How important is the meaning to you? đŸŒ»

General Name Discussion
1

LONG POST AHEAD!

I feel like this topic is not very discussed in this forum, but how important is the meaning of a name to you? If a name has a “bad” meaning would you still considerate it? And if yes, would it influence on your choice / would you feel like the meaning kind of “ruined” the name?

For me it depends. Because of course, one of my criterias is that the name has a beautiful or good meaning, that wishes happiness, wisdom, etc, because I feel like the name is a gift, and therefore it should have a good meaning, because you are wishing yourself or someone else something good.

Some names don’t even have a meaning at all, yet I think they are very beautiful names.

But the positive side is that you can actually create your own meaning, and the name can become yours, you can put your own emotional meanings, honours, likes, wishes exc. This is a wish on it own I guess. To be who you want to be.

What do you think?

5 Likes
2

It depends on several different things, for me personally. The most important thing is the language. For my Icelandic/Old Norse names, the meaning is very important to me. In [name_f]Iceland[/name_f] nature names are very popular, and they often have great meanings (for example Eygló, which means “always shining” and refers to the sun).

In other languages, the meaning isn’t the most important thing to me. When I use Polish names it’s mostly because they’re part of my heritage and/or are family names.

As for religious and biblical names: because my faith is an important part of my life, these meanings are a great extra, like with [name_f]Mehetabel[/name_f] (God makes happy) or [name_m]Emmanuel[/name_m] (God is with us).

I don’t often dislike a name because of the meaning, unless it’s something very negative or weird, like [name_f]Orchid[/name_f] (I love the flower, but can’t get over the fact it means testicle).

3 Likes
4

What are some Icelandic / Old Norse names with a beautiful meaning?
I am interested!

5

I always sort of wished for a name that meant something cool, as mine just means “of the hazelnut tree,” but I’ve never thought on it much! I love that my middle means “God is my oath,” but if it meant nothing or meant something else, i don’t think I’d mind! A sweet meaning is a cool bonus, I think, but never the reason I love or dislike a name! (Exceptions being something like [name_m]Lucifer[/name_m], associated so widely with such evil. But generally, I’m pretty ambivalent. :woman_shrugging:t2:)

1 Like
6

Lucifer actually means “bringer of light” from Latin, beautiful meaning, pity for the connotation.

1 Like
7

This is so cool to read. Absolutely love that you’re experiencing these things! You’re inspiring me to take the meanings of my own name to heart! The more I think of it, the more I’m realizing I do indeed try to be of nature and love God
 maybe our names influence our lives subconsciously as we go sometimes. :smiling_face:

1 Like
9

I believe that names do somehow, consciously(in my case) or not, inspire you or form a little bit of your identity, this is why people also when choosing names will choose something suiting themselves.
Nomen Omen.

3 Likes
10

I usually actively ignore the meanings of names. So many of them are etymologically tenuous and they generally have no impact on the wearing of the name, how people react to it, how pleasant the sound is, how captivating the style is to you. (But I do care about cultural associations with the name–those definitely matter in the real world–ie [name_m]Lucifer[/name_m] meaning “light-bringer” but the actual meaning in human culture being “evil personified!”).

I feel like too many wonderful names (I also love [name_f]Cecily[/name_f]! And Claudia!) get overlooked because of something that matters zero in practice and that no one else will care about besides the namer and its wearer, and only then if they’re among the subset of us who like to ruminate upon names.

I do feel like meanings can be so easily constructed if you want a positive association for a name. [name_f]My[/name_f] daughter’s name’s traditional meaning isn’t exciting, but according to someone online who knows Sanskrit, it shares the syllables that mean “earth” and “riches,” ergo, it means Mother [name_f]Earth[/name_f]. She liked that. :wink:

4 Likes
12

Maybe the most true reason I disregard name meanings is that taking them into consideration makes the hunt so much harder!! I’m a perfectionist, but also lazy. It helps to simplify the criteria :joy:

1 Like
13

Such an interesting question!

For me meanings do matter to some extent I wouldn’t want to bestow a name onto my child with a ‘bad’ meaning. For example even though [name_u]Cameron[/name_u] is lovely because the name means ‘crooked nose’ I wouldn’t want to choose that name as I wouldn’t want my child to search their name and see the meaning ‘crooked nose’. I like that with my name comes with a positive strong meaning and I would want my children to have a similar experience to me. I love that when my daughter searches her name she will see the meanings [name_f]Lily[/name_f], G-d is my oath & fairy maiden for me those meanings are just so gorgeous and would make anyone smile.

However I think certain things do trump meaning for example honour names if me & my partner wanted to honour someone but their name meaning was negative I would still choose the name. Ultimately the associations of that person would make smile and provide meaning to my child as to why he chose x despite the negative name meaning. Similarly even if the etymological meaning behind the name was positive but culturally the name had a very negative meaning like [name_m]Lucifer[/name_m] I wouldn’t choose the name. I want my child’s name in all respects (culturally/etymologically) to have a positive meaning.

4 Likes
14

Meaning is important to me though not the most important thing. I quite like my names meaning ‘G-d has heard’ & ‘wisdom’ (which my handle is based off of). I like when names I like have good meanings like [name_f]Katherine[/name_f] ‘pure’, [name_f]Danielle[/name_f] ‘G-d is my judge’, [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] ‘pleged to G-d’, etc. I will use names that have “bad” meanings though, such as [name_f]Molly[/name_f] & other ‘Mary’ variants ‘bitter’, [name_f]Penelope[/name_f] ‘weaver’, & such. I am religious (as shows in my naming style) & that factors in as well despite liking ‘Lily’, I won’t use ‘Lilith’ because it’s not good in my religion, ‘Lucifer’ (as has been mentioned), [name_m]Judas[/name_m] (though this one sucks as I really like this name), [name_m]Cain[/name_m] (though I have similar sounding Canaan), & [name_f]Jezebel[/name_f] (though I think it sounds pretty).

TL;DR: Look at meanings but don’t care for honors, also highly care for religious

15

i think my perspective is a bit of a hot take, but i honestly don’t care about meanings almost at all. my three favourite boy names are wilbur, harvey & toby and i could not name the meaning of a single one of them (i do remember some for my girl names though, like annie meaning grace)

don’t get me wrong, if a name has a particularly nice meaning, i will consider that a bonus! mildred for example means “gentle strength” which i’ve always found beautiful. meraud’s listed meaning of “a profit by the sea” has always struck me as really interesting. i love how rosemary means both the herb and “dew of the sea” - and the meaning does make me like it slightly more than other rose- names. name meanings like this tend to stay in my mind, but although i do like them i wouldn’t say i care so much that if i was naming a baby, and i had two favourite names, one with a great meaning and one with a neutral one, i would choose based off meaning. i wouldn’t do that, because although the meaning is a cool little bonus, it’s just not important enough to me to affect my decision.

i mean, i chose my own name and i went for molly which quite literally means “bitter”, so that tells you everything i think haha

4 Likes
16

Great question. For me, it depends on the context. E.g. for me, [name_u]James[/name_u] is a family name, so I would be using it to honour my family member named [name_u]James[/name_u], not because of the meaning. So in that case, the personal significance of the name trumps the etymological meaning. Likewise with [name_f]Mary[/name_f] - I don’t really care about the (alleged) “bad” meaning because it’s an honour name, so the meaning has no bearing on why I would choose the name.

I would also make a distinction between names that literally mean something bad in a modern-day language (e.g. [name_f]Suki[/name_f] in Polish/Russian - it means bitches in those languages, and I have Polish friends so I could never use it, knowing the meaning) and names that may be derived from a unflattering word in an ancient language but are not actually the same as that word, if that makes sense. E.g. “blind” in Latin is caecus, which really isn’t similar to [name_f]Cecily[/name_f] at all, in spelling or pronunciation. [name_f]Cecily[/name_f] has a long history as a given name (e.g. it’s a saint’s name) and to me, that should be considered part of its "meaning*.

2 Likes
17

I’m kind of in agreement with this! I couldn’t tell you the meaning of my favourite names, except words like summer, daisy, etc. I create an image based on the sounds or associations i have with a name, as opposed to the meaning itself. The only exceptions are things that do have actively negative meanings, like Cecily that was mentioned.

So basically, meaning won’t make me like the name more, but could make me like it less??

ps, another molly here! i choose to look at the other meanings of the name, but bitter fits me quite well tbh :joy:

1 Like
18

I love this question! Part of the naming process for me husband and me is making sure the first+middle has a significant meaning, but we take some creative license as needed.

Our kids’ names’ meanings are:
Pure joy
[name_u]Man[/name_u] of the white fields
Zealous fire of the [name_m]Lord[/name_m]
The God of [name_m]Jacob[/name_m] has heard*
[name_f]Beloved[/name_f], drawn from the water
Kingly defender**

*James is my dad’s name, so we gave it as a middle name to my third son. But “supplanter” is a weird meaning. Since [name_u]James[/name_u] is actually a derivative of [name_m]Jacob[/name_m] and the real reason we chose [name_u]James[/name_u] is to honor my dad, we used “Jacob” as the meaning and feel fine about that.

**Arthur is one of those names with an uncertain meaning. It’s a family name for us, but we also like the references to [name_m]King[/name_m] [name_u]Arthur[/name_u], therefore “kingly.”

1 Like
19

I mostly like nature names that aren’t used in most other languages, like HĂșni (bear cub - my second son’s middle name), Lundi (puffin), SmĂĄri (white clover), Laugi (warm water pool), and names like [name_m]Sindri[/name_m] (sparkling) and GlĂłi / GlĂła (to shine, to glitter). Some other favorites are VeturliĂ°i (one year old bear, literally “bear that has lived one winter”), SĂłlrĂșn (several meanings, but possibly "magic of the sun), AlparĂłs (rhododendron, literally “rose of the alps”) and SumarliĂ°i (summer-farer).

4 Likes
20

Meaning is important to me! But if there is a connection to the name, or significant people from history with the name, that trumps meaning. For example, I love the name [name_f]Harriet[/name_f] but the meaning is “estate ruler “ which I don’t love, but I love how many strong women from history and literature are named [name_f]Harriet[/name_f].

I have a relatively uncommon name, so maybe that’s why I would get asked this question a lot, but whenever people asked how my parents chose my name I was always sad that there was no reason other than they liked the sound of it.

21

I don’t live and die by a name’s meaning and I would use a name that had a “bad” meaning, but I appreciate when a name has a meaning that I can (at minimum) “spin” into something nice. [name_f]My[/name_f] name has two meanings listed son of [name_f]Maud[/name_f] (which is what I had always seen growing up) and son of [name_m]Matthew[/name_m] (which is what Nameberry has it as but I hadn’t seen it before). But son of [name_f]Maud[/name_f] is kind of anticlimactic so I think of it as son of [name_f]Maud[/name_f] → [name_f]Maud[/name_f] → [name_f]Maud[/name_f] means “battle mighty” → my name means “battle mighty”

Meanings are also important to me when I want to potentially honor someone with a name and I don’t want to use their specific name or a variant. I also like when the meaning of the first and middle name can combine for a message of some sort (my name can extrapolate to “mighty victory.” One of my combos, [name_m]Grover[/name_m] [name_m]Felix[/name_m], can mean something like “happy/lucky is he who lives by the grove of trees” which feels very peaceful and sedate.)

For floral/botanical names I prefer when it has an additional meaning or symbolism other than just “flower name” so I’ll look into flower language and things like that. I also don’t appreciate meanings like “pure/virginal,” but I would still consider Agnes/Ines.

I do think that if I were choosing between two names and one of them had a better meaning that would be a +1 but I wouldn’t rule out a favorite name because of a subpar meaning.

22

I care for meaning, in a sense I sometimes start to love name based sorely on meanings. But I also have to keep it real, also taking some of these names off my list due to them not working well (like Gersemi - treasure meaning and mythic character). I also love [name_f]Cecily[/name_f] despite its meaning because I feel it’s far removed from caecus - actual Latin word meaning blind and name [name_f]Cecily[/name_f] derives off.

I think it’s fine to include meaning of the name in name evaluation, but not forget it’s not top priority when deciding on the name. I feel association might be much more important.

23

I’m drawn to names that have meanings that are important to me, but I’m actually not bothered by negative meanings. If I like the sound of the name I’ll like it regardless of meaning.

2 Likes