Name meanings

AngieandAlex

Are they really important? I'm sort of heart broken because the girl name hubs and I fell in love with, Mariah, means 'bitter'...

 

ugh. 

Elsa1984

To me...no.

to some others....yes.

frankly, I don't care what the name means....it just gets a big side-eye if it is spelled incorrectly. I am not going to hear a name and automatically think to look up its meaning or think about the meanin

Keri Marie

No, name meanings are not important unless you want them to be.

My DD's name has at least 5 meanings and my DS's name means town near a Cliff... not very interesting. 

BulgariHeart

To me, yes, but not to everyone.  

firefliesandfjords

Name meanings are important to me, but I think it's because the meaning of both my full name and nickname (and middle name, too, I guess) are very meaningful to me. I'm the type of person who always wants to know what names mean, but definitely not everyo

ObLaDi

To me, yes.

It doesn't necessarily have to be based on the literal meaning of the name, though. For example, I wouldn't use a name that meant bitter just because I liked the sound of it, but I would if it were honoring someone important to me

oliversbear

The meanings are meaningful to me only in the coincidence that both my BFF's and my top choice for a girl mean joy/joyful.

Otherwise, I really don't care what the word means -- unless it's a vulgar meaning.

caramia582

They don't mean much to me.  DS's name means crooked nose.  I wouldn't care unless it was something really bad, like cursed child or devil or something.  Bitter would not be a deal breaker for me.  I like Mariah!

katie6/26/04

yes, name meanings are important to me because I feel that we do take on some qualities of our name. If it was just a "blah" meaning I may be able to go with it, but I like meanings to mean something to me. I have known the meaning of

JayJay1212

Name meanings are semi important to me. I don't think I would be able to name my child anything with a terrible meaning. Name meanings are important to me simply because I find them interesting. This is coming from someone whose name means Supplanter, I h

plunderb

I think that associations are much more important than the supposed etymological meaning of names. You have to jump through half a dozen translations and retranslations to make Mariah maybe mean bitter. To me, that's a lot different than naming kid River

tracy41

Sorry, don't normally post to BN but I've been up all night and I'm bored. I do think name meanings and origins are important whether it's the root word meaning or it's personal meaning to you. That being said I looked up Mariah and bitter is only one of

stargazer08

No, to me the name's meaning isn't the most important thing. I'd rather choose a name based on how it sounds, and then it's just a plus if it has a nice meaning.

bsinno

i always though Mariah meant "from the sea"!

annksaw

If it makes you feel any better - I've known two Mariahs and they are both intelligent, accomplished, fun, and cool women. Neither of them have any hint of bitterness!

Javad

For me, meaning is very important. Our current top 3 boys names mean 'good man', 'immortal' and 'loved'. For me, names without a good meaning I can appreciate, but I can't really love it deeply unless the underlying meaning means something important to

Manderlin923

Yes, meanings are semi-important to us. I wouldn't use a name with an awful meaning, and some names I found more appealing once I found out they had a positive or cool meaning.

As for Mariah, behindthename says it's derived from Maria, whic

blu-eyedwife

I think you have to determine if it's a deal breaker for you.  For me, it wouldn't matter, and Mariah is so much better than a lot of your other choices that I would stick with it.  It's a lovely name.

kendra223

It means bitter OR from the sea. In my opinion, that's not bad. You could just say it means from the sea. The sea is beautiful and Mariah is a beautiful name.

I've seen some bad meaning though. One was "lame" and one was "fat or fattened"

CeCe8579

caramia582:

They don't mean much to me. nbsp;DS's name means crooked nose. nbsp;I wouldn't care unless it was something really bad,