How did you come up with your name?

cfattig · March 2014

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but I'm curious how you all came up with your babies' names. Is there a story behind it, or did you just hear the name and like it? Something else? My sons name is Sawyer...I'm an English teacher so I tell people that's where we first heard it and thats where its from....but mainly Sawyer was my husband and my favorite character from Lost.

La Olivia · March 2014

My little guy is Leonardo which is my dad's name. My family is Mexican and it is a good Spanish name. It is also very Italian, though, and I love Italian names. It was like a compromise between what I wanted and what I felt like I was supposed to want, if that makes sense.

His middle name is Oscar. We knew that he would be Leonardo pretty much as soon as we found out he was a he. We decided on the middle name, though, like a week before he was born.

Aprilbaby49 · March 2014

Noah was H's idea from 11 yrs ago. We couldn't agree on anything else and the name stuck. I always thought of him as Noah when I was pregnant with him so it just felt right.

Edited to add: I LOVE lost and love the name Sawyer too

kelsea1031 · March 2014

Sawyer was our boy name.

We have a Tennyson and an Emerson, both after the writers. I've loved the name Tennyson for years and several of his poems have special meaning to me. Of course, once we had a Tennyson, we had to have an Emerson! They're both girls and I've had some negative comments about their masculine names but I don't care.

DH bought me this book for Valentine's Day....

La Olivia · March 2014

kelsea1031 said:

Sawyer was our boy name.

We have a Tennyson and an Emerson, both after the writers. I've loved the name Tennyson for years and several of his poems have special meaning to me. Of course, once we had a Tennyson, we had to have an Emerson! They're both girls and I've had some negative comments about their masculine names but I don't care.

DH bought me this book for Valentine's Day....

Those are fantastic names. I love literary names.

ClandestineX · March 2014

We almost named him Kai. I picked out that name and was just stuck on a middle name.. then my husband came to me and practically begged to name him Connor Alexander L.

Pretty surprised he came up with all of that considering when we first started he thought "Tank" and "Dozer" (from the Matrix) was awesome first names. I told him it would be fine to name him that if he really wanted.

Since he picked out this name, I will pick out the next one.

MKC12/22/2006 · March 2014

I am also a teacher, so there were tons of names rules out.

I've only had one Leif as a student, and he was a great kid. We both have lots of Scandinavian heritage, so I wanted a name like that. I also loved Finn but H vetoed me.

Sarahbeth1169 · March 2014

I always liked the name Blaze for a boy but when I talked with my husband about it he hated it. I then found the name Maverick (from top gun) my husband liked it but thought people would say mean things about it. So then I wanted Greyson Robert ( Robert is my husbands middle name) but he didn't like it either. So I told him to find something. He came up with Mason Robert. We both loved it. My husband wanted a name that was very big so he wouldn't get teased. Now that I'm pregnant again we have the girl name but not sure if we like the boy name we picked out. At least we have time. :-)

cfattig · March 2014

MKC12/22/2006 said:

I am also a teacher, so there were tons of names rules out. I've only had one Leif as a student, and he was a great kid. We both have lots of Scandinavian heritage, so I wanted a name like that. I also loved Finn but H vetoed me.

The teaching thing threw me too...I thought we were in the clear with Sawyer, but about a week before I had him, I met the only Sawyer in the school (I teach in a large high school so there are lots of kids I don't come across)...and I met him because he had to come to the office for getting stoned in the parking lot! I was bummed about that, but we went with the name anyway, and he has since dropped out, so I don't see him anymore. I love the name Finn too! It's on my short list, but now that we have a Sawyer, I think it's too "English teacher-y" to have both. I've never come across a Leif in real life....love that name!

[Deleted User] · March 2014

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Erin10408 · March 2014

My husband and I really like traditional, "older" names. We were team green, but our boy picks were Samuel Jason(Jason is my H's name) or Benjamin Drew (Drew is my fathers name), and we had two girl picks...Claire Leona (Leona is after H's grandmother) and Charlotte Joyce (Joyce is H's mothers name). When she was born, they put her on my chest, and we looked at her, and she was Claire...no questions

JordynLeighx3 · March 2014

We wanted family relevance.

Isla=Lisa all jumbled up. Lisa is H's mom.
June=my Gma name.

Halle=Leigh is my middle name
Elizabeth=H's sisters MN.

Peony230 · March 2014

We chose Gavin because it was one of the only names we could agree on since we kept veto-ing each other's choices. His middle name is James, after my dad. FI's other top pick was Blake, and it has started to grow on me so who knows, if our next one is a boy maybe we'll pick that one!

Peony230 · March 2014

JordynLeighx3 said:
We wanted family relevance.

Isla=Lisa all jumbled up. Lisa is H's mom.
June=my Gma name.

Halle=Leigh is my middle name
Elizabeth=H's sisters MN.

Isla was our girl pick. I love it!

pinottoparenthood · March 2014

I just really liked Rhys. I wanted a strong, simple, straightfoward name. Actually, my first choice was Max, but my husband WOULD NOT go for it. And believe me, I begged and pleaded.

Anyway, DH's name is Ross, so it's nice that Rhys's name kind of honors his father without having to be a Ross, Jr.

I will say that we get a lot of comments about it being weird or that people don't know how to pronounce it ("Reese"). People don't realize that it's actually the original spelling of the name Reese/Reece/etc. It's Welsh, which has no significance to us. I just liked it!

I think it's more popular in the UK and is VERY slowly gaining popularity here... so I'm hoping that as R gets older, it will be more common and more people will know how to pronounce it.... but he's not going to be in the same class with other Rhyses, which I like.

ETA: Addison (middle name) was chosen in honor of my husband's uncle who passed away of cancer shortly before I Got pregnant. Amazing guy. His middle name was also Addison.

tondraluv · March 2014

I've always loved the name Brayden and mentioned it to my husband long before we started TTC. When I was pregnant, I always just felt like it was his name

OhSewCrafty · March 2014

For Charlie, I wanted to make sure he had a boy's name AND a man's name. So many boy names now a days are fluffy or just ridiculous when you slap it on a man (or a resume). He's Charles Douglas (Douglas is my father and brother's name).

For Virginia, we loved the name. They fit well as a sibset, its classic and has a cute nickname. She is Virginia Fay (Fay is DH's late grandmother). As a much lesser reason, we lived in Virginia when we were engaged, married, and had Charlie. Its a special place to us.

For both kids, we wanted names that weren't yooneek, but weren't super common. You can say it when you see it and spell it when you hear it.

CoachTay · March 2014

My name is unique, so I have always wanted my children's name to be unique -- I don't want them to be one of 10 "Susie's" in their class. I've always like the name Bailey, but it's way too common for me. I blurted out BRAYLEE (as a variation of Bailey) and we both instantly fell in love. Lee is my grandpa's name on my dad's side and my grandma on my mom's side is Sharonlee, so it fits well in the family. Her middle name is Rae, which is mine and my mom's MN.

My TOP girl choice was Lucille (Lucy) but with our last name, it sounded too much like a menu item. LOL. My other top choice was Deliah, but I couldn't get H on board with that one.

Our top boy names were London and Braxton.

lilbit0910 · March 2014

I heard Riley and fell in love long before i got pregnant. SO wanted to name her Zoe which is how she got her middle name. I wasnt on board with Zoe because i felt it was too common. We agreed on Riley but SO wanted to feel as if he had some input so he changed the spelling which is how we ended up with Rylee. Rylee Zoe didnt sound right to me so i dropped the e and there you have it. Rylee Zo

My top boy names were Lucas and Ryan.

lilbit0910 · March 2014

tasiaberger said:

My name is unique, so I have always wanted my children's name to be unique -- I don't want them to be one of 10 "Susie's" in their class. I've always like the name Bailey, but it's way too common for me. I blurted out BRAYLEE (as a variation of Bailey) and we both instantly fell in love. Lee is my grandpa's name on my dad's side and my grandma on my mom's side is Sharonlee, so it fits well in the family. Her middle name is Rae, which is mine and my mom's MN.
My TOP girl choice was Lucille (Lucy) but with our last name, it sounded too much like a menu item. LOL. My other top choice was Deliah, but I couldn't get H on board with that one.
Our top boy names were London and Braxton.

My mom has a hard time pronouncing Rylee so she constantly calls her Braylee. hahahahah

Erin10408 · March 2014

OhSewCrafty said:
For Charlie, I wanted to make sure he had a boy's name AND a man's name. So many boy names now a days are fluffy or just ridiculous when you slap it on a man (or a resume). He's Charles Douglas (Douglas is my father and brother's name).

For Virginia, we loved the name. They fit well as a sibset, its classic and has a cute nickname. She is Virginia Fay (Fay is DH's late grandmother). As a much lesser reason, we lived in Virginia when we were engaged, married, and had Charlie. Its a special place to us.

For both kids, we wanted names that weren't yooneek, but weren't super common. You can say it when you see it and spell it when you hear it.

I love those names and agree...too many fluffy boy names these days. Our boy picks were made making sure they looked/ sounded professional when the time came

bibby32714 · March 2014

Annalynn is a conglomorate of many things. My grandmother who passed away just after I started dating H was Anna Marie. My mother and my middle names are also Ann. The lynn was part was just my brain thinking to make it different.

I have already decided to name our next child (not yet pregnant) my maiden name. I think it will work for either a boy or girl.

suedell · March 2014

With Grant, I had a dream at 5 weeks pregnant that I was having a boy and his name was Grant. His middle name is alexander which is my husband's name. After that, we had a hard time pickings anything else. If he was a girl, he would have been Genevieve Jane.

With Clark, I was in the shower one day way before even being pregnant and I came out and said to MH- what about Clark Robert (Robert is both our dads and my brother) if we have another boy? He was all on board and again- it just stuck. We realized much later that MH had a superman fascination as a kid and I was in love with Clark Gable as a teenager after reading gone with the wind. I am sure that was in our subconscious somewhere. If he were a girl he would have been Margaux Jane.

I too was a teacher and it ruined almost all names for me. And me having a common name, I didn't want that either. I had a billion naming rules so the fact that these came easily to us made me know they were boys even though we were team green.

lyankowi · March 2014

I always wanted the name Lucinda call her Lucy but my sister got a dog named Lucy (thanks sis I had that named picked since I was 10) my husband wanted Hunter but I have a cousin who named their son that. We named our dogs off TV characters (Sheldon and Rupert) why not our daughter too. Juliet my husband said it one night and I was hooked. We were team green and our boy name was kinda weird hlad she was a girl

CoachTay · March 2014

lilbit0910 said:

tasiaberger said:

My name is unique, so I have always wanted my children's name to be unique -- I don't want them to be one of 10 "Susie's" in their class. I've always like the name Bailey, but it's way too common for me. I blurted out BRAYLEE (as a variation of Bailey) and we both instantly fell in love. Lee is my grandpa's name on my dad's side and my grandma on my mom's side is Sharonlee, so it fits well in the family. Her middle name is Rae, which is mine and my mom's MN.
My TOP girl choice was Lucille (Lucy) but with our last name, it sounded too much like a menu item. LOL. My other top choice was Deliah, but I couldn't get H on board with that one.
Our top boy names were London and Braxton.

My mom has a hard time pronouncing Rylee so she constantly calls her Braylee. hahahahah

I love Rylee - and also love that you spell it '-lee'. Do you run in to people mispelling it alot? I've gotten everything -- Brailey, Braighley, Bralie. When I say B-R-A-Y-L-E-E, I get the response, "Well that's a unique way of spelling it." WHAT?! I never thought of spelling it any other way!

pinottoparenthood · March 2014

@phill027 That was our issue! I just wanted his name to be Max, but my H refused to name him Max because he says "it's a nickname". Which it was originally, but it doesn't HAVE to be! However, neither of us were feeling Maxwell or Maximilian or any of the other "full names", so we couldn't agree on it.

lilbit0910 · March 2014

tasiaberger said:

lilbit0910 said:

tasiaberger said:

My name is unique, so I have always wanted my children's name to be unique -- I don't want them to be one of 10 "Susie's" in their class. I've always like the name Bailey, but it's way too common for me. I blurted out BRAYLEE (as a variation of Bailey) and we both instantly fell in love. Lee is my grandpa's name on my dad's side and my grandma on my mom's side is Sharonlee, so it fits well in the family. Her middle name is Rae, which is mine and my mom's MN.
My TOP girl choice was Lucille (Lucy) but with our last name, it sounded too much like a menu item. LOL. My other top choice was Deliah, but I couldn't get H on board with that one.
Our top boy names were London and Braxton.

My mom has a hard time pronouncing Rylee so she constantly calls her Braylee. hahahahah

I love Rylee - and also love that you spell it '-lee'. Do you run in to people mispelling it alot? I've gotten everything -- Brailey, Braighley, Bralie. When I say B-R-A-Y-L-E-E, I get the response, "Well that's a unique way of spelling it." WHAT?! I never thought of spelling it any other way!

People misspell it all the time. Riley, Ryleigh, Rilie, etc .. drives me nuts

MsAmeera25 · March 2014

My top two names were Jackson and Lucas but DH had a dog named Jackson and vetoed it and my ex was named Lucas and DH wasnt going for it. One day out of the blue started calling the baby Ethan and it just stuck his middle name is Joshua after my brother who passed away. I also loved the biblical meaning strong enduring one who sees God

LtlAngL · March 2014

DH is Hispanic and I'm Polish. We were looking for names that translate into both languages, and agreed on Dominic for our son. In Spanish, it's Domingo or Dominico (like MIL pronounces it) and in Polish, it's Dom-ee-neek. Most people think it's an Italian name, but it's actually Catholic (St. Dominic.)

Our girl choice is Natalia for the same reason - it's pronounced the same in Spanish and Polish, and English speaking people don't kill it.

ClandestineX · March 2014

I am curious as to what is considered a fluffy boys name to everyone?

I like strong names too, but also somewhat youneek (meaning not in the same family).

OhSewCrafty · March 2014

ClandestineX said:

I am curious as to what is considered a fluffy boys name to everyone?

I like strong names too, but also somewhat youneek (meaning not in the same family).

Knowing full well that this could get me flamed, I think boy names like Skylar, Taylor, Bailey, Riley, Tristan, Hayden....they just don't sound strong or adult to me. They sound cute for a baby and all that, but can you imagine meeting your lawyer or surgeon, "Hello, I'm Bailey. I'll be your surgeon today."

Also, I totally acknowledge its a surface judgement. Just my opinion.

Lhyacinth888 · March 2014

When I was younger I had a Cabbage Patch kid doll I named Ben. So I always loved the name so when my son was born he was Benjamin- DH loved the name instantly too. His middle name is my DH's best friend's middle name.

We could not agree on names for DD. We went through so many names. I wanted something easy to pronounce, easy to spell but not super common. We both liked Alice and her middle name is DH's mom and grandma's middle name.

tondraluv · March 2014

@phill027 Can I love you a thousand times for your name choice????? Steel Magnolias is my favorite movie ever (I have a tattoo of a Julia Roberts quote).

@OhSewCrafty @Clandestinex I don't think Brayden is a strong name in itself but with his middle & last name, it is very strong. Our last name is harsh (it has an X in it) so I took that into consideration as well.

tondraluv · March 2014

knitfaced said:

@tondraluv‌ my husband didn't even realize we were naming Shelby after the movie. All he associated it with was the car, lol!

That is freaking awesome, win for both of you!

Erin10408 · March 2014

OhSewCrafty said:

ClandestineX said:

I am curious as to what is considered a fluffy boys name to everyone?

I like strong names too, but also somewhat youneek (meaning not in the same family).

Knowing full well that this could get me flamed, I think boy names like Skylar, Taylor, Bailey, Riley, Tristan, Hayden....they just don't sound strong or adult to me. They sound cute for a baby and all that, but can you imagine meeting your lawyer or surgeon, "Hello, I'm Bailey. I'll be your surgeon today."

Also, I totally acknowledge its a surface judgement. Just my opinion.

I share your surface judgement.

OhSewCrafty · March 2014

Mommy2BEL said:

When my H and I were dating and discussing what we wanted the rest of our lives to look like...we stumbled upon the 'what would you name your kid' conversation. We were both throwing out names and we had 3 girl names that we loved but Tallulah was the first choice and it stuck.

We never questioned what to name T when we found out she was a girl. We did get a lot of negative feed back from people that found out what we were naming her but now that she is here...it fits her so perfectly!

Her middle name Boone is the city where my H and I went to college, fell in love and ultimately would love to end up back there! It has a lot of meaning to us! Tallulah Boone fits her perfectly!

@Mommy2BEL - You guys went to App? That's adorable that you used it in her name! So Southern and pretty.

AprilloMom · March 2014

Stephen was picked out by my husband (like 10 years ago). Stephen is the first martyr for Christ documented in the Bible. Also when Stephen entered heaven it describes Jesus standing (he is usually described as sitting) DH always envisioned that to be a standing ovation for Stephen. And we would like DS to be a strong follower of Christ as well. I didn't really love the name at first, but it was so important to DH, and eventually came to love it.

James is my husband's grandfather's names.

I LOVE the name August for a boy or girl, but since my name is April I don't think I could handle all the comments: Where's June? Is your next one going to be May? Was he conceived in August (probably was!)? You get the point! Still love the name though.

8-|

Aisak · March 2014

Esther was my great grandmother, and Dorothy (middle name) was DH's mom's middle name. It was the only name we could really agree on. We had it down to Esther and Ingrid and DH liked Esther better.
We were also team green and we never did agree on a boy name. I wanted John and DH wanted Finn/Flynn/Quinn/Torin...
I'm a teacher as well and it was an issue finding a name as many have associations or I can tell they are up and coming/trendy.

OhSewCrafty · March 2014

Mommy2BEL said:

OhSewCrafty said:

Mommy2BEL said:

When my H and I were dating and discussing what we wanted the rest of our lives to look like...we stumbled upon the 'what would you name your kid' conversation. We were both throwing out names and we had 3 girl names that we loved but Tallulah was the first choice and it stuck.

We never questioned what to name T when we found out she was a girl. We did get a lot of negative feed back from people that found out what we were naming her but now that she is here...it fits her so perfectly!

Her middle name Boone is the city where my H and I went to college, fell in love and ultimately would love to end up back there! It has a lot of meaning to us! Tallulah Boone fits her perfectly!

@Mommy2BEL - You guys went to App? That's adorable that you used it in her name! So Southern and pretty.

@ohsewcrafty - Yes! My H and I both went there (and loved, loved, loved it)

How do you know about App? haha I feel like it is so small!

I work in Student Affairs - its a small profession and App is known for a good graduate program in the field.

I've been to campus before for a conference - its beautiful! Everyone I know who went there can't say enough about it.

pinottoparenthood · March 2014

@Mommy2BEL‌ of course I know about App! So gorgeous!

efujan · March 2014

OP - I LOVE the name Sawyer! Wish it could have been on our list (I like it b/c of Lost I think!), but my cousin has a little boy named Sawyer, so we couldn't use it! :-(

We were completely torn between Connor Michael or Myles Alden. DH's family dates back to John Alden & the Mayflower, so we got Myles in part from that (Myles Standish) and we really liked the name, too. I loved the name Connor, Michael was DH's middle name.

How we decided between the two names, though, was probably the best part. Once we knew it was a boy, we had a pretty silly nickname for the baby (Ndamukong - like Suh from the Detroit Lions), but a couple weeks before baby was born, DH started calling baby by one of the names for the whole week, to see which one he liked better. We were half-way through a week calling the baby Myles when he decided to make his early arrival, so we feel like he kind of picked his own name!

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