Do You Share Your Favorite Names?

So I was reading another thread and someone mentioned that they didn’t share their favorite names with people, yet in their signature they had their crushes/loves listed. Now these might not include their “IT” names but it got me thinking.
I think we all agree that sharing name options with family and friends can be difficult and sharing here on NB in theory is easier.

So… where do you draw the line and why? and if you don’t share your favorite with RL friends and family but you do here would you delete your signature if you knew they might be on NB as well?

My favourite names aren’t particularly loved by my fellow berries, and if they were, I doubt we’d be using the same combination, so I don’t mind sharing my favourite names here.

Since I’m young, I don’t mind telling people my favorites.

I don’t think it’s a problem to be either pregnant or TTC and listing your favs on here, due to the anomynity (spelling) of the site. However, if you tell people you are on Nameberry, and you list your last name on a thread, and your family sees it, they might ask. However, the likelihood of this is very small.

Since I’m not close to having children, I’m fine with suggesting my favs to people. It would be awesome if someone named their kid something I suggested. That hasn’t happened yet, as far as I know (Sure, people name their kids [name]Cordelia[/name], but many people like the name other than me), but I’m still waiting. I think that’s why some share their favs (other than to get opinions on them).

If you are expecting or TTC, I don’t think it’s a big deal. [name]Even[/name] if two berries had a daughter named [name]Mabel[/name] [name]Saskia[/name], chances are they would live in different states or even countries. It’s not like you told your cousin that you loved [name]Carys[/name] [name]Demetria[/name] and she gave birth to [name]Demetria[/name] [name]Carys[/name] the week before your due date. You have a 99.9% chance of never meeting a berry who named their kid after your favorite or vice versa, unlike your cousin, who will accuse you of name napping if you go through with your original plans.

As a side note, it’s good to be sharing names [name]IMO[/name] so we can move closer to my dream world where instead of names like [name]Jayden[/name], [name]Nevaeh[/name], Emmaliegh and Kdyn acceptable names were [name]Mabel[/name], [name]Saskia[/name], [name]Cordelia[/name] and -son names on boys.

Maybe I should answer my own question.
I clearly do have my top list, shown below. And I have been giving close friends who are pregnant my favorite naming sites (including NB). I’ve been thinking about how I’d feel if they used one of my names without asking me and I decided that since I’m not TTC or pregnant I probably be a little bummed but also excited they choose a name I love.
However, since these friends are both very close and personal friends, if I were pregnant and they knew that I’d be furious if I knew they were on NB, saw my signature, and then just played dumb.

I think it’s a good decision for some people to keep their favorites a secret.
Some people have a hard time dealing with others displeasure and opinions–people pleasers or indecisive or easily swayed, whatever it may be.
If you know that about yourself and yet feel strongly about choosing a name yourself, then I think it’s definitely a good idea.

If I was pregnant I’d probably share my favorites with some people–mother, close friends, etc.–but I’d choose to keep mum from people like my [name]SIL[/name], [name]MIL[/name], sister, and random acquaintances. I’d only share with people if I really cared about their opinion. So I suppose if I know all of those people were on NB, then I wouldn’t put all my faves in my sig–not that I’ve changed my sig in months, lol, but anyway.

I think nameberry is nice because you can throw things out and hear people’s real gut reactions, things they might not say [name]IRL[/name].

We might be ttc this summer, and I’ve never uttered the name I’ve been set on for years. I mentioned it to the dh once in passing, but didn’t dwell on it so he couldn’t shut me down. Same thing here: I don’t mention it because a) everyone would love and it would become painfully trendy (doubtful) or b) posters would start itemizing everything they don’t like about it, and I don’t want to hear it. It’s a name that’s meaningful to me, boring to others, but I shall not be moved, dammit! :slight_smile:

This for starters. My style isn’t like the general style of Nameberry in most cases, and yes, my favorite combos are in my signature, but no, as far as I know, nobody I know in real life is on Nameberry, if there was, I would certainly be more restrained about posting, or make a new, more anonymous account.
Nobody in real life knows my favorite combos other than my Fiance, and luckily he is on board with them, and his opinion is the only other opinion that matters. I know when we do have children, our taste is exceedingly different from what our families probably expect from us, and that might make it difficult. I have no intention of revealing the name in advance, however I have toyed with the idea of printing out the list of names I have, which has names we wouldn’t consider as first names as well as our favorites, and no combos on it and giving a copy to each set of grandparents to prepare them for what may be. But after that point, I wouldn’t be willing to discuss it, our future sons names have been set in stone for years, and girls names may very well be up in the air until we are holding a daughter in our arms! I don’t want to announce a name and feel like we have committed to it when it could easily change.

As much as I enjoy these forums, I don’t know anyone from this site personally (I don’t think…), so if someone from NB ended up using some of the combos I’ve had my heart set on, then more power to 'em.
If someone from my ‘real life’ used the names I had my heart set on using, I’d really hope they don’t mind repeats because I would feel even more compelled to use the name I love (if it were a long-time love) just to prove my point of loving it.
It doesn’t bother me to share my favourite names, except with my group of best friends from high school because I don’t like their taste in names so I just don’t even want to open that door, haha.
Plus, being that I am years away from getting married and having kids, what I plan on using now will very likely not be the name that goes on my child’s birth certificate when the time comes.
I don’t find that I’m particularly possessive (like, “You can’t use that name! You’re a horrible copier! Ugh, you are so unoriginal!”) but I am pretty passionate about my favourites.

I share my favorites. My favorite name for boys is set in stone and has been for the past two years almost. My girls name will not be official until I’ve filled out the paperwork and its legal.
On nameberry my favorites are well received which is the exact opposite of real life. My conservative Catholic relatives think that [name]Lilith[/name] is horrible for a daughter and [name]Milena[/name] is too foreign sounding even with the nickname [name]Lena[/name]. [name]Isaac[/name] is tolerated although they say its old manish. My DH wants to use the nickname [name]Zac[/name] which received a quick comment from my sister saying that we can’t use [name]Zac[/name] because there’s no z in the name, it should either be spelled [name]Izaac[/name] or his nickname would be Sac, as in ball sack. That’s an exact quote from her.

[name]Bee[/name], your sister reaction is hilarious - can you even imagine going around saying. “[name]Hi[/name] this is our son [name]Isaac[/name] but we call his Sac like balls!” Bahahahaha. Thanks for sharing.

I don’t really share my favorite names with anyone unless they ask and even then I keep it short and indecisive like “I kinda like [name]Jack[/name]” or “I think the name [name]Charlotte[/name] is pretty”. I think my family and friends would think I was weird if they new about my obsession with names or the kind of names I like (from what I know their styles are common/trendy names). I don’t worry so much about them stealing my favorite names, I worry about the looks I’d get when I started talking about them. I get the impression that normal people do not think about names every single day and do not have a compulsion to make lists of them unless they’re expecting so I’d be afraid to prattle on about them even to my friends.
If I found out one of my friends was on nameberry I’d be ecstatic because then I wouldn’t feel so strange about my name obsession and finally have someone to discuss names with [name]IRL[/name]!

Try not to share with friends and family cause most of them are really opinionated and not at all afraid to speak their minds. I can’t imagine none of them ever coming to NB, but if they did the cat would be out of the bag. The whole point of NB is to talk and share names, so I feel it would be silly to keep them a secret here… and it makes me happy every time I see one of my own favourites in someone else’s signature or on their name list. When I know my combos for sure, I’m adding them to my signature.

My opinion is probably rare here but I honestly don’t give a damn what people in real life think of my favourite names. Our #1 boys name is a bit out-there and most people who I’ve mentioned it to think it’s made up (it’s not - its Welsh). Most of them have said they don’t like it, or that it sounds like a girls name, or that it’s too weird. But that opinion is coming from someone who thinks [name]Sienna[/name] and [name]Indie[/name] are the height of name creativity.

I share my favorites I don’t have the signature because honestly I just don’t have my mind set in stone except for one boys name so its not really a surprise creative name lol. [name]Noah[/name] [name]Royce[/name] haha. In real life I had to sway my cousin away from [name]Noah[/name] by begging because I love the name soo much, she understood, I now have a nephew named [name]Landon[/name]. Plus I am not married or engaged so it is not in my near future to have kids so I just have to keep my immediate friends and family off my fave names.

I share, I used to not, but after seeing so many of even my most unusual names used, even the same combos. I figure nothing is surprising anymore.

I don’t mind telling people here my absolute favourite names. I don’t think anyone here knows me personally, so peoples opinions don’t bug me and I wouldn’t go crazy if someone named their kid one of “my” names. I’m more careful [name]IRL[/name] though, but I still tell people a lot of my favourite names.

I do share my favorites here from time to time, but I don’t share in real life. Nobody I know would “get it,” and I honestly don’t care to hear the peanut gallery comments from my family and friends that I know I would get if I did share.

*Although I will add that my friends and I have had conversations about which fictional characters we would name our kids after, if that counts. :stuck_out_tongue: