# How Did/Will You Name Your Kids?



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Sep 28, 2005)

Well - I don't have any kids, yet.  But my mother would love it if I did.  I was home for a visit over the weekend and she kept giving me the "I really want some grand kids!  Get busy!" speech... which got me thinking about naming babies.

How did you pick the names for your kids/what are your kids names?  

I would like a son name Riker... I would also like a daughter named Amethyst.  I picked those names because I like Star Trek and because I think that Amethyst is pretty (mostly because it can be shortened to Ammy and I think that's cute)...

Also - share your favorite baby names if you don't have kids already!


----------



## Abstraction (Sep 28, 2005)

We named our daughter Serena. It's embarassing, but we got the name from Sailor Moon. We aren't big Sailor Moon fans, we both just liked the name. It was important to us to pick a name that wasn't _too_ common, like Jane. It also couldn't be bizarre.

It's a good thing we didn't have a boy, because we never could agree. My wife wanted these creative names that were gaelic or classic and I kept saying "No, no, no. If you name the kid Tristam, he will get beaten up at school for sure." This is very important for men, that their son can't have a wussy name.


----------



## DungeonmasterCal (Sep 28, 2005)

We named our son Connor (Connor MacNessa after reading "Red Branch" by Morgan Llewellyn). His middle names are Elijah and Neil...the first being the name of a really sweet old man my wife knew as a child and the other being my middle name and my dad's middle name.


----------



## reveal (Sep 28, 2005)

1) Have kids when you're ready not because other people want you to. We were married 5 years before we tought about having kids.

2) My son's name is Duncan Scott Law. The Law family has a long Scottish heritage. My wife and I each made a list of 5 names. Duncan was on the top of mine and was one of hers. Scott came about because of the Scottish heritage. I was going to recommend Scot but I figured that would be weird. Plus Duncan Scott Law sounds really cool when you yell it at a kid getting in trouble.


----------



## Angel Tarragon (Sep 28, 2005)

I want a bunch of kids! At least 5 of each. I want to name one of my boys after me (not sure if that would be the II or III, my dad is Sr., I'm Jr.) and another Clark. I would like to name three of my daughter Dusk, Minh and Ariah.


----------



## devilish (Sep 28, 2005)

My daughter was indirectly named after Spiderman's first girlfriend, Gwendolyn.
I offered it up one night while my wife was pregnant after reading a new
Spiderman comic ... 
Her: "Gwendolyn...Gwen... I like it, where'd you get it?"
Me: "Uh, er...I just thought it up ... "   
My wife picked "Claire" as her middle name b/c she liked it.

I wanted to name my son after my Dad but my brother was named after him
so my wife didn't want the confusion.  So he was given my father's middle name
as first name, and her father's first name as a middle name ( ?! ?!) 
William John.

And though his name sounds like a throw away from a Robin Hood novel, we love
him still!

-D


----------



## Desdichado (Sep 28, 2005)

Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
			
		

> Well - I don't have any kids, yet.  But my mother would love it if I did.  I was home for a visit over the weekend and she kept giving me the "I really want some grand kids!  Get busy!" speech... which got me thinking about naming babies.



No, no no!  It's supposed to get you thinking about sex!


			
				Queen_Doppy said:
			
		

> How did you pick the names for your kids/what are your kids names?



Sadly, it was a very long and difficult process for us, and at the end of the day, I ended up conceding to my wife after she had given up all her ideas that I absolutely would not accept.  My oldest son is named Spencer Joshua (Dyal)--Spencer being both a name we both liked and someone we both admired.  Joshua, of course, is me.

My daughter came next, and we named her Jessica Michelle.  In many ways, that's the name we're the most disappointed with, although we can't imagine her with any other name.  Jessica got picked because it's a name my wife liked and I didn't mind, but it was a fairly last minute change from Breanne, which I liked better.  My wife actually regrets the change.  Michelle is my wife's middle name.

Next we had Alexander Williams Dyal.  He was named so that his initials would be AWD and we could call him All Wheel Drive.  OK, not really, although we did make that joke a lot when he was a baby.  Alexander was just a name we both liked; we wanted something longer and classic, and I always figured he'd go on to conquer most of the known world by the time he turns thirty.  Williams is my wife's maiden name.  My wife's younger sister also had a boy and gave him the middle name William, claiming that it is sorta a riff on the maiden name, but we don't do things half-assed like that in my family.  If we're giving him the maiden name as a middle name, we're giving him the actual maiden name, not something close to it!

My last is named Logan Taylor.  By this point, we were kinda running out of boy names that had any real emotional signifigance to us, so we just picked names we liked.  Plus, we can say he's named after Wolverine if we want.

For nicknames, we very seldom call Spencer Spence, but Jessica gets Jess and Jessie all the time.  Alexander gets Alex from my wife, and I try to call him Zander more often, but I end up using Alex a fair amount.  Logan goes by Logs and Logers, all with a long o and a hard g a lot.


----------



## Kahuna Burger (Sep 28, 2005)

We didn't find out ahead of time if the meatball (who was prenatally known as "lump") would be male or female. I had a girl name all picked out (Katherine Ernestine. Katherine has always been my favorite name and we could call her Kitty, and Ernestine is my mom's middle name and my own) and I told the hubby he had to come up with a boy name. It was like pulling teeth! I would read through baby name books and everything got "ugh!" or "eh". He didn't want a junior, he didn't want to name him after his dad because there's too many "john"s in the family already, he didn't like any uncommon names but the common ones were too common, it was hell....  :\ 

I can't remember exactly when or how we settled on Henry. Its his father's middle name which got it tossed up for discussion, but I think the hubby just liked the solid feel of it, and I was good with him just making a decision. We grabbed the hubby's middle name and hyphenated our last names.   (the last name thing was the subject of much polling and pop quizzes for everyone I knew as we tried to work out order and method of combination.)


----------



## linnorm (Sep 28, 2005)

Our first daughter we named Katiyanna Marie from a book I read in high school and my (at the time recently) deceased grandmother.  Daughter two was named Anika JoLynn because my wife thought Anika was a pretty name and JoLynn is an combination of our mother's middle names.  Our son is Ivan Arthur the fifth, something I decided when I was a kid.  It was important to me that all of the kids had at least some part of their name come from a deceased family member.  It's a tradition and it helps tie the family together.


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Sep 28, 2005)

reveal said:
			
		

> 1) Have kids when you're ready not because other people want you to. We were married 5 years before we tought about having kids.




Wouldn't dream of it!  I would really like to have our first child now, but I know that we just can't afford it time-wise.  But - we're good and young and have lots of time to have babies (I want three)!

Though - my favorite thing about getting married young is the fact that *everyones* response is, "Oh... Married at 19?  Do you have any children."


----------



## reveal (Sep 28, 2005)

Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
			
		

> Wouldn't dream of it!  I would really like to have our first child now, but I know that we just can't afford it time-wise.  But - we're good and young and have lots of time to have babies (I want three)!
> 
> Though - my favorite thing about getting married young is the fact that *everyones* response is, "Oh... Married at 19?  Do you have any children."




You want three now. Wait till you have one. 

I know a lot of folks who have multiple kids but one is just fine with me.


----------



## JimAde (Sep 28, 2005)

It doesn't matter what you name your kids.  What's important is the embarrasing nickname you can hang on them.  My kids have pretty standard real names, but I invariable call them "peanut head" and "the monkey".

My daughter Karen (age 7) has recently informed me that I can continue to call her "Peanut" at home, but I should call her "Karen" in public. 

Zach hasn't objected to "Monkey man" yet.


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Sep 28, 2005)

reveal said:
			
		

> You want three now. Wait till you have one.
> 
> I know a lot of folks who have multiple kids but one is just fine with me.



 I always wanted to be an only child.  My brother was born when I was 7 and I *hated* him at the time.  When he was 3 months old, I got chicken pox.  I snuck into his room late at night and rubbed myself on him.  I'm a horrible, evil person.  So - I hope to avoid hatred by leaving a little less space between them.   But - I suppose - this sort of planning might just be something girls do... 

My brother's name is Laramy.  My mom wanted to name him Larry (my dad's name, grandpa's name, great grandpa's name, and on and on).  My dad wanted to name him Jeremy.  I suggested combining them.  Hence - Laramy.


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Sep 28, 2005)

JimAde said:
			
		

> It doesn't matter what you name your kids.  What's important is the embarrasing nickname you can hang on them.  My kids have pretty standard real names, but I invariable call them "peanut head" and "the monkey".
> 
> My daughter Karen (age 7) has recently informed me that I can continue to call her "Peanut" at home, but I should call her "Karen" in public.
> 
> Zach hasn't objected to "Monkey man" yet.



 My dad always just called me "Princess"... hehehe... think it went to my head.


----------



## reveal (Sep 28, 2005)

Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
			
		

> My dad always just called me "Princess"... hehehe... think it went to my head.




"Gooberhead" and "Monkeybutt" are two I'm proud to call my son.


----------



## Angel Tarragon (Sep 28, 2005)

reveal said:
			
		

> "Gooberhead" and "Monkeybutt" are two I'm proud to call my son.



My dad is fond of calling my sister chickenbutt.


----------



## Lobo Lurker (Sep 28, 2005)

My daughter is named Lorelei Noelia. I always liked the name and the spelling is unusual.

If I have another daughter, I kind of like the name Genevieve.


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Sep 28, 2005)

reveal said:
			
		

> "Gooberhead" and "Monkeybutt" are two I'm proud to call my son.



 I call my dog Farty McPooperton and Stinky McSmellerton... he's kind of like my kid... but smaller, furrier, and - well - doggier.


----------



## Crothian (Sep 28, 2005)

If I ever have triplet daughters they will be named Buffy, Willow, and Cordelia.


----------



## Angel Tarragon (Sep 28, 2005)

Crothian said:
			
		

> If I ever have triplet daughters they will be named Buffy, Willow, and Cordelia.



Somehow I don't find this surprising.


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Sep 28, 2005)

Crothian said:
			
		

> If I ever have triplet daughters they will be named Buffy, Willow, and Cordelia.



 Willow is actually a very pretty name, but I know a girl named Willow... and because I've known her longer than Buffy ran, she forms my first impression of "Willow"... and she was the creepy girl that didn't shower in high school.

... my mom tried to name me Blossom, but my dad refused and insisted on Elizabeth.  If I wanted a "damned hippie name" I could adopt it when I grew up.


----------



## nakia (Sep 28, 2005)

Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
			
		

> ... my mom tried to name me Blossom, but my dad refused and insisted on Elizabeth.  If I wanted a "damned hippie name" I could adopt it when I grew up.




Speaking of 'damne hippie names", my brother was close to being called Santana Abraxis Pope, especially if he had been a girl.


----------



## Crothian (Sep 28, 2005)

I'm also thinking of naming my first son after me, excpt make him the second since I'm the third (not that I really am, but on some official papers I be).  Sort of do a Zaphod Beeblebrox thing there.


----------



## Kahuna Burger (Sep 28, 2005)

Crothian said:
			
		

> I'm also thinking of naming my first son after me, excpt make him the second since I'm the third (not that I really am, but on some official papers I be).  Sort of do a Zaphod Beeblebrox thing there.



"There was an accident with a time machine and a contraceptive, now concentrate!"


----------



## Angel Tarragon (Sep 28, 2005)

Kahuna Burger said:
			
		

> "There was an accident with a time machine and a contraceptive, now concentrate!"



LOL!


----------



## fuindordm (Sep 28, 2005)

One daughter, Emma Gwendoline.

We looked through books and talked about them.  Surprisingly few of the names grabbed either of us.  For a daughter, my wife wanted a name ending in -ine (four of the women in her immediate family are Corrine, Adeline, Nadine, Sandrine), and we both liked the sound of that one.  My wife has also always had a fondness for the name Emma, which has good connotations for her from various literature (Jane Austen, Emma Bovary, and of course Emma Peel), and that also jived well with my family's series of unusual female E-names (Edris, Elva, and a couple of others farther back).

So we had two names we liked, and we didn't decide what order to put them in until we met her.  It's a good thing she turned out to be a girl, because we never came to an agreement for a boy's name.

So to sum up, we both liked the idea of having a name that followed a family phonetic pattern, rather like the lines of kings in Tolkien's appendices.   But we also looked at the meanings of the names, what the nicknames would likely be, and so on.  Emma had the advantage of being short enough that it probably wouldn't get nicknamed.

Dunno if we'll ever have a second.   One is already more than a handful!  Some couples get the easygoing, calm baby first, but that wasn't our luck.  Emma is as strong-willed as all her namesakes rolled into one!  She's lucky she's cute, that's all I'm saying.

Ben


----------



## Zaryus (Sep 28, 2005)

I'd just name my kids something that the other kids in daycare can't pronounce. Throw in some letters, some numbers and maybe some punctuations and voila! You got an amazing name right there.


----------



## MonsterMash (Sep 28, 2005)

Random naming tables of course!


In reality it'd probably be the usual mix on family/friends names and what sounded right.


----------



## Angel Tarragon (Sep 28, 2005)

MonsterMash said:
			
		

> Random naming tables of course!



For this you will want to pick up the Races Of.... series.


----------



## Bront (Sep 28, 2005)

I was always a big fan of Moonunit myself...


----------



## Barendd Nobeard (Sep 28, 2005)

Abstraction said:
			
		

> We named our daughter Serena. It's embarassing, but we got the name from Sailor Moon. We aren't big Sailor Moon fans, we both just liked the name. It was important to us to pick a name that wasn't _too_ common, like Jane. It also couldn't be bizarre.




The thing about "common" names is that sometimes you pick it the year it explodes in popularity.

My sister is named Heather.  Which I thought was very unusual in 1970.  So did the other 20 million people who named a daughter "Heather" that year.  Same thing for my daughter, Kaitlin.  We thought it was unusual, but a lot of people used it (or some variation) in 1990.

Our son's name isn't too common: Eamonn.  But, of course, there is another Eamonn in his class (wtih an older sister named Kaitlin).  Who'd'a'thunk?!!


----------



## smootrk (Sep 29, 2005)

Names are important.  There are studies that link names with behaviors or mannerisms.  The American Indians would make names to aid the individual in their lives.  When someone has a strong sounding name, the individual often takes on a strong personality or becomes physically strong.

My wife and I named our son, Michelangelo.  And my best friend and his wife actually named their son Maximus.  I expect him to have a very strong personality, since his parents are both very small people.


----------



## JBowtie (Sep 29, 2005)

I picked out Cecily Rose after reading "The Importance of Being Earnest" (http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/tiobe10h.htm). It was very important that she be named after a character in the public domain.

My wife and I decided on it about five minutes after we started dating - seven years before we were married and a decade before our daughter was born. She's only 1.6 years old, so no embarrassing nicknames yet.


----------



## reveal (Sep 29, 2005)

Bront said:
			
		

> I was always a big fan of Moonunit myself...


----------



## Dungannon (Sep 29, 2005)

When my sons were born, their mother and I went back and forth about their names.  She had a thing for unusual names & spellings and I wanted something a bit more mainstream. At least for the first names.  For the middle names we used names with familial significance. We compromised a little on both boys, the first being named Devon Edward (Edward is my middle name, my grandfather's middle name, and my ex-wife's father's first name).  The second is named Dakota Joseph (Joseph is my father's middle name, my grandfather's first name, and my ex-wife's oldest brother's first name).  For nicknames we use Dev & Kota.


----------



## Angel Tarragon (Sep 29, 2005)

reveal said:
			
		

>



That reminds me of a friend I used to have.


----------



## talinthas (Sep 29, 2005)

one thing i've never understood about western naming conventions is the middle name.  in my culture, your middle name is your father's name, or your husband's name.  and it's pretty much never ever referred to.  Is there some significance to western middle names?


----------



## smootrk (Sep 29, 2005)

talinthas said:
			
		

> one thing i've never understood about western naming conventions is the middle name.  in my culture, your middle name is your father's name, or your husband's name.  and it's pretty much never ever referred to.  Is there some significance to western middle names?



No significance at all in most cases.  Usually just as endearments to relatives or interesting names.

My wife's culture moves the maiden name (family name) to the middle name position when marrying.  So she went from Michelle Annabelle Atilano to Michelle Atilano Smoot upon marrying me.  It is a nice custom and helps to keep a family identity or connection through the generations.


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Sep 29, 2005)

talinthas said:
			
		

> one thing i've never understood about western naming conventions is the middle name.  in my culture, your middle name is your father's name, or your husband's name.  and it's pretty much never ever referred to.  Is there some significance to western middle names?



 None that I'm aware of, though I'm sure you trace it back to *somewhere*... 

For the most part, I think of it as a way to honor a familiy member or friend without having to actually *call* the child that particular name.


----------



## Raven Wintervale (Sep 29, 2005)

Well for my daughter I have to name. Priss (after priss from Bubble Gum Crisis and Blade Runner)

And for my son I'd have to go with Dante


----------



## drothgery (Sep 29, 2005)

talinthas said:
			
		

> one thing i've never understood about western naming conventions is the middle name.  in my culture, your middle name is your father's name, or your husband's name.  and it's pretty much never ever referred to.  Is there some significance to western middle names?




Not really.
My middle name is the same as my father's, and my grandfather's (and the only stipulations I've got on names in the extremely unlikely event I'm a father at some point is to continue this with the first boy, and that either the first or middle name should be fairly short and reasonably common and/or easy to spell).
One of my brothers has my grandfather's first name as his middle name; the other has my uncle's first name as his middle name (because they've got the same birthday).
My older sister's middle name was just something my parents liked.
My little sister's middle name was just an artifact of the holiday she was born on.


----------



## Aries_Omega (Sep 29, 2005)

I have two kids. My oldest is my son. We both looked in a baby book and made lists of like 100 names. We whittled it down to two and I think we did best out of three rock/paper/scissors and I lost. My wife was a very gracious winner and allowed my idea for middle names. This worked with both kids. 

Now the middle names are interesting. I don't have one. My dad is of Latino origins thusly has a very long legal name and hated that. With my son he has two middle names. One for each grandfather with mine being the first one. 

We were going to do the same thing for my daughter but when we informed the mother-in-laws of our intentions they both did not like the idea. We were going to go with middle names but that wasn't going to work. One mother's middle name was May and the other was June Eris. My mother had two middle names. So we went one generation back. One grandmother's was Olga the other was named India. Olga is a variation on Olivia. Olivia India didn't flow well, but my grandmother's middle name Eris did. I recall explaining to my wife who Eris was but she swore I never told her years later. So my son was named Marcus Roberto Redmond and my daughter is named Jaelin Olivia Eris. The meaning of the names fit I feel.

Bottom line...it will come to you. Just relax your mind and let it happen.


----------



## DaveStebbins (Sep 29, 2005)

We didn't have any real choices pre-picked, except my wife wanted a daughter to have the same middle name as her and her mom (Lee). So, we looked through name books until we found ones we liked. Our girl name was Emma Lee (which wasn't popular at all when we chose it in 1991; Emma's one of the most popular these days - we like to think we started that    ). I think our boy name was Dillon Thomas. Dillon was the closest to a name we could agree on and Thomas is my father-in-law's name. We were much happier with our girl name, so I'm glad I have a daughter.

-Dave 
(who isn't going to mention a last name, because that might not be safe on the internet    )


----------



## Dimwhit (Sep 29, 2005)

DaveStebbins said:
			
		

> We didn't have any real choices pre-picked, except my wife wanted a daughter to have the same middle name as her and her mom (Lee). So, we looked through name books until we found ones we liked. Our girl name was Emma Lee (which wasn't popular at all when we chose it in 1991; Emma's one of the most popular these days - we like to think we started that    ). I think our boy name was Dillon Thomas. Dillon was the closest to a name we could agree on and Thomas is my father-in-law's name. We were much happier with our girl name, so I'm glad I have a daughter.
> 
> -Dave
> (who isn't going to mention a last name, because that might not be safe on the internet    )



 I felt duty-bound to give my children names that wouldn't cause them to hate me when I grew up.

We wanted mainstream names with short nicknames. We went with Samantha and Maxwell. I wanted Maximillian...


----------



## CronoDekar (Sep 29, 2005)

Hmm, there's a lot of names I'm rather fond of that I'd use.  Phoenix, Diane, Vincent, Chance, and Hunter would all be nice.  A guy I game with had PCs named Tirem and Alys, and I've always liked those names too.  Though, this is just hypothetical as I don't currently have any aspirations of having any children.  Maybe I could make some suggestions though if I were to become an uncle


----------



## DaveMage (Sep 29, 2005)

My first born, Benjamin Jacob, was named after both of his maternal great-grandfathers.

My second, Samuel Ethan, was just a name we both liked.    

(Neither my wife nor I have fond memories of our paternal grandfathers.)


----------



## ElvishBard (Sep 29, 2005)

Dimwhit said:
			
		

> I felt duty-bound to give my children names that wouldn't cause them to hate me when I grew up.
> 
> We wanted mainstream names with short nicknames. We went with Samantha and Maxwell. I wanted Maximillian...




Do you mean when they grow up?  Or do you want them to have funny names you can make fun of and not care about until you grow up?


----------



## Uzumaki (Sep 29, 2005)

Argh! Don't have babies! Adopt! Adopt! 

If I acquire kids, I probably won't get the chance to name them, because they'll be older kids whom no one ever wants to adopt. If I could rename them, though, I would name the boys Napoleon, Lafayette, Luche (Loo-shay), Mikael (meeka-el), Hero, Allouitious, and Cyanide. Girls would be Sarin (sticking with the toxic compounds), Silverblue, Elijah (after Heydricus' cohort   ), and Tae.


----------



## Rel (Sep 29, 2005)

Unlike most folks these days, we opted not to find out the gender of our child in advance of her birth (I make no value judgement here.  It's just what we did.).  As such we had picked out both boy and girl names.

The boy name we struggled with at length.  We both liked Jacob as a first name but we battled over the middle name for some time.  I don't recall what stupid name my lovely wife wanted but I recall that I liked it a lot less than the cool name that I'd picked out: Beowulf.  Jacob Beowulf.  What a totally badass name that would have been.  But my wife absolutely insisted that Beowulf not be his name.  She was named by hippies and while I think her name (Morgana Talltree) is completely wicked, she had to endure a lot of teasing growing up.

So we were still undecided on the middle name when I went off on a scuba diving trip about 3 months before the due date.  There I was one night, sitting on a boat off the Florida Keys after a night dive and looking up at the stars and it came to me:  Orion.  Jacob Orion.  Home I went with my awesome new name.

My wife met me at the door with a hug and a kiss and the announcement that she had thought of a boy name and I told her that I had too.  Then I said, "You go first."  And she says to me, "Jacob _Orion_."  Stunned I was.  Stunned and certain that this was a sign from almighty GAWD that he was sending me the son that I'd always wanted...

...and then we had a girl and named her Samantha Rose like we'd always planned and I fell instantly and completely in love with her for the rest of my life and forgot all about ever wanting anything but this perfect, wonderful little girl.

The one interesting thing about my daughters name is that we always envisioned that we would call her "Sam" for short but since day one she has been a "Samantha" and we've never taken to shortening it.


----------



## Dimwhit (Sep 29, 2005)

Some day I'll check my posts before I click 'reply.'


----------



## billd91 (Sep 29, 2005)

For our first kid, we didn't know what the sex was going to be but my wife had very definite ideas on what to name her if she turned out to be a girl. She wanted to name her Holly Elizabeth after her oldest childhood friend (they had known each other since they were 9 months old, so a 29 year friendship). I wanted a good Irish name like Maura. For boys names, we were a little fuzzier but both liked Conor.
Turned out to be a girl and after the 36 hours of labor, I relented on the name to my wife's choice.

For our second kid, we told the ultrasound tech that it was OK to determine the baby's sex since we had already gone through the process of surprise with the first one. Turns out this one was a boy. Our first choice of names had changed over the years to Aiden, but Aiden has been wildly popular lately. I attribute this to the character in Sex in the City, but I'm not positive. So we decided we wanted something else. The middle name was already set at William because that's my name and that's been the growing family tradition: the son gets his dad's name as his middle name. 
One day, my wife stumbles on a name and emails me. It's one we hadn't thought of, is a little unusual but is kind of nice and cool. We talk about it with other people and their reactions are all the same: a little surprise, but ultimately thinking the name is kind of cool. So we ran with it. We named him Griffin and, while a bit different, it just kind of works. He just turned 1 year old a month ago and is going strong. We even got a Folkmanis puppet for him that's a griffon, and it's almost as big as he is.


----------



## Agback (Sep 29, 2005)

talinthas said:
			
		

> one thing i've never understood about western naming conventions is the middle name.  in my culture, your middle name is your father's name, or your husband's name.  and it's pretty much never ever referred to.  Is there some significance to western middle names?




There have from time to time been several different significances in various Western cultures.

At one time in France it was illegal to have a middle name. People got around this by hyphenating several names into one and making the compound the first name.

At one stage canon law allowed the priest performing a baptism to insert teh name of a saint or prophet as a middle name if he felt tht teh name given by the godparents was not sufficiently Christian.

And at one stage people started out without a middle name, but when they went through the ceremony of _confirmation_ they chose a patron saint and the saint's nae was inserted as their middle name.

In my family it was for some time customary for boys to be given their paternal grandmother's maiden name as a middle name. My relatives have thus ended up with such middle names as 'Ariel', 'Heyward', 'Ledyard', 'Stothert', and 'Strathern'. Fortunately, my brothers and I escaped 'Hewitt', and I have no intention of giving any sons I might have the middle name 'Paull'.


----------



## Pbartender (Sep 29, 2005)

Dimwhit said:
			
		

> I felt duty-bound to give my children names that wouldn't cause them to hate me when I grew up.
> 
> We wanted mainstream names with short nicknames. We went with Samantha and Maxwell. I wanted Maximillian...




This about how we looked at it too...  So many of my contemporaries go by their middle names, because their parents insisted on giving them an embarrassingly "original" or "unusual" first name.

Our surname is unusual enough that my kids didn't need unusual first names, and I never wanted them to be ashamed of what we named them...

David Matthew and Katherine Elizabeth.

No particular reason...  The names just suited them.


----------



## Desdichado (Sep 29, 2005)

Rel said:
			
		

> She was named by hippies and while I think her name (Morgana Talltree) is completely wicked, she had to endure a lot of teasing growing up.



Yes.  Thank you.  Morgan*a* is a female name.  Morgan is _not_  That is a personal pet peeve of mine; my wife really wants to name another daughter Morgan (not that we have any plans to have any more kids, but my wife did miscarry a few months ago; she'd be 8½ months pregnant right now if she hadn't) and I keep insisting that we're not giving any girls a boy's name.  Or vice versa for that matter.


			
				Rel said:
			
		

> The one interesting thing about my daughters name is that we always envisioned that we would call her "Sam" for short but since day one she has been a "Samantha" and we've never taken to shortening it.



For some reason my dad always shortened my sister's name to "Bantha."  I don't remember him doing this before _Star Wars_ came out (although I was only five when it came out; maybe he did and I just don't remember it).  I'm not quite sure how you get from Samantha to Bantha, but I always thought that was kinda funny.  Especially considering that my dad claims to hate kitschy nicknames--everyone in my family goes by their full first name, at least among family.  Nobody calls me Josh; it's always Joshua.  Yet somehow, my sister was always Bantha to my dad.

Granted, none of the rest of us called her that, though.


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Sep 29, 2005)

I have two girlfriends named Morgan... I've always thought of it as a girls name (but then, I've known one female Morgan for my entire life...


----------



## Desdichado (Sep 29, 2005)

You're not helping, QueenD!


----------



## reveal (Sep 29, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> You're not helping, QueenD!




I got your back. 

http://www.medievalscotland.org/problem/names/morgan.shtml



> Morgan
> 
> This name is the crux of much confusion, and it will surpise many people to learn that the common given name Morgan is entirely unrelated to the Arthurian Morgain.
> 
> ...




Emphasis added.


----------



## Thornir Alekeg (Sep 29, 2005)

For my wife and I, it was fairly simple.  For a girl, there was a name that I always liked and had said I would like to use for my daughter.  Coincidentally, my wife wanted to use the same name, but for her it was a tribute to her cousin who died of cancer many years ago.  

For a boy, my wife wanted to name him after me, but I've always hated the "Jr." thing, so we decided we would reverse my middle and first names.  

Of course now, should we decide to have a third child, we will be stuck trying to figure something out for both a boy and girls name since we've used the easy options.


----------



## JimAde (Sep 29, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> I'm not quite sure how you get from Samantha to Bantha, but I always thought that was kinda funny.




Probably via a little kid (you, maybe?) with a head cold:

Samanthana -> 'Mantha (little kid pronunciation) -> Bantha (Head cold)

Makes perfect sense to me.


----------



## BiggusGeekus (Sep 29, 2005)

After going down a long list of names we basically eliminated all the ones we didn't like.  As an aside, I ran down ex-girlfriend's names past my wife without telling her that they were ex-girlfriends.  Anyway, we came up with the following list:

Sarah Elizabeth (her choice)
Hannah Jane (my choice)
Madaline (her choice, no middle name)

Madaline was out because I couldn't pronouce it to her satisfaction.  So that left Sarah and Hannah.  Sarah had a strike against it because Sarah is also the name of one of our cats.  Hannah had a strike against it because "Hannah Jane" is the name of a song by Hootie and the Blowfish and my wife was appalled by that notion.

Anyway, the pregnacy was a rough one.  My wife ended up spending six weeks in the hospital. When the baby was finally born, I was led off to the ward to name the baby.  My wife was exauhsted and didn't care at that point.  My baby girl's eyes looked exactly like her mother's so I felt that was a sign and named her Sarah Elizabeth.

A week later Sarah's eyes lighted up and now look like mine.  So we figure that she just really liked the name Sarah and came out with dark eyes just to make sure I wouldn't screw up and name her wrong. 

All of which is a long winded way of saying we named her after the cat.


----------



## jezter6 (Sep 29, 2005)

I played mini golf for the rights to name my son.

No, seriously. I had Blake in mind and my fiancee had something else in mind, and we couldn't agree...so we played mini golf for the rights to name the kid.

Only game of mini golf I ever won against her too.


----------



## KB9JMQ (Sep 29, 2005)

My almost 7 year old is Luke Harrison Lyon. The Luke is from (you guessed it) Luke Skywalker (my wife and I are huge fans). The Harrison part is my grandfather's name.

My almost 4 year old is Elijah Wayne Lyon. No particular reason for Elijah we just really liked it. Wayne is my wife's grandfather's name.

My to be born on or near Nov 2. will be Michael Keith Lyon. Michael is just a name we like and Keith is my middle name.

Reveal - My Luke was almost a Duncan. Changed at the last minute. They were both tied for first place


----------



## reveal (Sep 29, 2005)

KB9JMQ said:
			
		

> My almost 7 year old is Luke Harrison Lyon. The Luke is from (you guessed it) Luke Skywalker (my wife and I are huge fans). The Harrison part is my grandfather's name.
> 
> My almost 4 year old is Elijah Wayne Lyon. No particular reason for Elijah we just really liked it. Wayne is my wife's grandfather's name.
> 
> ...




Tell the truth, you love saying "Luke. I am your father."


----------



## KB9JMQ (Sep 29, 2005)

reveal said:
			
		

> Tell the truth, you love saying "Luke. I am your father."




All the time     Someday he will probably end up in a battle with  me over it


----------



## Desdichado (Sep 29, 2005)

BiggusGeekus said:
			
		

> All of which is a long winded way of saying we named her after the cat.



At least you're in good company, naming kids after pets.  Indianna Jones and all that.


----------



## reveal (Sep 29, 2005)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> At least you're in good company, naming kids after pets.  Indianna Jones and all that.




Sallah: Please, what does it always mean, this... this "Junior"?
Professor Henry Jones: That's his name.
[points to himself]
Professor Henry Jones: Henry Jones...
[points to Indy]
Professor Henry Jones: ... Junior.
Indiana Jones: I like "Indiana."
Professor Henry Jones: We named the *dog* Indiana.
Marcus Brody: May we go home now, please?
Sallah: The dog? You are named after the dog?
Indiana Jones: I've got a lot of fond memories of that dog.


----------



## Shallown (Sep 29, 2005)

My wife picked Gabrielle as the first name and my choice was Elisabeth. I didn't care if it was first or second name honestly.

Of course it was shortened to gabby and Gabs before she was even born.

I picked Elisabeth because it had the most versatility when it came to nicknames. Most people don't get to choose their name so I wanted my daughter to have some options so she could choose liz, lisa, beth, lissa or some variation.

later


----------



## wingnut_dc (Sep 29, 2005)

For our first boy we couldn't agree on a name. One night we were watching a new show and one of the main characters walked in to a room with his friends and one turned to him and said 'Hey Devereaux'. We both turned and looked at each other and said thats it. My Wife wanted a strong sounding middle name and we went with Kale. So our first ended up Devereaux Kale Gafkjen.

My second we named after Connor McCloud of the Hylander movie (one of my wife's favorite movies). She wanted it to be Connor McCloud Gafkjen but I didn't like it, so we went with my first name as his middle and ended up with Connor Thomas Gafkjen.

My wife said if we had a third son she wants his name to be Bane.


----------



## billd91 (Sep 29, 2005)

reveal said:
			
		

> http://www.medievalscotland.org/problem/names/morgan.shtml
> 
> In pre-modern records, the name Morgan is always masculine. It had a modest popularity in medieval Wales, neither one of the favorite names nor particularly rare. In the 20th century, the name is commonly used in the USA by women as well as men. I don't know whether this is also true in Britain. Modern Welsh name books still consider the name exclusively masculine. [Gruffudd]




Modern Welsh name books are apparently out of touch. A quick search of British national statistics puts Morgan in the top 75 girls names for the 21st century (it fluxuates between 58 and 73, clustering around 60, from 2000 to 2004). It clusters around the same ranking for boys as well, bottoming out at 65.
The vox pops have spoken, and Morgan is definitely an androgenous name.


----------



## Desdichado (Sep 29, 2005)

billd91 said:
			
		

> The vox pops have spoken, and Morgan is definitely an androgenous name.



I'm also vehemently against giving any of our kids androgynous names.  Although we have an Alexander, and he mostly gets called Alex, which has become kinda androgynous.   :\ 

But when he conquers the world, I'm sure he'll put a stop to that right quick.


----------



## Desdichado (Sep 29, 2005)

reveal said:
			
		

> Sallah: The dog? You are named after the dog?
> Indiana Jones: I've got a lot of fond memories of that dog.



And it's not entirely fictional--apparently George Lucas actually had a favorite dog named Indiana that he's named after.  Big ole Alaskan Malamute or something like that.


----------



## reveal (Sep 29, 2005)

billd91 said:
			
		

> Modern Welsh name books are apparently out of touch. A quick search of British national statistics puts Morgan in the top 75 girls names for the 21st century (it fluxuates between 58 and 73, clustering around 60, from 2000 to 2004). It clusters around the same ranking for boys as well, bottoming out at 65.
> The vox pops have spoken, and Morgan is definitely an androgenous name.




British != Welsh.


----------



## JimAde (Sep 29, 2005)

As long as you don't name your kids like these people.


----------



## Blue_Kryptonite (Sep 29, 2005)

I was almost Adam. My mom named me after the son of the best friend on the Donna Reed show. (Ref above: Last names safe on internet, commonality of unusual names) My name is Scott Smith. I was born in 1966. Look up the frequency. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





I should have been Robert Sherman John. I am not.  My father was Sherman Robert John. His father's "White" name (fullblood Seneca) was Robert Sherman John. My Grandfather's "White" name was Sherman Robert John...   I owe my mom that much.

It was very important to us to give our children no real hooks into out families. We're the "White sheep" of our families, Kryptowife being an only and my three brothers all being like me (strong code of honor and sense of right and wrong, not to mention IQs above "sheep" level). 

I do like the family tradition on both sides of having two middle names. 

We were going to name our oldest Aaron Michael Peter, but my gene donors decried it as "Too black", "too Irish" (Part of the family is Scottish), and "too Jewish". You wonder why we wanted unrelated names like my own? Thanks, Mom, even though you were the one who made us change it by threatening to cut off all contact and assistance (We were penniless at the time, young college students planning a wedding. Surprise! 8 months pregnant. Thanks, irregular cycles.) We changed it to Allen Michael Peter. He is Allen, never Al. He will simply not deign to notice you if you call him Al.

The younger is Christopher David Sean. No changes. He's "Chris". Both boys were the result of assembling meanings from baby name books and comparing them with tonal flow. If we had ended up with a girl, she was going to be Alissa Sharon Marie.

My younger brother, Stephen Cristopher David named his kids Carolyn Dawn Marie "Carrie" and.... Steven Christopher David. Sigh. The kid is still under 13 and they already get each other's mail. I warned him about the problem. My brother was turned down for a loan because he had no credit history.  Of course, they pulled his son's.

My youngest brother Dennis Ryan Peter named his kids Spencer (which was supposed to be his original name), Gideon, Sebastian ( I don't remember their pairs of middle names, my wife does), and his daughter Moira Kathryn Dahling after "Hook". Another sigh, but, hey, whatever. 

Initially, my sons were supposed to be Clark Kent Kal-El Smith and Bruce Wayne Batman Smith, but there were threats of great violence, even after I offered to drop the second middle names. 

--BK, who also disenfranchised of a vote in changing our names legally when we got married.


----------



## elrobey (Sep 29, 2005)

My son has two first names, one middle name, one last name. His last name is my last name; his middle name is his mom's last name. His first names are "John Caius". That's Caius pronounced KEYS. It comes from Gonville & Caius College at Cambridge University, UK, where his parents first met. John is a common name in his mom's family -- her brother, father, and grandfather all have it. We call him Jack or (endearingly) Jackers now, but as he grows up (he's not yet 3) it'll be Jack.

We didn't settle on a name till 3 days after he was born, when the hospital made us name him before taking him home. John was in the running all along, though Emmet was the favorite (we also considered Edward and Henry). We didn't want plain John. Finally I suggested John Caius -- Caius is Latin for "Rejoice" -- and it clicked. I'd had that idea in my back pocket for years. Indeed, for years I'd joked that our dog Milo's middle name was Gonville.

So in a sense Jack was named, not *after* the dog per se, but *after the manner in which* the dog was named.

We are expecting a daughter in a few weeks! As with Jack, we won't name her till we are ready to take her home. But the favorites are Louise (my wife's grandmother's name) and Esme (just something unusual that we stumbled across and like). If we go with Louise we will call her Lucy, even though that's not a traditional nickname for Louise, but it's close enough. My guess is she'll be Esme Louise, though whether we'd call her Esme or Ezzie or Lucy I have no idea. John Caius and Esme Louise, I kind of like the symmetry there.

If she'd been a boy she'd have been Henry, and we'd have called her Harry or maybe Huck.


----------



## was (Sep 29, 2005)

My family usually picks the first and middle names of children by using the first names of loved ones who have passed away.


----------



## Tinner (Sep 29, 2005)

My parents had some very specific naming protocols for their kids.
First, none of us were to be named after my father. He had enough teasing as Lester all his life, and felt it should end with him.
They wanted all their children to have a Biblical first name.
Middle names were fair game, but had to fit with the first name.

So we have Deborah Lynn, Mark Alanr. Steven Andrew (me) and Kenneth Scott.
Deborah the prophetess/judge, Mark the Apostle, Steven the martyr, and Kenneth, named after the town Kennath.

My mother is named after Gone With the Wind actress Vivian Leigh, but spelled Vivien Lee

My sister and younger brother both tried the "same letter" method for their kids. My sister's brood consists of Alissabeth Kathryn, Anthony Patrick (the third), and Aidan (I forget).
My brother has Kaleb, and Kaden. Their newest - born last month was supposed to be either Konner, Konrad or Konstantin, but when his mom took her first look at him, she pronounced him Seth William, and he's been Seffers ever since.

My wife and I have already decided on some names for our hypothetical children.
For a girl we chose Winter Rose. Winter for the sound, and her VERY likely coloration (we are both pale-faces) Rose for my maternal grandmother's maiden name.

For a boy were are considering Dilandau James aka DJ. Dilandau from the anime series Escaflowne, and James from my best friend.
Kenneth Mark is a possibility, after my two brothers, as is Steven James, combining my name with my best friend's.

This may well change when we actually have a child!


----------



## warlord (Sep 29, 2005)

Ok kid names I'll start with potential names for my future son(s)

Cain 'cause I just like it. Although I get alot of wierd looks from my religion teacher about it being a twin.

Xander 'cause its cool and also there's a mild Buffy influence

Damien after the kiid from the Omen

And my personal favorite Sid Vicious.

As for girls names Fate or Faith.


----------



## Desdichado (Sep 29, 2005)

warlord said:
			
		

> Xander 'cause its cool and also there's a mild Buffy influence



I always thought so too.  That's what I call my second son--his name is Alexander, but we specifically agreed to that so my wife could call him Alex and I could call him Zander.


----------



## devilbat (Sep 29, 2005)

I have two daughter and a step-son.  while I obviously had nothing to do with the naming of the little guy, I played a small roll in my daughters names.  

I liked the names Reagan and Meagan, but I knew two girls with those names, and didn't want people thinking we named her after either of them.  So I just started putting variations of names like those together, and came up with Teagan.

My newest edition is nine weeks old and we named her Téa (pronounced Tay-a).  a name my wife has loved since she was a child.


----------



## The_Universe (Sep 29, 2005)

Farty McCrablice Bauman!


----------



## The_Universe (Sep 29, 2005)

But seriously, as the Queen mentions above, we have the first couple of names largely decided. My name is a combination of my two grandfather's (Vernon + Kenneth = Kennon), and my middle name is an homage to my paternal great grandfather: Carl. Both my father and I share the middle name, but I'm not sure if I want to continue the tradition exactly for any potential sons. So, the middle name will either be Carl, or Curtis (my Dad's first name) or Kenneth (my grandfather's first name, mentioned above). A second son would have "Dean" or "Garrett" somewhere in the name (probably the middle) in order to pay similar honor to my wife's lineage. 

As for girls, I read a comic book when I was in the fourth grade that had a princess named Amethyst (which I thought was cool, at the time) which is where the idea for naming a daughter Amethyst originates. Also, my wife's middle name is Jade, so I think it would be nice to continue naming the female members of my family after rocks. 

As of so far, we don't have a backup name for a girl. Maybe that's what we'll use "Farty McCrablice" for.


----------



## devilish (Sep 30, 2005)

The_Universe said:
			
		

> Farty McCrablice Bauman!




The Universe has spoken !!  And a fine name at that, too, sir!


Excellent Baby Name Website : NameVoyager (needs Java)
http://www.babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/

Allows you to search US Social Security name register since 1880's.
Morgan as a girl's name didn't come into the US until the 1960s
though was around since 1880 as a boy's name.


----------



## Xath (Sep 30, 2005)

I thought I had potential child names all picked out (at least 1 for each gender).  But then I got to talking to my SO, and he doesn't like any of the names I do.  And I don't like any of his names. 

My choices for girls were "Sora Elizabeth" and "Fiona Eleanor."  I also like the name Dierdre.  Boys would be "Benjamin Nethaniel" and "Daniel Christopher."

My SO likes the name "Ara" for a girl and "Dakkan" for a boy.  I'm not particularly fond of Dakkan, but Ara would be ok except for one thing.  Going through our files of old PC's and NPC's there are entirely too many Aras and Dakkans.  Especially evil Dakkans.  

However we've determined that we can legitimately name a son "Bruce Wayne" after his father, Bruce, and best friend, Keith Wayne.


----------



## devilbat (Sep 30, 2005)

I understand SO not liking choices of child names.  My wife threatened bodily harm if I continued to push for Shooter as my choice of boy's name.

I don't see anything wrong with it.


----------



## Thotas (Sep 30, 2005)

I'm one of those with no desire to reproduce.  And if I ever do, I'll have to negotiate with my future SO.  I'm sure my first three suggestions would just be me joking around ... really bad jokes, to the point where I'm no longer elligible for consultation when I finally am serious.


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Sep 30, 2005)

Shallown said:
			
		

> I picked Elisabeth because it had the most versatility when it came to nicknames. Most people don't get to choose their name so I wanted my daughter to have some options so she could choose liz, lisa, beth, lissa or some variation.
> 
> later




That is why I am so fond of my name.  I go by Liz, but I have so many more options!  Betty, Libby*, Liza, Eliza, and Lizzy are all valid nicknames for an Elizabeth (though I love the spelling with an "s").

*I go by Liz because that's what my friends in the 4th grade decided to call me... didn't really *choose* Liz as my nickname... if I had deliberately chosen a shortening of my own name, it would have been Libby.


----------



## Desdichado (Sep 30, 2005)

devilbat said:
			
		

> I understand SO not liking choices of child names.  My wife threatened bodily harm if I continued to push for Shooter as my choice of boy's name.
> 
> I don't see anything wrong with it.



I've never understood why my wife was so dead-set against Captain America Dyal.  We could have called him Cap for short.  I thought it was great!

She also didn't like my choices for two middle names for Spencer.  I liked Spencer Terrence Ulysses Dyal, or S.T.U.D.  She didn't go for that either.   :\


----------



## reveal (Sep 30, 2005)

Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
			
		

> That is why I am so fond of my name.  I go by Liz, but I have so many more options!  Betty, Libby*, Liza, Eliza, and Lizzy are all valid nicknames for an Elizabeth (though I love the spelling with an "s").
> 
> *I go by Liz because that's what my friends in the 4th grade decided to call me... didn't really *choose* Liz as my nickname... if I had deliberately chosen a shortening of my own name, it would have been Libby.




I always like Katherine. If we had had a girl, she would have been Katherine Rae.


----------



## fuindordm (Sep 30, 2005)

Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
			
		

> That is why I am so fond of my name.  I go by Liz, but I have so many more options!  Betty, Libby*, Liza, Eliza, and Lizzy are all valid nicknames for an Elizabeth (though I love the spelling with an "s").
> 
> *I go by Liz because that's what my friends in the 4th grade decided to call me... didn't really *choose* Liz as my nickname... if I had deliberately chosen a shortening of my own name, it would have been Libby.




I also knew an Elisabeth in college that used the nickname 'Bitsy'.

Ben


----------



## Aust Diamondew (Sep 30, 2005)

If I had a kid and it were a boy I'd name him after me as did my father and his father before him (I have a legacy to maintain   ).  If I had a girl I still might name her after me


----------



## Gnome (Sep 30, 2005)

My first son's name (Nick) was chosen to honor his maternal grandfather.  Hid middle name (Charles) was chosen to honor my grandfather.  Both grandfathers died before he was born.

My younger son's name (Justin Patrick) was chosen just because we liked the name.  We actually had a few names picked-out, and we decided to wait and see which one we thought he looked more like after he was born.  Suprizingly, we both agreed on which name he looked most like!


----------



## Old One (Sep 30, 2005)

We went with Alexander Joseph for our son and Lillian Grace for our daughter.  We actually agreed on them very quickly, with little fuss or muss.  We call them Alex and Lilly for short...but they are good "trouble" names...as in "Alexander Joseph...stop hitting your sister on her soft spot!" !

The week after our son was born, one of my Army buddies said..."Ahhh...going for the whole 'Alexander the Great' thing, right?"

I responded with a blank stare and then it dawned on me that AtG's father was named Phillip (my name).  Hadn't even occurred to during the whole child name picking process...I am embarrassed to refer to myself as a history buff now.

~ OO


----------



## Dougal DeKree (Sep 30, 2005)

We decided to name our son Wolf. It is an old name in germany and not too common. Apart from that we liked the "peter and the wolf" theme (my name is Peter) plus we are both werewolf fans...   

Dougal


----------



## Desdichado (Sep 30, 2005)

Old One said:
			
		

> The week after our son was born, one of my Army buddies said..."Ahhh...going for the whole 'Alexander the Great' thing, right?"
> 
> I responded with a blank stare and then it dawned on me that AtG's father was named Phillip (my name).  Hadn't even occurred to during the whole child name picking process...I am embarrassed to refer to myself as a history buff now.



Hope you don't get the same treatment from your son that your namesake in Macedonia did.


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Sep 30, 2005)

fuindordm said:
			
		

> I also knew an Elisabeth in college that used the nickname 'Bitsy'.
> 
> Ben



 Was she small?  Seems to me that someone that goes by Bitsy either needs to be very tiny or very not tiny...

My grandpa called me Little-Bit (sounds sort of like Elizabeth) for most of my childhood, but then I hit 8th grade and shot up to 5' 10" in what seems like overnight... couldn't call me that anymore.


----------



## billd91 (Sep 30, 2005)

reveal said:
			
		

> British != Welsh.





The British national stats were specifically on English and Welsh census data. And after so many centuries of integration, yes, I'd say the Welsh are definitely British. They may not be English, but British through and through.


----------



## Old One (Sep 30, 2005)

*Hehe...*



			
				Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> Hope you don't get the same treatment from your son that your namesake in Macedonia did.




Lies!  All Lies!  AtG was framed...he loved his father...really he did !

~ OO


----------



## Desdichado (Sep 30, 2005)

Old One said:
			
		

> Lies!  All Lies!  AtG was framed...he loved his father...really he did !



Yes, but it was tough love.


----------



## fuindordm (Sep 30, 2005)

Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
			
		

> Was she small?  Seems to me that someone that goes by Bitsy either needs to be very tiny or very not tiny...
> 
> My grandpa called me Little-Bit (sounds sort of like Elizabeth) for most of my childhood, but then I hit 8th grade and shot up to 5' 10" in what seems like overnight... couldn't call me that anymore.




It does sound like that, but she was of normal height.  Maybe even a bit taller than average.

Ben


----------



## Ao the Overkitty (Sep 30, 2005)

I've got a bad wrap for names because of some of my PCs.  Orchid Blossom has already told me 'no weird elf names' even though we aren't even thinking of having kids yet.

Seriously, I like 'normal names.'  I've been a fan of the name Tara for a long time, though I'm sure she'll blame it on Buffy.  If I suggest Willow, THEN she can blame Buffy.

I will admit, I like Kaylee.

But, I'm likely to suggest reasonable names.  After all, I don't want to be like my dad.  He wanted to name me Ziggy.  Damn engineers.


----------



## Sequoia2 (Oct 1, 2005)

i want a boy and a girl, and i'll call the girl Jerri and the boy Jamie lol


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Oct 1, 2005)

Sequoia2 said:
			
		

> i want a boy and a girl, and i'll call the girl Jerri and the boy Jamie lol



 My cousin's name is Jeri - I've always loved it as a girl's name.


----------



## BlackSilver (Oct 1, 2005)

Always like the names Katherine and Jordin.

I however will never have children.

Speaking of children Harmon was having a daughter, has anyone seen or heard from him in the past month?


----------



## RithTheAwakener (Oct 1, 2005)

Lobo Lurker said:
			
		

> My daughter is named Lorelei Noelia. I always liked the name and the spelling is unusual.




Hmm i really like that name; flows very well


----------



## DaveStebbins (Oct 2, 2005)

BlackSilver said:
			
		

> Speaking of children Harmon was having a daughter, has anyone seen or heard from him in the past month?



Isn't der_Kluge's wife due in the next month or so? I notice Curtis hasn't visited this thread either (or else I just plain missed it).

-Dave


----------



## Olgar Shiverstone (Oct 2, 2005)

Gizmo -- because his ears stuck out and were much too large for his head, so he looked like a gremlin.

Riley -- she came that way when adopted, and we didn't see a point in changing it.

Scout -- 'cause it's just a cool name.

---------

Take it from a IIIrd ... don't name your kids so that the only way to distinguish them from their elders is a roman numeral.  I didn't enjoy that growing up.

Another bit of suckitude is if your first name is a common last name, or last name is a common first name ... people will never be getting your name right.  My first, middle, and last names are all common first and last names.  My last name is more common as a first name, and my first name is more common as a last name to boot, and people habitually mix them up.  So I answer to almost anything.

Finally, if your name is a slight variation on a more common spelling, you may feel unique, but it rises to a level of suckitude (compounded in this case because my father uses the more common spelling).  You know how may diplomas I have with my name mispelled?  Or how may times I've had to say, "No, that's my dad's name!".  Grrr...

John Doe doesn't get his name abused as much as mine does.


----------



## Harmon (Oct 2, 2005)

We wanted something unique- Kathloryne DeHaze is our choice for a little girl’s name, and Jaden Amos is the boy’s name (should we get lucky a second time).  So to answer your question as to how- unique like the children themselves.  We also picked them because they have some connection to the generations before us (son has the initials as my father and daughter has the middle name from both our mothers).

Remember that a kid has to live with these names for the rest of they lives and might have to change them legally if Mom and Dad are to very weird.

Something else, nicknames are cool.  My Dad called me Dead Eye for a long time, and Bud (he also called me things that I can't write here, but that is what keeps my therapy bills so high).


----------



## vulcan_idic (Oct 3, 2005)

My Fiancee and I have picked four names, two for each gender, for when we have children.  One of them I have had selected for years and managed to convince her to agree to it.

Daughter 1 (the name I've known a long time): Galadriel Astraea Newport
Daughter 2: Elizabeth Victoria Newport
Son 1: Nicholas Alexander Newport
Son 2: Lukas Maximillian Newport

This should not indicate that we are planning to have four children - we just have the bases more or less covered this way.

Our (future) dogs have been also been named by my fiancee...  Sam and Riley (one a golden retriever, one a chocolate lab).  We've also considered getting, at a different time from those two, a Bernese Mountain Dog...  she hasn't named it yet.


----------



## John Q. Mayhem (Oct 3, 2005)

Some I've got in mind for boys are Mathurin, Charles Wallace, Roland, and Sebastian. Haven't thought too much about girls' names.


----------



## DaveStebbins (Oct 4, 2005)

I tried to float the name Ebon if we had a boy, but for some reason my wife shot it down...   

-Dave


----------



## Arbiter of Wyrms (Oct 4, 2005)

fuindordm said:
			
		

> I also knew an Elisabeth in college that used the nickname 'Bitsy'.



I 
had a professor in college whose name is Elzbieta.  She goes by Ela.

I encountered an old friend the other day who in turn has a pregnant friend who intends to name her unborn son Broderick Danger Jones.  Actually, not Jones, I'm sure.  I just don't know the woman's last name.  The point is that while this child will grow up being called "Brody," he'll have the priveledge of telling people, truthfully, that his middle name is "Danger."

My friend, Dusty, who related the story, strikes a macho pose and says, "Danger's my middle name. . ."  "He'll get SO MANY CHICKS!"


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Oct 4, 2005)

Arbiter of Wyrms said:
			
		

> My friend, Dusty, who related the story, strikes a macho pose and says, "Danger's my middle name. . ."  "He'll get SO MANY CHICKS!"




*blank stare*  I am so amazed by what guys _think_ it takes to 'get chicks' and what 'chicks' _know_ it takes to be gotten.


----------



## Crothian (Oct 4, 2005)

Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
			
		

> *blank stare*  I am so amazed by what guys _think_ it takes to 'get chicks' and what 'chicks' _know_ it takes to be gotten.




Ya, it takes gaming.....


----------



## Xath (Oct 4, 2005)

Arbiter of Wyrms said:
			
		

> My friend, Dusty, who related the story, strikes a macho pose and says, "Danger's my middle name. . ."  "He'll get SO MANY CHICKS!"




Heh.  My 4 year old cousin stands up in his Superman costume and shouts "Dangerous my middle name!"  We think it's too cute to correct him.


----------



## Rel (Oct 4, 2005)

Crothian said:
			
		

> Ya, it takes gaming.....




And Dippin' Dots apparently.

[Crochety Old Man Voice]You kids these days with your 'Attacks of Opportunity' and new fangled, candy-coated ice cream!  I tell you that back in MY day, we didn't have no "Dippin' Dots" or d20!  We had to get our women the old fashioned way:  THACO and raw sexual prowess!

AND WE LIKED IT!
[/Crochety Old Man Voice]


----------



## Varianor Abroad (Oct 4, 2005)

Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
			
		

> My grandpa called me Little-Bit (sounds sort of like Elizabeth) for most of my childhood, but then I hit 8th grade and shot up to 5' 10" in what seems like overnight... couldn't call me that anymore.




That's cute. My daughter Justine at the age of 3 called her new cousin Lucy Elizabeth "Lucy Alittlebit". Neat to realize that it arises spontaneously from the structure of English!

On topic now. My wife wanted the name Margot if our first was a girl. I vetoed that due to a former college roommate's girlfriend of the same name whose behavior left afterburns on the retina. (Well not really, but I didn't want the association.) She blithely returned the favor by nixing William (my name) as any sort of a choice for a boy. 

We found the name "Justine" on a tombstone during a quiet visit to some relatives. It looked neat. No one we knew had it. Sold. 

Then when our son came along, I managed to talk her into Liam (an Irish derivative of William) if it was a boy. We expected a girl. Surprise!


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Oct 4, 2005)

Rel said:
			
		

> And Dippin' Dots apparently.
> 
> [Crochety Old Man Voice]You kids these days with your 'Attacks of Opportunity' and new fangled, candy-coated ice cream!  I tell you that back in MY day, we didn't have no "Dippin' Dots" or d20!  We had to get our women the old fashioned way:  THACO and raw sexual prowess!
> 
> ...



 *inserts quote into sig*  Thanks, Rel!


----------



## Chaldfont (Oct 4, 2005)

My daughter's middle name is Coraline, named after the girl in the Neil Gaiman book. My wife and I read it when she was pregnant and we liked the name. We were thinking of Aeryn (from Farscape) but we drew the line. Our geekiness goes only so far.



> I've never understood why my wife was so dead-set against Captain America Dyal. We could have called him Cap for short. I thought it was great!




You laugh, but one of my great-great-grandfathers was named Captain in honor of his mother's maiden name. We've considered it for a middle name for a boy.


----------



## Quickbeam (Oct 5, 2005)

Our oldest is Jacob Ben. Jacob because it's traditional and can be shortened into something strong and masculine in Jake. Ben because it rolled off the tongue nicely and happens to be a great, great grandfather's name.

Our youngest is named Griffin Patrick.  My wife loves Irish names (good thing since my name is Kevin and my father's side of the family is part Irish), and enjoyed perusing the "Irish Rogue" section in a baby name book we were given as a gift.  I like names with some meaningful attachment or clear point of reference. Griffin fit the bill for both of us, being Irish in derivation and dovetailing nicely into my fondness for D&D and mythology.  Patrick is after my father who died not long before Griffin was conceived.

I'd like to have one more child (maybe a girl this time), but we'll have to see what the future holds.


----------



## mhacdebhandia (Oct 5, 2005)

My full name is "Christopher" followed by my father's first name and middle name. I fully intend to continue this pattern if I have a son, so he'll have three middle names.

The hardest part is figuring out how to incorporate my girlfriend's awesome surname.


----------



## glass (Oct 5, 2005)

I've always liked Kayleigh and Melissa for girls. I like Naimh too, but my half-brother just named his daughter that, so it's knida already taken. For some reason, I've never given as much thought to boys' names as I have to girls'.

Although, since I am very much single ATM, it's unlikely to matter any time soon.


glass.


----------



## TheGM (Oct 6, 2005)

My kids are all adopted, and my son was my wife's naturally, so I didn't name him.

My daughters we adopted from Russia, and wanting to keep their first names, we changed their middle names. We used the names of our grandmothers - Nicole and Elisabeth for their middle names. Better than Safyanova if you're living in the states.   

Thinking about going back to Russia - the girls were old enough to remember (4 and 9 then, 12 and 16 now), and we think it would be good for them. It wasn't a good life, but it was their home. We can't decide if we want to go back to Russia or take them to see the castles in Scotland, which is what my wife wanted for our 10th anniversary...  I'm done threadjacking now.


----------



## Psion (Oct 6, 2005)

Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
			
		

> How did you pick the names for your kids/what are your kids names?




How: names that appeal to us that don't correspond to anyone in my or my children's generation of my family out to the cousin level. This latter nit drives my wife nuts.

My daughters are Jasmine, Stefanie, and Kristen.


----------



## UniversalMonster (Oct 6, 2005)

My two boys are Noah Jordan (the Jordan is after the greatest Green Lantern Hal Jordan. Of course.) and Quinn Elliott. 

With Noah we agreed on it together, and Jordan was my pick. With Quinn we had just a list of names that were ok with. When the time came, she was all knocked out and I got to fill out the paperwork. 

A couple of hours later I was kicking myself because I probably could have gotten away with anything. I could have named him something cool like Bam-bam or Thundarr. I totally could have gotten away with it.


----------

