What do you think of “Braelyn”?

What do you think of this name?

It’s not my style. I’m not a fan of the “bray” sound. It sounds like a noise a horse would make. I much prefer [name_f]Brynn[/name_f], [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u], or Baylen.

I agree that I don’t love the ‘bray’ sound, reminds me of a donkey. However in general I think names in this style are cute- I prefer [name_f]Raelyn[/name_f], [name_f]Caelyn[/name_f], or [name_f]Daelyn[/name_f].

It’s not my taste, and to me is a little on the trendy side… which is not bad, necessarily! But it just doesn’t have the refinement that I particularly enjoy in names. I think the closest thing to your name that I would like is [name_f]Brie[/name_f]. I don’t really like -lyn names. Sorry!

It’s a super trendy made-up name that will be instantly dated. Everyone will always know exactly how old your daughter is (think “[name_f]Shirley[/name_f]”).

It’s extremely trendy-sounding, which isn’t my preference. I agree with above user; in twenty or so years, it will be one of “those” names. I dislike the “bray” sound as it reminds me of a donkey. I think similar names with the same feel would be [name_f]Brynn[/name_f] (love this name, it sound young but also refined) or [name_u]Bailey[/name_u].

Not a fan of most recent -lyn names. [name_f]Adalyn[/name_f], [name_f]Braelyn[/name_f], Westlyn, etc. feel very “trendy” and have that “made up” sort of vibe to me.

I actually like the “[name_u]Bray[/name_u]” sound. I’m not a huge fan of [name_f]Braelyn[/name_f], though. I agree with other posters, it sounds like one of those “trendy” names.
I love the suggestion of [name_f]Brynn[/name_f]! Short, sweet, and spunky.

It is mega American. I don’t really have an opinion on it, just super duper trendy American.

I agree with most of the previous posters- it sounds made up and trendy, and will become quickly dated. I also think it sounds a bit harsh. Have you considered:

[name_f]Brielle[/name_f]
[name_u]Briley[/name_u]
[name_u]Brinley[/name_u]
[name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u]

[name_f]Hope[/name_f] this helps! :slight_smile:

It’s fine. Yes, it will be dated and it is trendy, but i’m not positive why people think that’s a bad thing exactly. Names come and go, [name_f]Braelyn[/name_f] is cute and fit’s in with her peers.

It is very on-trend as indicated by the similar suggestions of [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u], [name_f]Briana[/name_f], and [name_u]Bailey[/name_u]. I like the ae spelling and the pronunciation is intuitive. Unlike other trendy names, a [name_f]Braelyn[/name_f] is unlikely to know someone else with her exact name, so it would be like the [name_f]Miranda[/name_f] among a sea of Amandas.

It’s not to my taste. My first thought was that it sounds very southern country because I used to live in the south and work in the “sticks” and one of my co-workers had two children whose names would sound like [name_f]Braelyn[/name_f] if you combined them together. But keeping the new name data in mind, -lyn does seem to perhaps be a broader upcoming trend. I’m not sure if it will really become all that dated…it is too early to tell, but I don’t really think dated-ness is all that big of a problem anyway.

Edit: And Braelyn is certainly not Shirley. But what’s wrong with Shirley? Shirley was probably born between 1922 and 1960. So what? Is it a problem if we can safely assume that? There were 42,000 Shirleys born in 1935. That does not happen anymore; the #1 names only get around 21,000 names per year. Shirley was spiked by a pop culture phenomenon. In 1934 there were 23,000 Shirleys and in 1936 35,000. Even if you combine all the -lyn names, there will not suddenly be a big jump to 42,000 of them in one year, and the popularity curve will not come close to the spikiness of Shirley (that only happens with pop culture phenomenons)

I’d say [name_f]Braelyn[/name_f] is less like [name_f]Shirley[/name_f] and more like [name_f]Sharlene[/name_f]. It’s not gonna hit the top 10, but it will still be dated because it shares a lot of its sounds with other names that are trendy right now. In the 40s, the “ar” and “lene” sounds were popular, so whether it’s [name_f]Sharlene[/name_f], [name_f]Marlene[/name_f], or [name_f]Darlene[/name_f], I can estimate she was born in the 40s. Today the same is true of the “ay” and “lyn” sounds, so it’s a fair guess that [name_f]Braelyn[/name_f] (and its cousins [name_f]Raelyn[/name_f], [name_f]Jaelyn[/name_f], and [name_f]Kaelyn[/name_f]) will be an obvious 2010s baby for decades to come.

Also, while orchid_lover is right that -lyn names will not spike as drastically as [name_f]Shirley[/name_f] did in the 30s, they are already quite common. If you combine all the -lyn/-lynn names (only the ones in the top 1000 for 2017), the total is actually 53,463. For comparison, if I add up all the -lene/-leen/-line names (using the long E pronunciation) for 1945, the total is 35,871. For their respective years, -lyn and -lene names both make up about 1.3% of the total female births. I’m sure if you did this for “ar” and “ay” sounds, you would see a similar pattern.

However, this should only be a concern for you if you would hate to have a dated name like [name_f]Sharlene[/name_f]. Trendiness isn’t inherently a bad thing.

[name_f]Braelyn[/name_f] is one of those names that I have a soft spot for. It was my favorite name when I was younger. I love the long ay sound in the middle. Like others have said, it is very on trend right now and fits in with [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u], [name_f]Emmalyn[/name_f], Oaklyn, [name_f]Adelyn[/name_f] and the other -lyn names.

The fact that it’s trendy doesn’t bother me in and of itself; a lot of lovely names are or were once trendy, and many are names with a lot of substance and history behind them, that just happen to be popular at the moment. It’s more the fact that [name_f]Braelyn[/name_f] is essentially a made-up combination of trendy sounds with no real history behind it, and names often give off an impression of being lower class and trashy, or of trying to be different and creative but doing it rather tastelessly. I’m not saying you are lower class or trashy or tasteless, or that your daughter will be if you name her [name_f]Braelyn[/name_f], but unfortunately that’s the connotation it would give off to many people. I’m sure you wouldn’t want people to think that of you or your daughter, so I would avoid a name like [name_f]Braelyn[/name_f].

Others have given great suggestions like [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u] and [name_f]Brielle[/name_f]. What about [name_f]Caitlin[/name_f]? Or just [name_u]Rae[/name_u]?

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