[name]Hi[/name] Nameberries, my curiosity is peaked after agirlinred’s post about “Names From A Talent Show”. I’ve often wondered why some people become name obsessed, many of us at a young age. Miloowen has an interesting theory: if you loved to write stories as child it often sparks your interest in names. I’m curious to hear about other Nameberries experiences. [name]Do[/name] you remember a specific event that touched off your naming obsession? Were you a writer too? Did you read a great deal? Did you receive support/ridicule for your hobby! Did you only become interested in names when you were older and naming your children? Personally, I was a prodigious reader as a child as well as a writer to the point that I practically ruined my eyesight reading by flashlight under my covers so my parents wouldn’t know what I was doing late at night. Of course, I was always caught as my mother had eyes in the back of her head! :lol: I often felt closer to the characters in a book than I did with my childhood friends. The characters became my companions in a way. Gosh, that sounds sad, doesn’t it? Please post and let me know what sparked your interest in names. Regards, [name]Mischa[/name].
Hey mischa!
I’ve actually been wondering the same thing. I don’t really know what sparked my interest, but I have a strong inkling that it was my great love for reading and language. I’ve always loved how things fit together and that includes puzzles, colors, and words/names. I think my love for names is an extension of my love of writing and fitting things together. It’s the natural order of things for me.
I have always LOVED to read, and as a child, I would attach myself to the character/be able to relate more if I loved his/her name. It sounds silly, but I have suspicions that I was not quite the normal child. I too read by flashlight, and have forever been trying to eat carrots so I won’t be blind as a bat for a long time (if at all). My mother always caught me, too. And, I’ll admit, I was never really sorry I’d been reading in the first place.
No one knows about my love of names except for my very best friend, and she kind of likes it too. My parents used to have baby name books on the bookshelves somewhere in the house, but when I was caught reading them one too many times, they were thrown away. I tend not to tell anyone, because most people would just assume that I’m pregnant or creepily obsessed with something that, they think, is actually very simple.
[name]Hope[/name] that answered your question, and I’d love to hear from others!
I’ve loved names for as long as I can remember. When I was about 6 or 7 I started making lists of names I heard when I was out with my mom. I was an ultra tomboy as a kid but I played dolls with my sister just so I could name them all. I came across my mom’s old baby name book in 5th grade and thought it was the best thing ever. Fifth grade is when I started making lists of my favorite names. That was about the same time I started writing and my love for names grew from that point on. I’ve always been a bookworm as well so that could also have something to do with it.
For me it was when I was about 8 years old, and a friend of my mum had a baby name book and was telling everyone the meaning of their names. I was like “what? names hahve a meaning?” and that was it, I was hooked.
Wow! I think I’ve just kind of collected names through my experiences. There are so many under-the-sheets readers here! I was one too, and have always had a great love of reading and literature. (And I only got caught once or twice, but my mom’s not all that observant!)
In my teens I got really into performance (music/dance/theatre), so I was always surrounded by interesting people and in our travels I met many more. Now as a high school music teacher, I’m bombarded regularly with people and the names that go with them.
You know, I never could read under the sheets. I always had problems with the sheets falling down all over the place or it got too hot. Is there a trick to it?
I’ve always wondered about this. I mean, why names? Doesn’t it seem strange that there are so many people who love names, of all things? And do all name-nerds have other things in common? I love history, linguistics, reading, writing, spelling/grammar, anthropology, and old things. Anyone else?
I’ve been interested in names since as long as I can remember, I think, and there’ve been baby name books floating around the house for years. I think the thing about names that got me at the beginning was the fact that names had meaning. I’d spend hours just reading name books cover-to-cover. I discovered the online world of name-nerds probably about three years ago, when I was 13, and that’s when I became officially obsessed. 
But yeah, I’m another one who has ruined eyesight from late-night reading-- reading has always been my absolute favorite activity. And I think my love of names definitely has something to do with that. [name]Garnet[/name], I was the exact same way with characters! I feel more attached to them if I like their name.
Interesting topic!
Somewhere around 7 or 8 after I learned I had a “girl’s” name I started to pay more attention to names people had and especially names that I identified as common to both boys and girls. But it’s only been the last 5 years or so where I’ve really taken that interest to a deeper level, discussed it on forums such as this, deepened my learning and bought name books etc.
I think my love of names may stem from my love of reading. My mom would tell me that before I could read (about age 2 or so) I would take a picture book and make up what was happening in the book. Later on, whenever I would watch TV and hear a character’s name I like or listening to roll call, I would pick out which names “sounded like music” to me. I also remember going through a phase of changing my name weekly. I remember not being opposed to adopting an obvious boys name (such as [name]Peter[/name] or [name]Russell[/name]). I would never do such a thing nowadays, but it’s kind of funny to look back at my overall taste in names.
I love to write, and I wanted different names for my characters than what I read in books or my peers in my yearbooks. So I started looking around online and Nameberry and another website ([name]Heather[/name]'s unusual baby names, that’s where I found [name]Jessamine[/name] and loved it). It was during the summer when I was searching for names quite often, and soon it became routine to check Nameberry every day.
Originally, [name]Barbie[/name] sparked my interest in names. I had a ton when I was a kid, but of course they couldn’t all go by [name]Barbie[/name]! Then a little later in life my interest in names was rekindled by The Sims. To me, naming them is one of the best parts of the game!