Hi!
So, I’m curious as to how others fall in love with names, and, if necessary, out of love. For example, for me, my top favorite name switches every so often- from the time I joined Nameberry, it went from [name_f]Aveline[/name_f] to [name_f]Aurelie[/name_f] to [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f] to [name_f]Penelope[/name_f] to [name_f]Beatrix[/name_f]. When I fall in love with names, it’s usually a name I’ve seen before but suddenly it’s like looking at it in a whole new light- I simply suddenly realize that I love it. Same thing with my not-top-but-still-love names- [name_f]Eliza[/name_f], [name_f]Annelie[/name_f], etc. And when I fall out of love with names… well, the light just suddenly moves off of it. I’ll slowly just stop being enthusiastic about it, and soon it’ll strike me at a random moment that I don’t love it anymore. Still, I’ll hang on to it for a while, unwilling to let go. The cycles vary in time- [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f], I liked for a while but only really loved for one day, after which it was replaced by [name_f]Penelope[/name_f], while [name_f]Beatrix[/name_f], I’ve loved for a long time and don’t seem to be losing love for. It seems that in several instances, the downfall of a name will come only a few days after I ponder the wonders of that very name. Perhaps it’s just me being a typical modern-day teen, always chasing after novelty and never able to stick to one thing.
So, what about you guys? [name_m]How[/name_m] often do your favorites change, and ho do you know that you’ve fallen in or out of love with a name? Or do you have a consistent ‘lead singer’ that you’ve always loved but the background dancers fade in and out? If you do go through cycles like this, what are the names that you’ve loved and then stopped loving in the recent past?
Thanks!
Yes and no.
I have names that I really like that get bumped closer to the top and then get lower again ([name_f]Cynthia[/name_f], [name_f]Orla[/name_f], [name_m]Isaac[/name_m] etc) but my top names are pretty static.
I have the exact same problem! I get this rush of “THIS IS THE ONE!” for all sorts of names, ranging from [name_f]Delphine[/name_f], to [name_f]Marceline[/name_f], to [name_f]Jeanette[/name_f], to freaking Pancake.
And then after a while of seeing a name, the feelings of love toward it slowly die down. I still love the name, but it’s not ~the name~ anymore.
After a few weeks, I fall back in love with it and it starts all over again.
Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever regret the name I choose for my future children because of my wavering feelings toward my name crushes.
I feel like a serial dater going back and forth between names and breaking up with them, only to get back together with them.
But for now, I am content with my [name_f]Delphine[/name_f] and [name_f]Marceline[/name_f]. 
I feel like there are so many names out there that I’m just indifferent to. Then one day, I’ll see a name that I’d never considered before in a new light! All of a sudden, a name that I was oblivious to makes me so happy! Examples of this for me are: [name_f]Ruth[/name_f], [name_f]Laura[/name_f], [name_f]Anna[/name_f], [name_m]John[/name_m], [name_m]Philip[/name_m], [name_m]Daniel[/name_m].
Likewise, a name that I’ve always loved will suddenly seem boring or it just doesn’t fit my style/personality anymore. Examples of this are [name_f]Lily[/name_f], [name_m]Alec[/name_m], [name_u]Tate[/name_u], [name_u]Hudson[/name_u], [name_m]William[/name_m].
I find I have a few that are like my all time favourites, but the middle names change.
I used to be obsessed with [name_f]Winnie[/name_f] [name_f]Maeve[/name_f] for years, and recently I’ve changed my mind to [name_f]Winnie[/name_f] [name_f]Delphine[/name_f].
Same with [name_u]Piper[/name_u] [name_f]Olivia[/name_f], I fell out of love with [name_f]Olivia[/name_f] and in love with [name_u]Piper[/name_u] [name_f]Ophelia[/name_f].
I think it’s normal because of the sheer quantity of names out there. I think since being on the Nameberry forums, names that I liked before are now feeling a bit too basic 
[name_f]My[/name_f] old mainstream favourites are now being slowly replaced by more adventurous names!
Certain names stick with you I guess. Like for me, Harlow is my number one. A lot of girl names for me really stick.
But I’m having a boy. Due in December. And if I can be honest I was a little sad not got have a girl because Im so in love with my girl names. With boys I have no clue. One day I like a name and the next day I don’t like anymore!! We are deciding between Marshall and Elliott and luckily I like them both. But it’s weird. They are new loves which worries me. They haven’t always been my top front runners. But I guess when you have to choose a name with your partner things shift too. He definitely didnt like some of the names I suggested.
Some days, I’ll think, “Wow! I love this name!” and other days, it’s more like, “Ugh, what was I thinking?” Once I get to that point, I usually don’t fall in love with the name again.
Like, I went through a [name_f]Maggiemae[/name_f] stage… I honestly have no idea what I was thinking.
Nameberry has also changed a lot of my opinions on names. For example, when I joined Nameberry, I absolutely hated [name_f]Juliet[/name_f] and thought [name_f]Juliette[/name_f] was much better. Now, though, I dislike the frilliness of [name_f]Juliette[/name_f] and greatly prefer [name_f]Juliet[/name_f]. Other names Nameberry has taught me how to like are [name_f]Eliza[/name_f], [name_f]Josephine[/name_f], and [name_f]Alice[/name_f].
Oh gosh, my short list changes about once a month! Sometimes more often! [name_f]My[/name_f] poor future husband when I change my mind every month of the pregnancy Anyways, occasionally I’ll have a love at first sight moment, but usually I stare at a list of names I think are fine until I have a realization about one of them and fall in love. Such happened to me today with [name_f]Verity[/name_f], and the other day with [name_m]Reuben[/name_m]! Falling out of love, eventually my combo just doesn’t take my breath away anymore and I go searching for a new name for my shortlist.
My top names have been pretty consistent. I don’t feel like I’ve fallen out of love with any of my favorites, although I have been liking [name_f]Ivy[/name_f] less recently. It was never my top name, though, and I wouldn’t say I’ve fallen out of love with it- it just doesn’t feel as special to me at the moment.
However, when I fall for a name, it’s exactly like you describe: a name I’ve seen before but I suddenly see in a whole new light and realize it’s amazing. This has happened to me recently with [name_f]Georgia[/name_f], [name_f]Zara[/name_f], and [name_f]Lila[/name_f]/Lilah. I’ve always seen them but never loved them, and now suddenly I’m obsessed!
Yeah this happens to me sometimes. I LOVED the name [name_f]Irene[/name_f], and then suddenly it started seeming kind of bland and old-lady-like. I see names and words in colors sometimes, and [name_f]Irene[/name_f] suddenly turned from violet to a kind of washed-out grayish indigo. Other names on my short list that fell to the ‘meh’ section were [name_f]Alice[/name_f], [name_f]Lucy[/name_f], [name_u]Penny[/name_u], [name_f]Rosy[/name_f], [name_f]Chloe[/name_f], [name_f]Macy[/name_f], and [name_f]Marilyn[/name_f]. All of my favorites take turns in my number one spot, but never really fall out of favor. [name_f]My[/name_f] top names include [name_f]Cece[/name_f], [name_f]Ansley[/name_f], [name_m]Ames[/name_m], [name_u]Sawyer[/name_u], [name_u]Owen[/name_u], and [name_u]Luca[/name_u], and those never seem to go.
My favourites seem to change every month or so… [name_m]Even[/name_m] more rapidly now I’m paying more attention to them! I resonate with the light shining on and off them. I personally love it when a name I previously felt meh about starts radiating from nowhere!
Since joining these forums my favourite has gone from [name_f]Emilia[/name_f] to [name_f]Adeline[/name_f] to [name_f]Elodie[/name_f] to [name_f]Alice[/name_f] to [name_f]Margot[/name_f]. I still love them all but in reverse order to how I just listed them. [name_f]My[/name_f] boy names don’t actually change much now I think about it… [name_m]Theodore[/name_m] has been on my list since I was about 8 and [name_u]Elias[/name_u] since I was about 21! But [name_u]August[/name_u] is a new love since joining these forums and gosh I do love him so much. [name_u]Emerson[/name_u] was my number 1 boys name when I joined the forums but now I see it as overly trendy and a bit crass. More classic names are creeping up the list like [name_m]Edward[/name_m] and [name_m]Arthur[/name_m], but I still don’t love them as much as the others.
I think exposure helps. The names that get a lot of attention on NB sneak into my psyche. Then seeing a character on TV or something with the name usually solidifies it for me.
Same! I’ve loved [name_m]Oliver[/name_m] as my #1 boy’s name forever, and ever since I’ve joined the forums I’ve found new boys’ names that I love, but haven’t stopped loving any of my old favorites. I guess that could be sort of problematic…
I completely agree! For example, I used to hate [name_f]Jane[/name_f], but I saw everybody praising her on the forum, and then I decided to use her for a character in a story 
, and now I kinda like it. But I definitely don’t love it. And I never thought I’d like [name_f]Alice[/name_f], but… now I do!
I get what you mean, even within the cycles in my original post, there are side names that get bumped up and down, while my top name stays the same
YES. And I, too, worry about whether I’ll regret the name of my future child.
Exactly how I feel!
NB really does bring out the adventurous side of us all
@BookSneakersMovie- YES, my opinions of names have been changed so much by NB!
YESSSS. With [name_f]Aveline[/name_f] and [name_f]Aurelie[/name_f], it was love at first sight, but with the others, it was names that I’ve seen all the time before but never thought of as amazing
@eagleeyes- that’s exactly how I feel when I fall in love with a new name!
@ty_and_owen- I also see names and words in colors, and they totally affect my perception of the name!
I hope I finally find my style! [name_f]Beatrix[/name_f] is my longest-lasting name love, so maybe I’ve finally found it
[name_f]Avalon[/name_f] and [name_m]Evander[/name_m] are always constant and they never fade. They are above my favorite name!!
BUt all the others have fallen in and out. A LOT.
I have new name crushes sometimes several times a day.
My style has changed so much over the years! There are constants on my list that have been in my head and various places on my list since elementary school: [name_f]Alice[/name_f], [name_m]Amadeus[/name_m], [name_f]Genevieve[/name_f], [name_u]Indra[/name_u], and [name_m]Marshall[/name_m]. Then there are newer loves like [name_m]Rainer[/name_m], [name_f]Theodora[/name_f], [name_m]Leonidas[/name_m], [name_f]Marigold[/name_f], and [name_u]Zephyr[/name_u]. Then there are old loves that I still like, but I could bear not using like [name_f]Sophia[/name_f], [name_f]Sibella[/name_f], [name_f]Lyra[/name_f], [name_m]Llewyn[/name_m], and [name_m]Felix[/name_m].
But I will also say that life has made me change my style. The truth is, there are so many important people in my life that have made me fall in love with their names, and before I met them, I wouldn’t have considered using them for a future child. The same goes for new special places and values that I had never come across before.
I think part of this might be your age–I’ve been involved in online name forums of some variety or another since I was thirteen, and I’m now twenty-three, but I was interested in names before that, even back in elementary school. When I was really young, I didn’t know as much about name etymologies, history, culture, etc, so I kind of focused on sound or “feel” of a name, and a lot of my favorite names were names I found in books that caught my eye, or names that I could imagine fictionalized/more interesting versions of myself wearing.
By the time I was in my early teens, the name sites I was active on were much more geared towards expectant mothers (more so than nameberry, which is more of a name nerd site in general) so I started to think more about what names I could see myself using on a future child, rather than just names I liked the sound of or names I could use on a character in a story.
Now, my perspective has shifted even more that way because I hope to be having kids in the next several years, so again it becomes more concrete. I like names for their own sake too, and there are some names I really like in a vacuum that don’t really seem like they’d fit my own child, but I still enjoy collecting them, they just kind of go into a different collection space, I guess. Plus, even for names I don’t particularly like, I’m interested in tracking trends and name history and seeing where things came from. So I guess my interest in names comes from a nerdy/curious perspective, a writer/creative’s perspective, and a very practical potential-parent perspective. As I’ve gotten older, the final part’s started to become more “real” to me than it had before. And I definitely have noticed my favorite names changing less and getting more settled and consistent, too, as time has passed.
In terms of what you say about falling in and out of love, I’ve definitely experienced that over the years, as my style and priorities have changed, but there are some that stuck around, and I think those are the ones that I’d be most likely to use on an actual child. I think my style started to solidify when I was about your age, maybe a little older, and most of the names on my Actual Serious Consideration For [name_u]Future[/name_u] Babies list I’ve loved since that era. For me, the names I’d be most likely to actually use are of that variety: not necessarily the brightest light, but the warm glow that has been there for years. And the older you get, the more you’ll be able to tell which are the longtime favorites, because a name you’ve loved for ten years is different from a name you’ve loved for a year or a month, and you’ll have a longer spread of conscious in-depth memory to compare it to.
I hope this doesn’t come off as talking down to you because you’re younger than me, by the way, because I really do like seeing the perspective and interests of name nerds who are the same age I was when I started posting my favorites. In ten years, I’m sure it’ll be really cool for you to look back and see which of the many names that sparked your interest had that staying power some of my favorites from when I was thirteen did–or maybe you’ll have a totally different style altogether, which you might!
Personally, I’m interested to know what my style looks like by the time I’m 33, and have hopefully had the chance to use some of these names on my own children. [name_m]Will[/name_m] I use the ones I’ve loved since I was thirteen? [name_m]Will[/name_m] the names I have started loving more recently in my early twenties become favorites of many years too? Definitely a lot to think about 
This!!! I joined nameberry when I was 13 or 14, and I am now 20. I joined the forum with a short list consisting of names such as [name_f]Aaliyah[/name_f], [name_f]Kaelyn[/name_f], [name_f]Mikaela[/name_f], [name_m]Cason[/name_m], and [name_u]Kyler[/name_u], but I have both matured age wise and learned a lot about the history of names, as well as just expanding my name database in general! I’ve had several huge shifts in style, leading me to my current style of somewhat uncommon vintage or international names such as [name_f]Sylvie[/name_f], [name_f]Flora[/name_f], [name_f]Susannah[/name_f], [name_m]Bruno[/name_m], and [name_u]Asa[/name_u], which has stayed fairly consistent the last 2 years (although my top names still change frequently, the style is consistent).
I have definitely fallen in and out of love with names over the years and still do now. It happens more often now, I think, because I’m considering names for potential children that are actually a real possibility because I’m at that point in my life, whereas before I thought of names I liked, but the potential children connected to them were far off in the future still. When you’re considering names for real children or children that could be real very soon, it’s easier to find flaws in names that make me not love them anymore. Because choosing a name for someone is hard. haha If that makes sense.
Anyway, some names I fall in and out of love with quickly and some it takes more time. Generally, I’m like you in that I fall in love with names I’ve heard before, but they just strike me in a different way randomly and suddenly they have a sparkle. Similarly, I know that I’ve fallen out of love with a name if it loses its sparkle. Doesn’t mean it won’t come back, though. I have a few names that have stayed consistently on my potentials list over the last 6ish years since I’ve been with my husband, though. I don’t always really, really love them, but they’re always solid choices I really like. I do think sometimes whether or not I like or love a name at any given moment, fall in or out of love with a name, etc is influenced by the opinions of those close to me. As much as I would prefer to not take anyone’s but my husband’s opinion into account, I can’t help it. That’s one of the reasons I fall in and out of love with Greer, but it always stays on my list. My husband and I both like it and have for a long time; it was one of the first names I fell in love with after I was married. Reactions to it, however, are either mildly favorable or really negative. There’s no in-between.
I definitely have this! I have loads of names I like and that always end up in my user card one way or another, but I find it hard to pin down names I really love. Sometimes I’ll think I love a name, only to realise I just like it and it gets bumped off my list. I’m always so jealous of people who have their long-standing, uncompromisable top girl and boy names, I really wish that were me!
Usually my favourite names are just slightly longer-lasting crushes that eventually become stale and uninspiring; I’ve had so many top names I can’t even remember most of them. I’m currently stuck in a name rut so here’s to hoping that something finally clicks 