206 Comments Add your own

• 1. Nicole  |  July 8th, 2009 at 10:10 pm

  Shannon. Because that’s the only name that two type A personalities could even vaguely agree on.

• 2. Lane  |  July 8th, 2009 at 10:14 pm

  Liam Joseph and Grace Avanelle. Avanelle is my grandmother’s name.

• 3. amandam  |  July 8th, 2009 at 10:24 pm

  No kids, though I do have a “uniquely named” cat (Calvin Klein) – but wanted to say that Samantha is a perfect, beautiful name that I missed by *squinching fingers together* this much when my mother 180′d at the last minute. And the drunk homeless tent-dwelling folk – oh jeebus, not good!!!!!!!!

• 4. Marie Green  |  July 8th, 2009 at 10:26 pm

  First of all, I have to tell you that I know another woman named Johnna (her spelling). And she’s married to a guy named John. TRUE STORY. If she has a baby named Sam, I’m going to start to wonder if the two of you should meet.

  So, my daughters’ real names are: Anna, Rachel, and Leah. I still like them all (the names that is, not the children themselves), and I guess I like the slightly older more timeless and classic names. If we have a boy, his name will be/would have been either Charlie or Milo. At least, if I have any say, and since my hubs trumped me on Leah, I think I have a trump to play too.

• 5. Slynnro  |  July 8th, 2009 at 10:31 pm

  Dude. You know my real name. I long dreamt of having a bike license plate. Which is why I will be naming my theoretical baby the name of another sex and the city character.

• 6. Brenda  |  July 8th, 2009 at 10:33 pm

  My kids’ names are Quin Perry (girl) and Tabitha Rose (also girl, in case that’s not clear ) They are 12 and 10 and I still like their names, which is good. I’m with you on the whole alternative spelling thing. It’s got to stop, people.

• 7. She Likes Purple  |  July 8th, 2009 at 10:34 pm

  Well, you know, but my kid is Kyle Parker. Kyle was my choice since I won naming rights for the boy before we knew what we were having. Mike got to pick the middle name.

  Our girl choice was more or less Sloan. My god, I’m embarrassed to say this, but it was after the character on Entourage.

  My real girl name of choice, though — the name I love so much, and had picked out for YEARS and YEARS before meeting Mike who just plain hates it — is Caris. It’ll never happen (sigh), especially with this last name I got stuck with.

  Also, LOVE Brooke. One of my favorite girl names.

  If we have another boy, I really like Reid. And hopefully the Bachelorette will be unremembered by then because I HAD IT FIRST.

  (I love talking baby names. Can you tell?)

  Finally, to make you laugh, my best friend worked in a NICU for awhile, and the best name story she has is the name La-a. The doctor came in and said, “La … a?” And the mother said, “No, it’s pronounced LADASHA.” TRUE. STORY.

• 8. -R-  |  July 8th, 2009 at 10:35 pm

  I love 80s names too! I love Jason for a boy, which everyone else seems to think is weird, but I love it.

  The two boy names H and I agreed on were Warren and Bennett, and the three girl names were Mallory, Molly, and Shannon.

  I hate hate hate Y abuse. I even hate Mikayla (arguably an appropriate use of Y), which has become more popular than Michaela. This bothers me.

  I love the name Samantha and the nickname Sam.

• 9. -R-  |  July 8th, 2009 at 10:37 pm

  OH MY GOD, JENNIE! My mom works with someone who has a baby named J-er, pronounced JAYDASHER!

• 10. Rhi  |  July 8th, 2009 at 10:42 pm

  No kids, though I do have a cat named Gelsey, named after the ballerina Gelsey Kirkland.

  A couple things: I wish my parents had thought a bit more about naming me Rhiannon. EVERY other week in our all staff meeting at work, I have to correct people on the pronunciation of my name. I’d let it go, but I worked for two years for a woman who couldn’t pronounce my name and I totally resented her for it. So, I promised myself I’d correct people.

  And, lastly: I was recently at Crater Lake and while perusing the rack of personalized wooden pocket knives, I noticed that you could buy one and send it away and they would ENGRAVE YOUR NAME FOR YOU. Now, I have no need for a pocket knife, but do you know how tempting this was?

• 11. heathercoo  |  July 8th, 2009 at 10:49 pm

  I currently do not have children but my girl name has been picked out forever. I love, love, love Hadley Rachel. Hadley is a field of Heather and Rachel is after my grandmother who died the day before I was born.

• 12. Amanda  |  July 8th, 2009 at 10:53 pm

  How funny, the number one thing people mistakenly call me is Samantha. It must somehow sound similar to Amanda. I’m one of those strange people who’s always loved her name. I loved it even more after my last name changed and it went so well with my husband’s name.

  My son Alexander was named that because 1) we liked it (have you ever met a dumb guy named Alex? Me either.) and 2) it was my husband’s middle name.

  Genoa was named that because a friend of my brother’s had that name and we both fell in love with how perfect it sounded with our long Italian last name. (the name I’m working very hard to get unlisted from my phone number and address so I can use it on my novel – there are only about fifty of us in the entire US so I’m worried about losing my privacy…) (e-mail me if you want to know it, I think it’s beautiful). The hard part is that it’s GEN-o-a not gen-O-a and people get it wrong a lot more often than I expected they would.

  Sam actually would’ve been a contender name for me too because I like names that work for both boys and girls. Makes the girls sound more kick-ass.

  For the record, I LOVE the name Jonna. You’re the only one I know!

• 13. Julie  |  July 8th, 2009 at 10:54 pm

  My son is Samuel, also called Sam, because it was the one name Hub and I really liked all the way through the pregnancy. And we played the name game A LOT. It wasn’t until after he was born and a boy and all monikered that I remembered Samantha was my girl name of choice forever and a day.

  My daughter is Sabrina. We worked out a short list, but I refused to set a name before I saw the baby and knew it would fit. We never did have a good list of boy names, so thank goodness she came out girl. Hub made the final choice (he claims her hair had s-shaped curls, um, sure).

  The bicycle plate issue was one that was important in our search, but oddly, Sabrina is a tough find. I didn’t think it was that weird. Come on – it goes back to Charlie’s Agnels and that teenage witch, if you’re so inclined (neither were actual factors in the selection). I look at every display of personalized junk and have found it exactly once. Perhaps that’s a sign we really should have named her, more fittingly, Baby (God) Zilla.

• 14. barbetti  |  July 8th, 2009 at 11:04 pm

  I just had my son six weeks ago and we named him Dublin Russo (roo-so). Dublin because it was the only name we could agree on, both having Irish blood and Russo was my grandfather’s last name (he died right after Dublin was conceived).

  And oh boy, do I know of the many opinions people have on my son’s name. I get curled lips and “Oh…that’s….interesting” and “poor kid.” Yes, really. But you know, I carried the little guy for 43 weeks (after being hospitalized for an entire week, TWICE, due to complications), so some random stranger’s negative thoughts on his name…well, they aren’t exactly worth paying attention to.

  I mean, MJ (may he rest in peace) named his kid Blanket. Word.

• 15. willikat  |  July 8th, 2009 at 11:11 pm

  My GOD, i love talking about names. Anyone’s names, really. I am a Katie, and let me tell you, despite the fact that every blonde-haired girl born in 1980 was named Katie, I NEVER had the bicycle name plate thing because Katie was always fricking SOLD OUT.

  I swear to God, my future hypothetical children WILL NOT be a KATIE case.

  Names I love … oh, there are a lot. Ava, Maeve, Liam, Cecilia, Thomas, Marion (my grandma’s name; wouldn’t choose it for a first name but I love it still)…. the list goes on and on. I’m glad I escaped the mid-90s namings though… Spencer, Taylor, Madison, etc.

  And just to drop in my two cents on your name, I’ve always thought it impossibly cool.

• 16. Jess  |  July 8th, 2009 at 11:13 pm

  OK, I won’t be pregnant for at least a year, and yet recently I made a huge list of baby names I like and then went over it with Torsten and made a smaller list of ones he approves of. AND I just ordered The Baby Name Wizard. I KNOW.

  Anyway, on my list but rejected by Torsten were: Audrey, Bridget, Charlotte, Chloe, Eleanor, Gemma, Imogen, Jillian, Mallory, Sophie, Vivian, Colin, Jackson, Kieran, Mitchell, Oliver, Roger, and Trevor. YES I alphabetized my list WHAT IS YOUR POINT?

• 17. Kristi  |  July 8th, 2009 at 11:16 pm

  I LOVE baby names. I wish I could pop out 75 children just for the fun of picking names,

  I think I tend to lean towards trendy names. My daughter is Kaeli Mae (middle name after my grandmother). I swear I just thought up the name and I was so ORIGINAL, but there happen to be 3 Kaeli’s in my daughter’s kindergarten class. They all spelled it differently which made life a little easier.

  For a future girl I love Harper and Reese. My boy picks are Sawyer, Holden, and Logan, but I fall in love with new names everytime I read Swistle.

• 18. Linda  |  July 8th, 2009 at 11:21 pm

  You know my kids’ names but the girl names we chose were Madeline and Audrey.

  Boy names I liked but ultimately rejected: Ethan, Gavin, Mason, Reed. Also, I have always LOVED the name Jake, despite its ubiquitousness.

• 19. sarawr  |  July 8th, 2009 at 11:25 pm

  My son is Connor Ashley, because… uh… really, I wanted something reasonably Irish, something that flows with his last name, and something literature-y. Which, okay, Gone With the Wind is maybe not literature literature, but it’s a good book! And Ashley was originally a boy name, anyway! And the whole thing is traditional but a little unique, but not so unique that he’ll be teased, and also easy to spell, and… oh, fuck it.

  I do like his name, though, four years later. Here’s hoping he feels the same in 20.

  If we have a girl she’ll be Amanthis Elizabeth, Amy for short. That’s really just because we both always thought we’d call a girl Amy, so it’s easy to agree on, and Amanthis is from The Little Colonel, a series of books I loved as a kid, and Elizabeth was a fantastic queen and I am a history buff, specifically Tudor history, and… oh boy, here come all the justifications again, WHATEVER, JEEZ.

  And if we have another boy he’ll be Alexander Joseph, probably Xander for short, because it’s traditional and masculine and blah blah blah zzzzzz, and also Joseph is a family name on my husband’s side. If we somehow manage to have both the girl and the second boy, all three of our kids will have names from the Buffyverse, which is incredibly geeky and yet somehow awesome. Now I have officially Blathered Too Much In Someone Else’s Comments (Again). That’s the name of my first single, by the way! Look for it soon!

• 20. Elizabeth  |  July 8th, 2009 at 11:35 pm

  I love baby names, and Samantha is one of my faves. She is the best American Girl, for one thing.
  My son’s name is Eli Greenwood Ekdahl. Eli was the only name we could agree on, and Greenwood is my mother’s maiden name. There are so few good boy names.
  If we have another boy, some day, he will be either James Limon Ekdahl, James Whitney Ekdahl, or James Limon Whitney Ekdahl, but I am really really really not sure how I feel about the two middle name thing. And I’d love to throw Elvis in there, but it feels trashy. No?
  Girl names. Oh, I could go on about girl names FOREVER. Faves: Katherine, Charlotte, Margot, Maurey, Lilja, Frances.
  I have always thought my first daughter would be named Charlotte, but it seems SO popular these days. Frances is a family name, but it might be too “ugly hipster chic”. Lately I have been leaning towards Katherine. Katherine Willoughby Ekdahl, just for fancy’s sake.

• 21. Sam  |  July 8th, 2009 at 11:43 pm

  My boys are named Matthew and James, because my first name IRL is Kirsten, like Kirsten Dunst or if you will like BEER-stin. Except with a K. Which is why my nickname (that someone else chose and I use) is SAM. If I had a friggin’ penny for every time someone screwed up my name I would be richer than GAWD. Stupid asshats.

• 22. Nic  |  July 8th, 2009 at 11:45 pm

  It’s funny, I have a super common name and I think my goal in naming a child would be to choose something uncommon so he or she didn’t end up as a freshman in college with three other people in the same freshman hallway (yeah, that would be nearly 1/4 of the hall) and then having the upperclassmen decide that since they were all called by the same nickname, the upperclassmen would go by the nickname and the freshmen were called the full name by default. This is the truly bizarre story of why my college friends call me Nicole and no one else does. Oh, and in college? Several of us had the same first AND middle names.

  But yes, I’ll be choosing names that are not common, though I suppose I’ll have to let someone else in on the decision making. (sharing sucks when it means I have to make sacrifices.) I lean towards names like Matilda, Frances, Cora, Jocelyn, Eleanor and Augusta for girls and Bennett, Elias, and Finnian for boys.

• 23. page  |  July 8th, 2009 at 11:46 pm

  Jonna, I never could find barrettes or license plates with my name on them either. Neither Meggan (my real first name) nor Page (what I use now) are spelled so that they are common, which is fine now but was a total PITA when I was little.

  Our names for children are pretty much already chosen. The boy name: Joseph Henry, for his father Joe and my namesake, my grandfather Henry Page. The girl name (so far): Loretta Rose, called Lola, which we are both somewhat smitten with, though it comes with ramifications int he way of song.

  I never liked the name Loretta growing up: it was my grandma’s name and I was never fond of it. Last year, when I was home at the holidays, my dad let me read my gram’s journal from when she was still unmarried and working away from her folks, and I fell in love with her all over again. Rose cracks me up; I’m a florist, so it’s pretty corny to name my kid after a flower, but it’s his grandmother’s name and I love it. Lola has a LOT of songs attached to it (Copacabana, anyone?), but I love it. Lola Rose.

  I know all about eye rolling with names, barbetti- my best friend’s kid is Vela and her sister’s boy is Devo. Believe you me, I hear all about Devo as a name every time I mention him in unfamiliar company. And Blanket, jeez. Poor kid.

  You got it right with Samantha, Jonna. Beautiful name, great nickname, and a beautiful kid.

• 24. Carmen  |  July 8th, 2009 at 11:51 pm

  My kids are Kieran James & Alexa Lenore. James & Lenore are my husband’s and my middle names – we were too lazy to try to find other names. It was too hard to agree on the two we did choose.

  Kieran was the ONLY boy name we could agree on when I was pregnant the first time. Brennan was my second choice, but my husband was more hesitant about it and flat out refused to consider it for the second pregnancy. Had we had another boy, he would have been Vaughn.

  We chose Alexa, but mostly call her Lexi; I will probably use Alexa more when she’s older. The other main girl contender was Calla. My preference for Calla was slight but my husband strongly preferred Alexa over Calla so we went with that. I also quite liked Lyra, until I learned that it was pronounced Lie-ra, rather than Leer-a. I prefer the latter and didn’t want her to have to correct people her whole life. Not to mention that it’s the old Italian currency.

  My main criteria for Kieran’s name was one that couldn’t be shortened to something too cutesy for a grown man to use (eg. Timmy). It has no nicknames at all so it was perfect. It’s HARD to get people to start calling you a different name after they’ve known you for years as something else (my husband is Leonard but isn’t so fond of Len — impossible to get people to change). That reasoning is partly why I preferred Calla – no nicknames.

  Wow, I can babble. Sorry if this is too long. But hey – you did ask!

  Oh yes, and also? Weird spellings, especially with extraneous Ys drive me batty. It’s not a unique name if it’s spelled strangely. It’s just a misery for your child.

• 25. Katie  |  July 8th, 2009 at 11:57 pm

  My daughter’s name is Kiernan Colleen. Weirdly, I first read it in a romance novel but then figured out about two weeks after she was born that it’s a relatively common Irish last name, and somewhat-popular Irish boy’s name. I liked it because it’s Gaelic, and I really like the letter K but not the fake-K names (Korrina, Kadynce, etc.) so it was kind of tough. Most of the children on my side of the family are named with the letter K, so I liked the tradition.

  My first name is Kate (not any variation of Catherine) and despite its seeming popularity, I was only able to get the occasional bicycle-like item. My sister’s name is Karly and she had no shot.

  I was actually more worried about length than popularity – my maiden name is Kate Marie with a 4-letter last name, and my husband and I both hyphenated, so now my last name is 10 letters with a hyphen in the middle, so Kiernan’s got quite the mouthful from my perspective. We tried to keep it short, and preferably without a predetermined nickname.

  So yes, it took a while for us to agree, partially because I’m so weird about things but mostly because my husband REALLY wanted to name the baby after a character from either Buffy, the West Wing, or the OC.

• 26. Blythe  |  July 8th, 2009 at 11:57 pm

  It took me a long time to figure out those DASH names above. But now they are killing me.

  My very favorite childhood t-shirt was a hideous personalized tee with my name in HUGE white velvet letters ironed-on across the front because I could never ever find anything with my name on it. Now that it’s easier to get things professionally personalized, I am still addicted to ordering/buying things with my name on them. Childhood deprivation, I guess.

  Having said that, I’ve always liked my name and I enjoy that it’s unusual. I briefly worked with another Blythe and it sort of annoyed me. My only complaint is, like Rhi, that it’s really tough for people to pronounce, even when they think they know how to pronounce it.

  When we named my son, I wanted something uncommon but traditional, recognizable and pronounceable. I also liked the idea of a longer name that had a short nickname. We chose Theodore (Theo). I love it.

• 27. Hilary  |  July 9th, 2009 at 12:03 am

  I find it fascinating that so many of us choose baby names that in some way rebel against our own name. My mom named me Hilary because she didn’t want me to have a nickname–her name is Tamara and everyone called her Tammy her whole life and she hated it. She forced everyone to switch over to Tamara when she was in her 20s and it took her family about 15 years to follow suit.

  So of course, during my entire childhood I bemoaned the fact that my name didn’t have an easy nickname. (Hil doesn’t really count, I think.) Thus, I named my daughter Rosemary, because look at the nicknames: Rose, Rosie, Mary, Ro, etc, etc. I also like that it is botanical. My son is Gabriel, which is more popular than Rosemary, and that bugs me, but I think it’s beautiful. He is Gabe, Gabey, etc. Every now and then I mourn for the girl name I had picked out: Lucinda (like Lucinda Williams), and we’d call her Lulu. See, crazy for the nicknames.

• 28. Nothing But Bonfires  |  July 9th, 2009 at 12:07 am

  I am OBSESSED with names. I’m so glad we’re having this conversation. For my eighth or ninth birthday, my mother gave me one of those baby-naming books, WHICH I HAD SPECIFICALLY ASKED FOR. I used to pore through that thing for many hours every evening…..oooh, well into the late 90s, I’m not even kidding. I’d buy another one now if I didn’t think it would freak Sean out. I have a running list of baby names in the back of my planner and I add to it whenever I see fit. Right now, I’m going to need to have, like, 57 children in order to use all my names, though.

  Pysmon is the most ridiculously hilarious name I’ve ever heard. Though I did once know a guy named James whose parents actually decided to SPELL IT WITH A G. So yes, his name was GAMES. NO KIDDING. I knew another James who spelled it Jaymz though, too, so I’m not quite sure which is worse.

  Hear you on the “y” thing too — there’s a guy on The Bachelorette called Kiptyn and I just cannot take him seriously. I mean, as seriously as you can take someone on The Bachelorette ANYWAY.

• 29. Tabatha  |  July 9th, 2009 at 12:09 am

  So I have a degree in Sociology — and my capstone project was naming trends. Consider me happy in the pants about this conversation.

  I’m a Tabatha. (Whoo, Brenda!) And yes, it’s spelled weird, but my parents were in college in northwestern Illinois when I was born and –TRUE STORY– they sounded it out. Ta-ba-tha. Tabatha. Not Ta-bath-a. Anyway.

  I’m one of those people who’ve spent A LIFETIME thinking about baby names, but primarily girl ones. So when I met my husband (who comes from boys, and I have a brother) a boy’s name needed to be discussed, of course two years before we were close to pregnant. And what started as an inside joke became his name.

  Kiedis Nathaniel Spade (lastname).

  Kiedis for the Rock and Republic jeans that makes my ass & legs resemble their once ballerina glory. And yes, they’re named for Anthony Kiedis, of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame.

  Nathaniel for a kid I long babysat who was like a brother to me, who died about the time we conceived, tragically and horribly, at the age of 20.

  And Spade … for Kate Spade.

  I get a lot of looks, but I’m okay with that. I grew up not finding my name on the license plates, and being constantly bombarded with Bewitched references. I grew to embrace both aspects of my name. Hopefully, so will Kiedis, and he will survive.

  And I could GO ON about trends and what to do if you want something “different” and what’s uber hipster and mainstream and all … but I’ll spare you the details and just say, if it’s a dude’s name and ends with an “n” sound and/or has a long “a” (jayden, braylen, aiden, kieran, etc.) STAY AWAY UNLESS YOU WANT ALL THE OTHER BOYS IN HIS CLASS TO HAVE THE SAME RHYMEY NAME. For girls, things with “lyn” in them or perceptively “classic” names (evelyn, ava, rose, lily, vivian, etc) are the trend du jour.

  I’ll go back to lurking now.

• 30. BethanyWD  |  July 9th, 2009 at 12:18 am

  Generally, in my family, we are “free” give our kids any first name we would like, but middle names are generally reserved for a “family tie in” (as I like to call it).

  Now! As much as I LOVE names like Sarah and Daniel, I do like slightly different names for my kids. For my son, we choose Grayson (which I consider a non-abuse of the Y!) – I had met a Grayson once and it STUCK IN MY HEAD as a very cool, yet easy to say and read, name. His middle name is my father’s first name. We generally call him that, his non-derivative nickname, or Gray. Now that he is in school, he wants to go by Grayson.

  For baby number 2, we had the PERFECT (for us) boy name picked out – Calvin Robert. Alas, we had a girl!

  Girl names for us are TOUGH. I like girls names that are a bit masculine. I don’t really know why. Though, to be fair, the other names on our final list were Reese, Carolina, Maren, and Karenna (none of which is that masculine). I made lists and spreadsheets that tracked how popular the name is, if it’s becoming more or less popular and how it would sound with our potential middle names. I put the list of 20 or so finalists on the fridge and over the last 20 weeks of my pregnancy, my husband and I would cross off names we decided against them. By they time she was born (at 40 weeks, 1 day), we had settled on Cameron (no Y abuse!). I usually call her by her full name, but most kids her age (and her brother) call her Cammy. And, honestly, I hadn’t considered that people would shorten it. Her middle name is my husband’s deceased mother’s middle name.

  Gosh, I sound lame.

  I, too, could talk about names ALL DAY LONG. In fact, I would have more kids JUST so I could name them.

• 31. page  |  July 9th, 2009 at 12:26 am

  I had to add two things… a work colleague just emailed with the news that his new baby daughter, Aylee Manheim XXXXXXX was born late today. I have to say I have never heard those names used for a child, much less together.

  Second, I did not realize that I used a double negative in my previous comment. Whoops! Would have bugged me to not acknowledge it. Whew. I feel better now.

• 32. anna  |  July 9th, 2009 at 12:30 am

  My favorite name for a long time was Stella. I still love it, but my cousin named his daughter Stella and now it feels like it belongs to that family. My new favorite is Caroline. I tend to like romantic sounding old fashiony names.

  I must also admit that when I was in high school I wanted to name my kid… Skilre…. pronounced skylar. No excuse for that what-so-ever.

• 33. Mimi  |  July 9th, 2009 at 12:38 am

  I’m going to have to take more time tomorrow to come back and read all of the comments, because I love seeing what other people name their kids. Mine are Oliver, Everett and Camilla. A must for us was having names that we could shorten, so we call them Ollie, Evie (rhymes with heavy) and Millie.

  I have a major problem with random y’s in names, or when parents change otherwise normal names into something a lot more complicated i.e. Emmaleigh. I also know an Abbygayl. Barf.

• 34. Anyabeth  |  July 9th, 2009 at 12:47 am

  Oh baby names!

  It took us ages to find a name we could agree on. So many good ones were out and well I realized that my husband has a strange love of stripper names. But we do love our daughter’s name now. Ramona. Somehow named for both the Ramones and Ramona Quimby.

• 35. Lippy  |  July 9th, 2009 at 12:48 am

  My husband and I are both teachers, so we have a really tough time picking names. Ours are Owen Connor, Madeline Elizabeth and Ellie Marie. No real reason for most of the names, just liked them. But Marie is my mom and my MIL’s middle names, so that was very convenient. I worked with a girl named Dawn who changed the spelling to Dahn. Gaaahh

• 36. Julia  |  July 9th, 2009 at 12:49 am

  My first son’s name will be Edmund Peter. I adore the name Edmund and I don’t care that nobody else seems to like it. Peter is a family name on both sides. The name is also perfectly British for our very British last name. My favorite girl names are Shannon, Charlotte, Margaret, and Felicity. Middle name will be Beth after my mother – love her!

• 37. celebrate woo-woo  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:20 am

  My twins are Jaxon and Mason. I went with the “x” spelling because I liked the nickname of Jax and thought it was a good match for Mason without being all rhyme-y. I joke that twins are an efficient pregnancy, and Jaxon is the more efficient spelling…who needs three letters when there’s one that makes the same sound? Jaxon has his bio-dad’s middle name, Bradley, as his middle name; Mason has Thomas because it means “twin”. Mason had his middle name decided months before the first name.

  My youngest son is Xander. Husband and I finally agreed on Alexander as a good name for him. He vetoed my first choice of Blake with Alexander as the middle name. He was hesitant about Alexander because it is a long name that people will be inclined to shorten, and he didn’t like any nicknames for it. I was partial to Lex as a nickname (vetoed for Superman villain reference), and then I remembered someone using Xander as a nickname for Alexander. So, we decided to name him Alexander and call him Xander. After about two days, the naming was changed to Xander permanently so that he would be named what he was called and prevent those other nicknames from being too tempting for people. His middle name is Pierce, which I found was a variation of Peter, the name of my favorite uncle.

  If the last child turns out to be our daughter, she will be Josalyn Marie. Husband loved the name Jocelyn, didn’t like any of my girl choices, so I agreed to it if we could spell it the way I wanted. I just want her called Jos-a-lyn…not Jos-lyn or Jock-lyn. I’m nitpicky like that. Marie is my middle name and was given to me by my mother after one of her favorite people from her childhood, of which there are very few. I feel inclined to pass it on, and I love it very much as well.

  I am quite drawn to names that end in “n”. I don’t like “y” or “ie” or “ey” endings for names as a general rule of thumb. They rarely strike me as strong adult names. As for girl names, I like all “bella” related names, including the name Bella.

• 38. Kate @ Life As I Life It  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:28 am

  SQUEEE!! Love baby names!

  I have a Sam too – Samuel Arthur. We just liked the name Sam because it sounded strong, masculine and timeless. Plus it’s meaning is “Asked of God”, which he certainly was. And Arthur was my grandfather’s name. Unfortunately he died when I was an infant so I have no memories of him, but I chose that name to honor MY dad, who was so close to his father.

  My daughter is Zoe Grace. We had a hard time deciding on a girls name, not choosing one until a few weeks before she was born. Grace was my great-grandmother who lived with us my entire life until she died when I was 13. And I always swore if I had a daughter I’d name her after my grandma. So we knew that’d be the middle name – hubby didn’t like it as a first name with our last name – and we finally came up with Zoe. It just felt right. We also considered Sophia Grace, Olivia Grace, Mia Grace, Lily Grace…but none seemed to suit her and they were too popular for my taste. When we came up with Zoe, we just KNEW. And it totally suits her. (She would have been Nicholas John had she been a boy.)

  Other names we tossed around during both pregnancies: Noah, Joseph. Mia, Ruby, Carmen.

• 39. celebrate woo-woo  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:50 am

  Have a couple more to add. I love the girl name Lilah, or even Delilah because that song grew on me so much, but my ex-husband had a daughter who is named Lily, and I just can’t follow with a Lilah now.

  I had a baby girl that I lost mid-pregnancy in 2006. She was named Laina (long “a” sound for the “ai”) Elise. The L and E initials are in honor of my late great-grandmothers.

  In high school, I decided I would name my daughter Tiryn (teer-in). I took Latin as my foreign language and fell in love with saying Tyranne (tryanny, if you will) during our lessons, though I remember it as being a chain of mountains, as in the Tyrannes mountains. Thank God, I was never able to use that; it’s a mean name even if it sounded pretty to me at 16…and still does, sort of.

• 40. Carla Hinkle  |  July 9th, 2009 at 2:04 am

  You had to know you’d get comments up the wazoo on this one, right? People (including me) looooove to talk about their kids’ names.

  My older is Nadia Sophie. I actually wanted Sophie for the first name but got overruled by my husband, which I am very glad for as there are approximately 6 million little Sophie/Sophia variants running around in the under-5 set. The Nadia is for a family friend and because we wanted something that worked in a variety of languages (we’ve got three going on in the immediate family) but would be easy for Americans to spell/pronounce.

  My younger is Nora Soraya. The Nora is for my mom’s great aunt Nora, who I didn’t know but who was reputed to be a lovely person, and because some of the other old-fashioned names I like (Emma/Emily, Hannah) have gone the way of Sophie. The Soraya is for the Iranian part of my husband’s heritage (which is not, by the way, included in the three languages, adding another layer of complexity).

  We didn’t do two “N” names on purpose but now I suppose if we have a third we’ll have to at least think about it. Or think about avoiding it.

• 41. Carla Hinkle  |  July 9th, 2009 at 2:13 am

  PS re the homeless in your backyard, please CALL THE COPS. You don’t need to feel bad about that in my book, esp if you live out in the boonies and have a little baby. Drunk homeless people would freak me the F out in that situation.

• 42. Brenna  |  July 9th, 2009 at 2:41 am

  My kids are Isabel Marie, Nicholas Robert, and Berkeley Anneliese. We were really glad the last one was a girl, because Nicholas was the only boy name we could ever agree on.

  I was cracking up when I read this post, because my mom’s name? Marsha Elizabeth. Heh.

  And I would feel the same way about homeless drunk people in my backyard, AND… ‘Graceland’ is my favorite Paul Simon album.

• 43. Brenna  |  July 9th, 2009 at 3:01 am

  and to comment #25 Katie: One of my friends named her first son Riley Finn, after the ‘Buffy’ character!

• 44. Sarah  |  July 9th, 2009 at 3:58 am

  My daughters are Amy Grace and Stella Margaret (who is 11weeks old) We thought Stella was a boy all the way through the pregnancy (we didn’t find out, just thought) and struggled with boys names. Swistle suggested Owen and Ethan but we decided on Byron Patrick for a boy and then had Stella Margaret, her middle name is a family name. I don’t know how I came up with Stella but we love, love, love it. I call her Stella Bella, beautiful star! Amy is named for our grandmothers, his, mine and we are also very happy with her name. So far we don’t know any other Amy’s or Stella’s which is nice. I was one of 6 Sarah’s in my year at school!

• 45. kenandbelly  |  July 9th, 2009 at 4:35 am

  Jayne Erynn. Before I get flagged for Y abuse, let me say that Jayne (spelled that way) is a family name (my grandpa went by Jay, my grandma’s middle name was Jane, my middle name is Jayne, my brother’s name is Jayson). It makes it NOT “plain jane” and reminds me of Anne of Green Gables (the extra letter makes all the difference). The Erynn is meant to recall Jane Eyre and also subtly allude to my partner’s Irish background.

  We love, love, love her name and are going to have serious trouble picking out a second kid’s name, especially if we have a girl.

• 46. Hillary  |  July 9th, 2009 at 5:32 am

  The Boy’s name is Rhys Owen. Rhys was really the only boy’s name the husband and I could agree on, so of course, now that I’m pregnant again, I’m assuming we’re going to have a boy.

  If Baby2 is a girl, she’ll be either Tenley Jayne or Tenley Caroline. Jayne is the middle name we picked the last pregnancy, but I”m leaning toward Caroline right now. Tenley is something we decided on years ago, randomly. It’s after an area in DC.

  If Baby2 is a boy … I don’t know. The only other name we both really like is Gram, like Gram Parsons. But I worry about the way it sounds with our last name. I like Walt, but the husband is eh about it. Right now, we’re thinking Gram Walter, but we have five months to debate.

• 47. Cookie  |  July 9th, 2009 at 6:10 am

  My goal was to give my children very classic names that also have a lot of options, although my second can pull of quirkier names than my first. I went with Gabriel Michael for my first son, which allows him to choose both full names blues Gabe and Mike. My second son is Nicholas Alexander, which gives him both full names plus Nick, Alex, Cole, and Xander. We just call him Nick.

  We are still think about a having a third, but the jury’s still out. If we did our boy’s name will be William Edward. Our girl’s name is not quite so decided. We like Victoria Elizabeth and Kathleen/Caitlin Rose.

• 48. jonniker  |  July 9th, 2009 at 6:22 am

  First of all, FASCINATING. I’m reading all of these and thinking how CRAZY it is that our kids end up named at all.

  Second, Anyabeth, OMFG. “My husband has a strange love of stripper names.”

  HA HA HA. I laughed right out loud at that. STRIPPER NAMES.

• 49. giselle  |  July 9th, 2009 at 6:36 am

  I just wanted to say I totally agree with people rebelling against their own name when they name their own children! My name is foreign-sounding, hard for people to spell/pronounce and I was always sad that my sister Katie got those pencils, etc when I couldn’t! And my husband is Jeff…and had 3 others on his college dorm floor and didn’t care…so common names won out in our naming debate!

  My three are Andrew John, Lillian Jeannette, and Michael Paul. All the middle names are after immediate family (my dad, Jeff’s dad, and my grandmother/aunt/great-aunt). Love them all enough to not care that they are common. And so glad that when people meet them, there is no question about their name. Although I got lots of eye rolls and comments when we named Michael (“gee, I only know about 1,000 Mikes…very original). I think you just can’t win with strangers…either your name is too weird or too common. Suck it!

• 50. Margaret  |  July 9th, 2009 at 6:42 am

  Our goal was to give our kids names that everyone could spell but that they wouldn’t run across in school. So we named them Margot, Ginger and Duncan. Never occurred to me that people would confuse my name with Margot but happens all the time. She also has many people not understand that the ‘t’ is silent. Ginger has no problems other than people think that Ginger is a nickname for Virginia and that kids call her gingerbread or gingerale. I tell her if that’s the worst they can come up with she’s doing fine. Likewise with Duncan, he gets the Dunkin Donuts nickname and you would not believe how many people think that ‘Dunkin’ is the correct spelling!

• 51. Christine  |  July 9th, 2009 at 6:43 am

  I have a family member named Patryck.

• 52. Diane  |  July 9th, 2009 at 6:53 am

  My first daughter is Violet Augusta. Violet was the first name we threw out for a girl, and it just fit. I was working on my Master’s degree in Library Science at the time, specializing (sort of) in children’s literature. We ended up listening to Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events on CD, and Violet Baudelaire was a pretty kick ass character. Augusta was my husband’s great-great-grandmother’s name. He has such happy memories of her. (Can you believe that? He actually was actually old enough to remember his great GREAT grandmother!) If she had been a boy, the name choices were either Sebastian Paul or Henry Paul. (Paul for my uncle, the first names because I liked them.)

  With the second, we had a really hard time coming up with girl names. We’d already picked the best one we could imagine! (Keep in mind, both times, we didn’t find out what we were having. So that makes for a lot more indecision in the naming, because ZOMG TWO NAMES.) I wanted a name to come from children’s literature, to ‘match’ Violet without being cutesy-matchy. Some girl names we tossed around were Ramona, Charlotte, and (my personal favorite, from Pippi Longstocking) Annika. For a boy, I loved Jonas (from The Giver) but then the flipping Jonas Brothers got super popular and completely RUINED the name for me.

  We didn’t have even remotely finalized names for the second baby until a few weeks before she was born. For a boy, we’d settled on Leo Paul fairly easily. I’ve always wanted to name a girl for my maternal grandmother, but she was Effie Isabelle. And my cousin had already taken Isabella. So I looked up Isabelle to see common nicknames, and Isla was listed. Perfect! We named her Isla Ruth, after both of my grandmothers.

  I didn’t think the name was THAT weird. Everyone has heard of Isla Fisher, right?? But, no. Apparently it’s super-weird. I’ve actually gotten comments to the tune of “When you told me the name, I didn’t know what you were thinking.” Gee, thanks! I think it’s beautiful, and it suits her perfectly.

  Also, please don’t feel bad about not wanting the drunk homeless people on your property. For what it’s worth, I don’t want drunk ANYBODY on my property. I don’t care if they’re homeless or a fairy princess — if you’re drunk, get OUT MAH YARD.

• 53. Carrie  |  July 9th, 2009 at 7:37 am

  All three were named after important people in our lives. Boring, I know! But..not really. Each kid’s name is really special to us.

  Mary Anne: after both Grandmas (my mother and I both have the middle name Anne). This is particularly sweet since Grandma Mary passed away.

  Keith Richard: NOT after the rock star (ewwww!). Keith came from my husband’s Big Brother from when he was a kid. His “substitute” dad who did a much better job than his absent real dad. Richard is after MY father. I’m afraid I insisted–even though I knew it would mean EVERYONE would think we were a huge Rolling Stones fan. It was THAT important to me!

  Isabelle Lynne: THAT was a toughie. I don’t know HOW folks like Swistle can come up with TWO names for FIVE kids! We basically ran out of names on the third kid! Isabelle is for her Great Grandma (I…well…it SEEMED like a good idea at the time). Then we spent two days in the hospital trying to think up a middle name to go with it. I wanted Rose–he thought it sounded old-ladyish (um, HELLO? Kid being named after her 93-year old great-grandmother!). I even considered Jane or maybe Marie (After Grandma Mary again–she had died the year before. But GM had always HATED her middle name. And John didn’t like Marie–too many syllables with Isabelle, he claimed!). FINALLY, I threw “Lynn” out there. It’s his sister’s name. But! What if the OTHER sister gets jealous? Hmmmm…. (We even contemplated trying to make ONE NAME out of the two sister’s names: Lorilynn?) BAH! Just stick an “e” on the end! Then it’ll match the Anne with an “e” her sister has! DONE!

  If Izzy (Thank goodness we decided to call her Izzy as–wouldn’t ya know it, Isabelle–and all it’s variations–made a huge come back that year! But I’ve only heard one other “Izzy” from the bunch–so far!) had been a boy, she would have been an Ian. Or an Ethan (probably Ian). But, no, we didn’t have a middle name for phantom baby boy, either!

  Good thing we decided to stop having kids!

• 54. Melody  |  July 9th, 2009 at 7:44 am

  I don’t have children, but like so many women of childbearingish age, I have spent a Great Deal Of Time thinking about it.

  For girls, I like Alice. I really like Lily, too, but as someone named Melody, it’s always been important to me that I name kids something that, while recognizable, is not wildly popular at the time.

  For boys, my favorite names are Ned and Peter. People are typically horrified when I mention the name Ned, but it is (1) not extremely popular! (2) recognizable! and (3) the name of not one, but two of my favorite fictional characters ever! And besides, I am horrified when people mention the name Jayden.

• 55. Carrie  |  July 9th, 2009 at 7:46 am

  P.S. I sooooo wanted a Samantha, but hubby didn’t. But! It’s GORGEOUS! How could you not like the name Samantha? Ah well–didn’t fit into our “theme,” anyway….

  P.P.S. One would think that the basically “common” kids’ names we picked would mean ease of finding those bike license plates? Ah…NO. I can NEVER find a place which has all three of my kids names–one is always missing! (And you can’t buy a name plate for two kids and not for the other one!) Usually Keith or Isabelle is missing. Seriously? With as many Isabelles there are out there right now? (Hmmm….maybe all the other Isabelle mothers got there before I did?) And Keith appears to be somewhat unique now-a-days. Who knew?

  P.P.P.S. ALSO one of my top ten favorite albums.

• 56. Danielle  |  July 9th, 2009 at 7:50 am

  No kids, and no plans for them, but I have a cat named Sophie, which is a name I totally love. If I ever have a little girl, her name will be Lydia Amber- I’ve loved the name Lydia for as long as I can remember. Notice the gratuitous use of “y”!
  I love the name “Logan” for a boy. Yes, I am from Boston. Shut up.

• 57. heidi  |  July 9th, 2009 at 7:53 am

  Names! Love these discussions. I’m with the group that had no nicknames and no personalized items. I wanted lots of options for the kids and not too common but not really off the wall. So, the boys’ names are: Alexander Jordan, Tyler John, Dylan Jacob & Zachary James.

  Things to note:
  - Husband is SUPER picky. Hates everything.
  - I feel the y’s are necessary in these cases. And I just realized 3 of them have y’s. hmmmm. That may be all kinds of wrong.
  - The j middle name thing was an accident. The first one we just liked, the second was after my grandfather who had passed away while I was pregnant, the third was because we were running out of boy names that we could agree on and we didn’t want him to be the only one without a j name, the last was a huge surprise and at this point not having a j name would just make it odd.
  - When my husband came home with the name Tyler I was not convinced. I had never even met a Tyler before, it wasn’t on any baby name list but it grew on me. There are now 6 Tylers in his grade out of about 125.
  - I’m not sure how he ended up having the most popular name in his class of all our boys. The 2nd most popular name is Dylan (various spellings). Zach is actually the only one in his entire grade.
  - I wanted to name a girl Nina, Molly, Madeline or Samantha (Sam). Sadly, it was not to be.
  - The name I REALLY wanted for Zach was Miller Jay to be called MJ. Miller is my maiden name. My husband threatened divorce.

• 58. Mika  |  July 9th, 2009 at 7:55 am

  Lucas Antonio and Isabel Sophia. Had to have names that worked in English, Spanish AND Dutch . This limits things because all names that start with J are out basically as they would be pronounced totally different in all three countries. Ditto anything with a ‘TH’ in it. Or an ‘LL’. You notice I had to think about this alot!

• 59. MakeDo  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:12 am

  I had all sorts of spunky, scrappy names picked out for my (unknown til she was born) girl – Ramona, Stella, Ruby etc. Then she was born and it was a girl and my husband saw how little and quiet she was and decided “Simone Marie”. After Nina, Weil and de beauvoir. A little regretful because Southern accents mangle her name, and on a recent trip to Spain to visit family, it became clear that Simone was completely unheard of and very confusing. Simon-eeee is the way most people say it, which is kinda maddening. Next time, it has to work in Spanish and Southern too.

• 60. kakaty  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:15 am

  Our girl is Maggie Marie. Maggie, not Margaret(!) was picked by my husband and Marie is a family name. When we have another it will be Charlotte [middle name not yet picked] for a girl and Matthew Anthony (or maybe Anthony Matthew) for a boy.

  I’ve always loved Charlotte and since the hub is a Cure fan he says he’s happy to have a name from one of their songs. Plus I recently learned that Charlotte was the name of my biological great-grandmother (who died in childbirth). Matthew & Anthony were the first names of my grandfathers and my hubs has no choice in the matter if we have a boy

• 61. Anna  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:16 am

  We had our son’s name – Lukas Edward – picked out long before he was even conceived, come to think of it I don’t think we were married yet either. The spelling was an ongoing debate but we eventually settled on k instead of c and boy howdy do we get a lot of crap for it. We went with the k because the hubs and I both have very Scandinavian/German names along with a traditional Scandinavian last name and we wanted L’s name to fit with that.

  Edward is a family name all the way around – my great-grandpa’s name, my dad’s middle name, my husband’s grandpa’s name and my brother-in-law’s middle name – so that was an easy one.

  Girls names were so much tougher but we were able to decide on one – Lila Annmarie – just before the big ultrasound. We’re hoping that we have a chance to use it down the road. Lila is a name we both just liked and found out later that it was my grandpa’s sister’s name. My mom and I share the middle name Marie and my mother-in-law’s middle name is Ann so we’re being very diplomatic and combining them. The matching first initials (Lukas and Lila) is NOT on purpose. We don’t plan on emulating the Duggars.

  Like Holly, I had an OBSESSION with baby name books long before I ever would have needed one.

• 62. anna  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:16 am

  nina catherine.

  nina was totally the only name we managed to come up with during the entire pregnancy. well, we briefly hovered on amelie (too popular) & sophie (ditto) & then stuck to nina & refused to think about names any more. we wanted a name kinda like my name – anna – in that it is common in lots of languages & cultures, & flexible – you could be a prime minister or a stripper with a name like anna. or nina. or so i think anyway. catherine is for my mother. we wanted to use a family name for the middle name, which left us choosing from catherine, jane, sybil, mary, audrey, dorothy, mary…

  we never found a boy name. now i entertain myself during the 2am feed by trying to find a name that goes with nina. i like lucas, barnes (family name), robin.

• 63. rachel  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:25 am

  Ledger Alan. I was 8 months pregnant when Heath Ledger died, so I worried it would have a negative connotation, but we already had things with his name on it, and it already felt like who he was, so we stuck with it.

• 64. Cassie  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:26 am

  My son is Andrew Joseph. I’m pregnant again right now (don’t know yet with what) and am having SO MCUH FUN with my new Naming Project! There are some really awesome names in the previous comments.

• 65. Ariel  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:30 am

  About three years before my daughter was born I’d decided if I had a girl I’d name her Emma Isabelle. And then Rachel from friends named her kid Emma about 6 months or so before my Emma was born. I was so pissed! Of course, no one remembers that anymore so it’s been fine, but the first 6 months of her life everyone was “Oh, she was named after friends!”
  If I ever have another girl her name will be Eleanor Marie, after my grandma.
  If I ever have a boy, his name will me Roman Ari. I’ve already picked them out- and since I’m doing all the hard work, my fiancee agrees I really get the final say in the name:) He did pick out Ari though.

• 66. g~  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:31 am

  Drew Anthony is our son’s name. I like one syllable boy names for some reason. Anthony after my husband’s twin brother who died a few weeks before our son was born. I actually don’t like the name Anthony at all but what can I say???
  Malyn (rhymes with gallon) Grace for our girl. I should probably be flagged for improper ‘y’ use. We got the name Mallon off of…I know, sad, really…The Legend of Zelda video game that we used to play when we were first married. I didn’t want it to LOOK like the word Gallon, so we changed the spelling. Can I at least say that we had this name picked out LONG before the ‘y’ trend came into existence? Grace as a family name.

• 67. AndreAnna  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:35 am

  My name is not on any license plates, ever, anywhere. But I like it and it suits me.

  My kids are Charlotte and Sawyer. I love them. Both the names and the kids, although there have been days I’ve considered selling them to gypsies.

• 68. Nimble  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:42 am

  Is there anything better than debating baby names? I had the best time arguing with my husband during pregnancy. My mother chimed in with her own suggestions. (None of which made our top ten lists somehow.)

  We chose Catherine (Katy) and Alexandra (Lexi). I joke that we named them like tsarinas by accident. My husband and I both love the name Elizabeth but could never agree on a nickname — there are so many, but we couldn’t get together!

• 69. SW  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:45 am

  My son is Grady – LOVE IT!!! My husband wanted Ezekiel, no thank you. I don’t mind the Zeke nickname, but Ezekiel is a little too biblical. I wanted Avery or Riley…maybe next time

• 70. bessie.viola  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:47 am

  Oh, I hate the random baby touchers. We’ve had drunken people that have wanted to hold my daughter, but we knew them (DH’s friends, post-football-game). Still: NO.

  Also, the Y must stop. STOP, I say.

  My daughter’s name is Madeline Grace. It’s one that we settled on shortly after becoming engaged. Loved it then, love it even more now – my daughter is SUCH a Maddie.

  I love Samantha too, by the way. It’s pretty and works well for both an adult and a child.

• 71. Shelly  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:48 am

  WORDY WORD WORD on no personalized items! There either was no Shelly or it was spelled Shelley, which is totally incorrect. And I’ll email you about my kids’ names. Suffice it to say they are common enough that there will be personalized items, and honor family members.

• 72. Maggie  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:52 am

  I can’t BELIEVE the dash names. ARE THESE PARENTS FOR REAL?

  My son is Jackson Gabriel. I wanted a James, but my husband thought of Jackson and decided Jackson Cheung sounded like a Hong Kong martial arts star. So yeah. And my daughter is Molly Elizabeth, because it’s the only name that felt right, even though I have dealt with having a dog’s name my entire life and have now unkindly foisted the angst onto my daughter.

• 73. Raven  |  July 9th, 2009 at 9:07 am

  I am a Jessica. I laughed so hard at my name being a throwback to the 70′s because 1) I was born in 75 and 2) I was named for that wretched Allman Bros song. I seriously can’t stand that song and whenever someone gets all excited about it FOR me, they all look at me like I’m an alien when I don’t share that sentiment.

  My Sprog is named Broderick James. I was one of 4 Jessicas in my class and didn’t want him to feel the pain of never knowing when someone was addressing you. IT SUCKS. This way his name is unusual but not so much so that it gets people het up about it. He can choose any number of nicknames from it (he goes by Brody) but it still is grown up enough when the time comes for resumes and the like. James is for my brother.

  I usually don’t talk about his name on the internet but since he went and got himself a facebook now, I guess it’s all out in the open

• 74. El  |  July 9th, 2009 at 9:11 am

  I had a “Jessica” nameplate for my bike as a kid. My name is not Jessica (it’s Elenor), but I gave up and decided to just get one for a name I could find and that I would rather have at the time. My middle name? Victoria.

• 75. Andrea  |  July 9th, 2009 at 9:17 am

  My kids are Gabriel Michael (and no, not after the archangels, we’re not THAT religious — his daddy’s name is Michael), and Anna Rose. We call them Gabe and Anna. Nothing big, spectacular, but somewhat names that you don’t see in every day classrooms. I’ve only run across one other Gabe in the 5 years since my son was born.

  Anna was nearly Alison, and our biggest dilemma with the spelling was not the Y issue, which I HATE, but whether or not to spell it with one or two Ls. I liked it with 1, Mike liked it with 2. Then we just scrapped it and went with Anna.

  But people are furious furious hamsters when it comes to names. So adamant that their opinion is right when it’s all so subjective. I don’t blame those parents who don’t tell names until the baby is born. THough that can backfire too. I have a cousin who named her two boys Jake and Jack. No, they’re not twins, and yet, with their names so close to each other in sound, I’m constantly screwing up which one I’m talking to. That’s a naming cruelty right there.

• 76. mjb  |  July 9th, 2009 at 9:20 am

  I have a names file on my computer but my husband and I haven’t yet started to discuss them for the future (because I have a feeling we’ll have a hard time agreeing). Our last name is pronounced bush, though (spelled differently) so anything botanical is out, which crossed Lily, Rosalie, etc off the list right away.

  We’re talking dog names right now and are having the hardest time just with that! Since he wants a jr name for the dog (after his parent’s dog) I have a feeling we’ll end up naming a kid at least partially after him.

• 77. Jen  |  July 9th, 2009 at 9:20 am

  Clearly I need to block out some time today to read these comments because I find this all so interesting! And alson want to write down name ideas for our next child!

  Our 17 week old is Avery Elizabeth. We just loved the name Avery. Believe it or not, the night she was born, there was another Avery born within an hour of her…and it was a BOY. Delivered by my OB/GYN too. And he also goes to the same pediatrician that we do. So it makes for many an awkward moment when I go to sign in at the desk and they say, “OK, Avery’s here. Can you just fill out this form about his recent health?” And I’m all, “UM, this is Avery THE GIRL.”

• 78. Gaby  |  July 9th, 2009 at 9:29 am

  Oh, I LOVE the topic of names! My full name is Gabrielle Justine (which I love, btw), but I’ve been called Gaby most of my life.Yes, one “b” and no, it isn’t pronounced like baby. So many people have smart ass things to say about my nickname –”Oh…really?” or “I’m not going to touch that topic!” or “Does that mean you talk a lot?!” (HA! First time I’ve heard that one! Ass bag.) or the two rudest ones, “What kind of mother calls her daughter Gaby?” (yes, seriously) or “Well, I like Gabrielle better.” Ok, then, I’ll ask what your name is and instead call you something I prefer, how does that sound?

  For babies, I have a trillion names I like, but a few are (sort of) decided: Elijah John, to be called Eli. John is for both of our fathers who happen to be named John but who each go by their middle names (weird coincidence, but it works for naming). Elijah because I love how the name sounds and, perhaps weirdly, love the way it looks written. The only thing I worry about is that our last name ends in an A, and I don’t want it to sound rhymey, but I suppose that’s what Eli is for.

  Another boy name we like is Jasper Patrick. Both are family names, after my great uncle (Jasper) and my grandpa.

  I have always loved the name Shane Patrick, but my husband doesn’t like the name Shane and honestly, with my Chicagoland, nasal “A” voice, it’s probably for the best. But I still love it.

  For girls, there are many options. The first name we agreed on was Madeline Grace. I’m a little worried about the trendiness of Madeline, but I still think it’s a beautiful name, and I loved the books! Grace is for my great grandma who is still kicking at 97.

  Eleanor Ann is another option. Eleanor is for my husband’s great aunt who thought the sun rose and set on my hubby; sadly, she passed away when he was very young. Ann is for my beloved grandma who passed away three years ago. I’m a little worried about nicknames for an Eleanor, especially if we have an Eli, but Jordan’s aunt was Aunt Al, which was mispronounced by little ones as “Owl,” which merged into Aunt Hootie, so really, I shouldn’t be worried The only thing that slightly concerns me? My in-laws, with their quasi-Southern/country accent, pronounce El-luh-nor as El-ner, and that…that’s just not correct. *sigh*

  So, in long winded conclusion, I will need to have 80 children. Good thing my husband keeps pushing for “a dozen, a dozen and a half!”

• 79. Sheila  |  July 9th, 2009 at 9:29 am

  Five years ago, when I was newly pregnant, I wanted something classic for my kids. Not popular, but something everyone has heard of and can pronounce. We named our first daughter Claire, which seems to be going well. Then on a trip to Brazil, my husband heard the name Milena and wouldn’t consider anything else if we had another daughter. So now we have a 3 month old named Milena Rose, a name not many people have heard of and nobody seems to know how to pronounce when reading it (Mil-ay-na). Its a beautiful name that we love, so its easy to look past the non-mainstreamness of it.

• 80. Chrissy  |  July 9th, 2009 at 9:31 am

  She Likes Purple and R: A student at the school my sister teaches at is named In-ia. Pronounced, you guessed it, Indashia. And to think, before today, I’m sure we thought each of us were the only ones we knew with the WAIT FOR IT phonetically-significant-punctuation-baby-name story.

  I’d say I’d take those arbitrary Ys over this Dash situation any day, but that would be false. Because the Y abuse, good god. I had a dear, dear friend at my summer camp back in the middle school days who shared my name and nickname Christina/Chrissy. Only she was Krystyna, and Krysie. COME ON. At least In-ia is well, amazingly hilarious, if not a little disturbing.

• 81. Cari  |  July 9th, 2009 at 9:33 am

  My daughter’s name is Michaela Marie. No unnecessary Y’s in there. If we have another one, a boy will be named Avery Andrew (we think) and a girl will be Audrey Ann.

  I love baby names, too

• 82. jonniker  |  July 9th, 2009 at 9:38 am

  I am positively FLIPPING over the dash situation. FLIPPING. And would you believe it took me a FULL TWO HOURS to figure them out?

  La-a. LADASHA. OH MY FUCKING GOD.

• 83. Marianne  |  July 9th, 2009 at 9:42 am

  Our 8-week-old gal is Lucille Marie. Everyone calls her Lulu.

• 84. Jules  |  July 9th, 2009 at 9:48 am

  No kids, but my name is Julia Kathrynn, and I’ve always loved it. Surprisingly, it is tougher than you think to find Julia personalized stuff, though Julie is always there. Julia after the first female immigrant to the US on my mother’s side and Kathrynn (Y was already there!) after the first on my father’s side. Nifty.

  The scary part of my naming story is that if I had been a male, my father was 100% set on naming me Eòghann, which is the Gaelic spelling of Ewan. We’re Scottish, and the man would not budge on the issue, I’m told. Eòghann. What a lifelong curse that would have been.

• 85. Sarah  |  July 9th, 2009 at 9:59 am

  I used to read baby name books for fun all the time. Since I was like TEN. Naming our kids was so, so hard, and not nearly as fun as I thought it would be, because I was filled with terror of choosing the wrong name, or of somehow missing THE perfect name if I didn’t research the subject endlessly for the entire nine months.
  Our daughter’s name is Adelay, which is just kind of made up after we realized we liked names that started with A such as Adelaide, Addison, etc, and that could be shortened to Addy, but we didn’t LOVE any of them. So husband just kind of played around until he came up with a variation we DID love. Her middle name is Isabelle, and was just a random choice that I later found out was a family name, so that was cool.
  Our son’s name is Elias, Eli for short, and that was also very random. He was going to be named Beckett Jamison, and then once he was born I didn’t think it fit him, and neither did any of the other names on our list. Then my father in law started humming “Eli’s Coming,” that old Three Dog Night song, and I was all, “That’s his name! Eli!” Husband wanted a two syllable name that we could shorten to Eli, though, and we didn’t really like Elijah or Elisha, so we settled on Elias. Marek is a German/Polish name that we had read in a baby name book and liked, but only for a middle name, so that was a pretty easy choice, once we agreed that Jamison didn’t work as well with Elias.
  I have NO IDEA what another baby would be named. There are so many I love that my husband hates! Arggh.

• 86. Erin  |  July 9th, 2009 at 10:07 am

  I am still laughing over La-a. I am dying.

  The worst name I have come across is JME pronounced Jamie. Why not just call your kid Jamie?

  Coincidentally, my oldest son is Jamie (James) and I have always loved the name. After we named our little redheaded boy, my mom started to cry and told us she always wanted a fourth child and would have named him Jamie if it was a boy. My son gets his red hair from my mom so she has had an amazing bond with him ever since.

  My baby boy is Joel. We had a much harder time with the second boy name since we didn’t want him to have a second choice name. For a long time he was going to be Simon but at the last minute my husband changed his mind and the only name we could agree on after that was Joel.

  I have tons of favourites that were vitoed by my husband like Hannah and Hazel for a girl and Liam and Charlie, I found naming our kids so frustrating due to my husband getting an opinion. It would have been tons more fun if I could have made the decisions myself

• 87. Mrs. CPA  |  July 9th, 2009 at 10:08 am

  We wait until the last possible minute to name our children. I obsses over it for months and then we never make a decision until the Social Security people are calling me and telling me I have to fill out some paperwork and WHAT IS MY KID’S NAME??.

  We pick something that wasn’t even on the list.

  Hudson Tyler (Tyler is my husband’s middle name and Hudson came from a book I was reading a week before I was induced. It was the name of a dog in the book.)

  Madeline Simmons and call her Maddie (I don’t know where Madeilne came from. Never even thought of it before she was born. And of course now there like 400 million people called Maddie or Mattie. Simmons was my grandmother’s Maiden name.)

  The middle name is always a family name, and we pick that out once we know if it’s a boy or a girl. The first name is a total crap shoot.

  We’re planning on having two more, so we have to go through this all over again.

  Something else very weird. My cousin and his wife had thier baby 3 years and 30 minutes after Hudson. While I was sitting in the waiting room, waiting for them to come out and announce his birth, someone else’s grandmother was making phone calls. Her new grandchild’s name was Hudson. Born on the same day as my Hudson, just 3 years later.

• 88. jen  |  July 9th, 2009 at 10:12 am

  I love baby names! I am always looking for new names even though we just had a boy, Carter Nicholas, who is 13 months now and don’t plan on having another one for at least 3 – 4 years. But I like imagining. If I enjoyed being pregnant more, I’d probably want 3 kids just for more naming opportunities.

  I love Carter’s name but I will admit I am sometimes bothered by its popularity. We had the name picked out for AGES before it became crazy popular but we had talked about it so much, it just felt right. Other boys names we considered were Lincoln, Grant, Pierce, William, and Vaughn. His middle name is my husbands first name…which is the tradition in his family.

  I am so hoping we have a girl because there are so many lovely names to choose from. My favorites are Isla, Amelia, Charlotte, Caroline, Elizabeth, Mallory, Elise, and Julia, many of which have been mentioned already.

  Oh, and don’t feel bad about calling the cops or inciting the nosy neighbor to call them. I understand why you feel bad about it but you shouldn’t. Maybe make them some sandwiches right before the cops get there?

• 89. Tessie  |  July 9th, 2009 at 10:18 am

  Fun stuff. My daughter’s name is Ava, which I still love despite the allegedly life-ruining TOP TEN thing. Middle name Priscilla, after a favorite aunt.

  I was with you on the license plate thing. Good fucking luck finding Tessie, although I did have the slighty-more-common “Tess” nickname going for me.

  Other names I like:

  Girls: Elena, Annalise, Eliza, Josephine, Lucia, Livia, Rosa
  Boys: Joseph, James, Julian, Adrian, Thomas, William, John

• 90. Emily  |  July 9th, 2009 at 10:30 am

  Mocking all the strange and strangely-spelled names out there, a friend of mine named his cat Phydeaux (Fido). Good stuff.

• 91. Calliope  |  July 9th, 2009 at 11:01 am

  my real name is VERY different and not one most people have heard of and when it came to naming my son I totally wanted him to have a unique name as well. But not crazy. Just, I don’t know…solid. His name is Whitaker and it is a family name. I also liked that his nickname would be (is) Whit.

• 92. Brandy  |  July 9th, 2009 at 11:03 am

  My children’s names are Jacob, Emilee, & Hannah. Oh well, at least two of them can get bicycle tags without custom ordering!!!

• 93. Kristin  |  July 9th, 2009 at 11:08 am

  Oh this is so fun to read the comments. I’m due with a girl in 2 weeks and we have NO IDEA what to name her. We cannot agree on anything except one name and it’s super popular and we don’t know what to do. You’ve all given me some great ideas. I wrote to Swistle and I’m hoping she puts it up on her website soon, because I’m starting to get nervous. We have a 2.5 year old son named William (Will) and we couldn’t agree on his name until 2 days after he was born. That is one great way to enrage everyone in your family, let me tell you.

• 94. -R-  |  July 9th, 2009 at 11:11 am

  This isn’t about specific names per se, but one of my coworkers did not name her kid for TWO MONTHS after she was born. I forget what they put on the birth certificate, but then they just amended it after they finally chose a name. And it was their second kid, which I think makes the story even weirder.

• 95. jonniker  |  July 9th, 2009 at 11:11 am

  Kristin: You’re going with La-a, right? Or In-ia?

• 96. Jessica  |  July 9th, 2009 at 11:23 am

  We named our son Jacob Mitchell, which I love but we never thought to check the most popular names list until after we picked it.

  My brother is 4 years younger than me and he will be having a boy in October. Apparently, their top baby name is Kiger? Kyger? I have no idea. And I am TERRIFIED.

• 97. Amy K  |  July 9th, 2009 at 11:31 am

  I was traumatized by having a very common name (Amy) growing up in the 80s, so the primary criteria for my daughter’s name was that it would NOT be one you could find on keychains and kiddie license plates. The only name my husband and I could agree upon was Eira. It’s not horribly unusual in the UK and Scandinavia, but no one in the US can pronounce or spell it (the ei is a long A sound, like in weigh). It means snow in Welsh. She’ll probably be annoyed by it for years, then finally realize that it’s cool to be a little different. Or she’ll hate it forever and name her own children John or Mary or something traditional so they don’t have to suffer like she did. Whatever.

• 98. NGS  |  July 9th, 2009 at 11:34 am

  I don’t have children. Ever since I read The Secret Garden when I was a kid, I’ve thought Archibald was the worst name ever.

  BUT, then I became a teacher. One kid’s middle name was Demon (pronounced Damon, but why the e to make it so devilish?). One girl’s name was pronounced Ash-o-lay. It was spelled Asshole.

  Why are parents dumb like that?

• 99. Anne Prince  |  July 9th, 2009 at 11:59 am

  Cameron Peter (before Cameron was an “in” name – he’s 21) and Morgan Noelle.

  I love the name Owen for a boy. I also like McKenzie for a girl but alas, I am LOOOOONG past having any more children (thank goodness!)

• 100. Kristin H  |  July 9th, 2009 at 12:42 pm

  Sophia Jane and Aiden James. I loved Aiden for years, way before it became popular. Then when I was actually having a boy, Aiden was number freakin one on the charts. We searched for another name, but could not come up with anything. So! Aiden it is. James and Jane are family names. I also loved the name Sophia from way back; it wasn’t as popular when she was born as it is now.

  If I had named my kids that names I liked when I was young, my boy would have been Mumford. My husband about peed his pants laughing when he read that in my 2nd grade journal.

• 101. Kristin H  |  July 9th, 2009 at 12:50 pm

  Thought I’d chime in with a friend’s daughter’s name: Lenyx. I can’t decide if I like it or not. On one hand, I can see how it’s pretty. On the other hand, it makes me think of china and silverware.

• 102. Brooke  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:01 pm

  Jace Anthony and Jaelyn Rae.

  We realized after falling head over heels in love with the name Jace that people CONSTANTLY think that we are a) saying Chase or b) using a nickname for Jason. Neither is true.

  Jaelyn was a name that I loved and Rae is a family name. I had difficulty while I was still pregnant writing her name because I wasn’t sure about there being too many “ae”s in her name.. but then I realized that she isn’t often going to be using her full name, and then I was ok with it. The end.

• 103. Someone Being Me  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:10 pm

  I totally agree on the name thing, What drives me even more crazy than unusual names is traditional names with unusual spellings. Like my sister who has a very traditional name but my mom did an i instead of the typical ey. So she never got the personalized license plate either and she always has to spell her name for people. Both my kids have traditional names with traditional spellings. I am boring I guess.

• 104. velocibadgergirl  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:13 pm

  There needs to be a Facebook group for people who never found their names on stickers / pencils / barrettes / bike license plates. I’m one of them.

  Also, it’s KILLING me that I can’t tell you the names we’ve picked out for our kid, because if I do, I won’t be able to blog anonymously once the kid is born. Which wouldn’t matter, except I’m actually pregnant with the kid right now, so probably people won’t forget before the birth.

• 105. Misty  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:16 pm

  Oooo, I can SO RELATE to wanting to name the kid with a REAL NAME. OMG, Look at me. I loathe my hippy dippy non-real-but-rather-a-state-of-precipitation name. What was my mother THINKING?

  Anyway, we are considering baby names again and I am liking Leo and Jasper, Tessa and Rhea.

  Is it bad though that when I say Rhea I mean (RAY-uh) and not (REE-uh)? I am unsure. I don’t want to be one of those fussy people who name their kid Psymon and then flinch when people pronounce the P.

  Ya know?

• 106. shelly  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:17 pm

  Tanner James
  Carter Thomas

  Tanner was a random name we heard and loved back before it was more popular (he’s 18 now), and Carter was my grandma’s maiden name…….

  I never liked the traditional names like Michael and so forth. I mean they are fine for others, but I just couldn’t see myself with a Mike or John (sorry hubby)

• 107. Jinxy  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:33 pm

  My daughter is Lillian Avery or Lily for short.

  My hubby bought me Star gazer Lilies when we first got together, then I had them in my wedding bouquet.

  We can not agree on boy names at all.

• 108. Jen W.  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:43 pm

  Best comments section ever. No kids, but I do have 2 Welsh corgi dogs named Delaney and Kinsley.

• 109. Elizabeth  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:46 pm

  Nathaniel Lawrence – Because Nathaniel was an easy name we could agree on (I had my girl name picked out but he was a boy) and Lawrence for my Gpa. Later we found out there were 5 boys born in the same week as him in our town of around 100K people who were named, you guessed it Nathaniel!

  Jonathan Frederick – Jonathan for my step dad and Frederick for my husbands dad… and because my husband wanted to name him Freddy Moon (I am not even kidding!) Jonathan Frederick was our compromise and only later did I realize that I named both of my boys “Nathan” in some form… and I don’t even care for the name Nathan! HA

  Ireland Annalyssa (sorry there’s a “Y” in there…) Ireland cause I love it and I love the country as did my sister who was killed and rather than just name her after “Anna” I thought it a beautiful tribute and beautiful name. Annalyssa is for my sisters, Anna and Melissa.

  PS – Jinxy, Star Gazer Lilies are my most favorite flower in the world!

• 110. Kristin H  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:46 pm

  Also: my Grandmother’s name is Irene, which I’ve always thought was old-fashioned and pretty.

  God, could I stop commenting now?

• 111. Amanda  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:48 pm

  My daughter is Amelia Oline.

  We chose Amelia because our last name is common and we wanted something old-fashioned and unique but not too “out there”. Oline (oh-leen-ah) is a Norwegian name, and is was my maternal grandmother’s middle name and it is my middle name as well. My mother, who is from Norway, made sure that my brothers and I had a bit of Norway in our names. My brothers are Daniel Olav and Erik Jeffrey.

  If we have a son we are leaning towards the name Henry Olav.

• 112. Jill  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:52 pm

  Our daughter is Grace Madeleine. We’ve known pretty much since we met that our first daughter would be Grace. It’s just a name we always agreed on. I would have named her Madeleine in a second, were it not for the fact that my husband can’t stand the name Maddie. So it got pushed to the middle. We went with the traditional french spelling of Madeleine (pronounced with a “len” at the end and NOT a “line”) because we thought it looked more elegant than variations with y’s. Future daughters: Samantha, Gabriela, Marleigh, Carys

  And let’s just hope we don’t have a boy, because he will be nameless probably until after he’s born. His middle name will be Daniel, and the only name we agree on is Jack. I don’t think so. I like Will, Logan, and Mason. The only other name HE likes is Chad (which is his name.) No again.

• 113. Joceline  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:53 pm

  My son is Declan Christopher James. Declan is after the Irish saint, and it means “full of goodness” (I can’t believe you mentioned it here–most people ask us if we made it up!). The two middle names are because both my husband and brother are Christopher, but the James is added on to specify that he is named after my brother, who died when I was pregnant with Declan.

  My daughter is Eleanor Megan. Eleanor is after Eleanor of Aquitaine, the greatest woman of the middle ages, and it means “light.” Megan is after my husband’s sister who died when she was a baby.

  I have no idea what any future children will be named, as our alternate-gender names for each kid (we didn’t find out before they were born) were Nora (for Declan) and Elliott (for Eleanor). We can’t exactly have Eleanor, Nora, and Elliott all running around together. Also, I forbid any more siblings from dying any time in the near future, so middle names are not set either.

• 114. Joceline  |  July 9th, 2009 at 1:57 pm

  @Gaby–I practically have a conniption fit when people pronounce my daughter’s name “El-ner.” WHY WOULD YOU SAY IT THAT WAY? It physically pains me. My name is Joceline, and people who say “Jawz-lyn” do the same thing to me. I start twitching (it is a preventative measure to keep me from hitting them.

• 115. foradifferentkindofgirl (fadkog)  |  July 9th, 2009 at 2:02 pm

  Is that massacre supposed to be pronounced Simon?! Because if I was Psymon, I would grow up mean, bittered, and flippin’ exhausted from having to spell my damn name for people multiple times a day for the rest of my life. This type of flagrant creative name spelling smacks of pretentiousness and makes me crazy. I loathe it!

  A coworker and I were talking baby names last night and I said I liked the name Thatcher and he jumped my case, and I swear I defended that name like I actually had a kid named Thatcher, but I do not. The goal now is to get my husband on board with the idea of it, though, and then that name is totally mine to use, and I swear I’ll not spell it as Thatsure.

• 116. hollylynne  |  July 9th, 2009 at 2:16 pm

  So far, my husband seems fairly amicable to most of my tamer name ideas. Of course, there isn’t an actual pregancy yet so we’ll see once that happens. If we got pregnant today I think I’d lobby for and probably win Caris for a girl and Rhys or Beckett for a boy. Caris and Rhys are among the most easily pronounceable of Welsh names, and we were married in Wales. Beckett just kicks ass (as in Samuel or Thomas).

• 117. La Petite Chic  |  July 9th, 2009 at 2:20 pm

  My maiden name is Sloan so I have always known that my kid will have Sloan somewhere in their name! Though I kind of hate how it’s become popular now, no thanks to Entourage!

• 118. zeghsy  |  July 9th, 2009 at 2:22 pm

  my daughter is samantha paige (named for ted williams — his middle name was samuel — and satchel paige — her father is a huge baseball fan and i was only allowed to agree on the name).

  i was almost going home as baby girl, but then they stumbled upon ann elizabeth. a few weeks later, they found they were old family names.

• 119. Penny  |  July 9th, 2009 at 2:34 pm

  Alex and Eleanor (Elle for short). We just couldn’t do the trendy thing. Sam used to be one of our top picks for a girl or boy, but it was edged out in the end. My middle name is Julia and I love it. And my first name is never on any of those bike license plates or keychains or anything and it SUCKED so I totally get it, wanting your kid to be included like that.

• 120. laura  |  July 9th, 2009 at 2:58 pm

  well i have 3 kids very close in age girl 3 Lily Kathleen, boy 2 Douglas Charles (jr), girl Violet Amanda-Marie 4 months. we really just kinda tossed names around until we saw them, then we new besides for my son he is a JR, the hubby wouldnt have it any other way but i wanted an Oliver for a boy im obessed with the SSA.org website which list all these baby names and what it number 1 and so on.

• 121. Diana  |  July 9th, 2009 at 3:01 pm

  I don’t have children but when my SIL was pregnant with my nephew I had to intervene on his behalf when there was talk of the name Jack. Our last name is Jackson. What? Also at some point my brother wanted to call him Dewey and I had to explain how Dewey drops out in eigth grade and opens beer bottles with his teeth (no offense to Deweys really). Then sanity prevailed and they named him Matthew.

  SIL is now pregnant with a girl and has had some hormonal dooseys mostly Grateful Dead related (no you may not name your child Sugar Magnolia), but I am hoping that when she is born the reason will return and her name will be fitting. Meanwhile I suggest and suggest.

• 122. Nimble  |  July 9th, 2009 at 3:05 pm

  @ Diana: Magnolia is kinda cute though if you cut the “Sugar”!

• 123. Lynnette  |  July 9th, 2009 at 3:08 pm

  I love my own name: pretty, feminine and sweet, while being entirely uncommon. I am reluctant to say my little girl’s name before she is due in a few weeks. It has the same attributes as my name, but no it does not sound like it. I can’t tell the internetz before I tell my own mother.

• 124. Shannon  |  July 9th, 2009 at 3:10 pm

  We have a 4 year old named Caleb Davis. I wanted Davis as the first name, but after much “debate” I compromised for the middle. Our daughter is 1 and named Piper Dorene. I love, love, love Samantha, but we just know too many and couldn’t do it. It is just precious, though!

• 125. Susan C  |  July 9th, 2009 at 3:18 pm

  I have Henry Howard and Lucy Josephine- always have been a fan of the traditional/old-fashioned and their middles are family names. However, I really wanted to give my daughter a cute boys name like Charlie or Frankie, but my ex woulnd’t go for it. Funny, I think I’ve read through all the comments and didn’t see either of these names currently in use.

• 126. Chris  |  July 9th, 2009 at 3:20 pm

  Love, love, love this topic! I wish I could have more babies just because I love to name them! The problem is that I do not like names that are frequently shortened to nicknames. My name has been shortened my whole life and I just don’t see the point! I know that my kids will, at some point, try to shorten their names but I want them to be called by their full first names!

  My daughter (age 6) is Mollie Elizabeth. I just want to state for the record that I was not on board for the “ie” spelling. That is her father’s fault! She is named after my beloved grandmother, Mary.

  My son (age 3) is Griffin Frederick. Griffin was the only name we could agree on that I could even remotely stand the nicknames for (which isn’t saying a lot because I will NEVER call him by a nickname!) and his middle name is after both my dad and my husband’s dad.

• 127. Julie Momster  |  July 9th, 2009 at 3:35 pm

  I am guilty of funky-baby-naming. Well, yes and no.

  I decided to name her Avienda Christine (Avienda sounds almost exactly how it’s spelled – think “ah” sound instead of “e”), so she’s gets one of each. But I fell in love with Avienda through stories my mother used to read, and I pretty much had to. I couldn’t picture it any other way – it’s such a ‘Princess’ kind of name!

  Luckily, she’s pretty safe. She can either go by Christine, or any of it’s variations, or the “Avi” that we call her at home.

• 128. Michelle  |  July 9th, 2009 at 3:37 pm

  My daughter’s name is Emery Margaret Sue. Her first name was my grandfather’s. It was my sister’s idea. She wanted to name a baby that but her husband was against it so she said I could (I’m eternally grateful). Her middle names are for her grandmother’s on either side. We are big on family names plus I wanted something different but not weird.
  We can’t agree on a boy’s name (if that ever happens) but know that the middle names will be Lucas Michael for my husband and my father.
  I know the middle names are a lot. I just don’t want to leave anyone out.

• 129. Kristin  |  July 9th, 2009 at 3:52 pm

  My dad is one of 12 children and I am the oldest of 32 grandchildren. My hisband is one of 9 children. All Catholic and most named after Saints. Heck, somewhere along the line of kids my Grandma was popping out -she ended up naming 2 of her sons the same first and middle names! Guess she had a hard time keeping track!

  We have 2 girls and a boy.

  Kennedy Kaye River -she prefers Kennedy -we tend to call her Kenny
  Addison Rochelle Sage -she prefers Addison -we call her Addie
  William Louis Orion -we call him Will -he has no preference

  Kennedy and Addison were names we liked. William is after my dad. Middle names are all family names. Third names are all names we liked as well and just wanted to throw them in there…

  I can’t stand the Y abuse and I read up to the 82nd comment and figured out the dash names-OY!

• 130. Christine  |  July 9th, 2009 at 3:58 pm

  I have no kids, but I really like the name Samantha. I also generally like the classic type names like Eva, Victoria, Madeleine, Grace, etc for girls. I don’t particularly care for trendy names though and it seems that classical has become a trend, so I guess I will have to deal. I would my daughter be one of 8 Graces she knows than some other uber trendy but not loved by me names that are actually mentioned above. (Consider the fact that I did a search on the names I thought about adding a major step forward for me in the process of attempting not to stick my foot in my mouth every two seconds.) So yeah.

  Also, I’m sure you realize as someone whose daughter has a “Nonno” that the name Gianna pronounced like your name is actually a name for us Italians. Yay! Also, it irks me when people pronounce Gianna or Giovanna as “Gee-anna” or “Gee ovanna.” Irks

• 131. Kristin  |  July 9th, 2009 at 4:01 pm

  Oh -my Great Grandma had 8 children -they were all called Baby until they were approximatley a year old than they were given a proper name!

• 132. Christine  |  July 9th, 2009 at 4:04 pm

  Oh I forgot to mention, I have the same sort of criteria for boys, but that my boyfriend would like to name his first born son Aristotle. Aristotle by the way. Oh man, we are SO not Greek. Not even a little bit.

• 133. Christine  |  July 9th, 2009 at 4:05 pm

  Oh that was Aristotle “Hispanic Last Name”, I foolishly used some html code which made it disappear. Am an ass w/ the computers. But not as ASH-O-LE. HA. Some people should not be allowed to have children based on naming capacity alone.

• 134. Gaby  |  July 9th, 2009 at 4:21 pm

  @Joceline: I just don’t know why anyone would pronounce it that way, it’s not like it’s an uncommon name. Of course, people insist on pronouncing my name “Gabriel,” like the male variant, so I just don’t get it. Sorry your little one has to deal with it.

  @zeghsy: My mom and step-dad named my sister Caitlin Zarley after the hockey player, Zarley Zalapski. Had she been a boy, they were talking about Edward Zarley. I told them they must come up with a non-E first name for a girl because no sister of mine should have her first two initials be EZ!

• 135. Betsy  |  July 9th, 2009 at 4:24 pm

  Our 4-month old is Henry Burton. We chose Henry looong ago, before we were married. Unfortunately, it took us so long to have kids that it’s now one of the trendy, hipster names. We tried to come up with another name, but couldn’t find one we could agree on. The closest we came was with Leo, but even that didn’t seem right. In the end, we figured that having other kids in his class with the same name wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

  The response to his name has been mixed. Some people love it, while some people (my mom) think it’s old-fashioned. Someone commented that it wasn’t a good “kid” name–like he’s going to be a kid all his life? We get asked a lot if it’s a family name, but its not. We just liked it.

  Burton is my maiden name.

• 136. AKPiper  |  July 9th, 2009 at 4:24 pm

  I named my son Oliver. He was born a week or so after your Samantha. It was, quite literally, the only name that my husband and I could agree on for a boy. If we’d had a girl, we’d have named her Eleanor. (I’m a big fan of Eleanor Roosevelt.) I think Samantha is a beautiful, timeless name. Marsha? Not so much.

• 137. jonniker  |  July 9th, 2009 at 4:37 pm

  OMFG Diana.

  “I had to explain how Dewey drops out in eighth grade and opens beer bottles with his teeth (no offense to Deweys really).”

  HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

• 138. anne  |  July 9th, 2009 at 4:50 pm

  We are not at all at the baby/baby naming stage (though I did get a stern warning from the gyno yesterday about waiting too long) but we have had a few spotted conversations here and there and they involve one thing – my husband insists on naming said child after a famous drummer. He gave me a list, but the child’s name will come from a rock and roll drummer. I think he is only 1/2 kidding.

• 139. Katrina  |  July 9th, 2009 at 5:11 pm

  We called my son Levi Ryan Stark. Stark is actually my surname that my husband took when we got married. His idea. His “maiden” name was Vile so you can understand why he was in a hurry to get rid of it. Levi is an anagram of Vile which I only figured out long after we decided to call him that but I like that there is a connection. Before he was conceived Levi was going to be called Noah. LOVED the name and thought it went so well with Stark. Then I figured out why. Noah Stark, Noah’s Ark. Yeah, not going to work…

• 140. Jeanne B.  |  July 9th, 2009 at 5:31 pm

  My sister (psychologist) had a client who named her daughter Clitoris because it sounded so pretty.

  Comment #105 Misty—”Rhea” for some reason reminds me of stomach upsets. But Tessa is beautiful.

  I have five cats and two horses in lieu of children. The cats are named: Zander Fred (Big Z), Natasha Ophelia (Oph), Jacob Vincent (Jake), Sam (Blue), and Tyler. My next female cats (because I’m so over boycats now) will be Millicent and Sophie. Someday. Like ten years from now after everybody else kicks it.

  The horses: I named the mare Shaveya (Shuh VEY uh) after feminizing the Hopi Indian name Cheveyo. Because it was too close to my other horse’s name. Cheerios. Which he came with. I didn’t give it to him. I would never name an animal after food.

  If I ever had human children, my favorite names are Wyatt (for a boy, and the only one left after I used up all the other ones on the cats) and Lillian, Emma, Abigail and Stevie (short for Stephanie).

• 141. ali  |  July 9th, 2009 at 6:22 pm

  My kids are Emily Elizabeth – and yes, i DO realize it’s the same name as the girl from Clifford, but it was not on purpose. she was named Emily because it was the only name we could agree on and her middle name was going to be Beth (after the husband said no to my proposed Emily Scout) for my grandmother, who was Betty. but we didn’t love Beth, so it became Elizabeth.

  Joshua Aaron. The Aaron was for my grandfather. he was going to be Ethan Aaron before I was even pregnant. but then, two weeks before he was born, a friend said, “you are so easy to read. you are totally going to use a name like Ethan” so, of course, I had to change the name. haha.

  and

  Isabella Rose. because we know a little girl called Isabella and we just fell in love with the name. we never really even discussed any other names for her

• 142. Leah  |  July 9th, 2009 at 6:27 pm

  I know what you mean about liking a name but not liking it for MY kid. We had quite a list of awesome (if I do say so myself) names before Wombat was born, but did I really think I could pull off Rex? The answer was a definitive “no.” With Wombat’s real name, though, it just felt like my kid, and although I told Simon I would remain uncommitted until I actually saw the baby, I knew pretty early on that he would be [Wombat].

  (Now, if Swistle would just stop recommending it for everyone else. It’s MY name! MINE!)

  p.s. My super-Mormon cousin just named his daughter Brooke and can I say how relieved I am because I was so very, very, very afraid that it was going to be one of those made-up, y-abusive Mormon monstrosities.

• 143. Lise  |  July 9th, 2009 at 7:53 pm

  Alayna Janelle
  Marissa Laurel Barbara
  Serena Noelle
  Pauletta Avanell (waving at Lane in comment #2 – Avanell was my mother’s middle name, and until we named our baby and started meeting Avanells and Avanelles, we thought it was a made-up name.)

• 144. Angela  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:00 pm

  My son is Jackson Charles. My husband always liked the name Jackson, and once I decided it was perfect, he told me why- it is in honor of Bo Jackson, the football/baseball player. I thought it was funny that he waited to tell me why he liked it so much! Middle name is after my husband’s grandfather. I had always planned on calling him Jack, but now I just can’t do it. I might as well call him Fred.

• 145. Miranda  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:03 pm

  Hayley Olivia

  Our last name start with a T, so her initials are “H.O.T.” I hope she doesn’t hate us.

• 146. Blur  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:16 pm

  The name me and Mr. Blur have picked out for any future children are
  KaraLynn for a girl (after his grandmother carolyn and my aunt Lynn that passed away) -calling her Kara
  and
  Riley James for a boy, just because we like it
  Of course I reserve the right to change my mind when I actually see the kid Although it will be at least 2 years till that happens.
  http://www.lifegetsblurry.wordpress.com

• 147. Sue  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:23 pm

  I’ve got a Catherine Judith, Jillian Patricia, John Joseph (the 3rd) and Blake Charles(middle names are all family names, I love my middle name after my great granny Louise). For another girl I like Gabrielle or Kira, an boy I like Kyle or Henry.

• 148. Cara  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:40 pm

  As if baby names weren’t bad enough, the Sci Fi channel just changed its name to Sy Fy.

• 149. Lindsay  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:43 pm

  We only have hypothetical children but names we seem to agree on thus far:

  Boys – Jack, Drew or Chase
  Girls – Grace, Hannah

  We don’t mind if a name is common. We just don’t want anything too attention grabbing. Names with quiet confidence is what we’re going for I guess.

  I am so so tired of having my husband disregard the names I come up with as stripper names, white trash, hillbillie, redneck, etc. I mean of course there is some white trash with the name James (which I love) but for God’s sake there are just as many normal people named James.

  I really can’t figure out his angle for girls names – I just don’t know who is a stripper and who isn’t. Like I know if I pitch a boy name I should first find out if there is a manly professional athlete I can reference (see Seth Smith of Major League Baseball – I’m also campaigning for Seth) to convince him it’s man enough.

  With girls….I’m starting to think I should find a sweet little girl toddler and pay the mother to let me introduce the child to my husband under the name I want to name my girl so that he can develop a positive association with the name. This is why he likes Grace – because he saw a little 3 year old at a wedding with the name and she was cute and sweet and well behaved.

  Anyway, really interesting comments. That dash stuff is odd, and I would call BS on the girl named Asshole except that I know a teacher who taught a kid named Shithead (pronounced Shi – THEED)

  Oy.

• 150. Lindsay  |  July 9th, 2009 at 8:43 pm

  Cara, please tell me you are joking,

• 151. celebrate woo-woo  |  July 9th, 2009 at 9:01 pm

  Cara is completely right about the Sy Fy channel…drives me batty!

• 152. Rebecca  |  July 9th, 2009 at 11:46 pm

  My kids are Liam Robert and Audrey Katherine. Robert is after my dad and Katherine is after hubby’s mom.

  Other names we considered: Ian, Ryan, Daniel, Fiona, Rachel, Natalie.

  My all time fave girl name is Julia, but it got vetoed.

• 153. Caro  |  July 10th, 2009 at 12:39 am

  Ohmigosh names! I have to agree with other commenters who’ve said they like the name Jonna. I thought I made that name up when I was little (my brother’s name was John…I imagined if he were a girl…I’m an awesome sister like that ). Anyway, now it’s become a possible tribute to my brother if I have a girl…that or Johanna.

  Ha, I just had to share!

• 154. Laura  |  July 10th, 2009 at 1:47 am

  Fun topic! First off, my jaw is still agape at that poor girl named Asshole, pronounced Ash-o-lay. REALLY?! Those people should not be permitted to procreate.

  Secondly, I can’t believe I’m admitting this here because I’m generally so afraid someone will steal my preferred girl name that I NEVER tell anyone, but hopefully this is buried far enough in the comments that nobody I know will notice. The girl name I love is Chailyn Nicole. (Chailyn pronouced Kay-lin). I am annoyed because some D-list celebrity had a baby girl today and named her Kaylin Nicola. But oh well, nobody will remember that in a month, let alone by the time I might have a child.

  My boy names are Miles and Desmond, and yes, yes. Desmond is after Desmond from Lost. I can’t help it, I love him and his name.

  And I couldn’t leave without talking about the guy I just broke up with, because his thing with names is hysterical. His birth name was Andre, and he *so* looks like an Andre, but when he was 20 he legally changed his name. To Maverick Colton Valentine. Oh yes. And he hates the Top Gun jokes. Well, dude, maybe you should have picked a different name then. I called him Mav because I had trouble taking him seriously as a Maverick. And his surname, he picked because he wants his future wife to have a beautiful surname. Good thing we split up because I would not be able to take MYSELF seriously with Valentine as a surname, especially with the reasoning he has behind it. It’s so corny!

• 155. Margaret  |  July 10th, 2009 at 6:07 am

  Oh I just remembered — what about Jennifer Lopez naming her twins Max and Emme, from the cartoon ‘Dragontales’. That one blew my mind.

• 156. Emily  |  July 10th, 2009 at 8:28 am

  In truth, I’ve already commented, but I had to add this TRAGIC name story. The mother of a friend of mine teaches elementary school in Buffalo, NY. She recently had two twins in her class: Orangello and Lemonjello. Urban legend, right? My friend didn’t believe his mother, either, until she brought home her class roster and proved it.

  I still think La-a takes the cake, though, with Psymon running a close second.

• 157. Katy  |  July 10th, 2009 at 9:19 am

  Love discussions about names! My daughter’s name is Lorelei Catherine. Catherine is after my grandmother and yes Lorelei is from Gilmore Girls but I like to say it is inspired by and not named after:) I know I have doomed her to a life of correcting people (her Ped’s office called her Loralee three times before I corrected them) but I just love the combination of Lorelei Catherine. Speaking of weirdish names, my cousin’s son is named Blu, no one in the family is sure where they got it from:)

• 158. Sarah  |  July 10th, 2009 at 10:05 am

  Our son is Elliott Bowman [last name]. We call him all manner of nicknames but most commonly Elbow, Jelly, Jellybean, Jellybelly, El, and E. Elliott is a family name for us (husband’s dad’s middle name and maternal grandma’s maiden name) as is Bowman (husband’s mother’s maiden name). Perhaps not surprisingly given where I live and the popularity of Scrubs, all the other Elliotts I’ve met that are my son’s age are girls. It seems to be going the way of Taylor.

  If we had a girl, we were split on Natalie, Lauren and (my husband’s vote) Olive. If we have another boy, he will be Matthew Edward.

• 159. Jeanne  |  July 10th, 2009 at 12:56 pm

  Our daughter is Madelyn Mae. Madelyn had been chosen years before hand. We had always planned on using the Madeline spelling until the day we filled out the birth certificate. My husband suddenly had a panic that people would call her Mada-line (rhyms with pine) like the story book character. I named her with the intention of calling her Maddie, but the husband hates that, so she was always Madelyn until she her kindergarten friends started calling her Maddie. Her middle name is the same as my mom’s. In hindsite, I would go back and choose something that wasn’t so very popular, but when we named her we just didn’t know. Unfortunately, as popular as the name is, I still can’t find it spelled correctly on a bike license plate.

  Our first baby who we lost when I was 5 months preg. was named Faith, which I chose after she was born. I don’t know that I actually consulted with my husband on that one. It may have been a completely one-sided decision. We didn’t give her a middle name at the time, but in my heart I think of her as Faith Marie (my middle name).

  If we’d had a boy, he would have been Trent Ragnor. Trent was a little bit chosen for Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), and Ragnor is my husband’s middle name.

  We have a cat named Lily, and I regretted that we couldn’t name a human child that. I think my next girl (which I won’t ever be having, by the way) would be Julia Bernice (Bernice is my grandma’s name).

• 160. Margie  |  July 10th, 2009 at 1:04 pm

  Zadie is the name we chose for our daughter. We had some runners-up, including Alice, Mae, Eleanor (Ellie), Samantha (!) and Vivian, but we sort of guessed she would be more of a Zadie, and when we met her that appeared to be true. We took an hour or two to think it over after we met her, and Zadie fits. I worry a little that I’ve given her too weird a name, but I have always loved having a name that I didn’t have to share very often, and I wanted to give that to my daughter. And although I have an odd name, I feel like I really AM my name, if you get what I mean. There aren’t too many other associations people have with my name, so I feel like often it’s really just mine.

  Incidentally, Zadie is an old name from my husband’s side, but great great great great aunt Zadee spelled it differently (yikes!). People either exclaim love for her name, or politely hide how much they hate it, which I appreciate : ) I can definitely imagine her friends calling her “Z” or “Zade,” or even “Dee,” all of which I’m okay with. And now that I know her a little bit, I can’t imagine her having any other name, of course (and her friends and loved ones will quickly get over any dislike or unfamiliarity they may have with it, and it will just be her).

  Oh – and her middle name is my maiden name, which I only very reluctantly let go of as a last name in favor of my husband’s last name. This way she’s not hyphenated, but we keep that name connection. She also has a super secret middle name, and lots of other middle names we like to jokingly tack on : )

• 161. Aprylsantics  |  July 10th, 2009 at 1:48 pm

  Um. I’m afraid you’re just going to have to get “eye pokey” on me. The “y” was something I added years ago to be different because I was sick of all the “April showers” and “It’s not April. It’s May.” shit. Sorri you find it so dysturbing.

• 162. Julie Momster  |  July 10th, 2009 at 2:58 pm

  Oh yeah – Here’s a good one. My cousin’s aunt is a 7th grade teacher, and one of the girls in her class had a picture of a baby
  on her folder.

  “Oh she’s adorable, is that your little sister?”
  ‘Nu-uh, that’s mah baby girl’
  “What’s her name?”
  ‘Ab-si-day’
  “That’s unusual. How do you spell it?”
  ‘Abcde’

  No. Joke.

• 163. Jen  |  July 10th, 2009 at 3:02 pm

  I had to come back and add another name story my sister shared with me. A little girl in her class is named “Female” – pronounced “Fa-mal-ee.” Her parents were not native to the country and my sister’s best guess is that they saw it on the forms at the hospital. Sheesh.

• 164. heels  |  July 10th, 2009 at 3:31 pm

  My son’s name is Cole Arthur- Cole because that’s what I was going to be named if I had been a boy, and Arthur because it’s my father’s middle name, and the first name of both my grandfather and great grandfather.

  And, though we are officially due in 8 days (and expected to go sooner) with a girl, we still haven’t finalized a list of names. OY.

• 165. Nicole  |  July 10th, 2009 at 10:25 pm

  #1 Jack. Well, his real name is John Edward- it’s a family name on my husband’s side that I don’t love, so we call him Jack.

  #2 Nolan Matthew. Just cuz we liked it…

• 166. Shana  |  July 10th, 2009 at 11:37 pm

  I don’t know, dude — I’d file “Lyla” and “Alyson” under “y abuse,” too.

• 167. Shana  |  July 11th, 2009 at 12:02 am

  Oh, no. Just read Laura (#154) and her girl’s name. Laura, I beg of you, please reconsider. My name is Shana, which rhymes with “Donna,” and has been bastardized thusly: Shanna, Shayna, Shawna, Shauna, Shannon, and Sharon. Among others.

  The kicker? My mother thought she was doing me a favor by going with “Shana.” Because she really wanted to spell it “Chana,” but still pronounce it “Shawna.” I can only imagine the lifelong hassle for your future daughter if you name her Chailyn and expect people to pronounce it Kaylin. (And Kaylin’s not a name! Oh, this pains me.)

  This is why people with effed-up names find these discussions so disturbing. It’s a visceral reaction. I know it’s tempting to go way outside the box when you’ve lived your life as a Laura, but there are worse things. In particular, an ympossyble nayme.

• 168. Alyce  |  July 11th, 2009 at 12:58 am

  I promise to come back and read these comments later.

  We picked a name for our (someday???) child about 7 or 8 years ago. Harper August. And would have used it for a boy or a girl.

  But then I saw some hipster name list and both of those names were in the top 20. And that bothers me sufficiently that it is likely no longer in the running.

  I always wanted to use Gaelic names like Finnoula (Noula or Finn for short), Niamh (sounds like Neeve), Padraic, or Seamus, but close friends and a SIL used our top contenders so we went for Harper August.

  My name is pronounced Uh-leese (more like Elise than Alice) and I truly believe that it has helped to shape who I am. New schools, new teachers, choosing to correct people when it is pronounced differently.

• 169. mary  |  July 11th, 2009 at 6:25 am

  My husband is also a stripper namer. Um, here’s one he made up: WinterLynn. WTF? “Now appearing on the main stage….” He decided he likes the -lynn ending and well, BG was a winter baby. Ew. Also – he loved Valkyrie, before he knew about the movie. Sad thing is, we saw a sales clerk with that nametag and I was all, “Holy crow, didja see that name, poor woman, her parents hate her”….meanwhile he was thinking how pretty is sounded?!?!?!

  BG is Maya Danielle. She’s just a bit older than Sam. We decided on it about 5 mins after she was born. He told me I could name her whatever I wanted after I pushed her out. Yay, power of the cooch!

  Maya is multicultural (we live in Japan, it’s def Japanese, which thrills my J friends), easily pronounced and pretty. No one on here has mentioned it yet, so there’s that!

• 170. jonniker  |  July 11th, 2009 at 6:30 am

  Shana: There are a couple of fine readers of this here blog named Alyson (or Allyson) and/or Lyla, and/or named their daughter Lyla. For that reason alone, I don’t think it’s abuse, HOWEVER, since I know people who were named both Alyson (a totally acceptable alternate spelling, IMO) and Lyla (ditto) in the late ’60s/early ’70s, I can’t help but feel like they aren’t on the ‘y’ trend train, as that didn’t hit until much, much later.

  FWIW, too, man, I feel for you as a Shana. I went to high school with THREE Shanas and they were *all* Shay-na. And then there’s Gorillabuns’ Shana, whose name is spelled as yours is, but rhymes with “banana.”

• 171. Swistle  |  July 11th, 2009 at 12:04 pm

  MMMmmmmmm, names!

• 172. Mothyrhood Uncensoryd  |  July 11th, 2009 at 12:47 pm

  All three of our kids’ names were the only names we could actually agree on. And that was just barely.

  He mentioned something like Desiree’ when I was pregnant with Quinlan and I was like “Who are you and what did you do with the guy I married?”

• 173. SwingCheese  |  July 11th, 2009 at 6:03 pm

  My little guy is William Keith (III). He’s named for his grandpa and dad, and while I was pushing for Liam as a nickname, I had to concede that he is a Will.

  We’re not planning on any others, but if something should occur: Penelope Elaine or VIncent Joseph

• 174. the planet of janet  |  July 11th, 2009 at 8:23 pm

  omigod, i actually once special-ordered a bicycle license plate for child 2, who has an unusual name (not off-the-wall unusual, just not on the damned license plates!!!!!)

  apparently, i didn’t learn because i did the same thing for my daughter (child 4) several years later.

  just to save myself from eternal damnation, i DID name child 1 and child 3 actual “common” names.

  i think i suck or something.

• 175. JMH  |  July 12th, 2009 at 7:31 am

  As a teacher, I see a lot of kids who dislike telling people how to correctly pronounce their names (they can get really embarrassed) So, my kids are named Megan and Andrew. And yes, I used the basic spelling for Megan (no h in it) I also liked Matthew for a boy, but my sister (who commented above) threw a hissy fit when I mentioned it, so we went with Andrew.

• 176. Sam  |  July 12th, 2009 at 9:05 am

  I looooooove discussing names. I just LOVE it. I try really hard to be respectful of others’ wishes and not run them over with my tiny opinion, but oh how I love name discussions. These comments are like CRACK to me.

  We have Thomas Hayes. Thomas is very meaningful to us (too long to explain) and it was pretty much the only boy’s name we could agree on. Hayes is my dad’s middle name, and was also my great-grandfather’s middle name. I really like middle names to be that “family tie-in” as someone else said. The weird thing is that someone I taught with had a grandson with the exact same name – I didn’t learn this until after my son was born. Then I heard that someone at our church was going to use this exact name for their future boy child, and I felt kinda awful that we used it, but I DIDN’T KNOW!

  I have no idea about girl names, because we could NEVER agree on them when I was pregnant. Right now I file away future boy names but I’m not in love with anything quite yet. But – my name is Samantha and I love it! I am hoping one day for a grandson named Sam, because I love that name for a little boy!

• 177. Sam  |  July 12th, 2009 at 9:13 am

  Oh, and I have to say to Katy, I adore the name Lorelei. LOVE IT. I am sure my husband would never agree to it, because I have driven him crazy with my Gilmore Girls loving self, but I am happy that other people use it. Long live Lorelei!

• 178. Wendi  |  July 12th, 2009 at 2:46 pm

  I love my kids’ names: Eric and Paige (full names are Eric Joseph and Paige Elizabeth — middle names are for grandparents).

  My own name is spelled Wendy on my birth certificate, but I changed the spelling (not officially) to Wendi when I was in junior high. I felt like it was easier to write, and looked prettier than Wendy. LOL

  Now all of my documents, checking accounts, legal stuff, etc. are a mishmash of Wendy and Wendi and it freaks people out. It freaks them out more than when my husband uses Dave and David interchangeably. I’m trying to be more consistent and use Wendy for Official Legal Documents, but my checking account is still under Wendi and I doubt I’ll change it until we move….far off in the future.

• 179. Nikki  |  July 12th, 2009 at 10:14 pm

  My daughter is Natalie Jane… this name came after months of strenuous debate between me and my husband. Well, it wasn’t REALLY a debate– it was more nine months of me suggesting names and my husband saying, “Naaaaaahhhhhhhh”. Add my schoolteacher mother to the equation (we had to run contenders past her to ensure she didn’t have a student she loathed with the same name) and it was quite a challenge to get the girl named at all. When Natalie was first learning to talk, she referred to herself as “Nannie”… it’s stuck with us. We always call her Nan or Nannie.

• 180. Sonya  |  July 13th, 2009 at 7:38 am

  I just had my firstborn in April and named him North Miles. I always wanted a unique name for my kid, but I also wanted something people could pronounce and spell. North was my husband’s grandfather’s middle name and one of the best men I’ve met in life thus far. Living in the south, I also appreciate how southerns pronouce it No-ath. Plus, my husband and I are yankees, so it’s a little slap in the face to the south. You hear that south, he may have been born here, but you will never own his soul!

  Ahem.

  I’ve noticed many of the names I’ve always loved have become the new Jennifer—Eva, Ella, Jack, Dylan. I still love those names, but I wanted to make sure my little guy was the only North in his class.

• 181. Akofaolain  |  July 13th, 2009 at 10:36 am

  Russell Christopher – after my grandfather and my husband
  Lucy Catherine – i’ve always like the name Lucy (ever since i read “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” as a kid) and it was the only girl name my husband and I could agree on (he liked Clara). Catherine is in place of Kathleen (my middle name, my mother’s name and my paternal grandmother’s name). I don’t know, “Lucy Kathleen” just didn’t feel right.
  So, RCW and LCW.

• 182. monkey  |  July 13th, 2009 at 10:38 am

  My hypothetical girl baby names are Asha Melody (after Asha Bhosle, and a shoutout to music for the middle name), Radha or Shirin. Radha is the name of Krishna’s lover in Indian mythology and Shirin. For boys I love Aniket and Anirudh, which are real Indian names, but so similar to the Anakin Skywalker business, I think I’ll cut my hypo-kid a break and spare him those jokes forever. Other favourites are Anand, Dev, and Sorabh (the last one being my favourite). And James.

  I grew up in the US and Canada with a complicated foreign name that’s uncommon in my own culture. Not because it’s “uneek” but because it’s extremely old-fashioned, like the Indian version of Mildred. And that was in the 80s, when there weren’t as many Indian immigrants abroad. So I have little inclination to give my own children anglicized names to fit in.

  The one condition I have is that it should be easy on the North American tongue and should not have sounds that aren’t common in the English language (for instance, my name has a sound that’s common in Indian languages and German, but difficult for native English speakers). I don’t expect Americans to pronounce my name correctly because the “gh” sound in it (in reality it’s pronounced like a “ghk” from the back of the throat) isn’t common to English. But man, the Germans, they can screech it just lke my parents.

• 183. Kristabella  |  July 13th, 2009 at 11:05 am

  I like boy names for girls, like Ryan. I also like Addison for a girl, and not because of Grey’s Anatomy. But for the street in Chicago that Wrigley Field is on.

  Also, I only have one boy name picked out. It’s the same name as an old Arizona State quarterback. Man, if I ever get married, my dude better really like sports.

• 184. Trenches of Mommyhood  |  July 13th, 2009 at 11:24 am

  I just spent an hour reading all these comments!
  My boyz’ middle names are all from Hubby’s side of the fam: George, Job and Scott. Their first names were just names we liked.

  I have to say, I’m so not fond of the trendy name “Addison” for a girl – because it’s the name of my hometown in NY. Blech.

  If I had had a girl, her name would have been Lydia. All 3 times. *sigh*

• 185. Amanda  |  July 13th, 2009 at 11:40 am

  Tyler Michael – we call him Ty (hubby and I picked out that name before we even got married, which was 5 years before he was born.)

  Eli James – Sometimes we call him EJ. I love his name, and it is just Eli, not Elijah or Elias. However, on at least 4 occassions someone has read his name and pronounced it “Ellie.”

• 186. Laura in LA  |  July 13th, 2009 at 3:29 pm

  Ok, I’ve got one for you. My friend who is a L & D nurse recently helped deliver a baby for a very young & somewhat uneducated mother. The young lady did not previously have a name picked out & had commented that she hoped something would come to her by the time she had to take the baby home. When later asked what she had decided on, she told them the name, and then said it just jumped out at her from hearing the doctor say it over and over. She named that baby….are you ready…..Placenta. I am so not kidding.

• 187. jen from boston  |  July 13th, 2009 at 5:20 pm

  I heart this topic so dearly.

  Okay, I had a Daniel John (like Danny)- but middle name was non-neg, for Mike’s Dad . Not on my list ,but I always liked the name Sean, but you know…Sean John? P Diddy. so, yeah, sean never had a chance for kid #1.
  I like Luke. Luke sounds quiet, cool kid, a calm dude. I like calm. Oliver – like the nickname Oli. Thomas, Peter (Petey), and Ryan also well liked.

  Girls -Mary for my gram but it’ll be a middle name (I love the name mary outright, so double bonus). I love the name Erin (front-runner). Big fan of Alice, Meghan and Natalie, Janie. Molly, altho my cousin got there first. My friend’s daughter’s middle name is Elise, and I loved that.

• 188. Debbie in the UK  |  July 15th, 2009 at 2:48 am

  My daughter is Michaela Jane and my son is Jordan Stephen. Very unfortunate for me because we call Michaela, Kylie for short and then, when she was 4, Kylie Minogue comes on the scene and everyone thought I called her after a pop star. Gah. My sons name I had picked out forever, and then 10 years ago up pops a topless (girl) model called Jordan. Sob. So I now have a daughter with a pop stars name and my son gets confused with a busty, topless model. **Sob**

• 189. SLEEPYNITA  |  July 15th, 2009 at 12:27 pm

  Dear lord I love baby name talk!

  My kids are Emmett Ramsay (3 year old boy) and Audrey Merritt (7 month old girl).

  Emmett was an Emmett within a couple of weeks of conception since I was convinced that I was having a boy. We named him after Doc Brown from Back to the Future and Chef Gordon Ramsay. Audrey was named after the dorky Daughter from the National Lampoon Vacation movies. Yeah, we watch entirely too many movies. Merritt is a take of of my middle name Marin.

  Audrey was going to be Audrey Helena but when I was in labour I vetoed my husband on the middle name. My husband though was looking to abuse the letter Y and wanted to spell Merritt M-e-r-y-t. To me that looked like it rhymed with Burt. So I won.

  If the vasectomy doesn’t happen or hold up then our future boy would be Hugo Buford (no I am not kidding) and our girl I think would be Lydia, Helena or Evelyn.

• 190. Sheryl  |  July 15th, 2009 at 6:27 pm

  Although “Cheryl” is/was a common name, my parents went with the “S” spelling (Sheryl) and I could never find a license plate, either. Bah.

  My daughter is Caroline Nicole. Caroline being the only name her father and I could agree on, and Nicole because it went with Caroline (although my father thought I chose Nicole for Nicole Brown Simpson–OJ was on trial when I was pregnant. Sorry Dad, no). I do love the name Caroline. She’s been almost 12 years without a nickname, until recently–now a lot of people call her Caro. That just sort of happened out of the blue, and she likes it. It fits her.

  My ex’s family had a habit of calling everyone by their middle names (Donald Jeffrey = Jeff). So, when we finally agreed on a name for our daugther he wanted to shorten her middle name and call her “Nicky”. WTF? If I wanted a girl named Nicky, I name her Nicky, you know?

  My original choice for a girl was Norah Frances, after both of my grandmothers. My ex thought both names were “ugly”. Nice, no?

  I too hate the names with the y’s, or the bastardized spellings. If you’re gonna name your kid Mildred, spell it the old skool way–NOT Mylldryd. Ugh.

• 191. daysgoby  |  July 17th, 2009 at 11:32 am

  Hum. My son is Freeman Cassidy Ryan Evans (yip, I’m one of THOSE people who give their children three names) Freeman for his grandfather, Cassidy because we both loved it (Cass is almost eight now and the only male Cassidy in three counties – Fer Chris’sakes, people, it’s a BOY name, GOD) and Ryan for his fathers middle name – it’s my MIL’s maiden name.)

  So when we had our girl I got to pick. Rosemary. Nice and simple and traditional and beautiful and timeless. Also the name of my grandmother, who is one of the best people I know. R’s middle name is Francesca – we have a family friend that was instrumental in my husband’s growing up, and her name is Frances. No third name with my daughter, although as it looks like she’ll be our last, I kind of wish I’d thrown my maiden name in there.

  We kind of broke the ‘Rule of Y’ AND the ‘funky spelling’ with my girl, though – her name is ROSEY. Which confuses EVERYONE (she’s damn’near five, and some of my in-laws STILL don’t spell it right) but ROSE-Y is traditionally the actual contraction for Rosemary. ROSIE is the contraction of Rose-MARIE.

  We think it’s pretty. And she’ll correct you if you spell it wrong.

• 192. KristenM  |  July 17th, 2009 at 11:55 am

  My daughter is Jorja. If I ever have a boy, he would be Greydon, Grey for short.

• 193. Charmed  |  July 17th, 2009 at 12:38 pm

  My daughter is Bethany Elena and my son is Matthew Thomas.

• 194. Rayleen  |  July 17th, 2009 at 5:47 pm

  Hi all, I arrived from -R-’s blog and just had time to read the comments.
  I have a daughter (8) Emma Melina – Emma after the Jane Austen novel, but only because the names from Pride and Predjudice didn’t sing for me, and Melina after my maternal Grandmother. She was almost Aylan (found in a name book) until everyone I mentioned it reacted badly. I had no idea how popular Emma was, I didn’t know any others at the time.
  My son was so hard to name, and my husband wouldn’t agree with anything I liked. He kept suggesting sports names like Montana (after Joe) and for a long while he was stuck on Kanyon and I just couldn’t get on board with that even though a lot of other people seemed to like it. I tried to suggest names like Simon or Caleb which he deemed too common and I tried a compromise with Riker – he wanted Stryker. I really wanted Cullen but he vetoed that and I’m kind of glad now, because There may be a lot of them running around soon because of the Twilight books. Finally in the hospital I suggested Greyson and he said no, but he countered with Greyden which seemed like a fair compromise. Of course I had just gone through labour and clearly wasn’t thinking or I would have clued into the rhyme-y-ness of it – we have a few Kadens, Haydens, Braydens running around our small rural town. But it seems to suit him and most people seem to like it, although my MIL said it sounds like a ballerina name – which isn’t a compliment! Normally I get along with her, lol. His middle names are Lloyd Raymond after my husband’s father and mine, respectively. Good taste KristenM!

• 195. Rayne of Terror  |  August 6th, 2009 at 7:18 am

  I grew up one of a million 1977 Jennifers and so when I reached college I shed my first name and now use my middle name Rayne, a misuse of the letter Y sure and now becoming a younik option. I love it. I’d SO much rather be Rayne than Jen, Jenny, or Jennifer. In law school, like 20% of the women in my class were named Jennifer. I sometimes sat at lunchtables entirely populated by Jennifers. HATE.

  So, my sons. I like family names very much. My eldest is Henry Ryman. Henry is my husband’s Dutch grandpa and Ryman is my great grandmother’s maiden name and my grandpa, dad, and brother’s middle names. Also Dutch. Same as the Ryman Auditorium. Love that name.

  My soon to be born son, (37 wks) will be Quinino James, nn Quinn. Quinino is my husband’s Italian grandfather and James is my beloved great uncle and great grandfather. So both kids have a king’s name and an ethnic name and both kids have 4 syllables betwn their first and middle names.

  I also like symmetry. If we have a 3rd son we’re hosed

• 196. Baby names search - Searc&hellip  |  August 6th, 2009 at 10:57 pm

  [...] Jonniker. " You Can Call Me Al [...]

• 197. Karen  |  August 7th, 2009 at 10:02 am

  Tahlia & Tess

• 198. Fiona Picklebottom  |  August 7th, 2009 at 10:40 am

  My kids’ names are (oldest to youngest):

  Savannah Brooke
  Tessa Jane
  Sara Beth
  Jillian Lee

  We call Sara Beth by both her first and middle names.

• 199. Baby names search - Searc&hellip  |  September 25th, 2009 at 9:16 pm

  [...] Jonniker. " You Can Call Me Al reddit_url='http://www.baby-parenting.com/baby/search_babynames.php?babyname=Skylar&gender=Male&x=16&y=13' reddit_title='Baby names search – Search for Skylar' [...]

• 200. Baby names search - Searc&hellip  |  October 15th, 2009 at 11:20 pm

  [...] Jonniker. " You Can Call Me Al reddit_url='http://www.baby-parenting.com/baby/search_babynames.php?babyname=skylar&gender=Female&x=15&y=7' reddit_title='Baby names search – Search for skylar' [...]

• 201. Shelly Anne  |  November 4th, 2009 at 5:59 am

  I could NOT stop reading this!!!! I’m addicted to names and naming and meanings, etc. I grew up with all three of my names being misspelled and couldn’t find that ubiquitous license plate either! It was NEVER Shelly Anne Doel (yes, pronounced like Dole); it was Shelley Ann Dole. Then would always have people say, “Oh, your first name is Michelle, right?” No, it really isn’t.

  I’ve hear all the “female,” “orangejello and lemonjello” stories but had never heard the dash names or the asshole ones; those were FUNNY!

  I had only one child, Brandy Elisabeth; dooming her to having her fist two names misspelled, too. Her last name was a very common name with the common spelling so I saved her from that.

  When my second husband and I got together, we dreamed of more children (we each had one from first marriages). We wen through TONS, but settled on Anna-Lacey Colleen (my maiden name) and Liam George and/or Benjamin Carlin (his last name, also very common). We were convinced we’d have male twins or girl/boy twins or one girl. Unfortunately, we were never able to conceive – 10 years of trying. ouch. When my/our daughter was pregnant, she chose common names…..then ended up spelling them very differently. Aodhen Michael (thank goodness! she WAS going to use Mikel) Colyn. Aodhen is a twist on the Gaelic for Aidan, a name she loved the sound of. Michael is for my husband’s BIL who treated Brandy like a member of the family from the get-go even though, after 15 years together and 10 of those married, some of my husband’s family still don’t consider ME part of the family, much less than my daughter from a previous marriage! My mother, who died right before my daughter was married, was Linda Colleen. When Brandy was trying to find a second middle name, I suggested something for her Grandmaw. She thought of Colyn for Colleen and tacked it on. When Aodhen was born, his father was no longer in the picture. His mother didn’t want to honor HER father (LONG, sad story – he died in prison a year before her Grandmaw died) and she didn’t want to honor Aodhen’s father (and she hadn’t taken his last name), so she decided to honor the only father she knew, so my grandson has my husband’s last name. THAT is probably more confusing to people than the spelling of his first name; and yeah, Colyn is a misuse of the ‘y’, I know. Sorry.

• 202. Tiff  |  December 7th, 2009 at 10:58 pm

  My daughter’s name is Piper. We did get it from a TV show, but my husband and I both loved it before we even conceived. We are planning on Baby # 2 in the next year or so. We have a definite name picked out for a girl, Everlee Rose. We still cannot think of a boys name that we both like. We have a very common last name that rhymes with “lurch” so most of the names I like get vetoed (Archer and Asher are two of my favorites). My husband loves the name Thalin (pronounced THAY-lynn). I am still trying to talk him out of it!

  On the funny name subject, I am a teacher and when I was doing my student teaching I had a student with a very unusual spelling. His mother decided to name him Daffydd (David). Thankfully, he went by Davy.

• 203. Jessica29HOOVER  |  March 18th, 2010 at 2:01 am

  According to my analysis, thousands of people all over the world get the loans at various creditors. Thence, there is a good chance to get a student loan in every country.

• 204. sarah  |  November 30th, 2010 at 8:21 pm

  my kids are:

  eloise kathryn
  owen robert
  iris caroline

  basically, i like any name that sounds like it could belong to a 90-year old woman. and we do family names for middles. having lived with the name sarah for 35 years, i wanted my kids to have more original names, but i’ve heard a lot of owens since naming my son, whatever. and i agree w/ you, atypical spellings are THE DOUCHE.

  also, i’m a new reader, love your blog, am now cyber-stalking your archives so this is my first comment!

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