One of my friends is pregnant with her first baby and she's struggling to come up with a name that she loves. She knows that she's having a boy and she has a few names that she kind of likes but nothing that's blowing her away.
When I was pregnant with No1 son I had my names done and dusted by the time I was sixteen weeks.
Ethan for a boy and Polly for a girl.
I'm not sure where I plucked Polly from but back then Ethan was a pretty rare name in the UK. I fell in love with it back in 1988 thanks to the US comedy drama Thirty Something.
Thankfully I had a boy and Polly never saw the light of day.
No 2 son was always going to be Sonny. I love his name and he loves it too (he informed me yesterday when we were discussing this very topic.)
My girls weren't so straight forward and I toyed with so many names before settling on Biba. I LOVE her name. It's original, quirky and cool and it really suits her but by the time you get to No 4 things start to get tricky.
Poor FunnyGirl... In the absence of a name we called her Spud and it kind of stuck. When Yan went off to register her birth I still had no idea what he was going to choose. We'd toyed with Coco, Betty, Kitty, Kai and at least ten others but she looked like a Spud to me!
He chose Betty and it really suits her. My mum's sister's called Betty and so is one of my cousins so I guess that it's become a bit of a family tradition.
How did you choose your children's names and do you have any great boy's names you can suggest for my friend? Come on be creative - we want to hear all of your favourites.
Ha ha !! this resonated for me - we loved Elliott for our firstborn, but for the second we couldn't come up with a name and didn't want to give him Max as we didn't want it to be a "hand me down name"... so he was William. Which is perfect for him now, as we holler it down the garden and he pretends to not hear us...
ReplyDeleteSo Elliott or Aidan or Max from me :)
I'd had a name for a boy ever since I was a little girl as he is named after my Dad - My Dad was John Samuel and my Boy is Samuel John (My OH had no say!!)
ReplyDeleteFor my girl we struggled & had 2 names Lauren or Jasmine that we both agreed on - after she was born I asked the midwife and she choose Jasmine & it really suits her.
If I had another boy I like Alfie, Zac, Freddie, Archie or Marti
@kikicomp
My first son was always going to be called Finlay. I've always love the name and you don't hear of many Finlays. It also means fair haired warrior which suits because he has a mop of blonde hair. Don't know about the warrior bit yet though.
ReplyDeleteMy husband wanted to name our first daughter CJ, and I was on a Cecily, Romilly, Orelie thing at the time, so we picked Cecily and spent THREE HOURS trying to decide which J to go for (like there are so many!!)That was all long before she was even conceived and we never changed our minds. I added Olivia because I could: Cecily Jean Olivia has a nice ring to it.
ReplyDeleteAnnabel was much harder that in the end, when we were at stalemate, I asked Cecily to say Annabel and Violet (DH and my favourite.) She laughed at Violet, but said 'A-bell' so that was that. And I added Grace because I could, and because she had to have three names because her sister did: Annabel Violet Grace
If she had been a boy she'd have been Theodore Wilbraham Grafton, Teddy for short. I'd say they both escaped unscathed.
Mummywalker,
ReplyDeleteThere are 3 Finlay's in Sonny's class and one in Biba's!
These names are all fab people - keep them coming.
People always say what great names we chose for our two but they kind of chose themselves. A very long story cut short, I first met my now husband whilst stood outside the Zara store in York, we then went straight to Oscars bar for a drink. Hence Zara and Oscar lol
ReplyDeleteWhen I was pregnant with Monty we didn't know if he was a boy or girl so we had 2 boy names and 2 girls names. Monty came from (cringe) an episode of Grand Designs where this eccentric, charismatic creative dude (obviously called Monty) was building the quirkiiest of houses. Straight away i loved the name. And we shorten it to Mo. When he was born he did not look like a Flynne (the other name we had for a boy) he was my little Mo straight away!
ReplyDeleteI also love Rudy, Sonny and Elwood (shortened to Woody.)
My eldest daughter I wanted to name after a good friend at work but wanted something a bit different, friend called Sharron, so I called daughter Sharron-Ann, and when she started school 8 of the 11 girls in her class had names with -Ann as part of it. Didnt have a boys name for her.
ReplyDelete2nd born was Paul Andrew Malcolm the whole time I was pregnant - didn't suit daughter when she was born and we couldn't decide so stuck 6 names we both liked onto a hat the day before she had to be registered and Louise came out so that was what she was names, her sister of 18 months couldn't pronounce it and called her wees, and wheeze she did, asthmatic from months old so suited her.
Then when no.3 was due the girls picked Scott for a boy and Suzanne for a girl, and Scott says he's glad he wasn't a girl!!
Hubby and I always loved the name Ethan - we even picked it separately before we met if that makes sense. A girls name was a little more difficult, we ummed and arhed for ages but I loved Freya and it went beautifully with our surname.
ReplyDeleteWe had a baby girl :)
Ethan is still on the cards if we have a boy next time (if we have another one) even though Dannii Minogue stole it ;)
I also think Alfie, Oscar, Charlie and Evan are lovely.
My son is called Harvey and I love his name! I like Louis and Fabian for a boy too but I went on to have three girls after Harvey so I never got to use them! Choosing names is so tricky! And I agree, it has to be something that you really really love! x
ReplyDeleteOur two boys are Jasper (3, would have been Matilda) and Arlo (9 months, would have been Molly or Beth or Clover or Daisy)
ReplyDeleteBoth times found it easy to pick girls' names but not boys' names although we ended up not requiring the former.
ReplyDeleteOur boys' names are very traditional. Slight off-the-wall one is youngest's middle name - Jude.
We didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl when my son was born he was "baby boy Lancaster" for a few hours. We had a girls name sorted but two boys names - Hugo or Woody - we went for Hugo Edward. I love his name is different without being wacky. My girls name eventually had an owner 2.5years later when Grace Eloise safely arrived.
ReplyDeleteWe called our first Ethan too - strong solid name - but mainly, like u cos of 30 something and dead poets society where i fell in love with Ethan Hawke. We went for Bailey for no. 2 son - this came from party of five - shallow I know but I did think it was a lovely soft name and with 2 boys thought it's nice to have a more 'pretty' (if I can say that) name. Still love both and apart from the grandparents who were never sold on Bailey I get loads of compliments about it. Good luck to your friend.
ReplyDeleteThese are great. I bet there are lots of 20 year old Ethan's around!
ReplyDelete#1 (a girl - Rachel) was chosen whilst as high as a kite on gas and air. My original suggestions were rubbished by the whole family.
ReplyDelete#2 (a boy - Michael) was the "family" names
#3 (a boy - Jake) was chosen by #1 and #2
My grandchildren are called Amie and Megan
My nephews are called Jasper and Finbar
they are all great names :-)
I really wanted to call my first son Harry, but every time I mentioned it, my husband and his mates would collapse with laughter. Apparently they were all familiar with the rhyming slang 'Harry Monk' (I'm not saying anything else), whereas I'd never heard of it.
ReplyDeleteNickie,
ReplyDeleteNo1 son has Jake as his middle name and some of the family call him EJ, though I always call him P... but that's for another story!
Keith? No, thought not. Nobody wants to call their kids Keith nowadays. Even my dad didn't want to call me Keith - and he's called Keith. But Mum overruled him. 'First-born must have father's name'. My first-born is called Tom, btw!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know I was having a girl until I was 34 weeks, which was just as well because I had no ideas for boys names whatsoever. Maybe deep down I wanted a girl? Anyway, one day the name she now has just popped into my head and I thought That's It! And it was. I later discovered it means gift from God which I think is kidda nice :)
ReplyDeleteLucas was going to be Coral for a girl or Correy for a boy. We chose Lucas as soon as we saw him. It comes from a character in one of my favourite books by Kelley Armstrong. Tyler didn't have a name until a few days after he was born. We like Logan but Tyler stuck. Not sure where that came from. x
ReplyDeleteWith J I never knew what he was, girl or boy, so we narrowed our lists down to 3 girls names and 3 boys. This time around I have a middle name already but I think what we'll do is have a short list of names we like, I've always believed in naming them once you've met them. With J i just knew he was a Jason and in my post birth almost dying stage his father came into the room and I wanted to discuss names and after he saw how close he was to losing me he let me choose! Hoping I get my way this time too!
ReplyDeleteI had Morgan for Sophie but my Mum talked me out of it and chose Sophie I was too tired to argue so she is Sophie-Charlotte if she had been a boy she was to be Caleb, so it was a given when I had a boy 11 years later he would have that name. If I have another boy I want Roman and a girl Angel. I like different. lol>
ReplyDeleteHere in Greece it generally goes like this: if the first child is a boy, he's named after his grandfather from his father's side..If it's a girl she can be named after her grandmother from either sides, witch can be tricky sometimes :) I have an only son, Konstantine, taken from my late father-in-law and I'm pretty happy with it. Otherwise I'd go for something picked out from mythology.. :)
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is Rosalind, named for Rosalind Franklin, who co discovered DNA. Big shoes to fill! My son is Bjorn, which is Danish for bear. His dad is danish and we live in california where our state animal is a bear. Love your names!
ReplyDeleteMy little girl's middle name is very unusual and was chosen by my OH when he was 3. He named the bump that was to become his little sister Plum - his mum and dad decided to go with Helen instead, but when he told me this story I fell in love with it! Her first name, Ella, was chosen by powers of persuasion/manipulation. He hated it and I loved it, so I would suggest more and more ridiculous names, and drop Ella in there occasionally until he agreed that Ella was, in fact, the perfect name.
ReplyDeleteBoys names, I feel, are much more difficult to choose. I like Arlo, Frankie, Dylan and Theo x
Probably going to sound a bit shallow but I fell in love with an Anya Hindmarch bag in my third trimester. Thats when I had a lighbulb moment - I loved the name Anya. I'm Indian, husband is British. We wanted an Indian name but something quite international too, if that makes sense. The name Anya is Indian but also international and we loved it so that was it.
ReplyDeleteas you know, if i ever have another girl, i shall be calling her Biba. I love that name. xx
ReplyDelete