On Friday, my parents and I were headed home after eating out when the subject of names came up. My mom said something like, “[name_f]Erin[/name_f] if you were a boy, you probably would still be nameless today.” I bust out laughing and I said, “Oh that’s right, you only had a girl’s name picked out when you were pregnant with me.” (they didn’t know I was a boy or girl before my birth) She then said she had a few boys names she liked, but they were vetoed by my dad or other family members. They had already used their favorite boys name ([name_u]Shaun[/name_u]) on my brother six years before and they couldn’t find any other boys names that they could agree on. I asked my mom what names she liked at the time, so she listed a few like [name_m]Joel[/name_m], [name_m]Nathan[/name_m] (vetoed by my mom’s mom), and [name_m]Ethan[/name_m]. My dad, who was driving, made faces and comments about every single one of the names she said. The funny thing is, is I love all of the names she listed and would consider using any of them. I then decided to ask my parents what they thought of some of my favorites and, again, my dad made faces and said, “eww” at every single one. I’ve never really talked names with my dad before, so I was shocked that he was so opinionated about them. My mom said when she was pregnant with my brother and I that my dad was NO help with choosing a name. He vetoed a bunch, but he never told my mom what names he did like (and if he did, they were something ridiculous). My mom basically chose both of our names. My brother’s name was a compromise and they both have regrets about it today. They wish they had made my brother’s middle name his first name and given him the middle name [name_u]Jay[/name_u] to keep the tradition going (my dad and grandpa’s middle name is [name_u]Jay[/name_u].). Instead, they gave my brother my dad’s first name as his first name and gave him the middle name [name_u]Shaun[/name_u] (what he goes by and always has). Are you still following me? lol.
Whew! Sorry, I wrote ya’ll a novel. I see all the time on this forum, “Help! 2 weeks til baby is due and husband vetoed everything!” or similar posts. LOL.
Anyway, I just thought you might find that story funny. Anyone had any similar experiences with their parents? [name_m]How[/name_m] many of you out there have picky, unhelpful hubbies? haha
My mother HATES our boy favorite (at the moment,) [name_m]Rex[/name_m]. She’s from the generation that only thinks of it as a dog’s name. I’ve never even heard of this. Is there an old American show with a dog named [name_m]Rex[/name_m] on it or something? Where do they get this association?
The funniest part about this story for me is that my name is also [name_f]Erin[/name_f], and my dad’s middle name is also [name_u]Jay[/name_u]… and my parents gave my older brother (6 years older) the middle name of [name_u]Jay[/name_u] to follow family tradition. My older brother’s name is [name_m]Kaleb[/name_m] though, so that’s where the similarities end!
Anyway yeah it is funny to think of what our names would have been if we’d been the opposite gender or just other options our parents had thought of. I actually have one of my mom’s journals, where she’d written down all the options 30 years ago, such as [name_u]Whitney[/name_u], [name_f]Chelsey[/name_f], [name_f]Audra[/name_f], [name_u]Quinn[/name_u], [name_u]Casey[/name_u], [name_u]Shelby[/name_u], [name_u]Leigh[/name_u], and [name_u]Kelly[/name_u] for girls… and [name_u]Keagan[/name_u], [name_m]Scott[/name_m], [name_u]Curtis[/name_u], [name_m]Marcus[/name_m], and [name_m]Eli[/name_m] for boys. Fortunately my dad was much less crazy picky about names, and they were able to pretty easily settle on my name (and my two brothers’ names).
My younger brother, who has two kids now, was totally that “I don’t like any names” guy. My sister in law would suggest millions of names, and he hated nearly all of them, but also refused to give any suggestions of names that he did like! Fortunately they were able to settle on names for the kids by the time they were born though, with no regrets.
Interesting story! I have no idea what I would have been named if I were a boy. Apparently my dad wanted to name one of my brothers [name_m]Jeremy[/name_m] [name_m]Slade[/name_m] and the other one [name_m]Rocky[/name_m]. The names they went with are [name_u]Jesse[/name_u] [name_u]Ryan[/name_u] and [name_u]Vinny[/name_u] [name_m]Alan[/name_m].
Haha, well I guess one good thing you can take away from that is your dad apparently hates all names, so it kind of wouldn’t matter what you would choose for a future child (okay, that sounds like a bad thing lol).
My bio dad was pretty useless when it came to naming his kids (him and my mom have 4 together, but she has another daughter and stepkids). He wanted to name us all after cars. Like REALLY wanted to name us after cars. Mom said absolutely not. He then tried to suggest pretty much the number one name for each of our birth years, so it would be, in his opinion, easier…just other parents are choosing this, boom it’s our child’s name too. My mom ended up naming all of us, except my older brother. She wanted badly to name him [name_m]Anthony[/name_m] [name_m]Nicholas[/name_m]. Dad apparently went along with it, but when my mom had her back turned at the hospital, he changed it to name the baby after himself. I guess some men are butts when it comes to naming kids.
My fiance and I are hopefully at least a couple years from kids, but we’ve discussed names, and he can be annoying about names as well. He will suggest outrageous names because he thinks it’s funny. He will back down when I give him the silent treatment for awhile, and refuse to even crack a smile lol. Sometimes, he will suggest something out there and won’t be joking. Examples: [name_f]Hurricane[/name_f], [name_m]Peter[/name_m] [name_u]Parker[/name_u], [name_m]Walter[/name_m] [name_u]Payton[/name_u], and Wait-for-it.
cue silent treatment and poker face My children will thank their mother some day lol
My dad likes some really strange names…and isn’t fond of my favorites. He wants me to name my first son Anjin, which is pilot in Japanese, as he is a pilot. Not my cup of tea. If I were a boy, my mom wanted to name me [name_m]Damien[/name_m], which my dad detested. My mom wanted the name [name_f]Caroline[/name_f] for a girl. I am definitely NOT a [name_f]Caroline[/name_f]. My dad wanted to name me [name_f]Pacifica[/name_f] Balboa…because I was born on the [name_m]Pacific[/name_m] side of [name_f]Panama[/name_f], and Balboa found it. Thank God I’m not that!! I ended up being [name_f]Beryl[/name_f], which my mom apparently had no say in and never liked.
My boyfriend is difficult. So far we’ve only agreed to a handful of names, and only one girl name. Sigh
I know that when my mom was pregnant, she came up with some seriously awesome names: [name_f]Gwendolyn[/name_f], [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f], [name_u]Elliot[/name_u], [name_f]Beatrice[/name_f]…but my dad didn’t like any of them. Instead, we were all named something in the Top 10 for the year of our birth. Boring sauce.
I have discussed names with my mom on occasion, but I don’t really care to all that much. She’s one of those people where if it’s something that’s still far off and undetermined, she sees no use wasting time and energy thinking or “obsessing” over it, as she says. A couple of weeks ago, we were just talking and I told her my favorite girl name at the moment: [name_f]Vivienne[/name_f] [name_f]Margaret[/name_f] [name_u]Gray[/name_u]. She gave me a face and kind of laughed and said “[name_f]Margaret[/name_f] [name_u]Gray[/name_u]???” in this voice full of disbelief. I explained I liked the two middle names, but her face said she found it kind of silly. I explained that we were still trying to find a middle for [name_f]Cecelia[/name_f] and she said not to even worry about that now. I “don’t even have one baby, why worry about a second?” So you can see where it’s maybe not my favorite conversation to have and why I keep it to myself at least until I’m pregnant. It was the same way before I got engaged: If I brought up a future wedding she would kind of just roll her eyes and become disinterested with the conversation. She does like my top five, though: [name_f]Vivienne[/name_f], [name_f]Cecelia[/name_f], [name_f]Olive[/name_f], [name_f]Daphne[/name_f], and [name_f]Audrey[/name_f].
For my dad…Um, no. I just don’t see him being all that interested right now.
I don’t talk about names much, because when I did to my sister, well… Yeah, not anytime soon. And my mom is so close minded to names, like, any one I say it’s like “That name? For a child?!” Lol.
This show is not American, but it’s where I get my ‘[name_u]Rex[/name_u] the Dog’ association from. It’s an insanely common dog name where I live (Scandinavia).
OP: My father is opinionated on names, but there are very few that he actually likes. He actually loves to recite the story of how I received my name – my mother had selected three names for me (she always had a gut feeling that I would be a girl), and had given up on getting any feedback from my Dad (he shot down every single one). One day, he came home from a visit and announced that he had a name for me. He had visited an old friend who had a little girl, and when he heard her name he just “knew” that it would be my name, too. Interestingly enough, I share my mother’s first name as well as my father’s middle name… It was meant to be, lol! I was the only child whose name he contributed to, and to this day he’ll get dreamy-eyed and say “your name is the most beautiful name there’ll ever be”. I really hope I’ll have the same feelings about my children’s names’ (but doubt it, as I’m extremely indecisive).
Anyways, a bit long and maybe a tad off topic, but talking names with parents can be nice, too
My mum had full control in naming me, and funnily enough I am also an [name_f]Erin[/name_f] (well, [name_f]Eryn[/name_f], but whatever). My dad is so chilled to the point he will agree with everything and so my mum basically named me and my two sisters and did the spelling trend (we all have Ys in our name, a big Nameberry hate!) and my dad just sat back and allowed her. I do think that if he had a backbone (;)) we would all have different names.
Onto discussing names with my parents, I’ve only ever discussed with my mum and that was when my sister was pregnant with my nephew and names for him came into the conversation. When I told her (and my pregnant sister and an auntie) about my love for [name_f]Arabella[/name_f], I got a load of “eh? That’s a name?” and it just made me stop for a second. They were ages 20 to late 40s and had less knowledge on names than I, at 17 years old then, did.
It was kind of funny when my sister and her boyfriend had to name my nephew. My sister liked a lot of names ([name_u]Leighton[/name_u], [name_m]Oscar[/name_m] and [name_u]Noah[/name_u] come to mind) but her boyfriend only liked [name_u]Noah[/name_u] and would wind my sister up by suggesting names that were way out of style for the family. He said he wanted a “little [name_m]Ralphie[/name_m]” and then suggested… wait for it… Kushvinder… as in the character that [name_m]Keith[/name_m] [name_m]Lemon[/name_m] played on Celebrity Juice once, and a character from [name_m]Keith[/name_m] [name_m]Lemon[/name_m]: The Film itself. Frustrating to say the least for my sister, but they both went with [name_u]Noah[/name_u] in the end and he wears his name perfectly.
On the topic of me and my SO, we have been on and off for a year and we are young (I’m 18 and he’s 21) so babies are so far away right now, but he knows I want them in the future and he hasn’t run off yet so I think this is good! As it’s early days and we are both so young, names haven’t really been brought up, but the thought of children freaks him out a little (he seems to think me bringing it up means I want one now, um no…) so I haven’t given him a heart attack by discussing names.
My mom always says my Dad vetoed a lot of the names she liked, and that he ended up picking our names, but he says otherwise…
I’m a little worried about what my mom will think of my name choices… A relative recently named their baby [name_f]Freya[/name_f] and she HATES it. But is fine with a very creative spelling of [name_u]Bristol[/name_u] that is also in our family, which I think is terrible. I mentioned that I liked the name [name_u]Juniper[/name_u], which is one I thought she would freak out about, but she didn’t say anything too terrible. But then she started suggesting that I give all of my kids tree names (we know a family that did that) and listing off some other weird things, so I’m not sure if she was being serious or not. We’ll see what happens when I’m actually pregnant I guess.
My dad has asked me about names on a handful of occasions, as he knows it’s a big interest of mine, and he does like to talk about our (my siblings and I) interests from time to time.
He was very curious about the fact that his name, [name_m]Samuel[/name_m] is one of my top names, and asked why my brothers and sister thought about that. I told him that the four of us have divided up the family names, as to who uses what in terms of first names, and I had “won” the right to (hopefully one day) use [name_m]Samuel[/name_m] in the first name slot. My siblings are free to use it as a middle name though.
He was quite amused that the four of us had actually talked about all this, and come up with an agreement between us, ha ha!
My mom only likes very basic names: [name_f]Amy[/name_f] (as she gave it to me), [name_f]Anna[/name_f], [name_f]Margaret[/name_f], [name_f]Jane[/name_f], [name_f]Kaitlyn[/name_f], [name_f]Katherine[/name_f], [name_f]Jessica[/name_f], [name_f]Emma[/name_f], [name_f]Ella[/name_f], [name_f]Eve[/name_f], [name_f]Noelle[/name_f], nothing exciting. She thinks my love of [name_f]Mirabelle[/name_f], [name_f]Luna[/name_f], and [name_m]Xavier[/name_m] are too “out there”.
My brother claims to hate modern names or “invented” names. (As if ALL names weren’t invented at some point??? Whatever anyway…) Yet, he loves mega trendy names like [name_m]Gage[/name_m], [name_m]Archer[/name_m], [name_m]Weston[/name_m], [name_m]Wyatt[/name_m], [name_f]Isla[/name_f], [name_f]Sienna[/name_f], [name_f]Bella[/name_f], and [name_f]Ava[/name_f].
lol, that sounds like my dad! I definitely don’t know what they had really considered (or what my mom wanted to consider!) when they were expecting me, but the way my mom talks about it, my dad has really unoriginal (and yet very opinionated!) taste! I guess he only seemed to want to use a name if he could put a face to it, like if he knew someone with the name already (how opposite to so many Berries!). My brother ended up a [name_m]John[/name_m] [name_m]Robert[/name_m], III, after him, but I know my dad never liked my mom’s favorite boy’s name, [name_u]Charlie[/name_u]. They only really had one candidate for my sisters each time they came along–[name_f]Rebecca[/name_f] for the first, and [name_f]Melissa[/name_f] for the second. My mom really wanted [name_f]Natalie[/name_f], not [name_f]Melissa[/name_f], which she just thought was okay, but my dad wasn’t budging because he couldn’t imagine a [name_f]Natalie[/name_f], lol! It turns out a nurse named [name_f]Natalie[/name_f] helped with my baby sister’s delivery, and my dad thought she was a nice enough girl, so he was like, “Okay, now we can name her [name_f]Natalie[/name_f].” Halfway after all the paperwork was done and everything! bahaha. My dad’s really fickle. I just hope I don’t have a future husband who’s that picky. I hope we can find some common ground, haha, because if I have to settle with [name_f]Melissa[/name_f] I think we’ll be having some problems.
[name_u]Love[/name_u] this thread! My mom was single when she had me and she said there was no way she was having a boy as a single mother, and didn’t even come up with a boy’s name. She was literally painting the room pink before finding out my gender. Thankfully, she got what she wanted. Or else I would’ve been a very pretty boy
I’m not planning to tell my family names until the baby shower or perhaps even the birth. Here’s why: When I was seventeen, I bought my first puppy and I named it “[name_f]Mercy[/name_f]”. My entire family laughed at me. So I changed it to something else, and something else, and so on. Poor dogs name turned into “Puppy”. I’m sorry, but if I tell my family my name choice, the baby’s name will end up being “baby” lol
Loving all of these stories!! So interesting to hear how you all’s parents chose your names. Didn’t realize there were so many [name_f]Erin[/name_f]'s on this forum either. LOL! Keep the stories coming. I’m enjoying reading these.
I’m curious to know what names your dad did like… lol
My dad didn’t like the FN my mom chose. It’s a unisex name and my dad would make comments about it being a boys name…but I don’t think he put up any ideas either.
Also, my found out during her pregnancy she was having a boy - I’m a girl. So, she hadn’t planned on a girls name so she basically turned the boys name into a girls name.
It is a name that is used 50/50 between boys and girls so it isn’t so weird or strange to see a girl with my name. My dad was being a drama queen clearly.
Ugh, my husband HATES all names. He never gives any reason why, what his style is, etc…[name_m]Just[/name_m] that if I suggest a name it’s, “I hate it.” With our first girl, I had told him what I always wanted to name a girl and I started calling her that while I was pregnant. When we officially found out the sex, he said her name would be [name_u]Holland[/name_u] (like I wanted) since that’s what I had been calling her and it suited her now.
We actually finally did agree on a girls name for this baby, but if it’s a boy…sigh
So, my advice is, maybe if you start calling the baby the name you want, maybe your partner will fall for it? It worked with me once, anyway.
My last name is a soft drink (rhymes with joke), so my dad wanted to call my brother Classic and me [name_f]Cherry[/name_f]. LOL!! SO glad my mom put her foot down and said no. I’m pretty sure my dad liked the name [name_f]Yolanda[/name_f] at the time, too. So glad they didn’t go with that one either. (No offense to any [name_f]Yolanda[/name_f]'s on the forum.)
I avoid talking about names with my dad now. He likes names like: [name_m]Bruce[/name_m], [name_u]Bryce[/name_u], and [name_u]Ryan[/name_u] (although I like [name_u]Ryan[/name_u], I’ve met too many girls with the name). Ours styles are so different, and if he doesn’t like the name he won’t hesitate to use the “he’ll be beat up” response. Luckily, when it came to naming me he basically just liked what my mom picked.
(okay, that sounds like a bad thing lol).
I just hope I don’t have a future husband who’s that picky. I hope we can find some common ground, haha, because if I have to settle with [name_f]Melissa[/name_f] I think we’ll be having some problems. 
