Thanks ladies! I think I’ll run them by dh and see what he thinks. The 3 of us women on his side had early conversations of “I call dibs on these names, but we will never speak of this again and you will immediately forget them”. Apparently, sil forgot to well. And to be fair, dh and I were no where near talking about another at the time, though we were adamant it was a someday possibility.
bfp#1-10/29/12,EDD: 7/3/13. nothing found @ 1st u/s, natural mc 12/10/12. "Bean"
bfp#2-5/10/13! EDD: 1/18/14. "Peanut" Arrived 1/13/14. Diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis
bfp#3- 9/26/14. EDD: 5/7/15. no heartbeat found @ 1st u/s, natural mc 10/23/14. "Little Bug"
@jhjocelyn - I can understand why you're bummed, but I don't see why your SIL's kid being Annie should prevent you from using Anna as a middle name.I wouldn't have used Anna as a first name, but I see no reason not to still consider it for the middle name!!
_______________________________________________________________________________________________ MMC 8/5/15 at 8 weeks DS born 9/13/16 BFP 1/13/18 - EDD 9/20/18 - It's a boy!
@DanyTargaryen my only concern is the reason it is a middle name is because I can’t use it as a first name like I wanted. And I’m apparently a bitter-blabber mouth who will say so rather than nicely say “It’s the name dh and I both like and reflects some of our fav ppl who are keeping dd healthy.” .
Edited to add emoji’s... I need an eyeroll emoji...
bfp#1-10/29/12,EDD: 7/3/13. nothing found @ 1st u/s, natural mc 12/10/12. "Bean"
bfp#2-5/10/13! EDD: 1/18/14. "Peanut" Arrived 1/13/14. Diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis
bfp#3- 9/26/14. EDD: 5/7/15. no heartbeat found @ 1st u/s, natural mc 10/23/14. "Little Bug"
@jhjocelyn I wouldn’t let a cousin named Annie stop me from using Anna, especially if you talked about it first. but I’m spiteful that way. . I think Anastasia is lovely though.
@nackie & @adirat it is very tempting but we see them pretty often. Sil lives practically next door to my inlaws so hers is quickly becoming the golden grandchild. I wouldn’t wanna feed into that any extra, ha! It helps that she’s a super laid back parent so anything goes.
We have to be super picky anytime ppl visit or care for dd, it certainly impacted relationships. Fil has never shown an inkling of “getting” dd’s needs. Never bothered to visit either hospital admission, yet he babysits my neice often.
Plus, the kids will be close in age, about a year and a half apart. So it would also confuse them.
Geesh, guess I’m a litte bitter or hormonal, or both...
bfp#1-10/29/12,EDD: 7/3/13. nothing found @ 1st u/s, natural mc 12/10/12. "Bean"
bfp#2-5/10/13! EDD: 1/18/14. "Peanut" Arrived 1/13/14. Diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis
bfp#3- 9/26/14. EDD: 5/7/15. no heartbeat found @ 1st u/s, natural mc 10/23/14. "Little Bug"
@BostonBaby1 Thank you for your message! I’m sorry for your loss as well. Happy to hear form a fellow MOT—hope you’ve been feeling good and everything has been going well so far!
@yogapants247. We are considering Benjamin and Cole and we have a Wells! We love his name and people are so positive and always comment on how much they love it.
@Wishilivedinflorida my DH and I also can’t agree on any boy names. The one we both kind of liked is in the top 10 and one of our two name rules are it can’t be in the top 10. We’re now debating whether we want to break our rule:)
@nackie DS wasn’t named until the day after he was born. Now that we used the only boy name we both liked, we are in trouble if this one is a boy, too!
ETA: I think just because a name is in the top 10, doesn’t mean it should be ruled out! Is the name very popular in your particular area?
@Wishilivedinflorida we also used the only name we both really liked with DS and we couldn’t even agree on that until I was 8 months. And now we’ve got boy number 2 coming. It would have been so much easier if this one was a girl. Our girl name list has like 6 names on it.
We agreed on DDs name as soon as we put it together (Scarlett Grey) This baby, if it's a boy will be Riker Davis and a girl.... No idea... Cause everything that goes with Scarlett is a name of a child I already know, or hubby has aressted someone with that name.. (he is a deputy)
@kristencorwin I LOVE the name Scarlett, but unfortunately can’t/won’t use it because most of my family has a very thick Boston accent and they butcher it.
@kristencorwin Just my two cents, "Riker" makes me think of "Rikers Island," a prison If you like the name, would you consider Ryker with a Y so people are less likely to think of the prison? (With your husband as a cop I'm sure he wouldn't be enthusiastic about the connotation!)
@kristencorwin Just my two cents, "Riker" makes me think of "Rikers Island," a prison If you like the name, would you consider Ryker with a Y so people are less likely to think of the prison? (With your husband as a cop I'm sure he wouldn't be enthusiastic about the connotation!)
That’s also the first thing that comes to mind for me. Although I’m not sure adding a y would be enough to break that connotation for me.
@nackie - I REALLY wouldn't sweat the top 10 name thing so much. That was one of my rules as well, and then we wound up going with Benjamin (which is like, number 7ish?). I've only personally met one other little Benjamin, and he wasn't even the same age as mine. Since SO many people do try to be more unique these days (compared to when our parents were naming us, for instance), there are a lot fewer people with top 10 names than there used to be. I.E. There won't be nearly as many Ava's (now) as Jennifer's (in the 80's) in any given year.
Engaged 12/2013 Married 5/2015 BFP 11/27/2015 - EDD 8/4/2016 Baby Boy born 8/13/2016 ~ 8lbs 7oz BFP 1/6/2018 - EDD 9/19/2018
@nackie@yogapants247 personally I do sweat the "top 10 name thing" quite a bit. It does rule out a name for me. I love a lot of "top 10" names, but of course I do, they're popular for a reason! Ella is a pretty name, for example. But my daughter has 2 Ella's in her toddler class at daycare, and we know at least 2 more in a mom's group I'm in. I know 4 little boys named Parker. Picking a less-common name (which doesn't necessarily mean unique or unusual) makes it less likely my kid will be one of many in her age bracket with that name, and that's important to me. My name is so common I am essentially un-googleable, so maybe that's why I'm sensitive to this!
For my daughter, I didn't want her to have a top 100 name. I found a beautiful name that is easy to pronounce and spell, and clearly identifiable as a name most people have heard before, but it's peak in the name charts in recent years was #860 (94 per million babies). If this one is a boy I think it's a little harder, so I'd be OK with something closer to the top 100, or even in the bottom of the top 100 if we really love it.
I'm a big data nerd, so I actually looked up Jennifer (most popular in the 70's, with over 17,000 per million babies) and Ava (most popular in the past decade with over 4,000 per million babies). So at it's height Jennifer was 4x more popular than Ava, that's interesting!
@MandyMost. That’s mostly how we feel about names. I think the name we picked for DS was ranked in the 70s at the time. And we have a very unique last name so that helps. It doesn’t seem like it should be that hard to agree on a name that isn’t on the top 10 list and is a real recognizable name.
My son has a name that has never been in the top 1000, lol. His dad and dad's siblings were all 1 of 4 of their name in each class growing up, and even now my husband has roughly 4 friends with his name. We hate it. That being said, my son's name is only 5 letters and probably 98% of people have pronounced it correctly when reading it the first time, and the same for people having to spell it after only hearing it, so I'm happy.
Hoping for this baby to get a name almost as fabulous, though not sure I can hit all of those points again.
Personally, I'm tired of all of my friend's kids (or Facebook people's kids) being named Everett, Avery, Isabella, Aiden, and Ronan. I love all those names, but could never use them.
eta: I always loved the name Luna, but now since Harry Potter is so popular, I don't think I can use it. Sad.
Eta again: I do pair our uncommon names with very general simple middle names, so kids can choose to use that if it's more comfortable for them later. Examples: Scott, Marie.
_______________________________________________
Me: 33 DH: 32 Married 7/18/15 1st born at 35+4 on 6/6/16 Team green turned BLUE! 2nd born at 38+6 on 8/30/18 Team green turned PINK! Due with #3 on 6/6/20 Team Green
I'm a big data nerd, so I actually looked up Jennifer (most popular in the 70's, with over 17,000 per million babies) and Ava (most popular in the past decade with over 4,000 per million babies). So at it's height Jennifer was 4x more popular than Ava, that's interesting!
I think this is why people say to not worry about ranking as much. Yes you get situations where the top top names are all over the place, but for the most part higher ranked names now are generally not as popular as higher ranked names in previous decades. My son's name is top 20, and as far as I know he's the only one with his name in the whole daycare building!
Obviously if excluding top # names is important to you then it is and there's nothing wrong with that! I just also think it's interesting how top names are such a smaller % of births than top names used to be.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________ MMC 8/5/15 at 8 weeks DS born 9/13/16 BFP 1/13/18 - EDD 9/20/18 - It's a boy!
@jhjocelyn I have an Anna and feel that her name is very different than Annie, if that helps. Also, I have a girlfriend named Anastasia, who goes by Sia. I think Sia is very pretty!
@DanyTargaryen I think it's easier to just reference the rankings rather than saying "I don't want a name that's more than 1000 in 1,000,000 births" or something like that! It's still really just the principle of not wanting a common name (and to me, it doesn't matter if I don't happen to know anyone with the name, I care more about the actual statistics rather than my anecdotal experience).
@pourmeamocktail I love "Luna" too, but it's also the name of Chrissy Teigen and John Legend's daughter, and I wouldn't want to name my kid after a celebrity baby! (They're really big on Instagram).
OMG - I'm sorry for starting 100 convos underneath - just keep on thinking of things to add Anyone thinking of the name Braden? It's popular here, but not a top 10. I like it.
OMG - I'm sorry for starting 100 convos underneath - just keep on thinking of things to add Anyone thinking of the name Braden? It's popular here, but not a top 10. I like it.
I don't dislike the name, but I wouldn't use one of the -den names right now (Aiden, Hayden, Caden, Jaiden, Braden, etc) for my own kid. I don't think they're as common as a few years ago but it's still too popular too recently for me to want to use one.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________ MMC 8/5/15 at 8 weeks DS born 9/13/16 BFP 1/13/18 - EDD 9/20/18 - It's a boy!
I also will not be using many of the names that have been on my list forever because they are popular. I prefer names that aren't in the top 200ish, definitely not top 100. Because of this I'm pretty possessive over "my" name ideas and we don't share our top choices with anyone. However I've been thinking about changing that this time because I kind of want some feedback on our top choices. I've had my lists for years but a couple of the names we're seriously considering are new additions. I also think that while DH and I like them, we're both pretty romantic/fanciful people and other people might think they sound really weird. I don't need everyone to like them (another reason we don't share our names), but we're not trying to saddle our kids with Moon Unit or Diva Muffin (seriously, Frank Zappa??) But then, TBH, if one of y'all ended up using one of the names I'd be pretty annoyed. ETA: typos
@Car0liiine while I'm super curious, it doesn't sound like you are sharing here. Do you have a co-worker or friends that isn't planning on having kids now/future that you could test the names on? I wouldn't do close family because for me I know it would sway my decision of they didn't like it.
@EErin86 I'm a SAHM and honestly don't have many close friends IRL. But I'm more interested in opinions from the "general public" than from people I know. So I guess I will go ahead and share here. Just know I'll be flaming anyone who steals my names! (I'm well aware that these names are not names no one has ever heard of before and some of you may already be planning on using them lol.) DD has a feminine, old-fashioned name I suppose you might call it. That's the style I prefer for girls. I don't mind a long name, flowery names and I like several good nn options. I had the name Vera on my list, but wanted a longer name that might use Vera as a nn. I met a Verabella years ago and thought that was pretty, but it seems to be a made up name so that led us to Verity. Verity Elise (my mom's middle name and the name of the eldest living matriarch in that branch of the family tree) is one option Our other option(s) for a girl is a double name, which I've never really considered before, but I am a Southern girl so it's just in my blood I guess. lol We're thinking either Lila Gray or Lila Fae. DH really likes Lila Fae and I kind of prefer the sound of that too, but Gray is my maiden name and it is not going to be passed down as neither of my brothers have sons. So I'm torn because I'd like to use the family name (it will definitely be included in any boy name.) And also I'm not sure if this name just sounds cute for a little girl, or if it also works for a grown woman. She could obviously shorten it to just Lila or whatever. I think middle name for this one would be Felicity, possibly Verity. (Felicity is my top choice for a first name and goes well with DD's name but DH vetoed it for a first name.) @MandyMost Alright, lay it on me! (Be gentle!)
@Car0liiine I actually think Verabella is a really cool name. I’m not usually a fan of the double names but I think both your Lila options flow pretty well. I like them more than Verity. That doesn’t seem as much your style based on what you described. (Also I’m having a boy so no risk of me stealing anything!)
@Car0liiine yay for sharing! I really like Vera but I'm not sold on your longer versions. I think Lila Gray sounds a little cooler/mysterious than Lila Fae.
Ok, you asked for it! (Just kidding, I won’t be rude haha).
Verabella does sound made up, and made up names, especially made up names with “Bella” in them seem pretty common. While she’ll be the only Verabella in her class, she’ll probably be one of many made-up-names-with-Bella. But it is really pretty!
Verity sounds like a millennial hipster name...because it’s a fancy SAT word, and not a name, and millennial hipsters are too cool for “names”.
I really like double names! Honestly, a double name and then a middle name sounds a bit much to me, though. What about a double first name and no middle name? Lila Gray I actually love (don’t worry, I won’t steal it!). Lila Fae doesn’t have the same ring to it or look as good, in my opinion. Maybe “Lila Fay” looks better, but still doesn’t sound as good as Lila Gray. Will people use the double name, or just call her Lila most of the time, though? Up here in Boston we don’t see many double names, and I’d expect people to usually just call her Lila.
I like Felicity. It’s on my list, but there’s something just not QUITE right about it to me. Like, maybe it’s just not strong enough, it’s soft and flowy, and there’s not a great nickname? Then there’s also the fact that I’m just the right age that the TV show Felicity was SUCH a big deal when it aired.
I love Verity and Felicity-though that one reminds me of the American Girl doll-not a bad thing at all in my mind.
Personal, I don't like Fae. It sounds like a fad based in fantasy novels. Lila I love, and Lila Gray even, though I'm not huge into double names.
I think Verabella is going to sound too much like the millions of Isabellas currently everywhere (thank you Twilight....).
Just my two cents.
_______________________________________________
Me: 33 DH: 32 Married 7/18/15 1st born at 35+4 on 6/6/16 Team green turned BLUE! 2nd born at 38+6 on 8/30/18 Team green turned PINK! Due with #3 on 6/6/20 Team Green
Yeah, while I like the sound of Verabella we definitely won't use a made up name. So that one is up for grabs! I think I like the idea of Verity (a lesser known virtue name) but when I say it out loud it feels cumbersome to my mouth. @MandyMost The whole point of a double name to me is that you use both and the second part doesn't take the place of the middle name. But they're pretty common around here. I went to school with Mary Catherine, Carry Beth, Billie Claire and even Caris Joy. But I do wonder if everyone would end up just calling her Lila all the time. I'll have to try out saying "Hi, I'm Lila Gray", etc. Out loud. Should we hyphenate?? Or do I prefer the first name Lila and middle name Gray? But I wouldn't use those names that way because they're too short for my taste without nn options. Also our last name is a euphemism for penis so I worry about having an adjective right in front of it.
@Car0liiine I really like Lila Gray. Double names are fairly common here to. If that’s what was on her cubby in class, that’s what people would call her.
Huge win in the name department over here!!! After four years of dropping this name every time we talked about possible baby names, H finally agreed to Adia (a-dee-uh) for a little girl. Probably Piper as a middle name but we’d figure that one out for sure after the A/S scan. Ashton Jude is the current front runner for a boy.
Re: Names
bfp#1-10/29/12,EDD: 7/3/13. nothing found @ 1st u/s, natural mc 12/10/12. "Bean"
bfp#2-5/10/13! EDD: 1/18/14. "Peanut" Arrived 1/13/14. Diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis
bfp#3- 9/26/14. EDD: 5/7/15. no heartbeat found @ 1st u/s, natural mc 10/23/14. "Little Bug"
**Psalm 139:16**
MMC 8/5/15 at 8 weeks
DS born 9/13/16
BFP 1/13/18 - EDD 9/20/18 - It's a boy!
Edited to add emoji’s... I need an eyeroll emoji...
bfp#1-10/29/12,EDD: 7/3/13. nothing found @ 1st u/s, natural mc 12/10/12. "Bean"
bfp#2-5/10/13! EDD: 1/18/14. "Peanut" Arrived 1/13/14. Diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis
bfp#3- 9/26/14. EDD: 5/7/15. no heartbeat found @ 1st u/s, natural mc 10/23/14. "Little Bug"
**Psalm 139:16**
it is very tempting but we see them pretty often. Sil lives practically next door to my inlaws so hers is quickly becoming the golden grandchild. I wouldn’t wanna feed into that any extra, ha! It helps that she’s a super laid back parent so anything goes.
We have to be super picky anytime ppl visit or care for dd, it certainly impacted relationships. Fil has never shown an inkling of “getting” dd’s needs. Never bothered to visit either hospital admission, yet he babysits my neice often.
Plus, the kids will be close in age, about a year and a half apart. So it would also confuse them.
Geesh, guess I’m a litte bitter or hormonal, or both...
bfp#1-10/29/12,EDD: 7/3/13. nothing found @ 1st u/s, natural mc 12/10/12. "Bean"
bfp#2-5/10/13! EDD: 1/18/14. "Peanut" Arrived 1/13/14. Diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis
bfp#3- 9/26/14. EDD: 5/7/15. no heartbeat found @ 1st u/s, natural mc 10/23/14. "Little Bug"
**Psalm 139:16**
ETA: I think just because a name is in the top 10, doesn’t mean it should be ruled out! Is the name very popular in your particular area?
Married 5/2015
BFP 11/27/2015 - EDD 8/4/2016
BFP 1/6/2018 - EDD 9/19/2018
For my daughter, I didn't want her to have a top 100 name. I found a beautiful name that is easy to pronounce and spell, and clearly identifiable as a name most people have heard before, but it's peak in the name charts in recent years was #860 (94 per million babies). If this one is a boy I think it's a little harder, so I'd be OK with something closer to the top 100, or even in the bottom of the top 100 if we really love it.
I'm a big data nerd, so I actually looked up Jennifer (most popular in the 70's, with over 17,000 per million babies) and Ava (most popular in the past decade with over 4,000 per million babies). So at it's height Jennifer was 4x more popular than Ava, that's interesting!
It doesn’t seem like it should be that hard to agree on a name that isn’t on the top 10 list and is a real recognizable name.
Hoping for this baby to get a name almost as fabulous, though not sure I can hit all of those points again.
Personally, I'm tired of all of my friend's kids (or Facebook people's kids) being named Everett, Avery, Isabella, Aiden, and Ronan. I love all those names, but could never use them.
eta: I always loved the name Luna, but now since Harry Potter is so popular, I don't think I can use it. Sad.
Eta again: I do pair our uncommon names with very general simple middle names, so kids can choose to use that if it's more comfortable for them later. Examples: Scott, Marie.
DH: 32
Married 7/18/15
1st born at 35+4 on 6/6/16
Team green turned BLUE!
2nd born at 38+6 on 8/30/18
Team green turned PINK!
Due with #3 on 6/6/20 Team Green
Obviously if excluding top # names is important to you then it is and there's nothing wrong with that! I just also think it's interesting how top names are such a smaller % of births than top names used to be.
MMC 8/5/15 at 8 weeks
DS born 9/13/16
BFP 1/13/18 - EDD 9/20/18 - It's a boy!
@pourmeamocktail I love "Luna" too, but it's also the name of Chrissy Teigen and John Legend's daughter, and I wouldn't want to name my kid after a celebrity baby! (They're really big on Instagram).
@carbsandcrabs Miles is one of my favorites. It's just such a cute little boy name!
Anyone thinking of the name Braden? It's popular here, but not a top 10. I like it.
MMC 8/5/15 at 8 weeks
DS born 9/13/16
BFP 1/13/18 - EDD 9/20/18 - It's a boy!
However I've been thinking about changing that this time because I kind of want some feedback on our top choices. I've had my lists for years but a couple of the names we're seriously considering are new additions. I also think that while DH and I like them, we're both pretty romantic/fanciful people and other people might think they sound really weird. I don't need everyone to like them (another reason we don't share our names), but we're not trying to saddle our kids with Moon Unit or Diva Muffin (seriously, Frank Zappa??) But then, TBH, if one of y'all ended up using one of the names I'd be pretty annoyed.
ETA: typos
DD has a feminine, old-fashioned name I suppose you might call it. That's the style I prefer for girls. I don't mind a long name, flowery names and I like several good nn options.
I had the name Vera on my list, but wanted a longer name that might use Vera as a nn. I met a Verabella years ago and thought that was pretty, but it seems to be a made up name so that led us to Verity. Verity Elise (my mom's middle name and the name of the eldest living matriarch in that branch of the family tree) is one option
Our other option(s) for a girl is a double name, which I've never really considered before, but I am a Southern girl so it's just in my blood I guess. lol We're thinking either Lila Gray or Lila Fae. DH really likes Lila Fae and I kind of prefer the sound of that too, but Gray is my maiden name and it is not going to be passed down as neither of my brothers have sons. So I'm torn because I'd like to use the family name (it will definitely be included in any boy name.) And also I'm not sure if this name just sounds cute for a little girl, or if it also works for a grown woman. She could obviously shorten it to just Lila or whatever. I think middle name for this one would be Felicity, possibly Verity. (Felicity is my top choice for a first name and goes well with DD's name but DH vetoed it for a first name.)
@MandyMost Alright, lay it on me! (Be gentle!)
I like Vera more than Verabella. For longer names that would nickname to Vera, what about Valeria, Veronica, or Valentina?
Edit -- PS Like @nackie I'm having a boy so no stealing here
Verabella does sound made up, and made up names, especially made up names with “Bella” in them seem pretty common. While she’ll be the only Verabella in her class, she’ll probably be one of many made-up-names-with-Bella. But it is really pretty!
Verity sounds like a millennial hipster name...because it’s a fancy SAT word, and not a name, and millennial hipsters are too cool for “names”.
I really like double names! Honestly, a double name and then a middle name sounds a bit much to me, though. What about a double first name and no middle name? Lila Gray I actually love (don’t worry, I won’t steal it!). Lila Fae doesn’t have the same ring to it or look as good, in my opinion. Maybe “Lila Fay” looks better, but still doesn’t sound as good as Lila Gray. Will people use the double name, or just call her Lila most of the time, though? Up here in Boston we don’t see many double names, and I’d expect people to usually just call her Lila.
I like Felicity. It’s on my list, but there’s something just not QUITE right about it to me. Like, maybe it’s just not strong enough, it’s soft and flowy, and there’s not a great nickname? Then there’s also the fact that I’m just the right age that the TV show Felicity was SUCH a big deal when it aired.
Personal, I don't like Fae. It sounds like a fad based in fantasy novels. Lila I love, and Lila Gray even, though I'm not huge into double names.
I think Verabella is going to sound too much like the millions of Isabellas currently everywhere (thank you Twilight....).
Just my two cents.
DH: 32
Married 7/18/15
1st born at 35+4 on 6/6/16
Team green turned BLUE!
2nd born at 38+6 on 8/30/18
Team green turned PINK!
Due with #3 on 6/6/20 Team Green
I think I like the idea of Verity (a lesser known virtue name) but when I say it out loud it feels cumbersome to my mouth.
@MandyMost The whole point of a double name to me is that you use both and the second part doesn't take the place of the middle name. But they're pretty common around here. I went to school with Mary Catherine, Carry Beth, Billie Claire and even Caris Joy.
But I do wonder if everyone would end up just calling her Lila all the time. I'll have to try out saying "Hi, I'm Lila Gray", etc. Out loud. Should we hyphenate?? Or do I prefer the first name Lila and middle name Gray? But I wouldn't use those names that way because they're too short for my taste without nn options. Also our last name is a euphemism for penis so I worry about having an adjective right in front of it.
Huge win in the name department over here!!! After four years of dropping this name every time we talked about possible baby names, H finally agreed to Adia (a-dee-uh) for a little girl. Probably Piper as a middle name but we’d figure that one out for sure after the A/S scan. Ashton Jude is the current front runner for a boy.