I had a good friend tell me once that you shouldn’t name your kid anything that makes you feel stupid when you shout it out loud in a ticked off voice from your porch. As in " [Kid’s name]! Where have you been? Get your tail in here right now!"
My husband and I just did this with our shortlist and we actually just eliminated some using that criteria.
I think it’s actually highly personal too: what names sound bad or just plain silly when shouted. What feels super awkward coming out of my mouth doesn’t sound too bad when someone else says it. For example, one of the names on our list, [name_f]Eudora[/name_f], which I love on paper, sounds terrible when I yell “[name_f]Eudora[/name_f]! Get off the counter!” but for some reason when my husband says “[name_f]Eudora[/name_f], honey, don’t pick your nose!” in an exasperated voice, I think it’s adorable.
Here’s what happened to our shortlist:
[name_f]Euphemia[/name_f] – sounds great if you really draw out the EE sound: “EuPHEEEmia! Get that bug out of your mouth!”
[name_f]Maud[/name_f] – I like this one better in an annoyed voice than in a regular voice…don’t know what to make of that.
[name_f]Forsythia[/name_f] – This one doesn’t flow off my husband’s tongue (even though it’s his favorite at the moment), but it felt really natural to me.
[name_f]Gardenia[/name_f] – A total flop. I love the look and sound of this name, but it is gone now. It sounds so gnarly and pretentious when yelled! Same with [name_f]Wisteria[/name_f].
[name_f]Lucinda[/name_f] – a great one to yell! I think this name became more appealing.
[name_f]Theodora[/name_f] – nope. [name_f]Every[/name_f] syllable felt awkward, like we were trying way too hard. It’s a shame, because I really like this one. But, “Stop biting your sister, [name_f]Theodora[/name_f]” just felt clunky.
[name_f]Lilac[/name_f] – super awkward, yelling it accentuated the differences in how we say it. He says Lie-Lack (equal emphasis), I say LYE-luck.
In my house, I try out the exasperated voice with the name. For yelling, I did it the other morning at the dog park. It was the day after we started ttc and I was suddenly very excited. My dog park is usually empty when I first get there in the am, so every time I would ‘call’ the dog, I’d use one of the names on my list. Pretty much every boys name that I like (all guilty pleasures anyway, none I’d ever use) sounded ridiculous. Can you imagine hearing a mom yelling for little [name_m]Aloysius[/name_m] to get his butt over here right now? I couldn’t stop laughing. For girls, I quickly knocked [name_f]Anastasia[/name_f] off the list, but I liked the rest.
Yup, yell test is definitely part of the procedure in picking a name.
Yeah, I’ve done it lol, although I am unsure if any weirdness or awkwardness happens because of the names or the fact that I am actually using the names in reference to a future son or daughter, if that makes sense. There was a website…I think another naming site, but I can’t remember. You typed in a name and it would insert it into normal everyday pieces of dialogue (for instance: the full name at graduation, or "clean your room, insert name, or Dr. insert name will see you now, etc). Test-driving the names really opened up my eyes to how names can seem good in your head, but verbally sound bad.
I tried this too - wish I could remember the site. It was such a good idea.
The other thing that I feel a lot of people (especially those of us who just love names and think up first/middle name combos all the time for fun) forget to do is to say only the first name and surname out loud. It’s one thing to have a beautiful first/middle combination, but in real life, most people use first/surnames most of the time, and there have definitely been some instances where it turns out that those don’t work so well together.
FI and I do this all the time with our favorite names. It’s what made me eliminate some with prominent Rs in it because I have a strong [name_m]New[/name_m] [name_f]England[/name_f] accent and if I’m yelling the name out loud and not thinking of it, it doesn’t come out right. Other times, it’s just good to see where you have names that don’t sound so great together. For example, [name_f]Daphne[/name_f] [name_f]Lenora[/name_f] [name_f]Pearl[/name_f]–gorgeous on paper, not so fun to scream in a supermarket. Now we’re talking about a different middle for [name_f]Daphne[/name_f], something more simple like [name_f]Daphne[/name_f] [name_f]Kate[/name_f] (an honor name) or [name_f]Daphne[/name_f] [name_f]Leona[/name_f] [name_f]Eloise[/name_f].
