Baby Naming…My Favorite Pastime
One of my favorite things to do is to pick out names for babies. I had to do it many times for my own family, and have never tired of it. I have heard names recently that have actually made me WANT to get pregnant…just to use THAT name. Really as immature as looking at the latest Pottery Barn Kids magazine and thinking you want a baby just to put it in that SO cute room with the birds and embroidery.
As a special gift, I am leaving all you with a small list of leftover girl’s names (sorry…I’m out of boy’s names) that I never (boo hoo) had the chance to use…they are up for grabs.
Mabel
Genevieve
Janey
Libby
Marjorie
Margaux
Bridget
Frances
I love the spelling of Margaux. So pretty. I always had girl names. never boy names. my leftover girl names were: kate, amelia, clara and eliza. boy names: will. Like I said, boy names are hard. Good thing, i only had girls, i guess.
I am SO obsessed with baby names. Just the mention of a great name and it sends my hormones spinning. When my friends or family are pregnant – lookout! Maybe it's because I just had two children and my husband named both of them!! One after himself and one after his mother. I did name my bestfriends daughter though. We used to talk on the phone every day and come up with names while she was pregnant. One day I called her and said "what about Bailey"? And today Bailey is 11 years old.
I will not be having anymore, so I will give up my names too *sniff,sniff*.
Girls: Celia & Laney
Boys: Nicholas & Jake (not Jacob, just Jake)
Stephanie @ A Fine House
My daughter wants to use Genevieve (if she ever stops having boys), but her husband's not too crazy about it. I preferred unusual names when I was having babies, but now I like more traditional names like Aimee, Emily, Elizabeth, etc. Boys' names are like boys' baby clothes–not nearly as much fun to pick out as girls!
Happy, indeed!
Mabel's totally on my list. 🙂 And Margaux sounds so rich and fancy!
i love my mabel. it fits her to a t.
i am having a serious baby name block this time around.
I LOVE me some baby names!!! My favorite boy's name is Oliver. Girl: TrillaBelle. I know, noone in the world (but a mom who I know has a daughter with that name) likes it but ME! Who cares? i LOVE those names. Now if only my daughter/daughters-in-law would listen……….
The women I nannied for in college was tired of all of her mother's yenta friends asking her what she was going to name her new baby. So to be a toot, she told them "Percival". Imagine our surprise when they started sending beautiful embroidered and monogrammed gifts (all from Neimans, no less), with that name on them! Ahk!
I learned my lesson with my own kids to keep it to myself until I was 100% sure! :0)
I have loved Mabel for a long time (M-A-B-E-L Mothers Always Bring Extra Love)
I can't imagine not telling everyone the chosen name. When we were pregnant with our son Porter, a family member told us not to name him that because if we was fat he would get called "Porker". Now we lovingly call him Pork Chop, and Porkey boy. 🙂
Love baby naming. I have serious rules around names – has to sound strong and powerful when announced on a high school sports field for boys, look elegant on a wedding invitation for girls, etc. I cannot wait to name my own babies – but secretive is my style.
Great post! I would be a category 1 as well. I can't keep a secret. And I love picking out baby names myself. I have a Lily and an Eden and I am going to continue with the garden variety names 😉
Girl that was one Hi-Larious post! I laughed the whole way through. You just nailed every aspect. Libby is on my list – love it love it love it. So is Bridget. I also love Chandler. For the record, there are a zillion Isabella's, Ava's and Ella's around my neck of the woods. Kim
My husband and I both have ultra-traditional Biblical names, so we tried to stay along the same lines for our own children. Only I tried to do Bible names with a twist: Eliza (Elizabeth), Jonathan (no twist there), Sariah (ancient form of Sarah), and Lily (as in lilies of the field). My only regret is how often I have to spell Sariah's name for people. I'm also very conscious about being able to use nicknames to shorten the longer names. Every child has the right to a decent nickname.
I've still got some fantastic Biblical Twist names for girls that I'll never have a chance to use: Bethany (the town), Jamica (James + Micah), and Markae (Mark).
I have never liked the name Mabel, but it is a name that is popping up often lately. It is more common than I thought it was!
Awwww my name is on the list!
Janey @ http://hopefullylhome.blogspot.com/
I love the name Libby, and actually, it was my great Aunt's name, also… it may yet end up in our family tree 🙂
My husband and I have already decided on Natalie Anna and Derek Andrew as our first picks for our children. After that, there might be an Eleanor in there, but we're stuck for another boy!
Oh I love Janey. How cute.
We went with the biblical theme, not on purpose from the start but ended up that way.
Rachel, Rebecca, Sariah, Hannah, Seth and Eden.
I always loved the name Savannah but could NEVER talk my husband into it. He hated it. Then, wouldn't you know… a few months ago he heard the name Savannah and said, "That's cute. I like that." Um, you're a little too late buddy!!!
Great names……love Janey. I know we're not "supposed" to name with that suffix at the end, but I broke the rules and named my only girl, Lainey. I love it. We call her Lainey. We call her Lainey Caroline. Or, just Laine. I love them all.
On a different note, the name of all names has to be Seven. (see Seinfeld scripts for details if you don't know).
I started to write a comment about how we named our children. But with 7, it was turning into a blog post. So I moved it to my blog.
I love the name Mabel. Reminds me of the old show "Mad About You"—they named their daughter Mabel in honor of "Mothers Always Bring Extra Love."
I love this! Nothing gets people talking like baby name choices, right?
I am FIRMLY planted in camp #2 – we do NOT tell the chosen name until baby makes her entrance. Of course, we've only had two children, but we thought this policy worked so nicely the first time, we'll probably stick with it in the future if God so chooses to bless us.
We figure finding out the gender beforehand is enough of a surprise-stealer that there ought to be a LITTLE anticipation for the big day.
Also our names our a little unique (Dacey and Aliza Joy) and we would prefer not to hear the commentary.
Love your list of leftovers. Margaux is lovely – I may just have to steal that one.
Ooooh, I love baby names too! Love Genevieve, & Janey – so cute! Had a friend who told people her girl name, and then every. single. girl. born in the few years after that was named that name…of course, before she had a girl, so she picked a new name. I could see how that would be annoying…! The secret way is fun, too, since with so many people knowing what sex they're having, there's still an element of surprise at the end 🙂 Love the theme idea, too. Oooooh, I can't wait…!!
LOVE this post. I love hearing what people name their babies.
I know a couple who kept their child's name a secret until she was born AND then asked people who came to visit at the hospital not to tell because the parents wanted to be the ones to tell. I mean this child was days old and her name was still a secret shared only amongst those who had seen her. It was the craziest thing I've ever heard.
I was a category 1 person for sure. We chose a name (Daphne) and then told everyone. We got mostly positive reactions except from my mom, who hated it and hid her hatred very poorly.
My least favorite are the people who keep the name a secret, but then tease about it. Like I care that much about what you're naming your child. Please don't flatter yourself. 😉
Seems this generation likes the old fashion names. My daughter named my grand daughter after my mother and a favorite aunt. Her middle name is Lucille! Some of the friends have…Penelope, Evelyn and Natalie, all named after relatives. I love that!
By the way~ I had a 20y/o cat named Mabel. 😉
Man – this topic has been on my mind lately! I wish I had more fun with picking names like you do. I tend to get streesed out because I'm so indecisive. I'm just going to wait until we know what we're having and then that narrows things down a bit. If it's a boy I'm going to want you to do another post on boy names so get thinking! 😉
Excellent names! I named my little girl Genevieve. 😀 I lurve it. 🙂
Help others name their little darlings… http://swistlebabynames.blogspot.com/
Oh, maybe you can try to come up with some more boy names? Just for me? 😉
We fell into number 1 and number 3. Told *everyone* we would use Henry John for a boy if we had one (both family names) and then my sister took Henry. I see you say don't worry about repeating a name – would you use the same name as a sibling?
It's kind of silly how up in arms we all can get about it all!
How nice to see Margaux on the list, I've always loved that name and chose it for our daughter 4 yrs ago. We spell it Margot and love that she's the only one who turns around when I yell it across the park 😉
This is right where I am right now! We just found out Monday we are having our fourth girl and my husband and I are having the most ridiculously difficult time trying to find a name that we both LOVE that goes with our other girls' names. Our girls are Ainsley, Liberty, and Melody. They all end in "Y" which I am sort of stuck on because I feel like it isn't fair to break the tradition on the fourth one, especially being another girl. My husband doesn't want anything too close in sound to the other girls. And all of them have names that are fairly unique and we rarely run into other kids with the same names, so I'd like to continue that. Of course several of the names I love, including my great-grandmother's name, are all suddenly rocketing to the top of the popularity chart. Who would have thought Audrey would ever become so popular again!? Oh, and I love Genevieve! That is my other great grandmother's name, and I have loved it since I was a little girl and named half my dolls Genevieve! And we are firmly in the camp of #2. We don't tell a soul. Not even our children. If you hate it, for some reason, you are willing to tell me before the child arrives, but after it is already on the birth certificate, your manners return and you seem to keep your opinions to yourself, lol. In general 🙂
Thank you for putting Libby out there! That is my favorite name, and our 3rd little girl is coming in less than 2 weeks. We still don't have a name yet–for real!!–but that's my favorite on the list. I LOVE it. But my husband is just "okay" with it. We'll figure it out! Maybe when we see her?
I've just discovered your blog and I love it. And I never comment on anyone's blog who I don't actually know in real life, so this is weird for me. I feel awkward… Anyway, thanks for your honesty in your writing, and for amusing us along the way. I'm hooked!!
This is your favorite thing to do? Get a life.
GREAT post!!!!! I just recently found our list of names we were debating over 🙂 good times 😉 The name Brigg….ohhhh, it ALMOST makes me want to have another 🙂 If I haven't told you before….I love love love your blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you on fb??? Is that too private to ask?? I'm not a weirdo or anything…I'm just an ordinary Catholic Mommy! hee hee 🙂 have you ever heard of Lino Rulli–The Catholic Guy???? He has a super great talkshow on XM 117 The Catholic Channel!!!!!!
Oh yea….and a favorite little girl name I love love love…..Camille!!!!!!! Oh man, when my hubby gets home…he's gonna tell me to take a cold shower and get over the baby names 😉 hee hee!!!!
I, like others, love this post! I love to think of baby names! My hubby and I have had a list for quite a while… however, no babies yet! Dang! Our list is:
Girls: Alivia, Taryn, Amaya, Tyler, Tristyn, Rebecca and I love Gretchen. My hubs will never go for Gretchen though. I think it's so cute! Hubbs prefers a little more modern names.
Boys: Tristan, Owen, Cameron… and that's about it.
Middle names: Jeane, Lauren, Kristine, Elizabeth, Marie, Irina — Michael, Wayne (yikes!), Ryan
We're both family namers for middle names. I have two middle names for each of my Grandmas. Frances Jeane! Both of our dad's middle names are/were Wayne along with both of our uncles (my dad and his uncle are both deceased.)
I definitely fall into the category of not being able to keep a secret. I get too excited! I also know people who told select few people and not others. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose. I also have a hard time with boy names (clearly.)
Yep, my hormones are ragin' now! :0)
Picking out baby names was not easy for me and my husband. Our first, a boy was either going to be Parker or Henry. My husband was not liking Henry, so we landed on Parker.
Our daughter was much harder. We had about 5 names picked out, and once she was born, decided she was indeed a Hailey.
No more babies for us to name.
I was a #2 and I was telling the truth! My son was given his first name in the delivery room and his middle name just before we left the hospital.
My daughter was named about three hours after her birth. I cannot fathom naming a child sight unseen, so that's why we waited.
My kids' names are Ty Matthew and Chloe Elisabeth, but I had a few good ones saved.
Boys:
Asa
Holden
Seth
Girls:
Avery Clementine
Reed Ashleigh
Emma Justine
Margot ( I always like Margot Hemmingway's name.. is it really spelled that way?)
I also love the name Julia. that would be for a friend.
Drake for my brother. ….
Girls are always happy to dream about baby names.
I am praying that the next baby we have will be another girl. Not that I don't adore boys but gosh, I have all the gear and everything in here is pink. That said we just talked about Genevieve. It goes perfect with our last name and how cute would Olivia, Abigail and Genevieve be? I also thought of the name Francine. I thought it was sweet with a touch of wimsy.
My daughters middle name is Genevieve. She is 2. It was going to be her first name until we came across a name 5 days before she was born. I really wanted a "Z" name, and our first childs name begins with a B, the second, an A, so we went backwards on the alphabet. We just could not agree on any name but Genevieve. We would have called her Neve (as in Neve Campbell), but her first name is Zemirah (Zee Meer Ah) it's in the Bible, Chronicles- and in the Bible, it is a grandson of Benjamin. Nowadays it's a girls name. We call her Zemi (Zimmy). Everyone loves it and so do we 🙂 My 2 sons are Benjamin and Aaron, so we have the theme of all Hebrew names for our children.
So I have no leftover girls name, although my husband wanted Margaret after his grandma and we would call her Margie, but I just would not agree to it.
If my Zemi had been a boy (which my early u/s were showing her to be, LOL) his name would have been Vaughn Alexander. Not a Hebrew name, but a play on my husbands German ancestors name.
With my boys, I told people their names once we knew them, but that only happened with my oldest, around 6 months preggo. We decided on Aaron right before he was born, and we didn't name Zemi until she was almost 2 days old. I was going to keep her name a secret though even if I had decided on it.
I love reading your blog.
I've got a LIBBY! 🙂 It had been on our list forever … on past our 2 boys. Then we got our Libby. And we love her. Just wanted to let you know the name did not go to waste. Don't you fret. 🙂 ha ha
I've always loved Bridget!
I am firmly in the "keep it secret" camp. I love surprises, and since we didn't find out the sex of the baby in advance, we couldn't tell people definitively what the name would be anyway. I also didn't want to hear other people's unsolicited opinions on names that we had chosen and were happy with.
I really like the name Genevieve too (although it sounds like lots of others do to? Maybe it's an up-and-comer …) although I worry she'd be nicknamed "Jen." Nothing wrong with Jen, but as a child of the 70s I know about a million Jens. I love both the English and French pronunciations of Genevieve.
My criteria for choosing a baby name:
1. My preference is to use a full name, not a nickname (e.g. Nicholas, not Nick, even if you intend to call him Nick). I think it's nice to have the option of the longer name to use in future if you decide to.
2. A name that is clearly identified as masculine or feminine (I have an androgynous name, and while I like it now, I didn't always like that aspect of it growing up).
3. A name that could sound 'serious' if needed, so it will be appropriate for any profession (this is much more of an issue with girls' names, I think).
4. A name with some history that is easily recognizable but not overly common.
Love this post and I love to hear what names people chose. I've had a girl name picked out since before I was married and now I am expecting my 3rd boy! =0 She would have been named Finley, I am so in love with that name! Not sure if we will try for a girl later one, I know my chances of having a girl are slim now. So this little guys name will be Finn. I think it will fit right in with the names of his older Brothers…Jack and Thatcher.
BTW: LOVE your blog!
With our 4th baby, also our last, we were told at the first sonogram that we were having a girl. we already had 2 boys and a girl, so I was excited for my daughter to have a sister. In my opinion we had picked the best name ever: Megan Grace. When we went in for our 2nd sonogram, they asked us if we wanted to know the sex of the baby, it was at a different sonogram place, of course we said yes already knowing/believing we were having a girl. Well as she moved the doppler around my belly, my husband and I just bursted out laughing, because there HE was in all his glory. It was a great surprise to end our last pregnancy.
So we named him Josiah Nathan.
So Megan Grace is still up for grabs and I am always trying to get one of my friends to use it. 🙂
btw, my other kiddos names are:
Nehemiah Leon
Haylie Dean
Simon Jacob (he goes by his full name)
We have 7 girls and one son (named after his father). My husband would try out the names we picked for the girls by sticking his head out the back door and hollering the chosen names. He said he knew he would be doing that a lot as they grew older.
Lydia
I'd have to say that we fall into the first category. We have a pretty good idea and strong opinions about what names we like, but certainly welcome ideas. As for themes it seems that while we tought we were sticking with traditional boys names we have also started a "royal" theme as well – Henry, Charlie and William!
And yes, I happen to love the name "Libby" too! 🙂
-Libby
I used to keep lists of names that I liked as a little kid. My girlfriend did the same and we would create elaborate geneologies to incorporate all our names! At this point I probably won't have kids, but I still love giving input to my friends.
I love Libby, but I'd name her Elizabeth and use Libby as the nickname. That way she has choices later in life (speaking as someone who decided to switch to her middle name in college!).
Although young yet, I have been "collecting" baby names for a while now. Checking my list now, I see that, for the girls at least, I like either simple names spelled… strangely, or just plan uncommon names. The list is kept on my cell, so I should probably switch that to something more… concrete considering the number of times my phone has been in the bathtub or dish water. Ha!
The names that I have so far for girls are Sophie, Megyn, Bianca, Carlie, Kelci, Harley, Jelynn, and Autumn.
Jelynn is a combination of my first and middle names: Jennifer Lynn.
The boys names are simple and few: Aaron, Kyle, Justin, Joshua, and Bentley.
-Jennifer
I was just shown your blog by my friend and I am inspired! Thank you. I also am having a baby after 8 1/2 years of infertility. I came across your name list and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the name Janey (We think we are having a girl, but we don't know). It means "God is Gracious" and it fits our situation perfectly. Our baby is a miracle.
I just happened upon your blog tonight. I love it. I have 5 daughters (one named Libby). I too love the baby names. I am sad I will never use my endless list of boy names. But my girl names are sure cute!
I love, lovey, love that you have Janey with a Y on your list. I love me some Y's and when Ruby got vetoed by the opinionated husband, Janey snuck right on in. She is so a Janey too. Not a Ruby at all. Plus, she makes me want to have more babies. SO maybe someday I will get that Ruby after all.
I love this post. I love me girls' names (Sophie Louise, Emily Grace, Natalie Rose) but still have one on my list. I throw it out there when someone is having a girl, but so far it hasn't stuck yet. Maybe one day we'll have another girl and get to use it, Maeve.
I found you jumping from link to link one evening….and have finally decided to leave a comment! This post made me just laugh! A little over 6 years ago, I was pregnant with my son, and my cousins daughter (so, my 1st cousin once removed I think? Are we even still related?!) was pregnant with her first, also a son. I asked her what name they were thinking of, and she told me….too funny that it is the same name we were considering using as well. I laughed about it. Three weeks later, we had our son and used "the name". A month later, they had their boy and used the same name. I found out on their 2nd baby that they were telling NO ONE the name because we had "stolen" it the 1st time! What?! I still laugh about it! Especially because we live in different states and seen them all of 2 times in six years, yet her husband still ranks us right up there with murderers for stealing their name! 🙂 Thanks for the laugh with this post!