English word names. Especially the ones that are very unusual. It’s just that my child will speak different language and won’t grow in English speaking countries so it doesn’t have any sense to use them. Only exception is [name_f]Melody[/name_f], because I really like it and it’s well known word, and I’m choosing this word as a potential name just because it sounds so melodic! But for now, it’s strictly in ‘maybe’ territory.
Boys: [name_m]Amadeus[/name_m] - my Mum loves [name_m]Mozart[/name_m], so I would use this name to honour her, but worry about teasing. [name_m]Bartholomew[/name_m] - The Simpsons reference bothers me, and, even though I would use Tolly, I feel the nickname [name_m]Bart[/name_m] is inevitable. [name_m]Forrest[/name_m] - [name_u]Love[/name_u] this name, feels so outdoorsy, but it’s the name of the local football team (I hate football!). [name_m]Galileo[/name_m] - Appeals to my geeky side, but I think it would be too much on a little kid, though the nickname [name_m]Leo[/name_m] makes it seem more usable. [name_m]Neville[/name_m] nn Noddy - When I found out Noddy Holder’s full name was [name_m]Neville[/name_m], I fell in love with it, because I’ve been trying to find a full name for nn Noddy for ages (it has childhood significance to me). But, after floating it on here, the consensus seems to be that it would be cruel to saddle a kid with that nickname [name_m]Peregrine[/name_m] - I know one brave [name_u]Berry[/name_u] has used this name, but I don’t share their courage. [name_m]Sherlock[/name_m] - I love crime fiction, and the nickname [name_m]Locke[/name_m] is adorable, but I feel it’s too associated with [name_m]Holmes[/name_m] to be usable. [name_m]Thackeray[/name_m] - This name also has childhood significance to me, but the Thack sound may cause teasing potential e.g. “Thack needs a smack!”. [name_m]Toulouse[/name_m] - I think I would need to marry a Frenchman to make this one work! Wulfric - I love wolves, but wonder whether people would get an “evil” vibe from this name.
Girls: [name_f]Eugenia[/name_f] - [name_u]Love[/name_u] the nickname [name_f]Genie[/name_f], but worry it’s too “old-fashioned”. [name_f]Ophelia[/name_f] - It’s a beautiful name, but the history behind it puts me off. [name_f]Pandora[/name_f] - See above. But, I adore the nn Panda. [name_f]Poet[/name_f] - [name_m]Just[/name_m] cannot see it on a child, but would make a spunky middle name. [name_f]Sunday[/name_f] - The child would constantly be asked “were you born on a [name_f]Sunday[/name_f]?” [name_f]Thisbe[/name_f] - The history of it, and the fact that it sounds like Frisbee. [name_f]Wilhelmina[/name_f] - [name_u]Love[/name_u] the nn possibilities with this name, but the full name feels too heavy.
These are all on my GP list, though I may use some as middle names!
I’m not sure about bravery… for most of the names I like but wouldn’t use I feel like I have a good logical reason for it (wouldn’t work in [name_f]England[/name_f], wouldn’t work in Iceland, doesn’t work with last name, negative cultural associations, already used by someone else in the family, that sort of thing). So for me it wouldn’t be brave to use them, rather going against my common sense.
The only thing really I wish didn’t bother me is popularity, because my common sense tells me I’m being stupid about it. I wish I were brave enough to really not take high popularity into so much account, not to worry about other people thinking I made a boring or unimaginative decision, not to worry about meeting a few other children with the same name as my child. After all even the most popular names these days are not popular enough to cause any problems for the children who have them, fitting in is a positive for most children and anyway there are lots of ways to stand out besides your name, objectively I know my children are probably going to be basically normal children and not special snowflakes different from all the others. So I talk myself out of it, but still I come back to feeling weird about the top 15 or so. I wish I was brave enough to feel better about:
[name_m]Viktor[/name_m]
[name_m]Alexander[/name_m] (I love this name so much, but I genuinely don’t think I would dare. Which is so stupid!)
[name_m]Mikael[/name_m]
Freyja (I really go back and forth on this one, since it is very popular in the UK and Iceland)
I feel like I have a pretty “bold” style anyway, because I can use Greek mythology names since I’m Greek and I’ve grown up with them and my family loves them. But I do have some that I’m not bold enough to use:
[name_f]Thisbe[/name_f]- I love the story (although it is quite tragic) and the sound. But I’ve gotten bad reactions from friends.
Esmé- It doesn’t translate into Greek, so my family may have trouble pronouncing it.
[name_f]Cassiopeia[/name_f]- It is just too frilly and long for real use. So beautiful though
[name_f]Raphaela[/name_f]- see [name_f]Cassiopeia[/name_f]. I can’t picture it on a real person.
[name_f]Raziela[/name_f]- see [name_f]Cassiopeia[/name_f]/[name_f]Raphaela[/name_f].
Briseis- Pronunciation issues. [name_f]My[/name_f] name is really hard to pronounce, so I try to avoid names that are too hard to pronounce. It is so beautiful though!
Belphoebe- I love the sound, fit in with the [name_f]Bella[/name_f] trend and the long ee of [name_f]Zoe[/name_f] and [name_f]Chloe[/name_f], but together it is just too frilly like [name_f]Cassiopeia[/name_f].
[name_f]Odelia[/name_f]/[name_f]Odilia[/name_f]- It doesn’t really translate into Greek, but I could use it as a middle. I love the sound.
[name_f]Mercy[/name_f]- I love the word and the meaning and the sound, but too much teasing potential, too wordy.
[name_f]Hermione[/name_f]- [name_m]Granger[/name_m]. Too HP.
[name_f]Luna[/name_f]- Too HP and too wordy.
[name_f]Persephone[/name_f]- Pronunciation and frilly-ness. I put it on and take it off of my usable list all the time.
[name_f]Philomena[/name_f]- too old and too frilly. But I still really like it.
[name_f]Cosette[/name_f]- doesn’t translate into Greek and too frilly, but I like the sound and the literature reference.
[name_u]Emerson[/name_u]- I love [name_u]Emerson[/name_u]. But it is too popular for girls right now and it doesn’t translate into Greek
[name_m]Lachlan[/name_m]- ditto on the translation into Greek issue
[name_m]Callum[/name_m]- see [name_m]Lachlan[/name_m].
[name_u]Valentine[/name_u]- too much teasing potential, but I still like it.
[name_u]Owen[/name_u]- this one has been a favorite for a long time, but it doesn’t translate into Greek and it is really popular.
[name_m]Peregrine[/name_m]- I’m thinking of moving [name_m]Peregrine[/name_m] to my usable list, but I’m not sure I’m bold enough to use it. Wouldn’t [name_m]Augustus[/name_m] and [name_m]Peregrine[/name_m] be such a cute sibset. [name_u]Gus[/name_u] and [name_u]Perrin[/name_u]/[name_m]Per[/name_m]/[name_u]Perry[/name_u]. But I’m not 100% yet.
[name_m]Isidore[/name_m]- I love [name_f]Isadora[/name_f]/[name_f]Isidora[/name_f], and I really like [name_m]Isidore[/name_m], but I worry it is too girly and too out there.
[name_m]Isaac[/name_m]- super popular here but I like the history behind it and the sound.
[name_m]Sherman[/name_m]- I like the sound and the history of the name, but I think it is too tied to the Civil War figure, which is a lot to carry (and I live in the south)
[name_m]Ulysses[/name_m]- I love the sound and the historical references, but it is pretty big to carry and it doesn’t have any cute nn like large names like [name_f]Cassiopeia[/name_f] and [name_m]Perseus[/name_m] and [name_m]Augustus[/name_m] have that make it somewhat usable.
[name_m]Raphael[/name_m]- I just can’t picture it on a real person, even though I love the sound of it.
[name_m]Jack[/name_m]- so popular now and I don’t feel like it is special enough and I don’t like the Greek translation. But I like the masculinity and strength of it.
[name_m]Phoebus[/name_m]- like the sound, and the mythology reference but it just isn’t usable in real life.
[name_u]Ellis[/name_u]- I like [name_u]Ellis[/name_u], the sound and the look and the feel of it (and my name and other family names start with [name_f]El[/name_f] so it has family ties) but it is too popular on girls right now and it doesn’t translate into Greek.
Photis- too Greek. Could fit right in in Greece but would be too weird in the US.
[name_m]Julius[/name_m]- like the sound and the nn [name_u]Jules[/name_u], but it reminds me of Julips sometimes and other times it is too [name_m]Caesar[/name_m]. And I couldn’t use [name_m]Julius[/name_m] and [name_m]Augustus[/name_m] together anyway, and I like [name_m]Augustus[/name_m] 20X more. And it doesn’t translate into Greek. But at the same time I really like it.
[name_m]Clement[/name_m]- too old fashioned right now.
I think if my future husband likes some of these names they could make it onto my real list. But right now I couldn’t use them.
There aren’t really many names I wouldn’t use in some way. I feel a bit like anything goes for middles, as long as it sounds/looks good as a combo. In my opinion, [name_m]Caspian[/name_m] [name_m]Sherlock[/name_m] [name_m]Edmund[/name_m] is pure perfection, and it makes me smile that both [name_m]Caspian[/name_m], [name_m]Sherlock[/name_m] (although this is the one name I’m a bit dubious about using as a middle*), and [name_f]Pandora[/name_f] (which I’d use in a heartbeat) are pp’s GPs. Tbh I don’t have a GP list.
*I love the books and show so much, my friends especially would probably just sigh and say ‘of course you’d name your child after him’, and not think I actually like the name.
[name_f]Lettice[/name_f] and [name_f]Titania[/name_f].
[name_f]Lettice[/name_f] is so beautiful (I know many Berries disagree!) but it looks almost exactly the same as the word lettuce. [name_f]Titania[/name_f] is gorgeous too but has an unfortunate first three letters… plus I discovered recently some people say it [name_m]TY[/name_m]-[name_m]TAIN[/name_m]-yah, rather than tih-tahn-yah which is an issue.
And popularity too. [name_f]Nancy[/name_f], [name_f]Constance[/name_f] and [name_f]Jemima[/name_f] are all favourites of mine, but I probably wouldn’t use them because of popularity. I make one exception for [name_f]Imogen[/name_f] because it feels more timeless and less of a fad (I’ve never met an [name_f]Imogen[/name_f] under the age of 10).
Definitely [name_m]Mordecai[/name_m]. I love everything about it - I think the syllables are perfect and I love the way it just flows. But I’m just not brave enough to use it.
[name_u]Oberon[/name_u] is one name I really love, but not sure if I could really use it. It seems like too big of a name for a child or even an adult.
Ooh, have you met some Jemimas?! I’ve only ever met ONE other [name_f]Jemima[/name_f] in my whole life! Where do you live so that [name_f]Jemima[/name_f] is popular?
[name_f]Imogen[/name_f] is actually really popular here in Australia (at least in my circles…?) I can think of at least 4 under 20 off the top of my head! Still love the name though.
I love reading the reasons people won’t use certain names even if they love them. Maybe it’s because I’m such an empathetic person! One name I absolutely adore is D’Artagnan, but I think it’s just. too. much. name for a living, breathing person. Granted, part of its appeal is its over-the-top nature, but can you really imagine a tiny human or a grown man name D’Artagnan? If I met one in real life, despite my love of the name, my first reaction would probably be to roll my eyes. So much name!
I also like a lot of surnames, particularly ones in my family tree, but my future kids will likely have a double-barrel last name. It’d be a bit much to give them three surnames out of four total names.
I’ve loved the name [name_f]Tabitha[/name_f] since I started watching “Bewitched” as a kid, on [name_u]Nick[/name_u] at Nite. And I also secretly admired some of the American Girl doll names–particularly [name_f]Samantha[/name_f], [name_f]Felicity[/name_f], and [name_f]Addy[/name_f]–although I’ve never even had one of the dolls.
I think the only one of those my husband would even entertain is [name_f]Felicity[/name_f], but now it’s been taken by friends of ours.
For boys, I’ve always loved [name_m]Beau[/name_m], but [name_m]Joe[/name_m] HATES it and/or makes fun of it with quotes from the Dukes of [name_m]Hazzard[/name_m]. It’s not even the same name ([name_u]Bo[/name_u] versus [name_m]Beau[/name_m])!
I love these names, but my family would think I was on drugs if I ever used them. LOL. I would use these in a heartbeat if they weren’t so “out there.”