I am a long time stalker of this site.
And I always wonder- most of you have beautifully named children- but what sort of wild card names made their way onto your lists in the naming process?
There are those ‘almost used’ names which lurk in my list.
Subconsciously, I know I will never really use them (too bold, too popular, too girlie, too mature) or else there are those names which made the Top 2 but are now so associated with a past pregnancy that I have never been able to think of using them since.
Have you got any of these?
My eldest daughter is Sicely but was actually named the much more daring [name]Sheba[/name] for 2 weeks before I did a 360 and decided she was a Sicely. [name]Ever[/name] since I have had this weird idea that if she’d been [name]Sheba[/name] she would have become a whole different daughter! Haha
Anyway. Do you have a name which was ALMOST your child’s?
And how do you feel about it now? Could you use it? Or is it tied forever to the past?
We didn’t find out what we were having for our first two pregnancies, so we chose a girl’s name and a boy’s name. So far, we have only had girls and, possibly because we find boys names much harder to choose, the same two boys’ names have topped our lists with each pregnancy:
So, these have been almost used with each pregnancy. We are on our third and know it’s a girl this time, so these names won’t be used for a third time!
As for girls names, our first daughter’s name ([name]Adelaide[/name]) was chosen even before we conceived and we never waffled on that one. She was the easiest child to name.
Our second daughter was almost named:
[name]Kaija[/name]/[name]Kaiya[/name]
OR
[name]Danae[/name]
At the very last minute (the night before I gave birth), we added AILA to our list, and even after she was born we somewhat hesitantly chose that name. We even fumbled a bit the first few times we called her by name, saying “[name]Aya[/name]” (because of [name]Kaija[/name] that had been on our mind for much of the pregnancy) instead of “Aila”.
[name]Emmeline[/name] was also on our list for DD#2, but we decided against it because it felt “too feminine/girly” to me at the time (even though Iove the nn [name]Emmy[/name]). A neice of ours has since been named Emmilina (nn [name]Emmy[/name]), so this one is definitely officially off our list this time around (though since it’s off limits now, I almost wish we had used it last time, the ‘forbiddenness’ of it makes it somewhat more attractive now, though I don’t regret choosing the name we did, we love it now and seems to suit DD#2).
My son, [name]Owen[/name] [name]McCabe[/name], was going to be named [name]Beau[/name] [name]Harrison[/name] until about 5 weeks or so before his due date. We had also considered [name]Finn[/name], and I loved [name]Beckett[/name] for a while, but ultimately went with a last minute “safe” choice. I had loved the name [name]Owen[/name] since I was a little girl, but initially felt some pressure to find a more “unique” name. However, no name regrets here. The name fits him perfectly; he’s a lovely, happy, blonde and blue eyed Irish boy.
Anyway, I wouldn’t use [name]Beau[/name] now, of course, because [name]Owen[/name] and [name]Beau[/name] don’t work in my mind as a sibset. Ditto with [name]Owen[/name] and [name]Finn[/name]. [name]Beckett[/name], perhaps, but I’ve moved on to [name]Henry[/name], [name]Oliver[/name], and my current name crush, [name]Spencer[/name] (with I think sounds adorable with [name]Owen[/name].)
We knew [name]Owen[/name] was going to be a boy, but we did have a “back up” girl’s name: [name]Finley[/name] [name]Rose[/name]. I’m mostly over that one, now, too. We’re going to start TTC in the fall, and I think we’re going to be in trouble if we have a girl because we can’t agree on any girl’s names at all!
When I was pregnant with my second daughter, we were set to name her [name]Kalynn[/name] is she was a boy, and if the baby was a boy we were going to name him [name]Cash[/name]. We found out that the baby was going to be a girl. The night before I went to the hospital to have her, my husband and I decided that [name]Kalynn[/name] was too close to my husband’s cousin [name]Kaitlin[/name]. So, we took our boy name and changed the ‘C’ to a ‘K’ and then added ‘[name]Lynn[/name]’ since that’s my grandmother’s name. That’s how [name]Kalynn[/name] became Kashlynn.
Almost all of my ‘almost’ names are still on the list for another baby. [name]Oscar[/name] was almost [name]Simon[/name], which is still high in the list for a boy, along with [name]August[/name], [name]Elliot[/name], [name]Frederick[/name], [name]Theodore[/name] and some others.
For girls, [name]Oscar[/name] could have been [name]Cordelia[/name], [name]Allegra[/name], [name]Penelope[/name], [name]Iris[/name], [name]Rosemary[/name], or [name]Susanna[/name]. [name]Cordelia[/name], [name]Allegra[/name] and [name]Iris[/name] are still favorites now, along with [name]Matilda[/name], [name]Zinnia[/name], [name]Ramona[/name], and [name]Josephine[/name].
I also have some wild card names, like [name]Juniper[/name] and [name]Hugo[/name], which I adore, but ultimately decided to keep them as GPs because [name]Juniper[/name] Fu and [name]Hugo[/name] Fu are just no good.
My daughter was born long enough ago that we didn’t know which sex she was, although we both strongly suspected she was a girl. I had chosen [name]Caitlin[/name] [name]Louisa[/name] after my great-grandmothers, but the boy’s name we chose was [name]George[/name] [name]Thomas[/name].
I knew my son was a boy (born later, different country) and up until [name]June[/name] (he was due in [name]August[/name]) he was supposed to be [name]Thomas[/name] [name]Benjamin[/name]. I knew he was coming early (don’t ask me why, I just did) and we joked we would name him [name]George[/name] [name]Thomas[/name] [name]Benjamin[/name] if he’d been born on [name]July[/name] 4th. He was born on [name]July[/name] 9th, and he was definitely [name]Thomas[/name]. We’d lost the [name]Benjamin[/name] and I wanted [name]Gideon[/name], but my husband said no. So we drew up a list of every Hebrew name I could think of and we settled on [name]Caleb[/name]. So I have [name]Caitlin[/name] [name]Louisa[/name] and [name]Thomas[/name] [name]Caleb[/name].
I lost a daughter in between, and she would have been [name]Rachel[/name] [name]Helen[/name] if she’d lived.
I almost used [name]Jemima[/name] for my second daughter, and as I knew I could never have a [name]Jemima[/name] AND a [name]Beatrix[/name] it was a tough race. I still mourn the fact that I can never use the name and am always trying to foist it onto other people to use. No regrets however.
With my previous partner boys names were easier as we both loved [name]Lawrence[/name], [name]Rowan[/name] and [name]Barnaby[/name].
My partner of today hates all of them so they have been very much added to my ‘ghost names’ list.
Also, [name]Cordelia[/name] was nearly Wilhemina! Think I am a bit over that one though…
[name]Daphne[/name] was nearly [name]Harriet[/name], and [name]Edgar[/name] would have been [name]Antonia[/name] if a girl. Well, and we nearly named [name]Horatio[/name] [name]Horace[/name].
[name]Jemima[/name] Puddleduck and [name]Beatrix[/name] [name]Potter[/name]! Maybe its just in [name]Britain[/name] that they’re really well known…? Thought it would have been too twee for words!
[name]Ah[/name], I see. [name]Beatrix[/name] [name]Potter[/name] is well known in the States but her most popular character over here is definitely [name]Peter[/name] Rabbit.
We didn’t know if our first was boy or girl. We were trying to figure out a boys name in the hospital, but couldn’t agree on anything. I liked [name]Asher[/name] and [name]Talon[/name] though, mn of [name]Michael[/name] was already chose (family name). We pretty much had a girls name picked out, that we ended up using. I also had two other girl names chose as well, but hubby wouldn’t go for either. They were [name]Carys[/name] [name]Tatum[/name] and [name]Eden[/name] [name]Olivia[/name]. We thought about using [name]Raven[/name] after she was born with black hair. I was afraid [name]Raven[/name] would be a wild child though and the name we chose was much sweeter and fits her perfectly now.
We were in the hospital for a week after she was born, and every nurse and doctor asked if we had a name chose yet, but we didn’t commit until the last minute.
We are expecting girl #2 now, but I’ve moved on from those names.
We almost named our daughter [name]Georgina[/name] and now I’m glad we didn’t because her best baby friend is named [name]Georges[/name] (he’s half French). She toddles around the house saying “[name]Georges[/name] [name]Georges[/name] [name]Georges[/name]” and it’s quite funny!