Jilly-bean! hee!
My maiden name ** is** “Case” - got to hear all the good ones 
I respectfully disagree.
Some of us spend hours reading babyname books, checking name popularity sites or researching traditional spellings, but some of us do not. Sometimes, a parent-to-be is all caught up in the squee of it all, and mightn’t realize that the name that brings choirs of heralding angels to their minds brings visions of stripper poles and crack whores to the minds of others. Being a close friend or relative sometimes means offering feedback, in a sensitive and non-critical way of course.
I had a girlfriend who was in love with the name Bailey for her daughter-to-be. I’m not a huge fan of the last name as first name thing myself, but it’s a fine enough name. Until she happened to mention that baby’s middle name would be Bliss, and wouldn’t it be keen if she ever decided to use BB as a nick?
Bliss? Bailey Bliss?
When asked my opinion, I sincerely said that Bailey was a pretty name but that the particular combination sounded like a trendy shot available at happy hour, mebbe with some kahlua involved. And since their last name began with B anyway, the opportunity for that nickname existed anyway.
She wound up rethinking Bliss and years later the now 14 year old proto-goth Bailey thanked me profusely when she heard the story.
A coworker’s expecting his first one and was excited to share that they were thinking of settling on Ava, since they both wanted something classic but uncommon. I replied that it was indeed a beautiful name and fibbed that I didn’t know anyone with that name and then asked if he’d checked for it on Babyname wizard. He’d never heard of the site so off we went, where he was flabbergasted (and I pretended surprise) to see the immense popularity of the name. Since half the reason he chose that was what he mistakenly thought was it’s very uncommonness, I felt obliged to lead him to the realization that it might not be so unusual. They’ve since settled on another name.
Tact is always important, but what I think is a really great idea is for all parents to run the potential name by an obnoxious third-grader. Only when you consider all the ways it will be used to tease a kid can you make an informed decision.
Believe it or not, I am actually named after that very book.
That makes my situation even weirder: When I was 11 years old I saw a character in a movie on tv named Dominic (the character, not the tv) and thought it was the greatest name ever. I decided if I ever had a boy I’d name him Dominic. Fast forward to age 23 when I had a little boy… still hadn’t come up with a name I liked better. In all those intervening years I met one Dominique (exchange student from France) and no Dominics.
So why is it that several times he’s had other kids named Dominic in his class? We’re talking classes of 15-20 kids. It’s spooky. John, Chris, David… I could understand, but…?
Yeah, it’s fate or something. I know a woman who named her son something fairly unusual; no one she knew had heard of it. Naturally, there are lots of boys named that, and she is now dating a man whose son has the same name. (I hope they get married, just so they can have two kids with the same name!)
My son’s name is one that is consistently in the top 20, while my daughter’s name never cracks the top 100…but she did start a small trend with her name when she was born. One of the delivery room nurses when I had my Molly was pregnant. We lived on an Army post, and moved a few months later. Imagine our surprise 4 years later to run across the same nurse, now at our new post, and to discover that she had liked the name Molly so much after helping deliver our daughter that she named her own daughter Molly when she was born a few months later!
My name peaked in popularity in the few years around my birth and has plummeted so low it’s barely in the top 1000 anymore. There were four Debra/Deborahs in my graduating class, and my sister-in-law is a Debra…but when is the last time you heard of anyone naming their child that? I did find out last month that my cousin named her daughter after me, but that was 25 years ago! I think it’s time for a come-back!
Well then again, You had Jennifer in the late 70s right? And dare I open up the can of worms that is Katelyn? ((Which probably has as many spellings as Lindsay does…))
Same here. I just thought is sounded good, and a month later, I hear on the news it’s the most popular name in the frickin country right now.
I would like to point out that when you are one of seven Jennifers in your class (I was one of many Chrises), it seems like you’ll always be surrounded by Jens. Then you get out of college and enter the workforce where your coworkers come in all different age cohorts and the problem sort of goes away. Despite having to be Chris M throughout school (which people who know me now would shudder over - I never use a nickname), I don’t work with any other people named Chris - not Christine, not Kristopher.
(I did work closely with three Dave P’s for a while - we are down to two).
When picking my daughter’s names, I always checked the most popular name list and scratched off any that were in the top 20.
Henceforth, all SDMB children should be named “Cecil.”
My ex-neighbor Jim is an auto racing fan, and named his son Alexander James, but has always called the kid A.J. as a tribute to Mr. Foyt. Since Jim and his family live in Ohio, though, I doubt you’ll ever meet them.
Even with the internet, it’s hard to gage what’s the current trendy names are. When I started a novel for Nanowrimo in November, I named my main characters Jared and Islene. Jared was relatively popular when I (and the character) was born, and Islene is pretty rare. I gave their preschool-age kids normal but not too trendy names: Avery and Owen. Or so I thought. They’re both in the top 60 for boys names as of 2005. Oops. Oh well, they’ll ring true for kids born in the early 2000s now.
You parents don’t have it easy!
Eh, I have an Austin, but not for trendy reasons - my grandfather’s last name is Austin, and my father’s last name is Kelly, as my father was adopted as an older child and kept his name, so my son is Austin Kelly <lastname>. My father, in particular, doesn’t use his first name ever - I thought his first name WAS Kelly until I was about 12 or so, so it just seemed to work out to honor both of them.
Course, there are about a billion Austin’s his age, bah.
Could have been worse, I could have gone with first names and he would have had one of his names be Hughey. That would have just been mean.
Can’t win, don’t try.
I am not named Michelle, because there were 7 other Michelles in the nursery where I was born, and my mom made a last minute switch to a similar sounding name. (My father, in Viet Nam at the time, referred to me as “little Michelle” or “baby Michelle” in several letters until he got my mom’s letter informing him of the switch - apparently he just got a short “You have a healthy baby girl” message a few weeks after I was born, with no other info and assumed that mom went with the agreed name. He was not amused, is my understanding!!)
I am not Melody or Melissa, but I GET THOSE ALL THE TIME. My first name has become ever so popular recently, but fortunately I am ahead of that curve! I’ve only known one or two others in my life.
Cheers,
G
We named our kid Smith. Boy or girl? Call for the interview after you read the resume, and you get to find out.
Depends…
if I’m going to be holding the kid over the baptismal waters, I’d like to be able to pronounce the name.
If I’m going to be calling it, I’d like a name that doesn’t give me the giggles.
And if you tell me “why”, I absolutely feel free to point out if your reason is mistaken (for example, “we’re calling him Jorge because it’s unusual” - “uhm, aren’t you guys about to move to Barcelona? Jorges and Jordis are as common as pebbles, there”)
But how is it relevant what you would like to be the case about their name?
Situations differ, of course, but very often, when someone tells you why they’ve chosen the name they’ve chosen, they are not asking your opinion of their reason.
-FrL-
Depends on what you mean by “opinion”. I would say it can be rude to give your opinion on the validity of the reason in general. However, if brought up in a tactful way, it would not be rude to make them aware of facts they may be unaware of which affect their reason for choosing a name.
If they say, “I’m naming her Ava because it’s so uncommon”, then it might be rude to give your opinion as to whether popularity should be a factor in a choosing a name.
However, it’s not an opinion when you point out that Ava was the 9th most popular name in the US in 2005. That’s a fact, not an opinion. (Of course, this should be mentioned in a tactful way that isn’t rude.)
If a name being uncommon is an important criteria to them, they may consider other name choices. If they decide they really like Ava and will stick with it anyway despite increasing popularity, then at least they made their choice based on the facts.
All good points.
-FrL-