I also think you should consider nicknames. Mostly if the name can be shortened to a nickname you don’t like. For example, a friend of mine named her son Andrew. She said before he was born she hated the nickname Andy and only want people to call him Andrew. Welp. He is older now and a lot of his friends call him Andy. That has definitely made me think about possible nicknames and if I’m okay with them or not. It’s ultimately not something you can decide for the kids when their older.
I think DH and I have decided on a name if it’s a boy. But I have a question kind of going off this discussion of nicknames.
We love the name Nathan. Is that a stand alone name or would it make sense to name him Nathaniel and call him Nathan. Or is Nathan okay by itself?
It is a stand alone. If you like it, I’d stick with that.
The Nathaniel and Nathan at daycare both get called nate, as an FYI
I have an intentionally vague (in case family members are lurking) naming question.
DH and I are struggling so much with boy names. It turns out most of the names we like are super common, like top 10-20, which makes me reluctant to use them. My favorite boy name (which DH loves too) is less trendy right now, but the problem is, my niece has the female version of this name. She goes by a nn that doesn’t make you automatically think of the full name (think, Tina for Christina), and our son would probably go by a nn that sounds nothing like her nn. My niece and her family live across the country and our kids see each other on FaceTime regularly but have yet to meet in person.
I had originally crossed the name off our list since it’s “taken” but we’re struggling to find another name that really grabs us. WWYD - talk to SIL about it (which may cause major drama just to ask if we can use it), or keep looking for a different name?
@junebabyh and @Cass005, I am seriously with Elizabeth and it's nicknames. I would soooo love a little daughter Birdie! But Elizabeth has already been used by close family, so it's a no-go for us. 😥 I'll have to live vicariously through other Elizabeths!
Birdie can also be a nickname for Bridget (I have a friend named Bridget whose family has always called her Birdie), if that floats your boat. 🙂
@greenbean-2 One note on the topic of popular names: when we were searching for names with DS, I realized that it’s a lot different now than it was when we were younger. These days people aren’t afraid to use “different” names or even make up their own so there’s a bigger pool of names out there today.
For example, the top boys name in the 1980s was Michael and there were 665,000 babies given that name. In the 2010s the top boys name is Noah and there have been 145,000 babies given that name. Those stats are only through 2017 but still you can see the big difference. So even if your baby has a popular name, it’s not like the Michaels, Jessicas and Ashleys of our generation
@greenbean-2 I really believe you have to name your kid what YOU want regardless of other people's opinions or if other people have used the same/similar name. If it's the only name you love then I probably would say to her toward the end of your pregnancy, "we've decided on a name and it's X." No asking permission. You are the mom. You get to name the baby. Period. Especially if the nn and proper name are kind of different (and also b/c they are the boy and girl versions), then I would not feel like you are "stealing" a name that's already in use.
@galentine and @mrsinterweb I had an aunt named Bridget, they actually called her Bridie ha!
Im not a fan of most nicknames for Elizabeth. I like Lizzy but our best friends took it, we also have Ellie in the group already as well. I like Libby....I thought that was for Olivia for some reason.
@melanier26 makes a good point about name popularity now vs when we were born. Both boys have names in the top 20. I have only run into one repeat between the two of them (DS1 has a daycare mate who goes by the popular nickname for their name).
I don't give much stock to nicknames. I mean I wouldn't name my son Richard because I don't like the nickname Dick (sorry gramps, I love you but not your nichname lol). DSs name doesn't really sorten to anything, neither does Nieces. The names I love for this baby won't shorten to anything either.
@nanner26 I definitely think Nathan is a perfectly fine stand alone name
Everyone, thanks so much for the input (I love-titted away). I've thought about it more and I do think we care about potential nicknames, but I didn't think of Raph for Raphael (thanks @galentine ), I only thought of Raffy haha. So now it's between Raphael and Elias because I think Maxim will be a true fight since it's not a traditional American name anyways.
I am with others - it's total personal preference, but to me nicknames matter. I wouldn't pick a name if I hated the nickname. At the end of the day you can't dictate what other people call your kid (though you can try lol), so why risk it if you truly hate it?
@jenferlee82 I agree, my family (well parts anyway) are very big with nick names "Cass" is mine and that's what everyone calls me. Now I have family in Ireland and the prior generation did NOT they used our full names. My daughter though her name is Mary so we really can't shorten that. I don't like Mare (but some of the day care teachers do call her Mare Bear ha ha which I think is precious).
Still struggling on a nickname for Elizabeth (if its a girl) I'm leaning towards Ella though since her middle name will be Anne.
Elizabeth is the BEST for nicknames! I love them all! Elle Ellie Eliza Liz Lizzie Liza Beth Libby And my personal favorite: Birdie ❤
@cass005 I forgot another of my favorite nicknames for Elizabeth! Betsy!!! Love Betsy. Ahh man. Elizabeth is a great name. So many nickname options.
@PenelopeSnuz77 A good friend of mine is Erin and her brother is Eric. It was so confusing they always called him a nickname that sounded nothing like this real name. Rhyming names would be so confusing! 😆
I'm so tired, we only have 3 boy names that I even remotely like and of them I hate 2/3 nicknames haha. The list is: Raphael (top choice but no nice nickname) Maxim (once again, I dislike the nickname) Elias (I actually like the nickname Eli but it's 3rd choice)
Am I crazy to let nicknames dictate this? But they're really important right?
*Disclaimer: I'm team green so I don't even know if this will be an issue, but want to be prepared just in case
Absolutely not 😂 I am a hobbyist writer and creating characters is one of my favorite things to do ever. So names are beyond important to me. Like I used to write lists of names in high school to the point a teacher asked my parents if I was pregnant .Nope I just LOVE names. It's weird but eh. But one of my pet peeves IS NICKNAMES. My nickname is Ande for Andromeda. I was beyond picky about nicknames for DS and DD. DS got his name by surprise rather and then I was too in love to change it. But his nickname is Deckers. Or Deck(he actually gave himself that one!) We've called him baby Deckers since the day we decided on Declan. Everyone is like "that's longer than his name" which is something that drives me nuts but it's so cute and fits him so I let it slide 😂 DD is Delanie, but we nn her Lanie. And that's what she usually goes by! I loved the name Lanie, but not by it's self and I didn't like any other name that it came from. So we went with Delanie. We get asked alot "why didn't you just name her Lanie then?" Cause it's too short by itself 🤷🏽♀️ nicknames are a big thing I look for. Hence why Raylan, Roland and Donovan are causing issue for me currently 😂😂 Don was my papas name, Ray is an uncle no one in my SO family likes at all and Roland has no decent nickname. But I actually really like Donovan cause of the Don nickname. My DS has Donald as his 2nd middle, in honor of papa, but I feel like Donovan kinda would honor him too 🤷🏽♀️
I also think you should consider nicknames. Mostly if the name can be shortened to a nickname you don’t like. For example, a friend of mine named her son Andrew. She said before he was born she hated the nickname Andy and only want people to call him Andrew. Welp. He is older now and a lot of his friends call him Andy. That has definitely made me think about possible nicknames and if I’m okay with them or not. It’s ultimately not something you can decide for the kids when their older.
I think DH and I have decided on a name if it’s a boy. But I have a question kind of going off this discussion of nicknames.
We love the name Nathan. Is that a stand alone name or would it make sense to name him Nathaniel and call him Nathan. Or is Nathan okay by itself?
I have always preferred Nathan and Nathaniel as separate names, but my babysitters son is Nathaniel after his dad Nathan so that may be why 😂 I known him since he was four. Most Nathan and Nathaniels I know also go by Nate anyway. Personal opinion though, whatever sounds best for you!!
I have been thinking Eliana recently. It means “My God has answered”. It also ties in my sister who was born sleeping at 34 weeks in 1992 (Elyse) and my great grandmother Anna. We would call her Ellie. Middle name would be June after DH’s grandmother.
andromedacorrine2 said: Like I used to write lists of names in high school to the point a teacher asked my parents if I was pregnant
That made me laugh 😆
(Stuck in the Box 😑🙄😂) no joke my dad was like....well are you??? He also likes to write and is a gamer and a sci Fi guy and I couldn't believe he actually asked 😂
Sooooo seems like our names so far are Boy: Donovan Owen Ronald D Girl: Adelaide Casey Anne D I'm totally stuck on the girl name, I love it. The boy name is still an eeeeehhhhh for us both 😂😂😂
Sooooo seems like our names so far are Boy: Donovan Owen Ronald D Girl: Adelaide Casey Anne D I'm totally stuck on the girl name, I love it. The boy name is still an eeeeehhhhh for us both 😂😂😂
OMG I love those choices!!! I do really like Donovan, always have.
Okay I have to ask you, did your Dad or you ever play Anarchy Online?
@Cass005 I haven't! I'm not sure about him, I know PC was older games for him, were both more console players, but he plays some PC!
I have always loved Adelaide and a FB friend named her daughter that, but we're not even remotely close nor will our children ever go to school together. They'll just be born at the same hospital 😂 it was between Adelaide and Adeliene and SO said Adelaide for sure. I usually don't like nicknames that are super common, but Baby Addie is stuck on me. Lanie and Addie sound sooooo cute together 😍 and Donovan is a for sure. The middles are SO issue. I want Ronald for his dad and (weird on me I know) Donald and Ronald for matching middles for my boys 😂 I like the Nick name Van, however a friend I am close to has a little boy named Vann(he actually was born in their van, though that wasn't the reason for his name, but it worked well😂) so Donny is probably gonna be the nickname, which is SOs favorite cousins name and my papas Nick name by close friends. So it works. Just gotta make the middle names work out now!!!
I was in theater in high school and a good friend of mine got the role of an Ambrose and it fit him so well we all renamed him Ambrose! I still call him that to this day! I think it's a really good name 😊
We've settled on Autumn for our girl. DH has loved it since before we met, and it only grew on me in the last year.
Still debating middle names. DH wants either Marie (grandmothers middle name) or Michelle (my middle name) and I'm not keen on either. We've tossed around Rayne (derived from Rainbow) and possibly Eve....but I'm not sold on either.
I'm thankful we are having a girl because I did NOT like our boy name, Koda.
DS actually suggested it and we kinda liked it, but DS also starts with a K....as well as my SILs kids start with K. Too many Ks and DO NOT want a sib set.
ETA: Her nickname would probably just be Auds. I definitely wanted a name I could shorten to a nickname. And I know Auds isn't an actual nickname for Autumn but...lazy.
TTC #1 6/2011 BFP #1 10/2012 DS#1 born 6/2013
TTC#2 12/2013 BFP#2 2/2019 TWINS Baby Girl due October 20th, 2019.
I wanted to pass down my first middle name and SO middle. He hates his middle name and I tried again with this one. He said absolutely not 😂 I love the name Michelle, but it's my aunt's name! Autumn Marie is adorable!
I wanted to pass down my first middle name and SO middle. He hates his middle name and I tried again with this one. He said absolutely not 😂 I love the name Michelle, but it's my aunt's name! Autumn Marie is adorable!
I'm like 99% I'll come around to Marie. It's a nice homage to DHs grandma. And we gave DS my maiden name as a middle name so it'd be a nice way to "even it out" so to speak.
TTC #1 6/2011 BFP #1 10/2012 DS#1 born 6/2013
TTC#2 12/2013 BFP#2 2/2019 TWINS Baby Girl due October 20th, 2019.
I'm big on passing names on. That's why my kids all have 2 names. I also have 2 middles, my 2nd is for my dad's bio dad. SO family didn't really. His sisters middles are for his mom's sisters but that's it.
@marbellie: my husband's name is Rafael. Everyone in his family calls him Rafa for short.
@nanner26: you can totally do Nathan by itself! I have a child I with with who has that as his stand alone legal name.
We've really been struggling to come up with boy's names (we'll find out the sex on 5/15/19 -- after that we can either continue the saga or not 😂) I really like the name Arthur, but really dislike the common nicknames for it. We're looking for a boy name that would transition nicely from English to Spanish since my husband is Colombian and I have European heritage.
Re: The Baby Names Thread
The Nathaniel and Nathan at daycare both get called nate, as an FYI
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
BFP #2 5/4/14, EDD 1/15/15, DS1 1/19/15
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
DH and I are struggling so much with boy names. It turns out most of the names we like are super common, like top 10-20, which makes me reluctant to use them. My favorite boy name (which DH loves too) is less trendy right now, but the problem is, my niece has the female version of this name. She goes by a nn that doesn’t make you automatically think of the full name (think, Tina for Christina), and our son would probably go by a nn that sounds nothing like her nn. My niece and her family live across the country and our kids see each other on FaceTime regularly but have yet to meet in person.
I had originally crossed the name off our list since it’s “taken” but we’re struggling to find another name that really grabs us. WWYD - talk to SIL about it (which may cause major drama just to ask if we can use it), or keep looking for a different name?
But i obviously have no issue repeating family names, so..
eta- and technically, DD’s name will be the feminine French version of DS1’s name, though translating it back to English gives a different name 😂
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
BFP #2 5/4/14, EDD 1/15/15, DS1 1/19/15
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Me 39 - DH 41
Married 8/26/07
TTGP #1 Jan '15 -
BFP 9/11/15 - DS born 5/31/16
TTGP #2 July '17 -
CP July '17
Blighted Ovum MC Dec '17
CP June '18
BFP 1/30/19 - EDD 10/13/19
For example, the top boys name in the 1980s was Michael and there were 665,000 babies given that name. In the 2010s the top boys name is Noah and there have been 145,000 babies given that name. Those stats are only through 2017 but still you can see the big difference. So even if your baby has a popular name, it’s not like the Michaels, Jessicas and Ashleys of our generation
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
BFP #2 5/4/14, EDD 1/15/15, DS1 1/19/15
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Everyone, thanks so much for the input (I love-titted away). I've thought about it more and I do think we care about potential nicknames, but I didn't think of Raph for Raphael (thanks @galentine ), I only thought of Raffy haha. So now it's between Raphael and Elias because I think Maxim will be a true fight since it's not a traditional American name anyways.
I forgot another of my favorite nicknames for Elizabeth! Betsy!!! Love Betsy. Ahh man. Elizabeth is a great name. So many nickname options.
.
.
.
.
Middle name would be June after DH’s grandmother.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
BFP #2 5/4/14, EDD 1/15/15, DS1 1/19/15
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Boy: Donovan Owen Ronald D
Girl: Adelaide Casey Anne D
I'm totally stuck on the girl name, I love it. The boy name is still an eeeeehhhhh for us both 😂😂😂
I have always loved Adelaide and a FB friend named her daughter that, but we're not even remotely close nor will our children ever go to school together. They'll just be born at the same hospital 😂 it was between Adelaide and Adeliene and SO said Adelaide for sure. I usually don't like nicknames that are super common, but Baby Addie is stuck on me. Lanie and Addie sound sooooo cute together 😍 and Donovan is a for sure. The middles are SO issue. I want Ronald for his dad and (weird on me I know) Donald and Ronald for matching middles for my boys 😂 I like the Nick name Van, however a friend I am close to has a little boy named Vann(he actually was born in their van, though that wasn't the reason for his name, but it worked well😂) so Donny is probably gonna be the nickname, which is SOs favorite cousins name and my papas Nick name by close friends. So it works. Just gotta make the middle names work out now!!!
Still debating middle names. DH wants either Marie (grandmothers middle name) or Michelle (my middle name) and I'm not keen on either.
We've tossed around Rayne (derived from Rainbow) and possibly Eve....but I'm not sold on either.
I'm thankful we are having a girl because I did NOT like our boy name, Koda.
DS actually suggested it and we kinda liked it, but DS also starts with a K....as well as my SILs kids start with K. Too many Ks and DO NOT want a sib set.
ETA: Her nickname would probably just be Auds. I definitely wanted a name I could shorten to a nickname. And I know Auds isn't an actual nickname for Autumn but...lazy.
BFP #1 10/2012
DS#1 born 6/2013
TTC#2 12/2013
BFP#2 2/2019
TWINS Baby Girl due October 20th, 2019.
BFP #1 10/2012
DS#1 born 6/2013
TTC#2 12/2013
BFP#2 2/2019
TWINS Baby Girl due October 20th, 2019.
BFP #1 10/2012
DS#1 born 6/2013
TTC#2 12/2013
BFP#2 2/2019
TWINS Baby Girl due October 20th, 2019.
@nanner26: you can totally do Nathan by itself! I have a child I with with who has that as his stand alone legal name.
We've really been struggling to come up with boy's names (we'll find out the sex on 5/15/19 -- after that we can either continue the saga or not 😂)
I really like the name Arthur, but really dislike the common nicknames for it. We're looking for a boy name that would transition nicely from English to Spanish since my husband is Colombian and I have European heritage.