Does your last name influence your naming choices?

There’s of course, making sure the name you pick for your child sounds okay with their last name, but are you influenced in other ways, too? For example, my last name is kind of quirky, and you don’t hear it a whole lot. Paired with a rare first name, it can end up sounding like something you might only hear on a novel character.

In what ways does your last name change what names you’ll consider? Are there any names you love that you might have used, if not for the last name you had to work with?

The only way my last name influences my choices is by sound. I have a hard time with most names beginning with M because if the alliteration with my last name. Some sound OK. Any name with a noticeable short U, particularly paired with an N or S, don’t sound great either, like [name_u]Hudson[/name_u].

As far as being common or unusual, I had never thought of it honestly. My last name isn’t super common, but isn’t super unusual either, so I guess I don’t really have to worry too much about two unusual names together. I can see how that could be something to consider for some, but mostly as long as it sounds fine, I don’t think about the style of my last name. Haha

Yes, absolutely. I cannot use any names that end in -[name_m]SON[/name_m] because LN is [name_m]Thompson[/name_m] which is ok b/c I don’t like many. I also cannot honor my father [name_m]Thomas[/name_m] {I told him I would use his first name as a middle my whole life until I met my SO}. My significant other and I both have strong ties to our Italian heritage on our maternal sides & now I feel like most Italian names sound silly with our LN.

Yes, and I have the opposite problem. My last name is supper common so I want something more unusual or at least less common. I also can’t use any names that end in “er” or end in that sound.

My children’s future surname (I have my maiden name) absolutely influences name choices, mostly for sound. I can’t use anything that ends in an S or Z sound, or any two syllable firsts that end in -er. Names with a heavy P/B or long-U can tend to sound odd as well.

This really limits my boy choices, as I realized I tend to like quite a few names that don’t fit into those parameters: [name_m]Miles[/name_m], [name_m]Asher[/name_m], [name_m]Peter[/name_m], [name_m]Jonas[/name_m]…

Girls tend to be a little easier, but a few names I really love are out: Hesper, [name_u]Vesper[/name_u], [name_f]Carys[/name_f]. A few names actually break the rules, though–[name_u]Juniper[/name_u] and [name_u]Ruby[/name_u] both sound pretty good!

Their surname is a little weird and distinctive, but I wouldn’t say it makes me shy away from less familiar names; then again, sounding like a comic book character isn’t necessarily a negative to me, nor to my husband.

Yes, and it sucks. My last name begins with Z and rhymes with “pander.” I love so many names that begin with Z ([name_u]Zephyr[/name_u]! [name_f]Zelda[/name_f]! [name_m]Zev[/name_m]! [name_m]Zavier[/name_m]!), but a first and last name Z? The poor kid would sound like a cartoon character. Names ending with -er are also out…though I love [name_u]Juniper[/name_u] too much to knock that one off my list.

Maybe. I am not giving my future kids my surname ever, despise consider adopting on my own. So it really depends on a possible father’s surname or whatever new surname I come up with. I want it to flow well, but that’s only how much I care.

It’s starting to. Up till pretty recently, I didn’t even consider my surname when creating combos and choosing names. It’s hyphenated (dad’s name and mom’s name), both names are very uncommon, and hardly anyone pronounces either name right on the first try. I genuinely love my name and appreciate that it’s pretty cool, but creating combos around it is a little daunting. Especially since my beloved three-name combos probably aren’t feasible with it :frowning:

Yes! It’s the first thing I consider. I’m not going to have a [name_m]Rocky[/name_m] [name_m]Wood[/name_m] or a Hollywood lol. The struggle of having a nature noun last name.

It does influence our potential naming choices. Our surname happens to clash with a decent number of names. Things ending with an -er/-ar are pretty much out (so can’t use names like [name_u]Harper[/name_u] or [name_m]Jasper[/name_m]). Names that start with the same letter are our surname are usually out, too, because they sound like cartoon characters or superhero names…

Additionally, our surname is very English. I personally am struggling to pair it with the names that we like which honor either of our heritages. Think [name_f]Esperanza[/name_f] [name_m]Smith[/name_m]. It just sounds a bit odd to my ears, but my husband doesn’t care and I’ve gotten positive feedback from people on here, that it doesn’t really matter. It still snags in my mind though.

I don’t feel like I have to choose a certain kind of name though. Our surname is actually relatively common and many would recognize it, but I don’t feel any sort of need to go out of my way to choose an elaborate, uncommon name to balance it out. Interestingly enough, though, I did sort of feel this with my maiden name. It’s a very Italian name and people have a hard enough time trying to say it/spell it. So, had I ever been a single mother or anything, I was sort of leaning towards choosing a more ‘normal’ name like [name_m]John[/name_m] or [name_f]Anna[/name_f], just to make at least one aspect of their names easy on them lol.

Our last name is Greek, so getting the right sounds is super important to me. I also like that it is unique (as in, anyone else with the surname in Australia is related to us kind of unique), and I think that makes me want to have unique [name_m]Christian[/name_m] names too.

I always say them together to make sure it sounds fine but apart from that, it doesn’t make a difference.

Also, a name sounding like a novel character need not be a bad thing!

Sounds and possibly length are the only influencing factors for me. My children’s surname will be three syllables so I do tend towards one or two syllable first names because of this. There are also certain sounds I don’t want repeating … this unfortunately takes a few names I love out of the running, like [name_u]Ellis[/name_u], [name_u]Elliot[/name_u] and names ending in an ‘ee’ sound like [name_f]Sylvie[/name_f].

I’m very glad I’ve ended up having girls because most of the boys names we liked when paired with our last name ended up being the same as or similar to several tax firms’ names, so yes, the last name definitely had to be given special considerations.

Same story for me. Last name is R0binson and dad’s name is [name_m]Robert[/name_m]. Not only does this cross all -son names off our list, but because our last name is SOOOO common I feel added pressure to choose an uncommon first name. I mean, I personally have met 3 people with the same exact first and last name combination as DH and that’s not something I want for my kid.

I am planning to take my wife’s surname when I get married, and the reason is that I like less popular names and my surname is Greek and weird
I wouldnt let it stop me, but I would much rather I had a more familiar sounding surname to pair said names with

Yes! my LN starts with a ‘see’ syllable, so names like [name_u]Chelsea[/name_u] are out. I also struggle a bit since I love names like [name_u]Ellis[/name_u]/[name_f]Elise[/name_f] which end in an ‘s’ sound, and I don’t love the flow.

Absolutely.

Our last name is [name_u]Murphy[/name_u], so we purposely avoided any Irish/Scottish surnames as first names like [name_u]Mackenzie[/name_u], [name_u]Kelly[/name_u], [name_u]Brady[/name_u], [name_u]Delaney[/name_u], [name_u]Kennedy[/name_u], [name_m]Nolan[/name_m], [name_u]Riley[/name_u], etc. Most of those are not our naming styles anyway, but we did make it a point to avoid any name that could also be used as a surname, especially since they are really trendy right now so it would be easy to do!

We also avoid using “M” names because [name_u]Murphy[/name_u] can become very sing-songy! [name_u]Mason[/name_u] [name_u]Murphy[/name_u], [name_f]Mia[/name_f] [name_u]Murphy[/name_u], [name_m]Matthew[/name_m] [name_u]Murphy[/name_u], [name_f]Maia[/name_f] [name_u]Murphy[/name_u], etc.

I don’t know what it’ll be yet, but I wouldn’t want any firsts that sound too similar to the surname or that run into it to make a phrase (like [name_m]Ben[/name_m] [name_m]Dover[/name_m]). I probably would still want to use more unusual firsts, even with a more unusual surname, I’d definitely want something more interesting with a common one.

I would like to give my children my surname, though I am not opposed to hyphenation.
My surname is very uncommon… outside of my country. (in my country is like “you know someone who knows another someone with this surname” type of situation). [name_m]Even[/name_m] though it’s uncommon, it’s easy to spell and pronounce, BUT it’s a surname that I really prefer as a sole word. It has strong sounds and it really takes all the shine to itself AKA it does not work with anything. It either sounds bad, horrible or ok with pretty much all the names I tested with it - nothing sounds good or great.
Basically I just avoid the horrible combinations and I naturally prefer unusual names (with a couple of exceptions), so there is no reason to shy away from them.