Name styles within families

General Name Discussion
1

I come from a WASPy family where the names are staid and traditional. I honestly expected my siblings and cousins to select something similar- [name]Katherine[/name], [name]William[/name], etc. I usually find that families have a rather cohesive name style-- the whole family is modern, the whole family is trendy, the whole family is traditional, the whole family picks saints’ names, etc. So imagine my surprise at the following [we have quite a small family]:

Myself: an actual child called [name]Antoine[/name] [name]Raphael[/name], with hopes for a [name]Cyprian[/name], [name]Rainier[/name], [name]Laurence[/name], [name]Aquila[/name], [name]Rosamond[/name] or Chrysanthe

[name]Sister[/name]: married, on the waitlist to adopt from [name]China[/name]: would like an [name]Anya[/name], [name]Oliver[/name], or [name]Desmond[/name]

Brother, married: wants a [name]Gloria[/name] (in honor of deceased mother-in-law), [name]Gemma[/name], [name]Hayes[/name] or [name]Norwood[/name]

Cousin, married: wants a [name]Katharina[/name], [name]Karina[/name], or [name]Clancy[/name]

Cousin, married: wants a [name]Thais[/name] (>!>!>!) or [name]Federico[/name] (>!>!>!>!)

Call me gobsmacked.

2

Quite different, yes. You’ve got the best names by far! [name]Thais[/name] and [name]Federico[/name], hehe. WASPs are the [name]New[/name] [name]England[/name] traditional, rather wealthy people, yes? [name]Tea[/name] in the afternoon and classic sense of style?

My family does not have one naming style, I think the whole rainbow of naming styles will be represented at some point!

3

That’s quite an interesting mix! My mom’s family is also very WASP-y, and my cousins’ kids (mostly teens now), got very traditional names: [name]Andrew[/name], [name]Tom[/name], [name]David[/name], [name]Ian[/name], [name]Ellen[/name]… My dad’s side is a bit more mixed and has some very trendy names like [name]Taylor[/name] and [name]Madison[/name].

I’m excited to see what kind of names we’ll end up with in the next generation. We’re certainly more ethnically mixed (my husband is Chinese and my step-siblings are Jewish) and much more traveled than past generations. My husband and I prefer classic names, but the rest of my siblings could be all over the map, and my WASP-y mom has started making suggestions like [name]Lucrezia[/name] (for our not-yet-conceived child; she’s a bit anxious to be a grandma).

4

[name]Thais[/name] is an interesting name, especially now that I see it’s a girls name. There are two members of my family named Theis, which was a rather common 70-80s boys name here in Denmark. My family is quite the opposite, I’m afraid to say. Everyone have sticked to traditional names except my mum who gave both of her girls Spanish names (despite us having absolutely no Spanish relations whatsoever, both names, however, have notable French equivalents which is more logical since we do have roots in [name]France[/name]).

5

@ottilie yes, but we’re Southern WASPs which is a slightly different breed.

Btw the cousin who wants a [name]Thais[/name] (which is an Egyptian name, a famous prostitute-turned-saint and the subject of a rather nice opera) or [name]Federico[/name] is married to a blonde girl of Swedish descent from the Upper Midwest.

6

Aha, I see. Heehee, I can’t stop finding [name]Federico[/name] and [name]Thais[/name] amusing… not that I’m one to talk, but still.

7

Interesting to see the juxtaposition of those lists within your family!

My favorite names are below, in my signature, but my husband and I will likely end up with an [name]Adeline[/name] and an [name]Oliver[/name], were we to have one boy, one girl.

My sister’s favorite names include: [name]Lydia[/name], [name]Nina[/name], [name]Mila[/name] (pron. MY-la), and [name]Charlotte[/name]. Not sure about her picks for boys.

Most of my cousins who have recently had children picked classic, nice, but sort of plain (in my opinion only!) names: [name]Sam[/name], [name]Benjamin[/name], [name]Jillian[/name].

My husband’s side of the family is largely Orthodox Jewish, so names there include: [name]Esther[/name], [name]Tuvia[/name], [name]Elisheva[/name], [name]Moshe[/name], Ariyeh, [name]Yisrael[/name], [name]Yair[/name], [name]Menachem[/name], [name]Dov[/name], [name]Rina[/name], [name]Ayelet[/name], and [name]Tova[/name].

I really only have one set of relatives on my side that picked unique names for their children, who are all now in their twenties: [name]Chloe[/name] (unique at the time, at least; her middle name is [name]Electra[/name]), [name]Naomi[/name] (also more unique then?), [name]Arlo[/name], and [name]Ezekiel[/name].

8

My family is all over the place as well.

Me: [name]Isaac[/name], [name]Marcus[/name], [name]Lilith[/name] and [name]Milena[/name]. Maybe a [name]Teagan[/name] but it would be stretch.

My brother: [name]Leopold[/name], [name]Augustus[/name] and [name]Justinius[/name]

My sister: [name]Devynn[/name], [name]Tylyr[/name], [name]Shaine[/name] (all girls) and [name]Matthew[/name] and [name]Ford[/name] (boys)

9

I would say most of my family members in my generation like the more common, trendy names like [name]Mason[/name], [name]Riley[/name] and [name]Mitchell[/name]. Or creatively spelled names (which I will not disclose here). Though I do see one of my cousins on my dad’s side being more creative and out there with her choices. I could see her using names like [name]Djuna[/name] or [name]Tadeo[/name] etc

My brother has mentioned he likes the name [name]Mara[/name], but he’s pretty closed up about what names he likes. Its hard to get anything out of him.

Me? I don’t have a particular style, my taste runs from underused classics to international names for e.g [name]Saskia[/name], [name]Petra[/name], [name]Rosalind[/name] etc

10

My brother likes classic Biblical (not [name]New[/name] Testament) boy’s names: [name]Jonathan[/name], [name]Benjamin[/name], etc. He was slightly amused/fake-peeved that my husband has one of the boy’s names he’s planned to use since he was small. He doesn’t support going too far afield of the Bible, especially for boy’s names, and he has made fun of me for going “too Anglo” for contemplating [name]Henry[/name].

My sister likes elaborate, old-fashioned, eclectic names: Her intended sibset at this times is:
[name]Lucinda[/name] [name]Ruth[/name], [name]Raphaela[/name] [name]Irene[/name], [name]Penelope[/name] [name]Therese[/name] / [name]Ezekiel[/name] [name]Hamish[/name], [name]Tobias[/name] [name]Naphtali[/name], and [name]Alaric[/name] Zadkiel.

You may inspire me to make a spin-off where I ask what you do when you like someone else’s sibset more than any list you have?! lol My sister’s style is MUCH more cohesive than mine.

I think my sister’s taste is pretty great and a lot more consistent than my own, which is sort of all over the map.

My cousins so far have chosen consistently conventional names for their kids but I don’t want to list them together for privacy reasons. None are really bad but many are not what I would choose - I can only imagine the firestorm of drama if I DID steal their names though so it’s all to the good we have different styles.

11

My mother’s taste is very old-school British ([name]Jemima[/name], [name]Sadie[/name], [name]Elizabeth[/name], [name]Rose[/name]), while my father is stuck in the 90’s. His side of the family features a [name]Laura[/name], a [name]Laurel[/name], and a [name]Laure[/name] (middle name). My sister does not care about names at all. Her boyfriend wants to name their hypothetical (I [name]HOPE[/name]) son or daughter [name]Porter[/name] or [name]Vivian[/name], both of which she dislikes. She does tend to give her pets frilly, romantic names, and now that I think of it, she did once mention using Mercutio for a son. Unfortunately our regional accent means she pronounces it “Mer-COOCH-io”.

As for me, I’m pretty solidly into “librarian names”: golden oldies with a twist. My mom will probably be most understanding of the names I pick for my kids. My sister and dad are going to think I’m insane. [name]Ah[/name] well!

12

Well my mum has a mixed style ([name]Ebony[/name], [name]Adele[/name], [name]Isaac[/name], [name]Tayla[/name], [name]Lauren[/name])
I also have a mixed style my sister has her own taste aswell as whatever I like. Her favourites are [name]Lauren[/name] [name]Alouette[/name] and [name]Natalia[/name] [name]Emerald[/name] mine are [name]Isobel[/name] Jamiesie [name]Rose[/name] and [name]Sophie[/name] [name]Anne[/name] [name]Matilda[/name]. My brothers 8 turning 9 so he doesn’t really care (I prefer family names my sister doesn’t)
My cousins all have very different names from Natriesse to Kyal ro [name]Kristy[/name].

13

First off [name]Blade[/name], it’s a good thing you are a doctor because I will be in serious need of medical attention if you use Chrysanthe! /swoon! I may just die!!

As for my very immediate family, my brothers and I all have very popular names for the decade we were born in. My eldest brother has expressed a love for [name]Ireland[/name], [name]Atticus[/name] and [name]Christian[/name]. My other brother has a son named [name]Lucas[/name] (he hates the name. But due to the situation, he didn’t get a say…) He has mentioned a love for a girl’s name like [name]Camryn[/name], so he could use the nn [name]Cami[/name]. My favorites are obviously in my [name]Sig[/name] and the most creative of all three of us.
As for my extended family, my cousins also all got very popular names, Jennifers, Jasons, Andrews, etc. Most of their kids also have fairly popular names with few exceptions. There’s a sibset of sisters, [name]Morgan[/name] and [name]Meredith[/name], and a [name]Ryker[/name] elsewhere.
I don’t think our family really has any matching style unfortunately!
Edited to add— In my Fiances very small family most of the cousins have trendy names chosen for their children, and his sister used @lyci@ and ©urtis, so no matching there either.

14

Normally my family wouldn’t talk about names this way, but I think because we weren’t very open about what names we were going to use over christmas they all felt a need to tell us their top names so we wouldn’t use them (even though most of them are not planning on babies yet).

[name]Sister[/name]: Has a son named [name]Arvid[/name]. If she has more she’d like [name]Alva[/name] & [name]Elvina[/name] for girls, [name]Alvar[/name] & [name]Edwin[/name] for boys.

Brother: (In his early twenties and single, but I think my sister and my name obsession has rubbed off on him) likes Vilde, [name]Erle[/name] & [name]Iben[/name] for a girl, [name]Mikkel[/name] & Vetle for a boy. He grew up mostly in Norway and lives there, he’s much more connected to Norway than [name]England[/name].

In Norway:
Cousin #1 (f): Only wants one; [name]Ronja[/name] or [name]Calypso[/name] for a girl, [name]Tristan[/name] or [name]Severin[/name] for a boy.

Couisn #2 (m): [name]Jenny[/name], Tiril & Tomine for a girl, [name]Ludvig[/name] & [name]Linus[/name] for a boy.

In [name]England[/name]:
Cousin #3 (m): [name]Dulcie[/name] & [name]Poppy[/name] for a girl, [name]Nico[/name] & [name]Blaise[/name] for a boy

Cousin #4 (m): [name]Florence[/name] & [name]Clementine[/name] for a girl, [name]Alexander[/name] & [name]Dominic[/name] for a boy

Cousin #5 (m): [name]Jemima[/name] for a girl, [name]Asher[/name] for a boy

Cousin #6 (m): (in relationship with an Italian) [name]Alessia[/name] or [name]Lucia[/name] for a girl, [name]Luca[/name] for a boy

15

My parents are [name]Paul[/name] (brother [name]Lee[/name]) & [name]Robin[/name] (brother [name]Russell[/name]). [name]Both[/name] were very popular when they were born. They chose (okay, my mom did most of the choosing) a totally obscure, off-the-wall name for me. I’ve never met another person with my first or middle name. Or a non-relative with my last name, for that matter. But had I been a boy, I would’ve been named [name]Benjamin[/name]. Go figure.

16

My parents have tastes I can only describe as “under the top 100 bar”, in that they were considering names for my brother and I that were not in the top 100, but barely so. ([name]Truth[/name] be told, my brother ended up with the less common name than me.) On the other hand, their offspring differ a bit:

Me - I still like the “under the top 100 bar” names (like [name]Giselle[/name] or [name]Elias[/name]), but I also gravitate towards names like [name]Lilith[/name], [name]Vera[/name], [name]Elysia[/name], and [name]Maxine[/name] for girls. For boys, it’s ones like [name]Darius[/name], [name]Alessandro[/name], [name]Antony[/name], [name]Cyril[/name]… more dramatic and very European sounding names.

Brother - is single with no children, but has mentioned more out there names like [name]Arwen[/name] for girls, and more common-ish names that are still reminiscent of comic characters and the like for boys. (ones like [name]Clark[/name], [name]Kal[/name], or [name]Wallace[/name])

17

I have two cousins from opposite sides of the family who were born within a month of each other and are both named [name]Brendan[/name]. And they both have brothers named [name]Colin[/name].

I’d say both sides of my family gravitate toward classics, for the most part. In my generation, we have names like [name]Katherine[/name], [name]Molly[/name], [name]Abigail[/name], [name]Benjamin[/name], [name]Joshua[/name], [name]Sean[/name]. My name, [name]Gwendolyn[/name], is the sort-of exception. I also have one cousin whose name is a portmanteau of her parents’ names.

18

My family are all very traditionally named. My cousins are: [name]Emma[/name], [name]June[/name], [name]Kim[/name], [name]Benjamin[/name], [name]Dylan[/name], [name]Kate[/name], [name]Alyce[/name], [name]Jessica[/name], [name]Sam[/name], [name]Thomas[/name], [name]Matthew[/name], [name]Emily[/name] and [name]James[/name]. Plus my brother and I - [name]Sarah[/name] and [name]David[/name]. My cousins’ children are similarly normally named: [name]Angus[/name], [name]Elsa[/name], [name]Amelia[/name], [name]Anna[/name] and [name]Alex[/name].

However, on the other side of my family, one of my cousins named her children [name]Chilli[/name] Dandelion and Fenian [name]Jack[/name]!

19

None of my family really shares my openness about names, they all think it’s a bit weird so I didn’t get much of an answer when I asked them. My sister, like me, finds all of the names she likes in books so at the moment she likes [name]Annabeth[/name], [name]Rose[/name] and [name]Hazel[/name] for girls and [name]Perseus[/name], [name]Leo[/name] and [name]Jason[/name] for boys. My parents found a lot of their inspiration in history, my sister and I are both named after figures from Irish Mythology, and some of their runners up for us were [name]Niamh[/name] or [name]Abigail[/name] and [name]Spencer[/name] for a boy. My aunt [name]Marah[/name] is trendy in naming but classical in ideals so she named her daughter and my uncle [name]Zach[/name] named their son, the are [name]Alana[/name] [name]Kathleen[/name] and [name]James[/name] Wescott, I really hope they aren’t thinking of anymore because those two are demons.

20

My family reuses middle names. But the first names are of extremely different styles.