Hot Takes? šŸ¤­

Iā€™m the opposite! Iā€™m not a fan of animal names on humans, but I think animal names on dogs can be fun! Part of it may be that my big, black dog kinda looks like a bear, so [name_m]Bear[/name_m] would suit him. Also, the dog named [name_m]Goose[/name_m] I know is named after a character from Top [name_m]Gun[/name_m], not the animal. I did think [name_m]Goose[/name_m] was a weird name before I knew that though :joy:

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i think we as a society should stop judging people based on their names and what they name their kids.

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Yes, everyoneā€™s name choices are unique, and a name is just a label after all, itā€™s about the person inside that matters. I have many friends whose names I dislike, but they are awesome people and thatā€™s what matters to me.

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Iā€™m not convinced. :thinking:

In all seriousness, itā€™s fine to dislike names as long as weā€™re being respectful about it. :+1:

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[name_m]Glen[/name_m] & [name_f]Gwen[/name_f] sound the same (in my accent, anyway)

I donā€™t like the name [name_f]Florence[/name_f], and that is starting to really feel like a minority opinion. I think Iā€™d like it much better if it were a boys name. It just doesnā€™t sound pretty for a girl.

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Probably more of a hot take outside of NB tbh, but imo twins do not need to be named any differently from single children.

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As much as I love CAFs and getting to know new names & names from other culturesā€¦ Please donā€™t make CAFs with names from cultures or languages you know nothing about. If itā€™s your own culture, you speak the language or at least youā€™re very well informed, go ahead and make a CAF with the right spellings of the names. But if you donā€™t even know how to spell them correctly or you donā€™t know how names ā€œworkā€ in that culture (Do they have middle names? Last names? How are the names given?) then please stay away from it.

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I donā€™t know if this is aimed at me but it feels like it is because a lot of my CAFs include names from cultures I know nothing about and canā€™t even spell, because I sample the whole SSA listā€¦ oh well. I donā€™t even know if thatā€™s what you mean but you do have a point there. [name_f]My[/name_f] logic was like ā€œthere are people named [name_f]Jessika[/name_f], [name_m]Micheal[/name_m] or [name_m]Jaimy[/name_m] in real life who might otherwise never find their names represented in a CAFā€ but I see that when it comes to lesser known names that just looks like I didnā€™t bother to look them up.

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Oh no, thatā€™s not at all what I had in mind! I was thinking of the CAFā€™s where you create an entire family from a specific culture or country. The one that triggered my post was a CAF where you had to create an Icelandic family, but all the names were spelled wrong and there wasnā€™t any mention of the fact that Icelanders donā€™t typically have middle names or last names. And I have seen similar CAFs with names from other cultures before.
Of course thereā€™s nothing wrong with using a name youā€™re not familiar with in a CAF, thatā€™s not at all what I was referring to.

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I thought so, those have bothered me before as well. But I wasnā€™t sure and I still think the reasoning somewhat applies to mine as well.

Maybeā€¦ I think itā€™s different because irl people use names from different cultures all the time, sometimes because of their heritage, sometimes just because they like the sound of it. So whether you, if you use them in a CAF, are familiar with them or not, itā€™s somehow realistic. Creating an ā€œIcelandicā€ family with those spellings and last names/middle names is not. No Icelandic family would ever name their children like that.
But I know thatā€™s a different point altogether.

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bridie >>>> birdie
(neither of them are my personal style, but in terms of what i like to hear on others/see in othersā€™ combos!)

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Siblings can have the same first initial. In any order of birth. It is a restrictive idea that they cannot. I canā€™t imagine not naming my child something that I actually love and breaking my own heart by naming them maybe something I only like because another also starts with the same letter.
I think perhaps people who are ā€˜worriedā€™ to use the same letters are scared to be judged, which is sad.

notes: This is not referring to a Duggars scenario. Once it becomes an obvious rule, then I see it as more limiting instead of liberating.
Also, Iā€™m aware that people who care about this see it I think mostly as an ā€˜aestheticā€™ thing. To each their own aesthetics. Again, however, once it becomes a rule for others that they judge by, then I see it as hypercritical. If they say itā€™s ā€˜cheesyā€™ then I really wonder of any good reason why. Not like weā€™re calling out our children by their initials.

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Completely agree!

I also feel the same way about shared meanings or international equivalents! Thereā€™s nothing wrong or redundant with naming sisters [name_f]Anna[/name_f] and [name_f]Grace[/name_f] or even using [name_f]Anna[/name_f] [name_f]Grace[/name_f] as one combo, just because they mean the same thing. [name_m]Juan[/name_m] and [name_m]John[/name_m] might be a little much, but who cares if brothers are named [name_m]Jack[/name_m] and [name_m]Sean[/name_m]? So long as the names sound different enough, itā€™s unlikely to ever affect them. Theyā€™re equivalents, but theyā€™re not ā€œthe same nameā€ and itā€™s not a naive mistake when parents choose these kind of names (which sometimes seems to be the condescending implication when names like them are mentioned on NB).

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I have also seen a little about it being bad to use names like Margaret and Daisy for siblings because they have the same derivation. Itā€™s funny to me because Iā€™m sure 99.9%+ of the world would have no idea about the connection, nor would they mind if they found out. I think they would be more perplexed that they were derived from the same name than they would be that someone would use the names for sisters together.

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[name_f]Maggie[/name_f] & [name_f]Daisy[/name_f] :face_holding_back_tears:

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I have two hot takes I think are directly related to being trans and the first one will likely surprise no one:

  1. I think names are too gender segregated.

Nameberry is more free about this, but a lot of name spaces are pretty hostile to breaking the gender binary too much or to girls ā€œstealingā€ boy names and I think thatā€™s just silly.

Thatā€™s not to say that I think every name should be gender neutral per se, but Iā€™d especially love to see more feminine elements in boy names. Give me the boy Sashas and Ferns and Marinells and [name_m]Lucas[/name_m] called ā€œCassieā€. I donā€™t think neutral or nonbinary should have to mean masculine (it absolutely can be masculine, but beautiful sounds should be allowed to exist across the spectrum). Also, let girls be Wilders and Gideons and Atlases without being accused of ā€œruiningā€ their names for boys. Itā€™s okay for a little boy to be mistaken for a girl or vice versa, especially at the age where theyā€™re all just little potatoes without object permanence anyway.

  1. I think many people place their guilty pleasure bar a little too high.

Admittedly, out trans people are a self selecting group, in that it unfortunately still takes a bit of boldness to be openly trans in todayā€™s world. But I spend a lot of time around people who choose their own names as adults and it seems when adults choose names for themselves, they are pretty eclectic.

I see people going, ā€œItā€™s cute on a baby, but will an adult man really want to be Alfie?ā€ when I know three adult Alfies who absolutely did want that. Random words, fandom names, names in the top 100, names that are just a little weird and out of style - I know so many adults who love and choose those names.

And yeah, itā€™s hard to know whether your baby will grow up to be a [name_f]Lily[/name_f] or a [name_f]Zenobia[/name_f], but thatā€™s all the more reason to go bold if thatā€™s truly what brings you pleasure. Name a little Rainforest, a little [name_m]Zebulon[/name_m], a little [name_f]Gretel[/name_f]. Bold, out-there names are awesome and I wish people didnā€™t feel so guilty about loving them.

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I feel so weird about the fact that (especially as a namenerd) there is basically a 100% chance that Iā€™ve said my future child(ren)ā€™s name(s).

Iā€™ve read it/spoken it/had thoughts about it and I donā€™t even know the significance yet. What if itā€™s one that I passed over or even said something negative about?

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Ok, this hot take is steamy, but itā€™s really bugging meā€¦

I donā€™t like when people type names in lowercase.
(Caveat: I kinda get it with nameberry if you donā€™t like the color that will be assigned.)

I mean, your kids are not going to have lower case names! When I do see people type there kids names in lowercase, it just seems weird to me. Idk, I may be alone on this one.

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