When researching / looking up a name, what do you *want* to know?

General Name Discussion
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Hi all!

Hope you are having a good day and if not, that tomorrow is better :heart:

Something I’ve been thinking about is, when you look up a name, what do you want to know about it?

Feel free to add comments below, or just answer the polls (or neither - all up to you of course!)

When looking up a name (new or known), what do you want to know about it? What are you interested in reading or finding out?

  • Meaning/s
  • Pronunciation/s
  • History of use
  • Origin
  • Popularity
  • Cultural associations (positive or neutral)
  • Cultural associations (negative)
  • Notable namesakes
  • Celebrity babies
  • Style / vibes of the name
  • Other people’s opinions
  • Similar names
  • Alternative choices
  • Other?
0 voters

Is there anything you’re not so interested in knowing or reading about?

  • Meaning/s
  • Pronunciation/s
  • History of use
  • Origin
  • Popularity
  • Cultural associations (positive or neutral)
  • Cultural associations (negative)
  • Notable namesakes
  • Celebrity babies
  • Style / vibes of the name
  • Other people’s opinions
  • Similar names
  • Alternative choices
  • I want all the information
  • Other
0 voters

Bonus: Does this change depending on why you’re looking up the name?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Sort of
0 voters
Explanation of the options, if they're confusing:

Meaning/s: including what it means in different languages and cultures + any debate/different ideas around what it means.

Pronunciation/s: including different ways of saying it, depending on country and language.

History of use: when (and sometimes why) it began to be used as a given name, where it was/is used, what gender it’s been used on (and how this has changed).

Origin: what language and period of history the name derived from, or if it was invented, who by.

Popularity: where it ranks in the charts, how many babies it was used on, where it is in use across the world

Cultural associations (positive or neutral) : so the name Delilah might be linked to several songs, for example, or Juliet would likely be linked to Romeo and Juliet

Cultural associations (negative): maybe negative is the wrong word, but something to be aware of, something that people might question, or cause some discomfort? For example, Myra (and the Moors Murders), or Cohen and why it can be seen as inappropriate or offensive.

Notable namesakes: historical, contemporary and fictional - for example: Notable namesakes footballer Peyton Manning, actress Peyton Roi List, Founding Father Peyton Randolph and the villainess of 1992 movie The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Peyton Flanders

Celebrity babies: including any celebs who’ve used the name and celeb babies who’ve influenced the popularity of a name

Style / vibes of the name: descriptions including ‘soft but strong’, ‘surname-style’, ‘classic’, ‘vintage’, ‘lively and lyrical’ etc

Other people’s opinions: could include comments by users of whatever site you’re using, or the opinion of the author who wrote the information

Similar names: in terms of sound and style. ie: similar names to Waverley might include Avery, Delaney, Cassidy, Peyton and Murphy

Alternative choices: ones that work if you can’t use the name, if it’s too popular / too ‘out there’. So, alternatives to Isla could be Eira, Ismay, or Twila

Thank you all for humouring me!!

1 Like
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I voted “other” and my other would be that I like to see all of the international variants of a name if it has any!

I didn’t vote for “other people’s opinions” or “style/vibes of the name” but I do like to know those as well. I just wouldn’t expect them or want them on the main page about a name if I were researching/looking it up, I’d rather ask on a forum or maybe if there were a comments section, to see them there.

For me, also, I don’t necessarily care about celebrity babies unless they were famous enough to fall into either “cultural associations” or “notable people”. For example, if I were researching the name [name_m]North[/name_m] I’d want to see that it was [name_f]Kim[/name_f] Kardashian and [name_m]Kanye[/name_m] West’s daughter’s name, but I wouldn’t care whether or not a page for [name_m]Alexander[/name_m] mentioned it was [name_f]Amal[/name_f] and [name_m]George[/name_m] Clooney’s son’s name since it’s so common anyway, if that makes sense?

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i second the previous poster, i really like knowing the international variants !! and i know this is counted as “history of use” but i guess i want to specify that, while its entire history of use is interesting & relevant to me, the bit i’m most interested in is where (in which countries/cultures/languages) it was/is used, more than anything else that falls under its history of use!

“style/vibes” is kind of a weird one because i feel like different people will get different vibes from the same name? there are exceptions, some names definitely have a very strong vibe, but i’d say that most names don’t, so it’d be weird to have a… vibes/style/aesthetic section included for all names

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ah yeah, international variants are a great addition - it’s interesting to see the huge variety!

totally makes sense - there is a fine line between the two - and I guess it comes down to cultural influence of the celeb baby name choice :grin:

ah yeah, I get that! I wish the records and data went back further sometimes - and covered more countries - it would be really interesting to see in relation to your point just when and how often names were being used in different countries!

yeah, definitely. I guess it’s one I included as I’m wondering if people do search things like ‘cottage-core names’, ‘modern names’, ‘happy sounding names’ etc - and if name pages might include such phrases to catch those searches? :thinking:
but yeah, different people will definitely get different feels/vibes from a name and that comes down to experience, associations, just personal links with sounds etc?

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In general, all of these are interesting things to know that I wouldn’t mind being somewhere on the page.
Your thought behind why style/vibes might be important makes sense, maybe like a “keywords” section at the bottom with a few broad categories people might search.
As far as other’s opinions go, I want to be able to see them at some point but only when I’m actively looking for them. I don’t want to read about how much people hate it when all I wanted was to check which language it came from and while the author’s thoughts are interesting, they should be a separate section/paragraph from the rest of the info. I absolutely hate how some of the entries on Nameberry only have the author’s opinion and don’t even include all of the basic meaning/origin/pronunciation stuff that I was looking for.

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that’s a fair point - not something you want right there in the top paragraph

I understand that - I can imagine that’s off putting. Some of the entries need updating still - been working on it but if there are ever any you spot that don’t contain the important info, feel free to let me know!

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I would really like more pronunciations. I feel like I come across names frequently that I wish had the pronunciation listed.

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definitely! I like to know when there are multiple pronunciations too!

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[name_m]Will[/name_m] do!

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I love to know an in-depth etymology, so far as it is known. I’ll go searching for it elsewhere if the name site I’m using doesn’t give one. I think niche aspects like this are best presented as links that you can easily open if interested but don’t clutter a name page for the majority who don’t want it.

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@EdgeOfTheMeadow ah yeah, I get that! I love trying to trace the etymology of a name, especially when it can be proving tricky to pin down where it came from exactly! Option but easy to access links is a good shout!

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