We’ve all made mile long lists of all the beautiful names we love. Sure they seem nice to imagine but would you actually use any of them for a real life child? I realized I would probably only use a few out of my ever-growing list of 200+ if I had to give a baby a name they might have for the rest of their life!
What about you?
Yes! The reality of the names we dream up is far more limited in application. The permanency of our choice has far more limitations than our creativity!
I would use at least my top seven irl, but probably more
I started with my lists being only names I’d use but they have grown to include ‘just likes’, unrealistic loves, and GPs as well.
That’s why I’ve been going through them with my husband the last couple of days, trying to hammer out, okay, name fun aside, what would we actually use? It’s actually been really helpful - we’ve got banks of around 30-50 names we’d genuinely consider (as opposed to the hundreds of names on my various lists). I think there’s about 20 of those names that make me feel I’d be sad and disappointed if I couldn’t use them.
I don’t have very much of a list going right now. It’s just a handful of names I’d actually use. So I guess all of them? At this point anyway.
most of them, probably, there’s only one in my uc that i definitely could not use (due to it being too similar to my last name, but if i had one daughter her name would 100% be amadea (as for a son i’m still deciding, but possibly ulysses). i don’t have a long list of names like lots of people here do, usually i don’t have the patience to actually add names or take away names from lists, so it’s mostly a mental list. i have a three day weekend this week so i have the time, now to actually do it.
I have a Top 2 for each category, and that totals around 8 right now.
About half? Because right now a lot of my favourite names are strictly associated with one language/culture, so I’d feel a little weird using them as someone who’s not a part of that culture. I think that’d be around 20-25 names.
Hm - interesting question! I have a shortlist of three girls names and I would be really disappointed if for whatever reason I didn’t get to use them; I’m less sure about boys names but there are about five on my list I’d seriously consider using
Honestly? Maybe roughly thirty? But I’m pretty sure it’d be less, like maybe 10?
Totally understand that, a lot of my favorite names are Hebrew and I feel like it might be disrespectful to use them. 
Hmm, probably most of them. Though there are some I just like and while I do like them I don’t love them and probably wouldn’t use them.
there’s about 15 girls names and 10 boys names i can genuinely picture myself using, but even within that there’s a lot of variation in how much i love them and how disappointed i’d be if i couldn’t use them.
I’d definitely use a lot of my names IRL. Everything on my long list is something I’d use, especially if my partner liked it. 
I love so darn many names lately!
I would probably only use a handful of names! A dozen at most if we are counting masc and fem names… And that’s only if they’re approved 
Plus I have soooo many letters and sounds that repeat that I may be even more limited then I think.
Out of the couple thousand names I would consider about close to 600 depending on what future husband wants but if it were up to me I already have the names written down so 33 girls names and 26 boys names ( as of now ) ( unless I change my mind which is highly likely ).
I “prune” my lists regularly to take out ones that I would really never use. So probably only about 10% are guilt pleasure names or ones that I love but can’t use for some reason (like a relative used it or has a meaning I don’t like).
I don’t really keep lists, but I just wrote down my current favorites, and the list was 18 names long. I would use 14 of those, I think. The others are maybes.
I don’t have a physical list written down anywhere but I do have a mental catalogue of names I like. It used to only contain 100% usable names but I’ve recently started including more just for fun stuff. Currently I’d say 90% of the list is usable in some fashion, in real life I intend to use honor/sentimental names in the middle so that cuts all of the wild middle name only stuff leaving maybe 75%. Another 15% are probably still a little too much to be realistic first name options. Then out of the remaining 60% half of them are ones I just like, not love or are other wise not ideal for one reason or another. Which then leaves about 30% of my list as names I truly love that fit all of my criteria and I could absolutely see on my actual child. If I had to guess, that’s probably about 100 names in total if you combine the boy and girl lists.
Out of my wife and I’s name list probably top 3 boys names and top 5 girls names.
Out of my personal list, my top 50 are ones I could use and be happy with.