Choosing a Baby Name

[CastleCreations]

I thought my daughter's name was origional, until I met at least 3 other little girls with her name. And it's funny...they're all about her age..
Her name is Ireland.

 

[ILoveJack]

My DD's name is Rhiannon, but we pronounce it with a long I sound instead of a long E. Just don't go for a name that sounds "cute" at the time. My brother's wife's kids from a previous marriage named their DD Snow. And of course if you didn't guess their last name is White. So now my brother is Snow White's grandpa. True Story

 

[TBGOES2DISNEY]

My DD's name is Rhiannon, but we pronounce it with a long I sound instead of a long E. Just don't go for a name that sounds "cute" at the time. My brother's wife's kids from a previous marriage named their DD Snow. And of course if you didn't guess their last name is White. So now my brother is Snow White's grandpa. True Story

Oh, no! She's gonna get teased! Does she have a useable middle name? Although, if she likes being called Snow, at least she can take her husband's last name when she get's married someday.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

When I was pregnant with our first child, we had names picked out for a boy or girl. He's a boy so we used our 1st choice of boys' names on him.

When the 2nd one was coming, the ultrasound tech said it was a girl. She was so sure she wrote "Girl - 99% positive" on my chart. My doctor said the tech had been in the business for 20 years and had never been wrong. I had this weird feeling that it was a boy but I went along with her prediction. We planned to use our girls name. I even embroidered it on a birth sampler I was making for the baby.

Well, I had one last ultrasound when I was 37 weeks pregnant to check the baby's size and position. You guessed it! Something had grown since the last ultrasound! She was now a perfectly developed baby boy!!!!!

After the initial shock wore off, we realized we hadn't even considered a second boy's name. We quickly bought a book of baby names and we each made a list of 10 names. We didn't have one match between our lists! But, my husband had Bryan on his list and I had Ryan on mine. The more I thought about Ryan, the more I liked it. Our close friends and one of my cousin's already had sons named Bryan so we ended up choosing Ryan. I pulled the embroidery out of the sampler and replaced the girls name with Ryan. If you look very closely, you can still see the outline of the girls name (Katelyn).

I am happy to report that the minute I held Ryan I never looked back or even thought about having a girl. He's been my precious sweetheart for 8 1/2 years. And it turns out our older son (who has some autistic tendencies) needed a brother. A sister would have been fine too, but Ryan plays with him, shares his interests and challenges him. They're quite a pair!

 

[Order66]

If you love a name don't let popularity of it stop you from giving it to your child.

I was pregnant twice when we first married, both ending in miscarriage before 3 months. I am also one that likes to be different, but not crazy different. We had a name we both liked ready for a boy....Logan. It wasn't anywhere near the top 100 names at the time. After 2 losses we decided to hold off a while before trying again and well....life goes by fast and it was nearly 8 years later when we talked about children again. Got pregnant on the first try, with twins. When we found out they were boys my husband brought up that he still liked the name Logan. At that time Logan had crept up in popularity to around the 50th popular name. Now it's cracked the top 20 and I have heard the name a few time around here, but nearly all of them boys younger than he is. There are no other Logan's in his class. He likes that his name is (so he thinks) different. But even if it were #1 we still would have used it as my husband really liked it.

Looking on the SSA site I found it interesting that Logan is a popular as one of twins named. Though not in combination with his brother's. So since we were having 2 boys and he had chosen a name I told him I got to pick the other. I didn't want a "matching" name. He didn't love it like I did, but I chose Ian. I never even occured to me they end the same. It was one I always liked. A name that seems to stay in the top 100 but near the bottom. So not common around here yet not crazy different... yet so many people don't seem to know how to pronounce it. He's only come across only 1 other Ian in his life and it was on a trip to DC. He was sooooo mad someone had his name. He loves that he has the shortest name in his class. He's always done writing it first.

For middle names they each have the first name of their grandfathers. I think a lot of it has to do with the area you live in. Even in their class there is only 1 child each with the popular names like Michael, John, Madison, Emma, etc.... even the most popular are only average popular here.

 

[tnmomof4]

I picked all 4 of my boys names based on what I liked, but also on what the names meant. I like to have names that mean something special to us and our family. My twins names are Justin Daniel and Joel Nathan. My older boys names are Caleb and Andrew (Drew).

 

[LisaNJ25]

We don't look at the lists. We choose what we like. We also try to give our children at least one family name as well.

Same here.. I never looked at the lists. My last two kids were in the top ten. One I got from a Soap Opera and the other was my grandfathers name.

 

[allison443]

I would definately be in the "go with what you like and not worry about how popular" category.


I am a big believer in giving kids a name they can grow with, and will not be embarrassed to put on a resume someday. Think about how your dd might feel if she has a diminutive, cutesy name and wants to be a CEO someday. I think different for the sake of being different can sometimes backfire on the child.

I agree!!
My girls have traditional names which have nicknames but they can use their full names when they get older if they wish. One of them is Katherine,(named for my grandmother) her nickname is Katie, she has 3 other Katies on her hs soccer team of 16 girls and at least 5 other Katies on the track team!!! Some of their full names are Catherine, Kaitlin, etc. But I wouldn't make my decision based on whether the name is or isn't popular.

 

[allison443]

My DD's name is Rhiannon, but we pronounce it with a long I sound instead of a long E. Just don't go for a name that sounds "cute" at the time. My brother's wife's kids from a previous marriage named their DD Snow. And of course if you didn't guess their last name is White. So now my brother is Snow White's grandpa. True Story

The name Rhiannon is so pretty. We know two Rhiannons! Unbelieveable about Snow White!!

 

[islandmum]

if we have another (and would therefore be mad!) we already have the names just incase!

Henry Sean for a boy
Indy for a girl

 

[laughinplace199]

I would just go with what you like. Don't worry about how popular the name is. We chose a traditional, but not too popular name for our DD (Erin). No one else in her class has the same name. However, DS is 2 yrs younger than her and there are 3 Erin's in his class - and there are only 40 kids in the class! So even though we didn't choose a popular name, it has become pretty popular anyway, at least in our neck of the woods.

 

[VeroBeachGirl]

We never look at the list. We pick traditional names that are not too common anymore but that have more common nicknames.

Lillian Claire (Lilly)

Amelia Grace (Mia)

When we have another baby we like: Andrew Thompson called Drew (yes, this name is VERY common but goes well with my dh's first name Thompson) or Caroline Elizabeth (Cara).

I would just pick what you like but not make it too out there. Kids can be very sensitive about thier names.

Love your daughter's names! Very Elegant!

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

I haven't read all the responses, so forgive me if I am repeating someone elses sentiment. We never bothered with the books and lists. Although we did make an effort not to choose the names of the moment. When DD was born, Ashley, Brittany & Brianna were the "it" names. I loved all those names, but so glad I didn't choose one. Each year DD has 3-4 of these in her classes and they get the designation of Ashley D., Ashely R., etc.. Doesn't matter the spelling when your speaking of someone-very confusing. We also didn't want to go way out there with some funky name that nobody heard of, we like to be unique, but not that unique. Very difficult. In the end, if you and DH can agree on a name, that's all that matters-that is hard enough to do!

 

[vancesmom]

I loved going through the process of picking a name for my son. I read books and websites. Just looking for ideas. We wanted something different without being weird. We have a VERY common last name and wanted a first name to make it original. We chose "Vance". And it's perfect for him. We get compliments all the time. And he's now 4 and have yet to meet anyone with the same name.

 

[cancer_survivor_06]

I try my hardest to avoid the top 100 list at all cost!

Honestly, I don't know if I would pick a top 10 name. My name is Amanda ... and I personally want to go mad whenever I am anywhere new. I go by my last name at work, when I was hired, I was the third Amanda.

I don't know though, it's so hard. I named my dd Juliette. How many Juliette's do you know? After having her, I always looked through the baby announcements and ten little girls were named Juliette *same spelling!* the year after her. This isn't a lot, but when you're like 800 on the list, it seems to be.

Worse comes the worst, if it bothers your daughter, she'll give herself a nickname, or go by her middle. I was Amandaly in school. One time, there were five Amanda's in my homeroom. I thought my teacher was going to go insane.

I know exactly what you mean about the name amanda of course I am one and throughout school it was so annoying especially when I was in highschool when someone would yell out amanda b/c everyone of us would have to turn around to see who they were calling there were 10 amanda's im my graduating class alone. I tried to go by mandy during school b/c that is what I am called at home but most of them did as well so that didn't work and I didn't care for my middle name enough to use it.

The irony of it all is that I named my dd6 Juliette. I hope that its not an amanda thing. I can honestly say that there have been no other juliette's but plenty of Julie,Jewelee, and Julia's.

The names I had picked out for her were Gyllyan or Juliette when I settled on Juliette I started to toy w/ Meghan or Morgan. As you can tell I went w/ Juliette Marie.

For my second daughter I was trying to decided between Lorelei Elizabeth (my moms name is Laurie Elizabeth and I just really really really like Lorelei), and Isabelle Jayme. I had and entire list that I don't even remember all of them anymore but these were the main two names. I had juliette say all of the names to see if she had trouble w/ any of them she was 2. I finally settled on Isabelle I have a little OCD in me and I just like the way Juliette and Isabelle looked together plus neither one could complain about how long their name was. I call juliette Jules and isabelle of course was going to be Belle. Well one day I asked jules what she wanted to name her baby sister and she said Lily and ever since its been Lily Michelle.

My son has a very popular name because he's named after a relative but my daughters name has never been on the top 100 or 500 for that matter. We just loved the name when we saw it.

Hi kribit I haven't seen you in awhile and I just wanted to say hello. I see you finally added family pic it looks great.

 

[JohnsonsRUs]

When we picked names, we just choose ones we liked. We didn't know what we were having before our DD was born, so there were a few lined up. We also have a very common last name, so we wanted something unique, but not wierd. I also didn't want a name that could be shortened and be confused with whether it is a boy or a girl, that was pretty much my only stipulation. We ended up with Brenna, the only unfortunate part is that people usually call her Brianna (don't ask me how) and in order to find stuff with her name, we have to order it special. She really likes being the only one in her school by that name and not having anyone else she knows with the same name. We call her Boo as her nickname, Brenna Boo just seemed to flow out and stuck.

 

[design_mom]

If you love the name, I'd go with it.

I personally prefer more traditional names -- not trendy names, but classic ones that are usually in the top 100.

My DS's name (Alexander) was #71 the year we named him. However there are several female names that also shorten to Alex. The poor kid had 4 Alexes in his pre-K class of 20. He couldn't even go by Alex M because another child had the same initial. They had to be Alex Mi. and Alex Mo.

My DD's name (Elena) was somewhere in the high 100s. She hasn't had another Elena in her daycare class, although there is a teacher named Elena. However, it's a name that has recently had a lot of alternate spellings -- Ellaina, Alayna, Alleighna... So everyone always asks how to spell it even though, I think, we have the "traditional" spelling. (Our last name is difficult to spell, so I wanted to stick with the "usual" spelling of the first name.) For what it's worth, DD started calling herself "Nina" because she couldn't say Elena at first. I sort of wish we'd named her Nina. It fits!

So anyway, the point of my long-winded story is that you never know what could happen. You could end up in a class with 4 or 5 of the same less-than-super-popular name, or you could end up in a class without anyone with a popular name.

If you can find something you like just as well that's less popular... Great. But if you love the name, go with it.

 

[PiperPizzaz]

I prefer non-popular names. I like a lot of the names I just wouldn't use them.

I also prefer names that spell the way they sound, so even if it is unusual people will normally spell it correctly. At least that is my hope. My name (Crystal) is spelled wrong 99% of the time. I find that very strange.

I also highly recommend having two names to pick from and just look at the baby and you will know which one to use.

 

[Elmo888]

I prefer non-popular names, but DH didn't care as long as we agreed on the name (the real problem). I have a unique name, and I absolutely love the uniqueness.

FYI, from my experience, just because the name isn't too popular in the SS list the year before your DC is born does not mean that it won't skyrocket to the top in that year or in the next year or two. DD2's name was around 30 something if I remember correctly the year before she was born. Now, it is in the top 10. That fact drives me nuts.

Maybe getting out of the top 50 or 100 would avoid that situation, but DH and I couldn't agree on anything.

It is really more important that you like the name.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

When we have another baby we like: Andrew Thompson called Drew (yes, this name is VERY common but goes well with my dh's first name Thompson) or Caroline Elizabeth (Cara).

That's my son's name-Drew. His dad was Andrew and we didn't want to do the whole Jr. thing so that is what we came up with (plus I literally shuddered at the thought of anyone calling my son Andy-even if we didn't do that, it invariably happens). 17-18 years ago, it was not a common name at all, which is why we had chosen it-now we see/hear it like wildfire (even for the girls), but DS never had another Drew in his class up through high school.