So… my favorites lists are about 50 names deep for boys and girls. I don’t love all 50 anymore but I also don’t want to strike my old loves off the list. Then add family names I don’t want to forget, a list of guilty pleasure names and all the info like possible nn’s, meanings, origins, other relevant things to keep in mind and ranking system and my list is starting to look like chicken-scratch. (It’s even in an excel format chart and it’s still a mess.)
I tried underlining and color coding and bolding and italicizing and then making separate lists and combining them alphabetically or by favorites and it’s just a disaster zone.
So here’s my question… how do you gals organize yours? [name]Do[/name] you duplicate names that fit on multiple lists on each list or just put them down once? For example: if [name]Celeste[/name] is a family name and it’s a favorite do you have a separate family name list it’s on and it’s on your favorites list or is it just on one or the other?
I need some ideas because right now it would just be easier NOT to have a list at all. (Esp when I have to start referring to a cheat sheet to understand my own coding system).
Since I like names from different styles, I put my names in style lists (eg. traditional, classic, mythological, unisex etc…). Many styles overlap and sibsets can be chosen from different lists. I just find it easier to put group them by styles.
Within the style lists, I then break them down to similar sounds/same letters/same endings (eg. [name]Amelia[/name], [name]Antonia[/name] and [name]Artemisia[/name] would be grouped together under the same initial and same ending). I think it’s best to choose names for siblings that aren’t too similar.
www.listography.com
Or, make columns (per category) on a single sheet of paper: the first name, the nickname, meaning/origin, and a fourth column for anything else important. So, one sheet of paper for family names, one for guilty pleasures and so on. First type all the names in one category on word and then try to rank them top 5, top 10, and everything else.
I second [name]Cristina[/name]‘s suggestion of listography. Right now as I’m working on my list, I have an Excel document on my computer with four columns: boys’ names, meanings, girls’ names, meanings. That works for me as I keep my lists relatively short and include only names that I love, have meaning to me, and that I would actually use.
I set up a 3 column table for each gender, headers read: “Firsts | Middles | Combos”
Then I put each name I like for each category there. I don’t sort based on styles because it’s too confusing, though I do have the girls section spaced out a bit due to different styles.
Example: [name]Alexia[/name], [name]Gabriella[/name], and [name]Selena[/name] are in the same bunch, but [name]Alessandra[/name], [name]Elena[/name], and [name]Vittoria[/name] are in another bunch. It’s in the same column, just a space between them.
I don’t pick family name because their family names, so I wouldn’t section those off. I just organize everything alphabetically. It’s much simpler that way.
Oh I just thought of another idea that’s great for simple organization: address books.
Purchase an address book, and just enter the name you like with the meanings and origins in each slot.
It’d probably be better to have one book for each sex though, since it’s only sorted alphabetically.
I think that’s a great option for simple, alphabetical organization.
Along these lines, you could use an contact app on your computer. I know the [name]Mac[/name] application arranges your full list alphabetically, but you can then assign the contacts to various groups. So [name]Arabella[/name] can be viewed alphabetically, but can also be seen in “Elaborate/[name]Princess[/name]”, “[name]Belle[/name] names”, and “Quirky” or however you’d like to classify her. Might be a nice option for when you’re trying to agree with a partner in order to see where your likes overlap
Ha I’m like @emilylou.
I just use the note application on my IPhone. There’s a section for gender, combos and names I’m crushing on.
I find this easiest because I can add or take away so simply
