Of Names and Naming

I'm okay with my given name. My parents gave both me and my brother non-unusual, biblical names (Matthew and Daniel). Our eldest son isn't named for anyone in particular; we wanted to give him a fairly strong-sounding name that wouldn't require anyone to learn any exotic spellings (Alexander). Our youngest was inspired by the king in a book series I was into when we conceived him (Zachary). We can now tell people that we have our kids covered from A to Z, so we don't have to have any more.
Errrmmm....Don't name your kids anything that Frank Zappa would name his kids. Don't name him/her after the first thing you see after delivering. And whatever Barney Stinson says, your child's middle name should probably not be Wait For It.

 

My wife bought a book of 5000 names which we plonked beside the toilet, so we could peruse it while our brains were mostly unoccupied. We individually made a list of names we liked and got to veto items on the other's list.

I definitely agree with spelling - why make your child's life hell by making them spell their name *every* time.

We went the route of using middle names for importance. Our eldest son has my wife's maiden name as his middle name, and number 2 has my grandfather's name. Especially for the first, we wanted some fairly short, easily recognisable but not too common, he ended up with 'Rory', which I think meets all of those. He is also quite "Roary" so perhaps he grew into the name

 

Middle names... My oldest son has my father's first name as his. As do I. My oldest son and I share the share initials. My youngest son has my wife's father's first name as his middle initial.

 

Do you like your name? I Do
Do you know what your parents were thinking / their motivation behind choosing your name? They just wanted a name that suited me but what my brothers didn't like what my Mum & Dad chose. My brother's won out thank gawd because I don't like what my Mum & Dad chose
Any funny stories to share when it comes to names? See previous reply.
Who are you named after?
If you have children, how did you choose your child's name?
What are some no-no's when it comes to naming?
What are your favorite names?
What are the disadvantages of giving your child a popular name? A unique name? I myself prefer unique names namely because I'm not a follower. RESPECTABLE unique names like Flyn, Kalyn, Catlin, Zenko, Grace - not the ugly bizarre names the celebrities chose like Sky, Apple, Harlow (even for boy I don't like it Harlow but I do like Suri & Shiloh) . For the names I don't like, think of the identity crisis the child may have later on because I probably would(!), not to mention embarrassment. Unique names prove (to me) the name has been given thought as opposed to choosing a common name.
Does your nickname reflect your given name? Yup, all three of them.

 

I have made my peace with my name, but I hated it growing up. It's a Hebrew name with no English equivalent or translation, and nobody except Israelis and well-educated Jews know it or can pronounce it. Since I didn't grow up in Israel, or in the middle of a well-educated Jewish community, my name got mangled each and every day. What's more, the nickname for my name-- which is what I usually go by-- when spelled in English, resembles an atypical but reasonably well-known spelling variation of a common American girl's name, which made for some hard times. Eventually, when I was not being teased by children over my name, I decided that the meaning of the name in Hebrew had a lot of importance for me-- it literally translates to something along the lines of "truthful" or "honest one" or "very faithful," which I feel are good things to have to live up to on a daily basis. But even today, when I feel okay about my name for the most part, it still gets mangled so often that I use a couple of easy-to-pronounce pseudonyms at Starbucks or other places they need a name to call, and I get junk mail addressed to Ms. (my name), by people who have arbitrarily decided to assume it is a woman's name, which is a little annoying.

My parents say that they just liked the name, and, since they were Orthodox at the time, figured it wouldn't be a problem because they presumed I would always live in an Orthodox community (which is strange, since neither at that time, nor at any time before or since, did they themselves actually live in a purely Orthodox community). Now my mom's no longer Orthodox, I'm not Orthodox, and even my dad (who is still Orthodox) doesn't live in a purely Orthodox community.... I am not named after anyone in regard to my first name; although my middle name is for my great-grandfather, whom I never knew. Ironically, it's his Hebrew name, and he was a virulently secular Jew, who utterly rejected Hebrew and all forms of Hebraic usage. I don't really pretend to understand my parents.

When we were choosing our son's name, my wife and I did a lot of heated debating on the topic. She has a very typical American name, and growing up she hated it, and yearned to be named something more exemplifying of Jewish culture and ethnic heritage. So we kind of came into the naming game with opposing prejudices. But we compromised at least on the idea that the names we chose should be Biblical or Rabbinic names that have English equivalents or translations, so that our son will not have to suffer his name being mangled all the time. We wanted the names to have literal meanings that we liked, and (since all Biblical and Rabbinic names are after famous characters in the Bible or the Talmud) we wouldn't name him after any character or Rabbi that we disliked. It took a lot of wrangling over different names, but we finally settled on names we both liked-- albeit with the proviso of having two middle names.

We ended up picking one of the middle names to honor my dead uncle and a good friend I lost to cancer (both shared the same first letter of their names), the other to honor my wife's dead great-aunt, who was a mentor to her. And we picked the first name purely to satisfy ourselves, because we liked it-- both the literal meaning and the figure in Jewish legendry who first bore the name. Plus, all three names translate perfectly from Hebrew to English, and the first name has multiple common nickname options.

So I guess my rules would be, make it relatively simple to spell and pronounce, make it comparatively interesting (while granting that many common names can also be interesting), and make it meaningful-- either literally, or as a reference or homage to a well-known character from tradition or literature or to an historical personage whom one finds inspiring. Personally, I prefer naming after people or characters. If my wife had had her way, she might've gone with a name that is a word for an abstract concept or natural phenomenon (she liked names like Tal, which means "dew," and Reena, which means "Rejoicing"), none of which I tend to care for, though I suppose I can understand the appeal.

 

I love the entirety of my name. The three names "flow" very nicely together.

My main given name has provided much entertainment during my childhood and teenage years. Lish figured one of my nicknames out right off the bat.

When figuring out a name to give to my kids, my main concern would be the previously-mentioned flow since they will have my last name.

It's an Afghan custom to give male children a prefix-type middle name - such as Mohammad, Ahmad, or Ali -, so many (including my father and I) end up with our middle name first and our actual given name second. You should see German bureaucrats try and wrap their heads around it.

Don't really have any pre-conditions at this point, other than the obvious no-stupidity rule. I pity anyone with an official name of Candy, Krystal, JJ, and the like.

 

Do you like your name?
I don't really think about it much.

Do you know what your parents were thinking / their motivation behind choosing your name?
Yes. My father was a bus driver. There's a company that makes engines for planes, buses, and Rolls Royce(s?). He picked it off of that, didn't tell my mother where he got it until I was two. She smacked him good.

Any funny stories to share when it comes to names?
See above.

Who are you named after?
Probably some engine company owner's daughter.

What are some no-no's when it comes to naming?
Avoid stripper names. Don't spell things like a weirdo.

What are your favorite names?
I don't really think about them much. I like Jack. Jake. Jacob. Bryn. Damian. Rarely think about girls' names. A friend of mine had a kid, named her Aurelia, I liked that one. Generally, I go off of characters I like, characters that mean something.

What are the disadvantages of giving your child a popular name? A unique name?
A. Your kid becomes known as "Ashley-Number-Six" in all of her classes.
B. Easy to Google, easy to stalk, hard to stay discreet, socially. Everyone knows who you are.

Does your nickname reflect your given name?
Not remotely.

 

we had similar issues choosing names with our two sons.

the first one we gave a jewish name. My wife and father in law have a jewish name, so she-lish wanted to keep the tradition. contrary to many people think, muslims use many jewish and biblical names. Our first one didnt get a middle name, although in lebanese and arab tradition your middle name is your fathers name. Officially, he didnt get one.

since she-lish had dibs on the first child's name, i had first dibs on the second boys name that came along. Since we couldnt agree on my choice of name, which was a jewish name incidentally, we agreed to agree on a strong arab name we both liked, and i got to choose the middle name. we pretty much chose it about an hour after he was born. For the middle name I chose the name of an african mountain i climbed and fell in love with is 2010. To this day i get asked if it is really his name or if im just joking.

as far as my own name is concerned, i was named after my uncle, and ive never liked my name. anyone who knows me calls me by my nickname and not my given name. No friends ever call my by my first name really. Its a traditional arab name that is a common muslim and christian name. As the younger twin (by 5 mins), i was named after my uncle, but my brother was named after my grandfather. I got the better end of the deal since my name is much much easier to pronounce.

 

Do not pick something hopelessly out of style or old-fashioned.
Don't try to be really "cute" with odd spellings.
If the name isn't common, make sure the middle name or a nickname is available for the kid to use.
Names that make you stand out may be fun as adults, but they are hell as a kid.

 

We went a slightly different route for our 6 year old. Her first name is a modified version of the main character in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. That character is named Siddalee but we changed it to Sedelee; I liked it even better when it came back with literally three hits on a google search and those were for internet screen names people had chosen. Her middle name is right from MASH and what she typically goes by - Hawkeye.
Our youngest has a more typical American name with a Hebrew spelling - Elah.

 

Never anything that can be linked to Robin Williams or bad 70s television.

That's about all I've got at this time.

 

I'm named for a popular 70s song, and it's sort of common-- there were about six or seven of us in high school at the same time, but I don't meet a lot of girls with the same name in everyday, post-school life.

I didn't like it much growing up, especially since I didn't like any of the girls who shared my name. I also remember reading in a Cosmo-type article that people grouped it with names like "Bambi" and "Bunny," which was sort of annoying. I'm mostly okay with it now, and I rather like the song reference.

I don't have kids, but I've sort of had names picked out since I was twelve or so...weird, I know. With some exceptions, they haven't really changed (yes, there was a time when I seriously thought it was an awesome idea to have twins and name them Luke and Leia.) I like classic, sort of old-fashioned names, and if there's a literature or mythology background, all the better. One constant: my mom's middle name is Lorraine, and I've always wanted to name a daughter after her in some way. Mom goes by Lori, so the offspring would be Rain, Rainy, or Raina.

 

Rules for Naming--A gift you can give your children

BAM!

Yeah, that was a pretty helpful thread.

 

Do you like your name? - I find my name rather boring but it's mine.​

Do you know what your parents were thinking / their motivation behind choosing your name? When I asked, my Mom said it was the name of some kid down the street that she liked.​

If you have children, how did you choose your child's name? When my son was born we made a list of names we found acceptable, in the end we only had one boy name and no girl names. Thankfully he was a boy. He was named after an author/music critic I liked -- we altered the spelling a bit.​

What are some no-no's when it comes to naming? Avoid crazy spelling for the sake of it. It just looks trashy. Also avoid the names that are popular -- there is nothing worse than being one of six kids with the same name in your class. A unique name can be good, our son's name is not unique but it's very rare. Just be careful with it. If the name is too odd, it can lead to a lot of school yard abuse. Make sure you give them a plain second name so they have a choice to use it instead.​

Does your nickname reflect your given name? People don't give me nicknames. When I was younger I did have nicknames but they were all derived from my last name.​

 

Do you like your name? For the most part. It's ethnic and I'm not. Being a Jr invites comparison, positive or negative, I never cared for it.

Do you know what your parents were thinking / their motivation behind choosing your name? I'm a Jr

Does your nickname reflect your given name? The only people that ever called me Stanley are my mom and my wife. In both cases, it means that they are pissed at me.

 

All three of my names are incredibly prosaic. I'm basically another John Smith of my generation. I kinda wanted something more Shakespearean as a teenager but now I've embraced the sweet anonymity that comes with my boring-ass name.

Gotta say, the idea of a wasted Eden yelling your name off the porch with that fine Norf Cackalacky drawl of his is a real laugh riot.

Don't be surprised if I ask him to do it when I visit.

 

Do you like your name? Yes and no. There's days I love it, but sometimes I'm sad that I don't really have a nickname, and that the other people I've met with my name, I don't like.
Do you know what your parents were thinking / their motivation behind choosing your name? My mom read it in a magazine somewhere and thought it was pretty.
Any funny stories to share when it comes to names? Due to a younger brother that didn't want to learn to say things correctly, I was "Tare" (sounds like tear) for awhile. That stuck with my dad.
What are some no-no's when it comes to naming? I think I would do what lots of people on TV/in movies do: think like a mean kid. Try and find a way to make fun of the name. If you find something bad - like, really bad- if it bugs you enough, don't pick it. You may like the name, but they have to survive through elementary school/middle school with it. And what Charlatan said: don't spell it weird just for the sake of being unique. You look like you can't spell.
What are your favorite names? Faye, Layla, Landon, Sidney, Autumn - short list. Have others.