I’m 5 months pregnant with my 4th baby. We just can’t agree on any names. Please help!
A few things to consider:
It’s a boy.
My other children are Alex, Ben and Clara. Notice the A,B,C pattern. I’d love to continue it with a D name, but I so far we can’t agree on any of the obvious choices (I love Daniel but my husband doesn’t, he likes Dominic but I don’t). So we can expand beyond the D names.
My husband is from Switzerland and all his family still lives there. So the name has to work over there too. I mean some names, especially classics like Benjamin work well in other languages, whereas others, like Amy, don’t seem to have much of an international equivalent.
At first, the only one I could think of was Darryl. But then, I started brainstorming and completely spent too much time at babynamer.com, but that was okay with me, 'cuz I love babies and wish that one of my relatives would carry on with the babymaking so I would have one to babysit. Anyway:
Dylan – son of the sea
Dexter – fortunate
Darin (except the Darin I know is big idiot, so hold off on that. Irony: it means “great”(big idiot).)
David – beloved
Donald – world rule
Dana – from Denmark
Dennis – dedicated to Dionysius
Dirk – power of the tribe
Dominic – lord
Damian – tamer (presumably of things)
Darius – “He who holds on well to his possessions”
Dean – valley-dweller
Demetrius – follower of Demeter
Duane – shadowy
Dale – dale
Douglas – dark river
Dweezil – meaning unknown
Okay, so not the last one. As a very last resort, you could call him Richard, and then call him Dick for short, but if you treasure his dignity at all, consider it a VERY bad idea. (Yes, thank you, Captain Sarah Obvious, what will be your next feat of amazingness?) It’s a good thing Dakota is off your list, because ugh, horrible name. Or you could go Kevin Smith: Dante. Of course, there’s another less important Dante in the history of literature, but what fun is that? If you don’t like any that I’ve shoved your way, you can always get a baby naming book. Good luck!
Alex, Ben and Clara are great simple classic names.
David, Dominic, Daniel, Derek, all good. I also know a Donald, but it makes me think of the Duck. Dylan is nice if you’re Welsh. Dougal only if you’re scottish. D’Arcy is pushing it, but I do know one who’s named after an Australian writer (meaningful to the family but the poor kid is going to have to explain the apostrophe every time). Darius is OK if you’re into ancient classics.
Devin, on the other hand, isn’t a name. Devon is a place, or a lunch meat rather like bologna. Devin says “My parents can’t spell”. Rather like the very scary “McKayla”, which says “My parents are illiterate, but they heard the name Michaela on TV sometime”.
If you decide to keep with the pattern, I’ll echo “Dylan.” It’s a beautiful, classic name with a lovely meaning (“born near the sea”). It’s also meaningful if you’re a fan of Dylan Thomas (or Bob Dylan).
I think I finally found me a name to submit to the “Sexiness of Male Names” thread.
I have a Kyle. From the moment I got pregnant almost 9 years ago, I was going to have a Kyle. When I was filling out his birth certificate, I accidently put down Anthony for a middle name instead of Andrew. I love the name Kyle.
Sorry about the hijack.