What do you all think of these names?

General Name Discussion
1

For a girl we like the name:

[name]Zoe[/name] Elorah ([name]Zoe[/name] means Life and Elorah mean God is [name]Light[/name])

For a boy we are considering the names:

[name]Benaiah[/name] (a rare biblical name of one of [name]King[/name] [name]David[/name] best warriors, means Made by God)
or
[name]Josiah[/name]

The only thing I have against the boy names are the nicknames they might receive. I [name]LOVE[/name] the name [name]Benaiah[/name], its very unique. But I am afraid of people calling him “[name]Ben[/name]” and that’s just too common and I don’t like that. I like the name [name]Josiah[/name] too but I am afraid of people calling him [name]Joe[/name] and I definatly don’t like that. What do you guys think?

2

I love the sound of [name]Zoe[/name] Elorah, but I’m wondering… You mention that you don’t like the nicknames [name]Ben[/name] and [name]Joe[/name] because they’re very common, does the popularity of [name]Zoe[/name] not bother you? she’s very common as well, and only destined to become increasingly more used in the future… If you look at her graph, she’s zoomed up the list the last 15 years, and I don’t think she’s going to zoom down again any time soon… [name]Beatrice[/name]/[name]Beatrix[/name]/[name]Beatriz[/name] all mean voyager through life, and has the appealing [name]Bea[/name] nickname, [name]Chava[/name] is a Hebrew name meaning life along with [name]Eva[/name] and ALL her variants, Lieve ([name]LEE[/name]-veh) means “godly life”, [name]Liv[/name] means life, Maisha means life (she’s cute!), as does [name]Vica[/name] and [name]Vita[/name], Zeah ([name]Zea[/name]) means life giving, [name]Viva[/name], [name]Aisha[/name], [name]Chaya[/name], [name]Vianne[/name] (one of my favs) and any form of [name]Vivian[/name] all mean “Alive”… I’m not sure how you feel about [name]Zoe[/name]'s popularity, but I’ll just give you some options just in case… Since you mentioned it, it seems meaning is important to you ^^ And I’m sorry if I come off as advising you to not choose [name]Zoe[/name], I [name]LOVE[/name] [name]Zoe[/name], I just wanted to make sure you were aware of her popularity which seemed to be an issue with your boy names, that’s all…

As for your boys, I’ve never heard [name]Benaiah[/name] before, but my first thought was “it sounds a bit like “denial” in a way?”… I love the sound, but I get this irky feeling that it’s really something else only pronounced wrong, or with a heavy accent… I’m odd, I know, but I’ve never seen it before, so it was just my first thought… I might change my mind later, though ^^
I like [name]Josiah[/name], which is more common (top 100), and also very similar to a lot of well-used names like [name]Joshua[/name] and well, any J name really… I always group J names together, because it’s a really popular letter!! [name]James[/name], [name]John[/name], [name]Jacob[/name], [name]Joshua[/name], [name]Jack[/name], [name]Jason[/name], [name]Jonathan[/name], [name]Jordan[/name], [name]Jackson[/name], [name]Joseph[/name], [name]Justin[/name], [name]Jessica[/name] have all had their time of glory, and I just don’t see the attraction of the J!! My own J names are [name]Janos[/name] (YA-nush, not pronounced like a J) [name]Jericho[/name] and [name]Justus[/name], with [name]Justine[/name] and [name]Juno[/name] for girls, but have HEAPS of S, M, and L names!

I see you like the -iah ending! It’s a nice one, and my fav is [name]Tobiah[/name], who’s just way to underused because [name]Tobias[/name] gets all the glory, but I think [name]Tobiah[/name] is much better both sonically and in regards to how well a name ages… [name]Tobias[/name] is more cutesy to me…

Other -iah names you might like: (I’ll mark my favs with a )
[name]Abiah[/name]
[name]Obadiah[/name] (I actually considered [name]Bo[/name] as a nn, but I guess [name]Obi[/name]? or is that too [name]Star[/name] Wars?)
[name]Eliah[/name]
[name]Jedidiah[/name]
[name]Jeremiah[/name]*
[name]Zachariah[/name]* (nn [name]Zach[/name])
[name]Nehemiah[/name]
Zedekaiah
[name]Zephaniah[/name]* (nn Zeph)
[name]Yedaiah[/name]
[name]Uriah[/name]

And I realise I haven’t actually advised you on which of the names you posted to pick from, but being who I am (a collector of unusual names) I say go with [name]Benaiah[/name]… ^^

Best of luck, and I hope my (slightly lengthy) post can be of some help to you!

3

I second Dearest’s post, and think that she made a lot of great points! :slight_smile:

[name]Zoe[/name] Elorah: I think this is very pretty, but like Dearest said, [name]Zoe[/name] is pretty popular (#58) and similar to [name]Chloe[/name] (#10), so if popularity is an issue for you, this may be something to consider. I think that Elorah is just beautiful! :slight_smile:

Other names that mean life: [name]Vivian[/name]/[name]Vivienne[/name] and [name]Viva[/name].

[name]Benaiah[/name]: I think that the [name]Ben[/name] nickname is unavoidable, so this may not be the best option for you.

[name]Josiah[/name]: I personally prefer [name]Josiah[/name] to [name]Benaiah[/name], but that’s just me. (I do think the [name]Joe[/name] nickname make take root, but I think it’s less likely than [name]Ben[/name] with [name]Benaiah[/name].)

Some more you may like:

[name]Isaiah[/name]
[name]Jeremiah[/name]
[name]Micah[/name]
[name]Zachariah[/name]
[name]Zebediah[/name]

[name]Abel[/name]
[name]Abraham[/name]
[name]Eleazar[/name]
[name]Elijah[/name]
[name]Ezekiel[/name]
[name]Gideon[/name]
[name]Isaac[/name]
[name]Jonah[/name]
[name]Phineas[/name]
[name]Raphael[/name]
[name]Simon[/name]
[name]Solomon[/name]
[name]Tobias[/name]

Good luck! :slight_smile:

4

Pinkangellips,
[name]Just[/name] a question for you. Is Elorah of Hebrew origin? I couldn’t find it in any of my baby-naming books and I have lots. LOL It is beautiful. I love [name]Benaiah[/name] and [name]Josiah[/name]. If my third child had been a boy, it would have been [name]Josiah[/name] for him. I don’t think people would necessarily shorten them to [name]Ben[/name] or [name]Joe[/name] if you insisted on using the full name all the time. Or, you could nn him [name]Naiah[/name] or Siah and insist people use it as nn.

5

Elorah is a variation of [name]Eliora[/name] which means “the [name]Lord[/name] is my light”, and it is a Hebrew name ^^

6

I chose [name]Zoe[/name] because I don’t know anyone close in my friends or family named [name]Zoe[/name] and, well, it wasn’t my first pick honestly, it kinda grew on me. I love unique name but not names that sou too far out there. My husband is in [name]LOVE[/name] with the name [name]Zoe[/name]. His name is [name]Zac[/name] so he thought it would be cute to have a [name]Zoe[/name] in the family.

I liked the girl name
[name]Arwen[/name] or Eorowen
for a girl which was growing on him but the more I think of it and ask people about it people think it sounds too “[name]Lord[/name] of the Rings” ish. Or they say it sounds like a boy name. I hate that that name has been tagged with the [name]Lord[/name] of the Rings card because its a beautiful name, at least I think so.
There are other names that I liked that my husband just cant get into at all, like [name]Genevieve[/name]
[name]Gwendolyn[/name]
[name]Evangeline[/name]
[name]Francesca[/name]

The name Elorah is actually supposed to be spelled “[name]Elora[/name]” I just changed the spelling and wanted to use it as a middle name because a good friend of mine used it as her daughter’s name who is now 1 and I didn’t want to steal it from her even though I fell in [name]LOVE[/name] with the name!

I do like the name [name]Tobias[/name] and [name]Elias[/name] for a boy, except although my husband does not. He thinks that [name]Tobias[/name] will be [name]Toby[/name] with sound like a pet name? I also like [name]Jude[/name], or [name]Judah[/name].

7

I really like the name [name]Zoe[/name]. It was actually at the top of our short list for a good while. My husband knew some one who named their daughtrer this and tI think that is why he no longer likes it. We haven’t had contact with this person in years : /
Elorah/[name]Elora[/name] I think is beautiful!

I like [name]Josiah[/name] better then [name]Benaiah[/name]. We knew a little boy named [name]Josiah[/name] and he was never called anything but [name]Josiah[/name]. If you wanted to use [name]Joe[/name] as nn. this could be a way to get but I don’t think you’re bound to the nn if you don’t want it. Of course when he’s a teenager [name]Joe[/name] maybe unavoidable by friends or even himself.

I love the suggestions you’ve been given.
Other names that remind of [name]Josiah[/name] and [name]Benaiah[/name] are-

[name]Urijah[/name] and [name]Michaiah[/name]/[name]Micaiah[/name] could nn [name]Micah[/name].