When I say “no taste,” I don’t mean “bad taste.” I mean he literally has no taste. There’s no discernible pattern to the names he likes. Here are a few of the, ah, gems he’s suggested:
[name]Adalynn[/name]
[name]Aurelia[/name]
[name]Chantal[/name]
[name]Cordelia[/name]
[name]Hunter[/name] (yes, for a girl)
[name]Jocelyn[/name]
[name]Joelle[/name]
[name]Perrine[/name]
[name]Remmy[/name]
[name]Zara[/name]
OK, one or two of those aren’t horrible, but the only characteristic they share is that my spouse had never freaking heard them before.
This makes me. SO. angry. He has rejected ALL of the names I really love. He can’t give a reason except “they just don’t sound appealing” or whatever; he can’t put what he does like into words; and he persistently denies that he likes things not based on their merits but by whether he’s ever heard of a real live person with that name. But it’s so obvious! Who in the world likes both [name]Cordelia[/name] AND [name]Hunter[/name] for a girl?
So, he wants us both to make a list with “tiers” (love, like, acceptable) and see where any names occur on both of our lists. That’s not how it works with me. I have to choose a few names, let a couple rise to the top, research their history, riff on them for a while, and THEN accept/reject. His special snowflakery is really pissing me off; it’s not what I consider a legitimate reason for naming your kid. He doesn’t even care what’s popular NOW, just what was “popular” (i.e. existed) for his generation.
But that’s neither here nor there. I’m having trouble even coming up with names I like that he hasn’t rejected yet. It’s pretty disheartening because I’m becoming unable to evaluate anything honestly; I can look at a name and tell in 2 seconds whether he’d like it or not. (If it’s been completely out of circulation for a hundred years, OR is a white trash name made up in the last couple of decades, OR a name that’s new to the English-speaking world, he’ll like it.)
So FWIW, I guess I’d like more suggestions; I think I’ve been to the end of the name internet, but I need fresh eyes. My style is really easy to identify. I like French and Welsh names a lot, and I like names that have been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. Oh, and I tend to like the back half of the alphabet, and I don’t like an excessive number of unidentifiable vowel sounds (the “uh” in [name]Isabella[/name], [name]Olivia[/name], [name]Aurelia[/name], [name]Amelia[/name], etc.). Our last name is short - it’s [name]Kane[/name] - so I’m gravitating towards 3 syllable names, occasionally 4 syllable.
These are few of my loves that he’s rejected, or accepted and then rejected once I got attached to them:
[name]Genevieve[/name] (absolute fave)
[name]Meredith[/name]
[name]Lorelei[/name]
[name]Sylvia[/name]
This is the list I’ve compiled over the last few days for his stupid “tiers”:
[name]Adelaide[/name]
[name]Eleanor[/name]
[name]Gwyneth[/name]
[name]Isadora[/name]*
[name]Leonora[/name]
[name]Odessa[/name]
[name]Rowena[/name]
[name]Seraphine[/name]
[name]Theodora[/name]
[name]Winnifred[/name]
He probably won’t like [name]Adelaide[/name], [name]Eleanor[/name], [name]Gwyneth[/name], or [name]Winnifred[/name], but I’m going to give it a shot anyway. Sigh.
*I think this is my favorite. However, we finally came to a consensus on a boy’s name - [name]Tristan[/name]. Is [name]Isadora[/name] too close to [name]Isolde[/name]?
Good luck! I’m sure you’ll stumble upon something you can both agree on, even if it is for entirely different reasons.