The upcoming arrival of my brother and sister-in-law’s twins made me think of back when my other sister was pregnant with my niece and we were discussing names. My sister quickly fixated on [name]Taya[/name] as the first name and I remember we all sat around with magazines tossing out potential middle names…every name my little sister (was about 8 at that time) tossed out was the name of a celebrity (like [name]Miley[/name], [name]Demi[/name], etc), which my sister vetoed for that very reason…she thought it was too awkward to use a name that had such obvious connections.
Are there names that you loved, but felt maybe awkward using it because of things like that? I get that feeling alot, like when i read a new book or watch a new movie, and i fall in love with a name but i get the thought “man, if i really were to use this, everyone would think it was after this character/person” which it wouldn’t really be…in a way. Most recently this happened with the name Troian…i came to really like the name, but i know especially with the show Pretty [name]Little[/name] Liars, the connection would automatically be drawn to one of the stars, Troian Bellasario (that show has a lot of names i would absolutely use btw: [name]Ezra[/name], [name]Aria[/name], [name]Hanna[/name], [name]Lucas[/name], [name]Ashley[/name], [name]Maya[/name], [name]Caleb[/name]…). I don’t think i’ll actually go to the point of refusing to use a name i really love just because someone else famously wore it first… any experiences similar? it doesn’t even have to be limited to a ‘famous’ name, it could be something like your distant cousin named their kid something and you would feel weird using a similar name.
It depends on how linked the name is to that one particular person and how I felt about him/her. No one’s going to hear [name]Ashley[/name] and assume it’s connected to Pretty [name]Little[/name] Liars, for instance, but [name]Miley[/name] (which I’m pretty sure is a nickname and not her given name anyway) people would be likely to make the connection to [name]Miley[/name] [name]Cyrus[/name]. And if you really like [name]Miley[/name] [name]Cyrus[/name] or wouldn’t be annoyed by constantly telling people “no, I’m not a fan, I just like the name” then it would be ok to use. Obviously, there are people who use the very-attached-to-one-celebrity names, since [name]Demi[/name] [name]Moore[/name] was famous before [name]Demi[/name] Lovato was born, although I looked that up and Lovato’s is a nickname for the given name [name]Demetria[/name].
I’ve never even heard of the name Troian before, so I’m guessing it’s extremely rare and thus probably would be linked to the show for anyone who knew it. Same with names like [name]Miley[/name] and [name]Demi[/name].
But a name like [name]Ezra[/name] or [name]Ashley[/name]–they either have such a long history or are so popular that there’s very little chance that people would connect it to a fan base–unless of course you have pictures of [name]Ezra[/name] or [name]Ashley[/name] from the show plastered all over your walls and you talk of nothing else.
There is a fine line though. I do like the name [name]Lorelei[/name], but I don’t think I can use it because most of my friends and family know I like [name]Gilmore[/name] Girls and the name is closely associated with the show. I don’t love it enough for it to be a real problem. But I guess at some point you have to say, “[name]Do[/name] I love the name enough to not care about the connection?”
Pretty [name]Little[/name] Liars has SUCH great names! Luckily for me I’m the only full grown adult that I know that watches it…a friend recently named his daughter [name]Aria[/name] & he had no idea of the connection! I think a few people would connect [name]Aria[/name] or [name]Ezra[/name] to the show but Troian is a name I have never heard any other place so it fall under too celeby to me like [name]Miley[/name] (though nowhere near as overblown)
[name]Demi[/name] or [name]Demetria[/name] I find totally usable. Sure there’s [name]Moore[/name] but now that there’s Lavoto it feels more usable to me
The show American Horror [name]Story[/name] has 2 season’s worth of amazing names. I was pregnant during season one and [name]Violet[/name], [name]Vivian[/name], [name]Moira[/name], [name]Constance[/name] & [name]Billie[/name] all had my attention, but among my friends I’m a known fan of the show and that kept me from using those. To me that’s what makes it awkward. When you come off like a superfan…
Like [name]Cullen[/name] or [name]Esme[/name] or Renesme are so unusably Twilight imo but [name]Jacob[/name] or [name]Isabella[/name] are enough their own name to not be awkward to me.
What about older famous names like [name]Cher[/name] (I guess [name]Lloyd[/name] modernized it?) [name]Elton[/name], [name]Madonna[/name], ect