Thoughts on these names?

I never really see these names being discussed anywhere and I was just curious what impressions people had of them. [name_f]Do[/name_f] you like them? Why or why not? What kind of vibes do they give you? I’m not considering them for myself, but just curious!

[name_f]Tamarind[/name_f] (way too out there? but kinda cool sounding)
[name_u]Stacy[/name_u] / [name_u]Stacey[/name_u] / et al.
[name_f]Macy[/name_f]
[name_u]Whitney[/name_u]
[name_f]Leanne[/name_f] / [name_f]Leann[/name_f] / et al.

[name_u]Dustin[/name_u]
[name_m]Lance[/name_m]
[name_u]Keaton[/name_u]
[name_u]Rene[/name_u]
[name_m]Heath[/name_m]

I was just thinking about [name_f]Tamarind[/name_f] the other day! I really like it.

Stacy/Macy/Whitney feel a bit 80s/90s dated to me.

[name_f]Leanne[/name_f] also strikes me as an older generational name, the youngest I know is 30 and she’s a real outlier in my experience!

I quite like [name_u]Dustin[/name_u] and [name_u]Rene[/name_u] but again, [name_m]Lance[/name_m] and [name_m]Heath[/name_m] feel a bit dated.

I wonder if some of these are less popular because they’re quite strongly connected to celebrities? [name_u]Whitney[/name_u] [name_u]Houston[/name_u], [name_u]Dustin[/name_u] Hoffman, [name_m]Heath[/name_m] [name_m]Ledger[/name_m], [name_u]Michael[/name_u] [name_u]Keaton[/name_u] or [name_m]Buster[/name_m] Keaton…

Taramind - I do kind of like it! Interesting sound - familiar but full of flair

[name_u]Stacy[/name_u] - not my favourite tbh - just feels a bit uninteresting (don’t know why because I like [name_f]Lacey[/name_f], [name_u]Casey[/name_u], [name_f]Macy[/name_f], [name_u]Jaycee[/name_u] :person_shrugging:)

[name_f]Macy[/name_f] - warm and unexpected where I am. I like it

[name_u]Whitney[/name_u] - snappy and sharp, kind of fun

[name_f]Leanne[/name_f] - don’t love it, prefer [name_f]Leanna[/name_f] (or Leandra) but I don’t hate it

[name_u]Dustin[/name_u] - reminds me of Dustbin…

[name_m]Lance[/name_m] - sharp and cool

[name_u]Keaton[/name_u] - love this - a bit of [name_u]Keats[/name_u], a bit of [name_u]Paxton[/name_u], surnamey and interesting

[name_u]Rene[/name_u] - I enjoy this for a boy; unexpected and a very cool meaning

[name_m]Heath[/name_m] - I like the rugged/nature-y feel of this. but I prefer [name_m]Heathcliff[/name_m], which I shouldn’t…

Tamarind - like’ish but could get past the “rind” part - it also sounds like it could be the name of an identity.
Stacy / Stacey / et al. - I like it, wish it were still a boys’ name
Macy - met a couple of Macey’s - comes across as a mean girl name to me
Whitney - this never came to Australian shores and is pretty firmly attached to the singer but I can see why it was a southern fave, it’s nice to say
Leanne / Leann / et al. - don’t like the way it sounds or how it moves the mouth when saying it

Dustin - I really like this name, “dusty” and fun!
Lance - a bit flat for me but in category with [name_m]Grant[/name_m] (ie muscle men names)
Keaton - a solid name, if can get past [name_u]Michael[/name_u] [name_u]Keaton[/name_u], it’s a [name_u]Declan[/name_u], [name_m]Ronan[/name_m], [name_m]Cian[/name_m], [name_u]Keegan[/name_u] sort of name.
Rene - don’t like including because it gets butchered so much - much prefer [name_u]Remy[/name_u]
Heath - again attached to someone in my mind (Heath Ledger) but has all the soft yet reliable sounds of other nature names (wouldn’t use it but would also be happy to meet one)

FWIW, here are my thoughts :slight_smile:

[name_f]Tamarind[/name_f] - a really rad sound honestly. Quite an unusual name but I think it’s pretty out there. I would love to see it take off, even a little bit or in fantasy combos.

[name_u]Stacy[/name_u], et al. - I used to love this name in all spellings (Stacey is probably my favorite) but honestly I think it sounds dated in a not-my-style way. I do love some 80s/90s names like [name_f]Christina[/name_f] and [name_f]Tiffany[/name_f] but [name_u]Stacy[/name_u] sounds more like… [name_f]Tonya[/name_f] or [name_f]Dawn[/name_f], just not super fresh and sparkly to the ears. I wish I liked it more, though. I did go to summer camp for many years with a boy named [name_u]Stacy[/name_u] and I remember he sometimes got “That’s a girl’s name!” and we’d counter with “It can be a boy’s name too!!”

[name_f]Macy[/name_f] - the only spelling of this name I really like; the others are pretty meh to me. It seems like a calm, friendly name that is familiar but not over saturated, but I’m not sure how much of that is just association with a girl named [name_f]Macy[/name_f] I went to school with.

[name_u]Whitney[/name_u] - tbh I find it blends in with older 90s sisters [name_f]Brittany[/name_f], [name_u]Ashley[/name_u], and [name_u]Courtney[/name_u]. However, it wasn’t as over saturated as those names so I wondered if others had the same opinion.

[name_f]Leanne[/name_f] et al. - I find this name super underrated. I have it on my list to honor a [name_u]Lynn[/name_u], along with spellings [name_f]Lianne[/name_f] and Lyanne (I feel like the latter is the most “honoring” spelling even if I like it maybe the least). I think it gives a calm, intelligent, but spunky vibe. Slightly southern too.

[name_u]Dustin[/name_u] - a pretty 90s name; I see it fitting in with [name_u]Austin[/name_u], [name_u]Cody[/name_u], [name_u]Tyler[/name_u], etc. [name_m]Just[/name_m] pretty standard [name_f]Americana[/name_f], down-home kind of names. I’m a 90s kid so these names sound familiar to me, so I like [name_u]Dustin[/name_u] but wouldn’t use it myself.

[name_m]Lance[/name_m] - went to elementary school with a [name_m]Lance[/name_m] and he was a very outgoing, athletic, bold person so those are my associations with the name. I was a bit surprised to find it peaked in the 70s when I looked at the name data. I just never hear this name talked about so wondered what people thought of it.

[name_u]Keaton[/name_u] - a very solid name. I can see it on all ages and quite distinct but not weird. I actually see this name as completely unisex and was surprised to see this was not considered unisex at all on a recent poll I did. I’ve met 2 girl Keatons (one of a different spelling) and never thought once that it was a “boy’s name”.

[name_u]Rene[/name_u] - I used to strongly dislike this name on boys because [name_f]Renee[/name_f] and [name_f]Renae[/name_f] were very ubiquitous on girls. [name_f]My[/name_f] aunt has dated a [name_u]Rene[/name_u] for a very long time so that is my only association. I think it sort of fits in with softer boy names that are in vogue right now, so I was wondering if others perceived it as too dated or feminine.

[name_m]Heath[/name_m] - besides the [name_m]Ledger[/name_m] association, I also went to elementary school with a [name_m]Heath[/name_m] (looking back, we had a very unusually named class for the 90s) so that’s my main association. I remember even as a kid I thought it was an odd name - it just doesn’t really sound like anything else. But I feel like [name_m]Heath[/name_m] [name_m]Ledger[/name_m] helped it become more mainstream and handsome.

[name_f]Tamarind[/name_f] makes me think of Pad Thai. So… yummy? :joy:

No strong opinions on the rest

[name_f]My[/name_f] favorites are [name_u]Stacy[/name_u] and [name_m]Heath[/name_m]