Would you ever leave your children's names to chance?

I was talking to another pregnant lady today who already has two children, and she said the way they “chose” the names for their son and daughter was once they were born they got a baby book and opened it at a random page and pointed to a name. They did this twice and whichever name they preferred more was the name they chose. Neither of their children have middle names and the next baby won’t have one either.

For their son it was between [name_m]Cato[/name_m] and [name_m]Gustave[/name_m] and they chose [name_m]Cato[/name_m] (this was before Hunger Games but all the same I think it’s a wonderful name!).

For their daughter it was between [name_f]Sveta[/name_f] and [name_f]Elodie[/name_f] and they chose [name_f]Sveta[/name_f].

She says that when faced with two names and only two names it became easier for them to choose.

I don’t think I could ever do it, could you? I get maybe putting three names you love in a hat or something similar but this seemed really intense! What if it came back with two names you loathed? I think they probably did a few flips of the book and pointing either that or they are pretty lucky to have gotten such decent names to work with.

To each her own. I mean, here I am agonizing over our “girl” names, and I’m not even pregnant yet! Maybe their way is less stressful. lol
I think personally I would chicken out and not use the “chance” names… especially if they were odd or unappealing to me, or didn’t work with baby’s last name.
I was just telling DH last night, it means a lot to me that the names we give our children are a compromise reached between the two of us… a decision we both feel good about, and worked diligently to create together. He seems to feel good about my enthusiasm (if not all of my choices.)
But, then again, not everyone is a name nerd. I am often slightly shocked how many people have never bothered to research the meaning, origin, or popularity of their own or their children’s names.
Does that lady seem satisfied with and proud of her kids’ names? They are very attractive and unusual.

@mulme944: she loves her kids names and the fact that people always stop and repeat the name in awe or puzzlement. I do agree that they are GORGEOUS names.

I think I would have to come to a ridiculous level of frustration and conflict with my spouse before I did anything like that. But, to each their own.

I know it happens though. [name_f]My[/name_f] grandparents were arguing so much over my mother’s name that her uncle ended up picking it. And I’ve rarely heard either of my grandparents call my mom by her given name–they both used nn’s of their own choosing.

I wouldn’t do that to decide which names to put on the list, but a coin flip or some other “binary randomizer” could work if a couple is at disagreement on what name to use (and is fair between the two).

[name_f]My[/name_f] brother was born in 1983. [name_f]My[/name_f] dad is a huge computer nerd, so he had this “great” idea to randomly combine letters to come up with a baby name. [name_f]My[/name_f] mom went into labor before he finished it, so they ended up naming my brother after the first person who visited them in the hospital ([name_u]Bret[/name_u]).

So I think they would have loved this idea.

When the time comes for me to have kids, I don’t think I’d do that, because with my luck, I’d end up with names I dislike every time haha! I would take the names to an anonymous internet poll, or pulling them out of hat though I think.

I don’t think I could do that since I feel like choosing a name is something extremely special and I love that there are so many options available. Also we’ve done family names for our children and that would never happen if it’s randomly picked. And I also wonder what they’d do if both names were ones they hated. I mean both their kids have pretty unusual names would they be all right having two really popular choices for the third?

I think I could only do that if I compiled a list of names I know I like and then closed my eyes and chose 2 of those names.

I never could. I take naming really seriously. I feel like it is the first gift that you give your child, and one that they (usually) carry with them their entire life. It is an extremely personal and long process to determine what name will serve your child best. Sure, a lot of it is just personal taste of the parents, but I fell like the parents should take naming to heart and really explore all the options they have, whether is be a family honor name, one with a good meaning, or one with special significance to the parents. I know that agreeing on names can be difficult (trust me, I have the pickiest SO ever) but I could never allow my child’s name to be random. I’d feel like I was doing them a disservice.

Nope couldn’t do that I agree with @lawsonhaley I’d wind up getting names I dislike or I’d freak because I just randomly stuck my finger in a BN book and then sign on here or get out my old list , she got some pretty cool names though

I will occasionally do that just for fun, open a baby book and make name combinations from random selections, but I’d never be able to do that for a real human!

I’ve also compiled my [name_m]LONG[/name_m] list, numbering each one and then, using a random number generator online, paired two numbers (names) together just to get a fresh look at first and middle name combos. That is actually quite fun and addictive :slight_smile:

Probably the closest I could get was going into the hospital with two favorite names and then drawing one from a hat… But then going off my gut reaction thereof- not necessarily having to use the one I picked if I got that twinge of disappointment. [name_f]Kinda[/name_f] like the quotation, “flip a coin. It’s not the side it lands on that matters but the one you hope it will while it’s in the air.” (or however that goes!)

Kudos to her- they have fabulous names. I personally couldn’t do it. I love lists, I hate leaving anything to chance, I want to make sure everything fits and is perfect, etc. [name_f]My[/name_f] children’s names is not something I would ever leave to chance- I don’t even leave the brand of milk I buy up to chance, or exactly how much I spend on groceries each week (down to the cent) up to chance, so there is no way I would leave my children’s names up to chance. Also, knowing my luck, I would probably have to go with the dreaded [name_f]Shaniqua[/name_f] or something. I take naming extremely seriously. I think I will have a list that I take to the hospital (when I have kids), with my favourite names, and go from there.

I just tried what that mother did, and I came out with:
Girl: [name_f]Emilia[/name_f] [name_f]Florida[/name_f]
Boy: [name_m]Nicandro[/name_m] [name_u]Kit[/name_u]

I don’t like [name_f]Emilia[/name_f], I don’t like [name_f]Florida[/name_f], [name_m]Nicandro[/name_m] sounds odd with my last name, and I can’t use [name_u]Kit[/name_u] for personal reasons. Nup. I definitely couldn’t do it, but again, kudo’s to her.

I just tried this with [name_f]Bertha[/name_f] (as a joke, my sister and I named my big name book, because I made a comment how it’s like a tank, and she remembered the [name_m]German[/name_m] tank named Big [name_f]Bertha[/name_f], therefore it stuck), and got;

Girl: February [name_u]Alexis[/name_u]
Boy: Laochailan [name_u]Robin[/name_u] ([name_m]Lachlan[/name_m]?)

I think I’ll pass on that method!

I don’t think I could. Actually I know I couldn’t. I’d end up saying ‘just one more time’ until I get a name I love, even if it took thousands of tries. I’d most likely dislike the names, and I’m particularly picky about boys names. I’d only be able to choose a name I truly love, and have loved (and planned out) for a while. Plus I have this thing about sibling names having the same number of letters, and I just couldn’t leave that to chance. And I think I’d want to have at least a bit of a story/meaning behind the name/the naming process. It would probably be a very stress free system if you could stick to it, and it clearly worked very well for her, but I just know I wouldn’t be able to do it (not that I will be for a long time).

Nope, I wouldn’t do it! The name books I own have some weird choices in them, and I’d probably end up getting one.

That sure is a ballsy move so kudos to them!
I used to play those sort of random name games and come out with awful names every time, there’s no way I could do it.

I probably wouldn’t because I like baby names too much, BUT I did just try and the two names I got were [name_f]Bianca[/name_f] and [name_f]Geneva[/name_f]. Those are pretty good names [name_f]IMO[/name_f].

Rawdon or [name_u]Leighton[/name_u]
[name_f]Ella[/name_f] or Mercia
[name_u]Ellis[/name_u] or [name_m]Henry[/name_m]
[name_f]Etta[/name_f] or Jaquenette
[name_m]Garrett[/name_m] or Kilby
[name_f]Eliza[/name_f] or [name_f]Moria[/name_f]
[name_f]Valdis[/name_f] or [name_m]Pascal[/name_m]
[name_f]Jill[/name_f] or [name_f]Gweneth[/name_f]
[name_m]Brandon[/name_m] or [name_m]Raphael[/name_m]
[name_f]Calandra[/name_f] or [name_f]Guinevere[/name_f]

I don’t think any of these names are terrible :slight_smile:

~[name_f]Rose[/name_f]

I would never do that. It sounds like they just did not care what their children were named so they were fine with whatever. That is great for them. But no way. That is not like naming your child at all.

I could never do that but I tried the method with my big 10,000 baby name book and these are the combinations I got.

[name_m]Fitzwilliam[/name_m] [name_m]Dax[/name_m]
[name_u]Penny[/name_u] [name_f]Ofira[/name_f]

I kind of like [name_u]Penny[/name_u] [name_f]Ofira[/name_f], but [name_u]Penny[/name_u] and [name_m]Fitzwilliam[/name_m] do not appeal to me as concrete name choices -names that I would bestow my children.

But it is an interesting method, and good luck to anyone who does it. Hopefully they get nice names, or at least names they like.