My favorites

General Name Discussion
1

I’m not expecting anytime soon, but since I’m a frequent poster on these boards I thought that I’d share my favorite names.

Names marked with a * are my top favorites, and those marked with + are ones that if I were to use it would more likely than not be as a middle name.

Boys:
[name]Adrian[/name]*
[name]Casey[/name]
[name]Charles[/name]+
[name]Claude[/name]+
[name]Emmanuel[/name]
[name]Francis[/name]+
[name]Gabriel[/name]*
[name]Julian[/name]
[name]Lucian[/name]/[name]Lucien[/name]*
[name]Rory[/name]
[name]Rowan[/name]*
[name]Sebastian[/name]
[name]Simon[/name]
[name]Sullivan[/name]*

Girls:
[name]Amelia[/name]
[name]Amy[/name]
[name]Camille[/name]
[name]Catherine[/name]
[name]Claire[/name]+
[name]Daphne[/name]
[name]Elizabeth[/name]*
[name]Fiona[/name]
[name]Isabella[/name]
[name]Lara[/name]
[name]Mabel[/name]
[name]Nancy[/name]* (I know that it’s dated to some, but for some reason I like it)
[name]Rachel[/name]*
[name]Rebecca[/name]
[name]Rose[/name]+ (I know that this is one of those ubiquitous middle names, but it’s a family name for me)
[name]Samantha[/name]
[name]Veronica[/name]*

[name]Both[/name] genders:
[name]Devon[/name]
[name]Lee[/name]+ (ditto what I said about [name]Rose[/name])

Some of my inspirations from the “Cool International Names” lists, but with some of them I’m not sure if they’d work on someone of my ethnic background or not:

Boys:
[name]Etienne[/name] (I couldn’t get the accent in)
[name]Lars[/name]
[name]Lucien[/name] (also mentioned in the main list above along with [name]Lucian[/name])
[name]Soren[/name]

Girls:
[name]Inez[/name]
[name]Ingrid[/name]
[name]Larisa[/name]
[name]Raquel[/name]

Of the “foreign names” the French and Irish ones would probably be more usable for me, since I do have some (albeit distant) roots to those ethnicities.

[name]Feel[/name] free to comment on the names. If you have any combo ideas using two of these names or one of them along with another name that you think that I might like, they’re also welcome.

2

This is a very interesting topic idea, I wonder why no one else has replied to it!

Of the choices you listed, I like these…

I don’t have quite so many favorites, but I love to play with names. I keep name books at hand because I’m an amateur writer and always need names for new characters, but names in and of themselves fascinate me. So here are the ones I can come up with off the top of my head, with the starred ones (*) my absolute favorites and the ones I would give to my own kids, if I’m lucky enough to have any.

Boys:
[name]Adam[/name]
[name]Christian[/name]*
[name]Scott[/name]
[name]Peter[/name]
[name]Nicholas[/name]
[name]Jonathan[/name]

Girls:
Susina*
[name]Skye[/name]
[name]Susan[/name]
[name]Cindy[/name]
[name]Jenny[/name]
[name]Julie[/name]
[name]Christina[/name]
Agnetha
[name]Toni[/name]

There are more, but those are the ones that hit me without checking a book and taking all night to post this. I could post about names I simply loathe, but that’s for another time. :slight_smile:

3

Namefan, I also like:
[name]Charles[/name]
[name]Rowan[/name]
[name]Simon[/name]
[name]Soren[/name]
[name]Sullivan[/name]
[name]Amelia[/name]
[name]Claire[/name]
[name]Inez[/name]
[name]Ingrid[/name]
[name]Fiona[/name]
[name]Nancy[/name] (I have a pretty hip 14yo cousin named [name]Nancy[/name])
[name]Rachel[/name]
[name]Rose[/name]

Bostonian, I like:
[name]Adam[/name]
[name]Peter[/name]
[name]Nicholas[/name]
[name]Skye[/name]
[name]Christina[/name]
Agnetha

Here are my own favorites:
Boys:
[name]Alaric[/name]
[name]Elias[/name]
[name]Ivan[/name]
[name]Oscar[/name]
[name]Sinclair[/name] (not usually my style, but it would honor a [name]Clarence[/name])
[name]Theodore[/name]

Girls:
[name]Anika[/name]
[name]Clara[/name]
[name]Cosima[/name]
[name]Isadora[/name]
[name]Nadia[/name]
[name]Odessa[/name]
[name]Ophelia[/name]
[name]Petra[/name]
[name]Saga[/name]

[name]Isadora[/name] is far and away my favorite for girls, and [name]Ophelia[/name] would be my second choice. The boys move around on that list, each of them having occupied top slot at some
point.

4

namefan: I like
[name]Adrian[/name]
[name]Charles[/name]+
[name]Claude[/name]
[name]Francis[/name]+
[name]Gabriel[/name]*
[name]Julian[/name]
[name]Lucian[/name]/[name]Lucien[/name]*
[name]Rowan[/name]*
[name]Sebastian[/name]
[name]Simon[/name]
[name]Sullivan[/name]*
and randomly think [name]Lucian[/name] [name]Charles[/name] [name]Lee[/name] might float your boat. (I would alter it to [name]Leigh[/name] for a girl, [name]Lee[/name] is awful on a girl!)

Girls:
[name]Camille[/name]
[name]Catherine[/name]
[name]Claire[/name]+
[name]Daphne[/name]
[name]Elizabeth[/name]*
[name]Fiona[/name]
[name]Mabel[/name]
[name]Nancy[/name]* (I know that it’s dated to some, but for some reason I like it)
[name]Rachel[/name]*
[name]Rose[/name]+ (I know that this is one of those ubiquitous middle names, but it’s a family name for me)
[name]Veronica[/name]*
But have no ideas for girls from your list, I adore [name]Elizabeth[/name] but want to say [name]Elizabeth[/name] [name]Camilla[/name] [name]Rose[/name], as [name]Elizabeth[/name] [name]Camille[/name] [name]Rose[/name] doesn’t flow well.
I would definitely not use [name]Devon[/name] or [name]Lee[/name] on on anything but a boy, [name]Devon[/name]'s masculine feeling and these days will feel more dated on a girl, I feel.

from your international list, I really dig [name]Soren[/name] & [name]Etienne[/name] (no accent needed for me to get it) but [name]Lars[/name] to me feels lard like (but maybe I just bake too much!) and I prefer [name]Lucian[/name] to [name]Lucien[/name] (and would unless I lived where they spoke French.
[name]Raquel[/name] is the only one on your girls list I dislike. She’s hard edged to me and I don’t find her pretty.

Bostonian girl ([name]Hi[/name] from a fellow MA’er!, not [name]Boston[/name], though)
I like:
[name]Adam[/name]
[name]Peter[/name]
[name]Nicholas[/name]
[name]Jonathan[/name]

Girls:
Susina* - this beats plain [name]Susan[/name], even in my book. [name]Even[/name] if it does sound a bit nicknamey.
[name]Susan[/name] - I know so many my age (41) I’d rather update her a little bit, [name]Susanna[/name], or [name]Susanne[/name])
[name]Cindy[/name] (but prefer [name]Cynthia[/name] in full)
[name]Julie[/name]
Agnetha

and I find [name]Christian[/name] a bit silly. I always think to myself “What’re they going to name his brother? Buddhist?” when I see it. and think [name]How[/name] ridiculous would a Jewish [name]Christian[/name] be? (what if he grows up and converts, as I did, as a lot of my friends did?) OLf course, this is just me thinking, so feel free to ignore me here!

memomo, I like:

Boys:
[name]Alaric[/name]
[name]Elias[/name]
[name]Ivan[/name] (but only in Russian: EE-van. eye-[name]Van[/name] sounds a bit clunky to my ears ) [I grew up in a Polish/Russian family, might be why]
[name]Oscar[/name]
[name]Sinclair[/name] (not usually my style, but it would honor a [name]Clarence[/name]) [Funny, look at my list below!]
[name]Theodore[/name]

Girls:
[name]Anika[/name]
[name]Clara[/name]
[name]Cosima[/name]- I adore [name]Cosima[/name], she’s gorgeous!
[name]Isadora[/name]
[name]Nadia[/name]
[name]Ophelia[/name]
[name]Petra[/name]

Mine (simplified for consumption):

Boys:
[name]Cassius[/name]
[name]Clarence[/name]
[name]Cosmo[/name]
[name]Remus[/name] (yes, really)
[name]August[/name]
[name]Lucius[/name]

Girls:
[name]Cecily[/name]
[name]Ottoline[/name]
[name]Eulalie[/name] [you-LAL-ee]
[name]Beatrix[/name]
Pomeline
[name]Lucretia[/name]

Yes, this is our simplified top 12 as of right now. Didn’t bother with combos any.

5

Great lists! You guys have some fascinating favorite names.

My own favorties (I’m a tradionalist for the most part):

Boys:
[name]Henry[/name]
[name]Simon[/name]
[name]Colin[/name]
[name]Jude[/name]
[name]Stuart[/name]
[name]Matthew[/name]
[name]Sullivan[/name]
[name]William[/name]
[name]Finn[/name]
[name]Oliver[/name]

Girls:
[name]Elizabeth[/name]
[name]Eloise[/name]
[name]Eleanor[/name]
[name]Bridget[/name]
[name]Julia[/name]
[name]Naomi[/name]
[name]Kate[/name]
[name]Sophia[/name] (too popular but gorgeous)
[name]Stella[/name]
[name]Frances[/name]
[name]Jane[/name]
[name]Grace[/name]
[name]Audrey[/name]
[name]Susannah[/name]

6

[name]Lola[/name]…cool, another MA’er! :slight_smile: I’m actually from suburban [name]Boston[/name]/eastern MA, but nobody would recognize “Plainville Girl”, hee hee.

Thought I would comment on the following:

I find [name]Christian[/name] a bit silly. I always think to myself “What’re they going to name his brother? Buddhist?” when I see it. and think [name]How[/name] ridiculous would a Jewish [name]Christian[/name] be? (what if he grows up and converts, as I did, as a lot of my friends did?) Of course, this is just me thinking, so feel free to ignore me here!

I can understand that, and I sympathize with it, actually. But for me, [name]Christian[/name] the name and [name]Christian[/name] the concept are two wholly different things. I’m actually not even religious at all (my mother has been trying to convert me, but I digress). I just love the sound of the name, and it has a purely secular appeal to me (just as [name]Pam[/name] and [name]Linda[/name] noted under their entry for [name]Christian[/name] in “The [name]Baby[/name] Name Bible”). There’s no religious connection for me at all. Should I ever have a boy, it would make a pretty decent trio with his half-brother and “half-brother once removed”, [name]Griffin[/name] and [name]Logan[/name]. It would be highly ironic where my mother is concerned, but I’ll deal with that if it ever happens. :slight_smile:

7

I am going to make a fantasy list of my favorite names just for fun. These are names that I would choose: 1. if I were young enough to have a baby, 2. if my husband weren’t so conservative in his name taste or if I didn’t care what he thought about names, 3. if our last name weren’t so difficult to match with a lot of names, and 4. if we couldn’t continue to live in our tiny, charming suburb with an excellent school district. If you live in our general area, and you’re not in a great school district, then you have to name your baby a severely classic name like [name]William[/name] or [name]Anna[/name] or you have to name him/her a vintage name that sounds intelligent and not too popular. I can’t really put my finger on it, but it has to have a certain kind of snobbiness. That way kids fit into the private school social climate better. We live in L.A. where most people name their kids very trendy names. Yet in our area parents avoid trendy names for the most part. Personally I think it is trendy enough to be from SoCal without having a trendy name with a short shelf life. If you want to know the problem with each name I have listed below, I am putting the corresponding number of each problem listed above next to the names. Of course every name has problem #1-that I am too old now to have another baby unless I adopt one.
[name]Fantasy[/name] baby name list:
girls
[name]Alice[/name]-2 (but if my husband didn’t start liking it, I would tickle him until he liked it.)
[name]Lucy[/name]-3 (but [name]Lucille[/name] works better. Of course my husband would probably hate [name]Lucille[/name].)
[name]Beatrix[/name]-2,3
[name]Cecily[/name]-3 (I could use [name]Cecilia[/name]-my husband likes it because it was his grandmother’s name)
[name]Daphne[/name]-2,3
[name]Frances[/name]-2
[name]Genevieve[/name]-2
[name]Georgia[/name]-2 (I could probably talk my husband into this name except he hates his boss whose name is [name]George[/name])
[name]Josephine[/name]-2
[name]Phoebe[/name]-3
[name]Sylvia[/name]-2 (maybe I could talk him into it)
[name]Valentina[/name]-2,
[name]Veronica[/name]
[name]Vivian[/name]
[name]Mavis[/name] (my husband particularly hates this name and he despises [name]Maeve[/name])-2
[name]Annika[/name] (my husband would go for this name if we called her [name]Anna[/name] for short and then gradually maybe it would turn into [name]Annika[/name]!)-
Apparently I’ve adjusted to the private school problem for girls, because all of the above names would work for our local pseudo upper crusty climate.
boys
[name]Adrian[/name]-2,4
[name]Bernard[/name]-2,4
[name]Felix[/name]-2,3,4
[name]Oliver[/name]-2
[name]Miles[/name]-2
[name]Rowan[/name]-2,4
[name]Vincent[/name]-4
[name]Xavier[/name]-2
[name]Magnus[/name]-2
[name]Luke[/name]-2
[name]Anders[/name]-2

Now you know why I like the name [name]William[/name] so much. It works with all the name problems we have. Girls’ names seem to be more flexible, but then they often don’t work with our last name.
In case you want to know the names my husband likes:
boys
[name]Stephen[/name]
[name]Michael[/name]
[name]Alexander[/name]
[name]Matthew[/name]
[name]Philip[/name]
[name]Peter[/name]
[name]Thomas[/name]
[name]Patrick[/name]
[name]Daniel[/name]
[name]Andrew[/name]
he actually likes [name]Vincent[/name]!
[name]James[/name]

girls
[name]Anna[/name]
[name]Laura[/name]
[name]Rachel[/name]
[name]Susan[/name]
[name]Elizabeth[/name] ([name]Lizzy[/name])
[name]Veronica[/name]
[name]Rebecca[/name]
[name]Naomi[/name]
[name]Linda[/name]

8

This is definitely one of my favorite things to discuss, and you guys have so many good names! [name]Even[/name] though I’m not expecting any time soon, I of course have made up a little list of favorites, which might seem a little incoherent because of the very eclectic mix of traditional and nontraditional/made-up names… But that’s how I like it! :smiley:

(using the same rating-something system as you all have, with preferences of middle names, top favorites etc)

Girls:
[name]Lily[/name]*
[name]Avalon[/name](+)
[name]Ellen[/name]
[name]Isolde[/name]+
[name]Henna[/name]
[name]Ariel[/name]*
[name]Luna[/name]* (the most beautiful name in the world… to me at least)
[name]Isabella[/name](+)
[name]Tess[/name]
[name]Adeline[/name]+
Kebi (maybe a bit odd, but I think it’s so sweet!)
[name]Muse[/name]+
[name]Mira[/name]
[name]Idun[/name] (i’m a sucker for Norse mythology :P)

Boys:
[name]Noah[/name]*
[name]Viggo[/name]*
[name]Sam[/name]
[name]Theo[/name]
[name]Leo[/name]
[name]Rufus[/name]*
[name]Henry[/name]+
[name]Johnny[/name]* (I think it’s such a hip name, I do love it!)
[name]Ace[/name]*
[name]Van[/name]*
[name]Beck[/name]*
[name]Keane[/name] (I have a thing for boy-names staring with a K-sound… look down…)
[name]Colt[/name]
[name]Kane[/name]

9

[name]Every[/name] one has such wonderful names!!
Here are some of my favorites

Girls:
[name]Adelaide[/name] ( love the nn [name]Addie[/name])
[name]Charlotte[/name]
[name]Elise[/name]
[name]Emmeline[/name]
[name]Josephine[/name]
[name]Gemma[/name]
[name]Genevieve[/name]
[name]Imogen[/name]
[name]Leila[/name]
[name]Malia[/name]
[name]Mirabel[/name] (I would shorten it to [name]Mira[/name])
[name]Nadia[/name]
[name]Naomi[/name]

I think my boys list is a little more out there and I’m not sure I would actually name a child some of them but I still like them!
Boys:
[name]Caleb[/name]
[name]Elias[/name]
[name]Owen[/name]
[name]Ezekiel[/name]
[name]Xavier[/name]
[name]Jonah[/name]
[name]Leo[/name]
[name]Otto[/name]
[name]Ziv[/name]
[name]Wyatt[/name]
[name]Kai[/name]

10

I love this topic. I was thinking about writing a blog post on what makes a favorite a favorite – anyone have any theories???

11

I like names that are very different than the name I grew up with. My name was [name]Deborah[/name] “[name]Debbie[/name]”. My apologies to anyone who likes the name [name]Debbie[/name]. I don’t like it because I like soft-sounding consonants and “d” and “b” sound hard. I also prefer having a name that doesn’t end in an “ie” or “y” sound. I also love having a classic as opposed to a trendy name. I probably would have liked a vintage name, too, but I really loved my middle name. I don’t know why, but no one would call me [name]Deborah[/name]. So finally I decided to use my middle name [name]Susan[/name], and I am so happy. There is a lot more to the story, but I don’t want to go into it because it is long and complicated.
Then my husband’s name is [name]Kent[/name]. He had an unusual, Celtic name. He didn’t like his name either. So he wanted his son to have a classic name. When [name]Kent[/name] was in elementary and middle school, the other boys would bring him cartons of [name]Kent[/name] cigarettes on [name]April[/name] Fool’s [name]Day[/name]. [name]Kent[/name] got really tired of that. His middle name is [name]Andrew[/name] and he loves it, but he still goes by [name]Kent[/name]. But I call him all kinds of nicknames that he loves. His favorite one is [name]Lala[/name]. I love to call him Nonny, Umpa, Umpy, [name]Ah[/name]-na, La-la-la-LA-la, [name]Lolly[/name], Mr. Fun, Mr. Angry, Mr. Bad, etc., etc. I have even made up songs that have his nicknames in them and I sing them to him. He calls me [name]Sukie[/name].
So the baby names that I love are either classic or vintage names. I love names that sound like they could be in a nineteenth century English novel or like a middle class early twentieth century American. Some of the girls names that I like do end in an “ie” or “y” sound but they sound very hefty and classic like [name]Lucy[/name] and [name]Lily[/name]. I do like [name]Daphne[/name] which does start with the hard “D” sound, but it does have an “n” in it which is lovely to my ears. I love names that my father wouldn’t have liked. Maybe that is a universal theme for a lot of people! My father wanted to name me [name]Phyllis[/name]! Yucky! Sorry to the Phyllises out there!

12

Thank you! Wow, you really know a lot about why you love your favorites.