One-Syllable Names

annarach · November 2011

First, a little bit of background.

I have a huge pet peeve with people naming their child and then shortening it before it even arrives. Example: Our friends just had a baby girl and named her Kayleigh. Before she even pops out, they're already calling her Kaykay. Personally, I think it's stupid and childish. Why not just give the child a shorter name to begin with? I have a very simple name - Anna - and there isn't much someone can do to screw it up (although I have seen people try).

Next: My FI is Indian and although he doesn't have an accent, his entire family does. So we have to take into account how the name will sound coming out of his relatives mouths. So anything more than 2 syllables, sounds silly.

For these reasons, I really want to stick to a one-syllable name. I also like the idea of keeping the name short and sweet, so it's not easily forgettable, and it will just roll off the tongue.

Does anyone have any suggestions? We're not finding out the gender, so I'm open to suggestions for either. Although I'm not a fan of gender neutral names either - example: Reese.

Thanks May Mommies!

yale · November 2011

annarach:

First, a little bit of background.

I have a huge pet peeve with people naming their child and then shortening it before it even arrives.

I totally agree with you.

annerz22 · November 2011

Girl-Anne (my name), Bea, Beth, Brynn, Blaire, Elle, Kay, Kate, Lynn, Liz, Jane

Boys- Sam, Jack, John, Mark, Mike, Tim, Tom, Sam, Cole, Beau, Brad, Luke, Josh, James, Shane, Neil

There are so many more boy names that are one syllable!!

lindy27 · November 2011

What style of name do you like? Tradtional, uncommon, trendy, etc?

I would say we like uncommon names. Short names that have appeared on our list are:

Boy: Axel, Cruz, Kai, Milo

Girl: Ada, Myla, Skye

dswed0407 · November 2011

If we have a girl it will be Quinn and it's one syllable.

lindy27 · November 2011

Somehow I missed you wanted one-syllable names only, mine don't qualify for that, they are just short.

If you go to https://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/ and do an advanced search you can search by one-syllable names. Looks like I got 350 boy and girl names with that search so that should be plenty to choose from!

kitcat6351 · November 2011

I think you can filter for one-syllable in some of those online baby name searches... the first ones that come to mind for me are biblical ones like John, Paul, Ruth, Luke, or others like Mae, Kate...

roxygulrjax · November 2011

I love giving babies little nicknames. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. My friend named her daughter Madison and we all call her Maddy until she is grown into the the grown up version. Good luck with your naming process.

ChloBub · November 2011

Our boy pick is Jude. My favorite one-syllable names for girls are Blythe and Claire.

1RN4Babies · November 2011

Just a couple random thoughts... people should, and I stress should, call your child what you name them. Ex. my sister is Kaitlyn and my grandfather told my mom all the time that no one would call her that and everyone would just call her Kay. She's an adult now and the only one who ever called her any thing other than Kaitlyn was my grandfather.

Also remember that even a one syllable name could turn into a different nickname or name that family members/friends call your child. Ex. Tom - Tommy or something completely off the wall not even related to the name Bobo, Lou-Lou.

meeko1985 · November 2011

I love short and sweet names. My last name is a bit of a mouthful, so the majority of names on our list are one or two syllables.

For a girl, our favorites are Eva or Eve, Ada, Ella, Pearl and I love Stella, but husband says no...

For a boy, Henry or Jack.

cwie828 · November 2011

Nicknames happen. Its often out of love and affection, hence why they are called "pet names" (not like the animal, lol)

It is a good point you make about their Indian accents, and definitely something I would think about. Obviously a very white name will sound odd. That sounds bad now that I am typing it, but I just mean like McKenna or Brayden might sound a little weird. My husband is hispanic and so is our last name so I have the same thought process about our baby's names.

Anyway...jeez...I am a tangent queen today! Here are some one (or two!) syllable names that I like:

Girl: Claire, Eve, Brynn, Ava, Mia, Mila, Anne, Ivy, Blair, Brooke, Elle, Grace, Jane, Jules, Skye, Tess, Quinn

Boy: Dean, Dane, Cade, Cole, Ian, Chase, Finn, Heath, Luke, Jude, Seth, Todd, Vince, Vance

TBBrooks · November 2011

annarach:
I have a huge pet peeve with people naming their child and then shortening it before it even arrives. Example: Our friends just had a baby girl and named her Kayleigh. Before she even pops out, they're already calling her Kaykay. Personally, I think it's stupid and childish. Why not just give the child a shorter name to begin with?

I'll be giving my children nicknames. For our boy, he will be a third, so he will have a nickname because MH and his father have the same name. For girls, I love the names Lexi and Lily. However, I also want them to have a "real" name for when they are older and may need a more "grown-up" name, so they will be named Alexandria and Liliana.

Can you imagine a child going through school and such with the name Kaykay? That's probably why they named her Kayleigh instead.

livinreality · November 2011

Ok so we would completely meet your pet peeve! We call DS by a shortened version of his middle name... but DS and DH share a first name and then DS calls himself the shortened version of his name and I guess we all picked it up!

Under.the.Rose · November 2011

Our girl name is Claire which has been my favourite name for the past 10 years.

Other ideas... Girls: Kate/Cate, Rose, Beth, Elle, Faye, Grace, Gwen, Jill, Jane, Paige, Wren, Pearl, Ruth

Boys: Jack, Jake, Sean, Brett, Charles, Cole, Finn, George, Frank, James, Joel, John, Trent, Dane, Keith, Luke, Pierce, Noel, Paul, Reid

katieboo82 · November 2011

Just something to prepare yourself for...my name is Kate. Yes, you can't shorten it.....so people LENGTHEN it! I get called Katelynn, Katie Marie ( and Marie is not my middle name), Katherine, Kathleen, Katie.....etc. Nobody believes my name is just Kate- that is what it is on the birht certificate. Even when you try to make it simple, people want to make it difficult. They want to lengthen it or turn it into 2 syllables. I'm all for the simple names. My daughter's name is Alaina- simple to me. You won't believe how many people have trouble pronouncing her name. I also have a sister named Beth. I don't know how often she gets this- but I do know a lot of people will either call her Bethie or Beth Ann (her actual middle name though).

elviebird · November 2011

katieboo82:
Just something to prepare yourself for...my name is Kate. Yes, you can't shorten it.....so people LENGTHEN it! I get called Katelynn, Katie Marie ( and Marie is not my middle name), Katherine, Kathleen, Katie.....etc. Nobody believes my name is just Kate- that is what it is on the birht certificate. Even when you try to make it simple, people want to make it difficult. They want to lengthen it or turn it into 2 syllables. I'm all for the simple names. My daughter's name is Alaina- simple to me. You won't believe how many people have trouble pronouncing her name. I also have a sister named Beth. I don't know how often she gets this- but I do know a lot of people will either call her Bethie or Beth Ann (her actual middle name though).

I get the same thing! My name us Vicki yet everyone wants to call me Victoria. Which is odd because I have friend whose name is Victoria and everyone wants to call her Vicki.

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