How/When did you become a baby name nerd?

General Name Discussion
1

[name]Hi[/name] everybody! I am new to this forum and I want to get to know a little bit about you all. I want to know how and when you gained your love for baby names! I am so happy to have found this forum to discuss all the different names out there. My family thinks my obsession with names is weird, so it’s cool to know I am not the only person who has it. LOL

P.S I hope this is in the right forum. Haha!

Here is my story:

When my aunt was pregnant with her first child in 2002, she had some very…interesting names picked out. For a girl she wanted [name]Gianna[/name] ([name]Gee[/name]-on-uh) [name]Marie[/name] (not a bad name, but [name]Gianna[/name] is not our style) and [name]Andre[/name] [name]Antony[/name] (We didn’t like [name]Andre[/name]) My mom thought it would be fun if I made a list of names that I liked and send it to her. I was 10 at the time and I thought it would be fun too. My mom bought me a a baby name book (I think it’s called The Best [name]Baby[/name] Name book and has 30,001 names in it) and I created a HUGE list of names for my aunt. I cannot tell you how much fun I had making that list. I never knew there were so many names beyond the [name]Jessica[/name]'s, [name]Sarah[/name]'s, [name]Jacob[/name]'s and [name]Chris[/name]'s that I went to school with. [name]Ever[/name] since then I have been fascinated by names. I love to find out their meanings, what’s popular and what’s going out of style.

Believe it or not, my aunt actually picked a name off my list for her first AND second kid! [name]Luke[/name] [name]Antony[/name] (mn after his dad) was born in [name]May[/name] 2002 and his little sister [name]Emma[/name] [name]Lea[/name] (middle name after her mom) was born in [name]May[/name] 2004. I was so shocked and happy!

Okay, that is my story on how I got into baby names. Now it’s your turn! :slight_smile:

[name]Erin[/name]

2

My family thinks my name obsession is weird too. I think it actually makes my mom uncomfortable…so your not alone.

I don’t remember exactly how I became a name nerd but I think it came from hating my own name. I can remember being three years old and absolutely loathing when people said my name. Its a fine name, its dated but its classic by many people’s standards but I never thought I wore it well. I remember hearing people say my name and cringing, it just didn’t feel like me. And then I discovered books and movies with amazingly named characters. The names were not only beautiful and special but they just fit who they were to a tee. I don’t think I actually started writing down and "collecting names until about middle school but I definitely had favorite names since I was four or five. It took quite a long time for me to discover the internet and that there were actual websites you could go to to search for names and discuss them without people thinking your weird.

3

Honestly, I myself find my name obsession to be weird. So I keep it to myself most of the time because I’m not sure how to explain it to people. It’s kind of a weird thing to like, you know. You more often see people obsessed with scooters or anime then with names. After all I’m only 16 and already naming my future kids. :stuck_out_tongue:

I think it first began when I was about 9 and my dad, sister, and I were talking about names and there meanings. I wondered what my name meant, so my dad showed me on babynames.com. After that I took his computer and looked up my sister’s, my mom’s, my friends’, grandparents’, aunts’, uncles’, and ever since then I’ve loved names… :slight_smile:

It is nice to know that’s I’m not the only one. :slight_smile:

4

In 7th grade (in the era before the internet), my English teacher had us do a project where we had to research the history and meanings of our first, middle, and last names. All by hanging out in the library using actual BOOKS! LOL :slight_smile: I always wonder how that kind of project would go down today with all the kre8tyv names out there.

Well, ever since getting my hands on those books, I’ve been interested in names. I’d sit for hours and flip through them and think about the kind of people that would go with each name.

5

I think I’ve always been into names. I remember pleading with my parents when I was six to allow me to name my younger brother instead of making him a third. In middle school I purchased a copy of Beyond [name]Jennifer[/name] and [name]Jason[/name], [name]Madison[/name] and [name]Montana[/name], which I read cover to cover multiple times, made random names list and just really enjoyed. I also purchased several other naming books and really enjoyed reading them and flipping through them. I had a friend who was also really into names and we’d talk about it a lot.
While I was dating my husband and we were talking about our future I made naming our first daughter [name]Mary[/name] [name]Claire[/name] a condition of me marrying him. He thought it was weird and wasn’t super crazy about the name but in the next six years between then and our daughter being born I think it grew on him. His one stipulation was that we needed to name our son [name]Patrick[/name], which I agreed since I do like the name. We both like classic names but not necessarily the same ones so a lot of the names I really was certain I would use before we were together are now not even a possibility. Which is fine since I got my favorite name and I look forward to one day having a third so we can have a baby who wasn’t named several years in advance and really talk about the name.

6

Writing stories. I always liked to write and in late elementary/early middle school a group of my friends and I got together and started writing collaboratively (basically, we all had our own characters and stories set in the same world, and every now and then their storylines intersected but we all wrote from our own POV). I loved picking out names for characters so eventually I asked my mom to buy me a name book, since this was pre-internet :stuck_out_tongue: originally I loved weird, gender-bending, nationality-swapping, misspelled or just plain made-up names but after I got my hands on that first name book there was no going back.

My mom is the only one who knows about my name obsession but she isn’t weird about it because she knows I’m talking hypothetically and not actively trying to have a baby to name. She’s one of the rare parents who can separate name obsession from baby obsession, I guess lol

7

I was also fascinated with names. When I was a kid as young as six and playing video games, I’d never name the player after me. There were so many better names out there than mine ([name]Reine[/name]), I thought. Usually, they were just names that struck my fancy because they sounded nice. I had no clue about their origins or meanings.
I think the first time I ever announced to my mom that I would change my name was when I was eight. She just laughed and said I’d learn to love my name. Being in second grade, I was pretty irritated, but I’m really glad she didn’t let me rename myself then, because I would have gone with something like Twilight [name]River[/name]. When I was in fourth grade, I started Googling the meanings of names I liked and those of my friends, as well as to find names for characters in my novels that never got past the twentieth page. I began to unintentionally memorize names, origins, meanings and popularity.
For my birthday right before sixth grade, I got an iPod Touch, and that meant Internet surfing without the watchful eye of my mom. I joined a now dead baby name forums, and fell in love with it. Soon, I realized that [name]Amber[/name] Twilight was what [name]Jamie[/name] [name]Oliver[/name] might name his next daughter, so my style quickly changed to more unusual, classic names. I became very active on the forums, but I thought it was highly unusual and people would think I was pregnant or something.
Around this time, I also started looking for the perfect name for myself. I’d wanted to change my name for a few years now, and so I began to look for names that were ‘me’. A name that had everything [name]Reine[/name] didn’t. It had to be classic, easy to pronounce and spell, but I didn’t want to be more than one or two of the name in my grade. It had to be spunky and smart at the same time. I also had to make sure it was a name my mom liked so she would get behind me on it. [name]Kate[/name] and [name]Ellie[/name] were my front runners for a while, but [name]Kate[/name] was too common and [name]Ellie[/name] too childish.
In seventh grade, I got a laptop for [name]Christmas[/name], and I started going onto the Yahoo! Answers baby name section. The forums I hung out with were dying, so I loved the activity of Y!A, even though I knew most of the people were probably trolls. I noticed that some people were linking to Nameberry, and I checked it out. On here, there were a lot of people who weren’t pregnant or expecting but just loved names- like me. It wasn’t totally weird, it was just an unusual hobby.

I found out that people thought my hobby was really cool, especially since I could list meanings of the top of my head. But, when it came to naming future kids, I soon realized that my favorites like [name]Cordelia[/name] and [name]Evander[/name] were scorned. So I would tell people my favorite popular, ‘normal’ names like [name]Alice[/name] and [name]Kai[/name].

About a year ago, I got into anime, and the first anime I watched ([name]Fairy[/name] Tail) had a main character named [name]Lucy[/name]. My favorite song was also [name]Lucy[/name] by Skillet, and I fell in love with the name. It also fit my criteria for the perfect name for me. And, to my surprise, people I’d known for years actually thought it fit me. When I meet people, though, I usually just tell them my middle name is [name]Lucinda[/name], as it saves explanation since [name]Lucy[/name] isn’t my legal name yet.

That’s my name nerd story. Kind of long.

8

I’ve always wondered whether my fascination with names comes from the names themselves or my borderline-obsession with wanting to be a mum. I love the sociology behind names, how it affects them growing up and such. But I also just love kids and want to be a mum so badly. I also love kid fashion and dressing them up and doing their hair all perfectly…I am weird, I know.

I often wonder if my name obsession comes more from the sociological angle or more from the fashion angle…whether I just love new things, or whether I just want to show off how creative and cool I can be.

9

I have no idea. I think I just always loved names. As a little girl, I always named my dolls, and made sure they had a first and middle name. Plus, I hated my name, so I always was interested in other beautiful names. I went through a phase where I liked “youneek” names. And I was obsessed with the names [name]Alexis[/name], nn [name]Lexi[/name], and [name]Madison[/name]/[name]Madeline[/name], nn [name]Maddy[/name]. As I got older, I realized my name obsession wasn’t very “accepted” with my friends. I also became obsessed with [name]Harry[/name] [name]Potter[/name], and my favorite names were EXTREMELY [name]Harry[/name] [name]Potter[/name] influenced.

I found nameberry shortly after my fifteenth birthday and boy, did my name taste grow.

Now, only my cousin knows I’m on nameberry and about my name obsession. She thinks it’s a little weird, but still accepts it. Although my name taste is still very… “witchy”, it’s a lot better than what I started with.

10

Oh my gosh, I have that same book! It’s how I became a name nerd! :smiley: I just had a small interest in names, and I wanted to know the meaning of my name, my brothers’ names, etc., so I bought the book from a resale shop when I was about 8. I read through it, and Bam! I became a name nerd! I joined NB right before my 13th birthday. I’m glad so many people have the same interest as me. lol

11

My love of names came from writing, you have to name your characters right? So I started researching names, usually by meaning, now I just go by whether or not the name fits the character’s personality. Sometimes when I’m at a road block, I go back to meaning, or maybe particular sound.

I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed since I don’t have a major list of names, nor do I know the meanings of every single name, but I definitely know of a lot more names than “normal” people might not have heard.

12

For me, it started around sixth grade, when I was interested in the meanings of names of friends and people I knew. I kept a list, writing their names backwards, their firsts, their middles.
In 7th grade, I really became a namenerd, Nameberry addicted!

13

Wow! I love reading all the different stories of how you began to like names! Thanks for sharing everybody!

14

I found one of mums baby name books and loved it. It only had one page of boys names and girls names my name wasn’t in it and it said adele meant shining bright. But I have made lists since I was seven.

Everyone I’ve told has found it strange.

15

I have been nuts about stories since as long as I can remember. When I was younger, my friends and I played imaginary games - you know the kind. We’d make up a story and act it out. And of course I was going after names to use. I remember how one of my earliest name crushes was ‘[name]Marian[/name]’ after I saw on a board outside my older brother’s school - [name]Marian[/name] [name]Peterson[/name] Middle School. Other crushes, mostly which I heard in books or on TV shows were [name]Vanessa[/name], [name]Veronica[/name], and Periwinkle (no, I am not kidding). Then I started writing my stories, and looking for more names. And somehow I stumbled on to nameberry.

My mother does not approve.

16

For me, I think it comes from having the most unique name in my immediate family, and really liking it. My siblings all have classic-but-uninspired, biblical names, while mine is Welsh, a bit quirky, and highly unusual in all the places I’ve lived.

Also, when we were little, my sister named every single one of her stuffed animals [name]Rainbow[/name] [name]Katie[/name]. I remember feeling so much haughty disdain for her uninspired choices even then! Meanwhile, my best friend and I wrote elaborate stories with dozens of characters just so we could use more names. I remember going through atlases and subway maps and picking out my favorite place names, too.

17

I first fell in love with names as a young teenager naming characters in stories I would write. However, I quickly began to think about what I would name my future children. The rest is history. I have lists that I have had for years now.

18

I was 10 or 11, and my older sister was dating. She told me that when they were older, they were going to get married. They would have one child, and name him Zonker, after the Doonesbury character. I wandered around the bookstore wondering how I could find a reasonable name for their future child, and found a baby name book. I was hooked.

BTW, when she got married, she had three kids, and all have normal names ([name]Robert[/name], [name]Brian[/name], [name]Alexander[/name]).

My two girls are [name]Jessica[/name] and [name]Jemima[/name]. [name]Jemima[/name]'s name was a bit of a surprise to the family, but not to my friends.

[name]Susan[/name]

19

I first became a name nerd when I was 7 years old. I used to make “yearbooks” by clipping people out of ads in the newspaper and gluing them into a big book of blank paper. I would spend hours doing that, and at the end I probably had about 400 kids in one of my yearbooks. I just remember it was so fun to make up names and give people names. I think that’s how it started!

20

Well, I became a name nerd when I was about, 8. I have always loved names and I always wondered what Name She should of had or I should of had. I became a name nerd also because I hated not having a unique name. My name is [name]Rebecca[/name]. At school I have always been [name]Rebecca[/name] A or [name]Rebecca[/name] 2 or 3. Since then I have been staying up on the internet looking for some new names that I love. I am proud of my name nerd inside of me because when I have a baby, I would know Exactly what the name should be. I love dreaming about new Names and I mean, I’m not even in a relationship. I don’t think I will ever change my name though. My Parents must of liked it so when i name my kid he won’t change it. I don’t want to be a bad example.

[name]Rebecca[/name] Teenage Single Name Nerd Dreamer.

New[/name] [name]Roman[/name]]Girls: [name]Alice[/name], [name]Clara[/name], [name]Bellamy[/name], [name]Juliet[/name], [name]Nova[/name], Noya, [name]Sienna[/name], [name]Sierra[/name] and Many many more.
Boys: [name]Shiloh[/name](and NO i didn’t get that off [name]Brad[/name] [name]Pitt[/name]'s daughter) [name]James[/name], [name]Emmett[/name], [name]Ash[/name], [name]Angelo[/name], [name]Kai[/name].