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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

how do you choose a name?

86 replies

amandasegal · 07/04/2013 21:37

where do you start?? i can't think of any name i want.. tell me how you chose your names, maybe i'll get inspired.. thanks

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CuppaSarah · 08/04/2013 13:25

We choose DDs name by first establishing any 'rules' like themes, family traditions, etc. and discovered DP wanted names that can be shortened, I wanted traditional names. From there we just thought about any traiditonal names with shortenings. got a list of 5 then picked what suited her best when she leapt out my fanny.

abbyfromoz · 08/04/2013 13:37

Wanted something different but not 'trying too hard'... A well known name but not one commonly used, but still pretty. i like the sound of 'A' names. Also names that end in 'a'. I saw the names of dutch princesses Alexia, Amalia & Ariane. When i told DH he said he liked them all but Amalia was too similar to Amelie (Dd of close friends) Alexia would be called Lexie which he didn't like and he loved Ariane but would prefer it with an 'a' (Ariana) so that was her name Smile

Whatalotofpiffle · 08/04/2013 13:55

Went with heart... And named dd after a vehicle

Whatalotofpiffle · 08/04/2013 13:55

It is a nice traditional name but the inspiration was a train

aufaniae · 08/04/2013 14:16

Ha ha KittenOfDoom, yes I mean Etta James. Grin

downonthefarm · 08/04/2013 14:36

We had the usual arguments discussions about names for our twins, and a piece of advice I received (after they'd arrived & we'd chosen) was to put "Sir/Lord/Lady" in front of the name.
I'm happy that our children can join the peerage without embarrassment! Grin

Kez100 · 08/04/2013 14:39

I have an unusual name, so particularly wanted to use a long established traditional names which transcend the centuries. Like William, for example. I then dug back the family tree for a few generations and picked from there - noble relatives as opposed to my rather more promiscuous ones!

I am very pleased with our choices and I think my children are too.

fussychica · 08/04/2013 14:42

I would say the following:
Pick a name that sounds fine with your surname;
Pick a name which either can't be shortened or, if it can, that you like the short version;
Pick something that sounds ok at 5mths, 15years or 50 years;

Most importantly, remember your child will have to get through to adulthood with this name - there are enough reasons why children get bullied - you don't want your selfishness in choosing some wacky/awful name to be one of them - I think this is particularly true of boys names.

AwkwardAnnie · 08/04/2013 14:42

-It has to pass the "beach test"....can I shout it across a beach in my accent without feeling like a fool, or without half the children on the beach turning round. (I love the name Genevieve, but it just doesn't work with a broad Yorkshire accent.)
-I wanted there to be a good chance they'd be the only one in the class, preferably school, but not too off the wall.
-It has to be a real name, not made up.
-For me boys have to have good, solid names, but girls can be more unusual.

DD's name came about after I was googling a place we love and I realised it was used as a name in Cornwall, there were 4 girls with her name in the year she was born, so I'm pretty certain there won't be another in her school. Especially as we aren't in Cornwall.
It could be argued that DD's name fails the 2nd and 3rd reasons above, as it's very unusual and not in any baby name books, but we know it's a real name and it means a lot to us.

DS's name is more common and more traditional, a good solid name but still outside the top 100 boys names in the year he was born.

SamraLee · 08/04/2013 14:43

My daughter has a very unusal name and people are always a bit Hmm when they hear she's named after an ancient weapon. My husband loves history and this general in particular which is why we went for her name. We've given her a normal middle name which was named after my husband's... best friend we'll call her. In case she hates her first name and wants something a bit more normal.

rrreow · 08/04/2013 15:42

I just started making a list of stuff I liked. DH made a spreadsheet. Grin We combined & narrowed from there.

A tip: consider what the initials will be. Our surname initials are FC, so we couldn't go for any names starting with K as then the poor child's initials would be KFC.

gerbilsarefun · 08/04/2013 17:02

With dd1 it was easy. OH had a girls name he had always liked and I had a boys name I had always liked. We both liked each others choices and when dd1 was born luckily she suited her name.

With dd2 it was so hard. The only name we kind of liked didn't suit her, so she was nameless for 2 days. Then I found a name in a book, said it and it really suited her. Phew!! I like the classic names, nothing too Hmm.

The only advice I can give is don't panic if the baby arrives and doesn't have a name. Just keep reading name books and there will be one which is just right.

twinklestar2 · 08/04/2013 17:57

aufaniae - i cant believe your daughter is due in 3 days. I remember you getting your BFP. (I was winkle2 on the conception boards).

happyfeet210 · 08/04/2013 18:09

You need a name which goes well with your surname, so have a look at name lists and say them out loud, have a couple to go for and then wait until you see your baby - a name with suit them once you see them! Good luck!

aufaniae · 08/04/2013 18:26

hiya twinklestar :)

You've got a good memory! And yes it's gone amazingly quickly. How's things?

FCEK · 08/04/2013 19:01

there's lots of samuels in my family so if I'd had a boy, I'd be expected to call it Samuel.

There are lots of James and Margarets in my family tree as well.

I quite like 'Fergus' which was my gran-in-law's maiden name apparently, but DH and MIL hate it. Not having another kid anyway, so it doesn't matter

twinklestar2 · 08/04/2013 19:57

Auf - no joy as yet :(

Good luck with the birth, let us know how it goes.

MoelFammau · 08/04/2013 20:37

I wanted a nature name. DH wanted a name he and his family could pronounce (they're German). Which overruled my other wish of wanting a Welsh name!

We then thought a bird would be nice, as it would commemorate the place where we were married and her first home. Wren threw up pronunciation issues so we had Robin and Raven. We picked Robin.

IdaClair · 08/04/2013 21:32

Bugger outside the top 20, I went looking for names outside the top 1500 Grin

I wanted uncommon but not unusual, so I went through the Office of National Statistics lists and only looked at names outside of the top 1,500 that I had already heard of. You'd be surprised what names are outside the top 1000.

Got a list of 5 that I liked and ran them by DH in all combinations till we settled on it.

Fififolle3108 · 08/04/2013 22:13

As someone who was given an Irish name that no one outside of Ireland can pronounce (I get very tired of correcting people, spelling it -which doesn't help as its Gaelic and now I stick to Mrs Surname for ease!!) We went with a classic boys name for our ds. We did find it really hard to agree on more than one boys name but had a few girls names. We loved old names like Thea and Cassie or Anna for a girl. One of my friends sat with her husband and each of them wrote down their top 5 names any that made both lists went on a final short list. It is hard though good luck!! ;-)

CitizenOscar · 08/04/2013 22:44

My DH and I can't even agree how we came up with DS1's name! He says it was his idea but I think my colleague suggested it originally.

But basically we found out the sex, which cut down the arguments a lot! Then we both separately thought about names (looked on threads, name books, Office for National Statistics spreadsheets etc) and threw them at each other until one stuck.

We changed our minds about our original choice at about 6 months, when I found i kept meeting people who'd just called their DS that name, and thought it was becoming too popular for us to use.

We really only had one name (plus one back-up) we could agree on, so that was that. DS2 on his way and so far we're planning on using the "back-up" name we had for DS1 as we've not found any other names we can agree on. No middle names, thankfully, or we'd be spending the entire pregnancy arguing about names!

Both agree it has to be a name that works for an adult man as well as a child, unusual but not too weird, and able to be shouted across a playground without embarrassment.

Good luck Grin

louisianablue2000 · 08/04/2013 23:29

We decided to reflect my ancestory in the DCs names.

On a more general theme I didn't want names people would shorten, and we also googled potential first name last names to check there was no dodgy history and also made sure the initials didn't have any bad meanings. We also rejected names that were currently very popular and that couldn't be said in an English accent (we're Scottish living in England).

As far as middle names go all the DC have two middle names, one from my family and one from DH's.

AmberSocks · 09/04/2013 00:06

People seem very organized about names!making lists and ticking boxes,i just chose mine cus i liked them,didnt matter whether they were popular or not,dh didt get much of a say,wouldnt of chosen one he hated but he wasnt massively keen o any of them but loves them now.

janji · 09/04/2013 00:24

We thought of a few we liked then looked up their meanings. The meanings really helped us to make our final choices.

shellandkai · 09/04/2013 08:58

When we found out we were having a boy we went at 1st with Harvey due to his last name Khetani but we changed our mind and my sister in fact came up with his name my partner said no then but when he went on a baby name search on google came up with his name Kai Nayan Khetani (the same name my sister had said) the middle name is because it is my partners 1st name and his deceased dads too his family actually wanted us to have kumar as all the boys had that as a middle name but imagine having a quarter Indian child with the initials K.K.K not exactly appropriate is it? Hahaha

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