Why did you pick your child''''s name, and what does it mean?

[TravelingGal]

I know we have a ton of PS kids now, but I don''''t read the preggo thread in depth and missed a lot of the reasons behind the naming (even if the reason is that you simply liked it.) I thought it would be fun to have the PS baby names on one thread, and the reasons behind it, as well as what the baby name means.

My DD''''s name is Amelia Skye.

Amelia (pronounced ah MEHL yah) was named for a few reasons -

1. The first three letters of America (my country of citizenship) and last three letters of Australia (TGuy''''s country) = Amelia
2. I hope she has a pioneering, adventurous spirit, like Amelia Earhart (but not her demise!)

The name Amelia has two origins/meanings, but obviously I lean toward the meaning from the Hebrew version -

Origin:
Germanic

Meaning:
Work; effort; strain

Origin:
Hebrew

Meaning:
Work of the Lord

Her middle name, Skye was sort of in reference to the Amelia Earhart flying thing...and that I hope that sky will be the limit for my little girl who knows the meaning of how to work hard.

 

[TravelingGal]

LOL, wrong forum, ignore, I''ll have the mods remove!

 

[ChinaCat]

Fun thread!

My son is Oliver James Ryan A_________.

My DH came up with Oliver rather early on, and I just kinda knew that was going to be his name. But I really wanted his name to have a connection to something, so I searched around and came up with the fact that in the book Oliver Twist, the gentleman that eventually adopts Oliver is Mr. B______, which is my maiden name. Love books, love Dickens. Sold.

My DH and I also love this old story/poem about a knight named Roland. We couldn't justify Roland (though we tried) but Roland's best friend is Oliver- and Oliver is the wise, kind, brave one in the story.

Middle names: James is for my dad and it would have been my kid's middle name if boy or girl.
Ryan is the maiden name of DH's maternal grandmother.

I believe Oliver is Latin originally, and means peace or fruitfulness.

We call him O or Oliver, but not Ollie.

ETA: Other names on our list:

Luke
Henry
Dashiell (Dash)
Max
Ronan
William/Will/Liam

 

[fieryred33143]

DD''s name is Sophia Lynn.

I have always loved the name Sophia. I don''t remember when I first heard it but I had always told myself that if I ever had a girl, her name would be Sophia.

It was a battle getting the name. One of my close friends also named her DD Sofia (with an f) and FI''s cousin''s DD''s name is also Sophia (they live in Chile). No other name came close to me and every time I thought of her, I thought Sophia.

Now Lynn is an epidural decision. I don''t have a middle name (neither do my brothers) so I had no problem not having one for DD. FI wanted one. We went back and forth for months. Oddly enough, when choosing the middle name I was very picky even though I didn''t care to begin with. Her last name also ends with an A so the MN had to be something that can cut the two off and flow nicely. I threw Lynn out there as one of the suggestions but we didn''t love it, especially since it''s not a typical hispanic name.

Then I had her and with the epi still in my system they asked for her name. That should be against the rules lol. FI said "what about Lynn?" and I apparently said "yeah ok whatever"

Definition:
The girl''s name Sophia \s(o)-phia\ is pronounced so-FEE-ah.

It is of Greek origin, and its meaning is "wisdom".

 

[MustangGal]

We chose Kyle Robert. Robert is DH''s middle name, as well as his father''s first name. My parents gave my brother and I their middle names, and DH liked that tradition. We originally were leaning towards Zachary, but then I realized it was pretty high up on the popularity lists. I did want a simple name that people could pronounce, wasn''t spelled oddly, and didn''t have nick-names.

Kyle is Scottish, meaning straight of water.

 

[Jas12]

Interesting stories everyone.

We had a few reasons for Cohen
Not knowing our child''s gender we were solidly decided on a girls name, but torn b/w Colin (my choice) and Owen (DH''s choice) for a boy. Our families weren''t told about our name choices so were were debating b/w ourselves. a couple of weeks before DS was born my sister was trying to get names out of us and giving us options. She was thinking hard about it and then said "OMG i have the perfect name" : "Cohen". DH is a huge admirer of canadian singer/poet L. Cohen (as am i ) and it was a combo of the two names we were considering. We thought it must be a sign and went with it. We also thought it was super unique, but apparently due to the show the OC, it is more popular than we knew. It is also a sacred Jewish name, so we must be cognisant of this fact and teach our son of it''s other meanings.


I am kinda obsessed with baby names right now b/c with kid #2 on the way, i have NO names chosen, for either gender. I am looking for inspiration

 

[E B]

Our son's name is Henry.

Origin: Germanic

Meaning: "Ruler of the home"

We've had several people ask us if it's a family name since it's old-fashioned, but it isn't. His middle name is, but not his first.

I came across it years before I became pregnant and 'tucked it away' in my brain for future use. And when my husband and I started to TTC, I brought it up as my absolute favorite name for a boy. Absolute favorite name, period, since there isn't a single name for a girl I like as much. Husband loved it too, so baby boy became Henry.

(fiery, I think Sophia Lynn flows beautifully!)

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

We chose a short list of names we both loved, then made a final decision after she was born, when we saw what would suit her best. While I was pregnant, I thought of her as Charlotte, but when she was born, it didn''t seem to suit her so well. We went with Amelia Charlotte. Pronounced Ameelia, rather than Amehlia.

We liked the name because of the meaning (which TGal has posted). Our baby name book said it meant ''industrious'' which I think suits her. That little girl has never been still since about 20 weeks into my pregnancy. She is very industrious.

Of course, having picked out the perfect names, we now call her Spud most of the time. She also answers to Ami and Wiglet.

Fiery, I absolutely love the name Sophia, but my cousin has a daughter called Sophia, so we didn''t have it on our list.

 

[qtiekiki]

DD’s name is Meena Cecilia

Meaning of Meena depends on the origin (I think it’s mostly a Middle Eastern name):
1. Her mother’s gift – Greek
2. Precious blue stone – Hindu
3. A place near Makkah – Arabic
4. Love – German
5. Sky blue – Persian

We picked the name just because we both like it, and it goes well with the middle name. Didn’t really look into the meaning beforehand.

Cecilia is the middle name of an ex-coworker who is dear to my heart. She is a 78 years old lady, who has became like my grandma. So we named M after her.

We don’t have a name picked out for baby #2. I was considering using my grandpa’s name, Stanley, as the middle name. But DH is pretty set on a middle name already. Since I named M after someone, I am going to let him have this one.

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 12/22/2009 2:07:08 PM
Author: qtiekiki

DD’s name is Meena Cecilia

Meaning of Meena depends on the origin (I think it’s mostly a Middle Eastern name):
1. Her mother’s gift – Greek
2. Precious blue stone – Hindu
3. A place near Makkah – Arabic
4. Love – German
5. Sky blue – Persian

We picked the name just because we both like it, and it goes well with the middle name. Didn’t really look into the meaning beforehand.

Cecilia is the middle name of an ex-coworker who is dear to my heart. She is a 78 years old lady, who has became like my grandma. So we named M after her.

We don’t have a name picked out for baby #2. I was considering using my grandpa’s name, Stanley, as the middle name. But DH is pretty set on a middle name already. Since I named M after someone, I am going to let him have this one.

QT, in Korean, I think it means beautiful.

 

[KimberlyH]

We're 99% settled on the name Jane Katherine; I refuse to tell my husband it's a done deal, just in case she arrives and it doesn't feel right but I can't imagine calling her anything else at this point. I gave him a short list of girl names (the boy name was easy -- Colin Michael -- we had it picked out prior to my being pregnant and we plan on #2 and will use that name if it's a boy) and we talked them all through until we settled on this.

I picked Jane because I love it; my grandmother is Mary Jane and it's the female form of my husband's name, John, but those are just coincidences. It means God is gracious.

Katherine is my husband's deceased mom's name (so many apostrophes, I think they're all in the right place). It will be the middle name no matter what the first name ends up being. It means pure and virginial, what my husband hopes she remains until she's at least 40.

 

[cdt1101]

Ok...this maybe long

We struggled soooooo much w/ boy names. I had a long list of "rules" to follow (such as - name that can't be shortened). Well, we just NEVER could come up w/ anything that fit my rules so towards the end of the pregnancy I started seriously considering my DH's (often) obsurd names. He's a huge fan of Superman (Smallville) and Star Wars. So all of his suggestions were based on that (seriously...he told EVERYONE our son was going to be Darth or Vadar

). The only name I would consider was Lex (aka Lex Luther) mainly because I had wanted Dexter (nn Dex) so it sounded similar. But one of my rules was always that the name had to sound good on a resume and seem grown up. So we decided on Alexander Thomas (nn Lex) the day after he was born

Thomas is a family name (my dad, brother and dad's uncle all share the name), so MN was picked from the very beginning.

I just love his name now and couldn't possibly think of him being anything else but Lex. I strongly pushed for Warren throughout my pregnancy, but as soon as he arrived I just knew it didn't fit. I'm happy I took my DH's crazy suggestions into consideration, well some of them anyway

ETA: Just another note...Alexander didn't even come close to fitting my "rules." I didn't want a name EVERYONE would shorten and I didn't want a name in the top 25. It's both...and because we don't use the typical nickname we are constantly correcting people, but I love the name regardless.

 

[janinegirly]

it was a process of elimination with us. I tend to prefer French names or legacy names (family,etc). DH is not into legacy names and prefers "cutesy" and common names. I made a list of names I liked and Chloe was the only one we both agreed on. It was simply a name I was familiar with from previous friends and the fashion design line, and liked how it covered all our "likes". I'm a bit nervous about it becoming so popular, but can't have everything!

ETA DH's last name is also very long and not easy to pronounce, so the first name needed to have some simplicity. (it's the opposite with my maiden name ironically..)

 

[curlygirl]

My first daughter is Lily Marian.

For as long as I can remember, I have loved the name Lily. Ok, it probably goes back over 30 years to when I first started watching As the World Turns with my grandmother! One of the characters is named Lily and I just fell in love with it. I still watch the show and sadly have seen the name gain a great deal of popularity but I don't care because I still love it and always said that if I had a daughter, I would name her Lily. DH loved it as soon as I told him and we were sold! Her middle name, Marian, is my mother's name. My mother absolutely hates her name so she wasn't thrilled that we gave it to our daughter but I like it because obviously it ties my mom to my daughter. Also, since I didn't take DH's last name, it kind of makes it feel like my daughter has a part of "my" family in her name as well.

My second daughter is Lucy Rose.

I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't sold on Lucy but we needed another "L" name and so many of the ones we liked (Lola, Lila) had already been used by friends. It has definitely grown on me and it suits her very well. If we didn't use an "L" name, she would have been Sophie. Rose was my grandmother's name and once again, I felt the need to tie in my family to my children. It flows well too and it's a name that has been used by other cousins as a middle name for their children so I like the connection to our relatives.

When I talk about Lily and Lucy, I think of 2 little old ladies sitting around drinking coffee, knitting and gossiping. That's kind of what I'm hoping for my daughters!

 

[packrat]

We were undecided between London Jo or Ayla Jo-I was leaning towards London and JD was a little unsure b/c it''s so different. My boss at the time had a niece born named Londyn, and to me, it screams feminine. JD''d only heard of big football players named London-which strikes me as funny b/c I don''t see it as a masculine name, but anyway..Jo is my middle name, and my mom''s name is Mary Jo.

Trapper James was almost Gunnar James b/c I wanted a Swedish name. We called him Gunnar thru the whole pregnancy, up until a couple weeks before he was born. JD felt people would mispronounce it "Guh-nar" instead of "Guh-ner" so I okayed it to be spelled Gunner..plus, JD''s big into guns, so that''s fitting. But then we got to thinking about Trapper..JD''s also into trapping and hunting and fishing. I adore the name Hunter, but it''s common here, and he felt Fisher was too weird. We settled on Trapper. James is JD''s name and also my dad''s name.

Fur, Fish and Game magazine used to be called Hunter, Trapper, Trader-I told JD if we were ever to have another boy (not looking like it now tho) I wanted to name him Trader.

 

[Pandora II]

Our daughter is named:

Daisy Xanthe Pandora

Daisy - from Old English and meaning 'Day's Eye', is also a nickname for Margaret which means 'Pearl' (Marguerite/Marguerita is the version used in France, Italy etc being the latin name for the type of flower.)

I love the old Victorian flower names; Dasies are one of my favourite flowers; it sounded nice with DH's surname; it's a pretty name for a small girl but also sounds serious enough as a grown-up name.

Xanthe - from Ancient Greek and meaning 'yellow'. Xanthe was also an Oceanid - one of the 3,000 daughters of Oceanus and Tethys; is also the name of one of the Amazon warriors; is also used as an alternative name for Epione, the wife of Asclepius - the God of Medicine.

Yellow is my favourite colour; both DH and I studied Classics at school and are fans of Greek Myths; we live near water - water has always been a huge thing in my life as I have almost always lived beside it and miss it terribly when I'm not; both our fathers are medical doctors... so, lots of silly connections! It's an unusal name without being too 'out there' and is classical rather than invented; it sounds nice with Daisy and Pandora!

We actually found the name when DH wanted to find a name if we had another daughter in the future: we have Edward John for a boy and Daisy was going to be just Daisy Pandora. I started at A and DH started at Z and within 10 minutes we had decided on Xanthe Claire - then we liked Xanthe too much and decided we had to use it now in case we never had another daughter! So, now Daisy has 2 middle names and we don't have another girl's name yet!

Pandora - from Ancient Greek and meaning 'all gifts'. In Greek Mythology, Pandora of the 'box' fame was the first woman.

The myth is one of my favourites; as our 'first' daughter it seemed fitting for her to have the name of the first woman; Pandora has been my name on various forums for over 10 years now; DH and I are big fans of the Adrian Mole books, Pandora in the books becomes an MP in later life - both DH and I are heavily involved in politics.

So... lots of weird and eclectic reasons!

ETA: Despite all the above, 99% of the time we call her 'Bear'!

 

[DivaDiamond007]

My son''s name is James Emerson B_____. James means "supplanter"

DH and I did not find out the gender so we had to be prepared either way.

We knew that we wanted a strong name for either a boy or a girl so that was important to us. Neither of us like trendy or cutesy names either.

The top names on our boy list were James, Jacob or Henry. Jacob would have been after my husband''s great-uncle that passed away shortly before James was born but we decided that it was too trendy. We both really like Henry but my boss'' wife gave birth to a son and they named him Henry so we felt like we couldn''t take the name. James is a bit a family name for my husband; he has a cousin named James (goes by Jim) and on of his uncles that was killed in a tragic accident had the MN James. Neither of us associated the name with anything or anybody bad and it''s a strong name so there it was.

I found Emerson in a baby name book! We felt that the middle name could be more trendy than the first and we didn''t want anything too common so I started browsing. I found Emerson and it just sort of fit with James. DH also liked it so that''s what we decided to use. We figure that if DS is ever famous he could go by J. Emerson B_____ or just James Emerson or even Emerson B_____. It''s different, yet a bit classic and people are always surprised that it''s not a family name since it''s a bit unusual.

Also, we call James "James" and not Jim or Jimmy. We will continue to call him by his given name for as long as we can - but we''re not opposed to him going by Jim or Jimmy when he gets older if that''s what he prefers.

If James had been a girl, her name would have been Grace Elizabeth. Grace was my great-grandmother''s name and we both like Elizabeth. It''s my SIL''s middle name too.

 

[MonkeyPie]

I love this thread!

Our little guy will be Micah Asher. I had no idea when we chose the names what they meant, but I first read both of them in the Anita Blake book series and LOVED them - seperately. Then after we saw the ultrasound, we were driving to my IL''s house talking about names, and I brought up Micah again. DH never liked it much before then, so we tried to see how it would sound with a middle name, and he came up with Asher (and he has never read the books). I loved how it sounded together, and he did too, so we kept it.

Then we go to my IL''s, and they told us that both names are biblical, though not your "typical" biblical names like Michael. (My FIL is a pastor.) They absolutely love it hehe.

Micah - Who resembles God?
Asher - Happy

So he will be a happy little guy with a God complex? LOL.

 

[meresal]

Our son will be named Christopher Allen B______.

His nickname will be "Deuce", because he is named after DH(first name) and My dad(middle name).

I just got our Christmas box from my parents, and there are cute little gifts that say, "To: DH and Meresal From: Deuce"

 

[Blenheim]

George Everett.

George means earthworker/farmer. While we didn''t choose it because of the meaning, it was a nice extra as my mother''s family are farmers. We both liked the way that it sounded, and that it would grow with our son. We also liked the history behind the name and the legend of St. George and the dragon. We mistakenly thought that it wouldn''t get many unwanted nicknames because of its length, but he is called Bubba, Monkey, Georgie, Jorge, and Giorgio much more often than we had anticipated.

Everett means brave boar, and was my late grandfather''s name.

Like Ebree, we get asked quite a bit if it''s a family name. We haven''t met another little one with his name.

Kimberly - I really love Jane Katherine.

 

[waxing lyrical]

Grace Elizabeth Katherine - I liked the name Grace since I was in high school. Such a classic timeless name. Elizabeth after my childhood BFF. Plus, it goes nicely with Grace. Katherine after my great grandmother. Didn''t realize ''til after that her names are all after royalty.

Evangeline Lily Marie - Pronounced Eh-van-juh-leen. I saw it when I went browsing girls names. Loved it as soon as I saw it. I just knew it was *the* name. It also had religious meaning that I liked. We were religious then. Lily after my former favorite hymn Lily of the Valley. Marie is my grandmother''s middle name.

Duncan Lewis Garibaldi - Duncan is the last name of DH''s pops (stepmom''s dad). I like surnames. Lewis is his grandfather''s name and Garibaldi is my maiden name.

Henry Allen Greyson - Name of the main character in a prose my husband is currently working on.

 

[vespergirl]

My son''s name is Andrew Galen. I originally wanted Galen Andrew, but DH really didn''t like Galen, and we both liked Andrew - plus, when we saw him, he just looked more like an Andrew to both of us, so we switched the order of first and middle name. I had really liked the historical significance of the name Galen - he was a prominent Greek/Roman physician.

Name origins and meanings:

Andrew:
Greek and English - means "man, warrior."

Galen:
Greek - means "calm."

 

[Logan Sapphire]

DD''s name is Casey Cho. Casey because it came down btwn Caitlyn and Casey, and I thought Caitlyn was too trendy (plus that''s my cousin''s name). The nail in the coffin was that my MIL really like Caitlyn so I tried to go in the opposite direction. Cho because that''s her Korean last name, and Cho is also my Korean last name, so it''s a connection that she has with both of her mothers

.

Origin: Irish
Meaning: Vigilant in war

DS''s name will be Andrew (Drew) Bailey, b/c my DH really likes that combo for some reason.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

It was one of the only two girl names we could agree on. Haha. The other was Natalie which I still love but it is much more popular than Tessa which hurt its chances.

Origin: Greek

Usage: English

Meaning: Nickname for the Spanish name Teresa which is derived from a Greek word for "summer."

 

[Haven]

Date: 12/22/2009 4:47:47 PM
Author: MonkeyPie
I love this thread!

Our little guy will be Micah Asher. I had no idea when we chose the names what they meant, but I first read both of them in the Anita Blake book series and LOVED them - seperately. Then after we saw the ultrasound, we were driving to my IL''s house talking about names, and I brought up Micah again. DH never liked it much before then, so we tried to see how it would sound with a middle name, and he came up with Asher (and he has never read the books). I loved how it sounded together, and he did too, so we kept it.

Then we go to my IL''s, and they told us that both names are biblical, though not your ''typical'' biblical names like Michael. (My FIL is a pastor.) They absolutely love it hehe.

Micah - Who resembles God?
Asher - Happy

So he will be a happy little guy with a God complex? LOL.

Asher is my FAVORITE name in the world. There are a lot of Aschers in our community, and I''ve always loved that name.
I was pretty devastated when DH told me that he has a bad association with the name, so he would never want to name a future son Ascher.

I really like the "Asher" spelling, too. Micah Asher is a great name!

 

[KimberlyH]

Date: 12/22/2009 4:58:37 PM
Author: Blenheim

Kimberly - I really love Jane Katherine.

Thanks! We are both in love with it. My mom, not such a fan. Your little one made out with a great name as well!

 

[somethingshiny]

Our son''s name was very easy to decide upon.

His name is John Thomas. My dad''s name is Thomas John, John and Thomas are names used in previous generations of DH''s and my families. John is my favorite book in the Bible which brought me much comfort over the years that we were trying to have a baby. Lastly, John means God is Gracious and that''s exactly how we felt when we finally carried a baby.

 

[charbie]

Date: 12/22/2009 3:21:09 PM
Author: curlygirl
My first daughter is Lily Marian.


For as long as I can remember, I have loved the name Lily. Ok, it probably goes back over 30 years to when I first started watching As the World Turns with my grandmother! One of the characters is named Lily and I just fell in love with it. I still watch the show and sadly have seen the name gain a great deal of popularity but I don''t care because I still love it and always said that if I had a daughter, I would name her Lily. DH loved it as soon as I told him and we were sold! Her middle name, Marian, is my mother''s name. My mother absolutely hates her name so she wasn''t thrilled that we gave it to our daughter but I like it because obviously it ties my mom to my daughter. Also, since I didn''t take DH''s last name, it kind of makes it feel like my daughter has a part of ''my'' family in her name as well.


My second daughter is Lucy Rose.


I''ll be the first to admit that I wasn''t sold on Lucy but we needed another ''L'' name and so many of the ones we liked (Lola, Lila) had already been used by friends. It has definitely grown on me and it suits her very well. If we didn''t use an ''L'' name, she would have been Sophie. Rose was my grandmother''s name and once again, I felt the need to tie in my family to my children. It flows well too and it''s a name that has been used by other cousins as a middle name for their children so I like the connection to our relatives.


When I talk about Lily and Lucy, I think of 2 little old ladies sitting around drinking coffee, knitting and gossiping. That''s kind of what I''m hoping for my daughters!

Totally not preggo yet and no kids, but I have always dreamed of having a daughter named Lily. My grandmothers name is Lillian, and I just think it is so fresh sounding! And...I want the mn to be my moms name as well, which is Patrice. So, Lily Patrice W_____.

For a son, I told dh he can pick the name since I''m already set on the girls name, and he likes the name Wes, not Wesley, just Wes. I like it too. No mns yet, but we should have plenty of time....

 

[Arkteia]

My youngest son''s name is Peter Michael. It was a hard pregnancy, and I felt I needed "help" of a strong saint to go through it. Hence Peter. Michael is my husband''s choice.

Peter - means "stone" in Greek, in line with "colored stones" forum. Of interest, this name was not really popular until "Peter Pan" was published.

I like my son''s name because it is A) unpretentious (no teasing at school) and, B) universal - "Peter" is easily translated and the name exists in many cultures. Also, it became rare these days.

 

[Arkteia]

Date: 12/22/2009 2:49:45 PM
Author: cdt1101
Ok...this maybe long

We struggled soooooo much w/ boy names. I had a long list of 'rules' to follow (such as - name that can't be shortened). Well, we just NEVER could come up w/ anything that fit my rules so towards the end of the pregnancy I started seriously considering my DH's (often) obsurd names. He's a huge fan of Superman (Smallville) and Star Wars. So all of his suggestions were based on that (seriously...he told EVERYONE our son was going to be Darth or Vadar

). The only name I would consider was Lex (aka Lex Luther) mainly because I had wanted Dexter (nn Dex) so it sounded similar. But one of my rules was always that the name had to sound good on a resume and seem grown up. So we decided on Alexander Thomas (nn Lex) the day after he was born

Thomas is a family name (my dad, brother and dad's uncle all share the name), so MN was picked from the very beginning.

Alexander is a beautiful name, it means "a winner" or, more precisely, something like "tamer of men" in Greek. It has a long history and I consider it "royal".


I just love his name now and couldn't possibly think of him being anything else but Lex. I strongly pushed for Warren throughout my pregnancy, but as soon as he arrived I just knew it didn't fit. I'm happy I took my DH's crazy suggestions into consideration, well some of them anyway

ETA: Just another note...Alexander didn't even come close to fitting my 'rules.' I didn't want a name EVERYONE would shorten and I didn't want a name in the top 25. It's both...and because we don't use the typical nickname we are constantly correcting people, but I love the name regardless.

"Alexander" is a beautiful name. It means "a winner" or, better, "tamer of men" in Greek. Many strong men had this name, and to me it sounds royal.