My mother is named after her mother and grandmother, my father is named after his grandfather and uncle, my brother is named after our father, and I… I got two names unique to our family, chosen simply because my parents liked the sound of them. I spent my entire childhood feeling left out by this; why wasn’t I worthy of carrying the name of a beloved relative? My middle name bothers me the most: It’s Leanne. Not only do I not care for the name but it’s their second choice after they realised their first choice (Anne) would have made my initials spell a word. It has no significance, no meaning and to my ears it is dated and bland (sorry to any Leannes!). I think it sucks - to have a name I don’t like, to know it was chosen as little more than filler, and not to even be able to justify it as special because of an association with someone else.
I gave my daughter her own first name, unique to our family (Annabel) so she wouldn’t have to share it with anyone (chosen for the way it sounds, its meaning, its history and its nickname potential), and her middle name (Rose) was my grandmother’s name - hopefully, even if she doesn’t like her middle name for its own merits, she’ll appreciate that I gave her the name of someone I love.
Anyhow, even if I didn’t personally dislike everyone of the girls’ names, there is Flea, Sofa, and Nasty, not to mention myriad unfortunate literary connotations. (And they are not particularly easy to spell.)
Of the boys’ names, all but William have unpleasant nicknames or would cause merciless teasing on the playground.
As for Peregrine? One of my favorite names; I really like the sound, the nickname, and the association - birds of prey know they’re cool - but I would rather be names Beelzebub if I were male.
Sophia is very popular and Sophie is, too. So is William. Evangeline isn’t common but it’s had a little spike in popularity the last few years. There are plenty of great, non-trendy names out there, but not everybody goes for these kinds of 19th-century sounding names.
What happened to “there are thousands of lovely, rarely used names out there?” I kid.
Seriously though, fuck the pencils and license plates. Who cares about them?
We gave our daughters the names Sabina and Claire. Sabina comes from Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Claire somewhat comes from Six Feet Under. Though in both cases we liked the name as well.
We thought Sabina would be a totally unique name that no one else would have, but it turns out that there was another Sabina in her class at day care. Claire on the other hand is the only Claire in the day care center.
My second born is Maxwell, but we call him Max. I got the name from Get Smart, but if you ask my first born, he named his brother after Max of Max and Ruby.
My first born is Lucas, a name my husband got from some one he worked with (just liked the sound). It was the name we agreed on the most. It suits him well.
I’ve sworn off having any more children, but if I do, I reserve the names Oliver and Simon. I also love the name Oscar, but it just does not fit well with my last name. The poor boy would have a theme song.
That’s how I see it. I’m naming my first daughter after a queen in a medieval story. Became quite a popular name for a while, but now isn’t seen too often. Love it.
They’re good names. Noah is fairly popular, but it is a lovely name. Octavian is also cool - for a middle name, at least. I love the name Octavia for a girl, shortened to Tavi, but I’m not sure I’d ever use it.
However, I hope your kid’s surname doesn’t start with B. NO-almost any letter spells out a word of some sort, but NOB would be unfortunate. NOM would just be mildly amusing - and NOT and NOW.
I kid.
