Is there a name that you've always liked? I've always been partial to Veronica for a girl and Holden for a boy.

Do you like your name?

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Answers

After reading that entry, I'm leaning strongly towards Weldon and Martinique. Is it all right if I name my children after your house sitters?

I liked my name until I found out it was only slightly less common than "Mary Smith." My first and last names are a very popular combination -- I get e-mail at least once a month from random people looking for an ex girlfriend or old friend with the same name as me. (I even had a woman who searching for her birth mother.)

Jeremy doesn't want kids, but if he hypothetically had one he wants to name his daughter Lenore. But he won't let me name a daughter Tabitha Catherine -- "No child of mine is going through life named Tabby Cat!" Clearly, we're hoping for a goth.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

I love old fashioned names for kids. So the girls' names so far are ...

Harriet, Isabel, Annabel, Emily and Niamh (pronounced 'Neve'). The boys' names are ...

William, Patrick, Oliver.

I only want a couple of kids, so at some point there's going to be some tough decision-making.

Tristan and I aren't planning to get involved in this baby caper for a good few years yet. I'm not hugely maternal - I hold babies like they're unexploded bombs - but I'm sure I'd be different with my own (or heaven help the poor little bugger).

My older sister now has four daughters (Katharine - Katie, Claire, Jaime and Olivia), and each time she was pregnant she asked my younger sister and I for name suggestions. We both flatly refused to help, as we wanted to save the good names for our own children.

You're right, Pamie. Keiths are dicks. I had an ex-boyfriend called Keith who was a complete waste of space, and my Uncle Keith is one of my more objectionable relatives.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Horatio and Hepzibah. There is no question. Children must be given silly medieval names.

I've always liked my first name... but my middle name is something that I am only now learning to accept.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Never met a decent Keith, or a decent Scott for that matter.

Had a boyfriend once named Blake - really liked that name until we broke up.

I've always liked Nathaniel for boys.

My favorite girl's name is Aurora.

But for sheer creativity - here goes - traditional names in my family have been Ruby, Diamond and Pearl for girls, and Ezekiel and Zorobabel (! no kidding!) for the boys.

I've always wished I'd been named something different... you might get teased but that's better than having 4 Jennifers in a class of 16.

Jennifer

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

When my husband and I met (almost 10 years ago, yikes!)we had one of those "what will we name the children" conversations. The name that we both latched onto was Gage for a boy. We are both HUGE Stephen King fans and this is the name of the little boy in "Pet Semetary". We never told anyone because we didn't want anyone else to use it first. Well 5 years later when our son was born we did indeed name him Gage. He's almost 5 now and I still love the name every single day. It's strong and masculine. It means "a promise" in French which I also thought was cool. It's a good thing though that we didn't have a girl because we ABSOLUTELY have different tastes in girl names, we couldn't even compromise on anything!! We have two more boys names picked out (which we don't share) but are not having anymore children. One is definitely enough in our family!

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

I always thought it would be ultra-cool to name a boy "Holden," too...until that "Friends" episode. "Holden McGroin."

When (if) I have children, I'll want to name them something out of the ordinary _enough_...but then you have to be very careful with how far you take it, of course. You don't want them to be made fun of in school and stuff. It's really a fine line, you know? Plus, I'll have to clear names through my husband, so it just gets even harder to do. I just don't want to have a John or Michelle (no offense to anyone; they're fine names, just too popular). But I don't want the scrutiny of others with a Rock or Winter.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

If I ever have a girl (it could happen) her name would be Zoe Sage...

I already have three boys: Sterling Kyle, Christian Chase, Miles Sebastian

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Oh, I almost forgot...

My brother had a baby girl this week and of all things they named her Shiloh Shallom. Kinda shocked me since her brother and sister are Sarah and Jake.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

I hate it when you find a perfectly good name and some person in the world with that name comes into your life and ruins it for you.

I've always loved the name Warren...until high school when I met a Warren who turned out to be a big prick. (He dated my best friend, then told her I slept with him to get her to turn against me.)

Other than that, I've always loved Brandon, or Brendan, or Bryant.

For girls, I've come to love Hildegarde.. which is a joke nickname my friends dubbed me. We all picked obnoxious nicknames for each other. But now, I find it endearing. You could call her Hildey, or Hilda, or Hilde. =)

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

There is nothing wrong with the name hunter. That is what my mame means. My all time favorite girls name is Chelsea (long before Clinton was president) and I don't have a good name for a boy. Although my brother was almost named Seth Thomas for the clock in my mom's delivery room.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Okay guys, I have a question.

Now, I love the name Austin for a boy. Not as in Austin Powers (actually, I hadn't thought of that until just now) but I thought that Austin for a boy sounded like such a strong, mature, confident name. Austin.

Austin.

Now my boyfriend argues that Austin could be appropriate for a boy or a girl. He says, "Well, if we named our daughter Austin, that would be really cool because it's not a typical girl name - and - it could go both ways for either our boy or girl."

Help me out. What do you think Pamie? Anyone?

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

My favorite names? You must understand. I was named Amy in 1973. Do you have any idea how many Amy's were born in 1973? It was me, Jennifer, Jason, and Michael. Anyway, now I'm partial to unusual, or interesting names such as:

Girls: Avalon, Nimue (Nihm-oo-way), and Fionnula (Fin-oo-la) Boys: Liam, Declan, and Devin

I once read in a baby book that when you pick strange or unusual names for your future children, it means that you aren't ready to have kids yet. The more traditional or "normal" the name is, the more ready you are.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Austin was the name of my first Cabbage Patch Kid. Actually he was named Chris Austin, but I always thought that was kind of cool.

Much better than my sister's Cabbage Patch Kid: Dorian Monte.

Then there was Idalena Ashley and Claire Monte.

All things considered, Chris Austin got off mighty lucky.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

I've always really liked my name, though the inevitable 'Laurie' as a nickname can be a problem, as well as people calling me 'Lauren' and 'Laura' ... My sister's name is Colin, which is a gender crossover, and it works. It's a tough girl name, but not so weird as to elicit stares and nudges.

I like Nathaniel for boys, and my boyfriend seems set on naming any daughter of his Anastassia.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

This is SO UN-hypothetical for me, since I *am* pregnant... and there are SO many things that I've thought about in regards to naming our child.

Do I want him/her to have a "normal" easy name that they won't get teased for?

Do I want to give them a strong, spiritual name?

Name them after someome?

Name them something completely boring, since they'll prolly change it when they're older anyway! (Like I Did! Ha!)

Jake's views on it are:

In regards to the spiritual name: We don't want to place too many expectations on the kid. I agree with this, so we're prolly going to come up with a spiritual name as a MIDDLE name.

In regards to naming them AFTER someone: "I do NOT want to name them after someone." (Both his first and middle names are his grandfathers. They're fine people, but I guess he just wanted his "own" name all this time. =)

And in regards to anything else - Unfortunately, we haven't really talked about it too much.

I brought up Jesse at one point, because it's a good friend of ours, and it would work for a male or a female, Jesse or Jessica (Shortened to Jessie.) But then we fall into the "Naming after someone" category.

It's REALLY difficult for me to think about this, because, even though I'm 25, I've never thought about what I would name my child. I never thought I would have one. I *was* on the pill, and I still got pregnant. So, this was unexpected, and we are caught off guard in SO many ways. Names are just one of them.

Maybe we should start a: "What should Jolene & Jake name their kid?" Poll. (=

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Is it my imagination, or are there only women posting today? Is this a subject that interests women much more than men?

How about Doppler?

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

In case anyone needs to hear it, Dennis Miller has a son named Holden.

I always figured any kid raised by me would require a name an old name, like Penelope or Agnes or Henry or Oscar. If my kid decides to do something high profile, like an actor or musician, it'll give him/her an easygoing image.

But if s/he decides to do something more humble, well, it's mean streets if you're a tobacco-chewing, gapped-tooth postal worker named Tiffany. (But I'm thinking that for those of you who are Texans, this is a mainstream image, so don't pay attention to anything I say.)

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Doppler? Like Radar?

That'll be a name from M*A*S*H Babies, the all-new TV show for kids! Let's see, you'll have "Doppler" O'Reilly, "Hubble Telescope" Pierce, "Trapper-Keeper" John McEntire, Frank "Save The Ferrets" Burns, "Dental Dam" Houlihan...

Sorry, I'll stop now.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

...taylor used to be my name of choice for either a boy or a girl...but now since i have a dog named taylor, the whole thing is ruined....so if i ever have kids, it'll be back to the drawing board...

...OH and you should name your child "eleanor"...only the most amazing people are endowed with the privilege...in fact, word on the street is that you now have to submit an application...

*smirk* ...if you ever did, she'd most likely be bitter about it until reaches the "it's cool to be unique" phase of her life...until then she'll scream at you for not calling her "jennifer"...okay, so that was me...

...by the way, i liked "L-M-N-O-P"...nice one...

cheers, e.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

...and the theme song would be, "Diaper Rash Is Painless..."

Sorry. That was BEYOND uncalled for.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Okay. I think Olivia Jayne is absolutely the prettiest name for a girl. "Olivia" isn't a name you hear very often. Plus, the middle name is not only my aunt's, but also one of my best friends.

Travis, however, hates that name. If we ever have children, I'm going to name it while he's passed out on the emergency room floor.

However, we have compromised on Erin Christine.

I picked out the name "Anna Kinn" a long time ago, only to find that it's frickin' Darth Vader's name. Geez.

I've always thought Ryan Christopher was a good name for a boy. That, or Douglas Michael. I love the name Troy Thomas.

I will never name any of my children "Brittany" or "Tiffany". Every child I've met named Brittany (or Brittnee, Britny, Britaney, Britni) or Tiffany (or Tiffeny, Tiphani, Tiffny, Tiffinee) has been the spawn of Satan.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

...you see, and, they would all live in a camp run by Colonel Pottie (or maybe Kernel Pottie, depending if they've started feeding him the creamed corn or not...)

I guess it isn't too soon to refill that prescription

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

When I was 13 or so I had a list in my diary of the first and second names of each of the 27 girls and boys I planned to have. There were names like 'Randy Todd' and 'Candy Chloe' and 'Tommy Rudy' and 'Chachi Rene' and 'Coco Vinnie' and 'Angel Zoe'. Eeek! As you can tell, I've always had a taste for the tarty / trashy names. Names for a kid you hope might grow up to be a prostitute or a pimp!

I remember these names, 'cos I am looking at the diary right now (gawd I was such a teenybopper - it's plastered with pictures of a million of the spunky boys I so adored and it's overflowing with a thousand ribbons and feathers and stickers and pressed flowers and bright girly texta drawings. Ooh look - here's a loveheart surrounded pic of Ricky Martin in his early Menudo days! Ah, nostalgia. But I digress).

Anyway - I'd update the list regularly, I graduated onto names like Felixa and Galaxy and Tempest and Jamaica (and for boys : Biff and Spike!). I loved the names so much I look them on myself (always one to adopt a few aliases)! Especially 'cos I wasn't sure that I could name a daughter Jamaica cos my friends told me she'd get teased : 'J'make her' cum? Or Ophelia - can 'Oi feel ya' tits? Hmmm...

I still use one of those aliases on-line (Jamaica). Not because I don't like my real name though. I like my birth name OK. It's Joanne (well only my parents call me that and only when they are mad at me - most people call me Jo). Although, I'd prefer it to be Josephine. I like Josephine a lot.

So anyway the names I like now (and I have since given up the idea of 27 kids thankyou very much):

for a boy: Benjamin, Sasha, Sam, Francis, Joe, Billy. for a girl: Serafina, Josephine, Betty, Nina, Sally, Cherry, Jessica, Daisy.

Some of those names, like Betty and Sally and Daisy, were on my original lists amongst the Chachis and the Candys... I have always liked names from the 40s and 50s.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

I think the idea that if you are thinking of naming your kids something weird and unusual means you are not ready for kids is a solid idea. Here's the true test: if you are thinking of naming your child "Starshine Happiness Jones," or some equivalent, just think about ol' Star when she tries to move up in the business world. "Hello everyone. I am Starshine Jones and today I'll be talking about trickle-down economics..."

Names can be a curse. Naming your child something all hip and freaky makes it all about YOUR image - not the kid's! I think using family names is a beautiful idea - it makes kids feel connected to their heritage and their family.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

I have to make some sort of public statement about the name Keith. My only son is named Keith and if I can help it he will never drive a Jeep, nor will he be a jerk (and I am fighting some strong genetic predispositions here, but I think that I can overtake them). He is a wonderful eight year old boy, especially considering he lives in a house with three women.

My daughters are Meredyth and Emily. Oddly enough, these names suit them. Meredyth was the only girls name my ex and I could agree on. Emily was a choice advocated by my mother and since I liked it, it was a go.

Dawne spelled with an "e." I was terrified of the first day of school and substitute teachers. My name was always mispronounced. Any variation you can think of, I was called it.

It has been known to happen now, too, but I better at coing with it.

dawne whose middle name is ardyth and we won't even get into that http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/5991

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Doppler! Good stuff. How about Hubble? Or Defcon.

Canyonero! There's a name that NO ONE will get!

Here in Washington, there's a Congressman named JC Watts (who I can't stand) but his NAME is the ass-kickingest name of all time -- Julius Caesar Watts!

My friend Joel and I vowed to name our sons that:

Julius Caesar Schmeltzer, and Julius Caesar Finkelstein

Also there is Sargent Shriver who has a cool name, but I'm gonna best him one.

My other son will be named General Schmeltzer.

I went out with this girl once in High School named Dianne Offenberg and we planned to meld our last names for our child and name him Abercrombie Schmeltzenberger.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Boy: Angst Mueller Girl: Vadar Delilah

http://www.babynamer.com which ranks how popular the name is.

Delilah comes in 1095th. Surprisingly, Vadar isn't ranked at all.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

When I get married my last name will be "Simpson", ick. It's hard to find a good first name for that. I love the name Genesis but that doesn't work. My fiance loves the name Sebastian, doesn't work either. We settled on Hunter for a boy. I wanted Olivia until my brother stole it from me 2 years ago. My other favorite name for a girl is Avery but a friend pointed out that is a typical African- American boy's name. Oh, well I have a year or two to get it together still.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Morgan -for a boy or a grrl!

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

It is a fact known only to attorneys who practice juvenile dependency law that all children named Brittany, Tiffany, and Ashley eventually wind up being taken away by Child Protective Services. They eventually turn into In re Brittany M., In re Tiffany R., and In re Ashley B.

It also happens to boys named Michael, but as far as I can tell, 97.2% of all boys are named Michael, so there is probably nothing conclusive there.

I'm not having children, so I just have to use up all the good names on pets. Although I'm not sure we would have actually named a son after Doc Holliday.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Looking through that baby names url I listed above I found a most interesting feature. When I searched for my name it also came up with a list of teasing nicknames or "baggage" associated with that name. I think that they must have people write in with nicknames.

Nicks for Pamie because I'm just mean that way:

Teasing Nicknames:

Spam - May be used in reference to a canned meat product fed to soldiers during WWII.

Cooking-spray Pam - Used in reference to an aerosol cooking spray used for non-stick cooking.

Pammie Wammie

Pammie Lammie

Wham Bam Thank You Pam

Associations:

In the slang of African-American slaves, ''Pammy Christy beans'' referred to magic beans.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

I have a pretty unique name and I've always really liked it, I never was made fun of growing up so I've got a good attitude towards different names. I don't want to get too weird though, kids can be mean as it is. I decided Maxwell or Miles for a boy and Anise or Julianne for a girl. When my boyfriend and I have those hypothetical baby names conversations, he always throws out really boring family names he wants to use. Blecch.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Oh, like I haven't heard spamela or spam. I also get pama, alapama, Encyclopedia Pam, (once when I had a really bad cut on my face) Scarface Alcapam, Pamula, Pamela Anderson

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Amy T.,

Your name will be Simpson??? Geez, that's too easy...

Homer Marge Lisa Bart Maggie Grandpa (Abe)

or you could go, Orenthal James

Damn, how funny would it be to name your kid OJ Simpson? Might as well name him Charlie Manson. I read a story about a guy in Berlin named Adolph (with a ph) Hitler. Damn, THAT sucks.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Not hypothetical question since I have three children and they all have names.

Eldest is named Adam. To those of you who have little ones or who are currently pregnant... please be sure to savor every moment because time passes so quickly... It seems as if only a couple years could have gone by since he was a toddler and yet he is going to be 31 in September!

My daughter is named Gillian. She was glad when X-files became a hit so that people knew Gillian Anderson and could pronounce her name properly. (Middle name Catleen with a hard C sound... we had thought about Kaitlin or Caitlin but the rhythm of the syllables didn't seem to come out right... especially since she and her younger brother have hyphenated last name). We did not know gender in advance but we only had a girl's name selected.

My youngest is Jeremy (middle name Sean). Again, did not know gender in advance, but we only had a boy's name picked out.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

well i have always liked my first name. there weren't too many sabrinas in the early 70's. sure i got the occasional are you a witch (sabrina the teenaged witch) to which i responded with a f-you look "uh gee.. every single time i hear that it STILL makes me laugh" then i turn around and walk away.. un original bastards... but i digress..... i have a 4 year old daughter who i swear to buddah was supposed to be a boy. we only had a boys name picked out Christian Tyler but of course she was a girl. i had said that i was NOT going to have a girl because they are too high maintenece (periods, dating, clothes, emotions, weddings.. BLAH) so there we were with an unnamed baby girl on our hands. we could not agree on anything. i like ariel but he said that it reminded him of the disney movie which is also why aurora was nixed. we liked Kaitlyn, that is until we found out that the 3 other little girl born that day were Caitlyn, Kaitlin, and Kaytlin... groan. so i brought up my cabbage patch kid's name.. Coral Zarah and i got this "uh put the crack pipe down" look. so then it was on to celebrity's names. we were on this melorse place kick and i have had this thing for Alyssa Milano since the Who's the Boss days (uh anyone else remember Teen Steam!) so she was named Alyssa Kathleen (kathleen after my friend from high school who was the nicest person i have ever met in my entire life). I teach high school now, but i used to teach elementary school and i must say i have yet to meet a Nicholas (nick) who wasnt a huge pain in the ass. Damon's also tend to be on the punkass kid side. as for girls... heathers and michelles have always been beauty queens who are completely manipulative. i dont plan on having anymore kids, but if i do, i think maybe a name where the kid could find his/her name on a mini license plate or mug would be cool. i always had to special order mine. it was totally disappointing when my whole sixth grade class with a 2 jeffs, 4 michaels, 2 michelles, 3jennifers and a series of other "normal" names had personalized pencils and i had to carve my name into my plain old number two lead one. sigh

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Baby names? Not really sure what I'd name my future kids. But a friend at work told a story about someone she knows who teaches elementary school - kindergarden, I think. On the first day of school, she was going through the class roster and calling out everyone's name. Well, she ran across one that was spelled SHITHEAD. Obviously, she was floored by this and didn't want to say that in her class. So she skipped it and at the end of the roll, she asked if she had missed anyone. Well, this little girl raised her hand. The teacher asked what her name was and she replied SHU-THEE-UD.

Wow. Poor little girl is going to be teased a lot someday. What were her parents thinking?

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Hey, if you name your boy "Hunter", you could then name your little girl "Gatherer."

Oh, I slay myself.

I've also been trying to convince pregnant friends of mine to consider naming their kids "Obadiah" but so far noone has capitulated. One couple did name their kid after me--that's very cool and it insures that she'll always get lots of presents from me (I'm also her godmother, poor kid).

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

Geez, I haven't heard the "Name-Your-Kid-OJ" joke for HOURS! But I think it would be kinda funny for the teacher to call on OJ Simpson and this very white, very blonde, very blue eyed child would stand up :P

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

I am extremely partial to very unique-seeming names. Two I have picked out for (far) future usage are Eustasia for a girl and Svidrigailov for a boy. They will probably end up being used for cats, but you never know.

In my experience, the more colorful the nickname, the more popular the kid. I think many colorful nicknames can come out of both.

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

When I got pregnant I thought that if I had a boy he would never have a name...I hated EVERYTHING out there....but finally hit on Nicholas Alexander. I like grownup sounding names on little kids..."Nick" sounds like an adult name...think it's kinda funny. He was going to be a Roxanne if he was a girl...hhhmm..not sure of THAT anymore. I would NEVER give a child a name that is commonly spelled one way, and spell it another though...I have a sister who is Lucie...and no one has ever spelled it right, though you can't blame them really...My husband tried to talk me into Nicholas with a K in there somewhere...no way. We have five girls in my family..Emily, Dorothy, Laura, Lucie and Allison..I think my parents did a good job with finding names somewhere between obscure and super common. I don't plan on having any more, so that was my one shot at choosing another human being's name. I think that getting to choose another person's name is a pretty cool thing to get to do! (and that it shouldn't be taken too lightly...)

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1999

The following names (in no particular order) currently reside in my "Names That I Like" file on my computer:

aynn, skye, eoin (owen), zoe, ani, aisling (ASH-ling: vision or dream), kaitlyn, eden, abi, addison (adyssen), truth, ashlen (ashlyn), autumn, dakota, liam, galen, summer, rhi (rhianne), montana, loe (el-oh-ee), sabrie, moriah, colorado, theryn, gemma, ashton, aden, ciaran, laric, elli, tristan, eytan . . .

How many are actually potentials? Who knows, but I think about names a lot.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 1999

I like Doppler. Ooh, what about Dobler? as in Lloyd Dobler? Then he could grow up to be a super cool kickboxer (Billy would be proud) who refuses to buy, sell, or process anything.

My girlfriend hates her name- Courtney- because it is usually assigned to one of three bouncy little SUV-driving snots, the others being Brittany and Tiffany. Of course, for some reason I've always dated girls whose names ended in an "ee" sound. My friend Maynard (yes that's a girl's name) always teases me for this, saying it's a subconscious desire to have our names sound cutesy when said together.

Personally, I think you should name the kid something that could be respected as an adult (Charles, Helen, etc.), then give them a really cool nickname to get through childhood (Knuckles, Bruiser, Freebleeder). Or you could do the alliteration thing, since if you take Eric's name you would be Pam Peterson. Then you could have the kids be Paul and Patty. Of course, Eric would have to change his name to fit. Maybe you could all just call him Pops.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 1999

You will notice the pattern here but my favorite names for girls, which have all been cleared by my fiance are (he really likes the Italian ones since he's Italian):

Cecilia (favorite), Ophelia, Delia, Lilia, Irena, or Anastasia. Cecilia Anastasia was supposed to have been my name (my Father chose it) but my Mother went ahead when I was born and named me Danuta. Yippy-skippy =(

I'm not very good at the boys' names, but I always liked Dameon. My fiance had this obsession with naming his son Coty or Casey (ugh) but I was very relieved one night when he suggested we name our first born son after my deceased brother, Peter Andrew. That works for me =)

I like the name I was given but only if pronounced correctly. I don't like how Americans say it (DUH-NEW-DUH) but rather how it should be pronounced (DAH-NEW-TAH). And I always stress that my middle name is spelled with a "K" and "2 Y's" (Krystyna). heheh I'm so anal about it. But yeah, I like my name when said correctly, which is hardly ever, so I rely on the nickname Donna. It works pretty well.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 1999

Tristan has mentioned wanting to name a son Connor. As our surname is Collins I think that sounds really dumb - Connor Collins. (I don't like the name Connor anyway).

I really like Gabriel for a boy, and Tristan likes it too. I did like the name George, but my mother just named her new kitten that, so I could hardly use it for a child now. I may still reserve Georgina, though.

I like girls' names that have boy name abbrieviations - I always have been 'Jac' to my friends and family. So I could always pop a couple of girl sprogs and called the Harriet and Georgina ... Harry and George. (There's a very good chance I'll have twins, due to the genetic make-up of my extended family, so this double naming is not just idle spectulation).

Actually, that sounds like I'm up the duff. Which I'm not. Thank God for that.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 1999

Also not hypothetical for me, since there's 3 little buggers running around... We called them (in randon order) Addison Christopher (my middle name is Robyn - next there's piglet & eyore) ;-) Sarah Providence (got some flack for the middle name) Meaghan Leigh (we just went spell crazy) She's six, and you should see her roll her eyes & sigh whenever she has to stop and spell it for someone.. We never had names picked out for the girls, after they were born, that's who the looked like, strangely enough. We did have Sarah's middle name picked out before hand. We (Ron and I) have some names in reserve "just in case", although I hope its not likely.. Levi (honest) Nuala (Noola) anything remotely Gaelic, and any name that doesn't belong to someone we know... We partial to the more unusual ones, and 16th century ones..

-- Anonymous, July 29, 1999

I have one of those last names you have to be careful of when naming your child. Anything with a "y" on the end that doesn't have at least three syllables sounds odd. "Amy Cleary" "Ivy Cleary"

Also, I can't name my kids "Crystal Cleary" or "Louden Cleary." Which is a shame.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 1999

I keep finding links in my referrer logs from this baby names site that links to people with a particular name. I get hits for Xeney. Based on my hits, at least two people every day actually consider naming their child Xeney. I hope my site scares them out of the idea.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 1999

I was lucky I was not a boy because the folks (though mostly my father) had settled on Angus, could you imagine!!!

I don't have many choices for kid's names I guess because the thought of me having a kid seems too far away. But I would like to ask all future parents to think ahead when naming your child. Take my nephew for instance, His parents (my STEP-sister and her husband--I had to make it clear I am not related to these people)named him Brian Junior and the call him BJ which in it's self is bad enough but then you add his last name to it you just want to cry for the boy. BJ Seamans

-- Anonymous, July 29, 1999

Names... Yes I'm a Michelle, born in 71, when there were millions of Michelle's joining the population... and I wasn't even fortunate enough to have it spelled Michele.. the more "unique" way in my opinion...

In spite of this.. I still like my name...

Shelli was my nickname growing up.. and my family still calls me it.. but it's the memories of "shelli smelly" on the school playground that resulted in my forcing "Michelle" as my name in high school...

The hubby and I want children.. and have started talking names... for girls I have a couple that I really like:

Meaghan Michelle (michelle is a great middle name), Madison, Morgan, I always like Tayler, but my dad named his youngest daughter Tyler.. and I think that they are just too similar... I do like Autumn and Hunter and a few other similar names

it's the boys names where I have trouble. My husband is John Patrick, John for his father, and Patrick for his mother Patricia. There is a family tradition of naming the first born son John and then the middle name after the mom... so we'd have John Michael.. sosoooooooooo boring! But I am all for the tradition thing... and I do think it's cool to have my son have a connection with his mom's name.

Other boy names I like are: Connor (taken), Cory (taken), Hunter, Morgan, Nicholas, Thomas..

It's hard though.. our last name is Malach, and it's hard to put a lot of names with that last name... so we'll have to just keep searching.

--shelli

-- Anonymous, July 29, 1999

My friends with the last name Grant actually named their second son Cary. Why not just go for broke and call him Ulysses S?

-- Anonymous, July 29, 1999

Molly and Caleb have always been favorites. I have no idea where the hell 'Caleb' came from. Alexander, Andrew, William, Joseph, Seth, and Michael are favorites, as well as Christine, Ashley, Louise, Elizabeth, Megan, and Anne. Since we're not having children, our cats and fish are gonna have some great names.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 1999

Despite the fact that many girls born near 1973 were named Heather (thus prompting that movie, which I like, but is not "me"), I still like my name. It's very English, flowery and romantic, things I tend to rather often. My middle name is Lynn, which I loathe. My sister is Holly Lynnette, and we always joked that a third sister would have been named Heidi Lynnelle. I really like the names Holly and Heidi, maybe even better than Heather (Holly did get the less common name, that's for sure).

Ah, what WOULD I name a child? Aliena has been a favorite for years. Aurora is pretty, too. I also like Ezri (from DS9), mostly because it's unusual. My friend Craig named his daughter Zamira Kalliope, making me wonder if that isn't true that you should wait until you like more "normal" names to have kids. If I were to go w/ a normal girl name, Kathleen Elizabeth (so I could call her Kat).

For a boy, Hunter, yes. I've alwyas liked William, though I hate Bill. My all-time favorite normal boy name is Nathaniel, and I've never met a Nathaniel that wasn't just so cute you could eat 'em up.

Then there's nature names, like River, Tree, Forest, Green, Lily, Columbine, Skye etc.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 1999

I have bad, bad luck picking out names for my future children. here's why...

I love the name Cheryl. I wanted to name my daughter, if I ever have one, Cheryl. then my (now ex) boyfriend told me that he was harboring a secret desire to become a female and he started to call himself Cheryl. how ironic is that....

so, no more Cheryl.

then, I started liking the sound of Jordan. it can be given to either a girl or a boy! it sounds sexy as a girl's name! it's also the name of my (current) boyfriend's most recent ex. I hate that girl with a passion.

no more Jordan.

I'm almost afraid to pick out baby names now.

-- Anonymous, July 29, 1999

I'm thinking Ethelbert for a boy, Beryl for a girl *evil laughter* ;-)

-- Anonymous, July 30, 1999

my daughter's name is KoDee Mainavasa (KoDee being the creation of my boyfriend - for his mother who we called Dee Dee) and Mainavasa is Samoan *like me =)*

lucky for my baby, we've never called her anything but PeeWee. that could cause a problem when she goes to kindergarten this fall, because i don't think she knows her name is KoDee and not PeeWee.

yikes.

-- Anonymous, July 30, 1999

Some of you people want your kids beat up on the playground, don't you?

Dylan Richard is my son's name. (Dylan means Son of the Sea in Welsh)

Girl: we're thinking Julianna Lee (Lee, after my wife's grandfather)

If we have another boy instead, we're a bit stuck. Noah, Kyle, Timothy..

We just don't know. I like Alexander (Lex) myself, but alas, she does not.

-rich http://www.inferiority.com

-- Anonymous, July 30, 1999

How about some funny stories on what NOT to name your kid?

My sister-in-law-to-be knew some twins named Debbie and Deborah. (Not sure of the spelling.) Neither they nor their mother was (were?) aware -- or believed -- that Debbie is the diminuitive of Deborah, and would get VERY huffy when you called them on it. "It's not the same name! I'm Debbie, SHE'S Deborah!!"

How about Shannon Doah. I swear. Two words. (Not sure of the exact spelling here either.) Acquaintances of mine named their girl child this. (What are these people thinking?)

My favorite was Fonda Peters. I am not making this up. Thankfully, she was not born with this name, but rather married into it. If it had been me, I would've kept my maiden name, no matter how sucky!

Hey Sarah, depending on your age, Angus might not've been so bad -- remember one of the AC/DC guys is named Angus, but that might've been before your time. But B.J. Seamans is unforgivable!!

-- Anonymous, July 30, 1999

LAUREL!!! I don't know if you'll see this... But if you do, know that I share your name problem. I've been called Laurel all my life by people who don't know me!

Unfortunately, I've also been called *Warren* by some people with hearing problems.

If I Had A Girl: Riley Rebecca (or maybe Reily)

If I Had A Boy: I'm not sure. Possibly Xavier. I always loved that name. Or maybe Nikolas, or maybe Westin.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 1999

More:

My uncle (by marriage) has a niece named Stormy Rhain Jake. I'm not kidding.

I have this thing about girls' first names: They -must- be 5 letters. Holly, Molly, Riley (Reily), Caite, Lucie, Lissa (Lis-sa, not Lisa), Alisa... I wouldn't name my daughter a name that didn't have 5 letters. I don't know where I got this from - I don't care how long or short the middle name is!

I wouldn't want to have a Junior, either... But I would give my son his dad's name as a middle name.

I think about these things an awful lot for someone who doesn't want kids!

-- Anonymous, July 31, 1999

Sorry! I keep thinking of new things to say. This should be my last one...

How many people in the coming years do you think will name their child (boy -or- girl) *Anakin*?

-- Anonymous, July 31, 1999

Reilly is a great name. We used to have an Irish setter named Reilly, and I've always loved it. I'd hate to tell my kid that i named them after a family pet but then i could say at least we didn't name you after the poodle( Fuzzy Butt).

Je

-- Anonymous, July 31, 1999

Lauren - I said in an earlier post that I always liked the name "Anna Kinn" until I found out that it was Darth Vader's real name. Not good.

I'm now holding out for "Ivy Kinn." I like that name a lot. :)

-- Anonymous, July 31, 1999

Speaking of funny names, my mom used to work with a lady named Gladys Panzerhoff. You kinda have to say it out loud - "Glad his pants are off" - to get the full effect.

A friend of mine knew a guy named Dewey Grocox. Again, say it out loud.

My mom's friend's sister named her twins Autumn Sky and Summer Dawn. Kinda cheesy, but I do like the name Autumn.

My dad was telling me the other day about these big rednecks that live in a town about 15 minutes away from us. They're named Larry and Mary. They have two children named Jerry and Barry. They have a dog named Trooper. They all have code names for their CB radios, and on their trailer, they have one of those burned-wood signs that reads "Lurky, Murky, Jurky, Burky, and Fat Dog."

Ah, the joys of living in Indiana.

I was reading the names of the babies entered in the baby contest last week. I am so glad my parents named me something normal. These poor kids. "Chaisey Lynae", "Blake Jacob Marcus", and the worst one of all - "Mikayla Mehanna Marie." Terrrrrible.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 1999

For a boy, Peter Slade [whatever the last name is]. I love the name Peter and I have to carry on the name Slade.

For a girl. . Phoebe? Bevin? Arwen? My friends all have cool names, damn it! I like my name too, but I'm not naming my kid Eileen.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 1999

Okay so I got stuck with a bad name and I wont even tell you my middle name cuz it sucks too but for boys I've always loved the names Sergio, Christian, and Adrian.... for girls I dont have many but I've always loved the name Kayla.. i think its a really pretty name :)

-- Anonymous, July 31, 1999

Ooh... my favorite topic these days as I already have one son and trying for more :)

My son is Cortland Oakes. My hubby picked it out and it fits really well in being a classic sounding name, but unique. Our other names we have tentatively thought of are Calvin (Cal) Ashe and Gillian Violet or Meghann Rose. Obviously our family theme is going for the trees and flowers in the middle names, plus Violet is my grandmother's name. Of course, nothing is writ in stone, so we could change everything at the drop of a hat! *G*

Names I can't stand are Jessica, Brittany, Courtney, Tiffany, Jennifer, etc... basically almost everyone I've known with these names are spoiled brats... I pretty much love any boy name though... Must be a subtle pick up on how I'm friends with more men than with women.

Annie

PS - My name Anna Kristina is ok... took some getting used to... definitely prefer the nick. I loved my maiden name though - Twist! can you get any better than that?? :)

-- Anonymous, August 01, 1999

Whoa, Eileen, too weird -- this is what my friends and I would call a "woo" -- You're Eileen Elizabeth? I'm Elizabeth Eileen!

There's more -- my husband's name is Peter!!

Spooky.

-- Anonymous, August 01, 1999

I know this topic is over and everyone has moved on but sometimes I find these things and I get stuck thinking about them for days.

MAGGIE: I missed your post - sorry. I am just waiting a few years to see how many little *Anakin*s I meet. *grin*

I got the name Riley (or Reily) from the woman who plays *Monica* on *Touched By An Angel* - I can not for the life of me remember her name right now. Anyway, in real life, she has a daughter named Reilly Marie. I stole the Riley part. And then one day I was talking to one of the girls at work about names, and she said if she has a daughter, she will name her Reilly. =-( She wasn't stealing my idea - she mentioned it first. But now if I do it, it won't be original. Everyone will think I copied her. =-(

The other girl I work with - Melody - is married to a guy who wants to name his daughter Sierra. That always has been and always will be my favorite aunt's dog's name! I can't imagine calling a kid that.

-- Anonymous, August 01, 1999

Yeah, word to the wise: don't ever name your pet something you want to name a kid! My good friend always wanted a little boy named Alex, so when she got her first pet after she went off to college, she got a kitty and named him Alex. Six months of that and she realized she could never name a kid after her cat!

Isn't it funny how some names seem doomed to have personalities that go with them? That's not exactly what I mean, so let me elaborate. For example, I don't really think Holly necessarily sounds like a bitchy name (and apologies in advance to any of you Hollys out there who I'm sure are really nice), but I have yet to meet a Holly who wasn't a stark raving BITCH. I have also rarely met a Tim that I didn't find sweet or cute in some way. I'm still waiting for the exceptions to prove these rules.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 1999

I also love Niamh for a girl - I would have used it for a pseudonym but, much like pets, you don't want to name your kid after your online name. I like Aisling ('ashleen') also.

My favorite boy's name, ever, is Kjell ('shell'), but I figure you should pick a theme for foreign names unless the parents are actually, in this case, Irish and Swedish. And I'm neither.

I don't even really want kids anyway (at least, I haven't started wanting them yet), but I like picking out names.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 1999

All my life I have been called Alli by my family. I don't think I even knew my name was Alexis until k-day. KINDERGARTEN. The mean old registrar told my mom that I had to use my real name. UGH! I was traumatized.

Then came all the "Dynasty" bs when I was in grade school. There was this little prissy girl named Crystal in my class. You can imagine where that went. sheesh

But in jr high and high school....look out. I was the only Alexis throughout the school. Then we had this foreign exchange student from Norway...he had the most beautiful blue eyes....anyway...he told me that Alexis was a sexy name. OH BABY! Ever since then I've liked it. Except when I'm in a store and hear "alexis, where are you" and some woman is talking to her 5 year old child. Oh well. I was named after my favorite aunt, as well, so that's a good thing too.

My baby names are Riley Elizabeth for a girl and Jackson Troy for a boy. God help the man that doesn't like those names. and someone help God if I don't have a boy and a girl. hehe

-- Anonymous, August 03, 1999

I had to comment on the JC Watts thing.

He's from Oklahoma, too. During the last campaign...his opponent ran this ad with a college pic of JC with this HUGE afro and with the name Julius Caesar Watts under the pic. OMG. It was so funny. I had heard the name JC Watts a lot over the years...but I had no clue what the initials stood for.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 1999

i like benjamin, patrick, owen, timothy, michael for a boy. any one of those is good. i used to like simon, but this boy named simon dissed me in high school. same goes for graham. i got dissed by a graham, too.

i like hannah and rachel for girls the most. i'm also partial to lucie (i call my friend lucie goose, which is short for lucie goose and i think is cute for a little girl), mollie, sarah and elizabeth.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 1999

I need to stick up for Keiths. I've known at least three in my life, and they were all really nice guys.

And put me down as a vote for "Doppler."

-- Anonymous, August 03, 1999

I'd like to think I have an interesting first/middle name combination: Angela Zina (Not as in warrior princess, but pronounced z-eye-na).

What's really neat is that my boyfriend has a middle name with a Z too: Michael Zane.

We've pretty much decided that if we have kids, they have to have a Z name in there somewhere. (Zachary or Zoe or something like that.) Personally, I like the names Victoria, Celeste, Claire, Alexander ) Something with dignity.

-- Anonymous, August 04, 1999

oh! and my mom always teased me and my sister that she wanted to name the two of us susquehanna and shenandoah. like the rivers. god save me. i'm glad that i'm just agatha (and people can't seem to get aggie right - it's not angie, auggie, eggie or gabby. it's not that hard, people! =)) and my sister is penelope. names you don't run across too often these days.

all the agathas i know are old. except for me.

-- Anonymous, August 04, 1999

Speaking of funny names we've known: one of my best friends in college was named April May (first and last name). We all got used to it, but whenever I mentioned outside our group of friends, I'd be asked, "Is that her *real* name?" Yes. Her parents were hippies.

I also vaguely knew a Sandy Clause. Poor dear.

-- Anonymous, August 04, 1999

As you can see, I am fond of the name Zoe. I also like the following for girls: Chloe, Emily, Audrey, Elizabeth, Anne, Isabella...old fashioned names. For boys, I am not so sure - Nathan and Alexander seem to be the only ones I consistently like.

All four names in my immediate family can be used for either gender, which is kind of unique. My parents were very concerned about picking names for my brother and I that would minimize the nickname possibilities and playground antics. I think they did pretty well - Lynn Deborah and Ryan Clark.

hee hee - all you people on here are cool!

-- Anonymous, August 04, 1999

Greets all;

First time post; fair to middlin' time reader here.

Thought I'd throw my 2 cents Cdn (1.34 cents US) into the naming forum that will not die. I think Thelonius would be a nifty name for a boy, though when we have children that name is not on the A-list. We have our names picked out already, just waiting for offspring to flourish. I am, however, sworn to secrecy by the missus not to tell them to anyone. I can tell you that Colin is not amongst them. "Hi, this is Colin Collings calling." Give a kid that handle and he'd re-enact that scene from Parenthood, where Steve Martin's son is up in the belltower with a semi-automatic weapon, shouting "You did this to me!" As an aside, J.C. Watts was at one time a quarterback in the CFL.

Cheers! Ron Collings Radishes & Gooseberries http:\\www.northco.net\~cd

-- Anonymous, August 05, 1999

I like my first name, Meredith. I'm not too partial to the rest of it. Don't tell my parents. ;) There is a family who comes to the Country Club where I work whose children's names are Austin, Olivia and Meredith. I like that. My favorite names were always Gavin, D'Arcy and Hortense. I would never call a kid Hortense, but the other two are ok.

-- Anonymous, August 05, 1999

well, i've noticed that a lot of people mentioned emily as a favorite name.

it ain't all it's cracked up to be.

i mean, it's a great name, if i do say so myself - but it's also insanely popular. i think it was in the top five the year i was born - 1981. in 10th grade, i had at least one other emily in every single one of my classes, and last year, there were THREE of us in journalism. that's why i'm emily ca. - there were two with a last name starting with the letter "c." there was another emily in my algebra class who sat diagonal to me, but she was known as ms. jones and i was emily. heheh, we were rather confused about that up until finals review for second semester. :)

anyway. just wanted to add my two cents. i just think it's very odd that a name so popular has precious few strikes against it. most emilys i know are rather intelligent, nice, and non-irritating. but c'mon.. it has a thousand variations. emilia, emilie (egh), amelia, emmeline, emma.. get creative, please! emilys like their individuality intact. ;)

-- Anonymous, August 05, 1999

Oskar, Isaac, Teodor, Ruby, Ruth, and two of my best friends and two other good friends are all named Kate (although it's derived from various longer names for each of them). I love old testament names: Ezekiel, Abram, Esther (my mother's name), and Russian names: Olga, Vladimir, Ivan,

I have an 'unusual' first name, and I like it, except for the constant mispronounciation --very little rhymed with it, and it's good to be unique. I like names which honor others, too. family members or artists or something. not that that's the only reason for the name, but it has good resonance. Malcolm will always ring true to me, for example.

-- Anonymous, August 07, 1999

Hey "trouble" -- you picked my middle name -- Abram -- It's a rare name... there are some Abrahams around but I've never met an Abram. I was named after my grandfathers -- James after my father's father (a police officer who was killed in the line of duty when my dad was a kid) and Abram after my mother's father.

-- Anonymous, August 10, 1999

I fancy 'Ashby' or 'Felix' for a male, and 'Osceola' or 'Athenais' for a female. I won't be having children, but I adore picking out names for pets, fictional characters, and online handles.

-- Anonymous, August 11, 1999

My daughter, who's 10, is Danielle Leigh. If we have any more kids, our favorite names are: Seth Forrest for a boy, and Samantha Jayne for a girl. I hated my name when I was growing up (especially the fact that everyone misspelled it), but I really kinda like it now.

-- Anonymous, August 17, 1999

Call it arrogance, but I've always liked my name, Jordan, but I do like the name Kurt, after Kurt Cobain and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. And I've always liked the names Jenna and Jessic

-- Anonymous, August 24, 1999

jordan, i like your name, too - for a boy or a girl.

i've been thinking about this lately. i used to like cameron, taylor, jordan, jaime, for EITHER a boy or a girl. cameron was my favorite for a long time. i think cam is a cute nickname.

and i forgot how much i like sebastian, too. then you call the kid sabs.

-- Anonymous, August 24, 1999

Amazar.

-- Anonymous, August 26, 1999

ok so this is a really old thread.....forgive me, I'm really bored.

For a period of about thirteen years I would have married anyone with the last name Overstreet. I always wanted to have a son named Knox.

I have also always loved Madison for a girl and Oliver for a boy. But I have no patience(and no children or need for them), and therefore I have a lab named Madison and a boxer named Oliver.

My name has always annoyed me. Misty Dawn. Let's see......you are either a stripper, a porn star, or cute. I am not a stripper or a porn star and I hate being called cute. Bleh.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2000

So far, my husband and I have only been able to agree on one feminine name, and now I'm unsure of it: Aeryn. It looks cool, but it just sounds like Erin.

Dale disclosed to me just the other day that he likes Orson. I don't think I quite like it.

I've been thinking of Carlysle for either a boy or girl, but Dale says just as a middle name.

I love 'antiquated' names like Olivia, Victor, Ruby, Lenore, etc, but Dale doesn't.

I guess it's good we're not planning on having kids for a few more years.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2000

Hey, I'm jumping on all the resurrected strings today!

My maiden name is Chase, and I am an only child, so to carry on the family name I planned to name our son Adam Chase. It's important to us that the names sound good with our last name, and that seemed to flow. Sometimes it's obvious that parents don't consider how everything will sound all together when they pick a name they like. One thing though, his initials would be ACE, which he will undoubtably end up being called, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing. Does it sound powerful, like he might become a very successful businessman? Or does it sound cheesy, like he might star in a porno flick?

For a girl, I prefer McKenzie Nicole. Call me crazy, but I think a child's name has somewhat of an effect on how they turn out. Met any cheerleaders named Gertrude? Seen any models named Bertha? Seen any suicidal girls named Katie or Kelly? Cuz I haven't. I'm not saying I would want my daughter to be a cheerleader or a model, but I don't want to put a possible curse on her outcome by naming her something that sounds like she should have a giant, hairy mole on her nose. I figured McKenzie sounded cute, upbeat and cheery enough that if she chose to be depressed, it would be a struggle.

A friend of mine named her daughter Sierra, which I thought was pretty. And Nicholas for a boy has always been a favorite of mine too, but I had to abandon it when my brother-in-law used it as his first son's middle name. Maybe that's why Nicole became my pick for a girl's middle name.

Of course, we have pretty much decided not to have children, so we may just have to get two more cats, attach the appropriate names according to feline gender, and move on to the next big decision.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2000

Art imitates life, or at least acts a precursor.

I just had a new boy last week. Kyle, first name, Briggs, middle name.

Briggs is actually my wife's madien name, but we thought it made a neat regular name, too.

-rich http://www.inferiority.com

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2000

I have always wanted to name my kids particular names. I would name my little girl Brielle Jade or Jade Brielle. And I would name my boy either Christien, Holden, or Gage. That is just my opinion. So... who knows. We will see when I have kids.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2001

I like Odessa, after my father Otis, who expected his first born to be a Jr. but suffered four girls before Jr. arrived. I've met perhaps ten people in my lifetime with my name; the last being an absolutely precious lady of 88 years, by Email. I'm 62. Don't let us be the last. If you name your daughter Odessa and I ever meet her with an opportunity to do her a good turn, you can be sure I will.

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2002