Is it too cliché to talk about baby names?

valeriec80 · April 2014

kelnyc said:

kelnyc said:

valeriec80 said:

If we have a girl, she will be Aella Rhiannon. (Yeah, that's a weird spelling of Ella, but... well, I like it, so sod off. ) And if it's a boy: Miles Isaac.

Are you ok with people calling her "eye-ella" her whole life? Because this is never going to naturally be pronounced Ella. Not trying to be rude, it just doesn't make any sense to add a "silent A" to the front of Ella. It sounds pretentious and/or juvenile.

Seriously. SOD OFF. (Please picture Spike from Buffy saying this and then flicking his cigarette on the floor of his crypt.)

The internet is so weird with people saying things to you that they would never say to your face. Or maybe if they did do it, you'd be able to discern their tone or something and it would be less offensive??? *shrug*

This name is a daddy pick, and he's not budging on it. When I was single, I always thought I'd give my child a nice practical name that would have zero chance of giving her any trouble. But then I realized there is no such name. People want to be mean or give you a hard time, it's gonna happen, and there's nothing I'm going to be able to do about it. The world is a big, scary place, and I'm not going to be able to protect little Aella-of-the-strange-name from all of its horrors. If I'm lucky, I'll teach her to be strong enough to navigate it. That's my goal, anyway. Plus, my boyfriend really wants this name. It's important to him. So, I'm sorry you don't like it. Please name your child something staid and practical for single me. I suggest Margo.

Anyway, I figure this is one of the relatively harmless things one can do wrong as a parent. Give a child a funky name. I can just see her now at thirteen, eye rolling about it. "Ugh, Mom. Why's the 'A' there, anyway?" I'm only hoping that's the worst parenting mistake I ever make.
Wow. If you react this poorly to just one person's honest opinion, just because you don't like what I have I say about your precious baby name IN A THREAD ABOUT BABY NAMES, you should DEFINITELY not go with an unusual choice. Lord knows what a lifetime of getting all huffy about it will do for your blood pressure! Also, I would sincerely hope that if I was about to make such a decision, my IRL friends would say something to me, so you should be thanking me.

I guess we'll just have to disagree. I don't think I reacted poorly. I also don't think I was being juvenile as you said earlier.

Like I said, it's the internet. You can't hear people's tones. I was being pretty light when I made my sod off comments, but it obviously came off as poor behavior to you.

Sorry you felt that way. I didn't mean it poorly.

MissMaybes · April 2014

One of my pet peeves is stupidly spelled normal names as I just think your setting your child up for a lifetime of frustration but hey that's just my opinion

Our first daughter name is Mabel which I got told numerous times was ridiculous and one lady actually shouted at me that no I couldn't name my daughter that, I not so kindly told her to rack off and that luckily this was my daughter not hers. So I can only imagine the comments you would get with an actual made up spelling lol Not knowing what we're having yet we've talked about a few names, we love Klaus but my partner thinks it's a little to 'out there' for people to get on board with. It has to be an old fashioned ish name to go with Mabel, I also love Edward but I think the whole twilight thing hadn't died down enough for me to use that plus I hate Ed or Eddie, same with Alexander love he long version but hate Alex

I don't want to be the mum that's always correcting saying it's not Alex it's Alexander lol I think people just need to be more aware that your child has to love with this name forever, go to job interviews etc so maybe just think ahead and not just how cute that name would be on a baby lol Edited to add paragraphs which didn't even work

sorry for the wall of text

2JEL · April 2014

Hi all, as mentioned by a PP, I would like to (emphatically!) weigh in as someone whose parents picked a "yooneek" spelling of a very common name-- I beg you to reconsider. Various schools and employers (and I, stupidly on purpose) give me emails that are first.last and somewhere between 10-30% of the time people don't look that closely and/or forget and don't spell correctly so I don't get emails. Multiple "elite" law firms have printed me letterhead or business cards incorrectly-- and while it is not my fault that my name is spelled wrong-- people get irritated at having to redo things or looking bad because my name is missing a letter. At my last law firm, my employer set it up wrong and we ended up having to work out a mirror relay (IIRC) so that I had both accounts and the incorrect one got bounced to the correct one so I'd stop losing key emails.

I've also had countless awkward moments with partners I work for where they spell my name incorrectly (well, they spell it correctly but not like my parents!) on an email to a client or someone else and it causes a lot of awkwardness when I have to point it out or let the client think they don't pay attention to detail... don't even get me started on the pronunciation issues. Please please please think twice.

In the 80s, as a tot, I was always sad b/c I could never find my name on the mug/keychain/trinket spelled correctly... but that is small potatoes compared to the fact that people make snap judgments about you on resumes, dating sites, etc. I have several degrees and a trail of legal and financial records at this point, but if I could go back to elementary school I would vigorously advocate for a spelling change.

I don't have a problem with picking an exotic name for your kids (I like Pascal but DH is NOT on board), but please don't take a name like Madison and spell it Madisun or people will assume your child makes typos of their own name for the rest of their lives!

/rant

candlequeen · April 2014

@2JEL‌ =D> this is exactly what I tried to tell my friend about the spelling but she insisted that her DH wouldn't budge bc the baby is his sunshine so he wanted the word Sun in her name. Give me a frickin break!
Edit: auto correct fix

longcat07 · April 2014

i want to put it out there that ethnic names don't really fall in the "youneek" category IMO. i find it a little pretentious if people are picking names from an ethnicity they have no claim on...but if you do have a claim on it, i think it's pretty awesome, actually. my best friends have finnish/swedish roots and their boys are named arvid and jiri. i think those hebrew names in one of the PPs are pretty freakin' cool.

candlequeen · April 2014

My little girls middle name is Madaline bc that's exactly how my grandmother spelled it. At first I thought it looked funny but I didn't care bc it's her middle name. Now when I see it spelled Madeline it looks funny to me.

kelnyc · April 2014

valeriec80 said:

kelnyc said:

kelnyc said:

valeriec80 said:

If we have a girl, she will be Aella Rhiannon. (Yeah, that's a weird spelling of Ella, but... well, I like it, so sod off. ) And if it's a boy: Miles Isaac.

Are you ok with people calling her "eye-ella" her whole life? Because this is never going to naturally be pronounced Ella. Not trying to be rude, it just doesn't make any sense to add a "silent A" to the front of Ella. It sounds pretentious and/or juvenile.

Seriously. SOD OFF. (Please picture Spike from Buffy saying this and then flicking his cigarette on the floor of his crypt.)

The internet is so weird with people saying things to you that they would never say to your face. Or maybe if they did do it, you'd be able to discern their tone or something and it would be less offensive??? *shrug*

This name is a daddy pick, and he's not budging on it. When I was single, I always thought I'd give my child a nice practical name that would have zero chance of giving her any trouble. But then I realized there is no such name. People want to be mean or give you a hard time, it's gonna happen, and there's nothing I'm going to be able to do about it. The world is a big, scary place, and I'm not going to be able to protect little Aella-of-the-strange-name from all of its horrors. If I'm lucky, I'll teach her to be strong enough to navigate it. That's my goal, anyway. Plus, my boyfriend really wants this name. It's important to him. So, I'm sorry you don't like it. Please name your child something staid and practical for single me. I suggest Margo.

Anyway, I figure this is one of the relatively harmless things one can do wrong as a parent. Give a child a funky name. I can just see her now at thirteen, eye rolling about it. "Ugh, Mom. Why's the 'A' there, anyway?" I'm only hoping that's the worst parenting mistake I ever make.
Wow. If you react this poorly to just one person's honest opinion, just because you don't like what I have I say about your precious baby name IN A THREAD ABOUT BABY NAMES, you should DEFINITELY not go with an unusual choice. Lord knows what a lifetime of getting all huffy about it will do for your blood pressure! Also, I would sincerely hope that if I was about to make such a decision, my IRL friends would say something to me, so you should be thanking me.

I guess we'll just have to disagree. I don't think I reacted poorly. I also don't think I was being juvenile as you said earlier.

Like I said, it's the internet. You can't hear people's tones. I was being pretty light when I made my sod off comments, but it obviously came off as poor behavior to you.

Sorry you felt that way. I didn't mean it poorly.

FTR, I did not say you were being juvenile. I said that adding a silent A to an otherwise normal name was going to come across as juvenile, and you probably don't want to give that impression. But, like you said, you can't sense tone, so water under the bridge.

Also, Lydia and Laurel are both completely LOVELY names! Your husband's taste confuses me.

2JEL · April 2014

I also love Lydia and Laurel.

meliamorgan · April 2014

Never too early for names. We've had ours set for a while. My dad passed away last year and his middle name was Lawson so we decided to use that if it's a boy or a girl

Jgdrake · April 2014

My husband is a Jr so if we have a boy he will be the third. Tripp as a nickname. I love Merritt for a girl!

2JEL · April 2014

I love roman numerals, we're considering having a II named for one of DH's grandfathers.

Pros521 · April 2014

My dd is Francesca Elizabeth. NN, Frankie. I want a name that "matches", something classic.

So my biggest issue will be if #2 is a boy. DH wants to stick with the name we chose last time, Dexter, and Im over it.

I know it will take 7-8 months to come to an agreement on a short list like we did the last go round.

We went in to birth with three choices and went with our gut when we saw her. Sure that will happen again

afeezer · April 2014

I love the name with and o or an a! And this is why I won't be posting my names on a board! I don't need rude opinions.

mrsdabruzzi · April 2014

I like Alivia.

mc0113 · April 2014

Had decided on first names even before getting pregnant and after a long car trip this weekend, we decided on: Henry Timothy and Rose Isabelle

ebilbao · April 2014

I was always told the appropriate response to someone's baby name idea, no matter what you think of it, is "What a nice name." Which is why when a co-worker said she was naming her son John Thomas, I said, "What a nice name", and not, "That's what Charlotte's ex-husband, Trey, called his junk on Sex and the City".

iamkateiam · April 2014

We already have an Amelia. Hubby is set on Luna for a girl, but I'm not sold. I'm thinking Regina because my dad's name is Rex, which means King, and Regina means Queen. Plus then we could call her Reggie. We've been tossing around Oliver for a boy for the past 10 years- lol! Of course, we didn't come up with Amelia until about a month before she was born, we'll probably do the same with this baby

hpharding · April 2014

My DH won't even talk about names until after the first sonogram because of a previous miscarriage. We didn't name Grey until he was born. If he would I would try to start figuring out names now!

kirstey728 · April 2014

My husband and I actually had names picked out before we found out about our little baby. I think it's one of the most exciting things about pregnancy and it's also the hardest to decide.

LupeVallejo · April 2014

Love it or hate it, our names are set in stone…

Girl... Paloma Lee

Boy... Sebastian Guillermo

{edited for weird format from iPad}

MAdams728 · April 2014

Our DD is named after our two grandmothers. She has a very feminine, old fashioned name that I LOVE. We have picked out another family name if we have a girl again.

Boy names are hard! My top two picks cant really be used; one because it goes horribly with our last name, and the other because my cousin used it. I don't think we will even discuss boy names until we know if we need to.

murphyame · April 2014

kaylam714 said:

We've been throwing it around a little the past few days too, just because DH does NOT make decisions fast by any means...I gotta start him thinking early! For a girl we have: Amelia and Camilla. For a boy we have: Bodie and Gage.

Amelia, is a great name;) That is my first, but go by Ame for short.

murphyame · April 2014

We have decided on Darrah Jo for a girl. We already have a Boston Marie (dd 5yrs).

William Chip, Liam Jacobsen, Griffin Chip/Jacobsen, Callan Chip/Jacobsen for a boy. Boys are tougher for us,

feliciaw86 · April 2014

@MichieU79‌ I don't mind other people's opinions really. I'm not fond of the rude way some people say them, but I shrug it off because it doesn't bother me that much. All good! Oh and we changed our mind on the boy name, to Keaton. Still love Alivia. ;-)

tiagal03 · April 2014

We are absolutely talking about names. My 10 year is super excited and we have been trying since October. It's never too early to throw names around!

Lynzdice21 · April 2014

This article is worth the read:

Click here

"There's a bizarre assumption that if you can make your child's name unique, the child will be unique. And that's NEVER the case. Chances are, if you name your kid Braxlee, he or she is gonna end up bent over the sink in the back of a TGI Friday's, offering tail in exchange for a better skim off the tip pool."

norweigan · April 2014

For a boy, it will be Eric James after my brother who died 5 years ago. My sister also wants that name, so whoever has a boy first gets it. That's part of the reason I'm hoping for a boy. Plus, Eric is a Scandinavian name that means "Warrior King" or "Eternal Ruler" which is pretty BA. And my husband has vetoed all my other Scandinavian names. So this is my only chance.

For a girl, it will be Catherine Ann. My MIL's name is Catherine, and Ann is my grandma's name/mom's middle name/sister's middle name. When we told our MIL, she told us that Ann was also her confirmation name, and my SIL's middle name. So the name will have a lot of meaning.

irishtriplets · April 2014

Robert Henry for a boy and call him Henry.
Veronica Legare for a girl.

My dad died 3 months ago and his name is Robert. His mother's name is Veronica and she died before I was born. His death is still very raw and I want to include him since he'll never get to know of or meet the new baby.

Honestly, Henry was already chosen with baby #2 but she turned out to be a girl! So, it was easy this time around.

damerida · April 2014

My husband can't make decisions either, so I've been trying to get him thinking about it. He is only suggesting Game of Thrones names though, which is far from helpful (although we do both like the name Marjorie, I don't think I can use anything from GoT!)

AngelSong76 · April 2014

It was so easy with our son's name. My husband is Jonathan, and since he didn't want a junior, but I wanted to name our son after him, we went with part of his name - Nathan. His middle name is James, which is a family name on both sides of my family. So Nathan James.

Not sure what we will do if 2.0 is another boy, lol.

Our girl name for him was Emma Rose, after my grandmothers, but now I feel odd using that since that was our name for him if he was a girl. (I know, that's crazy.)

I was thinking Elisabeth Rose (my middle name is Elisabeth and it was after one of my grandmothers) but I'm wondering if that's too clunky.

And then I had the idea of giving a girl the middle name of a dear friend (and one of my bridesmaids) who is terminally ill. So if we went with my middle name and hers, it would be Elisabeth Nicole. But I'm not sure how that sounds either.

We are doing a resume test on any potential names - and checking meaning and whether or not the initials will spell something or will be an acronym for something undesirable. I went to high school with a girl who had the initials ASS. She never did live that down. lol.

Edited to add: I adore the name Cassandra, but Hubbs is adamantly against it because it was his least favorite teacher's name. lol

mflowers929 · April 2014

Honestly, we've had a boys name picked out for years. Even though his parents didn't go this way, there's a tradition in his dad's side to name first boys Damien. He loves the name, and I like it pretty well. My dad has also stipulated that any child should have his name in it (lol) so if it's a boy, it will be Damien William.

Girls names were harder to nail down. For years I loved the name Gwendolyn Elizabeth. Unfortunately, DH hates that name, so I said that there was another name I had been thinking about. My mothers name is Willemina, and as a teenager she went for a while as Mina. Apparently he loves that, plus it kind of appeals to both of our dark sides, being a character in Dracula and all

I was trying to figure out a middle name for a while, and since the boy has a name from both sides, I wanted to try to do the same. But his mothers name is Jacinthe (ick), and his grandmothers names are Sarah and Emma. None of them really went, but finally I figured out that I could take inspiration from Emma (who was basically like a mom to him growing up anyways) so a girl for us will be Mina Emilia.

kath16 · April 2014

Lynzdice21 said:

This article is worth the read:

Click here

"There's a bizarre assumption that if you can make your child's name unique, the child will be unique. And that's NEVER the case. Chances are, if you name your kid Braxlee, he or she is gonna end up bent over the sink in the back of a TGI Friday's, offering tail in exchange for a better skim off the tip pool."

He is seriously my favorite writer on all of the internet. I never cease to laugh at his stuff (except for his amazingly honest and forthcoming journal of when his third child was born NOT crying).

vintagejjane · April 2014

I love Cara or Riley for a girl. DH only likes Cara. For a boy we are both on opposite ends. The only name we agree on is Christian and I'm not 100% on it.

I have an Emery so I would love to name the next girl Riley because I think it sounds adorable together.

AngelSong76 · April 2014

@vintagejjane - my niece's name is Hannah Riley. I think Riley is very pretty.

nopegoat · April 2014

Still working on middle names but so far we have come up with Charles or Jenny.

haleyusf · April 2014

We've got a boy name that we like; Christian Jackson. We'll probably use the nickname CJ. First name is after SO and middle name is after my grandpa. Girls names are totally different story; I have names I like but we haven't really started brainstorming them yet.

jayellekay · April 2014

For a girl, I'm loving Avery Katherine right now. I'm sure I will change my mind between now and birth (if it's a girl). For a boy, I'm pretty set on Ezra Aaron. I just need to convince DH - his pick is Maddox, but I like Ezra so much more.

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