Is naming in the genes or is it just how you are brought up?
[name]Do[/name] naming styles run in the family?
Are you born a name-nerd?
[name]Just[/name] Interested
I’ve been a name enthusiast from early childhood. In my case, no one in my family shares my passion so I would say it’s NOT genetic. I’ve always been an avid reader, wrote poetry and stories and loved history and royalty so I think those hobbies increased my awareness of names from different cultures. I still have name lists I made at a young age and have collected over 100 baby name books for reference over the years (this was before the Internet). I believe that the more you research names the better equipped you are to give advice, to recognize style families and to make wonderful name combos that flow well. I know one thing: since joining Nameberry, my naming style has evolved and I have a more “eclectic” list of favourites.
Nope, my naming obsession came from when I started writing. I had to look for the right names for my characters. No one else in my family obsesses with names. My parents didn’t even pick a name tell they knew the gender, so I don’t have a “if you were a boy you would have been” story. They actually didn’t care till they knew my sister and I were girls.
It’s definitely not genetic! And its definitely not how I was brought up. Most people in my family have traditional, yet “trendy” naming styles with a few exceptions. Most of my relatives could care less about names and just picked the names that they liked when the time came, mostly popular names like [name]Peyton[/name] and [name]Connor[/name]. I am definitely the oddball!
I think I started being a name nerd once I learned to read and once I really started getting myself involved with the characters in books and movies. I learned to love names based on the characters I idolized and it just grew from there. I used to like unusual, more “trendy” names but growing up and exploring them more I’ve come to appreciate the classics 
Nope. No one else in my family has name obsessions. Before I was born, my brother and sister named a dog [name]Charlie[/name], and a cat Fido. I came along and at the age of 7 named a cat [name]Autumn[/name]. LOL. This transcended to a fish named [name]Fitzgerald[/name] and a stuffed animal pig named [name]Primrose[/name].
Oh, and just to back up my assertion that name nerdiness is not genetic, I came from a mom and dad who unintentionally named their son [name]Mark[/name], and one of their daughters [name]Mindy[/name]. [name]Mark[/name] and [name]Mindy[/name]. 
Nanu Nanu has followed me around forever. Please tell me someone gets the reference. Surely I’m not the only oldberry around here.
Not at all in the genes for me. My parents are the blandest namers I’ve heard of. They simply picked the most common names of the time: [name]Jennifer[/name] (born in the early 80’s, when it was the #1 name) [name]Heather[/name] (born the year the movie Heathers came out) and [name]Amy[/name].
edited for privacy
I feel like I was born a name nerd. I remember sneaking my mom’s baby name book to make lists when I was 5 years old and she was pregnant with my brother.
I definitely didn’t get my name nerdiness from my parents, though. My parents never made lists for any of us 3 kids. They went to the hospital and waited to see us before thinking anything up… I think that might be why I’ve always been so interested in names, though. I know my name story goes like this, “You were born, your dad said ‘What about [name]Christine[/name]?’ but we had a friend named [name]Christine[/name] so we named you [name]Kristin[/name]. And [name]Anne[/name] sounded good with it.” Greaaaaaaat, such a captivating, emotional story.
I hid my interest in names until I was about 16. I bought my first name book when I was 16, but didn’t talk about them with anyone until I was about 19. Then at 23 I had this ethnography course and I researched names for my ethnography, and I’m SO glad because since then I’ve really felt liberated about my hobby. I’m (I expect) at least 5 years away from having kids so I’m enjoying names as an academic thing rather than a personal interest thing. Keeps my baby fever under control that way, too, haha.
Personally I think being a name nerd is just me in my family. Nobody has ‘bad’ names really in my family, my parents gave me a ‘rarer’ name, where I come from anyway. I’m not sure my naming ability has always been that good, I mean, when my younger brother needed a name I suggested Teacup or Mayonnaise (I want to point out I was only 3!). I’m not sure what propted my interest in names, I first noticed it when I was about 10 and all I wanted to do all day was ask my mum and granny about what me or my aunts and uncles would have been called if the weren’t callled what they were! Until I found nameberry I didn’t know how to express my love of names, but since 3 years ago (when I first found it, didn’t actually sign up till recently) I’ve felt part of a community and that I’m not the only person obsessed with names. Deary me this sounds soppy! Anyway, I think it could run in families, my mum did an English degree so I guess she talked a lot about words to me and where they came from/what they mean so that may have sparked my interest, interesting post!
It is definitely not genetic in my family - I am the odd one out. Whenever I bring names up, they just look at me strangely.
I would say somewhat for my family. My mom isn’t much of a name person; she bought a baby name book when she found out she was pregnant with me, made a short list in the back of names she liked, crossed out the names my dad didn’t like, and that was that. My and my sister’s name as well as the never-used boy name is starred and circled on the list.
My grandmothers are a bit different. [name]One[/name] will point out names she likes when we hear them on TV, in a movie, etc. The other seems to find names everywhere. [name]Just[/name] recently I was in a cemetery with my grandmother searching for a relative’s grave, and she remarked how a cemetery would be a good place to go if you were trying to come up with a name for your baby. Funnily enough, I often find name inspiration in cemeteries.
All of my great-grandparents came from large families, and I just love looking at the names of all of their siblings. I like to think that by looking at the names, I can tell which great-great-grandparents were name nerds and which ones weren’t. The best thing about the big families (and I’m not just talking that particular generation) is that the names don’t “go” together. I think it makes the families more interestingly named. Repeating names also doesn’t seem to have been that big of a deal. My great-grandfather had three sisters with [name]Annie[/name] in their name ([name]Annie[/name] [name]Lenora[/name], [name]Annie[/name] [name]Adel[/name], [name]Maude[/name] [name]Annie[/name]), although only one went by [name]Annie[/name]. I must have gotten that from their parents, because I also really love the name [name]Annie[/name].
This response is running the risk of becoming an essay. To answer the original question, I don’t necessarily think it’s in the genes. It’s really just a matter of taste, and I seem to have the same taste in names as several of my ancestors. I have noticed that almost all of my favorite names can be found amongst a particular side of my family, and they’re the side of the family I feel closest to (although the names aren’t necessarily meant to honor anyone). Whether that’s a subconscious thing or a coincidence I really don’t know.
lol, I definitely agree it’s not genetic! My family thinks I’m crazy. My sisters are interested in names, but not to the same extent as I am. I’m not sure when I first became interested in names, but I remember making pages after pages of combos that I wanted to use when I grew up. haha. I think it was a mixture of hating my name as a child, and my love for writing. Although the more interested in names I’ve gotten, the harder it is to find the perfect name!
I think my name obsession began with my awareness of my own name. Not just “knowing” what my name is, but realizing that my name was what it was because my parents picked it, and it could have easily been something else. This happened at around the age of four, and that was when I realized I utterly hated my middle name (and to this day, I still dislike it).
My obsession really kicked in, when, like other berries, I began writing. I wrote my first story at the age of seven, and made writing a full-fledged hobby by the time I was 10. Creating names became a serious business, and I collected names from everywhere, something I still do.
My name obsession has waned on and off, but was recently rekindled strongly when I married my husband. All of a sudden, the prospect of naming children seemed so real, so that’s why I joined nameberry (even though we’re not going to TTC for another couple of years). I also am studying to be a jewelry designer, so I also create name lists for my pieces and collections.
So there you have it, my full name-love history. No one in my family-- or anyone I know for that matter in real life-- has as much interest in names as I do.
Interesting but what is ethnography? I hope it is the study of names. It would be so cool to do a degree in naming hehe!!!
Uh, no. There is no way something as specific as name choice, or even particular interest in names, runs in families. This is entirely a nurture thing. (Self-guided interests are generally included under the ‘nurture’ umbrella.)
I deffinetly don’t think that my name obsession is genetic! My dad is really uncreative when it comes to names- he had a dog named Dog. When it grew older, he renamed it [name]Red[/name] Dog. I don’t think anybody has an obsession with names like my sister and I. A lot of my family members got their names from saints, or just what was popular.
I became a name nerd when I was fairly young. My sister liked to create different characters and give them different names, and I liked helping her. I’m sure she still has notebooks full of characters and doodles from when she was nine. But the full blwon naking psycosis didn’t kick in until I began seriously writing. I took names from the movies I saw, and when we got the internet, I went to naming sites. I’d have so much fun! And now that I’m getting older, it’s become a real passion. [name]Even[/name] my sister isn’t as into it as I am.
So, I don’t think it’s genetic, it’s based on my environment when I was younger.
- [name]Athena[/name]
Perhaps it’s a tad genetic in my family, in that me nor my brother were given super common names. (well, my name has shot up in popularity since I was born. It’s currently #14, but was only #56 or so at the time) [name]Both[/name] my brother and I like names, but I guess I ended up being more into it than he was. I think my love of names came from my interests (i.e. writing, roleplaying games, etc.) more than genetics though. I also recall coming up with a plethora of “different” names for my stuffed animals as a kid.
I don’t think it’s in the genes. My name is a popular 90’s name from “Friends” (BTW my parents didn’t even watch that show) and my older brothers name is my dad’s name…and my grandpa’s name…So how did I get interesting in naming?
Well…I was bored some summer afternoon and decided to go on Sporcle.com. I played thhis game where you named the Duggar’s kids. I cheated and looked up their names and came across a forum where you pretended to have a bunch of kids whose names all started with the same letter. Then, I went to a baby name site so I could find all the names, where I found videos of a woman talking about names(any other followers of anastasiaruby???) I was hooked. The rest is history… 