What were/are your baby name "rules"

[MuddyWellyNelly]

Currently 14+5 so very early days. I know we will struggle to pick, and don't even know where to start. So, curious to know what guidelines anyone worked to. I'm thinking:

No names of ex-es
No direct family names (OH is the 3rd generation with the same name ). Might be ok for middle name though
No matching letter first and surname (not sure about this one, but OHs surname begins with L and I think LL names might sound a bit porn-star like!)
No names close friends have recently used
No names from our offices/bosses
No names we've had pets with rules out Tinkerbell
No name with current celebrity connotations (unusual ones only such as Idris or Rhianna)

That's already ruling out a lot! We also haven't agreed on which surname we will use. Could be a long 6 months.....

Anyone else have a set of guidelines?

Terra I was joking about Tinkerbell. Hope that was obvious

Culture is an interesting one too.

No names from pets - I so regret giving one of my fave names to a pet a while back
No repeated initials
Nothing misspelt (I hate 'creative' spellings of existing names)
Nothing that was likely to be mispronounced
No discarding names we love because they're popular - who cares

Though I was always the only one with my name so admittedly I don't know what it's like to have a popular name.

Nothing ending in 'ay' sound as would be too rhymey with surname
No 'family' names, DH extended this to no names of people we know
Not in the top 50 popular names
No nicknames ie Catherine not Kate
Nothing too cutesy - has to suit a baby, child, teenager, adult and pensioner.
Versatile so can be shortened to suit the person as they grow and develop.

If we have DC2 there will be 2 additional rules:
No matching first initial between siblings
Names that complement but don't match

Hmmm

Nothing too cutesy - acceptable for a kid, daft for a grown up
Nothing a celeb has used
Nothing a royal has used
Nothing made up
Nothing misspelt
Nothing already in the current generation of the family
Nothing of a child I've taught that was "spirited"
Nothing that could be presumed named after a character in a currently popular book, on TV or film.

As for you; I also ruled out names that required mild mouth gymnastics between first and last in order to pronounce them properly.

Such as George Chapman. Or, not taking anything away from her sporting prowess, Lizzy Yarnold. I bet to many people she is Lizzy Arnold.

Biblical names were acceptable
Surnames used as Christian names were absolutely not
Nothing fashionable, no unusual spellings

Traditional names which can be shortened.

Not biblical (we are atheists)
Classically popular OK (eg Elizabeth) but not 'faddy' eg Isla, Oscar
Ideally not top 100
loose nature theme but not too matchy
Nothing starting in M or ending in -an or -na (just dont work with surname)
easy to spell

Most of your rules we also used
We wanted an English name as they would have a non English surname (however I did get tempted by a few - Luca and Louis )
Ends in a vowel sound as it would make it easy to pronounce with the surname
Two syllables or more as surname only has one syllable
We weren't worried by popularity as they are popular for a reason - it's a nice name
We both like it - this was the trickiest point

Nothing either of us hates.

Nothing in the top 100 as we have a really common surname. There are so many wonderful underused forenames.

No creative (mis-)spellings.

Nothing that would sound silly for an adult. They are only cute babies for a short amount of time. E.g. I saw Minnie the other day which also made me think "nickname for vagina"

That was about it really!

Mine was simple. Absolutly nothing begining with the letter C! Mine and dh names both begin with C and I was worried if baby got a C name people would think I was trying to be like the kardashians.

Nothing a popular celebrity has used in the last few years for their offspring in case there is a sudden surge in popularity or people think that we are copying the celeb.

Something suitable for a baby, teenager and adult.

Nothing beginning with a K or hard C because there are already three in our household. Any more and it would be too ridiculous.

Nothing ending in S. DP and DS's names end in S so it would be too matchy and not sound very good when all our names are said out loud.

No unisex names. It must be easily identifiable as either a boys or girls name.

Must be uncommon (outside of top 100) but a name everyone has heard of and knows how to spell. No names with numerous different ways to spell.

Nothing 'of the time' that is going to date badly.

Must sound good with DS's name.

Can't be too long as surname is double-barrelled.

Oh and also needs to work in different cultures/countries as DP's family all live abroad.

Yy to everyone in household with different initials. My parents fell for that one without realising - think one adult and child RJ and other adult and child TJ. Two decades after we left home we're still sorting out the administrative confusions with tax, NI, the AA, the NHS..... Nightmare.

Ours were:

Nothing obviously from a culture to which we have no links, unless also widely used here

Not ridiculously popular

Must flow well as a whole and roll nicely off the tongue (so due to our surname that means no hard k sounds, nothing ending in s)

No alliteration with surname

Must be more than 1 syllable

Full version of a name rather than a shortened/nickname (though I'd like it to have a nice shortening)

Nothing too biblical

Not a name used by family or close friends

Don't discount anything on the basis that family won't like it!

It had to be a proper name - not a nickname. (Nicknames evolve)
It had to be a name that wouldn't embarass a grown up.
Those are my only two rules...

Flow well with surname

No bad initials-I was a stickler for this

Would age well as they grew up

Positive connotation for both of us

Our children's first names

• had to flow well with our surname (short)
• were outside the top 250 so not too trendy (but still classic names)
• had to be easily pronouncable in two languages
• were names we loved!

I had three rules and only managed to keep two of them.

No two members of the family to have the same first initial - succeeded.

Children to have the same number of forenames - succeeded.

Children's names to be roughly equivalent in terms of length and shortenability - not really. Both their full names are 2 syllables but one is nearly always shortened and the other doesn't really have a short form.

Name had to be unusual ( not in top 100 or so) but not weird or chavvy.
Partner had absolute power of veto.
I wanted a flower name (at least as a middle name ) for dd
At least 1 name that was welsh as DH 1/2 welsh ( all DC have 2 middle names so this was easy, 2 have welsh name as 1st name).
Googlability should be dependant on results. Didn't think about this until after googled one DC's name. Turns out there is a memorial hospital in another country so even though only 25 children with the same name in England/wales that year combined with an unusual spelling of a reasonably common surname there are thousands upon thousands of online references!
No close relatives of similar age with same name
Initials couldn't be the same
Had to be a name that they could grow old with.
Meaning of the name couldn't be horrible.
Succeeded with all of them. Dc3 I was convinced was the opposite sex (DH was right.....) so we agreed on my choice for one sex and his choice for the other. Might have been different name if I hadn't been wrong! The name has grown on me and I couldn't imagine anything else now.
And most important of all. We had to love then name

No L or J, baby will get his/her own initial. I've grown up with my dad and a sibling sharing their first initial and me sharing with another brother. It is very confusing with things like the mail, so don't do it!
No name of anyone in our family, including cousins.
No name of people we know, except when they are just a vague acquaintance.
Nothing from the top 20!
Nothing 'made up' or with an unusual spelling.
I like something a bit classic.
Must work both in Dutch and English.

I now have four names, two for girls and two for boys. I think they all go together nicely, so I have the name for at least the next baby as well if we do have more than this one. DH has agreed with two of them, so those two are the ones for this baby. Depending on the sex, the baby will have that name and the other will go back in 'storage'.

A classic name, nothing made up (ahem, Jayden!) or faddy
Must not be overused
Must not be cause bullying at school (my husband has a name like this)
No using surnames or place names as first names
Must not be too sibilant (too many s sounds) or placed with our surname it would be more of a hiss than a name!
Must not be too cutesy, they will be grown up one day and will put that name on their cv.

We went for Theodore. We call him Theo.