Curious About Nameberry Demographics?

General Name Discussion
1

When I first visited nameberry a few years back, I assumed that the community was mostly composed of pregnant women and women about to become so. I thought no further than that.

Then as I began to post threads and respond to others, my view widened.

Teenagers appeared and feminists and fundamentalist, homeschooling Christians (and not always as separate entities). I realized - duh! - that this is an international site and reveled in the comments from Australia, Scandinavia, and elsewhere. While many of those writing in are pregnant or soon to be, many are years away from doing so, if indeed they will do so at all. One woman has at the bottom of her comments a line about not planning to have children, but loving naming them.

And that comment, and the diversity of the online community, heartens me. While I yearned to have children and it nearly killed me that my two (named) conceptions* ended so very soon, I have always been an impassioned namer.

I have been wary of mentioning that I am not now nor will be in the future pregnant or adopting. My fear has been that I could be seen as envious, or a hanger-on to others’ fertility, or somehow just not part of the club. The same light in which some parents view the “childless” as out of the loop.

Most of the time, I don’t feel this way and I delight in discussing names. But I am curious if there are other quiet or silent subgroups in this community: those struggling with infertility, or having to imagine a life without the yearned-for child, or remembering an unborn baby. Similarly, I wonder if there are those who don’t especially like kids, but love names, or middle-aged or older women who had (or didn’t have) their children long ago. I wonder which ethnic groups participate and which don’t and where all the men are.

Whatever the answers, I consider it a good discussion forum that includes such varying ages, beliefs, backgrounds, and experiences. It’s hard to find this in our fast-paced, clique-ridden society and I appreciate it here.

(Please don’t eviscerate me as this was a hard thread to write).

  • [name_u]Owen[/name_u] [name_u]Michael[/name_u] [name_m]Russell[/name_m], would have been born [name_f]October[/name_f] 9, 2001
  • [name_f]Cordelia[/name_f] [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] [name_f]Marjorie[/name_f], would have been born [name_u]March[/name_u] 7, 2002
    [name_f]May[/name_f] they rest in peace.
2

I am a young woman in my childbearing age and stage who has a few young kids as well as a history of pregnancy loss. I’m a working mom, an orthodox Jew, American, and a secret name lover :slight_smile: I spend my time in Berryland mainly while nursing, as an enjoyable escape from the craziness of everyday life. While I love reading about, discussing, and combining names, I use strictly biblical ones, so this fun hobby of mine is mostly for enjoyment and wistful thinking.

That’s me!

3

When I was a teenager I feel in love with names although this particular site did not exist then or at least I did not know about it. When I was in college I was on here too just to play with names and keep my future name stash up to date. Now that I am married I have been on here while my dh and I were ttc and that was a few years ago that we started trying after my dh had his vesectomy reversal(which failed to work again). We tried IVF in [name_f]May[/name_f] 2012 for the first time and I know have a baby boy. We are starting the process of a FET(frozen embryo transfer) in [name_u]Jan[/name_u]. 2014. I am super excited for this and am thinking of names for those two potential offspring. I am 26 and a stay at home mommy loving every minute of it! I live in the Midwest of [name_u]America[/name_u] in a moderately small town. And yes I am religious but not so much so that all my baby names are from the bible although I have a few from there that I do like but mostly like unusal, rarely used, old fashioned, and international names.

4

I can’t imagine anyone will eviscerate you for a thoughtful post and genuine (natural) curiosity.

We’re officially TTC after the first of the year, but I’ve been able to think about little else since we decided we were ready. Focusing on making our names lists and reading pregnancy and parenting books keeps me sane while we wait! I also have conversion classes to serve a distraction. I’ve always been a-rellgious, but my husband is Jewish. We’re both looking forward to raising our kids in his culture/faith. We’re both practically a caricature of your standard caucasian, young(ish) lawyer, though he’s a total socialist while I’m a Rockefeller Republican type.

I mostly post on Nameberry while I’m avoiding doing the few parts of my job I truly hate, waiting on a jury, waiting on a client, or waiting for my husband (who works what seems like a million hours a week) to get home/meet me for dinner/etc.

I, too, really like that Nameberry is collection of so many different people. Within a group who all love names, you still manage to get a variety of perspectives here. Plus it’s fun!

5

I came on nameberry when I was pregnant, but I just like names and I’m still here even though we don’t plan to have any more children.

6

I’ve always loved names. I’m 27 and don’t have children, and as much as I always pictured myself as a parent of many children when I was younger, I don’t know whether it will ever happen. Like freya_1983, I’m a young lawyer and sneak onto here for a few minutes when I’m between tasks or waiting for something to load.

I like Nameberry because it’s hard to find people in real life who are so enthusiastic and passionate about names. [name_m]Even[/name_m] most people I know who are expecting children just toss a few top 50 names out there then pick one they like the sound of. Nothing against top 50 names, I just mean most people I know in real life don’t get fired up about turning over and picking apart and discovering new names.

7

It is interesting to me to hear some nameberries’ backgrounds/experiences, rather than only why we prefer [name_f]Claire[/name_f] over [name_f]Clara[/name_f] or vice versa.

Not that the [name_f]Claire[/name_f] question is not important (I like them both!), but beneath names and naming lie deeper truths and excavating those can be satisfying.

8

I’m 30, married, and we’re not currently planning to have kids. I just love names and I love helping people.

I too sometimes feel “out of the group”, but I think there’s enough variety of people here that it’s not a big deal. [name_m]Plenty[/name_m] of teenagers and older women, as well as people from many walks of life, though obviously mostly on the affluent end since we all have an internet connection and time to burn.

I also like hearing from the non-Americans and those from multi-cultural backgrounds and how they deal with naming.

9

Hmm. I’m a freshman in college. No children or significant others in my foreseeable future, although I do want to get married and have a large family. Mentioning religious/political/social views can get risky, so I’ll leave it at that.

I’m actually really curious about the ethnic makeup of Nameberry. I’ve thought about starting a poll before just to see what kind of diversity we have, but I didn’t want someone to take it the wrong way and call me racist for being curious. :confused:

10

I’m 26, working in higher ed, currently in a serious relationship (planning on a wedding in the next couple years). We definitely want kids (like 3-5 of them) but will wait until we’re married/more settled (we’ve got the house and the finances, but SO is in school still while working a full-time job, so he doesn’t need anything else, lol). As for ethnicity - I’m a mutt of a bunch of European cultures with a bit of Blackfoot Nation thrown in. SO is half-Puerto Rican. We’re not religious, but have faith and a moral code we live by.

I’ve been obsessed with names for a very long time. Basically as long as I can remember I’ve been making lists of my future children. Of course, when I was younger, I wanted like… 20+ children. Haha. Much tempered now.

11

I am in my early twenties, in a committed relationship but not engaged or married. I live in central [name_f]Canada[/name_f] in a fairly large and very ethnically diverse city. I am mostly Scottish/English/welsh with a little Romanian and Ukrainian/polish thrown in but my family has been in [name_f]Canada[/name_f] for a number of generations. My SO is half English half Trinidadian. I work as a registered psychiatric nurse and SO is in the royal Canadian military and working on a degree in environmental science. We are waiting until SO is finished his schooling before we get married. Neither of us is religious though more agnostic or ambivalent than atheist but we share a healthy and well-developed sense of morals. My naming passion started when I was 8 and my mom became pregnant with my younger sister and my parents told me I could choose her middle name. In my 8 year old wisdom I did a lot of research and came up with [name_f]Guinevere[/name_f]… My parents overruled me and went with [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] haha but I’ve been impassioned by names ever since. I do hope to have children in the future, SO says 2 but I’d like *at least 2. Haha but we shall see. I also like nameberry for the diversity of population and opinions.

12

My husband and I are in our 30’s, have one child, and are ttc a second. We are both from a small coal mining town in Central Appalachia (in the US). My heritage is primarily Scottish, English, and Irish, (like a lot of other Appalachians), while his family is Cherokee. He serves in the US military, so we relocate often. I find nameberry interesting because some of the name combos shared here would never occur to me. I think my love of names started when my twin sister and I received Cabbage Patch kids for [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] one year. Hers had a very unique name, and one we found enjoyable despite its clunky mismatched, ugly combo ([name_f]Myrle[/name_f] [name_f]Deidra[/name_f]). Mine was named [name_u]Shane[/name_u] [name_m]Lance[/name_m], for anyone curious. :wink:

13

I am the dinosaur here at nameberry as I have two gorgeous grownup children and five amazing grandchildren. I got really hooked on names when the first grandchild was on the way and I haven’t lost my enthusiasm for names yet. My children let me take an active role in naming their children in as much as they were keen to get lists of names that I had compiled, naturally the names the children were given were entirely the parents choice.

I would [name_f]LOVE[/name_f] to find a few other grands who love to discuss names, and so if you are reading this and have grandchildren join us here at nameberry - it is a wonderful community.

I was married for nearly 7 years before our first arrived and it was a long wait and I really thought that we would be a childless couple but here I am all these years later with a wonderful family.

rollo from Australia

14

I’m a 13-year-old girl that comes from an [name_m]Christian[/name_m] fundamentalist family. :slight_smile: No SOs or children in the near future. I’m on here because hating my popular, monotone name made me love uncommon, creative names. As for ethnicity, I’m all American, but my dad is from Spain. :slight_smile:

15

lol, I know I had a Cabbage Patch doll as a kid but I don’t know if I ever really knew it’s name. [name_u]Shane[/name_u] [name_m]Lance[/name_m] is actually a cool name. oh, and I just met a woman named [name_f]Meryl[/name_f] last week–note sure how similar that is to [name_f]Myrle[/name_f] (guess it depends on your accent).

When I was a kid I created a whole school full of kids in my imagination. It was a boarding school where they wore a different color based on their year (basically working their way through the rainbow). And they all had names and some of them had stories.

16

I am currently 13 weeks pregnant with my first biological child (two stepsons), but would have been participating in this forum long before now had I know something like this existed. I suddenly feel…not so crazy! I’ve always had a particularly strong attraction to names and their meanings and could literally discuss them for hours. I can remember ALWAYS having a list of my favorite names, since I was about five or so. I insisted on naming everyone whenever my friends and I played “house”. Half of the game for me was coming up with all the names! (Inconsequential information- I was obsessed with the names [name_f]Hannah[/name_f] and [name_f]Denise[/name_f] at that time).

I am a 26 year old, recently married, Human Resources Manager. White, from a small town in NY. Not at all religious and pretty far to the left.

Also, I should note that I seem to have quite different tastes and opinions than the majority of the Nameberry members…and that’s OK. (We all seem to agree on Nevaeh, thank goodness!)

Good post :slight_smile:

17

I too am a Grammie, which is quite lucky as I did not get to bear my own [name_u]Owen[/name_u] and [name_f]Cordelia[/name_f]. But my second husband has a grown daughter and we have a nice son-in-law and two beautiful grandkids: [name_m]Luke[/name_m] (5) and [name_f]Stella[/name_f] (4).

[name_m]Luke[/name_m] is a bit of a [name_m]Fred[/name_m] Mertz science nerd and very bright and [name_f]Stella[/name_f] is the kind who jumps off tall buildings without a moment’s thought!

I also have 6 nieces, 6 nephews, 2 nephews arriving soon, and a great niece and great nephew. (So much for being “childless”!)

[name_f]Love[/name_f] to hear more about your family!

18

I’m so glad you started this thread. I love nameberry because although we come from different backgrounds, there is a shared love of names and agreement on their importance in life. From childhood, I have loved coming up with names. I read all of [name_f]Pam[/name_f] and [name_f]Linda[/name_f]'s books and came on the website all the time. I only wish I had joined earlier! In terms of demos, I’m white, middle class, [name_m]Christian[/name_m], married and in my 30s, American. College educated and used to have a “real” career job but now stay at home with my little punks. That’s something my teen/20s year old self never saw happening :slight_smile: [name_m]Even[/name_m] if I don’t have more kids, I love the opportunity to discuss names, hear different perspectives and help people through their naming process.

19

[name_m]Hi[/name_m] lesliemarion and THANK YOU for letting me know that I am not the lone “oldie” (I don’t feel old) and thanks for sharing about your family. You have a large family and with more to arrive soon much more love and excitement to enjoy.

My grandchildren are all so special in their individual ways, the oldest ones are [name_f]Belle[/name_f], Blayz and [name_u]Cruz[/name_u] and they love the beach and riding their surfboards and having fun with their friends at the beach which is nearby.

Our two littlest are [name_f]Chloe[/name_f] 5 and [name_f]Xanthe[/name_f] 3 who also love the beach but home is not near the beach. We went to a 3 yr olds birthday party at the beach with our youngest, [name_f]Xanthe[/name_f] when she arrived she looked good enough to eat with pretty pink ribbons in her hair, a designer t shirt and one of those gorgeous tulle skirts that are so pretty and popular now BUT as soon as she saw the beach/water she was into her swimsuit and stayed that way all day.

[name_f]Happy[/name_f] [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] and I hope that you enjoy every minute with those gorgeous children and granchildren, nieces and nephews!

rollo

20

I’m 28 (had to think about that for a sec), American of Irish, English, [name_m]German[/name_m] and Cherokee descent. Adopted, and would love to adopt in the future, though I’d also love to be pregnant.
So obviously no kids yet :wink: with my boyfriend now for almost seven years, he’s of mostly Scottish, English and good ol’ well-mixed Appalachian stock :wink: he’s seven years older than me.
Would love to have a kid now (or so I feel most of the time!) but finances and other things are in the way. Likely will be a working mom, and the bf will stay at home if possible (or work freelance). We’d love to have our own small business of dog boarding and training, but that’s a huge endeavor to imagine… with or without kids! I currently work at a resort and enjoy it for the most part. When the time comes I’d like one or two kids.
We live as caretakers for a rescue group, and foster/rehab dogs for adoption. We currently have 21 dogs in our care- 6 dogs we own, 4 being boarded with us over the thanksgiving holiday, 1 here for training, and ten foster dogs. We usually have around 16 dogs so it’s a lot of work this week! People think it’s crazy but dogs are (from what I imagine) quite like kids… They thrive on routine and knowing what is expected of them, so they all fall into the life here pretty easily. Obviously the high volume fostering will end if we start a family, but any kids of ours will definitely grow up with several canine siblings!