Poll: Sound or Meaning?

Clarinet35 · May 2013

Just curious, are you choosing your name because of the way it sounds, because of its meaning, or a different reason altogether? For our future son, we have the name "Grayson Christopher C", not because of the individual names' meanings, but because of the way it sounds and because "Grayson Christopher" is like "grace in Christ". For our girl, we have Shelby Faith. Shelby for my favorite movie, Steel Magnolias.

chapstix7 · May 2013

Both. I think it's why I spend so much time looking. I want that perfect name that's special and beautiful.

aimeern623 · May 2013

Steel Magnolias is one of my favorite movies! Honesty, I am not a fan of Grayson but Shelby is super cute! I hope it is a girl! Smile

sept9107bride · May 2013

I go with sound over meaning as it will be more obvious to all. But I do try to keep both in mind.

Dr.Loretta · May 2013

The way it sounded. Meaning didn't really do anything for us, but it wasn't awful.

bobcee · May 2013

Definitely sound. We pay no attention to meaning.

blessedmommyofthree · May 2013

Both. If something have a meaning we didn't like or a lack of meaning, we skip it. If we don't like the sound of something, we skip it.

victoria+james · May 2013

We go by sound, not by meaning. But I think if the meaning was something terrible we would reconsider.

guilletskichuk · May 2013

victoriajames:
We go by sound, not by meaning. But I think if the meaning was something terrible we would reconsider.

Same here

queenbone · May 2013

In general the sound is the most important factor. Next would be the significance/meaning behind the name to us (family member, religious connotation, famous bearer.)

I care about the meaning, but it isn't necessarily a deal breaker for me. DS1's is great: "divine gift", but DS2's isn't super endearing: "free man or French man." The family & religious significance of his name trumped the literal meaning.

benmel31 · May 2013

Ultimately, we chose our name based on how it sounded. The meanings were a bonus; both names had good associations for us.

ferris0906 · May 2013

(1) Family significance

(2) Sound

(3) Actual meaning/origin of the name

Clarinet35 · May 2013

Thanks girls!

stargazer08 · May 2013

Definitely the sound for me. It's just a bonus if it has a nice meaning, but I don't really pay so much attention to that.

CeCe8579 · May 2013

We are choosing family names that sound pleasant to us.

capulet · May 2013

We chose names based on significance (family or otherwise) rather than etymological meaning. Sound is important - there are family names I wouldn't use as FNs because of how they sound - but more a way of narrowing down names that are already under consideration. The only non-family name of our kids FNs/MNs is DS's FN, Lincoln, which has significance for us, and while we considered FNs that didn't have as much significance, family or otherwise, the strongest contenders we ended up not using were family names.

Zimger · May 2013

I think about both but honestly the flow of a name isn't as important as the meaning. We both put alot of thought into the meaning of the name. Not necessarily the given meaning but family meaning. DS's name doesn't have that great of a flow but the family meaning behind the names mattered more.

whoopsybaby · May 2013

Sound and meaning, also the heritage and to honor people, though I guess that's part of the larger meaning. The latter means more to us actually than the name's literal meaning. Now that we're having our third, fit is also an issue.

plus12012 · May 2013

We went with both meaning and sound.

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