How Did You Chose your Child's (Children's) names?
By dorannmwin
@dorannmwin (36392)
United States
November 4, 2009 12:27pm CST
I've always been interested to know what kind of a process that people go through when naming their children. So if you would, could you please share your story.
As for me, I knew long before either of my children were born what their names would be. My first daughter was going to be named Kathryn Teresa after my great-aunt whom I loved dearly and after Mother Theresa who I was very inspired by as a teenager.
My son was going to be named Paul after a dear friend of mine who passed away while we were in college. The middle name came later after I'd met my husband and knew that he should carry a part of his father's name so his name is Paul Thomas.
4 people like this
28 responses
@Slurpiee (97)
• United States
4 Nov 09
The whole time I was pregnant my husband, mother-in-law, and I argued constantly over what to name the upcoming baby. We went though several names not agreeing on anything at all. The only thing we did agree on was her middle name was to be Shae. A month before I was due we kind of agreed on Constance Shae, but little did I know that there was a secret plot. Finally the day came and the baby was coming. After 27 1/2 hours of hard labor I gave birth to a 7lb 14oz girl. There I was exhausted and they brought me the papers to name her. My husband then stated that him and his mother thought Hailey Shae was more appropriate and would suit her more. I was tired and figured I would give in. So that's how she became Hailey.
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@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
9 Nov 09
This is why I believe it should only be up to the mother and father of a baby what to name the baby. Nobody else gets a say, sorry. This is why some people I know won't even discuss it or tell friends ahead of time lol. Even if we had told people ahead of time, I wouldn't have bent on it. I think it is horrific that any in-laws or grandparents even think they have a say at all!
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
5 Nov 09
I can't believe that despite the fact that you'd agreed on a name they changed it on you. I don't think my husband would have it in him to change my child's name at the last moment. He's just too easygoing to do something like that.
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@Seppy1984 (2145)
• United States
4 Nov 09
Hello, well for my children their names are uniquely put together. Well for my daughter her name is Breanna Nicole. Hers came about when I was with her father, I have always liked the name Nicole and I could not get him to agree with the name of Jasmin Nicole, So he decided on the name of Breanna and I grew to love that name through out the pregnancy. Now for Breanna's brothers name well that was picked from their father and not me. But his name is David Anthony JR. I did not want a JR or at least not after him but I being young at the age and he being abusive I did not want to piss him off. I really wanted Davids name to be Jonathan Steven. Now that I am in a better relationship with a man that is my husband and who respects me, things was easier to name my future children. We have 2 wonderful boys together. Their names are very special and dearly close to us. Our son Kenneth got his name from his grandfathers. My dad's middle name is Kenneth so that is how he got his first name and he got his middle name from my husbands dad's first name which is William. So there for his name is Kenneth William. At least this way he will be having history in his name. Our youngest boy well his name was a debate name since the minute we knew what we were having. My husband wanted him to be named after him and I said I did not want another JR because I already had one and plus the name Aaron is getting popular and I liked the name Jacob Aaron but my hubby did not like it. So we decided that we would keep Jacob as the first name and so we tried everything we could for a middle name and then my hubby said why don't we give him my middle name as his middle so that he will be having history in his name too. So his name is Jacob Ernest. Ernest is after his daddy's middle name and his great grandfather's first name. But that is the story to how we came up with the names of our boys and how I and my ex came up with my first 2 children's names. I hope that you enjoyed this response.
Happy Mylotting
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@Seppy1984 (2145)
• United States
4 Nov 09
Oh my goodness I love the names that they picked for the girls names. They are so cute and very well put together. I will agree with you on with the fathers being active in the children's names being picked. I think it is nice when some fathers do want to help with the children's names because I know that there are some father's that can give a less crap about what the name will be. I am glad that you came up with this discussion because I really enjoyed telling my story.
Happy Mylotting
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
5 Nov 09
I was so interested to hear about other people's stories mainly because I know that I wouldn't bend on the names I'd chosen for my children and wondered if there were other people like I was.
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@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
4 Nov 09
Great story about how you named your children. I was lucky with my husband in that he didn't care that I'd chosen my future children's names before I'd even met him. I know that there are a lot of men out there that do want to have a very active part in naming their children, like my brother for example. If my oldest niece hadn't been a girl, he wasn't going to let that baby be a junior because at the time he was having a lot of problems with his girlfriend, now my sister-in-law, but he did want to give a name with history so that baby's name would have been Noah Issac (middle name would have been our great-grandfather's middle name). As it stands now, they have two little girls and both of their names were chosen out of baby name books, Lilliana Grace and Kaylen Abigail.
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@shell2784 (752)
• United States
12 Nov 09
My pregnancy was a complete surprise. I had no help from her father what so ever in the whole pregnancy/child birth/parenting thing - if you catch my drift. So it was kind of nice having no outside influence! I had NO ONE that had to agree with me! haha
I always thought about what I was going to name my kids - you know how girls play with that. My boy's name was Jonathan Michael, and my girls name was Aubrey Rachelle. Well, the day I found out I was pregnant, my roommate asked me "what are you going to name it" - and I found i didn't care for those names anymore.
Work was slow so I was a bad employee and sat there looking at baby name suggestions - I got stuck on Rozalyn, but it didn't quite do it for me. Now my daughter isn't exactly named after this person... but during internet searches while I was being a good employee, I came across an AMAIZING vocalist name who I instantly idolized and ever since then have been trying to match her singing abilities... just can't do it... but anyway, I'm talking about Joss Stone. And it hi me! Joslynn! So I looked up the meaning of the name, and although I had to use the more common spelling of "jocelyn" I learned that it means "strength". And dorannmwin... if you'd have stood by my side for the previous, oh, 3 years... got scammed online, got sued by a psycotic neighbor man who was 25+ years old than me (the reasoning of his horrible reign over my life with law suits and losing my job over him and every other thing... was because I, at 18 years old, wouldn't up and leave my boyfriend for him....) But anyway again - if you'd have been there thru all that crazy mess, you'd have known the first thing I needed bringing into this world was a little strength... and I got it in my Joslynn :)
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@shell2784 (752)
• United States
12 Nov 09
I couldn't have asked for a more lovable, demonic, sweet little girl! lol
Strength I needed and indeed received. I was not at the best place in my life when I became pregnant and she really gave me the strength to change a lot of bad things I was doing, and start doing a lot more good things then I had been. If it wasn't for her, who knows where I'd be or what I'd be doing!
Three cheers for Joslynn!
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
12 Nov 09
I love your daughter's name and I also really like that having your daughter gave you strength in your life. Having a child is the one single thing in your life that changes it the most. Thank you so much for sharing your story.
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@froggieslover (3069)
• United States
4 Nov 09
I think it is really cool how families will name their children with the same letter..like David, Diana and Daria. I wish I would of thought about that when naming my kids but I am still very happy with my childrens names. I have two children, a boy and a girl.
I picked my sons just because I really liked the name and then his middle names(yes plural) were chosen after my grandfather and my uncle. My daughter is named after her father(my husband) it is just his name with an A at the beginning and at the end and her middle name is my grandmothers middle name.
The only thing I hate about picking names is people that name their children seconds and thirds, it is one thing to be a senior and junior but after that I feel it starts to just get annoying...can you not come up with something a bit more original for this child?
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@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
4 Nov 09
My family has a long history of the 3rd's 4th's, etc. My uncle is a third and his son is the fourth. My brother is a junior and hopes to eventually have a son and him be the third. For me personally, I'm not even fond of juniors, that is why my son carries his father's first name as his middle name. If we were to ever have another son, that son would carry his father's middle name as his first name.
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@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
9 Nov 09
I think that is a very respectful idea to use a father's first name for a son's middle name - and it is also very confusing to be a junior or a II or a III. If such a thing were to happen to me (it doesn't apparently happen much with girls, just boys), I would likely change my name entirely lol.
@KompitaPita (2051)
• Bulgaria
4 Nov 09
Hello, dorannmwin.
I named my child Dimitar. This is my second-father's name.
My wish was to name him Alexander - I love this name I don't now why, just love it and my wish was my first son name be Alexander, but I though that my father deserves it. And I named him Dimitar.
But I promisse to myself that if and when I have another child/son/ I will name him Alexander.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
4 Nov 09
That was very kind of you to name your son after your father. I would have named my son after my father as well, but my brother is a junior and if I would have named my son the same name it would have stepped on a lot of toes because he wishes to name his son after himself and after our father.
However, if I was to ever have another son his name would be Patrick (husband's middle name) Michael (father's first name).
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@evalotta (10)
• United States
4 Nov 09
I am born and raised in another country and for me it was important to pick names that originated there. I also wanted to use family names. So all my girls have 2 middle names that came from someone in our family. Either a grandmothers, sisters or mothers.
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@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
5 Nov 09
I really like the fact that you kept your heritage in mind when you named your children. Thank you for sharing.
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@SViswan (12051)
• India
25 Jan 10
Though we had gone through many Indian names before our kids were born, we couldn't zero in one that both of us liked. The first was born on the day of a famous indian festival celebrating the birthday of a Hindu God (Ganesha). So, we decided to give him the God's name...though we didn't want anything that was common. So, we chose an uncommon name that was used for that particular God...which also had another philosophical meaning. When we had our second son, our older one chose a name for him which meant the same as his name (the philosophical version though it turned out that this particular God was also known by the same name).So, I have Pranavswaroop and Omkar:)
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
25 Jan 10
How neat that your older son chose a name for his little brother that had the same meaning as his own name.
@bellis716 (4799)
• United States
7 Nov 09
I found our son's name in the newspaper. It was the name of an Irish musician, and to our knowledge, no one in either of our families bore that name. Our daughter's name is the feminine version of my husband's middle name. That worked out fine, as he only uses a middle initial.
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@bellis716 (4799)
• United States
8 Nov 09
Our son's name wasn't as unique as we thought, even though my mother had no idea how to pronounce it. His name is Kevin, and he was born in 1960. I think that was the most common name of the decade.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
7 Nov 09
That is really cool that you chose your son's name from a name that you saw in the newspaper. I used to work at a yearbook company and I always saw very unique names that I liked so I actually kept a list of those to use if I was to ever have more than the one boy and one girl that I counted on.
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@harmonee (1228)
• United States
6 Nov 09
It was really important for my husband to pick out our first son's name. I'm not really sure why. He chose the first name Isaiah because he liked it and the middle name Dash after my father. I'm not sure how we will choose in the future, but we'll deal with that when the time comes.
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@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
7 Nov 09
I have a friend that has an agreement with her husband that she gets to name the girls and he gets to name the boys. Their two children are Max and Esme.
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@bhargavoza (656)
• India
5 Nov 09
We generally keep names on rashi of child . Once rashi is decided we know the starting letter for the name. Then we search some very good meaningful names starting from these letters. This is how names are selected but in some cases we decide in advance as we like that name very much. In my son,s case my husband wanted him to be called Sahaj so we didn,t go for rashi and just kept his name Sahaj.
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@bhargavoza (656)
• India
6 Nov 09
Dear Friend, Indian people believe in Rashi i.e zodiac signs. Every sign has some letters fixed for them so if u are born at that specific time u get that zodiac sign so if u want to go according to zodiac sign u name accordingly on these letters. did u get now?
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
5 Nov 09
Can you explain this further, I'm not exactly sure that I know what you mean. Is it like some familes do where every child has the same first initial?
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@indybaty (368)
• Panama
6 Nov 09
I was killing myself trying to look for a nice name online. My husband said not to worry about it. Since we didnt know if it was a boy or a girl at the time, my husband told me just to keep it low.
What I didnt know at the time was that he was searching on his own. Since I wanted a biblical name, he chose one that was a new testament book and my son´s name is Alán.
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@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
6 Nov 09
It was very nice of your husband to chose a name that fit your criteria for you. My husband, I don't think would have been able to do that for me if I'd asked him to, especially with our youngest. Between our two children I had a devastating miscarriage and that made him really keep his distance with Paul when I was pregnant with him.
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@msfrancisco9369 (10002)
• Boston, Massachusetts
5 Nov 09
HI Doran,
Finding the right and precious name of our kids is really a challenge for us couples. Since our our last name is francisco -- a spanish word, we tried to look for a name that will in a way matched the surname. For our eldest son we named him giancarlo an italian word and nice to pair with francisco...for our youngest son we named him angelo miguel from me and my husbands first names initials.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
5 Nov 09
Both of your son's names are beautiful. You are right too, their first and middle names really do need to flow well with their surnames. My birth name was Dorann Marie Lynch and after I married it became Dorann Marie Winburn. My married name does not flow nearly as well as my given name at birth.
@msfrancisco9369 (10002)
• Boston, Massachusetts
6 Nov 09
your kid's name is good too... you know what if we will be blessed with a baby girl- i will name her Allana Marie (from my husband's name allan and Mari- from me marilaine), does it sound nice? i find this quite exciting!
thanks for appreciating my kids names.
@zacharyzeng (22)
• China
12 Nov 09
Good topic!
thank you for your thread
huh,i am interested in naming the children,i once experienced this issue and never forgot..
on Christmas day of past year my friend's baby was born,my friend offered 500RMB as bonus and a rich meal for his friends who can give the best name for his son.
my friend's demand is that the name must include the meaning of good luck,happiness,health in the future and sound good while reading.
Finally i won the tender,the name i chose is ???(chinese name,some myloters may not understand it)
?is family name,up to my friend
?means spirit and universe
?means propitiousness and luckiness,,
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
13 Nov 09
Wow, I would never even think about paying someone to come up with my child's name. What an amazing experience it is for you to know that you named the baby and what a great story they have to tell their son about how he got his name.
@nicole8556 (6)
• United States
4 Nov 09
I don't have any neat stories. I am one of the few who does not like using family members names. Our last name is short (4 letters) so I like longer first names, if possible.
I ended up with:
Nicholas Joseph
Brian Andrew
Matthew Cameron
Taylor Samantha
Connor Riley
Brady Aidan
Caden Liam
Noah Ryan (yes I broke the rules with this one)
Madison Alyssa
I was running out of boy names I *loved* when I had Noah..I wasnt even sure of the name but I decided during labor..and he's definitely a "Noah" :)
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@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
5 Nov 09
I've heard of people that didn't even think about baby names until the baby is born. I couldn't even begin to imagine. All of your children have very strong names though.
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@trixyteddy (1070)
• India
7 Nov 09
Simple, I just liked the names Nolan and Falon. So decided, if its a boy, its going to be Nolan and if its a girl, Falon. It was a boy. And again another boy. So it was Dylon.
@visaseetharaman (232)
•
12 Nov 09
I wanted my son's as well as my daughter's name to begin with the letter A.I wanted the name to be a short one as my name is a long one .SO I selected the names of Anush for my son and Aarthi for my daughter.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
12 Nov 09
I've seen that there are a lot of families that chose the same first initial for their children and I think that is very neat. Thank you for sharing.
@jerzgirl (9273)
• United States
5 Nov 09
My son was named Russell Paul after my father. I knew that from the moment I knew I was having a boy (which was not through ultrasound, but just something within). My daughter was supposed to be Rachel, but when I saw her, it just didn't fit. I had imagined a dark haired, olive toned beauty, but she came out with a fair complexion and blonde hair and a strawberry birthmark on her forehead. She was GORGEOUS!! But, I just couldn't think of a name. Every name I bounced of my now ex he rejected. Finally, my parents told him "PICK A NAME!!!" He called and suggested Debra. It fit! I then went about picking just the right middle name, which is Nicole. I can't imagine either of them being named anything else!!
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
5 Nov 09
When my son was born I thought at first that I'd chosen the wrong name for him because when I told my friend's family that I would name my first born son after their son, I imagined a blue-eyed, red headed little boy. When my son was born he was almost the opposite of that. He was black headed but did have the blue eyes. Now that he is three years old, his hair is strawberry blond and he has maintained those blue eyes. He really has become his name in a sense.
@mommyboo (13174)
• United States
9 Nov 09
I have only named one of my children because she is the only one I gave birth to. My husband and I talked about this and my take is that a child deserves a unique and individual name that is all their own. This can be in part by giving them one name 'for' somebody else but I would never want to give them exactly the SAME name (purposely) as somebody else. My son has the same exact name as his dad and that wasn't because HE wanted it that way. My older daughter has TWO middle names and we really like neither of them.
Our youngest is Allison Lauren - we both liked Allison but my husband liked it better than some of the others on our list which were all A names - Alexandra, Ariana, Alexis, etc. I've always liked Lauren, didn't care whether it was a first or middle. I am probably one of the only parents I know who does NOT call my kids by their first and middle names OR first, middle, and last names when they are in trouble. I want them to like their names and not only hear them when they are in trouble.
We didn't pick the names early because I thought she was a boy for half my pregnancy. We had a small list going but since she decided to be born right at 39 weeks, I had neither a name picked out or a bag packed, so we were literally down to the wire, discussing names while I was in labor lol. I am pleased to say she DID have a name chosen before she was born, but it was only solid within the last 2 hours before she was born. She is not named for anybody, just herself. I am glad that she looks exactly like her name, although we didn't think she really looked like either of us right after she was born lol.
There are some names I just plain like that I really would be torn about using - only because people would ASSUME I had used the name in reference to another person. I prefer to stay away from that - people making assumptions about a child's name which isn't true.
If we were to choose more names (if I had more kids for instance) I would stick to my idea that my child deserves a name all of their own. I was actually named for a great grandma - my first name anyway, and my name happened to be the most popular girls name the year I was born and for several years afterwards. I'm not sure if my husband was named after anybody, I don't think he was but it was a somewhat popular name at the time he was born. I'm not necessarily 'trendy' in choosing and I also want to make sure that the name always sounds good - from before birth thru toddler age on to adulthood and beyond. Sometimes you give someone a name and during one stage of their life it just sounds goofy. I would try to avoid that... and also not make it so long or confusing that your child is the last preschooler to learn how to write their name in a class of 35.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
9 Nov 09
That is funny about how her name was only solid for a little bit before Allison was born. Both of my children very much fit their names even though they were named after people. However, I have to admit that if my son was to have been a little girl, his name would have been after no one, just simply a name that I thought of one day. My daughter hates that name and she was so very happy when she found out that Paul was indeed a boy.
@Ritchelle (3790)
• Philippines
6 Nov 09
it crossed my mind to use one of my husband's names to name our little one but he doesn't like the idea. had he agreed my son's other name would be one of his grandfather's names. so, since he doesn't like me to give either one of his first names to our child then i erased the idea of using any name in the family. however, i like the saying that the owner's name is reflected on the child being given that name so catholics that we are, a saint's name is far from my mind. during the time that i found out that i was pregnant pope john paul II was ill so i vowed that our child would be a john paul. but since we have a spanish sounding surname i tailored it to suit that surname thus our child became john paulo ona
.
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@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
6 Nov 09
I remember all too well when Pope John Paul II was so very ill, I even remember when I heard that he passed away and I remember where I was. He was a very inspiring man and your son is very lucky to be named after him. I had the opportunity when I was a teenager to attend world youth day and to see him in person and it really made my faith stronger.
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@sandy3726 (29)
•
6 Nov 09
I have three sons. The oldest is 24 and I remember at that time I was an avid fan of The Young and The Restless. There was a guy on there and his name was Shawn. He wasn't the nicest character of the bunch, but he was cute. His middle name Allen is the same as his dad's middle name.
My middle son is 18. His father picked out the name Kyle. I wanted to have a say in it too so his middle name is Richard, after my Dad who we lost last Christmas Day.
My youngest is 16 and I named him Dillon. I had heard it a few times while I was out eating or shopping, whatever, and I really liked it. I wanted to spell it Dylan after the singer, but his dad refused...no big deal...same name. His middle name, Anthony comes from his dad's middle name.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
6 Nov 09
You'll never believe it, but all three of your son's names are names that I am fond of. When I was younger I actually dreamed of having a little boy named Dylan, but after I made the promise to name my first son after my friend, that dream went by the wayside.
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