I love [name]Athena[/name]. It has a number of amazing associations, lends itself to a few beautiful nicknames, and feels simultaneously powerful and gentle. Still, the gravity of a name like [name]Athena[/name] feels a bit too much for a real-world individual to carry. [name]Atlas[/name] falls victim to the same reasoning in my brain.
I have a few in the astronomy category that I love ([name]Andromeda[/name], for example), but fear a child explaining the origins of their name with an eyeroll and a “my mom’s really into astronomy.”
So there are a few more usable astronomical names on my list that I have a feeling I won’t have the cajones to use, but keep to myself just in case!
Then there are the guilty pleasure names, like Evolet (a made-up name from the arguably terrible movie which I inexplicably love, 10,000 BC), which I acknowledge are on the silly side and allow myself to indulge in as, well, guilty pleasures that will never be bestowed on humans. A pet, perhaps!
[name]Do[/name] you have names that you love, but don’t have the guts to use (or maybe you’re not sure yet whether you do or not)? Why?
[name]Raphael[/name], [name]Andreas[/name], and [name]Blaise[/name]. My brother has this friend named Dre and I think [name]Andreas[/name] is a really cool way to get to it, but the fault line is for some reason a no-go for my family.
Of course, I’m only in my late teens, so I’ll have no idea until the time comes whether or not I’ll be able to just say screw it and name my kid what I want. I hope I will though.
Oh, and [name]Yuna[/name]. Total video-game nerd name and I would get tons of crap from everybody for using it, but I can’t get over it. Maybe someday as a middle that my kid can be totally embarassed about.
For a girl, my pick would be [name]Eulalie[/name] (pronounced ooh-la-lee). I’m obsessed with [name]Edgar[/name] [name]Allan[/name] [name]Poe[/name], so it would be a nice homage without being so overt. However, I live in a small town in the South so I doubt anyone would ever pronounce it correctly. If I ever moved to [name]France[/name], I’d jump on it though. It just sounds so lovely, especially with a French accent.
For a boy, probably [name]Ambrose[/name]. I think this name is so beautiful and it has literary ties (Fall on Your Knees by [name]Anne[/name]-[name]Marie[/name] [name]MacDonald[/name]), but I just don’t think I could burden a boy by having “[name]Rose[/name]” in his name. I thought about using [name]Emrys[/name] (Welsh variation) as a nice alternative.
[name]Bamboo[/name]
My inner hippie loves nature names and this is my favorite for boys, along with [name]Ashley[/name], [name]Bay[/name], and [name]Shea[/name]. [name]Bamboo[/name] is the only one I feel is unusable but maybe as a mn.
Kolohe
I have no ties to [name]Hawaii[/name]
[name]Reynaud[/name]
I think it sounds dashing but I just don’t know
Chaos
I used to love this name as a child, before I knew the meaning. I still like it and it’s an actual name…but no
Southerners would pronounce it “you- la- lee” which I think is pretty. Plus [name]Eula[/name] [name]Mae[/name]/ [name]Eula[/name] [name]Lee[/name] are classics. Olalie is an accepted variant
I prefer [name]Eulalia[/name]. It’s supposed to be “o-lal-ya” but I like “you-la-lee-a” or “o-layl-ya”. Or I might go with Alaylia “ah-lay-lee-a”
There are a few foreign names I love- like [name]Etienne[/name] or [name]Emile[/name], but I think they’d come off as pretentious in a non-French speaking country, so I avoid them. I also love [name]Espen[/name] for a boy, but it sounds a bit like ‘[name]Aspen[/name]’ or maybe ESPN.
There are also a few girls names I love, like [name]Aoife[/name], that I don’t want to use because they’d be mispronounced.
@rachel27: same with [name]Aoife[/name]! It’s one of my favorite Irish names, but living in the US, completely unusable.
[name]Anwen[/name] and [name]Andorra[/name] are the two I can think of at the moment. I love them, but they sound made up. And [name]Millie[/name]…I wish I wasn’t adverse to nickname names.
And [name]Dafydd[/name] for a boy (prn [name]DAY[/name]-vith). Why can’t I live in Great Britian?
[name]Calypso[/name], hands down. [name]Andrew[/name] and I both loved it, and have for over 6 years, buuuuut can’t justify using it. We’d call her [name]Caly[/name].
Also, we have also strongly considered Evolet for a variety of reasons, it may actually get used one day, but it’s very far behind our other current favorites.
Other than that, a few Welsh names, (Can’t because of pronunciation problems!) a few other Mythological names (Too out there!!) and a few Japanese names. (Too not my culture )
I had several on my list that I ultimately rejected for being to “out there.”
Girls: [name]Andromeda[/name] (nn [name]Andi[/name]), [name]Yvaine[/name], [name]Persephone[/name], [name]Athena[/name], [name]Hera[/name], [name]Juniper[/name], [name]Saoirse[/name], [name]Callista[/name], and [name]Isadora[/name] (these last two actually made it into our top 10)
Boys: [name]Zephyr[/name], [name]Atlas[/name], Breindel, [name]Griffin[/name], [name]Soren[/name]
Oh wow there are so many names I love…but perhaps only a few I don’t have the nerve to use. Or should I say my husband does not have the nerve to use them! LOL!
The only one for me would have to be [name]Wolfgang[/name]. I’d be fine with sons named [name]River[/name], [name]Zen[/name], and [name]Ariel[/name] because none of those feel like too much for me, but I could never have a little [name]Wolfgang[/name]… It just feels like too much. Maybe it’s because my grandparents had a dog named [name]Wolfgang[/name] that they called Wolfie.
I guess my favorite twin combo falls under this too. I love [name]Artemis[/name] and [name]Apollo[/name] as twin names, but I think it’s a bit too much, as they are twins in mythology.
[name]Keziah[/name], but I fear that the pronunciation will be too problematic. I say Kez-eye-uh, but it’s not the easiest to work out just from looking at it. I also love names like [name]Niamh[/name], [name]Eilidh[/name] and [name]Saoirse[/name], but I have the same fear, plus I’ve no Celtic heritage in any form.
For boys, I like [name]Jethro[/name] nn [name]Jed[/name], but it seems too ‘out there’ for most people.
I’d love a little [name]Kezzie[/name] and [name]Jed[/name], though I doubt that’ll ever happen.
My problem is that my husband is much more conservative in the name department! Here are some names that I love that he wouldn’t go for: [name]Beatrix[/name], [name]Clementine[/name], [name]Zenobia[/name], [name]Desdemona[/name], [name]Harriett[/name]. I love old man names too - [name]Stanley[/name] and [name]Walter[/name], especially. Hubby thought those were dreadful, but I think a baby named [name]Stan[/name] would be soooo cute!
[name]Jonelle[/name]. It’s a perfect combo hubby’s name ([name]Jonathan[/name]) & my name (Gwenelle). Asked hubby about using it for middle name for our girl & he says it’s too tacky. I said, well it’s better than Gwenathan! LOL
I know an American [name]Dafydd[/name]! [name]One[/name] of my many cousins married a man named [name]Dafydd[/name]. It gets some eyebrows when written but people get over the “strange” spelling quick & he gets lots of compliments. I would love to use [name]Caoimhe[/name], pn kee-va, or [name]Eimear[/name], pn ee-mer, but I’m scared of what people in my small town would do to those. I [name]LOVE[/name] the Japanese name [name]Megumi[/name] but my SO thinks I’m crazy (and not Japanese…). I refuse to take [name]Jemima[/name], [name]Clementine[/name], [name]Ama[/name], [name]Mayme[/name], [name]Bluebell[/name], or Nightengale off my list; but don’t know if I’d be brave enough to actually use them. For the boys I’d love to be able to seriously consider these but I am hesitent: [name]Bronislaw[/name], [name]Cavanaugh[/name], [name]Rye[/name], [name]Benek[/name], Castle, [name]Heronim[/name], [name]Lockwood[/name], [name]Constantine[/name], [name]Teos[/name], Caldwell, & [name]Thorn[/name]. There are some for a boy or a girl that I could only do in the middle (if at all) but I still love: [name]Saturn[/name], Candle, [name]Linden[/name], [name]Blaze[/name], [name]Cicero[/name], [name]Arbor[/name], [name]Winter[/name], & [name]Zephyr[/name].
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