Names, Names, Names

[girl-who-loves-sharks]

I think a lot of people like making lists of names they like and don't like. I know I do! (In fact, I think there was a thread like this awhile ago, but I will start it afresh.)

Suggestions:

Favorite / Least Favorite Girls Names, Boys Names, Pet Names?
Do you know what your parents almost named you?
Most common names in your classes when you were in school?

[pantiesontherod]

ok
well i was going to be called bronwyn - but a few weeks before i was born my mum's second cousin named her baby bronwyn - so she called me bethwyn instead.
My doctor from childhood still refers to me as bronnie
my mum called me and my sister our names so they could be shortened in two ways

so i could be beth or wyn, and my sister (lynnley) could be lynn or ley

anyway
my favorite names - they change all the time - but at the moment:

astrid
beatrix
louise
emily
amelie
erin
mollie
kara
tara
lara
jane
andie
blythe
audrey
drew (for boy or girl)
oh i could go on and on

and june (my mum;s name - i always hated it - but its grown on me so much)

[ibiddy_boo]

Most common girl's name when i was in school was Debbie....there were at least 2 or 3 per class! Janet was also fairly common back then, but i haven't heard that name in years!! i must be ancient!!

My favourite girl's name?.....Dacia-Vala. It's what i named my daughter. To this day i've never heard of another.

Favourite boy's name....Michael. No particular reason why, i just like it.

i was almost named Theodore Oscar after each of my grandfathers.

[girl-who-loves-sharks]

I was going to be named Elizabeth, but my mom was afraid I would have a lisp (totally irrational-- I don't!) and would say my name "elithabeth moth." Heehee. If I had been a boy, my name would have been Christopher. And I came very, very close to being name Jennifer, but my mom's roommate at the hospital delivered first and named HER daughter Jennifer. That is a relief, because although Heather is very common, Jennifer is twice as common. There were always many Jennifers in my class.

Most Common Names of My Female Schoolmates
1. Jennifer
2. Heather
3. Kelly / Kelli / Kellie
4. Megan / Meghan
5. Elizabeth / Liz / Beth

Most Common Names of My Male Schoolmates
1. Brian / Bryan
2. John / Jonathan
3. Christopher / Christian
4. Matthew
5. Michael

[sarahkate]

cool thread Heather. I LOVE making lists of names. Sometimes I make lists of potential names for my future babies....and everytime I get a new pet I make a big list of names ...I'm a name geek!

Girls
Marnie
Jana
Anya
Lily
Clea
Rachel
Gwendolyn
Isabelle
Emma
Ruby
Chloe
Olivia
Brianna

I could go on forever! I love girl names :)



Boys
Logan
Gavin
Tyler
Aiden
Shiloh
Jared
Jake
Ryan
Justin

I could go on forever with pet names...I usually like to name my pets REAL, but uncommon names....rather than cutesy stuff because I think of them as people..as my kids. So far my pets have been named:
Wally (cat...my dad chose that name)
Bud & Ivy (brother & sister cats that live with my mom...but we got them when I was about 12 or 13 years old)
Willow (cat)
Jasper (cat)
Delilah (dog)

names my parents almost named me:
Sarah LEE!!! AGGGHHH!!
Hannah
Rachel
Vanessa
Peter or Mason if I was a boy

[girl-who-loves-sharks]

When I was 14, I wanted to have 7 kids, and I had decided their names, genders, and years they would be born. Um, yeah.

Jade & Jasmine, twin girls, 1994
Kerry, girl, 1995
Kelly, girl, 1996
Carl, boy, 1998
Amy, girl, 1999
Lucas, boy, 2000

(None of these names appear in my top 50 favorites anymore.)

[sarahkate]

wow! what a plan!

Imagine having 7 kids right now ? And your oldest would be 9 year old twins! :o

[girl-who-loves-sharks]

Eek. Terrible.

[Sirius]

When I was 18 I had a dream that I had three children, and their names were Michael, Ian and Elizabeth...I thought it was weird that I specifically remembered their names after I woke up....

[Death_Or_Aldona]

Favorite / Least Favorite Girls Names, Boys Names, Pet Names?
Do you know what your parents almost named you?
Most common names in your classes when you were in school?

*faves
girl: Makaila
boy: Sebastain
pet: Maceo and Caliope (both names of kitties I "own")

*My mom wanted to name me Angel :P Angel Lee Rowe...That would have been horrible. Instead, my father talked her into naming me after The Bionic Woman.


*There were a TON of Jennifers in my school. I still know a lot...Matt also...I still know far too many Matts, gets to be a bit confusing.

[Sirius]

My parents considered naming me Patricia, my father's name is Patrick.

In school there were a lot of Michael, John, David, Jason, Erica, Jennifer, variations of Kristy....

[Christine_0701]

no real preference in names....

but...a quite interesting story

when my mom was pregnant with me, they thought i was going to be a boy (that's what the doctor told them) so they were gonna call me christopher....

and then after i was born, it took them a week to think up christine!!

[girl-who-loves-sharks]

My mom's name is Christine.
My grandmother wanted to name her Marianne, but she didn't like they way people with Baltimore accents said that name.

When my mom's youngest sister was born (4th girl) my grandmother asked my grandfather if she should be named Laura or Lisa. My grandfather said he didn't care, so my grandmother had them put Lisa on the birth certificate. Then, naturally, my grandfather announced that he liked the name Laura much better. Too late.

When my grandfather was born (youngest of 13 kids), my great-grandmother named him Andrew Michael. His sisters took him to church to get him baptized because my great-grandmother was still in bed from the birth, and they had the baptismal certificate filled out "Michael Andrew," because they hated the name Andrew. And then they started calling him Mikey, so he's always been a Michael.

[Bugitha]

I can't even begin to remember all the Jennifers, Mikes and Chrises (girls and boys) that I went to school with.

And in my 3rd grade class there were 3 Davids. To distinguish between them one went by David, one by Dave, and the other by his first and last names--David Montgomery. David Montgomery lived a couple of blocks away and one day my mother took me over there to play while she visited with his mother. Every time I spoke to him, I said his full name and my mom reminded me that since there were no other Davids around I needn't call him his full name. And that was incredibly awkward for me--like when you don't quite know what to call your in-laws at first.

[Ashley]

You guys have some funny stories :D
I'm surprised Ashley hasn't been on a list of most common names. Maybe it's a west coast thing... Yeah, when I was growing up there were always so many Ashley's in all of my classes. It was very annoying. I remember in Kindergarten we had 4 Ashley's out of 25 kids, it was ridiculous. So, we had our last name initial (like Ashley K. etc...) but there were two Ashley's with last names that began with S, so I had to go by Ashley Sl. it annoyed me thoroughly.
As for names, my Grandpa's middle name is Ashley so I was going to be named whether I was a boy or a girl, Ashley. It seems weird now to think I could have been a guy with the name Ashley. It just doesn't seem right, even though it was originally a guy's name.

Ok, now a kind of funny story about names. My grandma named my uncle Dwayne when he was born, but my aunt was little and had some kind of a lisp so she would always call him Drain. This embarrased my grandma in public so she decided to change his name to Wayne. And then somehow overtime he got the nickname Winky (don't ask me why I added this, other than I love to say my Uncle Winky).

[sarahkate]

There was a boy named Ashley in my school!

I went to a pretty small school (had a graduating class of about 120 I think?)...for a while there were 3 Sara(h)s in my grade....one was one of my good friends...
and then the 3rd one moved away. Sara(h) is way too common of a name though....I wish I had something more unique.

There were a few people named Mike, Chris, Jason, Brian.....but there really weren't too many duplicate names...especially girls names for some reason?!

Know anyone with a really strange first name?

I have a cousin named Harmony!

[bingsy]

My sister's name was supposed to be Cathleen Darlene.

Thank heavens that my father couldn't be there for the birth certificate part. My sister was saved. It went like this.

Clerk: What is the first name?

My Mom: Cathleen (in broken English. My mom is Korean with a thick accent even after 30 years in the country, but I can only assume it was impossible to understand her at that time.)

Clerk: Cathy?

My Mom: yes (she had learned that to agree was a good way to get someone off of your back and yes was so easy to say)

Clerk: Middle Name?

My Mom: Why? (as in why do you need to know this now)

Clerk: Y?

My Mom: yes

So instead of Cathleen Darlene Bings (oh so many n's!), my sister became Cathy Y Bings.

[kittymao]

Hm-
Names.

My BF's name is Rodolfo. I love that name to DEATH. His name was always so hard to spell or say, so he's always gone by Rudy- which isn't so common you'd think.
Until He got into highschool wrestling, where there were TWO Rudys with the SAME last initial in the SAME weight class.
I also know a Georgia, and once knew a guy whose REAL first name was Sir Michael. As in, no he was not a knight. Oh, and a guy named MAX. really.

girls:
Maile
Maelie (made-up)
Kaeste (made up)
Gretchen
Margaret
Cate
(I guess it's a given I like hard sounds next to soft ones...)

Boys:

Rodolfo
Jason
Ygnacio
Adon
Zane

But I figure that if and when I have a kid, the name will come to me.

And there were alot of Jennifers, Matts, and variations of the word Angel.
Angela, Angelina, Angel ( for boys) Angelo...

And for animals- I don't think they should have human names. Bt some animals deserve them, I guess. But I am entirely sure I'm goign to get a calico one day and name him Bean. Like Mister Bean. :blink:

[AlienSpy]

My favorite baby names...

Girls :
Iska
Savannah
Élie
Corinne
Corélie
Laurie
Layna
Camille

Boys :
Xavier
Damien
Justin
Jacob
William

I want to have a girl and my boyfriend wants to have a boy. hehe

The only names we both love are Iska, Élie, Corinne and Xavier. Xavier is probably hard to pronounce for people who don't speak French though! :P

Julie

[pantiesontherod]

a corollory to this discussion is what a psychic told one of my flatmates.

he at the time was looking for a boyfriend in the personals - his name was luke and he went on a date with a guy who was also called luke - but in actual fact his name was mark - he just said his name was luke (as protection i guess)

anyway this psychic's theory was that you live your life over and over again - until you basically "get it right".
So everyone you meet and have a relationship with you have met in a previous life - you might meet your husband in this life but last life he was your boss or son or daughter. Her theory was that there is some kind of subconscious memory and thats why you meet lots of people with the same name - its like they get named - due to some fallback memory of someone in a previous life.

He told me this story after i was telling him instances of coincidence in my life like:
My sister is named lynnley and she is married to stewart.
but my best friend at the time was called linley and her brother is stuart which is pretty amazing- (some people dont think so)
he at that time had never met a 'mark' in his life and within about 6 months we had met between us about 15 marks

anyway

[medeous]

i've never met a linley

girls:
leah
mariah
susannah
dinah
norah

boys:
noah
jonah

(we've got the whole -ah thing going over at our house)

i went to school with a girl named sundae.

[AlienSpy]

medeous, you have a daughter, right? What's her name? :)

Julie

[Alpaca]

Favorite girl names: Lilith, Penelope, Daad, Tsoline, Annaïck.

Favorite guy names: Michael, Vicken, Avedis (I have a thing for Armenian names), Lou, Alexandre.

Hated names for both: Joumana, Jihane, Rony, Mhammad, Georgette.

Boy names I had a lot of in school etc: Karim (too many of these to count), Jean, Michel.

Girl names I had a lot of in school etc: Lynn, Lina (sometimes it seems like every other girl is named Lina), Joumana, Karyn, Léa, Nayla, Nada, Maya.

I know a Marie-Antoinette and a Jeanne d'Arc (yes, that's her first name!) The IT guy at the TV station where I worked was called Baxter, I loved that. Then at university there was this girl called Etienne, which weirded me out because it's a 100% guy's name (but the locals don't necessarily know that so it didn't weird everyone out).

We were living in an Arab country at the time of my borht, even though my mom came back to Beirut to give birth, so my parents figured it would be better to give us both names that would blend in. So I was named Joumana after the nurse (who was also a friend of the family) and my brother ended up as Kamal. He never answered to that in his life though, he is Kim to all, and I only grudgingly answer to Joumana (I've always been called Mana).

[hammerquill]

when my mom was pregnant with me, they thought i was going to be a boy (that's what the doctor told them) so they were gonna call me christopher....

My parents were thinking of Laurel (or maybe Laura) if I turned out to be a girl. My middle name is Christopher, provided by my parents in case I didn't like my unusual first name. They discussed "Eric" in front of the nurse in the obstetric unit, and she said, enthusiastically, "Oh, that's such a popular name!" So they immediately started looking for another (their names are David and Barbara, both in the top five names for their generation, so they really didn't want to give me a common name. Only later they noticed that the OB at the hospital was actually named Eric, which might have been influencing things.). They named me Reid, but after every single person I met after I learned to spell my name said "Oh, is that R-E-E-D?" I finally changed the spelling when I was five. Yes, really. Now, more people assume it's R-E-I-D, so I guess I just can't win. My grandmother still spells it Reid.

For girls, I like Emily (though it's getting trite), Leah, Anna, Chiara, Lynne (my mother's maiden middle name), Carol (one grandmother's name), Miranda. There are lots of names I love in other languages, but hate in their English pronunciations: the best example is Beatrice.

For boys, hmmmmm... Paul (my great-grandfather's name), Michael (if only it weren't so common), Edwin, Arthur, Adam, Gregory, Douglas... I find none of them really clicks for me, imagining naming someone, the way some of the girls' names do.

[Christine_0701]

Originally posted by hammerquill@Oct 24 2003, 11:30 PM

when my mom was pregnant with me, they thought i was going to be a boy (that's what the doctor told them) so they were gonna call me christopher....

My parents were thinking of Laurel (or maybe Laura) if I turned out to be a girl. My middle name is Christopher, provided by my parents in case I didn't like my unusual first name.
lol cool.

There are lots of names I love in other languages, but hate in their English pronunciations: the best example is Beatrice.
just out of curiousity..how would you pronounce this?

my sister's name is Leeann that's right. Leeann not LeeAnn or Lee Ann or Lee-Ann or Leanne but Leeann

nobody (that i have met) spells their Leeann taht way

my other sister...my mom wanted to name her Katy but my father said no (after my great great great grandma, i think) so my mom called her Katrina...my sister at like, 5 or something, decided she wanted to be called Katy..everyone, including my Dad calls her Katy...exept my father..he insists on calling her Katrina lol

popular female name when i was in school: ASHLEY!!!! and Andrea

I moved alot as a kid, and I must know 20-30 ashleys lol

I have a cousin named Harmony!
I know someone named Melody!!

I went to a pretty small school (had a graduating class of about 120 I think?)... that's not THAT small...i know a school that their Graduation class of 2000 was *drumroll* 3.

[hammerquill]

QUOTE
There are lots of names I love in other languages, but hate in their English pronunciations: the best example is Beatrice.

just out of curiousity..how would you pronounce this?


This, rhymes with "hiss", TH as in "thus".. :rolleyes: Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Beatrice: English "Bee a Triss" is awful. The Italian, Dante's beloved, is "Bay a TREE chay,"only with pure continental vowels (without those Y sounds added to them) and a tripped or rolled R, and light palatalization of the c, not the flat ch of English, and with that hint of singsong present in all of Italian.

[littlest-bee]

My parents wanted to call me Ellen but decided they couldn't because of the local accent: I was born in Sheffield in the North of England and people there drop their Hs - so any word that begins with an H doesn't sound right: eg house = "ouse" or Hammerquill would be "Ammerquill". They thought if they called me Ellen, people would assume my name was Helen - as in "Elen"!!! (does that make sense? its hard to describe the accent thing). My Dad also liked Vivienne (said the French way) but they decided I'd have a lifetime of correcting people who couldn't pronounce it! They settled on Rosemary which was quickly shortened to Rosie, which I like. When I was growing up it was a very uncommon name but now a lot of little girls are called that (also it seems to be a very popular pets name!)

My name also caused a family argument of sorts: like I said, my name was shortened to Rosie when I was very little and everyone called me that. When I was seven or eight my aunt & uncle had a daughter (the second and only other girl to be born amongst all my cousins on that side of the family) and they had always admired my name - Rosemary/Rosie but didn't want to blatantly copy. They named their daughter Rosheen (a phonetic spelling of an Irish name, Roisin) which they also shortened to Rosie pretty quickly. The "big family secret" is that I'm not supposed to know that she has the same name as me! Whenever we're together they call her Rosheen although I know she's Rosie the rest of the time! I'm not too fussed to be honest, I have a cool name - why wouldn't they want to copy it!!!!! But my mum was spitting mad, especially because there's this big pretense about calling her Rosheen when we're around!

Rambling on...sorry!

[bingsy]

I worked at a day care around 1997-98, and the IT name was Katie.

There were like three Katie's in every room and in every age group. Caitlin was also popular.

Madison was gaining popularity amongst the infants at that time, but still not as popular as Katie. Emily was likewise popular. Megan - also was gaining popularity.

There were 2 or 3 Anikas, but I think that was a regional thing.

[medeous]

Originally posted by AlienSpy@Oct 24 2003, 10:50 PM
medeous, you have a daughter, right? What's her name? :)

Julie
hannah

[Christine_0701]

Originally posted by hammerquill@Oct 25 2003, 12:03 AM

QUOTE
There are lots of names I love in other languages, but hate in their English pronunciations: the best example is Beatrice.

just out of curiousity..how would you pronounce this?


This, rhymes with "hiss", TH as in "thus".. :rolleyes: Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Beatrice: English "Bee a Triss" is awful. The Italian, Dante's beloved, is "Bay a TREE chay,"only with pure continental vowels (without those Y sounds added to them) and a tripped or rolled R, and light palatalization of the c, not the flat ch of English, and with that hint of singsong present in all of Italian.
lol! i guess i set myself up for that one, eh?

and very interesting on the pronounciation...i've never heard it pronounced that way before.

[Cuilanië]

My parents would have named me Olivier, had I been a boy.
I was almost named Gabrielle, but my grandfather hated it and threatened to refer to me as Caroline instead, which my mother did not like (not my opinion!).
So I ended up named Isabelle, which is the record-breaking most popular name of my generation.
When I was 14, I decided to tag on the Eve, because I was fed up with reacting to people calling someone else...
My full name is Marie Eve Isabelle.

Most common names... Isabelle, Julie, Nathalie, Mélanie, Stéphanie, Patrick, Jean-François, Alexandre, Maxime, Eric, Daniel...

My brothers have rare names (for Québec, at least, but not in France) - lucky them! They are Etienne and Xavier.

I once had a guy in my class who was called Andrade, which strikes me more as a woman's name, and my mother once worked with a woman named Benoît...

[Katiekat]

My parents were convinced I was going to be a boy, and had the name Ryan James all picked out and ready. But then I came out, and my mom's first words were "Oh my god, it's a girl!" So they had to rethink the name thing (actually, I would've been very happy to be named Ryan). I am Katherine Elaine, after no one in particular -- mom & dad just liked it. (and yes, there were tons of Katies in school with me -- usually 2 or 3 per class, very annoyingly.)

My grandfather's name is Vaughn Eugene. His family decided to call him by his middle name, but he couldn't pronounce "Eugene" when he was little. He could only say "Oochie," and the nickname stuck for quite awhile.

some of my favorite girls names:
Saskia, Ryan, Leah, Anika, Arwen (or Arwyn), Megan

some of my least favorite girls names:
Mikayla (and all spellings thereof), Sierra, Madison, Dawn, Tiffany, Crystal

some of my favorite boys names:
Ian, Eric, Will, Jake (Jacob), Eugene, James, Pete, Sean, Asher, Nate, Clay, Caine

some of my least favorite boys names:
Dakota, Chuck, Theron, Bill, Steve

(ps -- please don't be offended if I've listed your name or the name of a loved one in my least favorites, i mean no harm.)

[Bugitha]

There are lots of names I love in other languages, but hate in their English pronunciations: the best example is Beatrice.



I feel the same way about Genevive.

Unusual names? Hmm. I've worked with a September and a Wynter. I thought both of those names were pretty. Oh and when I was at school (http://www.marlboro.edu/about/) in Vermont in the early 90s there were a lot of latter-day hippy's kids there so I went to school with an Eliza Sunflower, a Berry (short for her given name of Strawberry--yes she had red hair), a Rain, and my favorite-- sisters named Puff Nightshade and Crystal Clearlight.

And now that I'm on the subject of hippie names, I went to elementary school with a Prarie Sky.

My own name, Lorraine, is quite old fashioned and I used to hate it, but I like it now. Funny thing is, my parents were naming me after their friend Elaine but my dad never could quite get it through his head that her name was Elaine, and always called her Lorraine. So I am named after someone. Sort of.

[Christine_0701]

Originally posted by Bugitha@Oct 25 2003, 12:58 PM
Unusual names? Hmm. I've worked with a September and a Wynter. I thought both of those names were pretty. Oh and when I was at school (http://www.marlboro.edu/about/) in Vermont in the early 90s there were a lot of latter-day hippy's kids there so I went to school with an Eliza Sunflower, a Berry (short for her given name of Strawberry--yes she had red hair), a Rain, and my favorite-- sisters named Puff Nightshade and Crystal Clearlight.

i know twin sisters Rayne (short for Rhaynebeau) and Skye

[yardenxanthe]

Unusual names: I knew a boy named Django (presumably after Django Reinhardt), although supposedly his parents considered naming him Cannonball... hmmm.

My name is Heather, middle name Joy. My maiden name was Varis (rhymes with Paris), unique in the US (and a name made up by my Lithuanian grandfather). My new last name is Mann, not totally common, but there are other Heather Manns out there.

If I was a boy, my name was going to be Matthew Evan. Wow, am I glad to not be a Matt (or a boy!), although my parents believe you should name the kid whatever you're going to call him, so I probably would have been called Matthew.

My brother's name is Alec. I like it, although 95% of people who meet him (or know him) call him Alex.

Plan on naming my sons:
Lewis
Julian
Elijah

Possible middle names (these are all family names, although I don't really care about family names, I just like 'em):
Alexander
Franklin

Daughters:
My husband has a cousin named Mariana (she's half Columbian), and I love that name, and my sister-in-law/good friend's name is Melia... but now that she's married to my brother-in-law, she would have the same first + last as any girl I named Melia.

I also like Alexandra (shorten to Alex, athough Xan is really cool)
and Victoria (my dad's name is Victor, probably call her Tori).

Unique problem with naming kids: with our last name, you have to be careful or your kid will sound like a superhero or something...

Batt Mann
Ima Mann
Uri Mann

[insomnolicious]

My name is Megan Maureen. I like it. Megan's a little too common and there are many Megan Brady's in this world. I don't like that aspect of it, but what can you do.

I would have been Matthew Peter Brady if I was a boy. Matthew Brady was that civil war photographer and Peter Brady was one of the Brady Bunch Kids, so I would've been screwed either way.

I don't know if I'll change my name if/when I get married, but I don't think so.

Unusual names that I know of/have heard of: Damnation, Chlamydia, F. E. (just initials, no names there)

I guess I like most names, just not the ultra common ones.

[girl-who-loves-sharks]

Unusual names that I know of/have heard of: Damnation, Chlamydia, F. E. (just initials, no names there)

Chlamydia?! Holy crap, didn't her parents look it up in the medical dictionary before they decided on that one?

I have heard parents calling their kids these names in public (different times and places): Chardonnay, Chablis, and Heavenly (also the name of a Tennessee Williams character).

My ex-boyfriend Rob and ex-roommate Tanya got together and had a baby and named her Zoe Turtle. A couple years later they had a boy and named him Sunny Theodore. But Rob always claimed that he would name his son Stormy Raincloud, so I don't know what happened. Oh, and I also know a couple who named their son Wilderness and called him Will.

Great stories! I especially like Alpaca's list... I have read before about the common English and French names, but I had no idea whatsoever that Joumana was a common name in Lebanon. :)

[Alpaca]

Originally posted by girl-who-loves-sharks@Oct 26 2003, 12:35 AM
Great stories! I especially like Alpaca's list... I have read before about the common English and French names, but I had no idea whatsoever that Joumana was a common name in Lebanon. :)
Horribly common :wacko: And still noone can spell it.

[hammerquill]

i know twin sisters Rayne (short for Rhaynebeau) and Skye

I knew a Tao Starbow in high school. And when I was little, sisters named April and May lived on my block.

Also knew three sisters with a great set of names, not silly, but really nicely thought up: Madeline, Aurora, and Bronwyn. Aurora is a great name for a girl, though nowadays other kids would assume it had to do with Harry Potter.

[Christine_0701]

Originally posted by hammerquill@Oct 26 2003, 01:48 AM
Aurora is a great name for a girl, though nowadays other kids would assume it had to do with Harry Potter.


I have a cousin Aurora...and her older sisters are Jasmyn and Harmony and their brother is Noah lol

lol and about April and May

on thursday in my Writing Fiction class, my instructor was giving us an example of an hourglass story...and his character were

June
July
August
and Seppie

[girl-who-loves-sharks]

We have student employees in the library named April, May, and June. And we do have a Julie, so I think she should change her name to July.

A lot of the students at UMBC are from Asia and Africa so they choose Anglicized names when they come here. Since we see their real names on their job applications, we always call them by their real names. But occasionally one of their friends will call and ask for "Jennifer" or "Natalie." We never know who they're talking about. And sometimes they will choose really out-of-fashion names, like "Sherman" or "Edna" or something. I feel sorry for them when that happens!

[Dalmaney]

I've always liked my name all right: Anna Marie. Pretty darn normal verging on boring, but I've only ever met one other Anna in my age group, and her real name is Anya. She and her sisters all picked "Canadian" names when they moved here when she was in grade school and no one could understand them. Anna was my great-grandma, Marie was my grandma, both on my dad's side. I was almost "Marie Anna", but the nurse said "Anna Marie" sounded better. I was also almost "Beatrice", but dad (thankyou, dad) didn't like it. One thing I'm grateful for is a nice, short, normal first name to go with "Oberhofer" for a last name. I have to spell that everywhere I go. If I had to spell my fist name as well, I'd go nuts. I definitely plan to change my last name when I get married. I have brief fantasies about every Asian man I meet. Kingsley Chak... Chak... Anna Chak. So short to spell... sigh.

My brother is Arden. I've never met another guy or girl named Arden and I've only ever heard of one.

As for names I like: girls: Brooklyn, Anika. boys: Logan, Alexander. Nothing else has really stuck in my head lately. Mostly, I want to name my kids something that people can spell. If they're lucky, spell right without trying too hard. And something gender specific. It drives me nuts when I'm trying to pinpoint a gender and I get a name like "Jordan" or "Dana".

And I know three guys right now who will answer to "Chuck". It's not any of their names, but I think it started when Chad went through about six months of deciding his name was "Chuck Jones". Turns out if you want to change your name, you just tell people to call you something new. That way, if you get sick of it, you just switch back.

[Cuilanië]

A little family special?

My mother is Lise, my father Alain. Plain, normal, very common names in their generation.

My paternal grand-parents are Jacques and Jacqueline (not kidding!).
Maternal are Paul-André (usually referred to as Paul) and Claire. I like Claire.

I like most of my cousins' names, especially Simon, Katherine, Christine, Camille, Justine, David, my second cousins Amélie (though I think Emilie is better), Vincent, Joël, Laurence (a girl)...

Here's where it gets interesting... My great-grandparents :
- Olidor and Marianne
- Pascal and Juliette
- Omer and Eva-Béatrice (love that combination... She's who I got my 'Eve' from)
- Octave and Aurore

I don't like the fashionably unusual names. And I don't like the really common ones either. I'd have trouble finding names for my hypothetic children...
I have lots of sympathy for people with very common names, it was the bane of my life until I decided to do something about it. I know I'm incredibly lucky that I was able to with minimum hassle...

Sorry about all those French names, I can't help it! :lol: :P

[gwensmom]

My mother's paternal aunts were named after states. Mom had an Aunt Zona (Arizona) and Aunt Braska (Nebraska). Why couldn't they have picked Georgia??

My mother's maternal aunts were Gwenolia, Verneice, and Bracy. My mom got named Gwenice for the first two. My mom's sister is Toni Lee. Their dad (Rufus Eugene!) had a dark complexion so people called him "Tony".

My favorite grandfather was Cecil and I love that name because I loved him so much.

I don't like the name Dakota/Cody for people because that is our dog's name!

Gwen is Mary Gwendolyn after her two grandmothers Gwenice and Mary Alice. If she had been a boy she would have been James Lawrence -both are family names.

When I first met Gwensdad I hated his first name. It is the same name as a creepy boss I had at in internship. This idiot had two kids and a wife going through treatment for cancer and he made a major pass at me. I told him his behavior was inappropriate and figured he'd fire me, but he didn't because I guess he thought I would tell.

[Cuilanië]

Another similarity between gwensmom and my little self... Hi Sarah!

I didn't like my ex's name at first either, because it's such an old-fashioned name! I hardly ever called him by his name, except when mentioning him to other people.

[gypsiewriter]

Great thread, I love names
My name is Lorna. Uncommon is the States, where I grew up, but VERY common Scotland, where I now live. Growing up, people called me Laura all the time which I hated, and I used to get some really wierd spellings.

In NY, where I'm from, the r is replaced with a w, so it's Lawna, which I despise. And I have an old aunt who is convinced my name is Laura.

my nicknames, cookie, scooter, plum, squidge, etc...I have several.

Favourite names

Madelyn
Molly
Mairi
Irina
Elena

Jack
Euan
Morgan

Dislike--cutesy names--anything that end in 'y', etc...

L :)

[Alpaca]

French names here too! My grandparents are Antoine and Marthe, then Elias and Georgette. Only Elias is not a French name but both he and Georgette don't speak a word of French... and yet they named three of their four sons Jean, Gabriel, and Pierre! (the last one being Maroun). Reverse irony, Antoine didn't speak Arabic until he was 18 and Marthe is pure French, yet they're the ones who gave their kids local names -- Nady, Maya, Youmna (the youngest one Karyn being a Western name again).

My mom is Youmna, I'm Joumana/Mana, her sister is Maya and her daughter is Mounya -- nobody can keep them straight. My grandmother always mixes the four names up. And because my mom and I both write for the same magazines, checks for me get routinely written in her name and vice-versa, and she gets congratulated for my articles and vice-versa. Talk about a mess :rolleyes:

My boyfriend has an interesting name combination with his sister, as he's Omar and she's Olga. Difficult to come out with anything more disparate...

[gypsiewriter]

Originally posted by gypsiewriter@Oct 26 2003, 01:56 PM


Dislike--cutesy names--anything that end in 'y', etc...

L :)
Except of course for Molly, which was my Grandmother's name, short for Amalia, which I an planning to use when I have a daughter. Plus all the other names I listed for future children.

L :)

[medeous]

my best friend, and all her sisters are named mary:
mary frances (fannie)
mary theresa (tessie)
mary margaret (molly)
mary elizabeth (bitsie)

and at my school there is a whole family of steves:
steve, the dad
stephan
steven
steffen
stephanie

[siafu]

my mom liked the name naomi.

i got however, theresa, after my grandmother's best friend in teachers' school.

except my dad didn't really use spanish spellings, or it would have been teresa inez, and not theresa ines.

lately, i've been using theresa ines on all my work-related correspondence. :)

my favorite names:

girls

evita luciente, but i have had to compromise to evita michaela
natalia cecilia
leyla judit

boys

xavier dario
denis julian
pablo neruda

[girl-who-loves-sharks]

pablo neruda

Yeah, that would be so cool.

[girl-who-loves-sharks]

Some names I like a lot:

For Girls:
Annabel, Ivy, May, Edith, Rain

For Boys:
Gabriel, Jonah, Reed, Walker, Albert

Some popular names I dislike a lot:

For Girls, any form of:
Brittany, Crystal, Stacy, Destiny, Kayla

For Boys, any form of:
Brandon, Justin, Tyler, Gage, Trevor

[medeous]

bumping this up for Julie and her bun. :)

[hammerquill]

Miranda is one I've had in my mind lately (for NaNoWriMo reasons, mostly).

Edit: Oh, but I already said that... :rolleyes:

[girl-who-loves-sharks]

Baby Names (Site is in French) (http://french.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prenoms.com%2Fliste%2F)

[amylyn]

BOYS NAMES
gabriel
michael
james
victor
my own sons are kyle and evan

GIRLS NAMES
lorraine
beth
brooke
julie
my own daughter is named emily

[cerwinrhiannon]

I named my kids Darcy (girl) and Dane (boy).
I didn't mean to have a D theme.

Currently I like Remy and Jake.

[Laurasia]

My mom named me Laura...after the chick who wrote Little House on the Prairie! How scary is that? My middle name is Lee--my mom's maiden name, yeah, she felt that she had to keep the Chinese Lee name alive (it's one of the most common last names in the world!). Laura Lee. I won't say my real last name (sorry, internet paranoia), but I can tell you that it ends in the sound LEE.
Laura Lee ______LEE!
I was almost named Alexis. There was a girl named Alexis in my school who peed on the floor in 4th grade so I always associate that name with that event.
My favorite girl's name of late is Evelyn. Evie. I don't know. I like it.
My sister's name is Victoria (but really, she's Vicky), but when my parent's brought her home from the hospital I was 4 and I renamed her pinky (she was PINK!). I called her that for the first couple years of her life. Reminds me, I should start calling her that again!
My favorite boy's name...? Not sure. I like too many.
My favorite pet's name is my cat's, Goblin (and he's the only one of my pets who I actually named...the others came with names). He's evil and we got him around Halloween so it works. Everyone should have a black cat Goblin to watch over (and snuggle with) them at night.

[medeous]

bumpity-bump to inspire curlita ;)

[AlienSpy]

What are your favorite names so far Curlita?

I hope we have a girl, because we can't find any names for a boy! We really liked (for a girl) : Cassandre, Jérémie and Cassiopée but our absolute favorite so far is Auréliane (or Aurélianne). :wub:

Julie

[girl-who-loves-sharks]

What happened to Xavier, Julie?

[Christine_0701]

Originally posted by AlienSpy@Feb 13 2004, 09:40 AM
our absolute favorite so far is Auréliane (or Aurélianne). :wub:

Julie
oh, that is lovely!

[MelangeArtiste]

I was almost named Melanie (so it's not so unreal that I use it sometimes) but my mother didn't want me to be called Mel. And Marie was too common, and inevitably called Mare. Patricia came from my aunt Isobel who hated her name and changed it to Pat. I changed it to Trish as a symbolic gesture of change. And when I accomplish some more change, I may take a new name--not sure what the new name will be, but I will know when I get there.

Some favorite names are: Leandre or Leandro, George, Octavia, Charlotte and Clare.

And one thing that has always puzzled me: How is Joumana pronounced? Hard J as in Joe or soft J as in the french word for play, jou? In my head, I pronounce it the soft way, but if I don't know better, I pronounce anything as if it were french, because it's the only language for which I know the rules of pronunciation. English has more exceptions than rules, and if I hadn't spoken it all my life, I don't think I could manage it at all.

[AlienSpy]

Originally posted by girl-who-loves-sharks@Feb 13 2004, 12:42 PM
What happened to Xavier, Julie?
Oh we still love the name Xavier, but it's too popular! :( In 2002 it was the 6th most popular boy's name for newborns in Quebec. There were 578 of them in 2002 (keep in mind that there are only 7 500 000 people in Quebec).

Rank - Name - # of boys with that name (in 2002) :

1 WILLIAM 963
2 SAMUEL 861
3 GABRIEL 723
4 JEREMY 643
5 OLIVIER 623
6 XAVIER 578
7 ANTHONY 573
8 FELIX 499
9 ALEXANDRE 479
10 ZACHARY 458


Rank - Name - # of girls with that name (in 2002) :

1 LAURIE 392
2 GABRIELLE 380
3 CAMILLE 364
4 NOEMIE 342
5 AUDREY 332
6 MEGAN 317
7 SARAH 317
8 JADE 312
9 EMILIE 302
10 LAURENCE 286

There was only 1 Auréliane in 2002 and 0 Aurélianne! :o

[tanagee]

If I had been a boy my name would have been Thomas, because it had the least offensive shortening in my moms opinion. My mom thought of naming me Ann Marie, but she encountered a lot of babys born w/ that name in 1970.

I was named Tana after a next door neighbor my mom had as a little girl. This woman was so cool and beautiful in the eyes of my mom because she had a closet full of formal dresses. So my mom said that she wanted to name me Tana so I would be beautiful like the original Tana.

The most common girl names in high school were Jennifer, Debbie & Cindy.
For boys it was the usual Michael, Chris, Brian or James.

When I was Pregnant with my daughter Megan we didn't find out if she was a girl or a boy. Her name was going to be either Megan Anne or James Joseph Jr. I originally wanted to name her Genevieve after my Dads Mom, but my mom pointed out to me that SHE HATED her name and I wouldn't really be honoring her by naming the baby after her because of that.

James is still on the list for the next baby (not pg yet)
But some of the girls names on my list are:
Zoe
Chloe
Molly (but my sis-in-law named her dog that so...)

I have always had a dislike of names like Brandy, Candy & Cookie (sorry if that is someones name)

Because I have a different name that people either misspell and/or mispronounce or call me something like Tanya, I prefer 'normal' names and I am big on spelling them correctly. I understand the desire to have a unique or different name to help your child stand out in a crowd, but just being 'one of those kids' was hard (and mine is not all that strange).

There is a website babynamer. com (http://babynamer.com) where people give their opinions on how they veiw people with XXX name, possible nicknames/teasing names for that name and people with XXX name reply how THEY like their name. It was on that website that I found out that Megan was the 9th most popular name in the US in 1994.

I named my dog Lucky because he is lucky to be alive. I "gave" him the last name Luciano, like the gangster, because My hubby's family had mob connections back in 1920 & 30's chicago.

[Curlita]

I just found this thread... fun, fun1

We are musing about names, but not very serious yet (although my sister frequently calls with suggestions). I really like the name Madeline, but my last name and Jonny's both start with M, so that might be a bit much (the nipper will have two middle names, one of which will be my last name).

Anyway, girls names I like: Natalie, Vivian, Marian (although there's still that M problem), Olivia, Lillian, Lilah, Lily, Acacia (though this has already been vetoed), Lucienne (after my dad, although we have a cat names Lucy), Spohie... I tend to like old-fashioned classic names. I would love to name our child after someone in our family (Marian is a family name on both sides and a strong contender for middle name) but that is often problematic since my mom's side is Norwegian (Brynjulf? I don't think so) and Dad's side is French (names like Gilberte and Georgette have been chosen in my fam).

My new favorite toy: http://tools.oxygen.com/babynamer/

I would love to name a girl Georgia, Georgina or Georgianne after my father's father, George, and my husband's step-father, but that does not seem popular with my husband and would probably lead to a lot of icky nicknames.

I don't really have any strong feelings about boy's names right now, other than having a fondness for Biblical names like Benjamin, Jacob, etc. I think that part of my believes that we are definitely going to have a girl.

Random name trivia:
The latin word for Heather is Erica (shout-out to Sharky).
I was almost Alyssa, but my dad didn't like that name.
Had I been a boy, I would have been.... Eric.

[bingsy]

I love the names Madeline and Jacob, but just FYI they are VERY popular in some parts of the country.

If that doesn't matter to you, then I think they are both very pretty. I just wanted to put the information out though. I worked in a daycare, and I listen to my sister talk about all her friends babies. I also have read some lists in the paper and both names made the top 10.

Madeline, and now Madison, are VERY popular and Jacob outsed Michael as the number one boys name in America...I think.

Katie, as well as Caitlin, was really popular in the Mpls area, but I don't think it is a national trend. I like the name Katie too, though. It's spunky and yet feminine.

When I was growing up the popular name was Michelle. There were several in each class.

At my school, Juan Carlos is the most popular name (obviously regional.)

[Curlita]

Jennifer and Michael were popular in my school.

I'm tending to shy away from very popular names, which is another reason that Madeline probably won't make the cut. I give school tours at the museum where I work, and I'm always sort of amused at the name trends. There are a lot of Taylors and Tylers and Brittany's right now. And yes, many Madisons.

[lobstergirl]

i love old fashioned names! luckily, so does the lobster-boy... :D

girls-
*annabelle
*penelope (my mom's name)
*grace/gracie
*myrna
*mabel
*blythe
*louise
*hazel
*olive

boys-
*henry
*elliot
*oliver
*ignus
*evert (my grandpa's name)
*stanley
*felix
*winston

i like odd words as names also.

whenever my mom called my name out when i was a kid, people would always stop and say, "what a beautiful name" and she gave me my name because at the time (at the time!) it was not common and she didn't want me to have a nickname and though people shorten it, mine never was and i was always called by the full name until i was 22 when a coworker started calling me "jek" and now my nickname is still jek many years later and you all know me as lobster-girl but my given name is jessica.

:)

[Jennyblue]

GIRLS :rolleyes:
1. Maya
2. Mia
3. Arrabella
4. Bella
5. Sarah (after my grandmother)
6. Kelsey
7. Kasey

BOYS ;)
1. Jacob
2. Jeremy
3. Ben
4. Jonah
6. Alex