What Are Your Favorite Baby Names?

I’m a bit late to the party on this one, but my daughter will be 6 months in 2 more weeks and we are still hemming and hawing over a name change. We took a month to name her as we couldn’t agree and then immediately when we settled on a name, we felt it was just that- settling- we didn’t love it for her. Now we just feel silly that we can’t agree. How ridiculous is that.

@health.and.home

As my partner is Norwegian and I being American naming our daughter was a huge deal. I was surprised how he hated every American name I could come up with. Even the ones he liked he had to pronounce them in a Norwegian way or they were not accepted. Which is unfair because then I wouldnt even be able to pronounce my daughters name. I gave up on my daughter being named something American. I decided on naming her something more original. Easy short and filled with love. I came up with Luna, which can not be pronounced in a Norwegian way. I call her Lulu as her nickname. Also, the only reason my partner agreed to this was because I agreed not to give her a middle name. In Norway they don’t have middle names. If I did it would have been Isabelle.

My daughter’s name is Uli, and we absolutely love it. We do get many reactions, from delight to confusion, but when her classmates scream her name across the playground, everyone knows who is coming!

My five kids have relatively unpopular names, except for our youngest; Niccolò (Nico), Romeo (Rome), Emilio (Milo), Evangeline (Evie) and Charles (Charlie).

When we were naming Romeo, we got some flack from friends and family considered over what he would deal with on the playground but his eight now and hasn’t had to deal with anything (except maybe living up to the name, he’s already so smooth talking for his age, goodness.)

I have two boys – Samuel (Sam) Charles and Robert (Robbie) George – we’re due again with our next child (in May) – am sure it’s a boy – so thinking Jack for now. It’s funny – I feel the names need to match each other so we go for simple, classic, no-nonsense names and have been happy with our choices. But bummed that I picked names I love for their middle names as would love a child called Charlie or George!! As we are Australian, it’s imperative to think of what the shortened version of the names are – but now we live in Denmark you have to think how it’s pronounced. Danes get a list of names they can choose from so most Danish kids have the same names. But I worry – that our Danish friends would say ‘Yack’ instead of ‘Jack’…. so much to think about. What a great conversation topic!!!

Thankfully my son’s name, Kai, is not on the list. Ha ha. I was hesitant about naming him something a little different but my husband loved it. Well, my son OWNS that name. He is Kai. Most definitely, and I like that it is unusual but not too unusual.

I’ve loved reading baby name books since I was a kid! Now that I’m getting married my fiance and I talk about it in more real terms. We love Conrad for a boy (a family name, but it seems to be growing in popularity these days) and Lennon for a girl. But every time we go to karaoke, a new name pops up… :) “Levon! We have to name our son Levon.” “Jolene! Our daughter must be Jolene.”

I’m currently 30 weeks pregnant (eek!) and my husband and I have not officially settled on a name for our baby boy yet. We’re between Tucker, Beckett and Reid. He loves Tucker (I’m worried about the teasing implications of his name rhyming with a swear word…) and I love Beckett, but my husband feels that it’s too stiff. Reid is a wonderful name, but it doesn’t sound as great with our one syllable last name. I’m hoping that it will hit us and we’ll just “know” once we meet him, but we are having a hard time finding a name that feels right.

My parents – who like to sail – named me Janique, after a yacht they saw once (rumoured to be named after an island). My dad’s name is also Jan (pronounced ‘yahn’), which makes mine sort of the diminutive of his. I didn’t always like growing up with such a unique name, but maybe the way it made me stand out has made me into a better person. I was surprised to see (yay for the internet!) that there are other Janiques in the world :) I now mostly go by Jan (pronounced ‘djan’), as decided by my friends, but my mom hates this, since the woman my dad dated for years (before my mom) was named Jan. Previously, my nickname (given by the nurse that delivered me) was Nikki, and there was a brief time when a friend (Monique, nn Nicki) and I were both dating Nicks. I’ve always loved both Julia and Juliet/Juliette as names for girls, but since one of my good friends named her daughter Julia, I’ll have to go with Juliet :)

I always wanted to name my children Amélie for a girl and Lou for a boy. I don`t have children yet and I`m not pregnant, so everything is still a surprise!

http://www.carolinespassion.wordpress.com

We named our daughter Harriet Frances, and so far at 16 months it suits her perfectly. Frances is my mother’s name, but Harriet was just a name my husband and I settled on almost immediately. We liked the old-fashioned yet spunky sound of it — and it’s still uncommon in the US, but not unfamiliar, which is nice.

We have a Victor Karl Giovanni (13 1/2) and a Zélie Jeanne Adèle (10 1/2).. both old-fashioned names although Zélie is becoming trendier by the minute for some reason. My daughter has been the only one at school with that name, but my son has had lots of other Victors around. We call him Vic, Viko, Vitto, Vittorio… Zélie is Zélie.
My best US friend has a son named Carsten, and I love that name!!!

We named our son Milo, and it is still my favourite name ever. Not sure how we will match it if we have more kids. Most Irish names would have been too hard to pronounce for my American family, but Milo bridges the gap perfectly. When I was 6 months pregnant I took a tour of our local castle and learned to my surprise that the last Lord of the Castle was named Milo, so seemed like a nice link to the area. For a girl I do like Saoirse (sair-sha, or seer- sha depending on who you talk to) which grew on me after seeing “Song of the Sea,” (magical film, I’d say your boys would love it!) so maybe someday we will have the whole family perplexed!

Hi Jo,

I’ve never commented before but wanted to share the name that my husband and I chose for our firstborn daughter – Xanthe Rose. She is three months old now and gorgeous. Xanthe is a Greek name and means golden. We pronounce it Zan-thee. She is our golden rose.

One of the reasons we chose Xanthe is because it wasn’t too common. Typically we learnt that my ob delivered another baby Xanthe the same weekend ours was born! The two baby Xanthes met at the Dr’s office at their 6 weekly check up – so sweet.

If we have more babies, I like Theodore for a boy, and Willa, Iris or Audrey for a girl.

I love the topic of baby names!

Our 3.5 year old son is Oliver James but he recently announced we have to call him Ollie (which was my first choice but my husband insisted that he has a professional name). Our 2 week old little girl is Blair Alessia. Oliver is number one is Australia at the moment and occasionally the popularity gets annoying so that influenced our decision to pick an unpopular name for Blair.

It does matter to me! As a Lauren born in the 80s, I was forever tired of being Lauren H, Lauren #2, etc. But I also don’t want my kiddo to forever have to spell her name because we chose some weird spelling, nor an extremely unusual name. We went with Margaret. Beautiful, old-school, not currently trending but recognizable. We like the possibility of nicknames (though we do call her Margaret), but if she becomes a Supreme Court judge, it’s totally classy. ;)

My husband and and I are expecting our first baby in April! We had a girl’s name all set, Eleanor, only to find out we’re having a boy! Hah! So far, we really love George! It seems like such a sweet and endearing name for a little man!