Trendy Baby Names

So I just read this article about the tops baby names are from the movie Twilight.

Jacob is number one again and I have a Jacob (and Joshua). When I was pg in 2007 and after we found out their gender, I went to Barnes & Noble, sat down with a few baby name books and made a list of names I liked . I brought it home and showed it to DH and he went through it and crossed off the ones he did not like. We kept going back and forth until we came up with Jacob & Joshua.

I had no idea at the time that Jacob was such a popular name. I liked the name along with Joshua. My DH wanted names that had nicknames (Jake & Josh) and some of the names I liked did not.

I come to find out that in 2008, the year they were born, Jacob & Joshua were the #1 twin boys name.

My DH niece is due any day now and she's having a boy. She won't tell us the name but has said she did not want a "typical top baby name".

So how did you choose your kids names?

 

LOVE the name Jake but we knew too many so we went with Blake instead, it has a similar sound. His middle name is Griffin because we really liked the name. With my oldest I just really liked the idea of the nickname Alex for a girl, funny that most call her Ally. Her middle name is Rea after my MIL's deceased mom and sister it is pronounced REE. With the twins we both loved the name Ashley even though it was really popular and had it picked for a girl before we knew there were 2. We used the middle name Caitlyn for Ashley because I really liked it and DH wouldn't let me use it for the other twin. Alicia one of the names I read from the name book that DH liked and her middle name Nicole is after my first niece.

 

we did not choose names for popularity. I have several rules for what names we would consider
-did not want them to be popular names
-wanted the girls names to be long (8 letters at least)
-boys name had to be cute for a boy but also mature sounding
-all names had to have an "i"
-had to be okay with possible nick names although we do NOT use nick names other than Teeny. Funny that's a nick name we never even considered.
-we could not know anyone with the first names
-middle names had to be family names
-names had to be traditional and/or not unusual

 

I have always loved the name Meghan and wanted it if I ever had a daughter. I didn't care whether it was popular or not.

My husband kept telling me he wanted a junior. I did not want to name my son Douglas. It's just not a name I would ever pick. And nicknames, there really is only one: Doug. So they would both be Doug.

We looked through some lists and had a list going. Nolan was one that we both liked. We named the kids after they were born. I needed to see my children (and know their sexes) before I named them.

With Liam, it's a name I love and I wanted it to honor my maternal grandfather, William.

Nolan's middle name is Rea (Doug's mom's maiden name) and it is pronounced RAY.

 

Ours are family names. I'm not one for going with trendy or popular names. I hated having classmates with my name and having to explain which Stephanie I was talking to or talking about or which Amy was my sister when there were 3 in her 4th grade class. G, N, M, or S. Because they were all close friends. My BFF has a very uncommon name, she's Hawaiian and so is her name, so it definitely is not common in the continental 48. (Kokele)

Alice - my husband's grandmother
Dale - my father's middle name

Royce - my grandfather's name
Alexander - my husband's grandfather

Of course, now that names from the 30's and 40's are getting popular, I expect there to be many Alice's in the future (Oh and *that* is a twilight character too I believe so even more popular AND Alice in Wonderland.)

ETA, I really like Cheryl's children's names, all 5 of them.

 

Sophia was a named I loved since I was a child...my DH had no choice but to accept that would be our daughter's name. Her middle name is Eileen, after DH's mother who passed away in 1991. We had more difficulty selecting a boys name but our final decision was between Luke and Matthew. We had friends and family help us choose between the two, Luke was the winner. His middle name is Robert, after DH's father who passed away in 2006.

 

Ian Matthew - Ian is Gaelic for God is Gracious and Matthew is Hebrew for God's Gift

Abigail Rose - Abigail is Hebrew for God is Joy and Rose is Greek origin

I've always wanted an Abigail if I had a girl...originally it was going to be Abigail Jocelyn - Jocelyn after my late cousin that passed away in 1988 from complications of Down Syndrome, and also so she could be nicknamed AJ...but then I changed my mind and one day I just realized that Abigail Rose just rolled off the tongue nicely

With Ian's name we had boys names narrowed down to Ian, Ethan and Aiden - I let Tony have most of the input on boy names because he readily agreed to Abigail and he was steadfastly against Ian being Anthony Bernard III - Aiden was out because one of my mom's waitresses had a grandson named Kaden and he was just a hellion - got himself thrown out of daycare more than once...so that narrowed it to Ian or Ethan...Ian Matthew rolled better than Ethan Matthew - so Ian Matthew it was...

We also struggled with infertility so the names really show that the kids are a gift...

 

All of our baby names had to have some biblical context so that we could know what the name meant and also so that I could read bible stories to our kids about people who they share a name. So we have

Rachel Elizabeth
Daniel Matthew
Isaiah Joseph
Jeremiah Aaron
Daniel had special meaning as we got pregnant b4 we were married with him and were dealt with rather harshly at our old church. Instead of letting that get to us we named our son Daniel (The Lord is my Judge) Matthew (God's Gift) Take that!!

 

Holly Leigh--My xh came up with her name...he liked the character on WWE of Molly Holly, and since I'm Molly.... Leigh comes from his father Lee. Many assume she is Holly because of the nearness of her birthday to Christmas, but that was never even part of the conversation, I honestly never even realized it until someone asked about it.

Cassandra Leslie--I wanted Cassie, he wanted Sandra, Sandy, I suggested Cassandra as a compromise and it worked, however she is so much a Cassie and no where near a Sandy!!! Leslie is my grandfathers name, and has been passed on to three generations now.

Andrea Denise--I liked the names, plain and simple and it was only up to me. I had one other girls name, Danielle, but when I saw her, I just knew she wasn't a Danielle. For boys names, I wanted Joshua Leonard or Daniel John. My dad is John Leonard and his dad was Leonard John.

 

Peyton is a family name, my DH's middle name, his mother's moms last name was Peyton. I knew that my first born would be Peyton. Her middle name Marie is also the middle name of my mom, mil, sister, niece and best friend. Paige was a name I really liked and it also sounded good with Peyton. Her middle name Diane is also my middle name. Chloe Jane is just a name that I loved. Having been in the classroom for 10 yrs before having kids, there were many names I just couldn't use. Chloe Jane wasn't a name I had yet come across. Now in three short years, there are many young girls named Chloe.
I also had rules about names when naming the twins. No J names, no former students, no friend w/kids having the same name and no family influence on names. With Chloe I gave in on the J name.

 

My little brothers names are Jake and Josh, they are teenagers


I always loved the name Zoe, when I found out I was having 2 girls I was at a loss for a second girl name and just looked in the book of irish baby names and saw Allison.

 

I wanted family names for the boys. I also just picked a little Italian Anthony running around the house-who would resemble DH. However, I knew with genetics and all, that I would name one with the Irish name, one with the Italian-and they would look the opposite. And sure enough! Anthony looks like me, Nicholas like dh.

Nicholas-my grandfather's middle name
Gabriel-fil's name

Anthony-dh's grandfathers names(as well as dh-but he's NOT named after dh-I know-try explaining that...)
William-my dad's name

I wanted Nicholas Thomas-as my grandfather was Thomas Nicholas. And then we had the name Anthony, but couldn't think of a middle name. One day, I thought William, as that is my father, and I really liked the sound of it-so it became Nicholas Gabriel and Anthony William

For Annabella-we had that name for a good ten years! We watched a movie, "The Replacements" and the character was Annabelle I believe. We were just dating at the time, but said that Annabelle or Annabella would be a great name for a girl. When we found out we were pregnant with #3, we decided we were not going to find out the sex. I was wanting a girl because I really wanted to use the name Annabella. So imagine my shock when dh announced it was a girl! And her middle name, Rose, dh said on the way to the mall about a week before she was born. We were trying to think of a middle name-one that had no family link as to not upset anyone(we covered all of our families with the boys names lol)-and dh said Rose. I loved the way it sounded. And so it stuck! Annabella Rose!

If #3 was a boy, we would have used the name Michael Timothy.

 

Lennon Jack:

My DH's dad is Leonard, my grandpa is Leonard, and my uncle is Lenny - we thought Lennon was a great way to incorporate all of the Leonards' names into his name. Jack is my dad's middle name (but he goes by Jack instead of his first name). It certainly didn't hurt that we loved The Beatles and John Lennon, but he ISN'T named after John Lennon. Plus it is an Irish name meaning Dear One. My mom has a strong Irish heritage and it was fun to incorporate Irish and Scottish names into all of our boys' names.

Sullivan Luke:

We just really loved the name Sullivan and it is Irish, meaning Dark Eyed (and he has dark green/brown eyes!) and Luke is for my DH's mom, whose middle name is Louise.

Finley Mark:

Again, we just really loved the name Finley and it is Scottish, meaning Fair Warrior. Mark is for my mom, whose middle name is Marie.

All 3 of our boys have the "K" sound at the end of their middle names, which is kinda cool too.

 

It's funny because we also struggled with infertility for many years so we also had "our" names picked out - one for a boy and one for a girl. Once we found out we were having one of each we just kind of knew the names and didn't have much discussion about it. I always wanted to name a little girl Katie if we had one and dh's mom who passed a few years before she was born was named Mary Kathryn so it was just perfect. Her name is Mary Kathryn, but we often joke that she may never know that is really her name since we even forget sometimes - she is and has always been called just Katie. I wanted a Jr. and my dh didn't. We were going to call him by his middle name since we didn't want two of the same name in the house but shortened the name doesn't go with our last name at all and it would definitely be shortened. Our primary family names for boys are common to both mine and dh's side of the family - which means that there are a ton of people in our families with those names so we didn't want to do that. We ended up just picking a name we both liked for ds - Tyler - and his middle name is my husband's middle name as well and his mom's maiden name. I would have really wanted to use my maiden name if it wasn't a horrible name for a boy or a girl!

 

Yes I realize the way it is spelled it is pronounced RAY, I just meant we pronounce it REE. I wanted to spell it the correct way (Rhea) but my MIL is the one that begged us to give her that name and she wanted us to spell it the way her mom/sister spelled it, I figured since it was only a middle name it wouldn't be a big deal. But yeah people tell me quite a lot it is RAY so I wish we would have just spelled it correctly and let his mom just be happy we were using the name.

 

I would think it could be pronounced either way. (I mean, sea is SEE not SAY). I wouldn't tell someone that they were pronouncing their child's name wrong!! I just meant that is the way that his family pronounces it.

And, I thought it was cool that you have a girl and I have a boy with the same (unusual) middle name.

 

I didn't want popular names (I grew up being one of 4 Rachels in my grade), but didn't want 'weird" names. I printed off the Social Security list of the the 1000 top names for the previous year, and DH and I each went through and made a list of the ones we liked. I flatly refused to use any name in the top 100. We then compared lists.

The funny thing was that I loved the name Clarissa, but didn't even put it on my list since I was sure DH would think it was too girly. But he had it on his list.

Their middle names are family names.

Clarissa Rose
Elliot John

-Rachel

 

Our kids are...

Gabriel Edward: Gabe was my mother's step-father's name (raised her) and my brother's middle name. Edward is my husband's oldest friend's name. At the time (2000) Gabriel was not popular at all, we knew none under the age of 40, but since we've given it to him, it seems there are more and more! Also, neither my husband nor myself had made the connection that Mel Gibson's son in the movie The Patriot was named Gabriel Edward. We actually get asked that quite a bit considering they filmed the movie here in Charleston and I believe is set in SC.

Benjamin Thomas: We could not agree on the twins' names so I finally said that DH could name one and I'd name the other. Ben was my choice. No real good reason aside from I loved it. We're really traditional people, so I liked the fact that the name was traditional, strong and Biblical. Thomas is DH's middle name and my father's first name.

Sarah Jean: I lobbied HARD for her to be named Natalie Jean, but unfortunately the spring/summer I was pregnant Natalie Holloway went missing in Aruba. She was everywhere, her name, her face, so we couldn't do it. Then I lobbied HARD for Catherine Jean (Catherine was my great-grandmother's name) and call her Cate. My DH insisted I wanted to name her because I'm a LOST fanatic. I finally just let him name her. He liked Sarah because he said it's "delicate, traditional and biblical." Jean was always going to be her middle name after DH's mother who passed away 9 years ago.

 

I love talking about how we chose our kid's names

Ally: I really loved the name Elizabeth Anne, but I don't like the way cursive E's or Z's look. A friend of mine had a nice who's name was Alivia, and it gave me the idea of changing Elizabeth to Alyssabeth. Dh didn't like Anne, but liked Anna, so Alyssabeth Anna stuck. Funny thing is, no one EVER calls her Alyssabeth. Until kindergarten, she didn't even know that was her full name. We had to fight the school to call her Ally. They were dead set on calling all the kids by the names on their birth certificates.

Jack: Dh and I could not agree on a boy name, so I sent him links to baby name sites and let him choose some he liked and I chose Jackson off his list. Jack's middle name is Randall after my dad.

 

The names of our girls came from songs. My husband is a HUGE music man and he insisted on every one of their names being in a song so he could play it for them. Allison (although spelled different) from Elvis Costello, Grace from U2, Sarah (again spelled different) from Fleetwood Mac, and Elizabeth from Counting Crows. Grace also happens to be my great-grandmother's name, and Elizabeth was my husband's great-great grandmother's name. I insisted on Sarah being spelled with an "h" and he picked the spelling of Allison.

 

I love it when names have a family basis. Seems like many people here have family based names.
All of our children have my maiden name as their middle name (as do I).

We wanted more traditional names.
We both strongly dislike made up names or names that are bizarre or recognizable or trendy.
We hoped to steer away from popular names.
We couldn't pick a name where we knew someone with that name, that we didn't like or brought up bad feelings.

Abigail:
We picked out 2 years before she was conceived. We were walking through a very old cemetery from the 1700-1800's and saw the name Abigail on a headstone. We both loved it immediately and loved the idea of using older names. Little did we know Abigail was #11 in popularity the year she was born!

We struggled finding boys names that evoked that "I love it" feeling. We picked Ryan out of a very short list of names. We found Kyle in an Irish book of names.

Amelia: I almost didn't name her this as we didn't want 3 A's for the women but a smart person on TS said "so you're not going to name her a name you love because it starts with A?" Ummm good point. :blush: We just think Amelia is beautiful and strong.

Just curious, why do all names have to have an "i" and be at least 6 letters? is that a family tradition?

Neither of you never met a Jennifer, Katherine or Christina before having kids? wow!

Rachel, I love that Elvis Costello song. My first love used to walk by me, singing it while I was practicing soccer. It was so romantic. :give_rose:

 

I can't imagine never meeting anyone named Jennifer either!!

We wanted non popular names (his name is John mine is Jennifer, we grew up with at least 2 others with the same name in each class). We wanted the names to start with J since ours both did. I found Josephine for my oldest and LOVED it, we call her Josie. We wanted to have a nickname and one that would sound grown up later if she wanted. Her middle name is Lynette after my mom. When my son was born there was no question to his name as my husband is a V (fifth) so he had to be a VI, so his name is John but we call him Jack. He has never been called anything else.
With the twins we were first told they were 2 boys so we picked Jacob and Joshua (oddly enough). Then when we found out it was b/g, I REALLY wanted Kameron and Kaleigh.....but dh said no. We had Mitchell and McKenna (totally out of a book...just liked them) on our list. We hadn't totally narrowed it down but they came early so we went with what was the highest on the list at the time.

 

Alexis Elizabeth- I always hated my name because it really only had 2 nicknames and with Jennifer, everyone in my classes had already used them (not to mention my dad would hang up on you if you asked for Jenny claiming no one lived there with that name). I was always jealous of my friend Samantha because her name could be shortened to Sam (which is what she used) and I was such a tomboy. I thought Alexis would be similar and I loved the name Alex. She was either going to be Alexis or Alexander depending on gender. Her name was #5 on the chart the year she was born (I think), but as a Jennifer born in the middle of the Jennifer frenzy, I had little sympathy with the "everyone else would have her name". Besides with Alexis, Allie, Alexi, Lexi, Elizabeth, Beth, Lizzy, Liz, Eliza, as all possible nicknames, she had choices. Of course she goes by Alexis, but as we homeschool there are no other Alexis in her class :laughing: .

William Paul: William is a family name from both sides. Paul is the middle name of the first eldest son for about 4 generations. William Paul is the exact name of DH's grandfather that passed away in the mid 90's. William is my brother's name and I asked permission to use the name in case he ever wanted a Junior. He said they would never use it. Guess who is expecting a boy now and they are looking at the name William Scott. Luckily they live many states away so we shouldn't have too much name confusion.

Nathan Paul: I liked the name Nathan. That simple. I couldn't give William the family middle name without giving to Nathan as well. I mean come on, it was 7 minutes difference. Was it his fault his brother was closer to the exit?

Brandon Wade was named for my mom. She always wanted another boy so she could use her "boy name" as my father got first choice. She always wanted a Brennan Wade (Wade being her maiden name). I pictured a kid named Brennan being shoved in a locker, so I made her choice a little more masculine.

 

that's my Grandmother's name and I LOVE it too! She was the most sweet sincere insightful person I ever met.

 

When we started trying to concieve we knew we liked the names Maxwell & Lily. After our IVF embryo transfer I actually remember holding my stomach & saying out loud "Hang in there and stick Max & Lily". Then we found out we were having twins so we chose names to match because we were sure we were going to have girl/girl or boy/boy twins, so we picked Maxwell & Miles and Lily & Violet. We we found out it was boy/girl twins we stuck with Maxwell (Max) & Lily because it just seemed right.

I saw that article the other day and I have read the books along with seeing all the movies. The funny thing is we liked the name Isabella, Edward, Jake, and Charles (Charlie is the dad in the saga). I guess we when were hashing around alternatives we were thinking with a Twilight mind and didn't even know it, lol.

 

I have no reason for what some of my kids are named, except my girls have all had A names. My youngest 2 have names that reflect their American Indian heritage..

Annemarie (no middle name) was named after my best friend in elementary school and my aunt

Alexandria (no middle name) I was told that her name shouldnt have had the I (most dont, makes her special)

John Richard named after his dad

Patrick Edward (passed away during labor) named after my uncle and brother

April Louise named after month she was due and has my middle name

Eric Matthew his father named him (we each got one twins)

Marcus Allen (passed away) named after hubby

Amelia Rene (passed away) got an A name like the other girls

Anita Gail (passed away) named after my moms best friend and hubbys sister

David Ellis (passed away) named after uncle and Grandfather

Degataga Aiden has a cherokee name that means standing together, and middle name means little firey one

Dekanawida Phoenix has an Iriquois name that means 2 rivers flowing together, and middle name is a mythical bird that rises from its ashes.

After all of the losses I thought that my last set of twins should have names that I had put alot of thought into and names that were uncommon and reflect their dad and my Americian Indian heritage.

 

You know he is singing about killing her, right? Sorry, it's just something that pops in my head every time I see someone singing Alison to an Al(l)ison on TV or movies.

Great taste in music! :good:

 

I also did not want popular names. With DH being one of like 10 Mikes in class, and Kelly being a fairly popular name, we really wanted them to be the only ones with their names. But we also didn't want made-up names or weird spellings (no Lemonjellos on La-a! )

Ainsley Louise - DH loved the name Ainsley, we got it from The West Wing, there was a character with that name. At first, I wasn't sold on it, but he really persisted, and I love it now. It was in the 400's for popularity in 2005. So, not too common but I do see it once in a while. Louise, I loved Louisa, but DH didn't like it, so we compromised on Louise. It's also a family name on his side.

Beatrix Annika - I really wanted a Dutch name, so what's more Dutch than the name of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands? I've always loved Beatrice/Beatrix. Went back and forth as to which way we wanted to go. I'm really happy we went with Beatrix, it's so pretty and unusual. We call her Bea or BB. Annika, we just liked the name, and there's a tradition of using Ann as a middle name in my father's family (my middle name). But I liked making it more interesting with Annika.

Caleb Jackson - Well, we had about a day to name him, and just had no ideas. We didn't know if he was going to be a boy or girl, and had only been matched for two weeks, and were so stumped for boy names. His birth mother chose Kaleb. Thought about it overnight, and decided the name just really suited him. But we liked it spelled with a C better, and it made our kids A, B, and C. Jackson is my grandfather, uncle, and cousin's name, and his birth mother's last name. When we found out what her last name was (we decided if the baby was a boy, to use Jackson. It just seemed very meant to be.) I asked her if it was OK, and she was really touched by that.

 

Oh my word, totally meant to be. That is so awesome and sweet.

 

I love hearing about how ppl named their dc, so this is great!!

Kyra Dawn Bettina - Kyra - my mom and mil BOTH on different occasions said they really liked the name. So since they both agreed and we liked it too we went w it. Dawn (after my mom Donna and also my mn) and Bettina after my mil

Kailyn Yvonne Denice - Kailyn, we wanted another K name and my moms mn is Lynn as well as my cousin (who passed away in 94) heard Kailyn and loved it! Yvonne after my wonderful G'ma and Denice after my aunt (who Kailyn and I both look identical too, she passed away 10yrs ago )


************************************************************************************************** A little story!
My g'pa and my dh's g'pa had the same bday, July 10th. When I found out I was having twins I said "they're going to be boys and born on July 10th" since I was due on the 28th. Well they were 2 boys but they were born on July 9th (thank goodness I don't think I could have waited another day haha) We had decided early on they'd have our g'pas names for mns

Tanner Jeffrey Walter- Tanner, was our boy name for Kyra we always just liked it. Jeffrey, dh's name and Walter after dh's Grandpa

Jace Victor Samuel - Jace, I had found on a baby name site, hadn't told anyone and then Kyra mentioned on the way home from finding out the gender of the boys that she liked the name "Jace" I was shocked and knew it was meant to be! (she thought Chase on Zoey 101 was Jace but still so coincidental!!) Victor, my dads name and I'm also named after him (Vicki) ) Samuel after my G'pa and also a family name on my other side of the family as well!

 

I'm also not a big fan of trendy or unusual names/unusual spellings. We stuck with pretty traditional names. I wanted them all to have a name that was biblical or a saint and a family name. I have absolutely no idea how popular any of them were in a given year!

Andrew Robert - I just liked the name Andrew. Robert is DH's middle name and his father's and grandfather's name.

Catherine Jane - she is named after my maternal grandmother who passed away before we were married.

Elizabeth Ann - Elizabeth is after DH's grandmother and my great-grandmother. Ann is middle name and my MIL's name. My mom is also JoAnn.

Matthew Harrison - I just liked Matthew and Harrison is DH's great-grandfather's name.

 

When we picked the names they weren't popular..lol. We had a huge debate over names and took months to narrow it down to 2 boys names and one girls (we couldn't agree on a 2nd girls name.)

Connor John- Connor was picked from the Highlander movie character..lol. It was the only boys name we agreed on. John is my XH's name and my godfathers name.

Madeline Grace- Madeline is named after one of my godmothers who passed away in 1996. I said from that point I would use the name if I had a daughter. My XH picked Grace because he thought it sounded good with Madeline.


The list of names that were vetoed is kinda funny:
Booth
Patton
Logan
Hank
Benjamin
Peter

Selena
Harley Quinn

 

My first was supposed to be Jacob but we decided it was too popular so we went with Aaron. He was born in December 2004, Lost premiered in 2005 and I think the name rose in popularity. His middle name is John after my father. Henry was my choice. I wanted another traditional name but not popular. Henry, just seemed right. His middle name is James,after my grandfather. Jacob was my husband's choice. It was his great-grandfather's name. Jacob's middle name is Benjamin, another family name. It is odd that Jacob is Aaron's spitting image as a baby.

 

That's actually a misconception. In one interview I read he said it was a song about disappointment. On VH1 storytellers he said it was how he envisioned his life with a woman he saw in a grocery store.

 

We had a really hard time coming up with two girls names that we both liked. I wanted old fashioned type names, I knew that much. All of our family IRL has named their children trendy names, so we wanted something different. I really wanted Sarah and Lily, but DH nixed Sarah. DH really wanted Adelie and Amelia. I thought Adelie and Lily was too many "e" sounds. So, we compromised with Amelia and Lily.

Amelia Margaret - Margaret was DH's grandmother
Lily Marie - Marie is also my middle name.

It never occurred to me that a nickname for Amelia is "Millie" so people like to call the girls Millie and Lily. That really bugs me. I always call her Amelia.