
Kellen
Blair
Ainsley

~Kat~

DH likes names that are very masculine/feminine, somewhat European sounding, and that have a family significance. I don't mind his name choices, but I do find them somewhat limiting. 

strawberrytree

DH's criteria:
1. 'Real' names with a substantial established history behind them...literary, mythological, historical, etc. No surnames, word names, modern invented names, etc.
2. No boy names on girls, no matter how widespread it might be on a girl. No female versions of male names, eg Georgia is a no go.
3. Nothing super common, buIt nothing crazy out there that people will struggle to spell or pronounce.

Some of his favourites for a boy include Gareth, Ewan, Kelly, and Angus. For a girl he likes Athena, Katrina, Freya, and Annabel.

AlphabetFish

To be honest, I have no idea. He constantly surprises me. I initially thought he just didn't have very strong opinions about names, but he's made it clear now that he LOVES some, and HATES some. I can never predict which ones, though!

I just know that he likes pretty, feminine names for girls and very masculine names for boys. No unisex name will fly with him.

RedCardinal

AlphabetFish:

To be honest, I have no idea. He constantly surprises me. I initially thought he just didn't have very strong opinions about names, but he's made it clear now that he LOVES some, and HATES some. I can never predict which ones, though!

I just know that he likes pretty, feminine names for girls and very masculine names for boys. No unisex name will fly with him.

This is my husband ! When I was pregnant with our first he liked the name Stacey for a girl.....(which I really dislike).

Now our top girl name is Seraphine (we both love it). Totally different names on different spectrum's IMO. 

queenbone

DH has pretty much the same preferences as me. Although I'm sure he'd define it as "names that aren't dumb." So nothing trendy, made up, juvenile, occupational.  He doesn't like a lot of foreign sounding names like I do (Moira, Bernadette, Anthony), and lots of times I get accused of suggesting names that are "too Catholic" (Mary Agnes), an issue for him since he isn't. We both like older names so we're pretty compatible baby namers.

He does like lots of names that end in -s (Francis, Moses, Angus, Seamus.)

ETA: His favorite girl names are Margaret, Violet, Lucy, and Eleanor.  In a recent conversation I learned he no longer likes Elizabeth NN Betty, even though it is a family name for both of us.

raefre

DH was the one who chose DS's name. He liked it, because it was a traditionally masculine name that sounded good with his last name. He loves that people think that DS's name (when you say FN MN LN) sounds like a lawyer or president's name.The middle name was a tradition on DH's paternal line.

If we were to have another son, he wants the same sort of naming style and feel (with the middle name following my family's tradition of same middle initial as the father's middle initial, which works for DS1 as well).

For girl names, he has come out and said he likes French girls names.  

He has also mentioned that he wants to keep with the feel of his last name and our grandparents' countries of origin (Sweden/Great Britain for him and France/Germany for me).

Finally, his mother named his little sister after her favorite car (Porsche Carrera).  He likes the name Elise because of its connection with the Lotus Elise.

EDIT: He used to like names like Alistair (after the racecar driver, of course) and Griffin/th but really doesn't strike his fancy anymore. 

For girls, he likes Elise, Freyja, Holly, Heidi, Scarlet, Dagny, Danica, Estelle

He strongly does not like Old Testament boys names (Seth, Noah, Ezekiel, Obediah, etc).

 

sweetpea2003

Dh is preppy and probably wouldn't go outside of the "safe" zone too far.  He is willing to discuss it, but one of my favorite boy names (Griffin) gets me the side eye from him. 

Keri Marie

My husband LOVES nature names like Brooke, River, Leif, etc. (see our kids names). Masculine / Feminine names are important and he also loves family names like me so it was easy to narrow down our list. We're both happy with our kids names.

==N==

He does not like preppy names preston, simon or old lady names hazel, gretchen which happen to be some of my favorites.

His top choices were Monica and Ross not a Friends refrence. He also liked Grace, Reid and Ethan but we couldnt use them for one reason or another.We almost went with Monica before he surprised me when agreed on Freya.

LadyXaverian

He likes traditional, family names.

Thankfully, we have similar taste in names. I lean more towards "old-fashioned" than he does, but he easily agreed to Elinor since it was also his grandmother's name.

AKB090609

DH will associate any name with the people he has known with that name and make his decision that way. Between that and me being a teacher we have come up with a total of 3 names we can both live with.

Zimger

DH likes a variety of names. He does tend to favor some boy names for girls (i.e. Riley and Devin). He won't even consider Devin for a boy at all. He does think it is silly to name a girl Spencer, Asa, Logan...names that still get used mainly by boys. He also really likes feminine names like Josephine. He doesn't mind more old-fashioned names, but he draws the line at Esther, Hazel, ect (which is fine, I do to). For boys he tends towards names that are typically Irish in origin (we both have Irish heritage tracing back rather far). We both prefer to use family names in the MN spot. DH likes boy names that sound strong and intelligent.

For Girls he favors: Naomi, Josephine, Emma, Ciara, Sonya, and Elsie (MN Jane)

For Boys he favors:

Liam Warren (DS)

Ronan Louis

Miles Roscoe

Sean Ruarc

Edit: Posted before I finished writing.

 

austenreader85

He's all over the place I feel like. And what he swears he loves will suddenly change without a motivating factor and he will then insist that he's always felt that way. Like suddenly not wanting Ann as a first name, suddenly disliking Grace. For boys I know he wants them all after military figures. For example he wants an Alexander Patton, after Alexander the Great and General George S. Patton. For a long time he wanted Patton as the first name but yhen Payton got so popular. I've suggested George instead and he says no but Pattin is not happening. He's fine with all the other ones first names so I don't get it. He loves Virginia for a girl but also suggested Britney and Tiffany tge last time we made a list, which has successgully scared me into not talking about it until necessary. I hate that he says he doesn't care about girl names so I suggest something and then shoots it down.

Todd&Laura

I've gotten very lucky with my husband in this regard, because he tends to agree with me when it comes to names.  We had no trouble naming our children.  He tends toward more traditional names, but not usually the most popular ones (i.e. not Michael or John, but George or Charles).  Our daughter will actually have a first name that he suggested...Katherine (which I know is not really unusual).  It was his grandmother's name and it seems like it was something that he had thought over well before mentioning to me.  I chose her middle name and he agreed to it.  Our son, George, has a name that we both chose because we loved it.  After thinking it over a little longer, we realized that it is also a family name.  His middle name, Lincoln, was suggested by me and my husband immediately said that he loved it.  He is named for the president.

beautifullife322

LaineyPaney:

Hubby and I are still working out our differences in the name arena... But let me tell ya....the first girl name he's thrown into the ring is Judy. Ugh!!!!

I feel ya! My hubby has thrown in Tiffani, Laci, Lisa, Crystal, Christina. All fine names but none I like, Not sure what his fascination with the 80's is but I grew up with girls with these names and most have left a sour taste in my mouth. Not sure what I am going to do.

brookelynpaisley

My husband's choices were all over the board. He mostly likes uncommon names, and they mostly came from music and/or people he had a good association with somehow.

this decaf life

Luckily my DH had similar taste to mine. Older names that aren't too popular, we chose Eloise Clementine for our girl & if this LO were a boy he would have been Dean Ambrose.

kacelle

There are a few names he "just likes" without reasons (Alice and Simon are his favourites).  The biggest issue with him and names is that if there's any video game connotation for the names (even if it isn't from a game he's played), he wants to rule it out.

BLPL101

Very traditional, hates trendy and unisex names. Anything remotely unique or uncommon, he dislikes. We have a similar naming style so that's probably why it didn't take us very long to decide on our DD's name.

swimiz500

I honestly have no idea. We argued about it until I found Lena and he somehow agreed. I had thrown out tons of perfectly fine names, and he had no idea why he didn't like any of them. His only contribution? Tepi. Yes, Tepi. That isn't even a name!

And don't even get me started on boy names. Every single boy name was the name of someone he has bad childhood memories about. Either that, or he just doesn't like the name, and again, no real rhyme or reason why. If we have another LO, naming should be a hoot. 

TofuMama7

My DH is really concerned about the name having a good nickname. This is not something I care much about so a lot of the names I pick he vetoes because of their lack of nickname.