Your babyname 'rules'

I didnt have any rules. Just picked names we liked.

We have a long difficult to spell last name so I wanted names that were short and easy to spell as they’ll probably have to spell out their surname all the time. Classic or biblical names are my preference but for my kids. I don’t care what other people name their children.

Full name not shortening
Preferably a name with some kind of history
Nice if there was a bit of a Scottish feel

DH had all manner of rules but nobody including him could really work out what they were - some names were too middle class, some apparently didn't go with surname, there was a very narrow window we were looking at!

No names of any relative

I personally don't have a lot of rules aside from i didn't want anything that would date or anything too popular at the time. My husband however had lots:
a) No bible names - i felt this was very restrictive and i like quite a few bible names.
b) No family names - again very restrictive. From a big family his parents didn't want the hassle of 'he's named after so-and-so' and he has now decided its a tradition.
c) No traditional names - these are the names which there are at least two in most classes for example, Matthew, James, Catherine, Sarah, etc.
d) No celebrity names - he did want comments like 'is he/she named after [celeb]'

We don't have any children but this is how during a bit if fantasy baby naming we came up with Fushcia Pearl and Mercury Winston.

I think our rules were just to ditch any name that was connected with anybody we didn't like... including at school. Considering I was 33 and he was 43 we soon got a bit stuck! Maybe we were just miserable unpopular gits 🤣

None...

No rules. Just needed names we liked and that weren't way out/off the wall.

I had a few rules.

Full name not a nickname

Easy to spell

Simple pronunciation

Managed to break all three naming my second.

Not too out there, wanted names that didn't attract comments all the time or cause raised eyebrows. Definitely nothing old fashioned, literary reference etc. Top 100.

No family names.
Different first initials.
Sounded nice with surname
Easy to spell - no obvious alternatives
No rude initial combinations

No beginning sounds the same as our surname which ruled out ‘S’ and ‘F’.

Fewer than 30 born every year and no names which looked like they were on the rise.

Both of us had to at least like the name for it to make the list so we couldn’t add something the other one completely detested.

A recognisable full name which is easy to pronounce and spell.

I wanted names that were ageless and classless, not too popular in my DCs’ era and ended in consonants. I think I managed it, but some would say the names I chose were dull.

Interesting but not made up, easy to spell, no dead relatives

1. Not Peter (while not a generally popular name, we must have lived in a pocket where it thrived, as we are overrun with them in the community and amongst living relatives, plus a few on the family tree).
2. Not John (there's one in every generation, and it's also a wildly popular middle name in the family).
3. Not Margaret (apparently, they all die young in our family. This is very unusual in our family, as most relatives lived well into their nineties, even before the advent of modern medicine).
4. As an ex-teacher, I would choose names that you've heard of, but don't come across very often, and use the standard spellings. Also, I'd check that they worked in Wales, as I know someone who spelt her daughter's name 'Mae' and then moved to Wales... where it's a commonly-used word, pronounced as 'My'.

You'd have to search pretty far to get a class with one Sarah in today, let alone two,

DH initially had a rule that it couldn’t be a name that his friends had, or politicians, or footballers. That narrowed the list of traditional names pretty quickly to nothing. We eventually picked a name that his friend had that we both loved.

1. First names must have history behind them and have been around a long time, ideally be mentioned in the bible.

2. Middle names must be Welsh.

3. No matching initials.

4. No family names.

5. Nothing too popular.

No rules but picked names that we liked and were always going to like, and that were unlikely to be misspelt or mispronounced.

@FireEngine25 , it's "including their father and me"

Known but uncommon. Had to be Scottish.

I didn’t get my first choice for either DS or DD, which were both Gaelic names, but I did get my second choice for both.

Must be a name used by past Scottish royalty. Dont ask.

Before I had my first child: I wanted uncommon names.

After the first two kids (with uncommon names): further children also had to have two syllable names.

My second child was one of 6 given that name in England and Wales that year. We moved to another country and there is another child with that name in his school.

I didn't want any name strongly associated with a particular sector of society, ours had to be able to fit in most scenarios. No matching initials and nothing too bland (we have a very common boring surname!)

I was definite on:

• not a family name (for first or middle name)
• first name sounded good with surname
• initials didn't spell anything silly or inappropriate
• not a diminutive
• we both like it

We succeeded in all of above.

Ideally I also wanted:

• known but not too popular (failed on this - it's around top 40 nationally but seems more popular than that in our area - and another child in class has same name).
• one or two syllables (as surname long - managed this)
• Scottish (failed on this as my partner didn't like any of my suggestions and once baby born I didn't think they suited either)

I had rules but actually broke them in the end.

1. Names had to be pronounced the same in English and Danish (took out a lot of names)
2. No biblical names (dhs rule)
3. No top 100 names (then dd1s name went in at no 53 the year she was born)
4. By the time we had 2 for No 3 and 4 there had to be an o in the name and 6 letters (did it with ds but not dd3 she has 5 letters)
5. I had a preference for more unusual names but it wasn't a rule as such and dd1s name has continued to be in top 50 since her birth.
6. Dh has a preference for known names. So. 5 and 6 together made for rule 7 that I call unusual but not weird names. Dd2 3 and ds have this.