Crazy Rules for Naming Your Baby

BumpCaitlin · September 2015

Did you know each U.S. state has specific rules regarding baby names? (As if choosing your baby’s name wasn’t stressful enough!)

Check out this list to see what laws are in place in your area. Do you have any of your own personal “rules” you’re following when it comes to picking baby’s name?

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mrstrax · September 2015

Well, my state isn't on the list here, but my rules are
1) real name - nothing made up within the last few generations
2) passes the resume/president test
3) clear spelling and pronunciation
4) no unfortunate initials (RAT, KKK, FAG etc) or nicknames (sorry Richard).
5) no duplicating first initials for siblings - this is just for convenience for me though.

And semi related, DH and I not only have to agree, but each of us has veto power over anything the other brings up.

theGDpaterfamilias · September 2015

herewegrow · September 2015

Needs to be a real name, no poor personal connections, easily pronounced and spelled.

Preferably not an automatic nickname, six letters, and fits well with DD1's name.

yaellibelly · September 2015

funny! I hope I get it right

ecwk · September 2015

Sucks for many people who want to give their child a foreign name that has accents in it!!!

Gingermom15 · September 2015

"Ohio
The only punctuation allowed in Ohio is hyphens, apostrophes and spaces. Only letters are allowed, no numbers."

Dang. I really wanted to name my son H3nry

Seriously, though. Nothing cutesy, smooshed sounding names and nothing that sounds made up. If it can't pass the resume test or if they have to spend a life time correcting people on pronunciation, it's out. Original spellings only, no variations. (Alizabeth, Kym, Tiffanni, etc).

cmerribury · September 2015

@mrstrax and I share the same rules!

Elsa1984 · September 2015

1. Legit name and spelling.

2. No masculine names for girls.

3. No names that anyone I know personally has.

4. If the child is named after someone, we will not use that person's first name, unless the person being honored is deceased.

5. No horrible initials (my husbands cousin is literally KKK)

6. Absolutely no juniors. Our child deserves his/her own name.

7. Nothing trendy.

8. No using a name that has more girls using it than boys (even though it is a boy or unisex name). I have a nephew with a masculine name, but it is used by more females, and I constantly have to remind people I am talking to, that it is a HE and not a SHE.

9. Nothing in the top 200 on the SSA list.

Apparently, my husband and I have a lot of rules when it comes to naming our kid(s).

allthecheese · October 2015

Elsa1984 said:
1. Legit name and spelling.
2. No masculine names for girls.
3. No names that anyone I know personally has.
4. If the child is named after someone, we will not use that person's first name, unless the person being honored is deceased.
5. No horrible initials (my husbands cousin is literally KKK)
6. Absolutely no juniors. Our child deserves his/her own name.
7. Nothing trendy.
8. No using a name that has more girls using it than boys (even though it is a boy or unisex name). I have a nephew with a masculine name, but it is used by more females, and I constantly have to remind people I am talking to, that it is a HE and not a SHE.
9. Nothing in the top 200 on the SSA list.

Apparently, my husband and I have a lot of rules when it comes to naming our kid(s).

Are you me?

Elsa1984 · October 2015

allthecheese said:

1. Legit name and spelling.
2. No masculine names for girls.
3. No names that anyone I know personally has.
4. If the child is named after someone, we will not use that person's first name, unless the person being honored is deceased.
5. No horrible initials (my husbands cousin is literally KKK)
6. Absolutely no juniors. Our child deserves his/her own name.
7. Nothing trendy.
8. No using a name that has more girls using it than boys (even though it is a boy or unisex name). I have a nephew with a masculine name, but it is used by more females, and I constantly have to remind people I am talking to, that it is a HE and not a SHE.
9. Nothing in the top 200 on the SSA list.

Apparently, my husband and I have a lot of rules when it comes to naming our kid(s).
Are you me?

Probably. LOL

eastdurian · October 2015

sarahgn said:

"Ohio The only punctuation allowed in Ohio is hyphens, apostrophes and spaces. Only letters are allowed, no numbers." Dang. I really wanted to name my son H3nry Seriously, though. Nothing cutesy, smooshed sounding names and nothing that sounds made up. If it can't pass the resume test or if they have to spend a life time correcting people on pronunciation, it's out. Original spellings only, no variations. (Alizabeth, Kym, Tiffanni, etc).

It wasn't in the U.S. but I handled two documents (father and son) abroad that had numbers in the name. We can't use numbers on American documents though so they had to spell out numbers that were in the middle of these two names.

I could not bring myself to ask if it was a mistake.... but I have to hope that it was just some sort of passport error.

groovylocks · October 2015

Lol only characters found in the English alphabet? No accents?

Wow.......

lovesclimbing · October 2015

Nothing really for Alaska apparently.

H and I only have a couple rules.

Absolutely no "you-neek" spellings.

Nothing overly unusual but at the same time, not a name that is so common they'll have two or three friends with the same name.

saltedcaramel518 · November 2015

My last name is 2 syllables and ends in -on, so I've vetoed any names that end in -en or -on (Peyton, Megan, etc).

Also, no nicknames.

hlvonb · November 2015

I live in WI and the rule is/ says "When one Wisconsin mom wanted to name her child a numeral, the state required that the number be spelled out."

I think I can follow that one when the time comes.

groovylocks · December 2015

hlvonb said:

I live in WI and the rule is/ says "When one Wisconsin mom wanted to name her child a numeral, the state required that the number be spelled out."

I think I can follow that one when the time comes.

There are a lot of kids named Six, Seven and Nine out there. Not sure why those three specifically. I always thought Twenty would be a pretty name, if you're insisting on a number.

kim1989 · December 2015

My nephews initials are KKK

_darth · January 2016

Our rules are as follows:

1) Must work in English, French, and Russian.
2) Must not be after a living relative (this is a big taboo in my culture).
3) Must stand alone well, since are going with the Slavic patronym template for a middle name.

Finding a name that sounds good in three languages that do not exactly share common pronunciation is not the easiest thing.

Gingermom15 · January 2016

DarthFuriosa said:
Our rules are as follows:

1) Must work in English, French, and Russian.
2) Must not be after a living relative (this is a big taboo in my culture).
3) Must stand alone well, since are going with the Slavic patronym template for a middle name.

Finding a name that sounds good in three languages that do not exactly share common pronunciation is not the easiest thing.

I think I understand not naming a baby after a long living relative. If you don't mind to share, what culture is that and what is the purpose? I'm only asking out of curiosity. I like learning new things

_darth · January 2016

sarahgn said:

DarthFuriosa said:
Our rules are as follows:

1) Must work in English, French, and Russian.
2) Must not be after a living relative (this is a big taboo in my culture).
3) Must stand alone well, since are going with the Slavic patronym template for a middle name.

Finding a name that sounds good in three languages that do not exactly share common pronunciation is not the easiest thing.
I think I understand not naming a baby after a long living relative. If you don't mind to share, what culture is that and what is the purpose? I'm only asking out of curiosity. I like learning new things

Oooh, okay, so this is historically interesting, if you are into this type of thing. Russian culture has evolved for a large chunk of its history in a dual faith system, where Christianity and traditional paganism/shamanism/lore existed side by side in the cultural mind frame. As a result of this, as well as more modern history, it has created this weird duality where a very pragmatic culture observes completely outlandish superstitions out of general politeness. That's the best way I have to describe it.

So, the taboo about not naming kids after living relatives originates, as far as I know, in the belief that guardian house spirits (and eventually angels, with the advent of Christianity) were sort of bound to a name. So, if more than one member of a single household shared a name, one of them would not be protected, and thus be susceptible to bad luck.

So, naturally few people believe any of this nowadays, but the cultural norm stuck, and now sharing names with a living relative is not so much considered rude, as just not something that is done.

Also, superstitions/taboos come in super handy when my (non-Russian) MIL gets extra crazy. When she tried to forcefully name my currently very hypothetical child, without even being aware that we are trying to conceive, I vetoed her demand because I happen to have an uncle that shares the same name.

TL;DR : Russian house elves said so.

Gingermom15 · January 2016

@DarthFuriosa very interesting. Thank you for taking the time to explain!

linzandjer11 · January 2016

1) it has to sound like a name
2) it has to have 1 or more nicknames
3) it has to pass the "lawyer/Doctor/professional resume" test
4) it can't be too crazy to spell or weird
5) it can't be in the top 50

mjolk · February 2016

Wow... I didn't know about the Indiana surname rule. How weird and another thing for me to consider. Thanks for the link.

acemc · May 2016

I don't get why people say it has to be a real name and not made up all the names were made up at some point lol

AmyA210 · May 2016

Just didn't want to have any bad nicknames!

15caitlin · July 2016

@linzandjer11 what is the "lawyer/Doctor/professional resume" test?

alcrimmins · August 2016

Why can't it be in the top 50?

Sh8knKnotSterd · August 2016

All three of our kids have names that start with J and middle names that start with N. So any future kids will keep the tradition going. I am open to names that start with other letters but hubby is being a pain about keeping the J's going

codeeye · September 2016

I have one very simple rule. It can't end in "N". In my family there are 13 great grand children and 12 of them end in "N". The only one who doesn't is my son who's name ends in "S". And when I have another one (hopefully!) my hubby and I have decided on another name that also ends in "S".

Andrea621 · November 2016

My big rule is that it can't end in the same letter that the last name starts with. I think it just sounds wrong. Like, if your last name is Bilson, you can't name your son Caleb. Then the names run together and it sounds like his name is "Kayla Bilson."

tenfour · November 2016

Only one spelling and one punctuation, ideally. A few Nick name potentials, not in the top names, especially for a girl.

RedRadiance · December 2016

No top 100
Can't personally know anyone with the name
No more than 2 syllables
Can't start with same letter as our last name

mill1020 · January 2017

Every kid gets his own first initial (J, W, E, Z, and G are taken)
Boy: should have a one-syllable name or nickname
Reusing a middle initial is ok but not ideal
Avoid the top 5 names in the U.S. for a first name
Classic/traditional type name in the U.S. and/or on our family tree somewhere (German, Finnish, Norwegian)
Girl: vowel names are good

mightymcqueen · January 2017

Our naming rules:
1. Can't share a name with a family member (there are 3 Michaels in my immediate family)
2. Indian first name, "Western" middle name
3. Initials have to work for both our cultures (for ex, my bil's initials are RAB in the US, but are BRA in India. He was teased as a child)

It's not a "rule", per se, but we seem to prefer very traditional names. A lot of my in-Laws are going for very short, trendy names, but all of our name picks are 3+syllables long, even though our last name is a 5 syllable, 12 letter-long whopper.

RedRadiance · February 2017

Can't be in the top 100
Can't be the name of anyone I know personally
No more than 2 syllables
Can't begin with B, H, R, T
Can't be made up
Has to be spelled correctly

foxaírt · May 2017

I don't know about accents in Australia.
I might look it up as some of our name selections (almost all irish) have a fada.
It'd irritate me to have to misspell it because of silly punctuation restrictions

secretsmama · July 2017

My own rules are
Has be pretty uncommon or unique the more original the better
No funky spelling
DH and I have to have mutual agreement on both first and middle name
No more than a first name one middle name and of course last name.

mill1020 · July 2017

My rules are:
Each sibling has his or her own first initial
Must be a classic/traditional first name
No more than three syllables for a first name
Can't sound too similar to (or rhyme with) a sibling's name
Boys must have a single-syllable nickname (or first name)

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