did you consider meanings when naming DC?

[peanutMD]

Just browsing name threads for inspiration and noticed that many of you consider meanings behind names.

When I named DS this never occurred to me and tbh I just puck a name that I like the sound if.

How important would you rate meanings in your choices?

Also considered the initials to make sure they didn't spell anything bad and tried to choose a name with a sense of rhythm when said with the surname. (as you can probably tell, choosing a name took ages).

yes we did, but they are arabic names and the meaning is more "obvious" than with english names (if u speak arabic) its not like you would have to look in a baby name book to know the meaning, so has to be a good one!

i think it is nicer for the baby to have a positive meaning

our first priority when naming was the meanings, their first names are named after inspirational people, and their second names after qualities, so my dds second names mean hope and sincerity (amal and ikhlas) and my ds's second name means small army/whirlwind/the one with the strength of an army! lol we chose it as the person in his first name he is named after (moses) wasnt a bit like that but more of an orator so we thought it balanced out, for now he shows more of being a whirlwind then an orator (is 2)

Friend thought about Gideon, but then found it means man with stump for hand.

Checked meanings to make sure they weren't awful or contradictory or anything, but the meaning isn't a prime consideration.

Some of the meanings Google gives you are risible bullshit though. Ruby doesn't mean "precious jewel, gift", it means "ruby", and Myra might be derived from myrrh but most people will think "serial killer".

I love the meanings of my dc's names. Dd1's name means 'purpose'. Ds's name means 'strong' & dd2's name means 'beloved'.

Don't understand people who don't look at the meaning. You're choosing a name for your child - it should literally be meaningful and thoughtfully considered. Our future daughter's name has links to the Greek verb 'to flourish'. Agree with Horatia that there's a lot of rubbish on the internet (and in some name books) about meanings, though, which makes it harder. If you're naming a child after someone, it's a different story, but otherwise, I think you should definitely consider the meaning - they'll ask you at some point!!

Am I alone in that I couldn't care less what my own name means, so it didn't even occur to me to approach naming my DCs that way. We simply chose names we liked, that seemed to suit them, that hadn't already been used by family/close friends, and that weren't ridiculously popular

I didn't look for name meanings but all of them have amazing stories.

My first, my angel baby, was given the root meaning of my mum's name and Hope because at that point we didn't know where we would go from that about having more children. It turned out her names together were a promise from God that we would have another baby - my grandad preached on her name at her funeral.

My second was a name that just kept coming up in anything I liked or I'd comment on a character at the time with the same name and a horrible shortening and say mine wouldn't be called that. We gave her a middle name that was chosen during my previous pregnancy, after Mum and after the fact that I have always had a friend with this name (different friends!) Her name means gift of God (which blew us away after the first one) princess and carefree which describes her perfectly.

Second one we decided to give the middle names of his grandfather (or the feminine version for a girl) and his grandfather's mother. Because they are Welsh and both of us have quite strong family links with Wales we decided to look for a Welsh first name. Mum started listing all the Welsh people we knew from my grandparents church and any other names she could think of and our eldest latched onto a particular name, we decided we liked it so it stuck. The name she chose means gift of God! Her middle names are blessing and follower of God. Blessing is perfect for her, she's only 3 so can't comment on the follower of God part.

Third one was unexpected and we'd used up all the family names. Mum joked she wanted us to have another Welsh name but with lots of letters and an easy pronunciation. We chose two names that we really liked but they didn't go together so we decided to use his niece's name as they were really close (not now, we've found out she's done some horrible things to us) to link them. Her name means Love, Listen, Live which as Christians we thought was a nice motto to bring her up by.

No idea what we're going to do this time! We're really out of relatives especially as it's looking like another girl!

Yes. The meaning's not paramount for me but I'd want to know. I've always liked the meaning of my own name. Family connections are also important . XP came round to my favourite name while I was in labour with DD because he managed to make a connection between it and his grandfathers name.