I’d love to know what you guys look for in favourite names/combos, including your sig.
[name_f]Do[/name_f] you look for something traditional or unusual? Goes with last name or other children? Or do you just go with what sounds nice?
I try to look for longer names with possible nicknames that aren’t too common. I also seem to have a slight vintage theme at the moment. What about you?
My standards for a name:
I prefer traditional names, but am not opposed to something a bit unusual (for instance, I love [name_f]Ada[/name_f]…traditional and old-fashioned, but I also like the name [name_m]Cove[/name_m] for a boy…a tad unusual).
Has to go well with our surname. Nothing too rhymey or repetitious.
Nothing unisex, which is a shame, because I do like the name [name_u]Quinn[/name_u].
Popularity doesn’t matter too much to me, but I do pay attention to local trends and would prefer not to choose something super common here.
Name must have some sort of meaning, whether it is that we just liked the name or whether it represents something important to us.
Preferably no names that honor living relatives. Our families are rather ridiculous and would squabble about being left out.
Names must be ones that both DH and I like. With our current list, we tried to keep it fairly even. We both happen to like most of the names, but some (like [name_m]Benedict[/name_m]) only I am crazy about, so it does take some discussion to find combos that we both can deal with.
It can’t be offensive to cultures, as much as possible. Obviously, I don’t know what is considered offensive to each individual culture, but we still try to avoid names that are obviously tied with something negative (so, no using my great-uncle [name_m]Adolf[/name_m]'s name).
Nothing really kr8tive. So nothing like [name_m]Zayden[/name_m] or Emberlynn (which we don’t like anyway)
all I can think of right now lol
I want to say I look for meaning/significance, and I totally used to, but I don’t anymore. haha I’ll usually check and make sure it doesn’t have a “bad” meaning, though.
The first thing I look for is whether or not the name appeals to me the very first time I read/hear it. Sometimes, names will grow on me, but often I will like a name instantly. If it does appeal to me right away, I say it with my last name to see if it flows. If it does, I’ll move to a middle name. I look at rhythm and sound mostly with middle names ie syllable count, repeated sounds (good or bad), clashing sounds, etc. If I find a first name and a middle name that both work with my last name, I run it by DH. If he likes it, it goes on the list. =]
As far as style goes, I don’t start out looking for a particular style, however I like both classic names ie [name_m]Oliver[/name_m] or [name_f]Clara[/name_f] and slightly more unusual names (often from the UK for whatever reason) ie [name_f]Greer[/name_f], [name_f]Ireland[/name_f], and [name_m]Anders[/name_m]. The only other thing with style I consider is whether or not a names in a sibset have the same style.
I also have to make sure no one in DH’s family has the name. His family has a ([name_f]IMO[/name_f]) bad habit of naming people after other people so that 3+ people all have the same name and it gets so confusing!
I look for something people can pronounce, people can remember, and people can spell. If those three things don’t fit the bill then I won’t use a name.
I’m with you! I like longer vintage names with nickname potential. Usually they’re sweet, soft or friendly sounding. I tend to like boy names that are popular in the UK. And I love flower and gem names for girls.
I seem to have a lot of things.
I look for names that
my favourite styles are
At the minute I’m loving short, 2-3 syllable modern unusual names for the first name, and then more traditional/old-fashioned names for the middle.
I’m not bothered about picking out nicknames, as I feel that’s something that will happen naturally as the name is used, and not really something I can assign before conception. I also am not a fan of giving one name, but using another.
I guess I’m not into overly masculine names either!
I don’t currently have a partner who could oppose any of my name choices so with that said, names I enjoy:
Phew. I’ve never written down my “rules” before so I didn’t realize I had this many, ha! Any name I “loved” but ultimately crossed off was because they broke one of these. 
Obviously there will be names that break the rules and I still can’t say no to. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it!
The biggest thing that I look for in names (especially boys’ names) is a unique or individual ending or last syllable. I also like named that have a strong U vowel or soft I vowel sound in them.
I also like names that my SO likes too, so that I could potentially use them. Lastly, I avoid any names that, beautiful as they may be, don’t fit the ethnic background of me and my husband. [name_m]Even[/name_m] though my husband actually is a quarter Italian, he got the recessive side so our baby will definitely be a blondie. I wouldn’t want to use a name that would seem surprising with my child’s appearance, like if we named the baby [name_m]Eduardo[/name_m] or [name_m]Muhammed[/name_m], and everyone who met him was a little surprised when they first were introduced because his appearance didn’t match who they were expecting. Not that it’s bad, but it would be a little awkward to me to borrow a name from a different group’s culture.
I look for something traditional, a familiar name that is easy to say that isn’t common where I live. I also something that is also biblical.
Good question! I think for me, it’s a combination of things that draw me to a name. I really like to be able to create an image from names, and they often have a certain feel or personality to them that makes me love them. But that usually comes from sound, look, and what or who I might associate a name with. It’s probably why characters and people have such a huge impact on how much I like a name. A good meaning can be a huge added bonus too, my own name has a cool combined meaning, so I’m a bit more aware of it.
In terms of style I’m all over the place, but unusual, out there, and rare are definitely my preferred choice. Although I do have more popular names on my list I love, I don’t think I’d be entirely comfortable actually using them. I love names that stand out, but in a good way. I like people’s reactions to be ‘Wow! That’s such a cool/interesting/different name, but I wouldn’t be brave enough to use it’. I tend to sway towards names with history and substance, I love quite a few from mythology, particularly Greek mythology, there are loads of vintage names I adore, some international names, mostly for boys, and word names from floral to virtue. Plus loads of names I class as ‘whimsical/fantasy’, basically any name that might be found in a fantasy book, game, show or film; myths and legends, sci fi, supernatural etc. So yeah, kind of everywhere haha.
I do have some rules about having names in a sibset with the same number of letters, and different starting and ending sounds for siblings, but I’m trying to be more flexible. I’m a huge advocate for using names you love for siblings, regardless of if they go together stylistically. I don’t tend to let nicknames influence my name choices too much. I prefer to just use the name I like, even if it’s a nickname name, and quite a lot of those are pretty popular where I live anyway. A lot of the full names I like happen to have nicknames I love that I’d maybe sometimes use, and I do enjoy thinking up nicknames I’d like for names I like, just for fun :).
I probably have more.
Ooh, I’m not really certain, you know, because it’s generally nothing but a gut feeling that makes me like or dislike a name. I’m not sure how I would describe my style, but I have noticed some trends (for lack of a better word) in my list.
I mostly just go for names that sound appealing to me, but since I can be fickle with the names I like the ones that stick with me for a long time are important. For example, when I was around 5 or 6 there was an older girl on my school bus named [name_f]Amaryllis[/name_f] and I always thought it was such a cool name and now I’d be more likely to use it since it’s stuck with me for so many years.
Popularity isn’t a huge factor, but I do tend to move away from names that have had huge spikes in usage in the last decade or two, like [name_f]Olivia[/name_f] and [name_u]Noah[/name_u]. Names that have had more steady usage over the years are more appealing to me.
For boys, I prefer soft, gentle names. I also like a lot of unisex names for boys but not for girls.
And I try to find names that have pretty straight-forward pronunciations. My name is short and not completely uncommon (it ranked in the Top 100 for three decades), but there are two possible ways it could be pronounced and because of that I had constant pronunciation issues in school. [name_m]Even[/name_m] when I corrected people they’d say it right once and then go back to the way they said it before and it was very frustrating for me as a kid, so I’d want to try to avoid that for my own kids.
Classic/vintage names that are typically Biblical but also with a literary/mythological influence.
I like romantic combinations that are well balanced and love atypical nicknames.
I like classic names that are longer with cute nickname possibilities for girls. I’m not into frilly names for the most part.
For boys, I also like classic names, but I like both short and long names.
I think that’s because we already have a daughter with a longer, nickname-able name and I feel like a future sister’s name would need to match, but I feel like there’s more leeway for a brother’s name.
For both genders, I favor family names in the middle.
I don’t really look for anything in boys names, since I like so few and the ones I do like are pretty much tried and true favourites that I’ve liked my entire life (or for the most part anyway). For girls however, since I tend to get carried away and add the entire E&W top 1000 to my list, I generally try to look for these things in names:
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Names spark my interest by their sound initially, then I look for meaning. Color, word, and nature names that would make a neat sibset with our son get extra consideration. I try to avoid cultural appropriation, so some very nice names are guilty pleasures only ([name_f]Marisol[/name_f], [name_f]Anjali[/name_f], [name_f]Khadija[/name_f]). I prefer names that are used for ~500 or fewer babies per year on the SSA list and that I don’t think will become really popular within the next several decades. Of course my husband has to really like a name for us to actually use it as well. He is big on nicknames, so that is something I think about a lot now too: does the name have nickname possibilities we like? Or can it stand on its own with no nickname and not get stale? For middles, we will probably use family names so at this point I don’t give them much thought.