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

[picklemum]

If so what were/are they ?

We had couple, like didn't want to use same intial as me or DH and, second time not same as DD1. Also ruled out 'noun' names eg Ocean even though I liked a lot of these, I thought in long term might not be appealing for the person who has it as a grown-up ( no offence to others who disagree)

Also one rule was nothing very very unusual or really weird that no-one had heard of, so to avoid the poor kid having to spell their name out all the time....

.......BUT in the end me and DH fell in love with one name when DD2 was born and gave her a v unusual name. We simply liked nothing else better.

SO did you have 'rules' ? Did you follow them ?? ?

Yes, don't use anything stupid.
I followed it.

I'm chosing now and a rule for me is...I imagine if it was my name how would I feelintroducing myself at a client meeting, if it sounds lacking in credibility (e.g. to frilly and girly) I'm thinking twice...

No names already in the family.
No names after someone we knew.
No names that spelt anything stupid when initialled.
No names that could be shortened to anything/anything we don't like.

it must not rhyme.

Not to use first names already used by cousins or god children.

Be careful if middle name begins with a vowel in case initials spelt out PIG or FOG etc.

Be careful initials + surname don't 'say 'anything eg. Ian Peter my be fine, but if your surname is green, Poor chap will be forced to sign cheques I P(pee) Green.

No name that can be used for both boys and girls, even if spelt differently. This doesn't worry everyone, but I wouldn't do it.

Don't repeat initial within the family. DH & 17 yr old DS have the same initials and post is now a problem!

Nothing too posh...Mine go to the local comp.
some names would just cause unnecessary problems.

Same here on repeating initials. I had enough of my mum 'innocently' opening my post without inflicting that on my DCs.

No place names, especially if you've never been there. It could be a complete shithole.

no surnames as first names
no creative spelling
traditional British
preferably family name
wouldn't give you a hint of the social class of the child/adult
no repeating initials

yes, we followed them

Just that it had to be something that would look good on a business card when he/she is older.

Our rules were:

1). Name must have multiple nicknames / variations for child to be able to use, should they not like their full name.

2). Nothing too popular. If it was in the top 50, it was a definite no.

3). Nothing too unusual or wacky. It should be a name that people have heard of before.

4). Nothing too common or too posh - something middle of the road, or a name used by different groups in society.

5). For a girl, I definitely wanted a feminine name, but nothing too cutsey girly.

Oh and yes, I followed them

My rules are..

1. It has to mean something to us, i.e next baby will be named after my Mum..

1. No ridiculous made up names

1. Nothing that makes me sound like im naming the child to purpously be 'unique'

Yes we followed them.

Not really.

Nothing made up or a misspelling

Other than that - if we like it, add it to the list; choose favourite and use it

Nothing in the top 100.

Apart from that I wasn't fussed.

Nothing stupid and nothing in the top 75 (my chosen name was 78 I think, hence the random cut off!)

Nothing in the top 500. My DD's name is very approximately 1800th. DS's is now in the top 800, which makes me nervous.

Other than that, the only rule was that DH had to agree with me.

We also avoided top 100 names. In fact ds's names was only used 13 times last year .

-Nothing too common/trendy (not top 100)
-Easily pronouncable in several languages (we are bilingual)
-Length of first name to balance short surname.

• Socially neutral
• No stupid initials
• Nothing that implies a certain characteristic- eg Chastity/ Hercules in case they turn out to be promiscuous/ geeky

The easily pronounced in relevant languages was the main thing for us... had DD been a boy, we'd have had to abandon my favourite boy's name because it kept dislocating my tongue.

And then, nothing that denoted/connoted/translated into something unfortunate. One name I loved came across as entirely lovely in English, but with a very aggressive edge in our other language...

I prefer nothing with the same initial as anyone else in our immediate family and no alliteration of initials of first and surname.

And no daft initials and it shouldn't sound rude if you say it aloud.

And no rhyming.

Think that's it. Stuck to it as far as I'm aware...

we did the same as a lot of people here, no one else wit same first initial and check first/middle/last initial spelling. We have double letter use in our surname (eg. le'tt'er for lack of a better example) so wanted to avoid this with our chosen baby name.

argh - with. Sorry, silly H key keeps sticking. Also am quite new so apologies if bold doesn't work

I don't have a child yet (TTC) but I do already have name rules (oh dear), which are:

• no surnames as first names;
• no wrong unusual spellings;
• watch what the initials spell;
• save the more out there names for the middle name (i have a plain first name and an Irish middle name which i like but i wouldn't have wanted them to be the other way round (or to have been named Jucintha Sinead which was my ddad's preference - a narrow escape me thinks)).

I also have names i hate but DH keeps telling me to keep my mouth shut about them as i'm going to get in trouble!