What do you consider when you pick a name?

[VillainV]

H and I have been lightheartedly discussing potential baby names. It's way too early for us to pick anything, but he asked me what kind of names I liked, and the discussion went from there.

It got me thinking -- what does everyone else take into account when picking a baby name, and what "order of priority" does each factor have?

- Family name?
- Sounds good with last name?
- Don't know anyone else with the same name?
- Negative associations?
- National/International popularity of names?
- Meaning/background of name?


For example, H said he likes the name Zoe, but my former SIL's 8-year-old daughter is named Zoe. So even though we both like the name, it's "out" because it's "used" (and to be honest, because it's such a unique name and is "used" by someone I used to be really close with -- a less common name I wouldn't be worried about).

I'd love to just find a name we like and go with it, but it seems like there's so much to consider, toes to avoid stepping on, feelings to spare....and it has me wondering how much we should worry about what everyone else thinks.

[alzi]

is this Zoe still in your life? if not, i'd use it. aside from close family and friends and names of exes, i wouldn't veto names for that.

[emisi]

My first thought is how good is sounds with our last name (which is why we can't use Oliver, sad), then any negative associations, then no one else in our families or close friends with it. After that, basically just how much we like it.

It's also never too early to think of names. That's why we had our girl name all picked out - we had decided it even before I was pregnant. Names are HARD, yo.

[jssymom14]

*Urghh being a teacher is the worse thing in trying to pick out names. I really like Parker for a boy, but have one in my class right now and have 140 other names that are out for the year. I also teach high school students (primarily 9th) in a smaller school, so basically any name I had in the last 4 years is pretty much out as I still see those kids daily.
*I have my girl's name that I absolutely love and really am meh about a boy name. We have 6 nieces and 1 nephew, so for some reason I just feel another girl.

[countthestars]

We are just going with names we like that sound good with our last name. We may try to find a middle name with some meaning or family significance.

[adlove]

We have boy and girl middle names picked out that have family significance. Other than that, something that sounds good with last name, is not super common or trendy, not already used by immediate family or friends.

[HoneySpider]

How it sounds with our last name is definitely a big factor - our name ends in a y so I feel like anything ending in y, ie, etc is too singsongy. So that eliminates some stuff. We prefer classic names over trendy.

I guess in the end it will just be whatever feels right.

[looseseal]

My MIL has a complicated # of syllables approach, but we ignored that. We had a really hard time, so we used this little rating system in the name book we used to narrow down our choices. Names we apparently really weren't sure about had a tendency to get lower ratings, and we had it narrowed down to about three per gender. We decided for sure once he was born. We'll probably do something similar this time.

[ladystardust]

It has to work for all stages of life.
I like names that can be shortened or adjusted based on personality
Has to be recognizable but not trendy because we have a common last name and I don't want another kid in their class with the same first and last name....must be spelled correctly

I'd like to say how it sounds with our last name is a factor, but I keep liking names that end in the same letter that our last name starts with. Sounds a little awkward but I think it would still work.

[jessuhmarie]

I wanted a name that wasn't weird, made up, or had horrendous spelling to make it "different"

I also didn't want one that was mega popular. I hate being a Jessica

I have an easy last name so I didn't really take that into consideration

MH didn't want the name to have some mean nickname potential. I didn't really think of that (or care), but he shot down a lot of names I liked bc he could come up with mean names associated with them

For middle names, I wanted to use family names.

My husband really didn't give me any preferences. He mainly shot down every name I suggested until I said "Jillian" and he said "I like it" and that was that.

Edited to shorten my response

[jessuhmarie]

Oct 29, 2012 10:19:19 GMT -5 Lucy Honeychurch said:

My mother's advice was spot on: Name a child as if you're naming the CEO of a company.

I forgot about this. I hate names that are "cutesy." I want my kid to have a name that she won't be embarrassed of when she's older.

[mrssandro]

Well we are try to include a family name. Like our last has my middle name and my mothers middle name. We are also looking to stay in the S name category. DH, myself and DD names begin with S.

[shellbear09]

We have barely discussed it but I sometimes throw out names I like and we don't usually agree. I mostly think about what sounds good with our last name and all the other stuff you said except I don't care about family names or meanings. I don't want a super popular name but my DH doesn't care as much about that. We are gonna have a hard time!

[joolz]

Definitely the CEO thing (and the reverse, that the name wouldn't sound good as she is called up to the pole...).

Middle names are family names (or names we want to be family names - if we have a girl she will have my middle name, which my parents made up by combining my grandmothers' first names).

I said this in the post about coming up with names, but basically I bring names I like to my husband and we talk about them. We already have a girl name, the only one we could agree on, and I think we actually came up with a boy name over the weekend.

Our last name starts with H so I didn't want any H names, which actually sucks because I like a ton of them, it turns out.