Joy and Austin 16: Touring the Texas Rodeo

[Georgiana]

4 minutes ago, Knight of Ni said:

Aayden? Is she a fan of the Fonz from Happy Days? I would thin the “a” sound would need to be drawn out since she had to have two. 

LUCKILY we aren't close, because I would just call the kid "Aardvark".

To be fair though, she's much tamer than my other friend who got SO kreYAYtive with her second daughter's name that her and her husband spelled 4 different ways in the initial post birth social media posts.  Look, if EVEN YOU can't spell your kid's name, NO ONE ELSE WILL BE ABLE TO EITHER.  Which is probably why the child now goes by MJ.  

[cascarones]

I think Grayson became trendy when it started being used as a gender neutral name, other than that it's just been around. I think in one of my elementary classrooms we had a Grayson, Mason and Jason and Grayson and Jason loved to play confused as to who was being talked to. I'm working on a baby blankets right now for a Bennett, a Max and a Brooklyn. All pretty trendy right now, but all very cute babies.

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

36 minutes ago, Knight of Ni said:

Aayden? Is she a fan of the Fonz from Happy Days? I would thin the “a” sound would need to be drawn out since she had to have two. 

I'm not a fan of made up spellings for names, it doesn't make you original it makes your child spend the rest of his or her life explaining how to pronounce their name. I inadvertently did this to my daughter, her name is spelled with a G as the more traditional Galic/Celtic/English what ever it is that I can't recall off the top of my head, as apposed to the  Americanized J. It is pronounced with a soft G sound but it gets forever butchered and it drives her batty. 

 

I have a friend who gave her daughter a boys name, a misspelled boys name and gets mad when people 1 assume the child is male, and 2 mispronounces the name.  Well then don't name your child after a lawn implement and pronounce it different and you won't have that problem.

[Jinder Roles]

My pick is a boy (no girls please) named Fred. Not Fredrick and no middle name, just Fred. 

Born March 7th because I want the Duggar baby-watch mania to be done before my birthday. I will be pissed if Joy gives birth on my birthday. I have avoided it thus far. Don't ruin my streak Joy! 

[libgirl2]

2 hours ago, Georgiana said:

My friend has a son named "Aidan".  Or she would, except she had to be tryndy, so it's spelled "Aayden".  

I wish this was the worst spelling of a name that appears on my social media feed.  Sadly, it's not even close.  

I have a Conor. Poor guy, I saddled him with a life of having his first name misspelled, but it is not an uncommon spelling. 

[Eternalbluepearl]

Okay, now I'm really curious what everyone's favorite baby names are. 

[sabeek]

1 hour ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

We had DD's name picked while expecting #1 about 2.5 years before #2 arrived.  We were good for a 2nd boy but all in all we could really only agree on 3 names because my DH loves cuties girls names like Alyssa and Cassie and I do not, I'm more of a Blythe, I really really wanted Blythe for DD but hubby was like NO WAY, too weird, and then I though Genevieve, and again too much/too weird.  UGH, he was into very basic type names and I liked the more flouncy old fashioned kind of names. We almost went with Elizabeth, but his niece named her daughter that and she is only 2 months older than ours so. 

We hit up the old Testament for names, that is where Elijah came from. I have a friend with 3 sisters (so 4 girls) their names are Rebecca, Ruth, Rachel and Sarah, that isn't the birth order I know Rachel is the youngest she's my friend, but I'm not sure where the rest fall, though I THINK Sarah is the oldest.

I have a friend who's son is named Grayson, she's is FAR from a redneck, her and hubby are LA born and raised. VERY well off, well educated, and as liberal as they come.

I have a friend who just got married that was named Blythe. She went by her middle name all her life and changed her first name legally when she was doing her last name change. Funny part is that her mom also had a weird first name that she dropped when she got married.

[VBOY9977]

1 minute ago, Eternalbluepearl said:

Okay, now I'm really curious what everyone's favorite baby names are. 

I like names that can fit a baby and also an adult ... I have trouble picturing adults named Lexi, Tucker, Daylon, etc

Also hopefully that they match their last name... unlike Sierra’s kids who have extremely trendy names that IMO don’t go well at all with Dominguez

 

[libgirl2]

If I were going to have a daughter, I had very traditional names picked out, Katherine, Elizabeth, Jane, Julia..... and a couple off the wall, Ludmilla and Hadas. Off the wall in the US, but not in their respective cultures. 

[VelociRapture]

17 minutes ago, Eternalbluepearl said:

Okay, now I'm really curious what everyone's favorite baby names are. 

Lol!

Husband and I picked names that have a lot of family meaning for us. Our daughter's first and middle names honor several family members on my side of the family and we chose the German spellings to honor my dad. Our second girl name has a family name for the middle name - it was the name my Grandma’s favorite Aunt went by and I have some happy memories of going to visit her at the convalescence home as a young kid.  

As for a boy, his first name would be the same first name as one of my Grandma’s brothers, the middle name of my mother’s youngest brother, and my dad’s step-father (who we all adored.) His middle name would be from my husband’s family - his father and a brother share the name. It would also provide a link to the Harry Potter books, which I love (seriously though, our wedding officiant wrote part of the service to reflect my love for Harry Potter.)

I’m actually a little bummed we’re likely only having one more kid. I love both the names we’ve picked out for our next. I am really happy we got to use my daughter’s name though because her first name was the middle name of my favorite Great-Aunt and her middle name is an alternate spelling of my mom’s late sister’s middle name. It’s really nice being able to honor their memories like that and I love seeing tiny glimpses of them in her personality. 

And all of the names we’ve picked work very well for future CEOs, Presidents, or other professionals. We figure they can always pick stage names if they go into some sort of creative field and they want a more unique name.

[singsingsing]

My grandpa's name (which I would use for a boy) is a very normal, sort of common but not that common, one syllable Biblical male name.

My favourite name for a girl is a traditional female name, featured with a slightly different spelling in the Lord of the Rings books, and the first syllable/a nickname of which is a shout out to my favourite character from the TV series Stranger Things.

[CorruptionInc.]

40 minutes ago, VBOY9977 said:

I like names that can fit a baby and also an adult ... I have trouble picturing adults named Lexi, Tucker, Daylon, etc

Also hopefully that they match their last name... unlike Sierra’s kids who have extremely trendy names that IMO don’t go well at all with Dominguez

 

I do like the name Eden - but not the way Sierra got kreayteeve with the letters...

[Georgiana]

48 minutes ago, Eternalbluepearl said:

Okay, now I'm really curious what everyone's favorite baby names are. 

One of my ex boyfriends once summed up my preferred baby names as sounding like "A guest list for an 18th Century aristocratic German Tea Party".  And he was right.  

Girls:

Tanesi/Tennessee: the listed name of my great great great grandmother on various rolls.  Cherokee/Muskogee Creek.   I've always been reluctant to give a blonde/blue eyed child a Native name as a first name, and should the father be blonde/light eyed, that would be a real possibility.  It's getting used SOMEWHERE, however, just maybe as a middle name.

Marguerite: Great Grandma's name

Others: Adelis/Adeliza, Gretchen, Wilhelmina (called Mina), Winifred (called Winnie), Octavia, Freida

Boys:

Lawrence (the middle name that runs in my dad's family)

Ronald (grandfather's name)

Unisex:

Theodore (yes, even for a girl, though I might go with Theodora)

[AprilQuilt]

My OH and I talk about baby names a lot, and what is increasingly clear is that we are both going to have to settle. He hates all my favourite names and I hate all his. He wants George for a girl. Just George.

I think we've found boy and girl names we both like - a little bit simpler than I'd envisioned and bit fancier then he had. I won't say what they are but they'd work in many languages, and are traditional without being boring or over-exposed (! watch this space in 5 years' time). They both also have family connections.

But in this spirit: 

Names I'll Never Get To Give My Kids
Aurelie
Myrtle (will save for a cat)
Bryn
Clementine
Alba
Soradamor (...not really. It was the name of a Venetian noblewoman and I've always thought it was very elegant. I wouldn't put it on a person though)

Jude
Frank/Frankie/Francis (I'm slightly heartbroken knowing I'll never name my sons Jude or Francis. But so it goes)
Leo
Daniel
Malachy
Gabriel

Luckily I am a writer by profession. Nobody can stop me from giving my characters any name I like 

[Glasgowghirl]

5 hours ago, Georgiana said:

My friend has a son named "Aidan".  Or she would, except she had to be tryndy, so it's spelled "Aayden".  

I wish this was the worst spelling of a name that appears on my social media feed.  Sadly, it's not even close.  

I love the name Aidan but hate it spelled any other way, I may still use it but will get mad if people use another spelling of it. 

I was at college with a boy called Callum but his parents decided it was too common and spelt it Kallum. He hated it and planned on changing it I've seen Kraig and Karson as names, I'll blame the Kardashians for that trend. Taking good C names and spelling it with a K and ruining them

[VineHeart137]

3 hours ago, Jana814 said:

Grayson is now really popular. My cousin's daughter is named that. Also someone I went to high school with her son is named that. 

Yeah all the -son name have become quite trendy it seems. Grayson, Jackson, and Emerson are big ones. And of course there are the -aiden/-aydens: Aiden, Jayden, Brayden, Hayden, etc.

My daughter's name was easy, her first and middle name are a modified version of my two middle names (let's say my middle names are Carol Anne, my daughter is Caroline Anne). She also has the same middle name as both of her grandmothers so it worked out nicely.

Baby #2 is a little tougher, we both agree on using family names for the middle name spot, but for the first name my husband tends to like really popular names (Charlotte was at the top his list last time) and I like uncommon but not totally out there. After having 3 Isabellas and 2 Sophias in my class during my second to last year of teaching I swore off any name in the top 10 lol. But we do have one contender each for a boy and a girl that we both really like. We've tabled the name talk for now until we find out whether we're having a boy or a girl. Just makes things easier!

I love name talk!

[HermioneSparrow]

My pick became controversial lol... I didn't say it in a bad way though, it's not a bad name

I like classic names, I named my niece/goddaughter Camilla. 

[singsingsing]

17 minutes ago, HermioneSparrow said:

My pick became controversial lol... I didn't say it in a bad way though, it's not a bad name

I like classic names, I named my niece/goddaughter Camilla. 

I love the name Camilla! One of my favourites.

[AtlanticTug]

My son is Henry (a couple of years before Jessa named hers Henry, sigh). Second boy would have been Jude but we are having a girl. Girl names are mostly awful...either way too popular or way too cutesy. I probably could have named 10 more boys before a girl lol.

[nausicaa]

23 minutes ago, AtlanticTug said:

My son is Henry (a couple of years before Jessa named hers Henry, sigh). Second boy would have been Jude but we are having a girl. Girl names are mostly awful...either way too popular or way too cutesy. I probably could have named 10 more boys before a girl lol.

Same here. I like most classic boys names. James and Henry are my favorites, but I also like Peter, Paul, Jack, and Miles.

Girls names always seem to be cutesy, matronly, or really descriptively feminine (like Celeste and Theodora are beautiful names, but what if she's super tomboyish?) and just don't have the flexibility of simple boys names. 

I probably won't have any kids, but there's a maiden name on my mom's side of the family that was lost because someone had only daughters, and it actually works as a first name for a boy or girl. I'm holding onto that name super tight and won't tell anyone it for fear it becomes a trend. It's kinda weird for a girl though. But I have a weird boy's name for a first name, so at least my daughter and I would have that in common?

[HermioneSparrow]

9 minutes ago, nausicaa said:

Same here. I like most classic boys names. James and Henry are my favorites, but I also like Peter, Paul, Jack, and Miles.

Girls names always seem to be cutesy, matronly, or really descriptively feminine (like Celeste and Theodora are beautiful names, but what if she's super tomboyish?) and just don't have the flexibility of simple boys names. 

I probably won't have any kids, but there's a maiden name on my mom's side of the family that was lost because someone had only daughters, and it actually works as a first name for a boy or girl. I'm holding onto that name super tight and won't tell anyone it for fear it becomes a trend. It's kinda weird for a girl though. But I have a weird boy's name for a first name, so at least my daughter and I would have that in common?

Theodora is gorgeous!! Love that old classic name feel of all the names you listed. 

[MargaretElliott]

If I ever have a daughter (and this is incredibly unlikely) I would name her Myra. When I was a kid on my hometown, I would go for walks a lot, because there was literally nothing else to do. One of my favorite paths through the woods ended up in the old section of the town graveyard, where there was a headstone that was always fallen over. I always righted it, because I felt odd leaving someone's grave askew. It was a grave from the 1880s, and the name on it was Myra, and she died as a young woman. One day, the headstone was just gone. I mean, it makes sense- Victorian headstone, no living descendants, no one cares- but all of a sudden, I realized that I was probably the only person on earth who knows her name. And she was a person, she lived, she breathed, she might have loved. But now she's gone, and the only memory of her is my memory of fixing up that grave. They say people die two deaths- one when you die, and one when someone says your name for the very last time. Maybe I could postpone her second death for a little longer.

I was a weird kid. But I still love the name.

[bananabread]

OH, I LOVE NAME CONVERSATIONS!

36 minutes ago, nausicaa said:

I'm holding onto that name super tight and won't tell anyone it for fear it becomes a trend.

I'm the exact same way!! All the names I have picked out for my future children are a little unusual (no crazy spellings or overly "cutesy" names, though), so I keep them super quiet so no one will steal them. But here are some general kinds of names that I'm a huge fan of:

Historic names, like: Alexander, Charlotte, Victoria, Ptolemy, Cato, Arabella, Constantine, Richard, Ismay, Dane, Jason, Lincoln.

Old-Fashioned names, like: Theodore, Art, Priscilla, Elise, Louise, Helena, Bernard, Alice, Jasper. The Twilight connection is entirely coincidental.

Nature names, like: Lake, Rosemary, Holly, Laurel, Forest, Mica, Indigo, Acacia, Iris.

Location names, like: Lorraine, Caspian, Ireland, Dover, Santiago, Kingston, Raleigh, Holland, Cheyenne, Carlisle. (Gives your future child a great excuse to travel to their namesake!)

French or Italian names, like: Santino, Alain, Laurent, Baptiste, Valentina, Bruno, Marco, Leonardo, Letizia, Nadine.

Biblical names, like: Eli, Malachi, Thomas, Mark, Zilpah, Zebulun, Mariah, Judah, Elias. But not so much the currently trendy and SUPER common ones (Noah, Jacob, Elijah, Gabriel).

[Sky with diamonds]

Great discussion about names,  I find it very interesting.

I'm named after my grandmother who died the year I was born. I have two middle names which are very common, but I love it. The only thing I wish I could change is my last name. 

[SassyPants]

1 hour ago, singsingsing said:

I love the name Camilla! One of my favourites.

My daughter was going to name her daughter Camilla. They went with Claire instead.