[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee]
LLess, I love the name Anya, but Anyanka does have potential for some playground teasing. (I love Jeanette too. Brandalynne, though, made me :dubious: a bit.)
If I do have children, I’d insist they be given a Korean middle name. And something sensible but meaningful for their first name. Like Alice, which comes from the Greek and means “truth.” Plus I love Alice in Wonderland.
I also like the name Elaine, but don’t like the connection it has with Elaine of Astolat. Susan is a nice name too, and I do like the allusion to the Narnia character (I love Gaiman’s short story concerning her). Plus my mom’s nickname is Sue.
I’ve never thought about boy names, for some reason.
[/QUOTE]
I like to honor heritage via middle names, too. I was not given a middle name (a hex on my parents!), and I have felt the lack (ok, so I’m not up at night about it, but still). I also like family names as middle names.
I tend to think of boy names more, so go figure. I love the name Dwight, mostly because I knew a Dwight growing up and he was a great guy. I like Nathaniel, Simon, Nigel, Neville, Colin, Robert, John, Douglas, among others. Notice these are mostly Anglo-Saxon. Sorry, can’t help it.
For girls, it’s trickier–the name needs to be adult enough to not cripple her later in life, but also shouldn’t be able to be a stripper’s name. (the male version of stripper’s name, IMO, is anything made up by the parents, as in Jamalyk or Treval or ones that sound like he should have his own fishing show: Bubba, Royal, Duke, Earl, Travis, Cole etc). Names that started out nice, but ended up being white trash names (IMO): Amber, Brittany, Tiffany–ok, that one was never nice, --anyway, see the book Freakonomics for more detail, not that the authors are some kind of final arbiters on names. They claim that “Robert” is a black name, for example–I’ve yet to meet a black man named Robert, but I don’t get out much; I have yet to admit as a pt any black male named Robert, but I probably have and didn’t realize. My point is that it doesn’t seem to me to be a hugely popular black name (whatever a black name may be). So, some of the stripper names may not strike you as being that either.
Anyway, I like traditional female names and I dislike the letter J, a lot. So: Elizabeth, Melanie, Sarah, Jane (my personal fav–it’s about the only J name I like, male or female), Laura (not Lauren or Lorin or whatever), Anne, Mary, Millicent, Miriam, Catherine (or with a K), Eleanor (surprise), Elaine, Ellen, Hope, Faith, Holly, Beverly, Beth, Amelia, Diana, Donna and lots others.
Can you all tell I have nothing to do? Am off to take #2 son for a haircut.