Over the past few years, Middle Child has put in a number of service hours at preschools for her college major. The names have gotten even more creative. She's worked with Prudence (someone likes 19th century novels?), Silas (Biblical?), Deacon (churchy?), SnoAnne (think SnoCone), Lola (ok, cute, but everyone's going to be singing her The Kinks song), Stella (Stellaaa.......Stelllllaaaaa!), Trinity (again with the church business), Sebastian (not so odd, but how do you turn this into a nickname?), and my personal favorite, Rocco. Because I just love to think about a tough little 3 year old with that name.
My son is fine with his name, but my daughters did a lot of complaining about their names while they were growing up (see picture above). They both would rather have been Katelyn or Caitlin, or some variation of the name that 33.3% of their female classmates had. We named our oldest after the 8 year old who would run the mail upstairs to my husband's second floor brownstone apartment in Brooklyn when we were dating. The majority of his mail were letters from me, since this was way before the internet or cell phones and neither of us could afford too many long-distance phone calls. I don't think it's an unusual name, but the spelling tends to confuse people and my daughter has posted photos of her Starbucks cups on some website devoted to such. We named Middle Child a name that goes with our heritage, plus we didn't know many girls with that name while we were growing up. The hardest part about choosing a name is finding one without bad associations. I don't know how teachers do it. Our son has a very common name that was extremely popular when we were kids, but we have good associations with it. It's funny because no one uses it anymore, so he ended up rarely being in a class with anyone else having the same name.
I have always loved my name. It is one of those names popular during a certain time frame (60's-70's), but not as popular as a name like Lisa or Laura. How did you name your children or how happy are you with your own name?
It is interesting with names these days and the spelling of even what are considered common names. I've seen a lot of variety on the name Megan for instance on how it is spelled. And you are right, add into the mixture the foreign names. Must be a teacher's nightmare at times.
ReplyDeleteI was not fond of my name, I was either going to be Betty Jean or Donna Jean. Between the two, though, I do like Betty over Donna. A lot of people thought Betty was sort for Elizabeth, which in my case was not the case.
In naming the kids, we chose regular routine names so to speak. My daughter's at the time was a bit uncommon, but not so these days. My son's was the most popular name of that particular year so when we would be at the park and I would call his name, at least 4 or 5 other boys' heads would look up.
Someone once said to practice the name you want to call your child over and over again and in different tones, anger, happiness, etc., and make sure there is no way the name can also be teased about. Its a hard job to come up with names I think.
betty
It is hard! I forgot that Betty could be a nickname for Elizabeth. I have an aunt named Betty Jane and my mom always calls her by both names together, though no one else seems to.
ReplyDeleteI had a cat named Cinnamon... much more appropriate for a pet! If my grandson was a granddaughter, Starr was actually in the running for the name. Glad her boy was born first and she had time to think about it. My daughter's name is a little different but my son got a family name. I was given the Irish Catholic name of Mary Catherine, which I never minded. I don't know if they were joking or what but my parents used to say I was almost named Edwina, after my father Ed. Oh, horrors! My husband had a korean name when he first came to the U.S. and his mother wanted to change it to Andre. He's very thankful his father said no and gave him his first name instead.
ReplyDeleteOh my.....Edwina would not have been good. But I kind of like Andre!!!
DeleteThe family joke has been that Queenie and I shoulda named one of our daughters Mildred Myrtle in homage to their maternal great-grandmothers. Or was it Myrtle Mildred?? It was tempting .....
ReplyDeleteInstead we chose more common names though Queenie insisted we spell their names slightly unusually. No 'custom' tags for these girls, only real custom will do .... but they seem to be OK with 'em.
Queenie would have chosen a diff name for herself. Me? I just wanted whatever name Mom wasn't yelling about at the time, but that's a diff story for another day. :-)
It's interesting that some old fashioned names like Emma and Emily have become popular again, but Mildred and Myrtle aren't likely to make a comeback.
Delete"but Mildred and Myrtle aren't likely to make a comeback." we can only hope
Delete" Sorry, I went to school with kids named Larry!"
ReplyDeleteYes, thank you! When I was a kid, everyone was named, Michael, Mary, Peter, Susan, or John.
" Cinnamon"
OMG, that sounds like one of the "Spice Girls!!!!"
I never really liked my name until I got older and my father told me WHY my biological mother named me that. She loved the movie actor, Ronald Coleman, so she named me after him. And yet, it was almost as if she knew/sensed that I would someday (after she passed away at 40-years old) would become an actor myself. Ever since I heard that story, I loved my name.
And my last name, CARNAVIL? Well, it definitely tool sometime to get used to that - HA! But now, I LOVE it.
Fun post!!!!!
I love to hear stories like that. My MIL was named for a famous child star and it's a name that is only popular from that time period. You do have a really unique last name!
DeleteWe gave our kids a combination of biblical and family names, without going anywhere too odd-sounding (no Phineas or Zebulon, or anything like that, altho I did once suggest, tongue-in-cheek, that we name one of our daughters Dorcas). My dad told me that I was very nearly Egbert, after his grandfather, for which I have been grateful ever since that he passed on that opportunity. . .
ReplyDeleteI remember high school commencement, there was a fairly rough kid named Bill, and when his name was called, we found out that his, official, birth-certificate name was 'Billy'. But then, nobody particularly wanted to razz him too hard over it, either. . .
I always think it's odd when people officially name their kids with the nickname, like Billy, or really even Bill, since it originated as William. But I guess when you can name your kid Apple, Blue or North, anything goes!
DeleteI wouldn't be surprised if Phineas is used now due to the Disney show.
Just not Ferb, please. . .
DeleteAltho you just know somebody did. . .
;)
We love good, strong names for boys and having three boys first I wanted a very feminine name for my daughter. We started out by making long lists of names we liked and then crossing them out one by one. You're right. The hardest part is bad associations.
ReplyDeleteAll of my kids' middle names are family names. And Grace got her name because when I was about 6 years old I watched a TON of Little House and when they had baby Grace I said, "I want a baby Grace someday!" I thought it was the prettiest name and no one EVER used that name until about 8 years before my Grace was born. All of a sudden it became really popular and I was not happy about it. Not so unhappy we didn't use it, though. ;)
We did the exact same thing, making long lists first and eliminating. And middle names are family names a well. If my oldest had been a boy, we were going to use Alexander, but I was so annoyed by everyone naming their girls Alex, by the time we had our son, I didn't want to use it anymore!
DeleteMy son did have a few Graces in his grade and we know someone who just named their baby Grace. It's definitely made a comeback! That is interesting that you got it from Little House!!! I remember loving the name Jenny when I was a kid because of a book series about a Ginny and Jenny.
You couldn't throw a rock on a 70s playground without hitting a gal with my name, and although it was chosen for heritage and traditional reasons for me, there were lots of people with the same name (mostly blondes~ Locklears, and Thomases, and Grahams, oh my).
ReplyDeleteMy husband was named for his two grandfathers and we threatened to do the same sort of thing if we had a daughter and her name would have been Hilda Otilda. :p
Instead we had two boys and the first has the middle name of a grandfather while the second was chosen because I like it and it is a great Bible story too.
If one of the boys had been a girl we probably would have gone with Aria but instead we have a female dog and went with Ariella for her.
Interesting........I'm thinking different parts of the country choose different names because I've only ever known one person with your name and I certainly spent lots of time on playgrounds in the 70's! Everyone was Lisa or Laura here.
DeleteAria is a beautiful name!
My name was the one that was most mispronounced my entire life and I chose to go by a very shortened version of Kay. once I became a real adult (maybe 25? haha), I decided that having a unique name was actually not so bad and now I completely embrace it!
ReplyDeleteMy son has a very unique hard-to-spell last name. When I got divorced, there was no question at all on going back to my plain-Jane maiden name, cause having to spell both names to people sucks. So when naming my son, I knew that I had to make it easier for him (and everyone else) and wanted a simple name. We went with Andrew, which unfortunately was the same year as the devastating hurricane Andrew, but I like to think that he is not a hurricane. Though when he makes a total disaster of things, I tend to remember...
Your name doesn't look hard to pronounce, but maybe I'm saying it wrong in my head! Last names can be killer and determine the need for a simple first name. However, if you are a Smith, I'm sure it's best to get creative!
DeleteIt took me some time, but now I love my name (it's a lullaby in a French opera of the same name). My kids have somewhat unusual names: Allegra is actually a word in several romance languages, but we chose it as a musical shout-out (my parents were both musicians), as "allegro" is the musical term for playing something happily or with spirit. My son is Haakon, a name many of the princes and kings of Norway have had (as does the current Crown Prince). Baby Prince Haakon is the featured character in the legend behind the Birkebeiner ski race, too. However, we chose the name because my husband's grandpa was Haakon. He just died a couple years ago at age 97. May my own Haakon live so long!
ReplyDeleteHi Jocelyn and welcome! I think my kids have known some Allegras, but definitely had not heard of the name Haakon before. Thank you for the history lesson!
DeleteHi Bijoux,
ReplyDeleteIn France, there are also a lot of unusual names among the younger generations.
Over here, the Father of a newborn( or a close relative) will often declare the birth in the townhall of residence. This includes registering the chosen first names. The towanhall has the right to REFUSE any name that they feel is uncorrect/ difficult. I have to agree because a child has to live with his/her name!
There have been a few famous court cases around parents fighting to have this or that name. Otay...
Did you know that ARUN meals "Calla Lilly" in French?? That might shed a bit of light on that.
It was nice to hear about your children's stories with their names.
Happy weekend.
That is very interesting about the townhall being able to deny a name! That is too much govt intervention for me!
DeleteI had no idea that arun is a word used in French. I doubt all those boys in India would appreciate being known as a calla lily.
firends of mine have a 4 month old girl called stella - and i love it.
ReplyDeletei've always liked stephanie as a girls name - classy and sweet.
for a boy i like kelly (as in kelly slater).
(my own name was better suited to the 70's - i do not know of anyone in the last 30 years who has called their kid my name, yet in my age group there are heaps of us!)
I actually really like names that reveal a certain era. Now I'm trying to think what your name could be........hmmmmm
DeleteMy name was completely original to people when I was growing up. I didn't love it because I always had to take the time pronouncing it and spelling it with every introduction. However, the name is now popping up here and there and there is actually a celebrity with it (albeit a different spelling). I do wish as your cartoon states that I couldve gotten the personalized key chains and such buuuttt Ive grown into my name and its not so bad afterall.
ReplyDeleteThat's cool that your name is gaining popularity.....you are the original!
DeleteMy daughters love that ecard too......they would get so pissed when their names were never on the tchotchkes!
well with kids 23 and younger, some of them have some crazy and odd names. i grew up with a muslim friend name ila and her siblings were: queen earth godcuda and precious gem. other than that most of the kids i went to school with had pretty common names. not so much with my kid and she talks about it all the time.
ReplyDeletewe came up with the name victoria because i liked it and ran it by mr and he was okay with it. we don't like vickie and no one calls her that. a few call her ashley, her middle name.
people totally judge a person based on their name, especially on job interviews. it can be a hindrance to being considered for a position. a name, i suppose, can reflect one's personality or what one might think that person is like.
I've heard the name 'Precious' but not with the 'Gem' added! That's too much! I've always liked the name Victoria with Tori being the nickname.
DeletePeople totally judge a person by their name before they know them. There is a girl's name I despise because it was the name of a girl who stole a boyfriend from me.....hard for me to warm up to anyone with that name...hahaha
I think the oddest name I ever came across was Jasmine Pong. Of course Pong would mean something different in other languages but to an English speaker it's very strange.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to be called Nick, which has no bad associations at all other than Old Nick (and no one ever refers to that one). It's short and sweet and easy to say. I'd hate to have some long-winded name like Augustine or Jeremiah. Not to mention the embarrassing religious overtones.
A friend of mind has a daughter in law named Jasmine. It always makes me think of Aladdin! Nick is a good strong name.
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