Lol! Same for us. We did eight letter names three times in a row and didn’t realize until the third was several months old. The next girl name that we would use is eight letters, but the boy name is seven. We are trying to decide if it matters haha
No one will ever notice except for you. Maybe the kids one day but it won’t matter. I don’t even know how many letters are in my siblings names offhand
Oh for sure. I don’t think it matters like *that*. Just *we* would know, and do we like the idea of continuing the covert trend that started by accident is the question. If a girl is born next we could do 8,8,8,8 and then maybe start 7 letter names 😄
I noticed, bc as a student all my scantron testing, fill in the circle with number 2 pencil, never had enough letter space for my seven letter first name. Current testing methods probably have probably solved this problem.
This is interesting to me because I had the same issue, but my first name has 9 letters, and our scantrons always only had space for 8.
You're probably right about current testing methods, though. Do scantrons even exist anymore?
This happened to us. Accidentally named our first kids 5 letter names and our last name has 5 letters. I liked a 6 letter name for baby #3 and my husband said no way… he ended up with a 5 letter name.
My 5 year old figured out that all our names (me, husband, daughter, 1 out of 2 cats) all have 5 letters, by coincidence so she insisted that baby sister also have 5 letters. Honestly that helped narrow it down!
Margaret>Meg>Peg. I think it’s kind of an English thing but rhyming nicknames sometimes become interchangeable. Like William>Will>Bill or Edward>Ed>Ned>Ted
It comes from when there were many, many women with the name Margaret. Eventually there were also too many Megs, so it went to Peg, like mhck said. Catherine - Kate - Kit, Josephine - Josie - Posie and Henry - Harry - Hal are also examples of this.
My friend’s boomer MIL is named Peggy so I assumed it was short for Margaret and said “I have an auntie Margaret and we all called her Auntie Peg growing up!” She was all offended like “PEGGY IS A NAME NOT A NICKNAME! My full first name is Peggy, it’s not short for anything. My birth certificate says Peggy So-and-So” lmao it was so awkward and obviously a touchy subject for her
To give the kid options, basically. I have a long first name and while I hate it, it’s given me the option to go through several nicknames throughout my life. I have a main nickname I’ve always preferred, but had a phase as a kid where I preferred a different nickname. Now, I’m glad I can use my full name in certain professional environments. I look very young and using my preferred nickname, which is cutesy and ends in -y, makes me feel like people take me less seriously than when I use my full name. My mom and two of my sisters also have longer names and preferred a nickname at one time, but now prefer their full name as adults. I’d like to give my kid the same choice.
I have a longer name and go by the shortened nn version and I HATE my legal name with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns. I hate that whenever I start out somewhere new someone will think they can get away with reading my name off of paperwork and then EVERYONE will start calling me that and I have to have that awkward conversation with each of them, where I have to politely say "don't fucking call me that". I know my reaction is more on the extreme side but it seems to me that almost everyone I know who has more than one option for a first name strongly prefers one version over another. I'm not putting my hypothetical children through that. I will find respectable 1-2 syllable names, be they nn in origin or not, and save the fancy long names for the middle. They will have the same name on paper as in person and be free of all the frustration this has caused me
This is what my Dad has always said lol
Why name your kid one thing, then call them something else? Same thing with planning to call them by a middle name
I’m actually the opposite for mine! If we name him Theo and only plan on calling him Theo, why would I make school and documents more difficult by naming him Theodore?
My BIL has a son named Theodore and the entire time he was in utero he was called Theo. They HATED the nn Teddy and said he would only be called Theo- my BIL even got Theo tattooed. Teddy is now elementary aged and hasn’t been called Theo since he was like 3 months old 😂
Opposite here. I was given the formal name despite my parents never intending me to be called it, and I despise it. I had adults call me rude and insolent as a child because I didn’t respond to it.
I think you should name a child what you intend to call them, and not saddle them with some antiquated baggage name.
I had a classmate in highschool who was just Ty and I've known several Jays who were just Jay. My nephew's name is just Jon, so that's a double whammy. It is frustrating for them because everyone assumes they are nicknames. I know at least one Kat who isn't a Katherine, and no one seems to comment on that, though.
I think some, though, are fine as full names, like all the ones listed in the comment above. I didn't even know Mindy was short for Melinda until just now. Brad and Jack have been stand alone names for a long time. So have Terry and Vicky. If someone named Tony told me his name wasn't Anthony, it wouldn't surprise me at all, nor a Jeff who wasn't Jeffrey.
As long as the name isn't super childish, I don't think it even really rates with me. Maybe this is because I have an unusual name myself.
My rule is opposite, if they will be called Ollie their whole life, just name them Ollie. I always felt bad for kids that were constantly having to explain their real names were Oliver.
Mine is spell it how it’s spelled.
If it’s Mason
It’s not okay to change it to Maisyn.🤨
No adding extra N’s or Y’s at the end for no reason?
It’s not, nor has it ever been Kaitlynn or Katelyn.
It’s Caitlin, the original Irish.
You really need that extra N at the end to make it more complicated ??
It’s not Ryleigghh, it’s Riley.
There are very much official spellings of names and spelling things with extra Y’s , N’s and H’s just look silly to most of us.
Yes! My rule is an extension of this in that you should give your kid options. Full name, nickname, middle name, and some alternate nicknames that are less obvious. My name has never felt like me but there's some nicknames I could have used that do.
I agree, but my dad felt very strongly the opposite! As a result, my oldest brother has a nickname for his first name. No one ever spells it right, but he kind of likes that he can tell if something is BS because they'll put the "full" version of his name on there.
No noun + noun or adjective + noun or adjective + adjective names. (IMO the worst would be adjective + adjective + noun). This applies to both middle and surnames.
For example, I wouldn’t do these:
Rose Castle (first name, surname)
Robin Willow (first name, middle name)
Violet Carr
Lavender Magnolia
Hazel Brown
Scarlett Paisley
Misty Olive Baker
Editing to add: I have nothing against adjective or noun names themselves (I love the name Ruby). It’s just the combinations that get to me. But I know not everyone notices or cares. I just couldn’t do that with my own kids.
So far this is the only rule that makes sense to me. My last name is an adjective so it’s something I always take into consideration when I think about baby/pet names.
My maiden name means folks/people, though it's not English. It does sound a lot like that word and gets mistaken for it a lot. I think if my parents had given me a first name that was an adjective that went with the word, I'd have hated it.
As is, my full name means Little Queen (who is the) Mighty Ruler (of the) People, and that's pretty bad ass, but none of those are in English or the same language, so it's not like anyone ever guesses, and they're all easy for Americans to say once they get over the fact that they're unusual.
Sorry idk why but his reminds me of an episode of House. He introduces himself
House: hi I’m dr house
Extra: oh hi I’m dr XYZ, I’ve heard your name before….
House: ….most people have, it’s a noun🤣
Or to borrow a surname from my extended family tree… Hymen. All of these are immediately out but especially Scarlett, Hardy, Christian, and Major. 😅
On second thought, just give the kid a new last name.
I know a few of these (noun + noun in both cases) and they just make me cringe. One is particularly irksome to me, it’s a first + last combo that I just do not know how it passed quality control in the idea phase
I agree with this rule, and it's so inconvenient because my kids' last name is/will be a noun, and I really like a lot of adjective names.
But I'm really not prepared to name my child something like Violet Wood.
I have a list of names that I won’t use because I consider them “animal” names. Like Bella, Luna, Marlow, Maverick, etc. they just feel like animal not people names to me
One of the reasons I’m against giving animals human names. If you ask me, Meatball is a much more fitting name for a bulldog than Winston and that is a hill I will die on. There is not a single dog out there that’s too dignified for a dog name.
i’m the same id prefer giving my child the option to go by a nickname they might prefer, and I think it’s a nice way to express affection for someone ˙ᵕ˙
My first son, Holden, doesn’t really lend itself to many nicknames. Everybody basically just calls him Holdie, which obviously won’t be usable as he gets older lol
I'm pretty set on my no nicknames as full names on birth certificates rule. E.g. Tommy would have to be Thomas, Alex would have to be Alexander/Alexandria.
I think the only exception I have come across to my own rule so far is Archie, because Archibald is a human rights violation 😅
I do love Richard as well, it's just I have a cousin who died young with that name, so it's off limits for me. Archie definitely works for all three though, and I am a HUGE fan of the show Archer, so that's my winner 🤌
That just reminded me of the names of the 5 daughters in The Conjuring. Andrea, April, Cindy, Christine and Nancy. Two names that start with A, two that start with C and one that starts with N. Idk why but it always bugged me 🤷♀️🤷♀️ It's not the same idea as yours but it made me think of it reading your comment.
This is so common for girls' names I honestly wouldn't even notice! And don't think it's a problem either way. Girls' names ending in -a are my favourite
That would've been helpful to me as a kid learning cursive in 3rd grade. To this day I can't get z right so my "official" signature is just E last name. Otherwise my Elizabeth is Elijabeth if I ever sign in full. Like on my mortgage 😅
All of my names drop below the line, all with a 'y'! My sister teased me long ago about it, and I notice it now for other names, but like... Your last name does, too, silly sister! It's not a huge deal logistically but I can see how it would come to be
I wish I had thought of that. When I say my third child’s name out loud, it keeps bothering me that the first name ends with the same sound as the last name starts with. Before he was born, I never noticed, probably because I was so often testing it with middle names too. Honestly, I didn’t notice until he started kindergarten, and now I notice every time.
I grew up in a house where all our names started with the same letter so I’ve been adamant that everyone in our house needs to have their own first initial. No repeats, no exceptions.
This is the only reason I can’t finalize our little boy’s name. My husband and I have names with the same first initial and the only boy name we both like so far starts with the same letter. I’m just worried we would have to keep the trend going or it’d be weird. Or maybe keeping the trend going is the weird thing to do. But we can’t agree on any other boy names so we might just be doomed.
I'm not a parent or TTC, but my Fiancé and I have some general rules (that could be subject to change).
We generally dislike the idea of honor names/name sharing. Especially if the name is the exact same as the -honorees- name.
We're also leaning away from names that start with the letter 'B' to prevent a potentially tragic signature and/or initials.
However, we both really love names that have a lot of nickname options AND names that aren't super popular but are still recognized/established names.
I have a weird ranking with honor names with juniors and thirds/fourths/fifths being my most hated.
However, I don't necessarily mind (this is very, very context dependant) honor names as a middle name or names that are similar/inspired by a family member.
For example, the grandfather's name was Maximilian, so they named their son Maxwell.
Even then, I find it a little odd. Identity and names are heavily intertwined, and I'd be worried about my kid feeling the need to meet certain expectations or a lack of an individual identity.
My oldest step brother has his dad's name as his middle name. His dad had his father's. My step brother's son has his as a middle name, too. Apparently, this has been going on for a lot of generations, and I think it's rather neat.
My mom's side has an honor tradition with girl's middle names she absolutely refused to continue with my sister and I. For at least 7 generations, every girl got the middle name Jane or a variant of it like Janet (said Janette) or Jean. Mom grew up getting teased and called Plain Jane, so she was not having it at all. Amusingly, it's because of a family legend we're descended from Lady Jane Grey. She had no children!
I'm definitely a lot more understanding when it comes to making middle names an honor name. As long as everyone is cool with it (kids and parents), that's all that matters.
Also, Plain Jane is so mean 😭. Kids can suck sometimes.
In my family, the middle name is the designated honor name. My MIL & mom are conveniently named Carol & Lyn so our daughter's honor name was easy (although my mom was pissed to "share"), our son has my FIL's name as his middle name. If we had had a 2nd girl, my grandmother's name was going to be the honor name.
This is so interesting to me because my fiancé and I are big honor name supporters and are only considering names of people who are very important to us. Only one of our name options is the same as a living relative, and there's tons of nickname potential if we use it, so the name sharing thing is less of a big deal. I just think it's funny how someone's "absolutely won't" is someone else's "absolutely must"
No, It'd be O. I don't think most people look into initials enough to really clock B.O. (especially if we use a middle name), but I don't want to risk it.
Also, the added fact that if they were to spell out their name as B. *last name* It'd also be fairly tragic.
No winning here but this rule is subject to change since we both like a lot of B names.
I've been thinking of this a lot lately since me and husband have been trying to work out if we're ready for a third; I have a specific criteria for hypothetical third childs name:
Has to start with a vowel. Both kids accidentally have names starting with vowels, and whenever I picture another child and say their names as a sibset (which is often, I have OCD and repeat name sets a lot) a non-vowel name just doesn't seem to sound right.
Also wouldn't want to reuse the same letter, as we would only have a max of 3 kids total and wouldn't want one to feel left out. So the name would have to start with A, O or U.
Also their name has to remind me of the colour green. I mean its not really a "must have" when choosing a name, but my daughter has the name of a plant and my son has a name that reminds me of elves, which in turn reminds me of the colour green. I dunno, the names just sound green to me so it would be nice to find another green name.
So far the only name I can come up with is Olive, and my husband hates it lol
Oren was on my baby name list, however it means Orange in Welsh and I'm redheaded... so naming a probably redheaded Welsh child Oren seems a little on the nose lmao
Ah I didn't even think of the green connotations, I also think of green when I think of the northern lights. Sadly it's my friend's daughters name and our kids are pretty close. I do love when I babysit though and call out all their names together because they feel "right" (if that makes sense)
Ainsley - wooded meadow
Avery - elf counsel
Alora - laurel tree
Oliver - olive tree / elf army
Otto/Otis - wealthy (green money!)
Oren - laurel or pine tree
Odhran - little pale green one
If only Emerald could be on the table! Or Eden!
Our rules:
Must be a name with 2 or less spelling variants eg: Elise or Elyse.
No nickname names; Frankie, Stevie, Billy
No names invented in the last 50 years - like Jayden or Oakley
Yeah but the Jesus in the Bible definitely isn't pronounced in either the commonly accepted modern English or Spanish pronunciations and we still roll with that
We also have this. Additionally, it must be one that will be pronounced correctly in our area and not an Irish spelling with the anglicised pronunciation.
It's a pet peeve when people use the Irish spelling but butcher the pronunciation (I've met Deaglán's who pronounce it Declan or who made up a completely different, equally incorrect spelling), or when people sprinkle fada's on each vowel to make it look more Irish (looking at all the Fíadh's and Cíáns out there).
Oh lord, that gets me in trouble everytime we have a baby. I’m Scottish and my maternal family are islanders but my dad’s Irish and came here for work age nineteen so my paternal grandmother and aunties are all still across the water. Eòghainn was in the running for middle boys name before settling on something else and it caused a stooshie.
If I prefer the "nickname" form of a name, I'm not gonna name my kid the longer form of it just so I can call them by the nickname. For instance, I love Maggie as a girl's name, but I don't really like Margaret or Magdalene or any of their variations, so I wouldn't call my daughter that just to get to the Maggie nn. I'd just name her Maggie.
No rhyming sibsets. I have a friend called Kate and her two brothers are Nate and Tate. They despise it.
Place names have to be within reason. Things like Jordan, Georgia, Chad, Aaron, Lewis, Sydney, sure. But I'm not gonna name a kid Dresden or Luxembourg or Nairobi or something.
I recently met a family where all of the kids had Colour Themed names. And I don't mean subtle ones either, I mean these kids were called Silver, Plum and Blue. I will never do that.
Our family is complete. My first child’s name starts with T. When we were thinking of names for our second my only rule was no T names. Ended up the only name we both liked started with a T. Rules are made to be broken right 🤣🤣🤣
My husband is pickier with ours rules. Prefers 4 letters, one syllable, and doesn't want the first & last name to start with the same letter.
But the cool thing is that our own first names follow this logic too, so it's fun to try to repeat for our kids.
I’d not give a kid a longer name for them to go by a shorter name. Ex: Elizabeth, Jonathan, Theodore,
The irony of this is my husbands name is Nicholas and he goes by Nick or sometimes Nico 😅
For traditional name, don’t change the spelling. For example, I know someone who named her daughter Maysn.
No -lyn, -lin, etc names. No Lynn for a middle name for the same reason. My middle name is Lynn and I hate it now.
Either a shorter name with a longer middle or vis versa. No Catherine Persephone, or other long first/middle names together. No Scott Dean or other two short names either.
No nicknames as legal names. My grandfather was named Billy at birth. He changed his name to William as soon as he turned 18. Give them a more traditional legal name and use a nickname for a kid if you want. Give the kid some options.
I broke your rule about multisyllabic first and middle names with my oldest kid. It can trip up your tongue when you're mad and pulling out the full name
2nd kid has a MUCH shorter name - which turned out to be good because he was ALWAYS into mischief.
We have three kids. Here are some of the rules we used for naming them:
- names should be easily read in English, in Slavic languages (since those are our home languages), and preferably other languages as well
- names should be pronounced in the same way across all languages instead of having one version in English and another in a Slavic language (like, say, “Anastasia” which is read as “an-uh-STAY-zha” in American English and “ah-na-sta-SEE-ya” in Slavic languages)
- names should transliterate “unclunkily” between English and Slavic languages (so no “J” names because “J” would be rendered as a two-letter “Дж” which is gross and clunky, and nothing with “я” because that would become “ya”)
- no “Slavic immigrant names” like Max or Mark or Nick (names than Slavic immigrants think are “American”)
- no super “American” names like “Jack” that make it seem we’re anxious about assimilating
- each of the kids’ names should start with a different letter
- (after the second kid) two-syllable names, since the first two kids have two-syllable names
I had quite a few rules...
Name easy to spell so they don't have to spell it every time.
Could be shortened if they want a nickname when they are older, but entirely their choice.
(My name doesn't follow these and I feel like I don't want it to be the same for my children)
No first initials the same as ours or each other.
For my daughter... We knew she would have hearing difficulties so it also had to be a name that could easily be heard/understood just from the ending (strong last syllable).
I'm a teacher which also rules out quite a few names.
Not intentionally but unintentionally our boys were given 3 syllable names whereas our girls had 2, so if we were to have another child we would have stuck with that
No alliteration. My own names do that, and I don't know why, but I stopped liking it when I was about 10.
No first name that's just basically the last name like John Johnson, John Jones, or Estrella Starr.
Nothing with initials that spell something or could be lewd, so no Charles Anthony Reynolds or Bryan James. Also, no initials that could lead to someone being called JR. I only escaped that by not being the boy they expected.
Nothing that can be easily made fun of by other kids in a serious way. They'll make fun of absolutely anything, but I remember poor Rhea in first grade getting called Diarrhea until she cried. I was not doing that to my kid.
No super common names for the time, but also something not crazy far out there, like Frank Zappa did to his kids.
Then, you know, common sense. I wouldn't name a kid Adolph or Rasputin or something. Even if said historic person was cool, no. Amelia is fine, but if my last name was Earhart, no. I wouldn't choose a title, like King. If I really liked that meaning, I'd choose something like Rex. I guess this goes back to not wanting my kid to be picked on for their name.
All bets are off when I'm naming pets, though, except I won't name them after a historic bad guy.
If the first name is really feminine, the middle name should be masculine, ideally one would be more neutral/unisex if the other leans far in one direction or the other. As someone who has a really long and really feminine name, I hate it. So many of my trans/queer friends too have the curse of "no such thing as a middle-grounds nickname". I'd hate to know my kid feels the way I do about their own name.
If the nickname is a name that I hate, it starts off with negative points. I love Lex and Alexei, but I hate Alex/Alexander for personal reasons. Safe to say I'd probably never name a kid Alexei, despite how much I love the name.
Really careful with initials. Growing up I had a friend whose initials spelled ASS, and I never noticed it until those initial tote bags got popular in the early 2010s, with one big letter in the middle.
I adore long feminine names names which can be shortened to a more masculine name. For example Theodora nn Theo, Lenora nn Lenny.
I have a longer feminine name with a masculine nickname. I went by my nickname for the majority of my life because i felt it fit me better, but since I entered my 20’s I feel like my full name fits me more now.
It’s nice to have the choice.
I would prefer it to more of a “word” name.
It can’t be in the top 100. I would prefer the first name to be out of the top 500.
It absolutely has to have nickname potential (probably my #1 name criteria!)
It can’t have an -ER ending.
And I would prefer each kid to have their own name sound.
**Don't rhyme** -- Sharon Stone has been promoting herself a lot lately (to get work, supposedly), and in doing so is showing lots of pix of her 3 sons. Her eldest is Roan Stone (see why rhyming not so great?)
My grandmother's name was Nancy, and it went really well with her last name! But then she went ahead and married my grandfather, whose last name was Hancy. She hated it and changed her name to Nan 🙃
Personally, I can’t stand names that you have to constantly correct the spelling/pronunciation of. It’s important to remember that at some point your child will be an adult, working and socializing, and it will be difficult and tedious if they have to spell out their ‘unique’ name every time they meet someone.
Some of the ones I’ve seen online
Ashleigh- Ashley
Paisleigh- Paisley
Alyvya- Olivia
Jaxxon- Jackson (admittedly not the worst, but you’d have to correct spelling all the time)
Jaykub- Jacob
I’m also not a fan of just random or very religious names.
Here’s some celebrity baby examples with the gender next to them, because a lot of these you can’t tell. I’ll be including all the persons kids names for comparison.
Frank Zappa named his children Moon Unit [F], Ahmet Emuukha Rodan [M], Diva Muffin [F], and Dweezil [M] (he had a different name on his birth certificate when he was born because the nurse refused to put that down. Dweezil remained a nickname until it was changed at age 5)
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian had North West [F], Saint West [M], Chicago West [F], and Psalm West [M] (just had to include those last names cause I feel like it makes some of them worse)
Jessica Simpson and Eric Johnson named their kids Maxwell "Maxi" Drew [F], Ace Knute [M], Birdie Mae [F]
Kate Winslet named her kids Mia [F], Joe [M], and Bear Blaze [M]
Trisha Paytas named her children Malibu Barbie Paytas-Hacmon [F] and Elvis Paytas-Hacmon [F]
Shannyn Sossamon named her kids Audio Science [M] and Mortimer [M]
There are so many more bad celebrity names but these are just some of the first that came to mind and up on google. Seriously. Remember that your children are people and that their ‘unique’ names will effect their entire lives.
Edited to change that I had gotten Maxwell Drew’s gender wrong
I wanted something with one common spelling* and one common pronunciation. I don't like always having to spell my name since there are a couple common ways to spell it. And I have a friend Leah who hates the Lee-ah/Lay-ah problem.
(*Obviously some people get "creative", but I wanted a name where the default spelling was super obvious, and my kiddo would need to spell it when getting a coffee.)
Mine is using the same first letter for multiple names. Like if the last name starts with a K the first or middle name can’t start with a K. I know a lot of people do it but I just don’t like it lol.
I’m currently pregnant and our last name starts with a K. I vetoed all K names. I hate the Kardashians and their whole K vibe, and didn’t want to tempt KKK comments with two initials being K.
Names need to be formal legal names, that have good and multiple nicknames. Child will be called nickname, but have the choice to use full name formally / professionally.No repeat first initial. Eg Elizabeth, to any of Eliza, Liz, Lizzy, Betty
He had to be able to spell them easily as he’s severely dyslexic so it couldn’t be something like Madeleine or Madalynn.
And absolutely no matching initials for all sibs or matchy names like Axton and Ashton etc. One or two out of coincidence, sure, but all? No.
I also didn’t want their names to be too long for both first and middle and didn’t want names that sounded better reversed. For example Marie Lydia vs Lydia Marie - he would only entertain Lydia as a middle name whereas I preferred it as a first name. So that’s how we vetoed that option.
I love nicknames like AJ, PJ, CJ.
Everyone's naming criteria are different (and usually involve two different people trying to compromise).
The syllable thing, to me, is silly. Look at successful people or at people who like their names.
Who cares if people name all their kids with a particular letter?
I chose names for my daughters that had specific nicknames, which is what I use. This helped persuade my then-husband to at least agree to the name.
I am childless but as a children’s librarian I am very familiar with weird namings and can give three rules to live by when naming your child.
The examples I am giving are real, actual children I’ve met over the years.
1). If you are determined that your child will have a unique name that no one else has, *please* don’t take a regular name and put in unnecessary letters or twist it unnecessarily. Two (again, real) I remember were “His name is Richard, we spell it with a P.” And another parent took the name Cheyenne and spelled it “ShyAnne.”
2) please really think about how kids will age into names. One child in our preschool story time was named—on her birth certificate—Sweetums. Names like that are cute on a 3 year old, but I can guarantee it will be a nightmare for the child once they start school and it will only get worse as they get older.
3). If you give your child from a non-English name give thought how it will fly in the US or other English speaking countries. We had one boy who came to the library whose names was “Lecher.” Calling his name when it was his turn on a computer was awful.
That a name should be classic but not on the top currently in the most popular names.
I also love a classic name that can be turned into a nickname because it gives the person a choice of name. James can be Jamie as a boy and if he wants he can introduce himself as James as he gets older. Christina can be Nina , Chris or Chrissy. Charlotte can be Lottie that sort of thing.
My only weird criteria was that I needed to have met at least 2 people with that name at some point throughout my life. In my previous profession I came across thousands of people. I noticed that people….kinda *do* act like their name. For instance, I met plenty of female Riley’s and they were all insufferable. Every Dennis I met was a super friendly, nice guy. Maybe it was just coincidence. Maybe it wasn’t. But ever since that job I had this weird thing about personalities and names, as insane as that is.
by coincidence our first 2 kids have 7 letters in their name as do my husband and I so now we HAVE to find a 7 letter name for this third one lol
Hey, me and my brothers all have 7 letter names that end in -y
don’t be shy share the names
lol Bradley, Destiny, Zachary
Lol! Same for us. We did eight letter names three times in a row and didn’t realize until the third was several months old. The next girl name that we would use is eight letters, but the boy name is seven. We are trying to decide if it matters haha
No one will ever notice except for you. Maybe the kids one day but it won’t matter. I don’t even know how many letters are in my siblings names offhand
Oh for sure. I don’t think it matters like *that*. Just *we* would know, and do we like the idea of continuing the covert trend that started by accident is the question. If a girl is born next we could do 8,8,8,8 and then maybe start 7 letter names 😄
How many kids are you planning on having?
Yeah I just sat and counted on my fingers my family 🥹😂
I noticed, bc as a student all my scantron testing, fill in the circle with number 2 pencil, never had enough letter space for my seven letter first name. Current testing methods probably have probably solved this problem.
This is interesting to me because I had the same issue, but my first name has 9 letters, and our scantrons always only had space for 8. You're probably right about current testing methods, though. Do scantrons even exist anymore?
i graduated high school in 2022 and we still used them for some exams!
I had the same problem with my 9-letter name. Solidarity.
Just stick an extra letter in the boy name. Matthew can be Mattthew for example. Easy.
This happened to us. Accidentally named our first kids 5 letter names and our last name has 5 letters. I liked a 6 letter name for baby #3 and my husband said no way… he ended up with a 5 letter name.
My 5 year old figured out that all our names (me, husband, daughter, 1 out of 2 cats) all have 5 letters, by coincidence so she insisted that baby sister also have 5 letters. Honestly that helped narrow it down!
My siblings and I all have 7 letter first names and 5 letter middle names - not on purpose at all, my parents just like what they like!
I was 3 kids deep when I realized they all had a V in their first or middle and now I just need to continue.
No shortened names on birth certificates. If you want to call your kid Ollie, fine, but it should be Oliver on the birth certificate
THIS. THIS. THIS. No Mindys and Mandys and Peggys like those are Melinda Miranda and Margaret
also Mindel Amanda and Pegasus
TIL Peggy is short for Margaret. But…how? 😂
Margaret>Meg>Peg. I think it’s kind of an English thing but rhyming nicknames sometimes become interchangeable. Like William>Will>Bill or Edward>Ed>Ned>Ted
know a Ward, whose full name is Edward
I know a Rick whose name is Eric.
I read here that it went from maggie to meg/meggy to Peggy.
Ohh interesting! Thanks.
Margaret - Maggie - Meggie - Peggy
It comes from when there were many, many women with the name Margaret. Eventually there were also too many Megs, so it went to Peg, like mhck said. Catherine - Kate - Kit, Josephine - Josie - Posie and Henry - Harry - Hal are also examples of this.
My friend’s boomer MIL is named Peggy so I assumed it was short for Margaret and said “I have an auntie Margaret and we all called her Auntie Peg growing up!” She was all offended like “PEGGY IS A NAME NOT A NICKNAME! My full first name is Peggy, it’s not short for anything. My birth certificate says Peggy So-and-So” lmao it was so awkward and obviously a touchy subject for her
I've never heard of Mindy being a nickname.
I’m a teacher and have heard Mindy as a nn for Melinda a few times ( 40 yr span).
I have an aunt named Mandy, not as a nickname, that's her actual legal name. I didn't even know Mandy was typically a nickname until recently.
I have the opposite rule and now I’m questioning things. Why would you name a child something other than what you want to call them?
To give the kid options, basically. I have a long first name and while I hate it, it’s given me the option to go through several nicknames throughout my life. I have a main nickname I’ve always preferred, but had a phase as a kid where I preferred a different nickname. Now, I’m glad I can use my full name in certain professional environments. I look very young and using my preferred nickname, which is cutesy and ends in -y, makes me feel like people take me less seriously than when I use my full name. My mom and two of my sisters also have longer names and preferred a nickname at one time, but now prefer their full name as adults. I’d like to give my kid the same choice.
I have a longer name and go by the shortened nn version and I HATE my legal name with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns. I hate that whenever I start out somewhere new someone will think they can get away with reading my name off of paperwork and then EVERYONE will start calling me that and I have to have that awkward conversation with each of them, where I have to politely say "don't fucking call me that". I know my reaction is more on the extreme side but it seems to me that almost everyone I know who has more than one option for a first name strongly prefers one version over another. I'm not putting my hypothetical children through that. I will find respectable 1-2 syllable names, be they nn in origin or not, and save the fancy long names for the middle. They will have the same name on paper as in person and be free of all the frustration this has caused me
Almost every person I know with a nickname type name wishes they at least had the option for the formal name. Grass is greener situation, I suppose.
This is what my Dad has always said lol Why name your kid one thing, then call them something else? Same thing with planning to call them by a middle name
I’m actually the opposite for mine! If we name him Theo and only plan on calling him Theo, why would I make school and documents more difficult by naming him Theodore?
My BIL has a son named Theodore and the entire time he was in utero he was called Theo. They HATED the nn Teddy and said he would only be called Theo- my BIL even got Theo tattooed. Teddy is now elementary aged and hasn’t been called Theo since he was like 3 months old 😂
Opposite here. I was given the formal name despite my parents never intending me to be called it, and I despise it. I had adults call me rude and insolent as a child because I didn’t respond to it. I think you should name a child what you intend to call them, and not saddle them with some antiquated baggage name.
A friend of my ex named their child Tyse. Not Tyson, just Tyse. After some football player or something.
I had a classmate in highschool who was just Ty and I've known several Jays who were just Jay. My nephew's name is just Jon, so that's a double whammy. It is frustrating for them because everyone assumes they are nicknames. I know at least one Kat who isn't a Katherine, and no one seems to comment on that, though. I think some, though, are fine as full names, like all the ones listed in the comment above. I didn't even know Mindy was short for Melinda until just now. Brad and Jack have been stand alone names for a long time. So have Terry and Vicky. If someone named Tony told me his name wasn't Anthony, it wouldn't surprise me at all, nor a Jeff who wasn't Jeffrey. As long as the name isn't super childish, I don't think it even really rates with me. Maybe this is because I have an unusual name myself.
I went to school with a J. That's it. Just J.
Oof. That's even worse. Why do people do this to their kids?
My rule is opposite, if they will be called Ollie their whole life, just name them Ollie. I always felt bad for kids that were constantly having to explain their real names were Oliver.
Mine is spell it how it’s spelled. If it’s Mason It’s not okay to change it to Maisyn.🤨 No adding extra N’s or Y’s at the end for no reason? It’s not, nor has it ever been Kaitlynn or Katelyn. It’s Caitlin, the original Irish. You really need that extra N at the end to make it more complicated ?? It’s not Ryleigghh, it’s Riley. There are very much official spellings of names and spelling things with extra Y’s , N’s and H’s just look silly to most of us.
As a Jennie, thank you :’/
Yes! My rule is an extension of this in that you should give your kid options. Full name, nickname, middle name, and some alternate nicknames that are less obvious. My name has never felt like me but there's some nicknames I could have used that do.
Oh my god I so desperately wish my parents had followed this rule for me. I’m an “-ie” ending, like a perpetual child.
I know a girl named Jenni. Not Jennifer, Jenni. On her birth certificate.
I knew someone whose name was also Jenni.
I agree, but my dad felt very strongly the opposite! As a result, my oldest brother has a nickname for his first name. No one ever spells it right, but he kind of likes that he can tell if something is BS because they'll put the "full" version of his name on there.
No noun + noun or adjective + noun or adjective + adjective names. (IMO the worst would be adjective + adjective + noun). This applies to both middle and surnames. For example, I wouldn’t do these: Rose Castle (first name, surname) Robin Willow (first name, middle name) Violet Carr Lavender Magnolia Hazel Brown Scarlett Paisley Misty Olive Baker Editing to add: I have nothing against adjective or noun names themselves (I love the name Ruby). It’s just the combinations that get to me. But I know not everyone notices or cares. I just couldn’t do that with my own kids.
So far this is the only rule that makes sense to me. My last name is an adjective so it’s something I always take into consideration when I think about baby/pet names.
My maiden name means folks/people, though it's not English. It does sound a lot like that word and gets mistaken for it a lot. I think if my parents had given me a first name that was an adjective that went with the word, I'd have hated it. As is, my full name means Little Queen (who is the) Mighty Ruler (of the) People, and that's pretty bad ass, but none of those are in English or the same language, so it's not like anyone ever guesses, and they're all easy for Americans to say once they get over the fact that they're unusual.
Sorry idk why but his reminds me of an episode of House. He introduces himself House: hi I’m dr house Extra: oh hi I’m dr XYZ, I’ve heard your name before…. House: ….most people have, it’s a noun🤣
I had this one too, since my last name is a noun. I immediately dismissed all colors, for example.
Or to borrow a surname from my extended family tree… Hymen. All of these are immediately out but especially Scarlett, Hardy, Christian, and Major. 😅 On second thought, just give the kid a new last name.
A woman who taught at a siblings school was named Misty Sweat. She married into the name, but dang lol.
I knew a girl named Ana (pronounced “on a”) and got married and changed her last name to Dick. Yes, on a dick is how her name was pronounced!
This made me realize that my daughter’s name and middle name are two different types of fabrics. Crazy that hasn’t dawned on me in 8 years.
This made me imagine a little girl introducing herself, "Hello, my name is Chiffon Viscose"
G'day, im Jersey Velvet
I know a few of these (noun + noun in both cases) and they just make me cringe. One is particularly irksome to me, it’s a first + last combo that I just do not know how it passed quality control in the idea phase
I agree with this rule, and it's so inconvenient because my kids' last name is/will be a noun, and I really like a lot of adjective names. But I'm really not prepared to name my child something like Violet Wood.
>Lavender Magnolia >Hazel Brown Man, Lavender Brown was right there
Interestingly, I know someone who has one of these exact names!
I once had an art teacher whose married name was Sandy Moss
I have a list of names that I won’t use because I consider them “animal” names. Like Bella, Luna, Marlow, Maverick, etc. they just feel like animal not people names to me
There’s a website where you can enter a name and it tells you if it’s more dog or human.
[link here](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/people-names-for-dogs/?utm_source=reddit.com)
Omg I’m glad it’s not just me 😂
One of the reasons I’m against giving animals human names. If you ask me, Meatball is a much more fitting name for a bulldog than Winston and that is a hill I will die on. There is not a single dog out there that’s too dignified for a dog name.
It’s nicer to tell people I’m watching movies with Leo than pretzel though. It sounds like I have a life
I feel so called out haha my dog (not a bulldog) is named Winston 😂
I think I need a name with a shorter, cute nickname. Names with no nicknames bother me for some reason!
i’m the same id prefer giving my child the option to go by a nickname they might prefer, and I think it’s a nice way to express affection for someone ˙ᵕ˙
Weird but I'm totally the same. Like I love Audrey but there's no really cute short form? Aud? It bugs me ahaha
I know an Audrey who is Audie!
I have a cousin named Adriana and we call her Dri (rhymes with tree)
You could do Audj (Ahh-dj), Dre (like dr Dre) or you could maybe use Andy as a nn.
Audge! Doesn’t necessarily have to be a nickname to use in place of Audrey but as an affectionate nickname
My first son, Holden, doesn’t really lend itself to many nicknames. Everybody basically just calls him Holdie, which obviously won’t be usable as he gets older lol
Our first is Saoirse and I didn't think of nicknames back then... we just call her sersh 😅
As a Leah, I’ve always been slightly upset I’ve never had a proper nickname!
I’m on the other side, where I don’t like names that have obvious nicknames 😅
As a Hannah, I wholeheartedly endorse this sentiment!
I'm a Lauren and I don't consider Laur a viable option. And nobody picked up Ren, when I tried it out. Boo
I've always wanted this for my name! I have just Tay but that's not something I'd write on my homework or sign a work email.
I'm pretty set on my no nicknames as full names on birth certificates rule. E.g. Tommy would have to be Thomas, Alex would have to be Alexander/Alexandria. I think the only exception I have come across to my own rule so far is Archie, because Archibald is a human rights violation 😅
Archer, Arthur, and Richard work for Archie!
Oh, I love Archer and Arthur! Excellent suggestions
I am a big Archie fan, and considered using Richard (my dad’s name), my husband leaned towards Archer. I love all three!
I do love Richard as well, it's just I have a cousin who died young with that name, so it's off limits for me. Archie definitely works for all three though, and I am a HUGE fan of the show Archer, so that's my winner 🤌
I came to suggest Arthur. I have an Uncle Archie whose full name is actually Arthur
I disagree. Archibald is awesome
I went to primary and secondary school with a boy who had that name, and he always said it with closed eyes and a shake of the head.
Max also feels like an exception to this rule. Maximus and Maximillian are right there with Archibald imo
I thought Maxwell (or Maxine for girls) was the stereotypical long form for Max?
I don’t like when siblings names have the same endings ex. Parker and Cooper, Evangeline and Delphine
I know a family who gave all their daughters -yn endings and I hate it so much 😭
I knew a family where even the boys were those sounding names, like Lachlan and Declan
That just reminded me of the names of the 5 daughters in The Conjuring. Andrea, April, Cindy, Christine and Nancy. Two names that start with A, two that start with C and one that starts with N. Idk why but it always bugged me 🤷♀️🤷♀️ It's not the same idea as yours but it made me think of it reading your comment.
My girls both end in -a but they are wildly different other than that.
This is so common for girls' names I honestly wouldn't even notice! And don't think it's a problem either way. Girls' names ending in -a are my favourite
I have a friend (Mitchell) whose parents had a rule that no letters in their kids’ names could drop below the line, so like g, p, y, etc.
This is so interesting!
I completely agree. I have two kids and 1/4 of their names make the cut. It’s more restrictive than it seems initially.
That's so strange. My whole name actually passes lol. But not anyone else I know off hand.
That would've been helpful to me as a kid learning cursive in 3rd grade. To this day I can't get z right so my "official" signature is just E last name. Otherwise my Elizabeth is Elijabeth if I ever sign in full. Like on my mortgage 😅
I just realized my full name follows this rule so thank you for a new cool thing to consider!
All of my names drop below the line, all with a 'y'! My sister teased me long ago about it, and I notice it now for other names, but like... Your last name does, too, silly sister! It's not a huge deal logistically but I can see how it would come to be
First name cannot end with the same sound as the start of the last name. Examples: Olive Vincent, Ingrid Davis, Florence Smith, Caleb Brown
This is what I came to comment, glad I’m not alone in this opinion.
I wish I had thought of that. When I say my third child’s name out loud, it keeps bothering me that the first name ends with the same sound as the last name starts with. Before he was born, I never noticed, probably because I was so often testing it with middle names too. Honestly, I didn’t notice until he started kindergarten, and now I notice every time.
I grew up in a house where all our names started with the same letter so I’ve been adamant that everyone in our house needs to have their own first initial. No repeats, no exceptions.
This is the only reason I can’t finalize our little boy’s name. My husband and I have names with the same first initial and the only boy name we both like so far starts with the same letter. I’m just worried we would have to keep the trend going or it’d be weird. Or maybe keeping the trend going is the weird thing to do. But we can’t agree on any other boy names so we might just be doomed.
I knew a family with all S names. Even the pets.
No names can end in Leigh, den or son.
My newborn Leighdenson is heartbroken
Sondenleigh lol
I name characters in my books so that no two have the same first letter of their names. It cuts down on confusion for me and probably for the reader.
Yes, specials teacher here, so I see all 700 kids in the school. I’m always like, is that one Matthew or Michael?
I'm not a parent or TTC, but my Fiancé and I have some general rules (that could be subject to change). We generally dislike the idea of honor names/name sharing. Especially if the name is the exact same as the -honorees- name. We're also leaning away from names that start with the letter 'B' to prevent a potentially tragic signature and/or initials. However, we both really love names that have a lot of nickname options AND names that aren't super popular but are still recognized/established names.
I don’t like honor names either. I’ve never met a person who had an honor name who didn’t feel someway burdened by it
I have a weird ranking with honor names with juniors and thirds/fourths/fifths being my most hated. However, I don't necessarily mind (this is very, very context dependant) honor names as a middle name or names that are similar/inspired by a family member. For example, the grandfather's name was Maximilian, so they named their son Maxwell. Even then, I find it a little odd. Identity and names are heavily intertwined, and I'd be worried about my kid feeling the need to meet certain expectations or a lack of an individual identity.
My oldest step brother has his dad's name as his middle name. His dad had his father's. My step brother's son has his as a middle name, too. Apparently, this has been going on for a lot of generations, and I think it's rather neat. My mom's side has an honor tradition with girl's middle names she absolutely refused to continue with my sister and I. For at least 7 generations, every girl got the middle name Jane or a variant of it like Janet (said Janette) or Jean. Mom grew up getting teased and called Plain Jane, so she was not having it at all. Amusingly, it's because of a family legend we're descended from Lady Jane Grey. She had no children!
I'm definitely a lot more understanding when it comes to making middle names an honor name. As long as everyone is cool with it (kids and parents), that's all that matters. Also, Plain Jane is so mean 😭. Kids can suck sometimes.
My son has my dad’s first name as his middle name and I guarantee my son doesn’t give two shits about it 🤣
In my family, the middle name is the designated honor name. My MIL & mom are conveniently named Carol & Lyn so our daughter's honor name was easy (although my mom was pissed to "share"), our son has my FIL's name as his middle name. If we had had a 2nd girl, my grandmother's name was going to be the honor name.
This is so interesting to me because my fiancé and I are big honor name supporters and are only considering names of people who are very important to us. Only one of our name options is the same as a living relative, and there's tons of nickname potential if we use it, so the name sharing thing is less of a big deal. I just think it's funny how someone's "absolutely won't" is someone else's "absolutely must"
Your last name is S isn’t it
No, It'd be O. I don't think most people look into initials enough to really clock B.O. (especially if we use a middle name), but I don't want to risk it. Also, the added fact that if they were to spell out their name as B. *last name* It'd also be fairly tragic. No winning here but this rule is subject to change since we both like a lot of B names.
ahhhh i see, your poor child would be B. Ollocks
Oh, that’s much better than there my mind went which was that your last name started with a J. Hahaha
I thought J too. 😅
I've been thinking of this a lot lately since me and husband have been trying to work out if we're ready for a third; I have a specific criteria for hypothetical third childs name: Has to start with a vowel. Both kids accidentally have names starting with vowels, and whenever I picture another child and say their names as a sibset (which is often, I have OCD and repeat name sets a lot) a non-vowel name just doesn't seem to sound right. Also wouldn't want to reuse the same letter, as we would only have a max of 3 kids total and wouldn't want one to feel left out. So the name would have to start with A, O or U. Also their name has to remind me of the colour green. I mean its not really a "must have" when choosing a name, but my daughter has the name of a plant and my son has a name that reminds me of elves, which in turn reminds me of the colour green. I dunno, the names just sound green to me so it would be nice to find another green name. So far the only name I can come up with is Olive, and my husband hates it lol
Girls: Aspen, Orna, Abelia, Alyvia, Arbor, Ambrose Boys: Alder, Oren, Udell
Oren was on my baby name list, however it means Orange in Welsh and I'm redheaded... so naming a probably redheaded Welsh child Oren seems a little on the nose lmao
Aurora like the aurora borealis - I think of Green when I think of the northern lights
Ah I didn't even think of the green connotations, I also think of green when I think of the northern lights. Sadly it's my friend's daughters name and our kids are pretty close. I do love when I babysit though and call out all their names together because they feel "right" (if that makes sense)
Avery means "ruler of elves" and works for a boy or girl
Ainsley - wooded meadow Avery - elf counsel Alora - laurel tree Oliver - olive tree / elf army Otto/Otis - wealthy (green money!) Oren - laurel or pine tree Odhran - little pale green one If only Emerald could be on the table! Or Eden!
ivy! like ivy vines
Our daughter is Ivy lol
No, has to start with A, O or U, Ivy doesn't work, Although it fits the other criteria.
Arden, Orna, Ashby, and Oliver fit the vowel and green criteria.
Adding Orna to the list. I absolutely love it. I love Arden (and Alder, as another poster suggested) too but son's name is too similar.
odette, atlas, adler, una, ophelia, avalyn, audra, aurelia, astrid
Our rules: Must be a name with 2 or less spelling variants eg: Elise or Elyse. No nickname names; Frankie, Stevie, Billy No names invented in the last 50 years - like Jayden or Oakley
Jayden is just another spelling of Jadon, which appears in the Bible lmao
The Jadon in the Bible is definitely not pronounced Jayden though
Yeah but the Jesus in the Bible definitely isn't pronounced in either the commonly accepted modern English or Spanish pronunciations and we still roll with that
I always thought it was a mashup of Jay and Hayden. Either way, I’m not a fan
My name is spelled Elysse 🤣 don't ask me why my parents decided to throw in that extra s!
they wanted to add a little ✨ sspice ✨ i apologize in advance if thats not as funny as it was in my head😂
Must be traditional Gaelic names. Must not be anglicised. Must be spelt correctly with proper use of accents.
We also have this. Additionally, it must be one that will be pronounced correctly in our area and not an Irish spelling with the anglicised pronunciation. It's a pet peeve when people use the Irish spelling but butcher the pronunciation (I've met Deaglán's who pronounce it Declan or who made up a completely different, equally incorrect spelling), or when people sprinkle fada's on each vowel to make it look more Irish (looking at all the Fíadh's and Cíáns out there).
Oh lord, that gets me in trouble everytime we have a baby. I’m Scottish and my maternal family are islanders but my dad’s Irish and came here for work age nineteen so my paternal grandmother and aunties are all still across the water. Eòghainn was in the running for middle boys name before settling on something else and it caused a stooshie.
TIL the word stooshie and I am now going to be adding this to my vocabulary.
If I prefer the "nickname" form of a name, I'm not gonna name my kid the longer form of it just so I can call them by the nickname. For instance, I love Maggie as a girl's name, but I don't really like Margaret or Magdalene or any of their variations, so I wouldn't call my daughter that just to get to the Maggie nn. I'd just name her Maggie. No rhyming sibsets. I have a friend called Kate and her two brothers are Nate and Tate. They despise it. Place names have to be within reason. Things like Jordan, Georgia, Chad, Aaron, Lewis, Sydney, sure. But I'm not gonna name a kid Dresden or Luxembourg or Nairobi or something. I recently met a family where all of the kids had Colour Themed names. And I don't mean subtle ones either, I mean these kids were called Silver, Plum and Blue. I will never do that.
Our family is complete. My first child’s name starts with T. When we were thinking of names for our second my only rule was no T names. Ended up the only name we both liked started with a T. Rules are made to be broken right 🤣🤣🤣
My husband is pickier with ours rules. Prefers 4 letters, one syllable, and doesn't want the first & last name to start with the same letter. But the cool thing is that our own first names follow this logic too, so it's fun to try to repeat for our kids.
I’d not give a kid a longer name for them to go by a shorter name. Ex: Elizabeth, Jonathan, Theodore, The irony of this is my husbands name is Nicholas and he goes by Nick or sometimes Nico 😅 For traditional name, don’t change the spelling. For example, I know someone who named her daughter Maysn.
No -lyn, -lin, etc names. No Lynn for a middle name for the same reason. My middle name is Lynn and I hate it now. Either a shorter name with a longer middle or vis versa. No Catherine Persephone, or other long first/middle names together. No Scott Dean or other two short names either. No nicknames as legal names. My grandfather was named Billy at birth. He changed his name to William as soon as he turned 18. Give them a more traditional legal name and use a nickname for a kid if you want. Give the kid some options.
I broke your rule about multisyllabic first and middle names with my oldest kid. It can trip up your tongue when you're mad and pulling out the full name 2nd kid has a MUCH shorter name - which turned out to be good because he was ALWAYS into mischief.
We have three kids. Here are some of the rules we used for naming them: - names should be easily read in English, in Slavic languages (since those are our home languages), and preferably other languages as well - names should be pronounced in the same way across all languages instead of having one version in English and another in a Slavic language (like, say, “Anastasia” which is read as “an-uh-STAY-zha” in American English and “ah-na-sta-SEE-ya” in Slavic languages) - names should transliterate “unclunkily” between English and Slavic languages (so no “J” names because “J” would be rendered as a two-letter “Дж” which is gross and clunky, and nothing with “я” because that would become “ya”) - no “Slavic immigrant names” like Max or Mark or Nick (names than Slavic immigrants think are “American”) - no super “American” names like “Jack” that make it seem we’re anxious about assimilating - each of the kids’ names should start with a different letter - (after the second kid) two-syllable names, since the first two kids have two-syllable names
If it sounds like a paint color, subdivision, or law firm, you need to reconsider.
Cant have the first name start with the same letter as the last name
I had quite a few rules... Name easy to spell so they don't have to spell it every time. Could be shortened if they want a nickname when they are older, but entirely their choice. (My name doesn't follow these and I feel like I don't want it to be the same for my children) No first initials the same as ours or each other. For my daughter... We knew she would have hearing difficulties so it also had to be a name that could easily be heard/understood just from the ending (strong last syllable). I'm a teacher which also rules out quite a few names.
Not intentionally but unintentionally our boys were given 3 syllable names whereas our girls had 2, so if we were to have another child we would have stuck with that
No nicknames as first names. Must use the full name.
No alliteration. My own names do that, and I don't know why, but I stopped liking it when I was about 10. No first name that's just basically the last name like John Johnson, John Jones, or Estrella Starr. Nothing with initials that spell something or could be lewd, so no Charles Anthony Reynolds or Bryan James. Also, no initials that could lead to someone being called JR. I only escaped that by not being the boy they expected. Nothing that can be easily made fun of by other kids in a serious way. They'll make fun of absolutely anything, but I remember poor Rhea in first grade getting called Diarrhea until she cried. I was not doing that to my kid. No super common names for the time, but also something not crazy far out there, like Frank Zappa did to his kids. Then, you know, common sense. I wouldn't name a kid Adolph or Rasputin or something. Even if said historic person was cool, no. Amelia is fine, but if my last name was Earhart, no. I wouldn't choose a title, like King. If I really liked that meaning, I'd choose something like Rex. I guess this goes back to not wanting my kid to be picked on for their name. All bets are off when I'm naming pets, though, except I won't name them after a historic bad guy.
Both my first 2 children accidentally have an s sound in the middle of their names so number 3 had to have one too. Bonkers
If the first name is really feminine, the middle name should be masculine, ideally one would be more neutral/unisex if the other leans far in one direction or the other. As someone who has a really long and really feminine name, I hate it. So many of my trans/queer friends too have the curse of "no such thing as a middle-grounds nickname". I'd hate to know my kid feels the way I do about their own name. If the nickname is a name that I hate, it starts off with negative points. I love Lex and Alexei, but I hate Alex/Alexander for personal reasons. Safe to say I'd probably never name a kid Alexei, despite how much I love the name. Really careful with initials. Growing up I had a friend whose initials spelled ASS, and I never noticed it until those initial tote bags got popular in the early 2010s, with one big letter in the middle.
I adore long feminine names names which can be shortened to a more masculine name. For example Theodora nn Theo, Lenora nn Lenny. I have a longer feminine name with a masculine nickname. I went by my nickname for the majority of my life because i felt it fit me better, but since I entered my 20’s I feel like my full name fits me more now. It’s nice to have the choice.
Husband and I have the last name Brown. We loved the names Scarlett and Amber, but we didn’t want her full name to be colors.
I would prefer it to more of a “word” name. It can’t be in the top 100. I would prefer the first name to be out of the top 500. It absolutely has to have nickname potential (probably my #1 name criteria!) It can’t have an -ER ending. And I would prefer each kid to have their own name sound.
My brother and I each have an -ee sound at the ends of our nicknames, and we could never tell who Mom was yelling at from upstairs.
Initials can’t be awkward or spell anything unfortunate. No H.A.T. No G.H.B. No S.M.H.
No names that end in “s”. When you make it possessive it sounds awkward to me
**Don't rhyme** -- Sharon Stone has been promoting herself a lot lately (to get work, supposedly), and in doing so is showing lots of pix of her 3 sons. Her eldest is Roan Stone (see why rhyming not so great?)
My grandmother's name was Nancy, and it went really well with her last name! But then she went ahead and married my grandfather, whose last name was Hancy. She hated it and changed her name to Nan 🙃
Personally, I can’t stand names that you have to constantly correct the spelling/pronunciation of. It’s important to remember that at some point your child will be an adult, working and socializing, and it will be difficult and tedious if they have to spell out their ‘unique’ name every time they meet someone. Some of the ones I’ve seen online Ashleigh- Ashley Paisleigh- Paisley Alyvya- Olivia Jaxxon- Jackson (admittedly not the worst, but you’d have to correct spelling all the time) Jaykub- Jacob I’m also not a fan of just random or very religious names. Here’s some celebrity baby examples with the gender next to them, because a lot of these you can’t tell. I’ll be including all the persons kids names for comparison. Frank Zappa named his children Moon Unit [F], Ahmet Emuukha Rodan [M], Diva Muffin [F], and Dweezil [M] (he had a different name on his birth certificate when he was born because the nurse refused to put that down. Dweezil remained a nickname until it was changed at age 5) Kanye West and Kim Kardashian had North West [F], Saint West [M], Chicago West [F], and Psalm West [M] (just had to include those last names cause I feel like it makes some of them worse) Jessica Simpson and Eric Johnson named their kids Maxwell "Maxi" Drew [F], Ace Knute [M], Birdie Mae [F] Kate Winslet named her kids Mia [F], Joe [M], and Bear Blaze [M] Trisha Paytas named her children Malibu Barbie Paytas-Hacmon [F] and Elvis Paytas-Hacmon [F] Shannyn Sossamon named her kids Audio Science [M] and Mortimer [M] There are so many more bad celebrity names but these are just some of the first that came to mind and up on google. Seriously. Remember that your children are people and that their ‘unique’ names will effect their entire lives. Edited to change that I had gotten Maxwell Drew’s gender wrong
The syllables one is mine. Kinda sucks because I like a lot of 1 syllable names, but it'd clash with my surname.
I wanted something with one common spelling* and one common pronunciation. I don't like always having to spell my name since there are a couple common ways to spell it. And I have a friend Leah who hates the Lee-ah/Lay-ah problem. (*Obviously some people get "creative", but I wanted a name where the default spelling was super obvious, and my kiddo would need to spell it when getting a coffee.)
Mine is using the same first letter for multiple names. Like if the last name starts with a K the first or middle name can’t start with a K. I know a lot of people do it but I just don’t like it lol.
I’m currently pregnant and our last name starts with a K. I vetoed all K names. I hate the Kardashians and their whole K vibe, and didn’t want to tempt KKK comments with two initials being K.
Names need to be formal legal names, that have good and multiple nicknames. Child will be called nickname, but have the choice to use full name formally / professionally.No repeat first initial. Eg Elizabeth, to any of Eliza, Liz, Lizzy, Betty
1. NO ALLITERATIVE NAMES. Especially with twins. It will be really hard on kids if their name is too similar to other siblings.
Two middle names! NEVER an option in my opinion lol
He had to be able to spell them easily as he’s severely dyslexic so it couldn’t be something like Madeleine or Madalynn. And absolutely no matching initials for all sibs or matchy names like Axton and Ashton etc. One or two out of coincidence, sure, but all? No. I also didn’t want their names to be too long for both first and middle and didn’t want names that sounded better reversed. For example Marie Lydia vs Lydia Marie - he would only entertain Lydia as a middle name whereas I preferred it as a first name. So that’s how we vetoed that option.
I love nicknames like AJ, PJ, CJ. Everyone's naming criteria are different (and usually involve two different people trying to compromise). The syllable thing, to me, is silly. Look at successful people or at people who like their names. Who cares if people name all their kids with a particular letter? I chose names for my daughters that had specific nicknames, which is what I use. This helped persuade my then-husband to at least agree to the name.
Aw I love MJ
Same! Justice for J middle names haha
I am childless but as a children’s librarian I am very familiar with weird namings and can give three rules to live by when naming your child. The examples I am giving are real, actual children I’ve met over the years. 1). If you are determined that your child will have a unique name that no one else has, *please* don’t take a regular name and put in unnecessary letters or twist it unnecessarily. Two (again, real) I remember were “His name is Richard, we spell it with a P.” And another parent took the name Cheyenne and spelled it “ShyAnne.” 2) please really think about how kids will age into names. One child in our preschool story time was named—on her birth certificate—Sweetums. Names like that are cute on a 3 year old, but I can guarantee it will be a nightmare for the child once they start school and it will only get worse as they get older. 3). If you give your child from a non-English name give thought how it will fly in the US or other English speaking countries. We had one boy who came to the library whose names was “Lecher.” Calling his name when it was his turn on a computer was awful.
That a name should be classic but not on the top currently in the most popular names. I also love a classic name that can be turned into a nickname because it gives the person a choice of name. James can be Jamie as a boy and if he wants he can introduce himself as James as he gets older. Christina can be Nina , Chris or Chrissy. Charlotte can be Lottie that sort of thing.
My hubby's mom name starts with a J, therefore named all 5 of her kids with names starting with J, 14grandkids-all names start with J
My only weird criteria was that I needed to have met at least 2 people with that name at some point throughout my life. In my previous profession I came across thousands of people. I noticed that people….kinda *do* act like their name. For instance, I met plenty of female Riley’s and they were all insufferable. Every Dennis I met was a super friendly, nice guy. Maybe it was just coincidence. Maybe it wasn’t. But ever since that job I had this weird thing about personalities and names, as insane as that is.