This is meant to be read and responded to if you are obsessed with names and naming people, pets, vehicles, or whatever:)
I think I first became interested in names at age 8 when my mom was pregnant with my youngest brother. She had a small baby name book and I pored over those names just soaking them in like a sponge. At college, I bought my own baby name book and would spend my boring hours at my work-study job (which involved sitting at a desk and checking in male visitors to the girl's dorm and/or paging girls when their visitors arrived) studying names like a textbook. I am sure many friends probably thought I had found out I was pregnant ( lol ) although I wasn't of course. When I married, it was 3 1/2 years before my first child arrived but my poor dh spent all that time listening to lists of names I liked. Over the years, I have purchased at least 10 baby name books. Being in my mid-40's now I get some pretty weird glances in the bookshop while browsing the baby name books section. I do have a 4 1/2 year old of my own however. The other day I found a new baby name book at our local library which has 100,000 names. Of course I checked it out (and received a weird look from the male librarian there as well). If you are obsessed with names, their meanings, origins, etc. or are an avid collector of names, please resond and tell us your story. I look forwards to reading the bios of other name enthusiasts.
I’ve always been fascinated by names! From the time I was young and babysitting, I always paid attention to the names of the kids I took care of. When I was in college I had many “someday” children and I carefully selected names for all of them. When I finally got pregnant with my son, I spent months finding the perfect name. Now my son is one, and we’re not planning on trying for another child for at least another year, but I’m still spending hours thinking about names for a hypothetical son or daughter. My husband tolerates this with a mixture of amusement and exasperation.
Ditto, [name]Toby[/name]'s Mommy, ditto. I too have a one-year-old and we’re not trying for another for a while but my poor husband puts up with monthly (weekly?) discussions of my running baby name list. “What if we if have a girl next and then a boy after that- what should his middle name be?” He used to humor me by telling me he liked my name choices but lately he’s been shooting them all down so it hasn’t been as fun. But I guess that’s okay since I’m not even pregnant
When my mom was pregnant with my third sister I remember one - being disappointed that she was a girl and two - what horrible names my mother was thinking of naming the new baby. I was probably about 13 when I started writing names down in miscellaneous note books. Some how I got a hold of a baby name book. My favorites back then included [name]Mercedes[/name] and [name]Cesar[/name]. They are so not on my list today.
When I was pregnant with my first (now 11) I never thought we’d find a name we loved yet agreed upon. I went to high school with a girl named [name]Kira[/name] who was pretty, spunky and very short. I always loved and envied her name. I knew our daughter didn’t have chance to be taller than 5’ 3" and this name that I loved was just perfect. Today my [name]Kira[/name] is petite, spunky and a smarty pants. When I was pregnant with daughter number #2 (almost 5) we had a name picked out months in advance, wrote it on the back of ultrasound pictures and in baby books. About three weeks before she was born something inside me (maybe her) was telling me the name we chose was all wrong. [name]Samantha[/name] [name]Ray[/name] became [name]Mia[/name] [name]Taylor[/name]. [name]Mia[/name] wasn’t even our idea. Unknowingly two of my sister had been suggesting [name]Mia[/name] my whole pregnancy. At first I though [name]Mia[/name] was much too short of a name and sounded like a nn. [name]Mia[/name] is definitely nothing but a [name]Mia[/name]. The origin of [name]Mia[/name]'s name keeps me from ever entirely crossing a name of the list.
I look in the beginning of magazines where the editor, writers, artists ect. names are listed, will inquire about interesting names on name tags, ask mothers of cute little babies what names they’ve chose, watch the credits with hopes to find “THE” name and so and so on. My husbands hates when I ask him to check out a persons name tag for me (he has better eyesight), he feels it makes him look like he’s oogling over other women when he’s with me. I’m not pregnant right now, were trying this month. Last year when we did decide to try for a third my naming obsession exploded. I have countless names lists in various notebooks in a multitude of locations in the house. I have lists saved on the computer and have visited a ton of baby name websites. Sometimes I wonder if this obsession is leading me further away from finding the perfect name then it is to leading me to the “ONE” or in my case the third
My saving grace is knowing I’m not alone in this obsession. Maybe we’re all just romantics, perfectionists or just severely indecisive. I’ll take the romantic label since I like to write poetry and nothing is more poetic than a beautiful name.
I have a similar story to yours! I started being obsessed with names when my mom was picking out names for my little brother and gave me her little book once he was born. I was 8 at the time. By the time I was 12, I was on the internet posting on baby name message boards, coming up with name lists, etc. I am now 21 and married but we are not looking to have kids in the near future. But I do have about 5 name books and would order more, but it really irritates my husband. He’s like “[name]Aren[/name]'t all of the names the same in those books? Why do you want another one?!” And to some point I agree and haven’t purchased any more. I was a bit disappointed in the [name]Ava[/name] and [name]Aiden[/name] book–it had too much of a celebrity/celebrity naming theme and not much else. Anyway, one day when I do have a little one to name i will be well informed and hopefully ready!
The first instance I can remember clearly of my name obsession goes back to when I was about four or five. I was looking in a mirror, and was thinking that I liked the names [name]Emily[/name] and [name]Lisa[/name] so much better than my boring name, [name]Amy[/name] (although I’m now super glad that my name isn’t [name]Emily[/name] or [name]Lisa[/name], and I love my name).
Another memory that I have of my early name obsession goes back to about fourth grade. I was at Build-a-[name]Bear[/name], and had made a bunny. I’d made animals there in the past, and had never had a problem naming them before (and thus, was the proud owner of [name]Kelsey[/name] [girl] the bear, [name]Sammy[/name] [boy] the tiger, and [name]Jordan[/name] [boy] the penguin). However, this time, the name I’d picked out ([name]Abby[/name]) just didn’t seem to match my bunny’s “personality.” So I flipped through the book of names in the store, looking for an inspiration. I came up with [name]Zoe[/name], and after an internal battle, I decided that that’s what she was to be named.
My sister, however, had no problem deciding the names of her Build-a-Bears: [name]Princess[/name], Fluffy, Cutie-Pie, and the ever original Mr. [name]Bear[/name].
I didn’t really identify my obsession with names, though, until about three years ago (I’m 17 now), when I was playing Sims. My favorite part of the game was having a baby so that I could name it. It came to the point that I was making lists for future Sims-babies to be named. That’s when I realized that it wasn’t about the virtual family so much as it was about the names.
[name]Amos[/name] (or [name]Amy[/name]) - I’m absolutely with you when it comes to Sims. I think that was the most important reason I liked that game so much. I planned every baby name about three months in advance (three real, not Sims months) and at some time my [name]Sim[/name] village was seriously overpopulated because of alle the babies they had (of course almost all of them got middle names, too).
But that’s not the time my name obsession started. I really cannot say when that was. It seems like forever. I remember on holiday when I was a child: My sister and me made up a game in which we pretended we had a little zoo of animals following us and that was the first time I wrote down a list with names (given to the imaginary animals).
I also remember that I discovered an old baby-name book that my aunt and uncle had used before handing it to my parents. I think it was becasue of a homework that I looked up the meaning of my name, that of my family and so on and soon became addicted. I got lists of names back from the time when I was about approximately 13 (I’m 21 now) and I read every baby name book available in our local library.
Recently, I told my mother that when I will actually going to be pregnant (not in the near future) I would probably panic to find THE perfect name in only nine month. For some reason she didn’t seem to get the seriousness of that problem
I started writing short stories in 6th grade, about 4 years ago, and found names so fascinating. I had two main characters named [name]Mylie[/name] and [name]Kayla[/name] (I’m embarrassed to have ever like those names). Well, actually, it may have started before then… At Girl [name]Scout[/name] camp in like 4th grade we had to come up with nicknames for ourselves, and I went by [name]Tillie[/name].
Anyway, last summer is when my obsession became full blown. I started writing a novel and I needed names, I heard of the name [name]Annabel[/name] in a book I had read so I looked it up (on [name]Linda[/name] and [name]Pam[/name]‘s former sight on The Cradle, nonetheless), and found a version of it that I liked: [name]Annalee[/name]. I looked up the meaning of my name, my parents’ names, my brother’s name, etc. I was hooked. I think my family hates me because I’m always saying: “[name]Do[/name] you like the name [name]Audra[/name]?” or “What do you think about the combo [name]Christopher[/name] [name]Ethan[/name]?”
While they patiently listen and answer, I know they’re hoping this name obsession is just a weird phase I’m going through. It isn’t
Oh, forgot to add this: When I was little I used to name all of my stuffed animals. And they weren’t names like Bark-Bark or [name]Kitty[/name] [name]Cat[/name], I named them real names. I still have a puppy I named [name]Charlie[/name], when I was 4. The first ever Build-A-[name]Bear[/name] I made I named [name]Carmel[/name] after my grandfather (whom I never knew, but my mom told me his nickname was [name]Carmel[/name]). My second Build-A-[name]Bear[/name] was named [name]Max[/name]. This was all before I was 6. I also named my dog [name]Zoe[/name] because I thought she looked like [name]Zoe[/name] from [name]Sesame[/name] [name]Street[/name].
So, no, this name obsession definitely isn’t a phase. Lol
I feel like I’ve repeated this story over and over, but some of the posters are new, so I will tell it again. A lot of people in my family were interested in names including my Grandpa [name]Bernard[/name], my dad, my sister [name]Kathy[/name], my brother [name]Tim[/name], and my Aunt [name]Elaine[/name]. My sister and I would play dolls a lot. When we were really little we named them [name]Susie[/name] and [name]Sally[/name]. She would always call dibs on [name]Susie[/name] first. My name was [name]Debbie[/name] back then. I got [name]Sally[/name]. As we got a little older, we would think of new names for our dolls every time we played with them.
My dad made up stories for us every night, and often he would let us name the characters in the stories.
My grandpa was the first person to ever tell me that names have meanings. I think I was telling him some story that I was reading about Native Americans. In the story the characters had names like Brave [name]Fox[/name] or Running Rabbit. Grandpa said, our names have meanings, too. He showed me a name dictionary section in the back of his big dictionary. I was amazed. I looked up everybody’s names. The name [name]Bernard[/name] made me laugh - bold as a bear!
My brother loved to get driver’s licenses and have different names on them. I remember one was [name]Mohammed[/name] McChurch. I don’t know how he got those. He also called himself Patent Pending. He was schizophrenic, so he was very odd. We didn’t know how mentally ill he was until he was almost forty. We just thought he was being difficult. But he was very funny sometimes. Sometimes he was just awful.
My aunt loved names, too. She was my aunt by marriage, and she loved to tell us about the names from our family that were also in her family. Our families shared the following names: [name]Clyde[/name], [name]Laura[/name], [name]Julie[/name], [name]Susan[/name], and I think there were some more that I can’t remember. After I had my daughter [name]Laura[/name] and found out there was a [name]Laura[/name] in her family, I thought to myself, if I have any more children, I should just find out some more names in Aunt [name]Elaine[/name]'s family and then just name my baby one of those names. My son [name]Peter[/name] has the same name as her son.
I’ve had an obsession with names probably since I was around 12. Not completely sure how it started, but I think it really picked up with The Sims, like many of you have said. I still play and I spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to think of the perfect names. I’m worried for when I get pregnant one day because I’ll probably stress about the name the whole time
I use the Pokemon games for Gameboy/Nintendo DS as a baby name outlet.
Gotta catch 'em all, but more importantly give them a unique name that fits their personality and looks and preferably has meaning related to its skills and starts with the same letter
I could probably say I’m obsessed, I’ve read through my many baby name books several times to find the names I skipped or missed last time and make sure I don’t miss any beauties. I also have a collection of over 2000 rare names (most not in the top 1000 in either USA or the UK!). My collection is still growing
My name obsession started when I was 14, I was in the 9th grade. I was writing a story for English class and needed names, so i started posting on a name forum and it all went downhill from there. I’m 21 now and have expensive hard covered journals containing my overall lists - one for each gender, and one for combos I’ve loved for each gender. Luckily, my SO thinks its cute and even asks me for suggestions for his RPGs and to name his new electronics. As for books, I’ve collected probably 8 or 10. I alonly really use 4 of them, the rest kind of sit on my shelf, but as useless as they are, I can’t bring myself to get rid of them.
My name obsession really got started when I was 8 years old. My aunt was having twins and I found a name book. Back then I would have named them [name]Beau[/name] [name]Penelope[/name] and [name]Floyd[/name] [name]Alexander[/name]- decent but [name]Floyd[/name]?! lol and now I much prefer [name]Beau[/name] for a boy. The first name I remember liking though is [name]Paige[/name] which I have liked since I was 4. I am now 13 1/2 years old and contemplating buying a new name book; I’ve outgrown the one I’ve used for the past 5 years now I mostly use the internet for my naming needs
Mine started when I was trying to look up the meaning of my name, and I just continued looking at names after I found it. I named all my stuffed animals right after, haha. My monkey’s name is [name]Lyle[/name], and I named by turtle pillow pet [name]Leander[/name]. I think I was twelve? I’m sixteen now. I’m going to have such a problem naming children though. My oldest and dearest stuffed bear (my godmom gave him to me when I was born) still doesn’t have a name because, as five year old me said, “I just don’t know if I’ll wanna call him that forever!”
Oh, gosh. I’ve been name-obsessed since I can remember. I think I was in 3rd or 4th grade when it first started, my best friend and I really loved to write stories and we decided to co-write a story together that we thought was going to make us super-rich and famous. Rereading it now, it. is. awful. Lol! Like, super ridiculously laugh-out-loud awful, but we were what, 8? Nine tops? Anyway, my main character was named [name]Destiny[/name] (gag) at the beginning of the story, but about halfway through she randomly changes her name to Dreydra NN Drey or [name]Drea[/name]. Which I apparently made up, I have no idea where it came from… a smush of [name]Deirdre[/name] and [name]Andrea[/name], maybe? A quick google search shows two actual human beings with this name, which I never knew! My best friend’s character was named Desire. I remember she couldn’t decide on the name but we wanted the two MCs names to start with the same letter, so we just came up with as many cool-sounding words as we could and she chose Desire. Her MC’s love interest was [name]Kalvin[/name] (with a K, because Ks make everything Kooler!) and my MC’s love interest was Kvasir which I pronounced completely wrong - it’s actually like Vahz-ear but I was pronouncing it Kvass-ear. Lol! All the names in that story were bad. REALLY, horrendously bad. Some of them were legitimate names that we bastardized the spelling of, others we totally made up. One, Mysuces (pron. Mee-soo-seez) I got off a license plate that was supposed to read “My success”. No lie.
After that, everything snowballed. We wrote those (and other) stories for YEARS, to the point where the MCs had children and even grandchildren. And then the Sims got popular and it got even worse. I remember buying my first name book at like, age ten, and my mom just shaking her head and indulging it because that’s what I wanted to spend my allowance on. Crazy, right?
Anyway, I’m age 21 (almost 22!) now and still love to write, though my skill - and taste in names! - has improved so, so much. I also still love to pick out baby names although they’re insanely different from what I would have named them even three or four years ago, so I hope I pick the right names when the time comes!
