This Naming Business is Difficult!

It's funny....I've been a member of this board for years as I TTC, etc. I've seen so many posts regarding baby naming...and I never understood why. I thought "What could be so hard about choosing a name?" "It's ONLY a name." "Why would one run names by random, online acquaintences?"

Doh! (Paula gets clubbed on the head and finally sees the light.)

Now, I fully understand why. I've never had occasion to name a kid, until now. Oh my goodness, is it proving to be a challenge.

Although I have a couple of baby naming books, I bought a new one today that seems promising...it's a reverse naming book. I'll share more about it once I give it the once-over.

It seems every couple has their own rules/guidelines for naming their kids. For us, they are as follows:

1.) This baby is a boy...we want it have a boy's name. The following names (and their variations) are out since they are the names of our nieces/nephews:
Mikayla
Abbey
Paige
Stephanie
Alexander
Devon
Pierce
William
Christian

2.) Our last name ends in a long "E" sound, so we'd prefer the first name NOT end in "y" "i" or "ie."

3.) Straight-forward names and spellings only...no creative spellings or completely out-of-the-ordinary names. We are open to unique names...meaning ones not heard that often...but not unique names in the sense that no one has ever heard of it because we made it up.

4.) (This one is NOT set in stone...) Since so many boy names (many of which I like) end in "n," I'm leaning away from those names. Seriously, I feel like every little boy is named Ryan, Mason, Ethan, Austin, Aiden, Quinn, Finn, Evan, Eben, Devon (or Devin), Collin, and the like. My best friend is an early education teacher...many of the boys in her class have names ending in "n" right now.

So, if anyone has any names that meet the criteria...I'm all ears!

--Paula

Michael? :)

This is an "n" name but I named my son Westin David.  I have only met a few others.  Most people spell it Weston. 

When the hubby and I ever get pregnant, and if we have a boy his name will be Gabriel..  Another nice name that is not common but not weird is Russell (hubby's name)

If I get blessed to have a boy one day it is going to be Carter.

I also like:

Gage
Garrett
Colin

When I was pregnant the first time, we decided on a male and female name before I hit my 2nd trimester.  :o)  We just didn't tell anyone until we knew the sex so we wouldn't have to hear any comments.  Our son's name is Dylan Christopher Phoenix H. and our daughter's name is Cassidy Anna Rose H.  Those are both names we picked originally for my first pregnancy and we just lucked out to have a boy, then a girl so we got to use both names!

I chose Dylan and my hubby chose Cassidy.  Dylan's middle name of Christopher is my hubby's middle name, but we call him Chris and I didn't want 2 Chris' in the house. LOL  And I thought Phoenix sounded neat, so he got 2 middle names!

With Cassidy, Anna is after my grandma who died a few years ago and I was very, very close to her.  And Rose is after my hubby's grandma who died a few months prior to me dating my hubby in 1997 so I never got to meet her but hubby was close to her when he was younger. 

I am like you, I didn't want a weird spelling for a name.  It drives me crazy because my name is Stacy and it's actually the 'boys' spelling.  And this is going to sound stupid, but growing up I could never find anything in a souvenir shop or any 'girly' things with my name on it because they all were spelled 'StacEy'.  I am a loon, I know.  LOL  So I wanted my kids to have names that weren't too popular, but weren't too out there either.

Good luck with your name!

Hubby and I have already picked out a boy and girl name. We arent preggers yet and no kids so I know I will get to use at least one of them. I personally like less common names. My name is Rachel and growing up in a Jewish day school there were like 7 Rachels in my class. I dont wanna do that to me kids. I also decided that I have to like what the name means. I am very into that. My hubby wants our children to have hebrew names. So here is what we picked.

For a boy... his english name will be Gabriel Robert... It means G-d gave me strength and fame. Robert was my fathers english name. and his hebrew name will be Gavriel Chiam which means G-d has given me strength and life.  Not such bad things to have I guess lol

For a girl... her english name will be Layla Elizabeth which means The dark beauty G-d's promissed me. Her hebrew name will be Ahuva Bracha which means my beloved blessing.

The english name meanings are kinda funny but the hebrew ones are kinda beautiful.
I wish you much success in chosing a name for your boy.

I like Gavin, Patrick, Gabriel, Joshua, Eric, Robert, Charles, Jaccob, and all the names ending in N!!! lol I didnt realize how many there were until your post lol. Keep us posted as to what you choose!

Yes, the name game is very hard...so many decisions, and so much pressure to not pick the *wrong* one. Here are a few classics that I could think of which should fall into the criteria...in the end whatver you choose will be pefrect I am sure...

David
James
Samuel
Robert
Micah
Spencer
Reid/Reed
Andrew
William
Xavier
Brice

Hi Samara--

I think you have mind-reading skills...one of the names on your list is my husband's first name....and is bound to be either the first or middle name of our son. (My vote is for the middle name.) Several of the names you listed are on our list.

--Paula

Jace
Drew
Lane
Riley
Carter
Chase
Sam
Jack
Oliver
Dane
Leif


That's all I could come up with.  I just realized that my two kids have names ending in "n"  lol. 

Sandy