Names you love but would never use!

I was just thinking about the concept of ‘guilty pleasures’ and why we choose NOT to use names we personally love.

For me, any name that doesn’t have an Arabic meaning or variation of some kind is not an option, just because I want to honour my heritage through names. But putting that aside, here are some names I love… but would never use.

  1. [name_f]Tziporah[/name_f] – I have loved this name ever since I was a kid watching The [name_m]Prince[/name_m] of [name_u]Egypt[/name_u], my favourite animated movie of all time! I’m not religious but I just thought it was beautiful. However over the years, whenever I mentioned my love of the name (on here, with my family, with my friends) no one else seems to share the love! To me that’s a sign it only sounds good to me, and I wouldn’t want to give a child a name no one can spell, and no one else seems to like!

  2. [name_f]Josephine[/name_f] – I love this name, I think its so classic yet cool, with lots of nickname potential. However, I have a good friend named [name_f]Josephine[/name_f], and whilst I love her we are not close enough for me to name a child after her!

  3. [name_u]Noah[/name_u] – It’s a beautiful name, but… so, so popular! Far too popular for me to ever use it. I also hate the Arabic variation, ‘[name_m]Nuh[/name_m]’ so that’s not an alternate, less popular option either!

  4. [name_u]River[/name_u] – I love the idea of honouring [name_u]River[/name_u] [name_u]Phoenix[/name_u], who I adore, but I’m not a fan of nature names, and it really just wouldn’t fit in my family/community

I love [name_f]Lily[/name_f], I think it’s fresh, fun and sweet yet spunky. I associate with the kind and clever [name_f]Lily[/name_f] [name_m]Evans[/name_m]/[name_m]Potter[/name_m]. However, I would never use it because of its popularity - I’d hate for my daughter to be in a class with five other Lilys.

Am a [name_f]Miranda[/name_f], can confirm I’m not liking the popularity of my name. As a teen, I stopped liking it for that, but now I like it again. My sister’s name is [name_f]Emily[/name_f], and she has it worse though lol. That being said I wouldn’t use my name or hers for my future kids.

I love [name_f]Tara[/name_f] and [name_f]Cara[/name_f]/[name_f]Kara[/name_f] but I’d never use them because of the multiple pronunciation of “-ara” (ARE-uh or [name_f]AIR[/name_f]-uh). I honestly wouldn’t use any names with multiple pronunciations because it’d be mispronounced half the time. There’s also a lot of international names I love but feel weird trying to use if they’re too tied with another culture I’m not from. I love names like [name_u]Sam[/name_u] and [name_u]Seth[/name_u] for a boy but my sister likes them too and I’m not looking to “steal” her names. (I feel she would have kids before me.) I love long names like [name_m]Sebastian[/name_m], [name_f]Samantha[/name_f], [name_m]Maximilian[/name_m], and [name_f]Scarlett[/name_f], but dislike any of the nicknames. I also love the name [name_m]Foster[/name_m] but seeing as I’m considering adoption, I feel he’d be tied to “foster child”. I love [name_m]Christian[/name_m] but I feel he’d be tied to the religion and I’m not even [name_m]Christian[/name_m]. In addition, there’s lots of similar names that I’m a fan of, but could only choose one because I don’t like my kids having overly similar names to one another.

There are some names that I love but wouldn’t use for cultural or religious reasons.

In other cases, it’s because they have negative connotations (like [name_f]Lolita[/name_f] or [name_f]Mimosa[/name_f]) or I don’t think they would be pronounced correctly where I live ([name_f]Ximena[/name_f], [name_f]Lucrezia[/name_f]) or I don’t love they way they sound in my local accent ([name_f]Ottilie[/name_f], [name_f]Tatiana[/name_f]… We have a thing with Ts!).

[name_m]Orin[/name_m], I love the name but no one else seems to like it. I also like [name_f]Ariella[/name_f] but I don’t think I will use it because I feel like it’s too unique.

I know a little [name_f]Arielle[/name_f] and both [name_f]Arielle[/name_f] and [name_f]Ariella[/name_f] are becoming quite recognizable, at least in my area.

I agree with the previous comments about not being able to use names I love due to cultural reasons. I love [name_m]Enzo[/name_m], [name_f]Ilaria[/name_f], [name_m]Thiago[/name_m], [name_f]Vita[/name_f] and [name_f]Solana[/name_f] but as a Caucasian Canadian I don’t think I could get away with it.

I also like many names that I may have to save for a dog one day like Astro and [name_u]Roscoe[/name_u].

I also have a long list of names I love and would use but could never get my husband to agree to.

I also have several names I like but wouldn’t use because of how popular they are: [name_f]Eva[/name_f], [name_f]Lydia[/name_f], [name_f]Sabrina[/name_f], [name_f]Miranda[/name_f], [name_m]Oscar[/name_m], [name_m]Eli[/name_m]. I want my future kids to have names that just aren’t too common… my name is rare where I’m from and I loved that I wouldn’t be able to run into someone else with the same name :).

I really, really love the name [name_f]Saga[/name_f] [name_f]Ione[/name_f]! [name_u]Unique[/name_u] and kickass, but I know it’s well away from being usable because of cultural reasons, and it might be too unique? When I think about using it, I usually just settle for using [name_u]Sage[/name_u], but it doesn’t resonate with me the way [name_f]Saga[/name_f] does!

[name_f]Olive[/name_f]
[name_f]Lily[/name_f] (gosh darn it I [name_f]ADORE[/name_f] this name)
[name_f]Emmeline[/name_f]
[name_f]Juno[/name_f]

[name_m]Henry[/name_m] (same with [name_f]Lily[/name_f])
[name_m]Oscar[/name_m]
[name_m]Theodore[/name_m]
[name_m]Felix[/name_m] (sister has claimed)
[name_u]Finn[/name_u]/[name_u]Finley[/name_u]

If I wasn’t into more unique/not so popular names, my kids would definitely be [name_m]Henry[/name_m] & [name_f]Lily[/name_f]. Heck, depending on who I marry they may still have to be lol!

[name_f]Honor[/name_f] - seems a bit too expecation-y but I loveeee it.
[name_f]Allegra[/name_f]- everyone brings up the allergy medicine.

Despite being high in popularity, I still think [name_f]Amelia[/name_f], [name_f]Elsie[/name_f], [name_f]Florence[/name_f], [name_f]Matilda[/name_f], [name_f]Eve[/name_f], [name_m]Hugo[/name_m], [name_m]Arthur[/name_m], [name_u]Jude[/name_u], [name_u]Rory[/name_u], [name_m]Sebastian[/name_m] and [name_u]Spencer[/name_u] are all beautiful and each hold a certain charm.

As for names like [name_f]Hermione[/name_f], [name_f]Estella[/name_f], [name_f]Primrose[/name_f], [name_m]Caspian[/name_m], [name_m]Draco[/name_m], [name_u]Finch[/name_u], [name_m]Watson[/name_m], [name_m]Gatsby[/name_m], [name_m]Newt[/name_m], [name_m]Potter[/name_m] and [name_m]Holmes[/name_m], I’m sure they’ll instantly make people think of characters who brought them into the spotlight.

One of my biggest loves is mythology and consequently, I’ve fallen rather hard for some of the names. While a lot of them are perfectly fine for day to day use, realistically, others would make life a tad bit difficult if used. Such as [name_f]Persephone[/name_f], [name_f]Andromeda[/name_f], [name_f]Cassiopeia[/name_f], [name_u]Artemis[/name_u], [name_f]Pandora[/name_f], [name_m]Adonis[/name_m], [name_m]Apollo[/name_m], [name_m]Achilles[/name_m], [name_m]Zeus[/name_m], [name_m]Odin[/name_m], [name_m]Lancelot[/name_m], and [name_m]Thor[/name_m]. I have first hand knowledge of sharing a mythological name and there are certainly downsides (how you spell that? how is that pronounced? is that the name you were given at birth or did you change it? etc.) so I’m not sure if I could do the same for any future children. I really, truly love those names though.

  1. [name_f]Josephine[/name_f]: I love it and am just as in love with the nickname [name_u]Josie[/name_u], but my husband has a cousin with the name and he doesn’t love the “phine” ending.

2.[name_f]Genevieve[/name_f]: So beautiful, but we are a nickname family and I just feel like this name is too beautiful to reduce it to a nickname. But I know we wouldn’t be able to help ourselves. [name_m]Even[/name_m] our dog has like 10 nicknames.

  1. [name_u]Dean[/name_u]: I love the cool vibe of this name and I highly doubt there would be any other [name_u]Dean[/name_u]'s in my future son’s class. But it is my son’s middle name and my son’s first name is [name_m]Samuel[/name_m]. So it would be hard to avoid the [name_u]Sam[/name_u] & [name_u]Dean[/name_u] Supernatural connection. Although I doubt it will be relevant by the time they would be adults.

  2. [name_m]Castiel[/name_m]: [name_m]Way[/name_m] too Supernatural, but love the nickname [name_m]Cas[/name_m]. I also am not brave enough to actually use it.

  3. [name_m]Hendrix[/name_m]: Family name and has a super cool vibe to me. We could even use the nickname [name_m]Henry[/name_m], but I am just not brave enough to use it as a first name. It will likely be a middle name if we have another boy.

6.[name_f]Violet[/name_f]: Still on the fence about this one. I have loved it for going on 17 years or so. But now that I am actually having kids, it has become so popular. My son’s name is [name_m]Samuel[/name_m] which is quite popular, but is is a classic name that has been used for a long time. So its popularity doesn’t bother me, but I am worried [name_f]Violet[/name_f] maybe won’t be a “classic” or that is will end up in the top 10 soon. And my husband loves it to boot! Such a shame.