Do you have any 'rules' that you use/used to choose a name ?

I am Catholic so I chose the name of a Saint, which is the traditional thing to do. There are lots of options but you can go for one that is a patron of things that are important to you or whose feast day shares an important date - or is just a name you like! The name I chose for my son ticked all three boxes.

Also had to be careful with initials and I wanted it to sound classy too. Not too common but not too unusual.

Names that I like-so that rules out anything that is popular in 1900s,weird spellings, surnames,made up names.
Names that I can stand being shortened.
Names that sound good with the surname (sadly that rules out a few of my favourites).
A different initial from siblings so that they know who the post is for.
Basically classic neames.

My rules are:

Not top 20
Not in New Testament (DH is Christian but I am not so we want non religious names)
Easy to spell
Different initials to us
Not so unusual no one has heard of it
Not belonging to any living relative

it has to pass the boardroom test- meaning that when they are 30 and in the boardroom the name doesnt sound stupid!

To avoid offending one side of the family, we choose TWO middle names for our three kids, one name from each side of the family (such as a grandparent's name), and then their 'own' first name. This does mean that they have three first names each, but that sounds rather nice.

Oh, and choose the name you want to call them first. It sound obvious, but my husband is called by one of his middle names and it gets really confusing for banks/ passports, new people you meet who want to call him by his first listed name....

• A name which would sound just as good as a lawyer/prime minister as it would to be a rock star or shoe sales assistant.
• Biblical but not too obscure.
• With some modern use, with both DS1 and DS2's name more popular in the USA than here.
• None that had been used by any friends or family.
• No obvious stupid rhymes

We followed these and I love their names more and more now.

We ruled out any name that was already used by a relative, either as first or middle name.

This was before we had spent a year researching the family tree, considering the number of "Williams" we found...

We ruled out any name that either of us just didn't like for whatever reason, maybe associated with an unliked person or negative event.

We ruled out any combination that could be embarissing to the child later.

We tried to rule out any name that the child might later have to repeat again and again when dealing with officials due to alternative spelling/pronounciation (we failed there, because there was an alternative spelling that we hadn't spotted).

For our girl, no names that are made from a male name such as Alexandra, Julia, Carlota (in Spanish/italian is the female version of Charles) and many others

Initials, classic and elegant, no terrible diminutives, family names as middle Christian name(in keeping with the 'tradition' started by me and my two siblings with our nine children between us!). Nothing current in popular culture in case it results in a lot of children in a class having it! Definitely well known so not strange; but not common...

I was pregnant over Christmas so my only rule was that if I heard the name mentioned on the X Factor, it was out

Nothing in the top 100... apart from that we just went with whatever names we both liked
I have an unusual name and loved being the only one in my school with that name, I always felt a bit sorry for all the Sarah's and Tom's who had to be known by their last names

Nothing popular.
Nothing that could be shortened/changed and used to bully or take the piss out of.
Something nice and mainstream without being boring.
Nothing ridiculous with a stupid/alternative spelling.

i'd also worked with animals and young people so if any had caused me a particular issue - that name was discounted.

also some names put me in mind of certain animals so avoided them also!

no names with same initials as someone in the immediate family - too confusing for the post - dh spoke from experience as he and his brother had same initals

no names beginning with b or o as surname begins with j and had horrdi visions of bullying occurring - esp with the o if a boy with ginger hair - as dh is

best advice we had was to imagine going into a supermarket and yelling the full name out at the top of your voice to see if it all goes together as inevitably you will have to - and we have and DD1 is only 4

We have 3 boys we could never agree on a girls name but had loads of possibles for Boys. I was relly keen on Hector ( rejected by hubby due to hector's House) & Magnus (rejected in case he was short)
Our main test was the playground test i.e. what is this name going to sound like shouted in a broad west of Scotland accent across a school playground or other public space. It also had to be Scottish or have links to Scotlandour oldest, now a teenager is Cameron, we thought it was unusal at the time but there were 3 in his year at primary & probably a dozen in the school.

People just are not embarrassed of a name they've grown up with and been called 35 times a day for 20 years

Sometimes stupid hormones take over though. Spent ages planning names for boy twins, and came up with William and Robin. Fine. But then they came out and older one looked more like a Robin, so changed order to Robin and William. People frequently ask me whether I'm a big Robbie Williams fan. Sigh.

Simple test

At some point your DC will be in a pub. Their mate on the other side of the room will shout very loudly:-

"X, what you having?"

Do you want them to be embarrassed?

No names they might not be able to say (no r's or s's) (although my DD2 does have an s in her name so didn't follow that one, I blame the drugs).
No name you couldn't imagine a prime minister/Olympic medallist/newsreader having (I like the Dr test previously mentioned).
No name that would likely be shared by 5 people in their class (although both my DDs names are becoming more common which is a wee bit irritating). But has to have been heard before.
No flowers or colours (surname has both).
No name I'd be embarrassed to call in the park (or that would make people think I was shouting for a dog).
No name they'll have to spend their life either spelling or correcting assumed spelling.
No alliteration with the surname.
Nothing misplacedly ethnic (I can't think of a way to say that without sounding racist but I mean I wouldn't give a child a very Irish name if I weren't Irish, IYSWIM).
Initials must be ok.

What is the top 10 boys name you have given your daughter tabbyh? Am racking brains! Is it Jack?

I have to be able to say it clearly - I have a lisp, and struggle to make a clear "th" sound. So no S's, or th's. Which is a shame becuase my own name has a th!!

We have an unusual surname which we always have to spell, so we had a rule to say no first names the children would have to spell out, because you don't want to land them with spelling out their entire name every time they give it to someone. We also had a rule no names in the top 10 (obviously the first rule had a bearing on how unusual we could go!) so DD1's name was about 43. For DD2, however, it went out of the window and we picked the 2nd most popular name at the time, just because we both liked it, and we realised we didn't know anyone of that name (of course we've met lots since) - but it is easy to spell!

Nothing Welsh, Scottish Irish or anything else we're not.
No surnames
No boys names with a girls ending (Thomasina? sounds like you wanted a boy really)

My Mum's golden rule is to imagine shouting the name in Marks and Spencer!