[name]Noah[/name]! It’s my favorite boy name. I’m lukewarm on many others, but while I can appreciate their elegance or style, none of them feel as right as [name]Noah[/name] does. It doesn’t much matter, as my first baby is a girl, who we are planning to name [name]Evelina[/name] ([name]Evie[/name]).
What would you do if a name you adored was #15 in popularity? Or perhaps carried a religious connotation that didn’t apply to you? Would you use it anyway?
And since you’re all brilliant with names, can you think of any I might like, based on my affinity for [name]Noah[/name]?
If I really love a name, I don’t care how popular it is. My sister loves names as much as I do, and her favorite boys’ names are [name]Michael[/name] and [name]Jacob[/name]. I don’t think she cares that they’re so popular.
If my fave name [name]Peter[/name] were popular, I would still have used it. [name]Elizabeth[/name] was popular when we named our daughter [name]Elizabeth[/name] for her middle name.
[name]Love[/name] [name]Anna[/name], and it’s very popular. It’s #26.
[name]Noah[/name] is a very handsome name. I especially love [name]Noah[/name] because of the [name]Noah[/name] and the ark connection.
My first thought was [name]Noel[/name] which may be too religious as well, in which case you can use the (more flattering [name]IMO[/name]) [name]Nowell[/name] spelling ^^
It’s one of my favourite names, and [name]Evelina[/name] and [name]Nowell[/name] is a fantastic sibset!!
Also, I always thought the really special thing about [name]Noah[/name] as a boys name was the fact that it ends with an ‘a’, so how about other short boys names ending in ‘a’?
[name]Luca[/name]
[name]Dana[/name]
[name]Ilya[/name]
[name]Eja[/name] (pronounced like [name]Asia[/name])
[name]Shia[/name]
And there aren’t too many nice ones that aren’t obviously from the Bible I’m sad to say… Hmmm…
Also thought of [name]Rowan[/name], [name]Cohen[/name] and [name]Owen[/name] with the same sounds as [name]Noah[/name], but also the popularity (and religious aspect in [name]Cohen[/name]'s case)… The Arabic [name]Nur[/name] means ‘my fire’ and sounds surprisingly similar to [name]Noah[/name]! [name]Nuri[/name] is another form…
Word names [name]North[/name], [name]Noon[/name] and [name]Noble[/name] sound somewhat similar as well, but they may not appeal to you?
[name]Nor[/name] is an old Norse boys name meaning ‘from the north’ that’s similar in sound. It’s also a component in other Norse names like Nordal, Noralv/Noralf, Nordin and Norfinn which might actually give you the popular [name]Finn[/name] nickname while remaining distinctively different and interesting… ^^
And that’s all I could think of!
If you have any thoughts, let us know so we can look around more!
Edited to add: [name]LEON[/name]! Maybe you like [name]Leon[/name]?
[name]Love[/name] of a name probably comes first but I think religious significance is important eg a Jewish family would not name their child [name]Mohammed[/name] would they?
However, [name]Noah[/name] is probably not seen by a lot of people in a Biblical context, so I would say go ahead and use it if you love it so much.
I am in the same boat as you. I’m not a religious person by any means, but a lot of my top boy names are very biblical. I also love [name]Noah[/name]. Two of my absolute favorite names for a boy are [name]Ephraim[/name] and [name]Isaac[/name]. [name]Caleb[/name] and [name]Ezra[/name] are also on my list. I don’t see any of these names in a religious light. I just really like them as names.
I am not religious and have the same issues with some biblical names. I think [name]Noah[/name] is borderline for me - it’s definitely biblical in one sense and just a mainstream popular name in another context. A lot of the biblical names I like share that second quality and don’t seem biblical to me because they are just so popular, like [name]Daniel[/name], [name]Joseph[/name], [name]John[/name], [name]Sarah[/name], while in the meantime, names like [name]Jacob[/name] have a nice way about it, with a slight biblical edge to me that I could overlook. Similarly, you don’t get much more biblical (in my perspective), than [name]Adam[/name] or [name]Eve[/name] - I consider them both usable. I think [name]Noah[/name] has that property that I would consider if I liked it as much as you do. Pass on names like [name]Elijah[/name] or [name]Isaiah[/name] or [name]Moses[/name], for example, or references like [name]Evangeline[/name] or [name]Seraphina[/name] (I am arbitrarily ok with [name]Angela[/name] & related names).
I would take the bible source as similar to a nationality - I am not French in heritage, but there are mainstream French names I am comfortable with. Alternately, I am part [name]German[/name] and Italian by heritage, and the same is true - some comfortable pool of imported names that I would feel ok using, and a very big lot of names I would consider unusable in the US unless you just immigrated and really have an authentic reason for considering it. Some biblical names clearly seem to have more meaning to people and are outside the mainstream, while some are so common there’s no real barrier to use them, no matter how you feel about religions.
As for popular names, I don’t know that you can help what you really love. You might rather theoretically prefer a name to be less popular, and some people are strict enough with their requirements that they would discard a name they love on that basis, but I think if you have a good name that you want to use, you shouldn’t let that stand in your way, and your child would probably rather have a name you love than something that appeals more to the vanity of being singular - to you. That might not matter to them at all. I would rather my parents love my name than pick something that was more of a second or third choice or a bigger compromise between parents who couldn’t find anything they both love as much as the #1 choice. Sometimes a name is just that good, and popular because it is so appealing. You don’t need to fight it!
Our son’s name is [name]Noah[/name] [name]Michael[/name]. We chose his name because we loved it & it goes well with our last name. I did have people ask me if we chose his name for religious reasons. We did not…just loved the name. Good [name]Luck[/name]
[name]Noah[/name] has been my absoloute favourite boys name for quite sometime, due to the wonderful character in The Notebook. The funny thing is though, I have only ever met one [name]Noah[/name]. I think if you really love it, you should just go for it.
