My husband and I still haven’t set in stone a name for baby #4. He loves the name [name]Everly[/name], which I adore too, but I’m not sold on using it because of the meaning. “wild boar in woodland clearing” isn’t the most appealing meaning to me, but my husband still wants to use the name. My favorites are still [name]Amelia[/name], [name]Eliora[/name], [name]Nathalie[/name], and [name]Lucia[/name], which he likes, but just not as much as [name]Everly[/name]. [name]Do[/name] you think the meaning is that important and I’m making a bigger deal out of this then it needs to be?
Yes, I wouldn’t use a name I disliked the meaning of or that had a negative meaning.
It depends on the meaning. For example, although it’s a beautiful name, I would never use [name]Lilith[/name] because of its meaning, which is “night monster.”
It wouldn’t deter me. I think of the most beautiful names have pretty bad meanings; [name]Mary[/name] - meaning bitter, [name]Cecilia[/name] - meaning blind, [name]Caleb[/name] - meaning dog, etc. It doesn’t take away the beauty of the name, in my opinion.
I may overlook some iffy meaings, but if it’s something really terrible it’s automatically out.
Not at all. I never bother to look at meanings anyway.
So–I believe that meanings are all subjective because it is kind of rare that a name can really say it is derived from a specific word aside from latin/etc. Although if a name is associated with something especially negative, I do get a little superstitious, such as [name]Lilith[/name] being associated with [name]Adam[/name]'s first “wife” that may or may not have been the serpent/the devil. Or [name]Cain[/name] being the first murderer according to the bible, where he kills his son [name]Abel[/name]. Or–there is this weird curse in my family where all people named [name]Michael[/name] die these horrible, violent deaths. My mom’s late husband died after getting hit by a car. My nephew died in a fire. My father’s twin brother came down with a very violent, delirious mental disorder similar to schizophrenia thought to be caused by a virus/bacterial meningitis and killed himself at the age of 9, intentionally.
TMI? Anyway…I am not too worried about the so-called name meanings in general because I feel like a lot of them are made up/subjective to be honest. For instance, the name [name]Miriam[/name] which I love has several possible meanings and I just choose to believe the most positive one 
I’m not really concerned with the meaning of a name as much as I am with more subjective factors, like cultural associations. When people hear the name [name]Everly[/name], I doubt their first thought is of a wild boar. (it’s certainly not mine) I think if a name has enough phonetic beauty, no meaning could deter it from me.
If the meaning put me off that much, then no, I wouldn’t use it. Then again, [name]Everett[/name] is my second pick for a boy and it means “brave as a wild boar”, haha, and I’m not sure that’s much better! When I still liked [name]Hayden[/name] (and wasn’t so over the [name]Aiden[/name] trend!), I knew I wouldn’t use it because of the meaning “heathen”–it just put me off way too much. 
Yes, I do feel that meaning is important ,but in your case since the meaning of [name]Everly[/name] is not negative ([name]IMO[/name] )it’s kinda just like whatever , not a deal - breaker. What’s more important is that you both [name]LOVE[/name] the name.
We both do love [name]Everly[/name], but for me, the other names on our list hold more significance to us. If [name]Everly[/name] had a meaning like the others on my list did, our daughter would without a doubt be named [name]Everly[/name] [name]Catherine[/name]. Is [name]Everly[/name] rising in popularity that I should take that into consideration too?
Half the time the ‘meanings’ listed online are inaccurate anyways- I wouldn’t let it bother you! The connotations of a name are usually more important than the actual meaning, anyhow (e.g. [name]Kennedy[/name]- a top 100 girls’ name that may or may not mean ‘ugly head’, but the positive associations with the political clan and the cheery sound overcome that putative ‘meaning’).
However, Lilevi and [name]Everly[/name] sound really, really similar to me- much too close for sisters (I’m imagining that Lilevi is LIH-luh-vee? If it’s luh-[name]LEE[/name]-vee or luh-[name]LEE[/name]-vye it might be a bit less of an issue). [name]Eliora[/name] seems like a better match, between the familiarity of [name]Annalise[/name] and the exotic Lilevi.
Yes and no. [name]Everly[/name] was actually my first choice for DD#2 but DH didn’t like it so we’ve found a great name to compromise. I wished it had a more beautiful meaning but it wasn’t enough for me not to want to use it. However, I have always loved the name [name]Kennedy[/name] but I could never give the name to my child knowing it means “ugly headed”.
The meaning of [name]Everly[/name] isn’t negative, at the worst it just could be seen as odd. I think people are much more likely to assume it’s [name]Beverly[/name] without the B, than to think of wild boars. When I said negative meanings I was thinking more along the line of names that mean sorrow, unlucky, burden, etc.
If popularity is a factor for you, then yes you should take that into consideration, but I don’t think it’ll zoom up to being an ultra-trendy name [though that’s just my guess.] Pick a name that has the most significance to you, that way you won’t suffer from name regret.
Here’s the thing about the -ley names: Nearly all of them originated as surnames that described where a person/family was from. The only significance of the meaning of [name]Everly[/name] is that the family who originally bore the surname was from an area where there were a lot of wild boars. I wouldn’t let it deter you any. If the name holds some sort of personal significance to you, that’s far more important. If the etymology of [name]Everly[/name] still bothers you, try [name]Ever[/name] instead.
I love nature names, so I liked [name]Everly[/name] even more when I learned it meant boar meadow
[name]How[/name] do you pronounce Lilevi? If it’s what I think it is [name]Everly[/name] is too close
dayjoysky2815 more or less summed up how I feel about meanings. I don’t care what the literal meaning of a name is; in fact I never look them up and couldn’t tell you the meanings of any of my favourite names. But it would bother me if the name had a bad association, whether personal or one the general public would have, e.g. the name of an infamous serial killer or dictator, or if I knew an awful person with that name.
I have this problem with [name]Claudia[/name]/[name]Claudette[/name]! They mean lame. I think you just have to ask yourself if you can see past it. I don’t know if I will…
I love [name]Lucia[/name] though!
I love when names have beautiful meaning but I would never let that stop me. My daughter is Mhairi which means sea of bitterness haha not very nice but I [name]LOVE[/name] her name. My sister is [name]Mallory[/name] which is unlucky one. Most people will never bother to look up what your name means so I think if you like a name, the meaning is not as important. Though it is nice when it has a positive meaning.
i think, too, [name]Everly[/name] might be a nonstarter due to its similarity to Lilevi.
However, [name]Everly[/name] actually has an interesting history. -ly and -ley mean “meadow, clearing” which obviously had great significance if you were a Dark Ages or medieval family looking to start a village. There are innumerable names that have come down into English, either as first names or as surnames, with this element because they were so descriptive. Which [name]John[/name]? [name]John[/name] in the beaver meadow ([name]John[/name] [name]Beverly[/name]), [name]John[/name] in the meadow with the ash trees ([name]John[/name] [name]Ashley[/name]), or [name]John[/name] in the clearing with the white rocks ([name]John[/name] [name]Whitley[/name])?
And [name]Everly[/name] specifically-- the wild boar had enormous importance to the Anglo-Saxons, who thought he personified strength and courage. He was worshipped as a fertility god as well, and featured heavily in their religion and ritual life. Their battle helmets had boars on them. There were never any bears in [name]Britain[/name], so the awe and reverence many other cultures afforded the bear was instead bestowed on the boar. There are many names dating from that period with the element ‘ever’ (from A-S eofor): Everild, [name]Everett[/name], [name]Everly[/name]…