Children's names - special meaning or because they're nice names?

[ComeOnEileen11]

DC2 arrived recently and people have been asking why we chose the name and what the special meaning is.
We chose it because it's a lovely name, but it doesn't have a special meaning to us (apart from the obvious that it's our child's name now!).
It got me thinking about whether I'm unusual in this i.e. just choosing a pretty name.

DC1s middle name did have a special meaning as it was after a dear deceased relative.

Because we liked the names, nothing more.

My children's first names are just nice names we like tbh. The middle names have special meanings.

One DD who's first and middle names have family connections. I did my family tree a few years ago and it really struck me that our names are all we leave behind and I wanted my DDs name to honour family.

We choose both of ours because they had special meanings to us (and are also lovely names), but nothing wrong with just choosing a name because you like it.

Our DS's first name is the only boy name that my DH and I liked immediately. Didn't ever think about choosing anything else. It has no special meaning - just a classic boys' name.
His middle name is after my Dad.

@Cooper88, same thing with 2 of mine.
New one just has 2 lovely names because it took us almost 9 months to agree on any!

ours are just nice names we liked. They're all unusual first names with more normal middle names, in case they didn't fancy the unusual name (not that any of them have swapped, although DC3 did have an attempt for a while, but it didn't stick).

I was very lucky in that my favourite boys name was also my grandfather's name! I'd have named my ds that even if there was no family connection.

My dds name we just loved

Because we liked them but we also wanted something a bit Scottish and I wanted there to be links with history, interesting people in the past with those names. Middle names were names with meaning, linked to family members, rather than names we liked, but we wouldn’t have used names we hated.

DD has 2 middle names (all her names are short so not a mouthful!) One is my grandmothers name and also my mother's middle name, the other is her paternal great grandmother's. Her first name however we chose just because we liked it.

We went for special meaning for DD. Our dads have the same name so we went for the female version of that (think Georgia for George), then middle names are 1. my mum&sister's middle name, which is also the name of my fave auntie and 2. my MIL's name.

It's a beautiful name if I say so myself and I'm very happy with it, but i don't know what we'll do if we have another girl because we've used up all our family names now!

First names because we liked them, middle names because they were special to us (family names).

DS's first name is an unusual Welsh name that I'd liked as a child, and which has links to an area in Wales that I love. It was the only one out of a list of many, many, many names that DH didn't veto. He's a university lecturer teaching hundreds of students a year, and every single name I suggested reminded him of a student who'd been annoying/rude/dim/smelly, until in desperation I mentioned this one name that's very, very unusual even in Wales, and he'd never heard it and immediately liked it. His middle name is my dad's name.

Just because we liked them although after we announced the name of DD2 we found out we had given her the same name as someone my gran was close to as a child, an aunt I think. Same first name and shortened version of the middle name. It’s a total coincidence but I know it makes my gran smile.

Just liked the names for both my boys. Eldest’s middle name is because DH and I both have a brother with the same name so wanted to include it but other than that no special meaning

My husband and I share a grandmother's name in common so a version of that is DD1s name.

DD2 just has a name that we loved the look & sound of until said by non-Welsh speakers but we still love it

DD was given a Greek name because she was conceived on holiday. Retsina Souvlaki really appreciated our choice.

Their middle names have special meaning but first names were just because I liked them.

Special and I like it. My son is adopted but his first name had to be changed, it is a very unusual name and not something you would want to even say out aloud in public.

So his new first name has a particular meaning, he kept one of his middle names, his other middle name he shares with one of my very close friends who he adores.

Just because you like it. Nobody will know what the meaning is behind it and probably wont ask in day to day life, so how it sounds matters more.

DS1's middle name is FIL's name because we found out a few weeks before he was born that FIL had a terminal diagnosis and it just felt right. (John, so very simple and works with most names!)

DD and DS2's first and middle names are just names that we like.

DD’s first name is just because we liked it and didn’t know anyone with the name. We specifically wanted her to have a name that no one in our family or friends had.

I am named after my aunt and DH is named after an uncle. I am known as wee ‘my first name’ and my aunt is big ‘first name’ and it’s annoying. DH has his name shortened to make it different to his uncle but the full name is nicer. We wanted to avoid that for DD.

She has both her grandmothers names as a middle name. They go really well together and actually form a proper name (similar to Ann and Marie make the name Annmarie but it’s not that name). We did consider using it as a first name but choose a name we thought was nicer, not as long so easier to spell and less likely to be shortened.

DDs first name is just as we liked it, middle name after her great grandma who died just before I found I was pg. It's usual in Jewish families to name kids after late relatives - DS's first and middle names are those of two great grandpas. In both cases the name his g grandpas were given at birth but weren't actually known by for the most part

My dd’s name is another version of my middle name (my middle name was also my nans name) and dd’s middle name is after my other nan so family connections but I also love dd’s name as her version is unusual and I don’t know anyone else with her name and it really suits her

My DDs name is from one of my favourite childhood books. It also fit my insanely fussy criteria about names needing to be able to fit them through childhood to work to old age!

Her middle name is one I would have used but combined with our surname would have mortified her in highschool!