Lightbulb in the middle of the night: Baby Names!

[mela lu]

Date: 1/3/2008 12:34:12 AM
Author: chicagohills
OMGosh! I have an 14 month old that I almost named Olivia Claire....too weird. We ended up naming her Socorro Claire but call her Claire. I was calling her Coco (short for Socorro) at first, but switched to just Claire. Socorro is a common name in Spain. I'm half German and half Spanish so I wanted to name her something that would show my heritage. I also have a daughter named Micah. She has such a strong vibrant personality and can really carry off a boy name. If Claire had been a boy we would have named her Max. I loved how Micah and Max sound together. My Claire is very girly and if I had known her personality before I had her I would have named her Blossom Claire.

Anyway, I love your names. Please don't let anyone bully you into a name for your little bebe. My mother did that to me with Micah, and I ended up naming her middle name after my mother... actually she did, but that's another story.

Also, there is Clairesse. You could use Claire or Reese.

hahaha. I get to have one of "these" posts:

I had to laugh....my first doggie was Mikah (spelled differently) and my cousin just named her daughter Ella Claire (so pretty).

I'm Italian, my DH is Croatian, and we have many ties to the Germanic countries in Europe... We want our kids to have original names, but ones that have relevance to us...and we WONT be bullied to change our minds

boys (so far)
Wolfgang, Romeo, (but I love Max too!!!) and a possible Andrea/Andre/Andres too (I also love Rocky, but DH is dead against it)

girls are still up in the air

 

[diamondfan]

Mela, do you like the name Claudia? I can hear it pronounced in the Italian accent and think it so pretty! I think it could work for all of your nationalities that you are working with...I also love Romy, or Remi, but not sure if that fits in at all!

 

[mela lu]

Actually I LOVE Claudia!! it's on my list (which I was holding out on yous)

Here is the full list that we would draw from (in my ideal world) for first and middle names:

Red = DH has okay'ed them
Black = yet to be veto'd
Grey = deadpanned. Totally Veto'd. Eye roll followed.

Girls:
Sofia
Ava
Maya
Bianca
Mia
Mila
Eva
Simone
Aurora
Claudia
Beatrice
Luna
Valentina
Marisol
Audrey
Danika
Nadia
Nova
Felicity

Maybe Middle names:
Lucy
Mimi
Camille
Noel (if born at Xmas)

Boys Names:
Roman
Romeo
Rocky (Rocco)
Christian
Stefan
Andre
Wolfgang
Elijah (I love old testiment names, but DH hates them)
Valentino
Orlando
Max (Massimiliano)
Isaiah
Oscar
Felix

 

[diamondfan]

I like most of those names, Mela. It will all work out, you are the one giving birth so you should have some good input!

Penn, what about Aubrey or Madison for Savannah (middle name) and Grayson or Colby for Hunter? I am having fun picking names, since my child bearing days are long over!

 

[pennquaker09]

Date: 1/4/2008 10:54:05 PM
Author: diamondfan
I like most of those names, Mela. It will all work out, you are the one giving birth so you should have some good input!


Penn, what about Aubrey or Madison for Savannah (middle name) and Grayson or Colby for Hunter? I am having fun picking names, since my child bearing days are long over!

We definitely have the same taste or something. Maybe it's the Montgomery County water or something. LOL

I think I could get away with using Aubrey and Madison as middle names. I know I don't want to use Madison as a first name, but I really do love those names. Where I'm from, it's really popular, and there is already a Madison in the family. However, I think Aubrey Grayson is kind of a cute name for a boy OR Spencer Grayson. I don't know what happened, but Spencer has really grown on me. But I told Nate from the beginning, that I would use Spencer before I ever used Nathaniel. I just don't think I could bear naming the kid Spencer Nathaniel . . . the FIFTH! Okay so funny story time . . .

Well, I'm not sure if y'all will find this funny, but I hope so. I don't know if I mentioned that I'm biracial, but my mom is African American. And one of the things that AAs are notorious for are "ethnic" names - that's the PC way of saying it. LOL My parents divorced in 1994, but I would bounce back and forth, until my mom moved to Birmingham proper. However, I stayed with my dad because we lived in the best school system is the state, or whatever. And the thing about where I grew up is that, how do I say this . . . black people didn't live in the city, they just worked in the city. My dad remarried in 1996, and at this point I was in the 6th grade in a middle school - the only black kid, sort of. I was pale back then. Okay, so my stepmom is from Hoover, and it's really hard to be accepted into Mountain Brook society if you're not from MB. And people there LIVE for the country clubs, it's quite sickening. I dunno, it's weird. My dad then decides to build my stepmother a fugly McMansion in Hoover. And for the first time in my life, I found myself in a diverse school. It was AWESOME. However, one of the things about Hoover is that it's one of the football powerhouses of the state. People will rent apartments just so their kids can play football at Hoover High School. I think that's what adds to the minority population, but I think it's a good thing. Anyway, so we move into the McMansion at the end of my 8th grade year, as I'm heading into 9th grade. In 9th grade I met my best friend, Marlena. Ironically, she has a sister named Madison. I digress. So, we're in class one day someone starts the topic of baby names. And one girl in the class goes,"My sister just had a baby and named her LaShanique`. My niece is never going to get a job." Like, I'll never forget it, but the way she said it so deadpan like, it was HILARIOUS. And the year before, one of my mom's sisters named her little girl Destiny Lexus. And then 2 years ago, she named her second daughter Breasia! (Don't name your kids after a country!)Thankfully, she named her son Andrew.

So, during Christmas, I visited my mom's family. And we told everyone about the twins and they started throwing ghetto names right and left. Nate turned to me and says, "How do you spell that?" And I looked at him and said, "I have no earthly idea." One of my cousins throws out Keyshawn or something and my mother goes, "Absolutely not. My grandchildren are going to have careers."

I just googled "ghetto baby names" and needless to say, I'm seeing a lot of the same names. I must warn you, don't drink or eat anything if you click this link. It may very well end up on your monitor.

Ghetto Baby Names

 

[monarch64]

PQ, haven''t there been studies done on ethnic sounding names and the correlation between them and how "successful" the children bearing those names grow up to be? I used to work with a AA gal who purposely named her daughter a "white" name...she wanted to make sure her daughter''s resume was never overlooked just because of her name. The ghetto baby names link is priceless...thanks for being so candid and quite hilarious.

I love the names Hunter or Spencer! I think you need a boy''s name that ends in -er...from reading your posts on this thread. I''ve never heard of Aubrey for a boy, though...is that an Alabama/southern name for males? Just curious. Love "Grayson" as well. Maybe I need to re-read the thread, but have you thought of naming either child after yourself or your partner?

 

[pennquaker09]

Date: 1/6/2008 4:24:53 AM
Author: monarch64
PQ, haven't there been studies done on ethnic sounding names and the correlation between them and how 'successful' the children bearing those names grow up to be? I used to work with a AA gal who purposely named her daughter a 'white' name...she wanted to make sure her daughter's resume was never overlooked just because of her name. The ghetto baby names link is priceless...thanks for being so candid and quite hilarious.


I love the names Hunter or Spencer! I think you need a boy's name that ends in -er...from reading your posts on this thread. I've never heard of Aubrey for a boy, though...is that an Alabama/southern name for males? Just curious. Love 'Grayson' as well. Maybe I need to re-read the thread, but have you thought of naming either child after yourself or your partner?

Yes, there have been some studies. I'll have to look that up.

When I was working at the Gap in New Orleans, there were many African American girls on staff and some of them did have some ethnic sounding names, but they were also very smart girls. One in particular, LaKeisha (I think), was a pharmacy major at Xavier and I think she ended up going and getting a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Duke. Xavier is the leading producer of African American pharmacists in the entire country and more of its graduates go on to get doctorates and other science related professional degrees than any other school in the country, if I recall.

I spent a semester at Harvard, and there I got to take some classes that we didn't have at Tulane. Classes about African American culture and history and things of that nature. At one point, Harvard had the best Afro American Studies department in the country. I got to meet Henry Louis Gates. Incredibly, incredibly intelligent man. In one of the discussion sections, we discussed to stigma that surrounds ethnic names and one person brought up that some people are attempting to give their children unique names. And true enough, a lot of the my fellow African American students at Harvard did have very unique/ghetto names, but I don't think I met one from what any of us would call the ghetto. Even amongst the minority population at Harvard, a large portion come from affluent households. The same thing can be said about Tulane. So, stereotypes definitely don't always hold to be true.

I got the name Aubrey for a boy from the Canadian show Degrassi. There is an actor on the show named Aubrey Graham and I think it's kind of cute. I don't want to pass on my name. It would be the fourth time my name was passed on. Nate's first name is where I came up with the Spencer. He, on the other hand, is very proud of his name and wants to pass it on.

I so need to go back to bed, I'm supposed to go to New York to met up with Nate's sister tomorrow. I just can't sleep to save my life.

 

[monarch64]

Oh, PQ I can''t ever sleep according to sleep rules either. I love all the names you''ve chosen thus far. I love that you''ve given us such wonderful insight as to why or why not you want to choose certain names, it''s really cool to see your journey towards the best names taking shape right here on this thread. Rest well...and if you can''t rest, well, I''m up!

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

Quick question about baby names - apologies if this is in the wrong place.

I never changed my name when I got married, so I''m really undecided now whose second name to give my baby. I would have hyphenated our two names, but DH really hates that (no idea why). Other than that, he has no strong feelings.

If anyone else here was in that situation, what did you do - Mom''s name or Dad''s?

Thanks

Jen

 

[brazen_irish_hussy]

Date: 1/6/2008 12:48:21 PM
Author: Mrs Mitchell
Quick question about baby names - apologies if this is in the wrong place.

I never changed my name when I got married, so I'm really undecided now whose second name to give my baby. I would have hyphenated our two names, but DH really hates that (no idea why). Other than that, he has no strong feelings.

If anyone else here was in that situation, what did you do - Mom's name or Dad's?

Thanks

Jen

FI and I have had this talk a few times and we have narrowed it down to 2 choices. We also don't like hyphanated names so that was out. If he is in one of his fights with his family they will probably get my name. If he decides he wants his name to be part of it, we are going to do a combination name. He is Clement and mine is Irish starting with Mc so it would be McClement as that is his last name.
All I can say is if it mattered enough to you to keep your name like it does to me, then the child should definitely have your last name in some form. After all, YOU are the one who carried it for 9 months.
Because I was an accident baby, I got my father's last name even though my mother kept hers because she didn;t want there to be paternity questions due to their marriage being 6 months before my birth.

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

Thanks, it helps to know I''m not the only one! LOL My friends and family just think I''m being stubborn and tend to call my by DH''s name. Makes me see red mist. (''Mrs Mitchell'' is just a lame little joke really, I have never called myself that for real!)

I just talked to DH about this again and his view was this is no big deal, pick the name I''m happy with. I''m leaning towards that being my name, but I wish they would have combined like yours and your FI''s do - that would be problem solved!

Thanks for the feedback - much appreciated.
Jen

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I always thought Aubrey was a girl''s name too

 

[mela lu]

well, I have a friend named Aubrey - and she's certainly a girl

- but things may be different in the Great White North (canada).

re: two last names. I did not change my last name when I got married. I plan on giving my kids my husband's last name. The way I see it, (especially in Canada) it is very common for a mother to have a different last name than her family ON PAPER; however, go by the Husband's last name socially.
i.e. We may get an invite in the mail to a party addressed to "The Husbands' Name"Family. And I'm cool with that. I don't think my kids will be unique by having a mom with a different last name than theirs....but again, I qualify this by saying it's quite common here (especially in French Canada where the woman rarely changes her name).

ETA: my (Irish) girlfriend gave birth this morning to a healthy little girl, Sinead. Awwww!


That's my 2cents!

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

Thanks Mela lu, that''s helpful. I think I''m over thinking this and you''re right, it''s no big deal! Delighted to hear your friend''s news and such a lovely name, too!

Jen

 

[ChinaCat]

I love Spencer- and I have heard it for both boys and girls. Kelsey Grammar has an adorable daughter named Spencer.

I know a boy Aubrey. I wouldn''t like it for a first name, but think it is lyrical for a middle name.

Ok, Penn, this may be way out of the blue, but do you know a Brian from Birmingham that went to LSU and then UT Law? This is a huge shot in the dark, you probably don''t, so forgive me six degrees via internet.

As far as "ghetto" names vs. success- I do know that it is covered in the book Freakanomics- and I don''t remember the details, but I do think they found no correlation. Meaning just b/c you had a "ghetto" name did not predict a low success rate. Looking at the names on that list- my biggest problem is the ones with multiple apostrophes and capital letters. I have no judgement on "ghetto" sounding names, though I think it would be weird if I named my kid LaSomething or TySomething, seeing as how I am too white to get away with it!- but when it is unpronounceable and confusing, I think that just gets in the kids way- at school, in a career. etc. I have a fairly easily spelled name that nobody can ever figure out how to pronounce and it is such a pain to always have to respell or correct pronunciation. Imagine if you had to insert multiple apostrophes and cap letters!

 

[pennquaker09]

Date: 1/8/2008 6:07:09 PM
Author: ChinaCat
I love Spencer- and I have heard it for both boys and girls. Kelsey Grammar has an adorable daughter named Spencer.


I know a boy Aubrey. I wouldn't like it for a first name, but think it is lyrical for a middle name.


Ok, Penn, this may be way out of the blue, but do you know a Brian from Birmingham that went to LSU and then UT Law? This is a huge shot in the dark, you probably don't, so forgive me six degrees via internet.


As far as 'ghetto' names vs. success- I do know that it is covered in the book Freakanomics- and I don't remember the details, but I do think they found no correlation. Meaning just b/c you had a 'ghetto' name did not predict a low success rate. Looking at the names on that list- my biggest problem is the ones with multiple apostrophes and capital letters. I have no judgement on 'ghetto' sounding names, though I think it would be weird if I named my kid LaSomething or TySomething, seeing as how I am too white to get away with it!- but when it is unpronounceable and confusing, I think that just gets in the kids way- at school, in a career. etc. I have a fairly easily spelled name that nobody can ever figure out how to pronounce and it is such a pain to always have to respell or correct pronunciation. Imagine if you had to insert multiple apostrophes and cap letters!

Kelsey Grammar's daughter is beautiful. And I think her name is very fitting.

I don't recall knowing a Brian that went to LSU. Where did he go to high school?

Personally, I don't necessarily find anything ghetto about naming a little girl Lexus or Mercedes, but I wouldn't personally do that myself. Now, there are some names that just bug me because they really inappropriate. Some people tend to use accents and what not in the wrong manner and as you said, it makes it harder for the child to learn how to spell their name.

 

[diamondfan]

Penn, do you like Wesley at all for a middle name? I kinda do.

Savannah Valentine? Just kidding, but it is kinda cute!!! Cuz she is going to a filled with love!

Hunter Maxwell, Hunter Addison, Hunter goes with a lot, but I think it really has to flow well, and it is tough until you work with it.

What is Nate''s specialty at CHOP?

 

[pennquaker09]

I''m not opposed to Wesley. It doesn''t really jump out at me, but I like it.

I don''t know about Savannah Valentine, I just want to laugh when I think of that one.

It''s interesting that you brought up Addison, it''s on my list, but it''s there as a girl name. So I take it that you think of Addison as a boy name?

His specialty will be cards, but it''s not going to be at CHOP. We''re moving.

 

[diamondfan]

Why are you guys moving? I thought you might be here for a while...

 

[mimzy]

i've always loved the names amelia, colette, charlotte, and layla. if i'm cursed with any boys (just kidding), one of them will have alex in their name - i'm one of five alex's (well, alexis) in my family and i just cant' let that legacy die.

i LOVE old testament names too - micah, jonah, noah, isaac, isiah.

i'm also considering "mimi" as a middle name for a girl beause those are the first four letters of my last name (which i am VERY attached to) and it would give me some satisfaction of not shedding the name completely

I second "stefan" for a boy, which i love! (probably has something to do with it being FI's name though...)

 

[sunkist]

Date: 1/6/2008 4:09:51 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring
I always thought Aubrey was a girl''s name too

Ya, I knew a guy named Aubrey. He was from Australia. Though I''ve never heard of another male Aubrey since.

 

[pennquaker09]

Date: 1/10/2008 6:35:17 PM
Author: diamondfan
Why are you guys moving? I thought you might be here for a while...

Well, so did I, but he''s being courted by different hospitals. A lot of hospitals are expanding their programs or starting new programs and that means more opportunities for his specialty. Plus, I don''t think that CHOP will have an open faculty position. Or if they do, he''s going to be competing with a lot of people for that one spot.

I''m torn, I kind of like it here but at the same time, our folks are in the south. I''d be willing to bet that if he were able to get a position in Atlanta, he''d want to move there, but the traffic in Atlanta is HORRID. I''m not sure if I would want to live there.

 

[pennquaker09]

Caroline, to be honest, I would like to move back to New Orleans.

 

[pennquaker09]

Another light bulb, what do you all think of Anderson?

 

[diamondfan]

Well, not sure about the political climate at CHOP but it is one of the best facilities in the world, and this is a lovely area overall if you can stand the winters, which are not really that horrendous but worse than the south for sure.

Buckhead is lovely I have heard, not too sure about the rest of the Atlanta suburban areas, nor do I know much about their hospitals.

Nate would be a pediatric cardiologist?

I think Anderson is a nice middle name. I used Alexander, Harrison and Maxwell as my kids middle names, there were reasons in terms of each one except Alexander, which I just liked and thought worked well when you looked at all of their names written out. Also my oldest and youngest have first names based on family but my middle''s name I just liked and so we used it. Being Jewish I got to use hebrew names that were tributes to family members, which was nice!

 

[mela lu]

Date: 1/10/2008 7:34:46 PM
Author: mimzy
i''ve always loved the names amelia, colette, charlotte, and layla. if i''m cursed with any boys (just kidding), one of them will have alex in their name - i''m one of five alex''s (well, alexis) in my family and i just cant'' let that legacy die.

i LOVE old testament names too - micah, jonah, noah, isaac, isiah.

i''m also considering ''mimi'' as a middle name for a girl beause those are the first four letters of my last name (which i am VERY attached to) and it would give me some satisfaction of not shedding the name completely

I second ''stefan'' for a boy, which i love! (probably has something to do with it being FI''s name though...)

hehehe Mimzy - we have simmilar taste in names

 

[mimzy]

Date: 1/11/2008 11:06:57 AM
Author: mela lu

Date: 1/10/2008 7:34:46 PM

Author: mimzy

i've always loved the names amelia, colette, charlotte, and layla. if i'm cursed with any boys (just kidding), one of them will have alex in their name - i'm one of five alex's (well, alexis) in my family and i just cant' let that legacy die.


i LOVE old testament names too - micah, jonah, noah, isaac, isiah.


i'm also considering 'mimi' as a middle name for a girl beause those are the first four letters of my last name (which i am VERY attached to) and it would give me some satisfaction of not shedding the name completely

I second 'stefan' for a boy, which i love! (probably has something to do with it being FI's name though...)

hehehe Mimzy - we have simmilar taste in names

we do! and that taste is AWESOME

i like really girly girl names, but i don't think i would ever name my kid that just in case she grew up to be a jock or something and thought it was totally unfitting.

 

[mela lu]

Date: 1/11/2008 3:51:03 PM
Author: mimzy

Date: 1/11/2008 11:06:57 AM
Author: mela lu

Date: 1/10/2008 7:34:46 PM

Author: mimzy

i''ve always loved the names amelia, colette, charlotte, and layla. if i''m cursed with any boys (just kidding), one of them will have alex in their name - i''m one of five alex''s (well, alexis) in my family and i just cant'' let that legacy die.


i LOVE old testament names too - micah, jonah, noah, isaac, isiah.


i''m also considering ''mimi'' as a middle name for a girl beause those are the first four letters of my last name (which i am VERY attached to) and it would give me some satisfaction of not shedding the name completely

I second ''stefan'' for a boy, which i love! (probably has something to do with it being FI''s name though...)

hehehe Mimzy - we have simmilar taste in names

we do! and that taste is AWESOME

i like really girly girl names, but i don''t think i would ever name my kid that just in case she grew up to be a jock or something and thought it was totally unfitting.

Maybe Mimi as a middle name?

*sorry to thread-jack!!!***

 

[LitigatorChick]

Date: 1/6/2008 4:04:06 PM
Author: Mrs Mitchell
Thanks, it helps to know I''m not the only one! LOL My friends and family just think I''m being stubborn and tend to call my by DH''s name. Makes me see red mist. (''Mrs Mitchell'' is just a lame little joke really, I have never called myself that for real!)

I just talked to DH about this again and his view was this is no big deal, pick the name I''m happy with. I''m leaning towards that being my name, but I wish they would have combined like yours and your FI''s do - that would be problem solved!

Thanks for the feedback - much appreciated.
Jen

Last names suck!! We chose to hyphenate my son''s last name. My inlaws refuse to respect that decision, and insist upon calling him by their last name.

.

I had a little boy, so I will give you my girl''s name (no more chicklets here!!) - Ainsley.

 

[pennquaker09]

Okay, so I don''t remember where I saw this, but naming a boy Addison? Good or bad idea?