What were your naming rules?

• a 'real' name that everyone would have heard before, but still outside top 50
• one that didn't have different ways of spelling it. I know a girl called Lucie, which is a lovely name but she will have to spell it out every time she gives out her email address when she grows up.
• goes with DH's surname (not something his parents thought of unfortunately - it rhymes!)
• was a bit 'posh' without sounding pretentious
• would suit a baby, a teenager and and adult and would work whether he was a bit burly rugby player or a concert pianist.
• wouldn't cause any reactions ie 'oh my god what an awful name'. I wouldn't want that for my DC however much I loved the name.

The name has to be recognizable (or at least easily pronounceable) in both English and Russian, as we are a bilingual family.

Not too popular, though not too outlandish either. I have a name that is relatively well known now, though it was very uncommon when I was a child. I endured the nightmare of "What? What's your name?" and multiple mispronunciations for years.

Spelled in the traditional way. No kree8ive spelling for us.

No nicknames as full names. No last names as first names.

Short, non-poncey, easy to spell and pronounce and not massively popular.

So did we, HeidiHole!

Nothing Yoonique, no stupid spellings or names

Something that crossed class boundries and could be a lawyer or a bin man

We picked James. We love it.

Partner and I must both like it
The end

No name of any child I had taught.

Turns out DD's name has been in the top 10 for years but somehow none of them had passed through any of my classes

• a positive/strong/good/nice meaning
• no matching initials with either parents or siblings
• outside the top 400 ish
• various nickname options, ideally including one that is unisex, in case they want to be ambiguous on forms or have a sex-change, and one that can start with a different letter to the first letter of the long version (e.g. Elizabeth could be Liz, Anthony could be Tony), and one that is mainstream if they don't want to go by the more unusual full name
• not religious (Greek myth ok though)
• compliment sibling's name
• the above meant no family member would have our chosen names anyway, but definitely no repeats
• Scrabble acceptable. :)

Outside top 50
Something we both agree on
Would suit an accountant or a rock star.

Unfortunately everyone else in our area had the same idea. The town is teeming with toddlers with the same name. I fear it's catapulted its way into the top 10

Outside top 100
Not beginning with the same letter as surname
Doesn't make silly initials
A name we both love

Our rules -

A name that would grow up well, we wanted something that sounds just as nice on an adult as it does on a child.

An easy to spell/pronounce name.

Something 'normal sounding' I was a shy child who would have hated to have had a weird name and my husband isn't particularly outgoing so the chances our that our children would lean more towards fitting in than standing out.

Something that will look good on a CV (so full names not nicknames, again nothing weird or made up).

No dodgy initials.

No shared first name with a family member although they do have a family middle name.

For the baby I am pregnant with now his name had to sound nice with his older brother's, they didn't have to match but just sound fairly complimentary.

We weren't worried about popularity at all, it just doesn't bother me.

Common enough that people would know how to spell it, but not so common that half the class would share the name.

Have more than one shortened version, so that he could effectively choose his own name later.

Sound well with the surname.

Not form unfortunate acronym with the initials, e.g. Bernard Albert Morrison.

Outside the top 100.

No names of kids who bullied me at school.

No footballer names.

Something that could be shortened to a nickname too.

The names couldn't rhyme with our surname. No weird spellings. Nothing wacky. Their names needed beautiful and pertinent meanings :)

SirE

You're a prick.

SirE

You're a prick.

Hazards an illicit

No B names unless there's an R in the month, which makes things different.

No rules whatsoever, which is how we ended up with three totally different names - one top 10 name, one long foreign name, and one nickname as fullname. Perhaps we should have had rules so we sound more like a family....

Exactly the same rules as Loony, except number 1 is that it mustn't be too UNusual - my name is odd, I've only met one of me ever and new stupid people often don't "get" my name.

Nothing already in the family.
No extravagant spellings.
Unusual but not celebrity offspring bonkers.
It's got to make us both go, "Yes!"
Parents and parents in law disapproval is a bonus
That's it really, we still havent found THE name though.

Our only really specific rule was: A full name not a shortened version

The others were less easy to articulate but we both kind of knew where we both stood - not so popular there were likely to be three in every class (ie not Jack or Isabel, lovely names though they are), but top 20 was OK, a bit traditional, a bit Scottish, not too out-there (although we were considering Prentice at one stage which breaks most of those rules).

I really only had 1 rule no naming after immediate family.I just dont believe in calling children after mum or dad or uncle dick,they deserve their own name.

Biblical, but not too unusual & not a name taken by any family/church friends! We were left with a very short shortlist!

1. known, but not commonly used
2. no friends or relatives with the name, or their children with same name
3. only exception to (2) being deceased relatives
4. Of my husband's nationality

1. one we both liked