I was pondering how I came across some of my more obscure favorite names, or even the popular ones, and tried to remember the stories. Some are from books or TV shows, or just hearing often, like [name]Anna[/name], but others have funny stories?
For instance, [name]Corbin[/name] has been in my top five ever since I went camping with my cousins about five years ago. They had friends there who brought a friend named [name]Corbin[/name]. [name]Corbin[/name] and I couldn’t have said more than three words to each other the entire week, but I’ll never forget his name. I even stayed friends with him on Facebook up until recently because I liked seeing the name come up on my newsfeed.
[name]Grayson[/name] was my mechanic when I got in a car accident. I had to keep seeing his name on the bills (it was completely my fault, so it was my problem to pay for)…and I loved it!
[name]Ashlyn[/name] was the name of a girl who was the most terrible opening act I’ve ever seen at a concert. I was really an awful show. But I love her name.
Anyone else have a good one to share?
My daughter’s name, [name]Leonie[/name] was inspired by my husband’s love of lions.
Merit is a top choice for a second daughter if I ever have one & I found it when I did a free trial of ancestry.com…it was someone I wasn’t even related to & a man! But I lovedit & it stuck with me!
[name]Teal[/name] is another contender & I remember hearing it in high school. It was someone I never met but I guess they were called to the principal a lot! Another instance of a possible male name!
[name]Claudette[/name] I first heard on [name]Claudette[/name] [name]Colbert[/name].
[name]Bernadette[/name] & [name]Veronica[/name] & [name]Joan[/name] have religious connections.
I love the name [name]Ashlyn[/name] also, i found it as it’s one of my brothers friends name.
Most of the names I like are either from people I went to school/work with, or are names that my friends have told me about as they are expecting, such a [name]Elliott[/name] and [name]Isaac[/name]
my favourite name at the moment is [name]Samara[/name], my fiancée told me he met a girl named [name]Samara[/name] and I instantly loved the name!
[name]Stella[/name] came from a song I’m fond of, [name]Paige[/name] was a girl I knew in high school who I always gave fun nn’s to (such as [name]Paige[/name] [name]Lynn[/name], which wasn’t even close to her middle name), and [name]Bridget[/name] I stole from my sister-in-law . . . woops!
Boys names I think I’ve just always liked and have no idea when or where I started calling them favorites. Like [name]Alexander[/name], [name]Jack[/name], [name]Evan[/name], and [name]Adam[/name]. . . no idea where they sprung from. [name]Mark[/name], however, is the first name of a musician that my fiance and I bonded over.
All my favorites are in my signature.
[name]Beckett[/name] - I saw it here on Nameberry, and liked it almost instantly! Especially with the nn [name]Beck[/name].
[name]Liam[/name] - I know I’m probably going to get slammed for this, but this is the name of a member of the boy band that I like, [name]One[/name] Direction. (I’m only 13, so it’s normal! I swear! lol) I’ve always liked the name, though.
[name]James[/name] - I honestly have no idea…
[name]Leo[/name] - Again, I have no idea
[name]Benson[/name] - Came across it on TV.
[name]Louis[/name] (pronounced [name]Louie[/name]) - Again, [name]One[/name] Direction. ([name]Don[/name]'t shoot me! Lol)
[name]Gemma[/name] - I heard it somewhere, and liked it!
[name]Lydia[/name], [name]Hayley[/name], [name]Ashlyn[/name], [name]Juliet[/name], [name]Elise[/name] - Basically the same as above.
Let’s see… I’ll just do a few of my favourites.
[name]Holly[/name] - A character on Casualty when I was… fourteen? I’ve loved the name ever since.
[name]Ira[/name] - The name of a lady who had visions in a book series called ‘The Wind on [name]Fire[/name]’. [name]Read[/name] it, it’s good 
[name]Rose[/name] - Part of my name (and four ladies before me)
[name]Scarlett[/name] - O’[name]Hara[/name].
[name]Laila[/name] - [name]One[/name] of the main characters in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’.
[name]Clara[/name] - This just started to grow on me.
[name]Hester[/name], [name]Emmeline[/name] and [name]Eilidh[/name] I found whilst perusing the net.
[name]Vasiliy[/name] - A Russian sniper during World War 2. I heard it whilst watching ‘Enemy at the Gate’.
[name]Edmond[/name] - The name of my great grandfather. He went by Ned 
[name]August[/name] - The name of a fun but respectful young man in a book called ‘[name]Spring[/name] [name]Moon[/name]’.
[name]Jory[/name] - A contraction of [name]Joseph[/name] (my granddad’s name) and any ‘R’ name. Currently I like [name]Rory[/name] but that’s subject to change. It also happens to be a real Cornish name so bonus there!
I find most of mine while I’m reading, but I’ve also found that if I hear a name that I’m on the fence about many times, I usually come around to it.
[name]Eleanor[/name] - from [name]Jane[/name] [name]Austen[/name]. I realized she was one of my favorites when I kept comparing her with other names, and she makes me smile every time I think of her!
[name]Mary[/name] - found my love for her thanks to Downton [name]Abbey[/name], though I’d definitely heard/read it elsewhere.
[name]Henry[/name] - from the Boxcar Children series, which played a huge part in teaching me how to read. Fond memories!
[name]Charles[/name] - he’s in lots of literature that I’ve read, but I think what made him one of my absolute favorites is a great personal association and the tv show [name]Chuck[/name].
[name]Verity[/name]: I originally hated this name, but then I read [name]Agatha[/name] [name]Christie[/name]'s Nemesis and seeing the name so many times made me realise how wrong I was. Then I realised I could call her [name]Vivi[/name] and fell in love with the meaning!
[name]Annora[/name]: My partner teases me by claiming to like girls’ names after he sees them on a pretty lady. In this case, the character Inara on Firefly was the inspiration. But my partner thought it was spelt like [name]Annora[/name], and suggested it to me. I looked it up and fell in love with the history (especially as I have loved [name]Annie[/name] as a nn forever, but worried about its popularity).
[name]Elspeth[/name]: I found this whilst looking for a way to honour my grandma, [name]Elsie[/name], and was just charmed by the sound and elegance of it.
[name]Rosemary[/name]: I’ve been really into [name]Rose[/name] names after meeting a beautiful [name]Rosie[/name] who was kind to me. Then I listened to an [name]Emmy[/name] the Great song and realised this would be a way to honour my partner’s grandmother, [name]Mary[/name], and I knew this was the perfect [name]Rose[/name] name for us.
[name]Juliet[/name]: I’ve always liked Jul- names, since reading 1984, but found [name]Julia[/name] a little too popular. Then I read [name]Juliet[/name] in some history book in a library one day and it just hit me how beautiful it is.
[name]Edmund[/name]: Again, I’ve always loved [name]Edward[/name] ever since hearing about a very cool ancestor with the name, but find it slightly too popular. I think [name]Jane[/name] [name]Austen[/name] probably made me prefer [name]Edmund[/name] to other [name]Ed[/name]- alternatives.
[name]Francis[/name]/[name]Frank[/name]: very recently moved up to be my number two. I don’t know whether it was [name]Austen[/name] again or my guilty pleasure, Made in [name]Chelsea[/name], that made me reconsider [name]Francis[/name] but once I did, I was a goner. I love the meaning (I’m half-French), the connection to [name]Francis[/name] of [name]Assisi[/name] and the history generally.
In general, I think I’m fairly influenced by my cultural references. Recent crushes include [name]Irene[/name], after watching [name]Sherlock[/name], and [name]Gwendolen[/name], after reading [name]Daniel[/name] Deronda. I don’t remember being significantly influenced by naming forums, but I probably have been subconsciously!
I found my current name-crush, [name]Hester[/name], in the film The Deep [name]Blue[/name] Sea where the main character is named [name]Hester[/name] [name]Collyer[/name] and is played by [name]Rachel[/name] Weisz. The character isn’t particularly meaningful to me, but the name is just adorable. A nice version of [name]Esther[/name].
My all-time favourites:
Ingrid: Our old Queen Consort, the mother of our Queen Regnant, was a really admirable woman and she will just always glorify the name to me. Then, obviously, there is Ingrid Bergman who was an incredibly talented actress and isn’t a bad namesake either.
Amaury: I heard it on TV. The head of Dior in Denmark (and the rest of Scandinavia) is called Amaury and I think he was attending one of the royal christenings and I heard the name and I fell in love with it.
A lot of the names I love are “normal” names and I heard them by meeting people named that.
[name]Azalea[/name]- my sister had a friend named this and I fell in love with her name right away…
[name]Cordelia[/name]- [name]Anne[/name] of [name]Green[/name] Gables, my childhood favourite
[name]Diana[/name]- have known people named this but started loving the name when I learned more about the late [name]Princess[/name] of [name]Wales[/name]
[name]Melanie[/name]- heard of it before but started loving it after I learned one of my favourite teachers was named after the Gone With the Wind character (which was what inspired me to read GWTW and ended up loving the character)
[name]Camelia[/name]- heard it on a tennis player
[name]Deveraux[/name], [name]Cedric[/name], [name]Riordan[/name]- Nameberry
[name]Fitzwilliam[/name], [name]Darcy[/name]- Pride and Prejudice
[name]Isaac[/name]
I remeber hating this name so much when I was younger, all I could hear was ‘I suck’ so I can’t believe that is now my favourite boy’s name by an absolute mile. I picture myself with a little [name]Isaac[/name] in the future, and I can’t bare the thought of not ever having one so any future partner of mine has to love this name, lol. I don’t remember how I came to love it so much, but I do remember having the combo [name]Nathaniel[/name] [name]Isaac[/name] on my list a long, long time ago but when playing around with names I came up with [name]Isaac[/name] [name]Nathaniel[/name] [name]Storm[/name] and I just fell in love with it.
[name]Jude[/name]
This is another one that I don’t really know where I got it from, maybe [name]Jude[/name] [name]Law[/name]? It sounds so cool to me but it’s losing its appeal because of the popularity. Although, it fits perfectly with my other favourite names so I don’t see it comng off my list any time soon.
[name]Arabella[/name]
I remember this one! [name]Bella[/name] names had never really appealed to me, especally [name]Isabelle[/name]/a. However, I did a placement at a school in an affluent area and with very well to do families and there was a beautiful six year old girl named [name]Arabella[/name]. Now, usually for me meeting a child with a name puts me off, but in this case it did the complete opposite and I just fell head over heels in love with the name. I’ve come to love pretty frilly and unusual girl’s names, and I just don’t think you can beat the princessy feel the name has. It is well known but nowhere near as popular as [name]Isabelle[/name]/a, but it has the pretty nickname of [name]Bella[/name] or [name]Ari[/name], which is sligtly more unusual.