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Original poster

How did you choose your child's name?

134 replies

Tex111 · 15/04/2004 09:31

Our little boy is named Tobias John and is called Toby. I knew that if we had a boy I would want for his middle name to be John as it's my Dad's name. The first name was more difficult.

We have an unusual surname so we wanted for the baby's first name to be recognisable and easy to spell. Traditional but not very popular. We also wanted to give him a long name and use a shortened version so that he had some flexibility. My name is Katherine but I was called Kathy as a child. I switched to Katherine when I left school and always appreciated that I had that flexibility in my name.

We looked through lots of name books and were trying to decide between Thomas and Tobias when someone gave me the book Miss Garnett's Angel about Tobias and the angel. I then remembered the Verrochio painting at the National Gallery of Tobias and the Angel and the name shot to the top of the list. We still waited to see our baby before we made a definite decision but he was a Toby as soon as we saw him.

OP posts:

marialuisa · 15/04/2004 10:54

DD's name was chosen after prolonged negotiation. The easiest part was the surname as DH made it very clear he didn't want to pass his double-barrelled monstrosity on, and I only use the second part of it anyway. i had a really weird surname growing up and relieved that DD has a completely unremarkable family name!

Unfortunately the surname doesn't go with Angharad the girls' name i really wanted (it would be too long altogether) so we had to negotiate. We eventually ended up with a 3 letter italian name which in combination with our surname has the effect of making DD sound Scandanavian. Her middle name is Elisabeth, chosen by me, the "S" spelling reflects our Welsh/Mediterranean heritage and it was also the name of my father's sister who was born prem and didn't make it. We also wanted her to have an "ordinary", flexible middle name as she may well hate her first name when she grows up!

Boys' names were a nightmare as DH has an unusual first name which comes with plenty of baggage (his name as a whole makes him sound like an entrant in the upper-class twit of the year contest). He was adamant that my choices of Thoe/Felix would scar a child for life. We were getting to a compromise with Ioan (Welsh for John, pronounced Yo-un)when we found out it was a DD.

PopeyesPiece · 15/04/2004 10:57

dd is called Grace and we only picked that in the last few weeks of pregnancy, had boys names coming out of our ears. This time round, I like William but can't have Will & Grace! Like Mary for a girl but not sure if that is considered old fashioned, keep changing my mind. George maybe for a boy.

Grace is never called Grace anyway, gets pumpkin, precious, gorgeous, munchkin etc etc

Hulababy · 15/04/2004 10:59

DD is Mollie Olivia. DH was the first one to come up with Mollie and we both just liked it. Not sure where it came from though. I chose the 'ie' spelling though as I prefer it. And the older people we have known called Mollie have had the ie spelling too so felt more traditional. DD's middle name was to be India which I loved, but got changed at end. Still not sure why!!!

If we had had a boy we had chosen Oliver Joseph Michael. Oliver because I like it (and didn't have any bad connections with any pupils I have taught ) Joesph was my great grandad's name. Michael is Dh's middle name - and his dads, and grandads, etc.

We did tell people of our name choices and would have peeved if a close friend/family member had chosen it after we had told them.

sponge · 15/04/2004 10:59

Had no problems with dd. We decided on Holly really early on, both liked it and it stuck.
With current one (almost certainly a boy) we're having more trouble as dh has gone completely mad! Wants to cal him Steiner (favourite character out of German war movie), Strider (lord of the rings) or Rocket (only makes me think of that annoying frog from the Fimbles). I think we may have settled on Harry.
We have a surname beginning with H to both kids will therefore be HH - we thought about an R middle initial so he could be HRH!

Nutcracker · 15/04/2004 11:12

Did anyone have big arguments over names ??? Me and dp did.
DD1 was supposed to be Nikita Danielle right up until i was in theatre, when i changed my mind and opted for Lauren. Dp picked her middle name, Amy.
Dp then said he should pick Dd2's name, i really wanted Eloise but he didn't like it so he picked Chloe and Eloise is her middle name.
The biggest arguments we had was over boys names. In the end we didn't have much choice as my dad told everyone we were naming him after my dads dad. I'm glad i did now as Harry Thomas really suits him.

I absolutly adore picking names, and used to sit there for ages with name books.
IF i ever have any more I would like Charlie for a boy and Bethan or Ella for a girl.

Original poster

Tex111 · 15/04/2004 11:17

We talk about letting DS choose the middle name for baby no2 but at this point we would have an Elmo or Noddy for a boy and probably a Maisy for a girl. I actually like Maisy though.

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Original poster

Tex111 · 15/04/2004 11:20

Nutcracker, I loooove picking names too and started a list of baby names when I was 16. I found it recently and some of them are pretty unusual like Garnet for a boy (my birthstone) and Tulip for a girl. I guess tastes change after 15 years.

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Nutcracker · 15/04/2004 11:25

I liked Maisy too put dp is a pest controller and said everyone would take the p**s if he called his daughter Maisy because of maisy mouse

lou33 · 15/04/2004 11:28

We wanted names that were not heard of very much, although dd1's and ds1's are now racing up the top 30! DD1 is 12 now and we never heard a Lily about. Hear them everywhere now. Dd2 has a name I have only heard once before, and ds2 has fairly uncommon name, although I have heard one or two since we moved to Surrey. If they had been the opposite sexes, dd1 would have been Leo, dd2 would have been Dylan, ds1 would have been Betsy and ds2 would have been either Tiger or Willow.

Northerner · 15/04/2004 11:37

For most of my pregnancy we decided on Sebastion for a boy. When ds was born we told everyone he was Sebastion. The day after I'd had him dh and I watched as a midwife showed us how to bath him etc, and she was calling him by his name and somehow it just didn't suit him when we heard it spoken out loud so we changed it. His first name is one I always liked, but felt it was a bit popular but we went for it anyway. There are 4 of them in his nursery so it is popular but it just suits him so much. His middle name is Nicolas (the french spelling) after dh's brother. Dh's Father is french and we have a french surname, if I ahve another boy I would live to call him Jacques, and I love Celine for a girl.

Pennypocket · 15/04/2004 11:59

When I got pg we thought we were having a girl and found it really easy to think of names. However the scan showed we were having a boy so the arguments started!

I liked Charlie, Louis and Oliver and DP liked Dylan and Jake. DP hated the name Oliver to begin with but as soon as DS was born DP said he looked like an Oliver so Oliver (or Ollie as he is now) it was!! I love the name because it can't be shortened to anything bad and it suits him! Middle name is David after my dad.

nikcola · 15/04/2004 12:23

i picked one name for a boy (zakkie) and i couldnt think of one for a girl because my dp is muslim it had to be a misilm name so we bought a book of muslim baby names and we still couldnt choose so when she was born she was called baby for a week then i found the name shireen off the film east is east and i fell in love with it

Thomcat · 15/04/2004 12:39

I had a long list of boys names and a few girls names.
When L was born a) I was shocked she was a girl so had to get my head round having to choose a girls name and b) she was born with Down's syndrome and suddenly all the names i had planned didn't suit her, didn't seem right. I wasn't expecting this and the baby I thought I was having had disappeared so all the names i had planned had to disappear too iykwim, so we started all over again.

Original poster

Tex111 · 15/04/2004 12:56

Pennypocket, Oliver is a lovely name. It would be on our list but our nephew already has it.

Thomcat, I can imagine it being difficult when a baby is different from what you had expected. My best friend was pregnant with 'Maggie' during both her pregnancies and it was as if that little girl really existed. She ended up with Jack and Ben!

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Thomcat · 15/04/2004 13:04

Thanks Tex. One of the names I liked was Isabella and I liked Izzy for short, but then i imagained cruel kids in the playgrpund taunting her calling her Dizzy Izzy and picking on her and that was all related to the DS thing and getting my head round the fact that my baby girl had special needs. Also I had made up my mind that she would have my nans name as her middle name - Maisy - but totally and utterfly forgot until Lottie was about 9 months old :!!

fisil · 15/04/2004 13:08

We did what Freckle did - each wrote our own list using the same book. We then compared our lists. There was virtually no overlap. Dp picked out a name on my list that I had put there, but not really noticed, and said how much he liked it. So that's the one we went for. I like the fact that I found the name but dp picked it out - makes it seem like a shared thing. I also like it because it has the same meaning as my name and starts with the same two letters (in fact it is almost an anagram).

We loved the name because it is very unusual, neither of us have ever met or heard of anyone by that name, yet it is a "proper" name - there was a 13th century saint and there was a film with the name in its title in the 60s or 70s. It is Irish and ds is a quarter Irish and bound to have celtic colouring, but unlike a lot of Irish names the traditional spelling is also its phonetic spelling, so no difficulties there (Aoife is my all time favourite name, but was dropped because of potential pronunciation problems!)

Middle name was picked during transition! We had come down to a shortlist of two - which happened to be my dad's middle name or dp's dad's middle name. We plumped for my dad's just because we like it better!

As a nickname we call ds by the first syllables of his first and middle names - never predicted that one!

fairyfly · 15/04/2004 13:11

I looked out of the Hospital window and it was raining, and then i saw two magpies.

Original poster

Tex111 · 15/04/2004 13:19

Fairyfly, as in 'two for joy'?

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Original poster

Tex111 · 15/04/2004 13:20

I had a Spanish teacher whose name was Blanca Aurora which means 'white dawn'. Right after she was born her mother looked out of the window and the sun was just starting to rise.

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popsycal · 15/04/2004 14:33

This is a bit freaky - I was thinking of starting this thread last night.

DS is named after DH's late grandfather and my late grandfather. Both names we really liked anyway and they went together really nicely.

Twinkie · 15/04/2004 15:00

DP just come up with Maxamilion (Duh - just Max me thinks!!) Franco - can you imagine it - he will be growing a tache and beard by the age or 4 (DP is foreign looking!!) and taking over European countries!!!!

I don't think so - he said 'we' liked Frank - er sorry who was the other person inthat we - not me thats for sure - I just think of Frank butcher when I think of the name Frank and I am not having daughter in laws like dwarf Peggy and Fat Pat!!

Twinkie · 15/04/2004 15:01

Chinchilla · 15/04/2004 21:17

Twinkie - It is Max'I'milion. Mine is called that, and he is a 'Max' too. A word of caution though...it is getting more and more popular. We chose it nearly 3 years ago, because we thought that we were being original...pah!

hoxtonchick · 15/04/2004 21:18

Max is a fantastic name! Ours is Maxwell though.

fairyfly · 15/04/2004 21:19

Tex as in two of every animal running out of the rain

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