Hello Berries!
My name is [name_m]Stuart[/name_m], and I have a huge passion for names. This is my first post on the forums, and I look forward to meeting many name geeks from around the world! You can find me mainly in this forum and the [name_u]Baby[/name_u] Name Games forum.
I saw this topic in another names forum that doesn’t allow posts anymore, so I thought I’d share it here. What qualities do you look for in a good name? For example, some people prefer names of a certain time period or names that contain certain letters or sounds.
I thought I’d start out with my names “story.”
I take the timeless quality of a name and the time it’s associated with into consideration, as well as its spelling if there are multiple, but for me it’s mainly the sound that defines a good name.
As a kid I loved names with K sounds and had several friends with those names (e.g. [name_u]Kendall[/name_u], [name_f]Katelin[/name_f], [name_m]Kerrigan[/name_m]). I also had a really great friend named [name_u]Elliott[/name_u] and I loved his personality. When I first heard his name I thought that it was the coolest name ever! In fact, I was told that I was almost named [name_u]Elliott[/name_u].
A few years after that, in my teen years, I thought about what names sounded as great on a child as they do on a teen as they do on an adult, and [name_u]Carey[/name_u] was that name for me for a girl. I also was finding out, as a licensed amatuer radio (or ham radio) operator (where my username comes from), that most of these operators are males born in the 1950s and ’60s, and I didn’t like the sound of many of the nicknames that are constantly heard in conversations between these operators ([name_m]Bill[/name_m], [name_m]Jim[/name_m], [name_m]Mike[/name_m], etc.); they weren’t as interesting to me as the ‘90s names I was used to (I guess I like those names because that’s the decade I was born in).
After I was introduced to the [name_m]Fox[/name_m] program MasterChef [name_m]Junior[/name_m] in [name_u]March[/name_u] 2018, I noticed that many of the contestants had unusual names, at least to me (e.g. Afnan, [name_u]Dara[/name_u], [name_f]Jacelyn[/name_f], [name_u]Shayne[/name_u]). This show was also where I first discovered and fell in love with the names [name_u]Addison[/name_u] and [name_u]Avery[/name_u] (both girls). I began to love similar sounding names with short As and long As. My geek-ish passion for names was then born.
Two months later I had a Latin professor who had the coolest accent to me when he said the Latin word “terra” (meaning [name_f]Earth[/name_f]) and similar words. I then remembered a character on a show that my brother watched as a kid (Goosebumps) whose name was [name_f]Tara[/name_f] (at the time I imagined the spelling [name_f]Terra[/name_f]), and I immediately fell in love with that name and the “air” sound. Plus, [name_f]Tara[/name_f] looked a lot prettier to me than [name_f]Terra[/name_f]. I would always try to imitate my professor’s accent when I was talking to people on the ham radio whose names were, for example, [name_u]Terry[/name_u] or [name_m]Harry[/name_m]. I also own a small FM radio station that serves my college apartment complex and whenever I come across names like that when I read, for example, someone’s birthday, I try to say them with that accent.
I started creating lists of my favorite names in [name_u]July[/name_u] 2018 and I would revise them each month. I would also record and edit audio versions of them so that I could hear myself saying the names. Eventually, there were so many names on my list that I stopped creating audio versions in [name_f]September[/name_f] 2018 and tried to find an online group who shares my newly found interest. Once the first result in my search stopped working, I found this site (which is even better!). I’m so happy to find such a positive and encouraging group of people with which to share my passion!
I kept adding more names to my list in late 2018 and early 2019 that I stopped ranking them entirely (other than my top 20 names for both boys and girls) and alphabetized them. I’m always adding to my ever-growing list of faves (which now has over 1,650 names, where there are roughly two girl names for every boy name), and I’m also updating my top 20 names according to my tastes! I could post a list of my top 20 names over time if anyone is interested.
There are still some dated names that I like (e.g. [name_m]Albert[/name_m], [name_f]Carol[/name_f], [name_m]Clark[/name_m], [name_f]Mabel[/name_f]), and many names on my list may be popular (e.g. [name_m]Cayden[/name_m], [name_f]Hailee[/name_f], [name_m]Jacob[/name_m], [name_u]Peyton[/name_u]), but it’s pretty much all about the sound for me. I don’t like incredibly dated names that have a sound I don’t prefer (e.g. [name_f]Pam[/name_f], [name_f]Norma[/name_f], [name_m]Doug[/name_m], D**k).