I’m so good at making combos for other people but NOT FOR MYSELF it’s like all creativity and spark leaves my brain. Anyone else relate??
And…names look so much better to my brain when they’re in the pink and blue and nameberry font. When it’s on my google docs they all look so wrong and I need like an individual page for every combo bc all my names are different lengths etc etc.
I dislike the strong associations to names sometimes. For example: I adore the name [name_m]Casper[/name_m] for a boy, but I can’t get past the friendly ghost association whatsoever. [name_f]My[/name_f] partner also cannot get past it and worries that using it could lead to future teasing at school. I know that it may not matter to some people, to be fair it’s not a horrible character to be associated with, but I just can’t imagine myself being able to use it. Which makes me so sad! I also feel this way with [name_m]Oscar[/name_m] (now that character association isn’t so great lol)
My 3.5-year-old daughter decided that the squirrel piece in our game is named [name_f]Bonnie[/name_f], and I’m impressed! I don’t even know where she would have heard the name. It also reminded me of the little [name_f]Bonnie[/name_f] recently born to a fellow berry 
Not really a rant, but it doesn’t fit anywhere else haha. I feel like this thread is also the “miscellaneous thoughts” thread 
We also have these:
They’re not used super frequently so they tend to get buried quickly though.
Ohhh, nice! I’ll have to set those to tracking. Thank you!
It is becoming harder and harder to pretend that I don’t have the same name taste as the [name_m]Christian[/name_m] Fundamentalist community. [name_f]Ballerina[/name_f] Farms? [name_f]Love[/name_f][name_f][/name_f] her kiddos’ names. [name_f]Jinger[/name_f] Vuolo? I would let her name my children. [name_m]Paul[/name_m] and [name_m]Morgan[/name_m]? Such great names!
[name_f][/name_f]Please allow me time to grieve as I reevaluate my life choices and also the fact that I know the baby names of all these people.
I think that [name_f]Blume[/name_f][name_f][/name_f] > [name_f]Bloom[/name_f][name_f][/name_f] !!
[name_f][/name_f]I just don’t love the look of [name_f]Bloom[/name_f], and she feels a little meh for me, but [name_f]Blume[/name_f] is so sleek and really shines!!
[name_f]Sunny[/name_f] looks so cute and I want to love it, but it just sounds like [name_m]Sonny[/name_m] to me, so I can’t really hear it as a feminine name 
[name_f][/name_f] Like I can’t really imagine saying “hey Sunny!” to a daughter because whenever I say it out loud I just hear [name_m]Sonny[/name_m] – which I know is technically unisex (like in [name_m]Sonny[/name_m] With a [name_m]Chance[/name_m]) but I just think of it as an affectionate form of “son”.
Ok this is a stupid one, but I’m a frequenter of the “GP or Usable” thread and I feel like a lot of the names people say would be GP are actually super usable in some cultures and languages but not the one we as individuals are accustom to. For instance, if someone said [name_f]Solveig[/name_f] or [name_f]Signe[/name_f] was GP, but in [name_m]Denmark[/name_m] these are commonly known and would be usable. Me personally I just like to read a teensy bit about the name/where it’s from and adjust accordingly. Maybe a name like [name_f]Angharad[/name_f] is strange in the southern US but not [name_m]Wales[/name_m], yknow? (PS IM NOT CLAIMING THESE THINGS ARE OVERTLY TRUE OR NOT I’m just using them as conceptual examples). Anyways it’s really not that deep and it’s been a long day so this is gen meant with nothing but respect bc we all have our opinions and that’s okay 
[name_f][/name_f] like for me [name_f]Hayleigh[/name_f] would always be GP but [name_f]Elsa[/name_f] would not. I guess I’m just talking about names relative to culture/location 
This is a problem I have with the forums in general. I don’t live in an English speaking country, English is only my third language and while I try to talk about names from my culture, or from cultures most people on the forums are not very familiar with - this forum still centers around English speaking countries and how names are perceived there. Which makes sense, but sometimes it’s a little… discouraging.
Fortunately most frequent users are open-minded though 
@Rosebeth[name_f][/name_f], your names are some of my favorite on Nameberry! I hope you know that your contributions are definitely valued, at least by me.
[name_f]My[/name_f] rant of the day is that I am convinced that I can only ever like boy names or girl names at one time, never both. Right now I am deep in a girl name rabbit hole, and all of my boy names are feeling very meh.[name_f][/name_f] So frustrating!
Usable names just aren’t fun. Like would I actually name my daughter [name_f]Pleasance[/name_f][name_f][/name_f]? No. But she’s also on all of my lists, including the short ones, the ones that get titled what I’d name my baby if she were in my arms today, the ones that I look at with love and hope. It’s such a hard balance for me to find, because the names that I do think are wearable are so much less interesting, and I don’t feel as much adoration for them, but I also feel disingenuous having a list of favorites that is outlandish and ones I might even be embarrassed to show a partner or to consider in real life.
@seawillow[name_f][/name_f] Thank you so much 
[name_f][/name_f] I love your names too, they (and you) really brighten up the forums for me
I get that. I get scared to post my more out there names on here, actually. What I like to think about is that I meet people with “out there” names all the time and all I think is, “oh, hey, that’s really cool.” Like recently I’ve met people named [name_f]January[/name_f] and [name_m]Finesse[/name_m]. But I tend to like more dated things like [name_f]Susan[/name_f] or more nicknamey names like [name_m]Talley[/name_m] and [name_f]Tiggy[/name_f] so I feel you 
The way I look at names as GP or useable aren’t whether they are usable in any part of the world in a general sense, but whether they are useable for me specifically. So while I may really like names from other cultures, they have to remain guilty pleasures (for me) because I don’t have a tie to that culture so it wouldn’t really be appropriate or make sense for me to actually use it. So saying a name that’s common in another country is a guilty pleasure for me should be a compliment that I like and appreciate names from other cultures rather than something that is annoying to people from said culture where the name is common.
I don’t really post in those threads but that’s just my thoughts!
edit to add/ it’s understandable if you aren’t from an English speaking country that that particular thread would not be your favorite as a large portion of nb users are from English speaking countries so naturally names from other countries would be considered GP for the majority on here.
Ahh that makes sense! I never considered that people might only be referring to its usability relative to them. I approach it as “is this name usable Somewhere” so I guess I was just thinking about it in that way. I am from an English speaking country though but yeah no I guess I thought about it overall globally and not about my background specifically
This but about the NOTD / GPOTD threads… [name_f]My[/name_f] hot take on this is that if a name is only unusable because of your country/language / a family member has already used the name / bad personal association / etc, then it could still totally be a normal NOTD? There’s no rule saying NOTDs have to be realistic choices for real life. I feel like the GP of the day thread should be reserved for more “out there” choices that aren’t really common as names anywhere in the world, or are for some reason unusable due to pop culture associations, etc – things that most people would agree are GPs or at least brave choices, in any language. I’m always so confused when I see the most ‘normal’ names on there… like why is that a GP?? Please at least explain
I guess for me the logic is just the opposite… it’s a name I’m thinking about, why wouldn’t I just put it in the NOTD thread, realistic choice or not? If I’m appreciating and liking a name, then that’s my name of the day, even if it’s a cultural name I wouldn’t feel appropriate using IRL. I still want to appreciate it on the same level as names that are more realistic choices!
[name_f][/name_f][name_f][/name_f]Yes, I know people are doing this! I respect it – whatever works for people is totally fine – I just don’t quite understand it myself, hence my “rant” about it above. It’s not that serious of a complaint, though! [name_m]Just[/name_m] because the topic of categorizing GP/not GP was already being discussed on this thread and it was on my mind.
I don’t agree. I’m with @GreenEyes375[name_f][/name_f] on this one, it’s how I perceive the name, not how anyone else sees it. For example, [name_m]Joe[/name_m] is probably one of the most boring names ever to most people. But to me it’s a GP, because it’s not something I would ever consider using and it’s miles away from my usual name taste.
[name_f][/name_f]If names in the GPOTD thread are meant to be “unusable” for everyone, where do you draw the line? [name_f]My[/name_f] son’s middle name is [name_m]Pythagoras[/name_m] for goodness sake, most people would think this was a massive GP. It’s not up to other people to decide what names are (un)usable for me, just as I don’t get to decide that for anyone else.
[name_f]My[/name_f] thinking is not at all about deciding what’s unusable for other people, it’s more that any name can/should be a normal NOTD – I personally don’t even think we need a “GP of the day thread”, but I didn’t want to bring that up out of respect for whoever created it, since I certainly don’t hold any judgement at them for making it. I don’t assume names on the NOTD thread are realistic choices for whoever posted them – they’re just names they like or are thinking about on that given day, GP or realistic or somewhere in between! [name_f]Do[/name_f] you consider NOTD names to be reserved for only realistic choices, if you disagree with my statement you quoted above? That’s fascinating to me, since I see it so differently! I’m constantly posting NOTDs that I would never use in real life, but they’re still my name of the day.
[name_f][/name_f]I’m surprised this is such a point of contention 
[name_f][/name_f] I certainly am not criticizing anything anybody has posted on any “of the day” thread! I just don’t think we need such a sharp divide between “GP” and “realistic” names and I personally find it odd to see so many names posted on the GP thread.
