Before stumbling on this site, I had a much different taste in names. I absolutely adored names like, [name]Hannah[/name], [name]Harper[/name], [name]Sophie[/name], and [name]Chloe[/name] for girls; and [name]Ethan[/name], [name]Caleb[/name], [name]Luke[/name], and [name]Isaac[/name] for boys. Now, all of these are fine names, but I no longer feel the excitement I used to get from these names. They just seem too popular and “safe” for my changing taste. Of course, DD [name]Grace[/name] was named long before I became a [name]Berry[/name], though I have yet to meet another [name]Grace[/name].
Now, I have an irrational love for names like [name]Alastair[/name], [name]Frederick[/name], [name]Sebastian[/name], [name]Matilda[/name], [name]Eugenie[/name], and [name]Eleanor[/name]. Once, before Nameberry, I met a woman and her daughter and I actually sneered when she told me her daughter’s name was [name]Eleanor[/name]. I have always disliked trendy names and “creative” spellings, though.
I know this site is responsible for my evolved sense of style in names, and I was just wondering if others have been “[name]Berry[/name]-fied”, or if they have always had the same style that either is on par with typical Nameberry loves or still love certain names in spite of it.
Before nameberry I loved [name]Charlie[/name], [name]August[/name], [name]Jonas[/name] and [name]Lincoln[/name]. I loved [name]Lorelai[/name] and [name]Annaleigh[/name].
I pretty much still love the same boy names, though there are MANY more on my list. I’ve decided I like [name]Lorelei[/name] and [name]Annelie[/name] better, though. [name]Aurelie[/name] and [name]Coralie[/name] are nameberry finds.
Besides [name]August[/name] and [name]Aurelie[/name], I don’t think my taste is VERY berrified. I know what I like and I’m not hung up too much on popularity. So, no, my tastes haven’t changed. Maybe only expanded.
I think I’ve been a berry since before there was a berry. Although I have no objection to Hebrew school names such as [name]Isaac[/name], [name]Ethan[/name], and [name]Jacob[/name], but I think that’s because I’m a cultural minority.
Names such as [name]Elinor[/name]/[name]Eleanor[/name], [name]Mildred[/name], [name]Edith[/name], and [name]Helen[/name] are all family names for me and so have always been on my lists. And names such as [name]Alasdair[/name], [name]Frederick[/name], [name]Louis[/name], and [name]George[/name] have always been part of my Celtic/Anglo heritage…
I think the only berry type names that I really dislike are the ones I find irritating – such as the quasi-literary names like [name]Harper[/name], [name]Dashiell[/name], and [name]Bronte[/name] – or the over the top word and nature names that seem more like linguistic wordplay rather than naming an actual living child.
I’ve been! I like longer names now than before, esp. for girls. E.g. [name]Seraphina[/name], [name]Dorothea[/name], [name]Annabel[/name], [name]Francesca[/name]. Maybe my taste has become braver? I’ve also grown to love names I used to dislike, as [name]Imogen[/name] and [name]Elodie[/name]. It’s an evolving process! My taste in boys’ names are kind of the same as before, maybe my picks now are a little bit more unusual/longer/‘ethnic Scandinavian’. It’s fun to see the change!
I’m new to Nameberry, but years ago I posted a lot on [name]BabyNamesWorld, which was bought by Nickelodeon so I left. I went through the same kind of change in name style appreciation but then after awhile I got really tired of all the same sort of names everyone loved on the site. Names like Rosmargaret, [name]Primrose[/name], [name]Seraphine[/name] and even [name]Hannelore[/name] were the norm for that forum, and normal for me for several years before I just got tired of the frill. Yes, your sense of what is special or normal certainly changes after you regularly visit and get feedback from a naming forum. I’ve never liked kreaytive spellings but when I look back at the names I used to like they seem so tacky, lol, but that could also be because I was a teenager when I liked the names and my tastes have evolved.
I have always (or for years, at least!) loved the names that most Berries love. They’ve never been my favorites but I do like at them a lot. There are some [name]Berry[/name] names that I would never like and never use, either–like [name]Beatrice[/name] or [name]Clementine[/name]. I do like [name]Clementine[/name], but I just couldn’t bring myself to use it.
I don’t know if I have been [name]Berry[/name]-fied… I mean, a lot of my favorites have remained the same since I’ve predominantly moved from the site I used to belong to to Nameberry–[name]Isabelle[/name], [name]Arianne[/name], [name]Olivia[/name], [name]Charlotte[/name], [name]Liliana[/name], [name]Caleb[/name], etc. I guess, in other ways, Nameberry has changed some of my look on names, though… I don’t think I would have ever let [name]Violet[/name] or [name]Daphne[/name] on my top 10 if it wasn’t for Nameberry, or names like [name]Everett[/name], [name]Lincoln[/name], [name]Bennett[/name], or [name]Henry[/name], either. I think most of my names are still quite mainstream for Nameberry’s taste, but that’s what I love so I am not going to change that, haha. Most of my new favorites, though, seem to be more within the Nameberry style–I’ve been considering adding [name]Clara[/name], [name]Genevieve[/name], [name]Primrose[/name], [name]Ivy[/name], [name]Bryony[/name], [name]Aurelia[/name]/[name]Aurelie[/name], [name]Magda[/name], [name]Eliska[/name], [name]Serena[/name], [name]Arabella[/name], [name]Elizabeth[/name], etc., to my list and a lot of those seem to be well-loved on these forums.
Yes and no. There a lot of “nameberry-ish” names that I still can’t stand. I’m not a big fan of anything TOO out there. But posting here has helped certain names grow on me. I’m pretty set in whatever my “style” is, but I’ve always been open to at least considering different names.
I certainly have. I look back on lists of names I made around sixth grade, and they include such names as gasp [name]Aidan[/name] and [name]Ava[/name]. Since joining Nameberry my taste has changed a lot, and I’ve become more open-minded about names.
I used to [name]LOVE[/name] making up names that didn’t exist yet. Fioruka, Elvienza, Sylvienza…and I was so proud that no one had heard them before. Then Nameberry made me realize I was one of “those” people, and I didn’t want to be in the same class as parents who named their kid Mattyhilda or Kajavonika. I also had no concept of first names matching last names, which now I’m pretty big on. I like the letters in the first name to match a last name. But I’ve always disliked super popular, “preppy” types of names, so that has not changed. And now I would never dream of naming a baby without getting tons of opinions online! lol
Deffinetly, I’ve been [name]Berry[/name]-fied. Before I really hung out on the site, my list was full of very trendy or wacky names. I wouldn’t realy consider any of them now. And my style is still evolving, but Nameberry is really how I got into names in general. I’m pretty sure that without it my first child would be either [name]Addison[/name] [name]Juliet[/name] or [name]Lennon[/name] [name]Pheonix[/name]. (gulp)
I always had that drive for specific types of names - names that aren’t popular, but not too strange. Before nameberry (and another name database site I’m rather attached to), I named my daughter [name]Bianca[/name] [name]Elizabeth[/name]. It’s a name I’m still very proud of and have encountered only two or three [name]Bianca[/name]'s in her own age group.
But berry has given me a huge bank of names to search around, a different way of looking at naming, the courage to love other unusual names I always have loved (such as [name]Ursula[/name] and [name]Aya[/name] and [name]Dexter[/name], which is becoming not so unusual) and a disturbing obsession with the world of names!
I haven’t really been berry-fied. I always had a nameberry-ish taste in names. I loved [name]Sebastian[/name] when my friends where arguing over which one got [name]Aiden[/name], [name]Hayden[/name], [name]Jayden[/name], and [name]Brayden[/name].
My tastes are my own. It just so happened that I found myself agreeing with some of the descriptions of names I have looked up on this site (some of them I’ve literally yelled “YES! EXACTLY!”, laughed, or the like). And I could not help myself but join.
I have always had a strong interest in names and words. So it is of no surprise that I’m perusing through lists for names that I like.
Not to mention, I feel at home knowing there are others who are name junkies, too! Hahaha.
EDIT: And if it wasn’t clear, I apologize.
I do find that my taste in names did not change so much, thus far. I never planned on naming my kids names of people I knew or ones I heard too often. So I think this site is useful for me to get an overview of what is popular.
But so true, there are names on here I never heard before and I am just stoked that I found it.
I finally feel like I have found a home! None of my friends get my love of names. I love checking on new names and lists. Thank you for your inspiration x
My taste hasn’t changed; I enjoy the discussion with other name geeks. I especially like the exposure to names I haven’t heard before – and it’s fascinating to learn trivia/history from people who live in other locales, who have had different linguistic training, or who have researched a name’s history. Plus, articulation concerning names themselves is interesting. I like to do “market research,” if you will, on the same names here and at another place where the taste is more mainstream, and it’s ever so much more helpful to get a comment like, “it sounds pretentious,” than an icon of a green face throwing up.
I actually think talking about my taste with other Berries has made me tone it down a notch, and realise that as much as I might love very, very unusual choices, it’s important to have one ‘normal’ middle or nickname option in a set. Also, I’ve grown to appreciate names which are unusual but not too flouncy more - think [name]Mary[/name] or [name]Agatha[/name] instead of [name]Theodosia[/name] or [name]Apollonia[/name].
[name]Auburn[/name]
[name]EDIT[/name]: By ‘toned down’, I mean more [name]Walter[/name] [name]Jack[/name] [name]Valentine[/name] than [name]Marmaduke[/name] [name]Elmo[/name] [name]Valentine[/name].