What helped you name your children?

[klvcaudillo]

How did you decide what to name your children?  I tried to choose original names, at least not too common.  I think it's too confusing when you call out John and three different people look at you!  LOL

[cowgirlx]

Mine were all differant sources.  The first one, I saw the first and middle name in the credits after a movie.  The second ones name is the first names of two differant sisters on a movie that I liked.  The third one was named after someone who had been a close friend.  The last ones first name was after a football player, and the middle name was one of the kids on my childs t-ball team that was very unique. I found it to be very difficult to name my children and was usuallu well into my 3rd trimester before even narrowing them down.  The second ones name wasn't officially chosen till after he was born.

[klvcaudillo]

Cowgilx- This sound interesting.  It looks like you put a lot of thought into the process.  Can I ask what their names are?

[gesus]

Mainly history historic names something symbolic

[hicaniplay]

I'm very happy I'm not planning on ever having kids, because I'm a terrible name picker. (Just ask my pets)

But I thought I'd share my sister's name, for when she has a girl - Ima Damn
Seriously.

My mom said she just didn't want anyone named after someone, because it should be your own name. Though middle names were fine to be used for that purpose.

Just don't tell too many people if you're picking a name early - my brother was pretty ticked when a friend "stole" his girl name. He still used it when his daughter was born, but he felt a bit betrayed, I think, that they took it.

[Sohcahtoa]

I agree with the statement of not using extremely common names like John.

If I ever have kids (I'm 27 and still don't want kids, so I kind of doubt that I ever will), I *DO* have some rules that I will follow for choosing what NOT to name my children:

-Don't name them after something that is a real word.  For example, I would never name my child Angel or Happy.
-Stop to consider what the middle schoolers would call someone with that name.  Someone named Matt could be called door mat.
-Don't try to give them a "unique" spelling of a common name.  I've seen someone named "Heathyr."  It doesn't make them unique, it makes it annoying for them because every time they're telling someone their name over the phone, they have to spell it out for them.
-Don't give them the same name as a close relative.  It causes problems.  Believe me, I'm living through it.  My dad's name is David and he had the great idea to name ME David.  Now they work around this by calling me by my first and middle initial (DJ), but when I started getting older, got a bank account, etc., it would cause a problem.  When something in the mail came from the bank addressed to "David", there's not way to find out who its for without opening it.
-If you want to call your kid Chris, then name them Chris.  Don't make Christopher his legal name, but then just call him Chris.  If you want to call him Zach, don't call him Zachery.
-Make sure that the kids initials won't spell out anything bad.  Could you imagine how much your kid would be made fun of if his initials ended up being F.A.G.?

That about covers what I can think of right now.

[cloudsoup]

I'm very happy I'm not planning on ever having kids, because I'm a terrible name picker. (Just ask my pets)

me too! i'd never be able to choose anyway  

I agree with the statement of not using extremely common names like John.

-Don't try to give them a "unique" spelling of a common name.  I've seen someone named "Heathyr."  It doesn't make them unique, it makes it annoying for them because every time they're telling someone their name over the phone, they have to spell it out for them.

and yeah, there are definitely too many Y's being thrown in
and out of names these days. they just end up looking silly.

jayden, jaylin, kaden, kaylin... were cute for like, a minute,
about five years ago when they first started coming around.
but they are the new ashley, jessica, sarah and elizabeths of
this generation. eek.


i have a few picked out that i think are cute, but wouldn't
sound silly as an old man or woman...

[Storm61115]

my mom named me after one of the characters on one of her soap operas she used to watch, but she always liked the name. she wanted to name me just jessie but my dad wouldnt let her so they named me jessica. which i'm glad they did coz i'm with someone named jessie lol. i like my name ne ways. i dont think i would like it being just jessie. only certain people can call me that. i really prefer jessica now. my mom was going to name my brother tiffany before she found out he was a boy. if i was a boy my name would have been brandon.. and its weird coz i dated 2 brandons so i like the name too, but i wouldnt name my kid brandon unless their father wanted a "jr". sorry people, its not my favorite name. no offense if ur name is brandon.

[Valerie1979]

I like this topic.
I have one son (so far) he  was born 3 mo. early and we didn't have a name picked out when he was born.  He was "baby boy" for about 6 days.  My son's name I wanted to be a family name.  I wanted to name him Matthew after my nephew that died a few years prior, and i knew his middle name would be Nigerian to take after my husbands family.  When he was born my husband and I thought long and hard about the name and we settled on Stephen which is named after a mentor of my husband's when he was younger.  I really like his name and am very happy with it. 

I think a persons name should mean something -- either literally, for the family or for the person

[ODOMS6598]

lets see my 1st born was named after my brother, who got into a really bad car accident and lived, my second was named after a nephew that died of sids, my 3rd was named after a movie(our wedding song is from pure country) and the third is named after his dad.
1.  Terry (TeJay),  2. Joshua Matthew   3.  Harlie Elizabeth    4.  Tanner Troy.  all unique to me.

[Galactoid]

Aye, there are a few things to consider.

1. How well a name sounds, aesthetically speaking.

2. Can it be made fun of in any way?

3. of course, if there's significant meaning.

4. Can it ever cause problems, like naming a kid after a parent.


I'm only 19, so no kids for me, but i know i wanna name my first son Leon and my second Adrien. I'm undecided on a daughter's name at the moment.

[mommagoes]

when i was 3yrs old my mom had a baby boy premature and he died 10 days later. my parents named my baby brother anthony joseph and i said when i grew up i was going to name my son that. but as i grew older i realized that naming my kid that would probably be a bittersweet thing for my parents. so when i first found out i was pregnant i said if it was a boy i would name him antonio. when i found out i was having a boy i decided it was time to pick out a middle name. i didnt want any names that had been used in my rather extensive family, at least not in the last 2 generations. so while looking back i realized that my great great grandfathers were named antonio (on my dad's dad's dad's side) and my luis (dad's mom's dad's) so my son's name is antonio luis. as for my daughter, we joked that we would not name her after any girls that my husband had been involved with before me and that the middle name would be marie, my mom's middle name. then, after looking through family trees, we realized there wasn'y anyone in either of our families names isabelle, so we named her isabelle marie

[Elizabethar]

my sister, she always wanted to name her child what I name mine, but her husband said No!!

[amyrouse]

I named my daughter after her Nana and her Aunt.

[lynnc35]

My son is named after my uncle that passed.