Fascinated with names as we are, I expect most of us have a name or two on our lists that probably wouldn’t be there were it not for what the name means to us. It’s not uncommon for a child to be directly or subtly named after a grandparent or other family member, or for cultural significance and meaning to play a huge role. So, berries: do you have a name on your list that you may not have looked twice at if it weren’t for personal factors?
Well my daughter [name_m]Caspar[/name_m] was named after my father who passed away…he was [name_m]Caspian[/name_m]
I probably wouldn’t be fond of the name [name_f]Bonnie[/name_f] had it not been for my grandmother!
I don’t think I’d be trying so hard to keep [name_f]Georgiana[/name_f] as a middle (even though I do absolutely love it) if it didn’t honour my mum and grandma. And whilst I do really like [name_m]Albert[/name_m], I would probably have a [name_u]Kit[/name_u] as 2nd middle for [name_m]Ptolemy[/name_m] if it wasn’t almost a combination of my grandads’ names.
I don’t really have any names on my list that I don’t love…whether they come from family names or not. My family isn’t all that big on passing down names and neither is the husband’s family. It’s more about sound and meaning to us than anything else when it comes to names. Family members can be honored in more meaningful ways, to us.
Sort of. The names on our list are there because we genuinely like them and they have personal significance. There have been names that we probably could’ve used, because they did have important ties, but we don’t want to because we simply don’t like the names…for instance, [name_f]Christine[/name_f]. It’s the name of my mother, grandmother, aunt, and DH’s mentor. It also has ties to our faith. So we should like the name, right? Actually, we really don’t like it at all.
The only name that we did have on our list that fit the “we don’t like it, but have it on the list because of it’s significance” bill was [name_f]Audray[/name_f]. Yes, spelled that way. It was DH’s late grandmother’s name and it meant a lot to my husband to use it. I didn’t like it from the get go. DH eventually admitted that he didn’t like the name either. We decided that sharing the memories of her with our kids would be good enough and scrapped the name from our list.
[name_u]Blair[/name_u]. And every name containing some form of “[name_f]Ann[/name_f].”
[name_m]Caspar[/name_m], [name_f]Ann[/name_f], [name_f]Mary[/name_f], [name_m]Casimer[/name_m], [name_u]Georgie[/name_u], [name_u]Everett[/name_u], [name_u]Neil[/name_u], [name_u]Jay[/name_u], and Rado are all actual names on our family trees, with the exception of [name_u]Georgie[/name_u] which is derived from [name_m]George[/name_m].
We never put names that we didn’t like on our list despite a personal significance. DH would have loved for us to consider [name_f]Victoria[/name_f] (his departed mothers name) for our daughter but I’ve always hated it - but I like [name_m]Victor[/name_m] (not because of the connection).
We did however consider names with the same or similar meanings if we loved them. (Our daughter’s mn starts with [name_f]MIL[/name_f]'s first initial and means the same thing as my mom’s name. I’ve always wanted to use this name as a mn for a daughter so it was really a happy accident but now means even more to me because of that).
[name_u]Marion[/name_u] for my grandmother, [name_f]Victoria[/name_f] for someone close to my heart, and I’m trying to find a fn for [name_f]Jane[/name_f] because it is my aunt’s name
[name_f]Phoebe[/name_f], [name_f]Maria[/name_f], [name_f]May[/name_f] and [name_f]Minerva[/name_f]. I did a whole lot of genealogy just before [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] while my Grandma was visiting. [name_f]Phoebe[/name_f] does align with my taste except for the association with Friends (good show though) however finding out that it was a nickname my great uncle called his mother took that association away. My great uncle was the type of person to never call his mother ([name_f]Phoebe[/name_f], actually called [name_f]Dorothy[/name_f]) or his sister (My Grandma [name_u]Jean[/name_u], nicknamed [name_f]Bella[/name_f]) by their proper names, so much so my mother, aunt and his daughter all thought their grandma was called [name_f]Phoebe[/name_f]! [name_f]Maria[/name_f] was the name of my 4x great grandmother. [name_f]May[/name_f] was both of my maternal great grandmothers middle names. [name_f]Minerva[/name_f] is for my great grandmother’s aunt (so [name_f]Dorothy[/name_f]/[name_f]Phoebe[/name_f]'s aunt) [name_f]Minnie[/name_f] who emigrated from [name_u]Devon[/name_u] to Australia by herself at age 20.
All these are great names but they wouldn’t be on my list if it wasn’t for the incredible women who wore them a century earlier.
(Other honour names that do line up with my style include [name_f]Victoria[/name_f], [name_m]Alexander[/name_m], [name_u]Kai[/name_u] and [name_f]Iris[/name_f] )
None. I don’t keep on the list names I don’t actually like.
I like all of the names on my list, but many of them have family roots and that’s why I picked them over others.
[name_u]Hayden[/name_u]/[name_m]Haden[/name_m], is a family name (several generations) and my grandfather’s middle name.
[name_f]Rayna[/name_f] is from my mom’s name, [name_u]Ray[/name_u] (which is why I’m using that spelling too)
[name_f]Jessa[/name_f] is from my Uncle [name_u]Jessie[/name_u].
[name_f]Olena[/name_f] is a variation of [name_f]Helen[/name_f], who was my husbands grandmother
[name_f]Louise[/name_f] is from my great-grandmother, Lougene (I just think [name_f]Louise[/name_f] flows better)
[name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] was my great-grandmother and paternal grandmother
[name_f]Irene[/name_f] was my husband’s grandmother
[name_u]James[/name_u] was a great-Uncle
[name_m]Arthur[/name_m] was another great-Uncle
[name_u]Elliot[/name_u] is from my FIL’s middle name [name_m]Ellsworth[/name_m]
[name_m]William[/name_m] is my husbands middle name
[name_u]Robin[/name_u] is from another great-Uncle, [name_m]Robert[/name_m]
[name_m]Cooper[/name_m] was my grandmother’s maiden name
[name_f]Jaclyn[/name_f] was my husbands friend who died in a car crash just before we met
[name_f]Marie[/name_f] is my sister, my husband’s sister and his mother’s middle name
I think [name_f]Rose[/name_f], [name_u]Alden[/name_u], [name_m]Joel[/name_m], and [name_m]Remus[/name_m] are the only names without family/friend connections. I might find that [name_f]Rose[/name_f], [name_m]Joel[/name_m] and [name_u]Alden[/name_u] do have some connection, but as of right now I don’t know of any.
[name_u]Avery[/name_u]. It would be a great honor name, but without the personal connection I wouldn’t even think about using it because I don’t like how trendy it’s become. I’m okay with popular names but I don’t like the ones that move up the charts that quickly.
[name_m]Baxter[/name_m] - Grandmother’s maiden name
[name_f]Ruth[/name_f] - Great aunt’s name
[name_f]Helen[/name_f] - Aunt’s name
[name_u]Rae[/name_u] - Short form of my aunts name
[name_u]Roy[/name_u] - Great Uncle’s name
[name_m]Harold[/name_m] - Grandad’s name
[name_u]Ruby[/name_u] - Grandma’s middle (I have her first name as my middle name)
Definitely. I fell in love with the name [name_f]Gabrielle[/name_f] because of my love for the [name_f]Xena[/name_f] character. If I didn’t have that association I would probably not think twice about it, but now I can’t help but imagine it as a very likely and realistic choice for a future child’s middle name. It also helps that it honors my mother in multiple interesting ways. I like [name_u]Joan[/name_u] mostly because of [name_u]Joan[/name_u] [name_m]Jett[/name_m]. I also never much cared for the sound of [name_u]Ruby[/name_u] until I came to love the [name_u]Ruby[/name_u] character on Once Upon a Time, and now it’s a name I just can’t shake as a top contender!
I came to love [name_m]Sebastian[/name_m] when I discovered that it was the only boy name my partner and I both like. I wasn’t wild about it at first, but it really grew on me over time because I knew how much she liked it, and now I love it. And my first son’s middle name will almost definitely be [name_m]Jeffrey[/name_m] in honor of my father. If I didn’t have that association I would probably have no interest in the name :).
I do genuinely love [name_f]Helena[/name_f] but it is a slightly different style from the other names on our list for firsts. However, it is the name both of our mothers loved for a girl when they were pregnant with us, so it feels really special for that reason. It didn’t work with my maiden surname and DH was a boy, so it didn’t get used by either of them, but I know both would absolutely love to have a little granddaughter called [name_f]Helena[/name_f].
[name_f]Valerie[/name_f] for a middle name - it’s my 91-year-old grandmother’s name (my last surviving grandparent) and I’d love to honour her by using it. I don’t think she likes her name much though!
[name_u]Kit[/name_u] for a boy is my absolute favourite anyway, but it does have special family significance too so that really seals the deal.
[name_f]Francesca[/name_f] and [name_f]Violet[/name_f]; [name_f]Francesca[/name_f] is a diminutive of a family name that has been passed down through my mum’s side (including mine). [name_f]Frances[/name_f] (b and g) and [name_m]Francesco[/name_m] etc have all been used previously. My mum’s name means violets, so [name_f]Violet[/name_f] is pretty self explanatory.
Some names that I’m fond of because of personal connections are
[name_m]Teodor[/name_m] - the name of a favourite relative of mine
[name_u]Lynn[/name_u] - an old friend of mine
[name_m]Berlin[/name_m] (for a boy) - my favourite city
[name_f]Astrid[/name_f], [name_f]Matilda[/name_f], Peppilotta, [name_m]Karlsson[/name_m] - when I was little I was the biggest [name_f]Astrid[/name_f] Lindgren fan and these are some names from her books
[name_m]Niles[/name_m] and [name_f]Grace[/name_f] - a Nostalgia-throwback to the Nineties and The [name_f]Nanny[/name_f] Series
[name_m]Grantham[/name_m], [name_m]Branson[/name_m] and [name_m]Robert[/name_m] - some Downton [name_u]Abbey[/name_u] inspired names
Slavic names in general because of my heritage
[name_m]Oscar[/name_m] - the name of a cute dog in a children’s book that I loved when I was little
I think if I didn’t love [name_m]Vincent[/name_m] [name_u]Van[/name_u] Gogh, I wouldn’t consider [name_m]Vincent[/name_m] my favourite boy name. I might not even have it in my top names.