How much weight are you putting into the meaning of a name?

wilkat2009 · September 2015

So DH and I are trying to pick a name for our baby girl. We both really like the name Kennedy but when i look it up, it means ugly head (some versions say helmet head). WTH! Who wants that for a meaning of name? DH says - who really cares about the meaning of a name, but I feel like thats a cruel thing to do to our future little one. What do you guys think? Are you taking the meaning of a name into consideration when picking names.

kynbar5 · September 2015

I personally don't. If you really like a name, use it. If someone wants to actually look up the name and rudely point out to you anything but a good meaning, well, you can decide how to handle it.

wilkat2009 · September 2015

Good point. The only person to point it out so far is my mom because she is big on the meaning of names, which is why I guess it even crossed my mind.

bntfroggie · September 2015

I love the name Cecilia, but it means blind. We have a ton of girls names, but it is on my list still. I had a short list and did go over the meaning of the names just to see if any had an awesome meaning. I wasn't really expecting a bad meaning.

red3ye · September 2015

We are using 'sophira' as baby girl #2 name. It means male progeny, which is why it is no longer our 1st choice. So for us, meaning has a little weight. But not much, as we will still happily use it if we have two girls

Parker16772 · September 2015

I actually don't put any weight we just went with our favorite and will do the same this time.

I would however consider mean nick names that kids would give our kid in school.

smount2011 · September 2015

I love names that have deep meanings! Whether they be good or bad. If we have a girl we are naming her Charlotte, to call her Charley for short. Charlotte means "little woman". We want to call her Charley after her grandfather. He spells his name without an I or a y at the end, just the e. He says its because he had to be different.

Originally we thought it was funny to name the girl after him because of all 14 (soon to be 15) grandkids he always jokes and calls the girls "son" and all the boys "miss" or "girl". Then when we were digging through my baby name book looking for different ways to spell Charlie, we couldn't find his spelling in either the boys' Charles or the girls Charley. Guess what? Its one of the variations under CHARLOTTE. So our name for a hopeful girl will in fact be technically named after her grandfather, who's name means "little woman" LMAO!

irenewslee · September 2015

I personally care about the meaning of names. This is a topic that comes up occasionally during social gatherings. When people ask what my name means, it may be funny to tell them that my name means "ugly head" or something silly, but I prefer telling them that it means something that is a bit more elegant.

elle313 · September 2015

I don't really put any weight into the meaning of a name. I don't want a made up name, but aside from that its about what sounds good.

ldvis · September 2015

It can also mean hard/helmeted head. I don't think it means exactly "ugly," but I'm not an Irish language speaker

flowerpower5838 · September 2015

I personally have never thought to really think about the meaning of a name. Then again we are having a hard enough time coming up with a girl name without adding another factor to the search.

People might inquire about the meaning while the baby is in utero, but I've never heard of asking people that past that stage. Your baby's name is for life, if you like the name - go with it. No one is going to ask here when she is 25 what her name means.

skruhmin · September 2015

It means more to me where the name comes from - like what is the inspiration for it.

parenthood4 · September 2015

I don't put a lot of weight into it. My son's name is Carter, which means one who pulls a cart. Not exactly meaningful! But that's kind of a neutral meaning. I don't think I'd want to pick one with a negative meaning.

ecwk · September 2015

I find it interesting and will be giving my children Irish names so the meaning is very important to me. It also means a lot to me where the name has come from though, for example, if you name baby after someone else. In a lot of ways that's more important than the actual meaning of the name itself.

oceanchild · September 2015

The meaning of names is definitely important to me, but if I reeeeeally liked a name and didn't like the meaning, I may still consider it. But then again, I feel like I probably couldn't reeeeeally like a name with a meaning that I disliked.

red3ye · September 2015

I named my fur baby Nakita, which means Christmas child, as she was a gift to me for Christmas the year we were pregnant with ds. I loved the name, we just got lucky that the meaning was so appropriate. Miss my baby

ACleanLife24 · September 2015

wilkat2009 said:
So DH and I are trying to pick a name for our baby girl. We both really like the name Kennedy but when i look it up, it means ugly head (some versions say helmet head). WTH! Who wants that for a meaning of name? DH says - who really cares about the meaning of a name, but I feel like thats a cruel thing to do to our future little one. What do you guys think? Are you taking the meaning of a name into consideration when picking names.

Yeah... its my family name so that's right.... Most of the men are bald too so be careful what you name them

RosyK · September 2015

For us, yes, all of our names have meaning, but not the 'general' way.

My oldest has a combination of my mom and mil's middle names, Kay and Elizabeth. = Kaygan Elizabeth

Our second daughter is named for the dr. Who dropped everything to come help our oldest when she was born. The dr's name was Dr. Karlyle Christian. Our daughters first and middle names are Karlyle Christian.

Our third was named after our friend Kindle, and the name my mom wanted to give me... Kyndall Ahnna.

Msantana87 · September 2015

I'm putting zero weight in name meaning. I'm going based on how nice they sound and also we're looking for names that start with M. If we start putting other restrictions like meaning we're gonna drive ourselves nuts

ceds07 · September 2015

None. I have never once had a conversation with an adult about a meaning of someone's name. I place much more meaning in the "real" meaning like we're they named after someone, a special place, etc. that being said, we're Catholic so either the first or middle name will be a saints name and the association with the saint was something I considered.

oceanchild · September 2015

ceds07 said:
that being said, we're Catholic so either the first or middle name will be a saints name and the association with the saint was something I considered.

Same here - we are also Catholic and use a Saint's name. (Although I have had conversations about the meanings of names throughout my life, but mostly bc it's something that interests me)

cataleya82 · September 2015

I have a niece named Kennedy and she's no "ugly head" lol. I personally like the name and wouldn't worry about it, not too many people go around asking what the meaning of your name is. I actually didn't even know the meaning of Kennedy until just now, and my niece is 5.

I'm not sure what the sex of my baby is yet, so I haven't even bothered to look at girl names (I have a boys name) but I have no idea what the meaning of it is.

SadiePantsR · September 2015

I do like finding out name meanings and origins. If I like the name and meaning then I'll like the name more... But I think it's way more important that you like saying the name, because you'll say it a lot, and you may never have to say the meaning. I like Kennedy for a girl. It's a great name with lots of history.

katelin318 · September 2015

We found a name's meaning to be a good "tie-breaker" for us. We had 3 names that we were trying to decide between, and then we found out that one of them happened to have a meaning that was really special to us, so that's the one I think we're going to use. I do have a funny name-meaning story, though. The topic of what your name means came up in conversation once and this girl said "My name means girl whose hair shines in the sun." To which my poor friend Jenny replied "...my name means donkey." Wah wah.

wilkat2009 · September 2015

LOL Too funny @kateline318! Thanks ladies for all of your feedback!

How much weight are you putting into the meaning of a name?

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