[name]How[/name] does your name influence what your named or will name your kids?
My name was very popular at the time I was born and isn’t a name I consider very feminine or classic. I find myself being drawn to more traditional and uncommon names when thinking of names for my kids. I wonder if my kids will then go in the other direction when naming their own kids. lol.
I have a very popular, trendy name that everyone else had when I was a kid…but we named our daughter a popular name because it flowed so well with our last name. Also, we liked the classical aspect to her name ([name]Emily[/name]). Our son’s name came from my husband’s heritage ([name]Kyle[/name]).
My name hit its peak in the mid-eighties, about five or six years before I was born. I’ve never met someone younger than me with my name, haha. I tend to blend eccentric and old-fashioned styles when it comes to thinking up names for future children ([name]Elihu[/name] and [name]Claudia[/name], for instance), so…the names I like aren’t like my name, but are similar in that they probably won’t meet too many kids their age with the same name…
I have a unisex name and I would never name my daughter a unisex name. I prefer something feminine, but not frilly.
My name was in the top ten when I was born, and it’s unisex paired with a masculine middle name. My taste is definitely classic feminine for girls, and classic masculine for boys.
[name]Alexis[/name]
My name, [name]Jessica[/name], hit a peek after i was born, but not much after me. So I was surrounded by [name]Jessica[/name]'s, and to make matters worse i was surrounded by [name]Jessica[/name] [name]Marie[/name]'s which drove me crazy, so all of my children will have well known but not popular names, and the more crazy (my style of name) will by the second middle name with the more normal but still not common name as the first middle name. I’m trying to create a balance:)
At this stage of my life, I tend to appreciate a lot of things about my name and seek the same qualities in names I would use. I like that it is relatively short, easy to say, spell, a teensy bit interesting, like compared to a super-plain and/or classic like [name]Anna[/name] or [name]Jean[/name], more like an [name]Ellen[/name] or [name]Lisa[/name], and not quite a [name]Marla[/name] or [name]Diane[/name], if that makes any sense, and lean toward the middle-to-latter end of that spectrum rather than the former.
I think I don’t feel and never felt like my name was too trendy, although I’m often reminded of it here - it was on the way down when I was named, so there weren’t so many Karens at school either. It wasn’t a “cool” popular name like [name]Jennifer[/name] or [name]Melissa[/name], and it wasn’t so ordinary as a [name]Cathy[/name] or [name]Mary[/name], or dated like [name]Gladys[/name], perky like [name]JoAnna[/name], frilly like [name]Amanda[/name] or [name]Michelle[/name], or exotic like [name]Nadia[/name]. So perfectly average with the Julies and Amys and Beths, which I guess bummed me out at the time.
If you asked me my name vs. my kids’ names in high school, I would say she had to be a [name]Jennifer[/name], there’s just no other way to get along, unless she is too cool to care, then [name]Nadia[/name]. “Cooler and more popular than me” was my standard of preference then.
I admit I really liked names from the beginning as a place to work out who I am, what really describes who I am, and went through a lot of phases thinking a name change would fit better (or to name vicariously through a child). It might if I was a different person, or who I wished I was who wasn’t me - I can certainly understand thinking one’s name doesn’t fit, but moreso, aspiring to a profile and aspiring vicariously through a child.
Maybe if I was named [name]Stephanie[/name] or [name]Priscilla[/name], I wouldn’t feel very much like my name fit me very well. I really like that I found out my name doesn’t really box me into a type of person, and I like my name very much. If I have the chance, I would most likely consider names that were fairly simple like that. Almost too simple, but not quite. I no longer feel like my name has to be “interesting” to other people, an ice-breaker, a mini-description of who people expect me to be, or anything like that. I feel like my name could describe anyone - anyone I want to be, can be, or am, and that’s developed into an actual standard of name preference for me. If I had any other kind of name, I wonder if I might still be attracted to this simplicity, or if I might have thought the grass must be greener on the other side of the fence - an epidemic name vs. an uncommon one, a plain name vs. an exotic choice, a gender neutral/masculine name vs. a hyper-feminine choice, a trendy name vs. a sturdy classic name, etc. I think my parents made a very good choice.
I have never really liked my name, and I definitely think this influenced how my husband and I went about choosing our daughter’s name. My name is Romalee. I wasn’t named after anyone from my family; I wasn’t named after [name]Rome[/name]; my parents have no idea what it means; and my mom told me they chose it just because they liked the way it sounds. Because of this, meaning has been very important in our name selection and we also chose a family name.
Growing up, I did, however, enjoy having an unusual name (I went/go by [name]Roma[/name]), but one who’s sounds are familiar enough that I was never teased. I’m hoping to achieve a similar effect for my daughter [name]Fiona[/name] and my next daughter/son.
I love my name, [name]Alexandra[/name], it’s not really unique or uncommon but it’s classic and feminine (of course I might be slightly biased) but for my children my naming preference seems to be for the more quirky classics for girls, like [name]Clementine[/name] & [name]Dinah[/name], and solid timeless classics for boys like [name]James[/name], [name]Henry[/name] etc. ; and word names, I don’t know why, guess I just have a soft spot for them.
I was one of five Emilys in my class. Nobody else at the school had particularly different names (lots of Ryans, [name]Matthews[/name], Lauras, Ashleys, etc), but we were in a grade with only forty children! Our poor teachers were constantly mixing us up. DH is [name]David[/name], and though it’s a popular, classic name, he was one of only three in the entire school.
When we were deciding on a name for our son, we didn’t worry so much about national popularity as how often we had heard it in our area. DH wanted a name that wasn’t too different but also wasn’t rampant ([name]Kaleb[/name] was his choice-with a K for my mother, [name]Katharine[/name]), while I wanted something a little less popular ([name]Tobias[/name] and [name]Abbott[/name] were my personal favorites).
For us, [name]Kaleb[/name] just ended up being ‘the name’. I had a dream that my sister was calling a little boy in my car that (much to [name]David[/name]'s delight), and as our pregnancy progressed and there began to be some pre-natal problems, the meaning took center-stage for us. We have only met one other little [name]Caleb[/name] in three years, and the name fits ours perfectly.
All in all, while we personally tried to avoid super popular names as a result of our own, it certainly wasn’t the most important factor for us. And since we had [name]Kaleb[/name], I’ve met 3 boys under the age of 5 in our area named [name]Tobias[/name], despite it’s being somewhere around 500 on the SSA list!
Sorry for rambling on so long!
I have a virtue name but it isn’t a popular virtue name like [name]Faith[/name] or [name]Grace[/name] or [name]Hope[/name]. If I were to have a child, I would definately give her a virtue name or one for a middle name at least. If not a virtue first name then something not popular at all, like #800+.
Hmm…this is an interesting question. I was born [name]Lucinda[/name] in the age of [name]Jennifer[/name] and [name]Stephanie[/name], so growing up I didn’t really like my name. I went by both [name]Lucy[/name] and [name]Cindy[/name] for periods of time, but it felt like being named [name]Veronica[/name] in 1995.
My children all have fairly unique names, and some of them I slightly regret because my taste in names now is a far cry from my taste then. My kids are: [name]Calista[/name] [name]Marie[/name], [name]Gracelyn[/name] [name]Claire[/name], [name]Camden[/name] [name]Joseph[/name], and [name]Gabriel[/name] [name]Alexander[/name]. [name]Calie[/name], [name]Gracie[/name], [name]Cam[/name], and [name]Gabe[/name].
But if I got to rename them, it would probably be: [name]Charlotte[/name] [name]Rose[/name], [name]Alice[/name] [name]Marie[/name], [name]William[/name] [name]Daniel[/name], and [name]Joseph[/name] [name]Zachary[/name]. [name]Carly[/name], [name]Ali[/name], [name]Will[/name], and [name]Joey[/name].
Of course, I hope my kids chose nice names for their kids, but I won’t be controlling that so its up to them.
[name]EDIT[/name]: Right now, [name]Calie[/name] (age 12) says she wants to name her daughter [name]Kassandra[/name]…and she says she doesn’t care what she names her son. Okay 
[name]Gabe[/name] (age 7) says [name]Billy[/name]-[name]Bob[/name]-[name]Joe[/name].
[name]Gracie[/name] (age 4) says Fluffy and [name]Mimi[/name]
[name]Cam[/name] (age 2) says…well he just kind of looks at me and smiles.
— [name]Lucy[/name]
[name]Lucy[/name]–Your children’s names are beautiful! You are just like me, in that I would change my children’s names–if I could–from [name]Kyle[/name] [name]Patrick[/name] and [name]Emily[/name] [name]Catherine[/name], to [name]Jack[/name] [name]Donovan[/name] and [name]Anna[/name] [name]Caroline[/name]. But as in anything else, our tastes change as the years go on, right?
Lilacarose/[name]Lucy[/name] - I love [name]Gabriel[/name] [name]Alexander[/name], it’s so handsome! [name]Gabriel[/name] is my favourite boys name.
My mother’s idea of “a good name” included “ends with the same letter as last name”. Ugh. I’ll be sure to avoid that.
My name is unique, but is much prettier written than spoken. I think this instilled in me a desire to name my own children something unique but that also has a nice flow to it.
Also, my parents chose a middle name that starts with the last letter of my first name. I think that’s a bad idea, and I plan on avoiding that.