How did you name your kids?

[lucypevensie]

DD1 is Olivia Paige, I just liked the names. If I would have known how popular Olivia was, I would have chosen something different.

DD2 is Claudia Elizabeth. My husband's grandfather Claud passed away while I was pregnant, and we wanted to honor him. Elizabeth is Claud's wife,...we thought it was very fitting.

DD3 is Amelia Helen. After we realized that both our older girls' names ended in "ia"(it took about 3 months), we decided to stick with it. Helen was a name my husband really liked, so we went with it.

Our basic name rules are:
not overly popular
has to work well at any age
tradition spellings only
nothing trendy

I like all of those

 

[JBJoe]

When we went to the hospital for our first, we hadn't had the sex determined by ultrasound but for some reason we were absolutely sure it was a boy. Well, apparently our clairvoyance failed us because it was a girl. We were two hours away from leaving the hospital before we finally named her.

Rules were:

- Could NOT be in the top 10, preferably not even the top 100. Trendy names strictly forbidden.
- Could NOT be weird. It had to be something people would think uncommon but not unusual.
- Could NOT be ambiguously gendered.
- Most reasonable spelling possible

We finally came up with "Jocelyn." It seemed to fit most of the criteria (spelling was a bit of an issue, but not too bad) When she was born in 2001, Jocelyn was ranked in the 120's and had been in the 120s or above for the previous 10 years. I've become a bit upset since then that it has climbed its way to #50.

I had picked out my first son's name years ahead of time. He was named after my paternal grandfather John. I figured we would probably call him "Johnny" or something, but when he was an infant I just started calling him "John-John" and it stuck with everyone.

For #3 we were in a bind. The first two had "Jaw" names and we needed a phonetically similar one. So Joshua it was.

For #4 we were even more in a bind. There were no more "Jaw" names out there. I lobbied for Jennifer if it was a girl and Joseph if it was a boy. Well, it was a girl but I got outvoted or something and she ended up with "Josephine." The name still strikes me as feeling old timey, but we agreed to call her "Josie" so that at least her nickname was more modern sounding. For some reason she has picked up the widest variety of nicknames: Josie, Posie, Josie-Posie, Posie-girl, Josefini, Fini, Hosefini - all things she gets called fairly often.

 

[marezee]

we really didn't have any rules.
For our first, we didn't want to know the sex, so DH picked a boys' name and I picked a girl's name. We just picked what sounded nice, and what we both liked. He picked Nicholas Andrew, and I picked Jordan Rose.
we had Nicholas.
For our second, we knew it was a boy, so we chose together. We wanted him to have both of his grandpa's names: Stephen James.
And for our third, we also found out it was a boy, and chose together...Jacob Henry (henry is also a family name).
So basically we went with family names and names that sounded nice together.

 

[E-beth]

When hubby and I found out we were having a boy, we started arguing over lots of names. My only criterion was that the name mean something. I wanted to honor my Grandpa (Robert) but didn't want that as a first name. My husband liked Paul, for his Grandfather, but I spent most of high school following a Paul around like a pathetic puppy dog. My husband didn't want a junior at all. So we went round and round. Then one night I had a dream. In my dream God told me to name my son Matthew. I liked the name well enough, but there are LOTS of Matthews in the world. The next morning I looked up the word Matthew in the baby names book, and found it to mean "gift from God." So who could argue with that? So he is Matthew. His middle name is a blend of honor of my Grandpa and my hubby's family name -- Roberts.

 

[Gods4me]

My wee boy is James Stewart Hadden
james after my grandad
Stewart his bio fathers second name
Hadden is my maiden name
and he has the same second names as me and his dad now. (at ne time had has been know as all of thos names as second names.


My mum named me 14 years before i was born. she liked the name lynn so when she got a new teacher at school she told them her name was lynn. it wasnt untill Parents night when the truth came out. My grans way of stopping her doing it again was to tell her to call her first daughter lynn.

 

[lottepotte]

1. Rebeka Lisette
2. Trevor Mattias
3. Hanna Rete

I dreamed about Rebeka (Estonian version of Hebrew name) for years, even before I met my husband. And my husband said He had thought about Rebeka too. Rebeka means 'captivating, someone who bindes', and also 'servant of God'. We liked the meaning. In the Bible is told that Rebekah was very beautiful and she happened to be extrabeautiful. During pregnancy I got in my heart the middelname Lisette (orign Hebrew name Eliszabeth), that means 'my God is a vow'. I was not sure giving her one or two names. We decided for two because this was so fitting with what we experienced in our lives- God is faithful to His vows. Today, while she has 2 Rebeka's in singingschool, teachers find it practical.

Trevor has been our fathers (His name is Felor) favorit name for long time. When I heard, I liked this too. This celtic name means 'prudent'. Well so I call him all the time in faith (he is 3 now ). We thought first that the boy will have only one name. While I was pregnant I helped to find a first name for my friends son and I fell in love with name Mattias. It's Hebrew meaning is 'gift of God'. Mattias fitted so well after Trevor and was softening it's sound. And he is strong outside and very soft in his heart.

With third child we first time went until the end not knowing the gender, but I had Hanna in my heart as second daughters name for long time before. We would have been in trouble if the third child had been a boy. I just found no suitable name for a boy. I saw two dreams in the end of pregnancy. In the first one we got a babygirl who looked like our sun (and so it was). In the second dream she was bigger and looked like lovely herself, and seems she is more and more like that. Hanna is Estonian version of Hannah and means 'grace and favour of God'. The name Rete is not found in namebooks, but I hade a lovely friend in my hometown named Rete. My husbands grandmother told us that this name was in use in Estonia in old times. We wanted to have R in her name as our other children have, so this was a logical step also. But there is also a little personal story with this name. Until I got my first daughter I used in a local mothers internetforum a nickname Rebeka. Then I changed it to Rete. My friends told I should give it to my second daughter. I said it to my family just for fun. While we started to think about names, my daughter recalled it and asked, why we can not name her Rete. Now I am Rete senior in our mothers network. Before deciding for the name Rete, I found out that this means "network" in Latin. Network baby hahaa... While we were still thinking in the hospidal should we name her Rete Hanna, Hanna Rete or Hanna Rette (this means save or salvation)... my daughter brought us a beautiful painted card from her friends in childrengarden with best wishes for me and Hanna Rete. So what we had to say... Hanna Rete is like a new grace and favour in our lives, reminds me all the time that salvation comes by grace... back to the roots.

 

[Robinsegg]

I made a list of about 50 girls names and 50 boys names, along with their meanings and language origin.
Hubby wanted something "un-weird", and I wanted to name the kids for the meaning. Hubby had always secretly wanted to name a daughter with one name, and it was on my list
Names being in the Bible were not of paramount importance. We spelled the names in a fairly common, easy manner.

Rachel

 

[becky81101]

i haven't been on the boards in months - so i guess this is the best time to just jump right back in...
our boys all have first names that we just liked. and they all end with an N. that was something that was intentional. they're middle names are all family names.
Ethan David
Austin Timothy
Mason John

good to be back...
becky

 

[CrystalBrooke]

I wanted something that was ageless, something that sounded good on a young child, a teen, and would still sound good on them as a grandparent. Emily's middle name is MaKenzie..no reason behind that other than her daddy and I just liked it.

I won't be having another one (hopefully my last one) for a few years and my rule is still the same..it has to be ageless. Charlie wants Charles Ray *last name* the third..I say heck no..but I'll compromise and either keep the name Charles or Ray in the name, we've yet to pick out a boy name that we both like. We both like the name Olivia Paige..I suggested it because if I had had it my way, that's what Emily's name would have been. Charlie likes it, but since we only plan on having one I figure if it's a girl we'll give her the middle name Rae so she can still be named after him in a way. Right now we've agreed on Olivia and Sarah.

 

[Sabertooth]

JoHannah Jubilee,
BenJudah Gabriel,
Aaron Josiah,
Jordan Uriah,
Maranatha Nissiah,
(Anastasia Nike, miscarried),
Jeshua David,
Shiloh Joshana,
Elijah Daniel,
Hezekiah Nathaniel,
Zephaniah Joseph

Their meanings are in my profile.

Onomastics [names] is one of my hobbies.

The girl's names all came to me in a pool of names before the first one was born. The correct combination of first and middle names became clear when they arrived. Some of them were coined with my limited knowledge of Hebrew. They didn't have to be names as long as they sounded close to existing American feminine names. JoHannah became more common since she was born.

We had our first son's name at the same time, just in case we needed it. The remainder we both [received?] as they were born, typically recalling Biblical heroes, favoring the least common, of the two, as first names. Again, we chose names that weren't too far removed from typical American masculine names when it came to pronunciation. Jordan has become more common, too, because of the surname of a popular basketball player around the same time.

The more formal sounding ones were easily shortened for everyday use like:

Maranie,
Jesse,
Hez/Hezzy,
Zeph/Zeffy

 

[heart of peace]

As an Orthodox Christian, we name our children after an Orthodox Saint.

 

[TexasSky]

I looked at a variety of things.
I looked at the meaning of the names.
I wanted to name them after someone admirable.
I wanted names they could "change" easily if they hated them, as in turn into acceptable nicknames.

My daughter is Kathleen Elizabeth. The names mean pure and God is bountiful.
Elizabeth is a woman of the bible.
She is named after my best friend since I was in elementary school, who also was my college roommate, and is a wonderful, beautiful, cheerful person. She is also named after a great great great Aunt, and my mother's cousin who I loved like an Aunt.
In our family geneology, the names Kathleen and Elizabeth appear repeatedly.

She could go by Kathleen or Elizabeth; Kat, Kathy, Beth, Betty, Liz, Katie, and her initials spelled out "Key". I figured no way she could hate me for her name.

My son is Thomas Neil.
Thomas was a disciple of Christ.
Neil means Champion.
His paternal grandfather is Thomas, his maternal grandfather was Neil.
His greatgrandfather on his Dad's Dad's side and an uncle on his Dad's Mother side are Thomas.
He has great uncles on both my mother and father's sides who are Thomas.
There is a Thomas in every generation of my father's family, and in almost every generation of his father's family.

He could go by Thomas, Tom, Tommy, or Neil.
His friends nicknamed him TNT for awhle.

 

[angelsgirl]

We struggled alot with naming our little girl. There weren't many names that both my husband and I liked.
I heard the name Madeleine and liked it and suggested it and when my husband said he liked it, I was SO happy!!!
Madeleine's middle name is Joan. Joan is my husbands grandmothers name and my grandmothers middle name. So we thought it was awesome we could name our baby girl after 2 grandmothers, one on each side!!!

 

[sphsjags]

My mom let my dad give me the "Stephen Lowell Hunt" (his name), but she objected to the " Jr. " part. Face it, parents, this isn't the "Leave it to Beaver" era anymore. Jr is not kool, anytime, anywhere. Luckily she made it " II " (pronounced 'the 2nd') I owe my mom for life for that one