What Are Your Favorite Baby Names?

rondey

October 18, 2022 12:56 pm

I want a name named liam

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Guest

October 10, 2020 12:52 pm

Seth. Simply but a strong name. Seth is our son’s name. Our son passed away. Sara, Margret, and Sam are beautiful but are too popular names. Samuel is a nice name but my wife can’t get past the the muel sounding..

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Emma

May 9, 2019 3:38 am

Matthew, Theodore, and Eleanor are my favourite baby names.

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Jordyn Luca

February 25, 2019 10:48 pm

I named my daughter Scottie Celeste. My dad who’s name was scott passed way when I was pregnant and I wanted to honor him. And my son’s name is Gage Elias Wolf. I added wolf because that was grandpa’s name. My boyfriend wanted to name him Pirate Calder. I vetoed that…lol

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Turkish Names

October 20, 2017 9:13 pm

I like the name for girl Emma from the German origin meaning whole or universal, Olivia pronounced Alivia though (latin): Olive tree, Sophia (greek): Wisdom and Ella (english): Light and for boy I think I only like one name and that is Oliver (latin): Olive tree.

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Meghan

September 21, 2017 9:15 pm

I have boy/girl twins. My daughter is Olivia Pearl. My son is Elliot Jack. I was worried about the SVU reference, but no one has ever commented about that. If we have a another daughter, her name will probably either be Isabel or Emilia. I love Ivy, but my husband doesn’t. If we have a another son, he will probably be Colin. Boy names are easier for us to agree on, for some reason.

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Roxanne

August 14, 2017 11:47 pm

I have two girls: Berit Irene (Irene after my grandmother) and Signe Denise (Denise after my mother). Berit (pronounced Bear-it) and Signe (Sig-ney) are both Scandinavian – I am American but have Scandinavian heritage. I just adore my girls’ names and love that they are unique. As teachers, my husband and I hear so many popular names, so having something a bit unusual but still simple and pretty was important to us.

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Hillary

June 30, 2017 5:29 pm

My wife and I both love the name Beatrice, so if we have a daughter, she’ll be Bea for sure (plus it’s alliterative with our last name, which is a fun bonus). I also love Matilda, Hazel, Amelia, and Jane (a family name) for girls. For boys we’re more divided, since so many of the names we like are super popular (like Henry and Jack). Two that we keep coming back to are Cameron (also a family name) and Callum. We both like the idea of using family names as middle names.

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Major

June 20, 2017 9:51 pm

Ava and Ivy…my girls!

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Christina B

June 15, 2017 9:57 am

I’m pregnant with our first and trying not to put too much pressure on picking a name. When I get stressed about it I think of Bali, where children are simply named based on birth order:
“In general, Balinese people name their children depending on the order they are born, and the names are the same for both males and females. The firstborn child is named Wayan, Putu or Gede, the second is named Made or Kadek, the third child goes by Nyoman or Komang, and the fourth is named Ketut. If a family has more than four children, the cycle repeats itself, and the next ‘Wayan’ may be called Wayan Balik, which loosely translates to ‘another Wayan’.”
http://www.ultimatebali.com/magazine/balinese-names-explained/

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michelle

June 14, 2017 4:34 pm

My kids are Emmett Ren, Isla Jun and Eve Katsumi. I’m half-Japanese so all of their middle names are Japanese.

Before they were born I called them Adzukichan (little bean), Kojika (fawn/baby deer) and Koguma (bear cub). I’ve got Koyagi (baby goat) in there now. We don’t know if Koyagi’s a boy or a girl but we like the names Finn and Rian for a boy and Noelle, Audra, Alana and Naomi for a girl.

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Julia

June 14, 2017 11:05 am

I really like the name Andie (girl) or Andy (boy) because my mother’s name is Anna and my mother in law’s name is Wendy. When you combine “An” from Anna and the ending “dy” sound from Wendy you get Andie/Andy :) And you can tell your kid they were named after their kick ass grandmas. Some people think girl Andie sound like a nickname but I don’t care, I love it as it is…it is cute and spunky.

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Stephi

June 13, 2017 10:14 pm

My husband is a huge hockey fan and wants to name any future sons after hockey players. So far, his favorites are Crosby, Malkin and Lemieux. I would go for those as middle names, but not so sure about first names!

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Tracy

June 13, 2017 9:50 pm

We’re due with a boy in five weeks, and haven’t been able to decide on a name, let alone discuss alternatives. My husband really wants to name him after his younger (and only sibling) brother, Michael, who died in an accident a few years ago. When we found out at 12 weeks that it was a boy, I tried referring to him as “Mikey”, which was his brother’s nickname as a child (it later became “Mike”), but it felt so wrong to me and my husband didn’t exactly seem excited about it either- just too soon and too painful, and I ended up having a complete meltdown about it after a week of trying. After my meltdown, I thought we had settled on using “Michael” as a middle name, but my husband has now decided that he won’t be happy without it being the baby’s first name. I worry that my in-laws will constantly compare our Michael to their Michael (which is very likely if there is any resemblance between them), and that my son will never feel like he’s his own person. I want to honor and remember my brother-in-law, but I also worry that my son will feel burdened with the pain of loss we’ve all suffered after Mike died. I have a few alternatives written down hoping that ultimately my husband will feel the same way I do about using Michael as the first name once we see the baby in person. Or maybe I’ll change my mind, and it will all be okay… ugh.

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Ann

Reply to Tracy

June 15, 2017 10:12 am

What about Micah? Maybe a happy medium?

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Zoe

Reply to Tracy

June 17, 2017 12:32 pm

I’m so sorry for your family’s loss. I do tend to feel that children should not be given the same first name of someone who died in a tragic way, or who died quite young. It’s a lot of pressure for the child, in my opinion. I think using the honor name as a middle name is a beautiful idea though.

As a compromise, I do like the idea of using the name Micah as another reader commented. It’s such a happy and upbeat version of the name. My brother is named Micah and I have always loved it.

Or, perhaps you could find another name that has a “link” of sorts to Michael. Like, is there a place he lived or loved to visit that reminds you all of him? Or perhaps an interest of his that you could turn into a name? Would his middle name be an option?

Best wishes and congratulations on the upcoming birth of your little boy!

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Kristina

Reply to Tracy

June 21, 2017 12:17 pm

My husband was insistent on naming our first born after his late Grandfather and late uncle (who also died tragically at a young age in an auto accident) and frankly, I didn’t like (and still don’t) like the name (Richard). Call me old fashioned but I let him name his boy what he wanted. My son is 16 mos now and happily goes by the nickname “Dicky” and no one has any sad or bad feelings toward the memory of the name.

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Sadhbh

June 13, 2017 9:45 am

I have an Irish name – Sadhbh. It’s pronounced Sive (like the number five, but with an s). It is uncommon in Ireland and unheard of elsewhere! It is rare that I meet someone who knows how to pronounce my name from seeing it written down, even though I’ve always lived in Ireland. As a child I hated my name for that reason, but now I really love it: 1. because I think the Irish language is beautiful and I am proud that my name marks my heritage and 2. it has been a great conversation starter over the years! I like that it’s a strong-sounding name (the consonants, I think) while its meaning is goodness/purity/innocence. There is a play called Sive written by the Irish playwright John B. Keane – he named the main character Sive as she represents goodness/naivety in the play. It was also the name of the goddess of the arts in Irish mythology; wife of Fionn Mac Cumhaill, who was a great hero, and mother of his son Oisín, the warrior poet, from the famous story of Tír na nÓg. There is a small town called Cahersiveen in Ireland, which is an Anglicised spelling of ‘Cathair Sadhbhín’ (Fortress of Young Sadhbh). I think its a great name!

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Sunny

June 12, 2017 10:34 pm

Our son is named Evan and its perfect for him. His middle name is my husbands first name, Thomas. I love the name Evan! It works really well with our English last name and it doesn’t feel pretentious to me at all. Its a little bit different but also not at all and it doesn’t need to have a weird spelling or funny nickname (although I call him ‘Ev’ a lot). If we had had a girl we were thinking Hazel or Esther.

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Lauren

June 12, 2017 12:07 pm

We have a 2yr old son, Luca Michael and a 1yr old son, Caden Anthony. The middle names honour grandfathers. We wanted something unique but not over the top different. Funny though, both seem to be gaining in popularity. My husbands criteria was that on the first day of school he didn’t want our kids to have to tell the teacher how to pronounce it. I didn’t want there to be a nickname associated whichever name we chose. It was important to me that whatever name we picked was what the majority of people called them. We also couldn’t pick a name until we met them. I thought my 2nd born was going to be Eli or Asher if he was a boy and when he came out and didn’t look like either.

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Kery

June 11, 2017 9:27 pm

My name is difficult to pronounce, but not common so I always knew I wanted my children to have names that weren’t popular but definitely easy to pronounce. Our daughter is Wren Isobel and our son is Gale Felix. Other names we liked were Willow and Aurora, and I LOVE Wolfgang, but their last name is best suited to a strong one-syllable first name.

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Courtney

June 10, 2017 10:10 pm

We just had a baby girl 8 weeks ago and named her Penelope but call her Penny! So funny that was one of your top picks for girls, I don’t know anyone else with a Penny. Our older daughter is named Charis (pronounced CAR-iss), which means grace in Greek. I don’t see her name making the top 100 list anytime soon ;)

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Jessica

June 10, 2017 9:33 am

My almost-3-year-old is named Charlotte Jean. We mostly call her CJ, which fits her personality perfectly :) We were a bit unsure about choosing such a popular name, but we wanted to name her after my husband’s mother who passed away about 15 years ago. Jean is my mother’s middle name, so her name honors both of her grandmother’s – and I think it’s just beautiful! Sounds like a Southern belle, although my husband is from California and my family is New England, through and through.

We’re expecting our second girl in November and my two favorite names right now are Julia and Naomi. Having a hard time with middle names though! I’d like to use another family name as a middle name, but there aren’t many left that I like or that flow well.

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Lucy

June 9, 2017 10:30 pm

I have 2 boys; Leo (2 years) and Hamish (8 weeks).

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Belle @ This Life Is Belle

June 9, 2017 6:47 pm

ROSIE!!

But I’m biased, because that’s my daughter’s name. We also gave her two middle names, one after each of her grandmothers. I like the tradition of each of our (future) children having a middle name from both my family and my husband’s family. It feels warm snd inclusive to honor loved ones. A name can be more than just a name.

I love Teddy (Edward or Theodore) for a boy, too.

http://www.thislifeisbelle.com

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Anna

Reply to Belle @ This Life Is Belle

June 14, 2017 12:26 am

I have a Rosie too! Rosie Bea. At first I wasn’t sure if it was too much of an older person name for such a tiny baby (and I argued hard for her to be Frankie!) but I love it now. :0)

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Kristin

June 9, 2017 6:15 pm

I love these posts! This might be crazy, but when choosing names for my two daughters, I had the last two “names” posts you did bookmarked, and when I thought of a name to consider I’d ctrl-f on the cup of jo posts and see what people said about the name or what other names were mentioned alongside!

We chose Ingrid and Mathilda for our girls (Iggy and Millie), for reasons lots of people have mentioned — known but not currently “popular”, easy to pronounce, hear clearly, and spell. Except that “H” in Mathilda, oh the agony over to include it or no! So far I’m glad we did because I think it’s so beautiful written out. We’ll see if she hates that “H” as she gets older and has to spell it out at Starbucks!

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Erin

Reply to Kristin

July 17, 2018 4:01 am

Kristin, what is the general feedback on Ingrid’s name? It’s a top contender for baby #2 and I’m curious what your experience is.

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Brynna

June 9, 2017 5:29 pm

I don’t have kids, but some friends are on the path. Having grown up with a hard-to-pronounce name, I caution them against it! I always end up making up a name when I’m asked at Starbucks (“Sarah” is a favorite – no one questions it!) and I do get tired of being called the wrong name every time I’m introduced to someone. It really is exhausting.

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VVV

Reply to Brynna

June 10, 2017 4:04 pm

Ha, Sarah is my fake coffee/reservations name, too!

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Gabrielle

June 9, 2017 4:47 pm

I have to say, I am happy our daughter’s name is not on either list. We chose her name based on a few criteria; had to be short, no obvious nickname, could not end in “ie” or “y”, and could not include the letter “L”. Our last name is fairly long and ends in ie so we did not want it to rhyme or sound that way. We had two names when we went to the hospital (the one we did not choose had the letter “L” in it.)
Quinn Kathryne is now 1.5.

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Sarah

Reply to Gabrielle

June 11, 2017 4:30 am

I’m curious – why no ‘L’? It’s so specific!

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Clare

Reply to Gabrielle

July 2, 2017 11:23 am

I’m pretty sure Quinn will make it on the 2017 list…

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Jess

June 9, 2017 3:05 pm

We named our brand-new son Orson Henry—we’re in love with the name and it suits him perfectly. While searching for boy names, I relied on 2 things:
1. A funny, thoughtful book called “A is for Atticus” which focuses on unique names inspired by history and literature. Amazon has it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001AHS8OW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
2. The cemetery! Morbidity aside, it’s a fantastic source for offbeat and long-forgotten classics.

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margie

Reply to Jess

June 10, 2017 10:54 pm

I agree! But my husband wouldn’t let us use “Appollonia”, a name from the late 1800’s next to my stepfather’s tombstone, for a daughter. So we now have our loyal dog Appollonia!

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Jodie

June 9, 2017 2:57 pm

My Husband loved the name Kai from the start. I thought it was too “out there” at first but as my due date got closer I kept seeing it! We loved that it means different things in several different languages. We waited to see him before we decided but I am so glad I went with a name that is uncommon but not that uncommon. He loves his name and it fits him perfectly!

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Belle @ This Life Is Belle

Reply to Jodie

June 9, 2017 6:50 pm

It’s amazing how you will keep noticing a name or word once it’s been highlighted to you…! I totally know that feeling :-)

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MariaJose

June 9, 2017 2:26 pm

My boys: Sebastian and Sergio. My girl: Serena.

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Belle @ This Life Is Belle

Reply to MariaJose

June 9, 2017 6:50 pm

Beautiful names, and unique too :-)

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Abigail

June 9, 2017 10:08 am

Growing up, Abigail was not a cool name, at least where I lived. (I’m currently 32) I used to dislike my name so much. I recall at some point in elementary, kids made fun of me because we watched the movie Fox and the Hound, and the Cow’s name was Abigail! Haha. Now its trendy, So i guess that’s the universe making up for that time?

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Betsey M.

Reply to Abigail

June 10, 2017 8:52 pm

Growing up I was also made fun of in reference to a cow! My name is Betsey and kids would call me Bessie the moo cow…

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Theresa

June 9, 2017 9:23 am

I love, love, love thinking about baby names! For me, I don’t care so much about popularity, but the reasons parents choose particular names. Are they family names? Have a special meaning? My favorite part of a birth announcement is learning to baby’s name!❤️

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lili jane

June 9, 2017 9:18 am

Hello from Paris. We have 3 children, Elizabeth (5), Maurice (3) and Jacques, who was just born this April. We were looking for names that would sound good both in French and in English, as we have family in France and Ontario, Canada. We were also attracted by strong classical names (for Maurice, people were very surprised as it is a very very old unfashionable name! Yet we loved the sounds of it and it was a tribute to Maurice Ravel, a composer my husband and I deeply love. We think it suits well the character of our boy, who’s now almost 4!)
Funny how the American popular name list is very close to the French one (Emma is also here the top girl name).

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Sadie

Reply to lili jane

June 19, 2017 2:37 pm

I think “Maurice” is a wonderful name for a little boy. There is a wonderful poem by Rita Dove in which the name “Maurice” is the last line– it’s called “Dusting.” You can read it here; I hope you like it! https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/detail/35004

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Shannon

June 9, 2017 3:41 am

I love collecting names and can’t seem to
stop reading these comments even though there are over 800 now! I have definitely added a few to my list :)

My plan was always to name my first son after my father who passed away when I was a kid. His name appears every second generation in our family as far back as we’ve traced the family tree (1500s). Any name my partner and I choose has to work in French and English. Sadly my father’s name was Donald. It was already a bit iffy with Donald Duck being the only use of Donald in France but now it’s the duck and Trump, which pretty much ruins the name. I’ll probably only use it as a middle name now.

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Jaime

June 8, 2017 7:13 pm

I have two girls…Adelie (5) and Clara (2). Took us almost a month to name little Clara. I felt tremendous pressure to pick these names that will follow them throughout their life. I hope we did well :)

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Laurel

June 8, 2017 4:59 pm

Our boys are 4 and 20 months, Lukas and Linus. We didn’t try to have them rhyme, they were just both the names we agreed on and loved. They also have middle names that both start with T so they also have the same initials. Hopefully it’s not a prob when they are older!

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Laura

June 8, 2017 4:56 pm

our baby girl was born May 12th and we went with Phoebe Clarke. We loved Abigail, Evelyn and Penelope but didn’t want a name in the top 100. The funny thing is, although Phoebe is a fairly uncommon name, there is one in our neighborhood and two of our older neighbors have grown children named Phoebe.
my husband and i live in a quirky part of town (sprawling cottage gardens, colorful victorian houses with wrap around porches on small city lots, friendly & outgoing artists and professors with chicken coops- you get the idea). My husband and I joke that we chose a “neighborhood name (instead of a family name). Her middle name is after her paternal grandfather, but we added an “e” to the end to make it a bit more feminine.

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Alexa

Reply to Laura

June 9, 2017 10:34 am

umm where do you live? It sounds like my heaven!

Also, love your daughter’s name!

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Shells15

Reply to Laura

September 16, 2019 1:30 pm

I agree… that sounds like my kind of place.

I love your daughter’s name. Classic, but with the modern twist of Clark(e). It is absolutely beautiful.

When my SIL was pregnant with my younger nephew, my Brother ran into 1 of the 5 dads (all from the same neighborhood where there are only about 30 houses) whose wives were all pregnant at the same time while out on a walk. Their child was just born that week. The name Braedon (? sp). My brother hesitated in telling his wife b/c their chosen name was Braeden. One of their other friends from town also had the same, with yet another spelling.

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Lindsay

June 8, 2017 3:12 pm

So glad we made it out of the hospital with a name for our baby, it was looking iffy! We chose my husband’s favorite name on our short list and the name that was my original favorite. It has never cracked the top 1000 list in the U.S., but it’s a popular name in Israel. I like that it has cute nicknames, because I never grew up with nicknames.

For her middle name we chose my favorite name, Eleanor, which I think is too popular right now, but I love it because of the movie Sense & Sensibility (not my favorite Austen book, but absolutely obsessed with the movie — walked down the aisle to music from it!). Her Hebrew name switches out Eleanor for my grandmother’s name.

And her last name is mine. Also a huge decision! It was really important to me before she was born, but honestly, now that she’s a real life 8-month old I don’t think I’d care either way. But she does have cool initials! I thought everyone cared about initials, but my husband didn’t care at all…probably because his initials are boring! ;)

Fun story: In my sheer exhaustion I didn’t really pay attention to how we spelled our daughter’s name and when I got around to posting the news on FB I realized I had no idea how we officially spelled it! Good thing I like what we went with!

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Virginia

Reply to Lindsay

June 13, 2017 1:57 pm

I read this comment quite a few time looking for the first name you went with? I don’t think you included it, and now I just have to know!!!

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Addie Wakao

June 8, 2017 11:43 am

We have a Ewan (you-en) and an Isla (eye-luh). Their names fit them perfectly <3

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mon!ka

June 8, 2017 10:18 am

I am not able to have kids, but long before I found that out, I had a list of names at the ready. I do have pets, and their names were/are: BIX, LOLA, MAX, LUNA. So, I suppose I can use my baby name list for future cats and dogs in my life :)

Boys: JASPER, ALISTAIR, HENRY
Girls: WREN, ASHER, IRIS, TESS, JUNIPER

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Katie

Reply to mon!ka

June 8, 2017 2:11 pm

I have two girls – and Tess and Juniper were both #3 and #4 on our list – we also loved Wren. You have great taste :-)
We ended up naming ours girls Sloan and Remy …

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KW

Reply to mon!ka

June 9, 2017 1:40 pm

My daughter’s name is Wren!

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Belle @ This Life Is Belle

Reply to mon!ka

June 9, 2017 6:51 pm

Oh I love Juniper! Maybe for our next daughter, when the time comes … ❤️

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Christen

Reply to mon!ka

June 12, 2017 5:44 pm

Love these! I also just gave birth to b/g twins who are Yann and Remy. So excited to see another girl named Remy!

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mon!ka

Reply to mon!ka

June 19, 2017 1:30 pm

So great to see Wren, Juniper and Tess actually being used! You all have great taste too :)

I wonder did you pick the names for certain characters or animals or botanical reasons or grandparents? In my case, all of the above:

Wren: for the badass but troubled lead female character in an 80’s movie called Smithereens, also, wrens are the cutest little birds with great calls

Juniper: because I always loved the name June and juniper berries are like plump little blueberries

Tess: my grandmother’s name is Czeslawa, nicknamed Czesia, which would translate to Tessie or Tess…

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Jamie

June 8, 2017 6:46 am

We tried to choose historical names with family meaning. Went with Noah after my great grandfather and William after an ancestor who also happened to be president, William Henry Harrison. I thought we were so original and yet these are the most popular names! it irks me that they are common but at least they’re meaningful to us.

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Helena

June 8, 2017 6:17 am

My baby boy’s name is Teo, it’s the only boy’s name I love! I’m Portuguese and my partner is Italian, so Teo seemed also perfect because it’s pronounced the same in both languages :) If I would have another boy, I wouldn’t know how to name him, it would be really difficult!

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Dana

June 8, 2017 1:45 am

I’m so surprised to see Eleanor made the list! We named our daughter Eleanor in 2015 for no other reason than to honor my grandmother, who’s middle name was Eleanor- after her mother who’s first name was Eleanor. My great grandmother Eleanor died of cancer when my grandmother was a preteen but before she died she knitted baby booties and a diaper soaker to pass down to my grandmother, which my grandmother passed down to me three or four christmases ago. My little girl’s due date was the day before my grandmother’s birthday and so, for all these reasons, we named our daughter Eleanor! I didn’t think it was popular anymore but then within a year after her birth, other people I knew were also naming their girls Eleanor. I’m not much into pop culture so I’m not sure where the resurgent came from!

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Kylie O

June 8, 2017 12:37 am

We have a Lily Kate, a Georgia Grace (who goes by Georgie or Gigi) and a Harry Joseph…and Dudley the cat lol! I love my kids names, although I do get tired of explaining, “No, not Lillian, just Lily” or “No, not Harrison, just Harry.”

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Hillary

Reply to Kylie O

June 8, 2017 6:27 pm

Retro name comeback! My late grandfather was a Harry Joseph, born in 1915.

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Hilary Stoner

June 7, 2017 11:16 pm

I do not have children but I’m loving Pearl and Fern. They are traditional, old timey, and so sweet.

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Ariel

Reply to Hilary Stoner

June 8, 2017 8:42 pm

Fern is my favorite name for a girl. I love the classic yet somewhat dreamy feel of the name. It’s my grandmother’s middle name and my husband’s great-grandmother’s name (she is 103!), so if we ever have a baby girl, I think that will be her name as well!

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Alison Norris

June 7, 2017 9:44 pm

Naming babies is tough stuff! Mine are Carolyn, Judson, Miller and Grafton but we thought about Tag, Rowan, Delphine, Luca, Fiona and Adair.

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Steph

Reply to Alison Norris

June 8, 2017 10:46 pm

Delphine was on my short list if my son had been a girl :)

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Sarah

June 7, 2017 7:08 pm

Ivy + Alice are ours.
And a pug called Olive

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Anna Kleinfeld

Reply to Sarah

June 7, 2017 11:42 pm

Too cute!

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Kris Cochran

June 7, 2017 5:37 pm

We just had our first baby Augustus and we call him Auggie. I wanted a name that sounded good at all ages, and didn’t get childish as he got older. I love that the name is familiar but not popular.

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Kate

June 7, 2017 4:57 pm

Our daughter is Esme, inspired by For Esme with Love and Squalor by JD Salinger. She’s a sweet, bright character and it’s a beautiful short story. My other favorite girl name is Hazel.

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Eva Jorgensen

June 7, 2017 3:45 pm

Baby names always fascinate me. I made a point with my 2 kids (Ingrid and Lars) that their names couldn’t be in the top 100 names. (Of course, if we moved to Sweden, it would be a different story, I’m sure, ha!) But I didn’t want a made up name, either. I was always the only person with my name in my entire school growing up and I loved that. But now it seems like there are a lot of little girls with my name — and Ava, which is so close, is #3!

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Helena

Reply to Eva Jorgensen

June 10, 2017 3:17 pm

Lovely names :) I’m Swedish and I’ve always had the name Ingrid on my list of baby names. It’s number 68 on the top 100 names for newborn girls in Sweden right now so pretty popular! Lars was popular in the 1940s to 60s but hasn’t returned in popularity yet, though I suspect it will in the next decades since names from the 20s and 30s are popular now!! My children are named Ebba, Nils and Line. They aren’t great internationally but you can’t consider everything :)

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Elle

June 7, 2017 2:53 pm

Mine are Noah and Ted. Haven’t come across many Teds where we live but Noah seems to be extremely popular everywhere. But I don’t care I love it. I really like short names so we decided on Ted (because it’s so cute) rather than Edward.

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Maranda

June 7, 2017 12:48 pm

I don’t have any kids but I LOVE thinking of baby names! A few of my top favorites were on the list. I think they’re really unique because I’ve never met someone else with the names below, so I was surprised to see them there.

Girl: Riley, Sage, Ava, Willow (maybe, that’s my least favorite of the bunch)
Boy: Aiden & Ezra. My boyfriend likes the name Preston for a boy which I feel ‘eh’ about.

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Caleigh

June 7, 2017 12:06 pm

My boys’ names are Clint and Cooper. We already have names at the ready (both a boy & a girl’s name) if we decide to have a third kid! We are prepped!

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Ana_Spain

June 7, 2017 10:49 am

My daughter’s name is Marina (we are spanish). It has always been at the top of my favourites. I still love it a lot (my daughter is 7 years old right now).

Such a difficult decision to take…

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Kristin

June 7, 2017 10:43 am

Our oldest is named Willa inspired by Willa Cather, and our son, just born 3 months ago, is Wilder inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was worried that Willa and Wilder would be too matchy but I’m an American history teacher, we’re originally from the “plains,” and those are two of our favorite authors. Plus, as a teacher I love that they’re unique but still easy to pronounce!!

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Brooke

Reply to Kristin

June 7, 2017 4:44 pm

I ADORE those names. Two of my favorites. And I think they’re great together.

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Brandi

Reply to Kristin

June 8, 2017 3:39 pm

You’re one of only two others on this long thread that I have seen mention the name Willa (and the only one who’s used it!) We’re expecting a girl in October and my heart is set on that name. We also have a boy named Elliot – we chose them for much the same reason, unique/underused but still easy to pronounce and recognizable.

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Jill T. M.

June 7, 2017 10:22 am

After stillborn twins last year, I am mortified about choosing a name for my next baby (it is obviously more complicated than just the name). My husband and I had Thomas and Marie chosen for nearly 7 years before their early birth. We could never agree on any other names.

Do we reuse these names? Use them as middle names? One thing is for sure: I definitely do not regret using those names for the best two little people I ever met. :)

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Sara L

Reply to Jill T. M.

June 7, 2017 3:55 pm

I’m so sorry, Jill. Thomas and Marie are both beautiful names.

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Nora

Reply to Jill T. M.

June 7, 2017 4:50 pm

I’m so sorry you lost them. Peace and strength to you both. It must be so hard to talk over names with their loss on your mind.

I think using a twins’ name as a middle is a lovely idea. Or, I wonder if it would feel right to use something similar as a first name to honor them? There are many lovely versions of Marie (Marya and Marit are a few of my favorites, but there are a thousand more.) There are fewer variants of Thomas (Tavish if you like Gaelic names) but Garnet and Becket are associated with Thomas because of the saints.

Best wishes to you.

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Caroline

Reply to Jill T. M.

June 7, 2017 4:52 pm

I’m so very sorry for your loss. That must have been (and must still be) so very hard. You chose lovely names.

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Brittny

Reply to Jill T. M.

June 10, 2017 2:41 pm

I think keep the names just for them. It’s a lovely sentiment knowing your little babies occupied a special space in time with your favorite names. Also, do not be mortified! You have every right to take your time and as much space as you need. Your feelings, struggles, and experiences are not owed to anyone.

I have so much admiration for you moving forward with your husband and sharing this story with us. Best of luck to you and congratulations :)

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Liz C

June 7, 2017 10:02 am

I have Grace Rose (3) and Joseph David (11 months)!

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Caroline

Reply to Liz C

June 7, 2017 4:53 pm

Great names. I love Joseph (my grandfather’s name); I feel like it’s so uncommon now, but it’s such a likeable and classic name.

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Rozanne

June 7, 2017 8:37 am

Funny how many American people give importance to nicknames !! Looking at the comments I have read a lot of “but we call her/him…”…
In France you do not often see that !!

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cgw

Reply to Rozanne

June 7, 2017 2:03 pm

^ This comment is so interesting. I have a dear friend who is from and still lives in Chaumont, and she has nicknames for all three of her girls. I wonder if my friend’s time in America (for college) has influenced her.

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Sally

June 7, 2017 7:44 am

Our darling boy is Magnus, which is very unusual in Australia but not so much in Denmark where I went to high school. Our only hopes for our son is that he is a good man as he grows and has strength of character – and Magnus felt perfect all of a sudden when I was pregnant. Even though we were sure we were having a girl – so We were set on our girls names- we loved the name Magnus so much we were dissapointed we wouldn’t get to use it – and Lo and Behold! I’m sure now I’m only meant to be a Mama to boys – so now to come up with something to match Magnus…..

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Alex

Reply to Sally

June 7, 2017 6:04 pm

Sally I have a Magnus too! And I am pregnant with another son, and trying to think of a name that is as awesome… It is t easy!

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B

June 7, 2017 7:27 am

Awww I love names!! I have three girls – Olive Elia, Mila Belle and Quinn Maisie :) and I would have a dozen more babies just to name them, if I could! Haha ?

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Aleksandra

June 7, 2017 5:33 am

My 9 month old daughter is called Lola (after my grandmother and funnily enough she is a spitting image of her) Jane (after her older half-sister) and Elizabeth (after my mum). I am Polish and my husband is from NZ, this is where we live so we were looking for a name that would be easy to pronounce for both families so Lola Jane Elizabeth it is :)

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Claire

June 7, 2017 3:01 am

I have a Caspian and a Lucinda. I also love Guinevere, Romilly, Juniper, and Marigold, as future names.

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Theresa

June 7, 2017 12:36 am

My toddler daughter’s name is Zara Grace. We love the name and it completely suits her! I’ve always loved my name and hope my daughter embraces hers as she grows as well.

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Lauren

June 6, 2017 11:38 pm

Our boy is Elliott Cash. He was born on Johnny Cash’s birthday, and also the day after a solar lunar eclipse, nicknamed the Ring of Fire. His name chose him :)

I love Ingrid for a girl, and Gigi as a nickname

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Meredith

June 6, 2017 10:46 pm

I adore this subject!!!!

I grew up with a very unique name (at the time). I was the only one with this name in my schools for my entire childhood. It felt special being the only Meredith in a sea of Jennifers and Jasons. So, when it came time to name my children, I wanted names that weren’t on the top 100 list of that year.

My husband and I never really agreed on names. I got my way with our two eldest boys and with our daughter we managed to find a consensus but it really wasn’t my absolute favourite. Our eldest son is Elliott, our middle son is Quinn and and our daughter is Jillian.

I really loved Carys as a girls’ name. l also liked Willa. For boys, I found it generally much more difficult to find names I really loved. Seth and Leith were some of the ones that were on my list though.

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Whitney

Reply to Meredith

June 7, 2017 12:01 pm

Hi Meredith,
I just read your post and found a crazy coincidence. My older sister’s middle name is Meredith. My younger sister’s first name is Jillian. Our last name is Elliott. And my daughter’s name is Caris.
Pretty cool how many of the same names we share in our families, as first, middle and last names! I love them all!

Whitney

P.s if we want to stretch it slightly, my ex-boyfriend’s name is Quinton.

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Jillian

Reply to Meredith

June 7, 2017 2:36 pm

My name is Jillian and I absolutely love it! There was only one other Jillian I grew up with and I always felt special that it wasn’t/isn’t very common. I even have people tell me to this day they’ve never heard my name or known anyone with it. I hope your Jillian loves it. :)

My own daughters are Teagan and Fallon. Their brother, due this fall, will be Brady.

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Erin Glow

Reply to Meredith

June 26, 2017 11:28 pm

My daughter is Beverly Noel. I get asked all the time if it’s “a family name”, but it’s simply a name I’ve loved since high school and it fits her perfectly! My husband and I also loved Meredith and Jillian, so maybe one day we’ll use those names for her sisters! :)

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Rebecca Sunde

June 6, 2017 10:20 pm

Some of these are surprising!

Names, like anything, really, are subject to trends. We humans just get tired of things after seeing or hearing them for a while, and we crave a change! What sounds fresh and original to one probably sounds fresh and original to many. I imagine the trend cycles move faster now with digitization, since we’re exposed to a wider variety of names, and more rapidly than before.

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Hannah

June 6, 2017 10:14 pm

My parents named me Hannah Rose-Anna. It is always a good conversation starter.

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Hannah

June 6, 2017 10:08 pm

I have two children– Greta (6) and Westley (2.5). Their names suit them, but while naming Westley I vastly underestimated how often the “t” is used in the spelling of his name. Little did I know that it is an antiquated spelling and every time someone writes his name it is misspelled!!

I would like one more child but have no idea how to come up with another name that would fit with the two we already have!

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Hannah

Reply to Hannah

June 6, 2017 10:22 pm

And I can’t help but adding that we call Greta “Gigi” and we call Westley “Wells” :-)

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becs

Reply to Hannah

June 6, 2017 11:14 pm

We have a Wesley, but I’ve been surprised at the number of times people add a “t” to it! Others call him “Wezley”. So don’t worry, it wouldn’t have worked out much easier had you used a different spelling. Either way, great name, isn’t it? :)

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Alison

June 6, 2017 9:25 pm

I actually need some opinions- we are expecting a baby girl in 7 weeks and my husband has vetoed my favorite- Corinne. We already have almost 3 year old twins named Maya and Ben. So far our contenders are Poppy, Corinna, Cassia. Any thoughts?

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Jocelyn Caithness

Reply to Alison

June 6, 2017 10:54 pm

Corinne is my favourite as well :) and my partner doesn’t like it either, ha!

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Abigail

Reply to Alison

June 6, 2017 11:55 pm

Love corinne and poppy! sooo both??

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Dana

Reply to Alison

June 7, 2017 12:59 am

My dream name for a second is Poppy. I love it!!! I get a bit concerned about her future and have researched what Poppy could be a nickname for. Penelope or Paulette (my mother’s name) seem like good contenders.

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Katie Jo

Reply to Alison

June 7, 2017 2:34 pm

Maybe just Cora?

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Alisha

Reply to Alison

June 9, 2017 1:58 am

My sister’s name is Coreen (pronounced core-een) Danielle. I’ve always loved it and don’t know anyone with the name!

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Anna

June 6, 2017 7:47 pm

My new favorite is Alina for girls. I have a friend in Poland with this name, and she is awesome, so I like the name for two reasons: it is pretty and it reminds me of a strong woman. For boys, my long time favorite is David. It is strong, thoughtful and timeless. So cool that Emma is still the top of the list. I love that name and would have named my daughter Emma if I had one. I also like Magdalena, with Maggie for short.

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Tara

June 6, 2017 7:31 pm

We have two boys, Laird and Heath! :)

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Rebekah

June 6, 2017 7:00 pm

We have Elizabeth Hope, Zoe Eloise, and John Warren…they are currently 4 years, 2 years, and 11 days old. :) We call Elizabeth “Ellie.” Her middle name was chosen because we struggled with infertility for several years before her birth, and getting pregnant with her was such a joyful, hopeful surprise. Zoe means “life” and her middle name is after my wonderful grandma, who died while I was pregnant with Zoe. John we just really liked: it’s classic and strong, with so many great potential namesakes, but it’s not very common anymore! And his middle name is after my husband’s grandfather, whom I never got to meet, but I wish I had.