Name your Babies - Go for Style!

My first post on NAMES. Yay. I'll start out, instead of introducing a name, meaning, or story...with a tip. A few tips, really.

One of the most important things, in my very humble opinion, about naming people is this. THINK ABOUT IT. It's not something to be haphazardly approached (to me - or anyone, I mean, isn't the name the most time consuming thing you discuss when having a baby?). Lets leave out animals and inanimate objects for now. You can name them what you want. If you are a 'names aficionado' like me, you can give it quite a bit of thought and make it creative and cute and inspiring. But they don't really need that much attention, compared to humans. Babies.

How to pick names that no one will laugh at behind your back:

1. Never name anything - You can't please everybody. Or anybody. As the saying goes, I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Practical advice? Not really. But it's true! Names are deeply personal, and every one has an opinion on the subject. If you love a name, just pretend those odd, blank, confused stares are warm, approving gazes. It will make you feel all fuzzy inside.


Practical Tips on Narrowing the Selections
1. Go through a baby names book. Highlight all the ones you like and love - Not only the loves, but likes/could live withs too. (If you are like me, you will use different coloured hi-lighters to indicate intensity of love. Yes, I am that weird:-)

2. Take a look at the smattering of names you have highlighted, and see if they fall into any particular type of pattern. - Classic, Popular, Whimsical, etc. Most people are drawn to names of a certain fashion, and pretty much all their selections will fall within that category. The problem is that you don't name your children alone. You have to corroborate with your spouse. Lucky the parents with the same taste in names!

3. Think about how many children you might want to have. And don't start something you can't finish. - If your very fave names are very Classical (James, or Michael), but you only LOVE 3 of those names, and the rest of the name you like are very Popular. Consider how many children you will possibly be naming. If it's only 3 kids, you can keep your names "matching". There is nothing stranger than siblings named William, David, and Rainbow. You can rest assured Rainbow will never quite know what on earth you were thinking. We all like to belong and fit in. If you are thinking of having 5 kids, why don't you try and come up with a list that combines your love of the old and new? Noah is an older (Biblical) name, yet is also very popular, so it could work for both categories. Emma is another example of that, which springs to mind immediately.

And now for the don't start something you can't finish part...Lets take, for example, our favourite over-sized family, the Duggars. All of their children start with a J. They purposefully started that trend, and can't bear to leave anyone out (which is great as far as my other point of belonging)...but it has left them with apparently no J names left to use! So they have some very similar names like Joseph, Josiah & Josie, and Joy Anna & Johannah, and a creative J...Jinger, and the only girl with a non-feminine name, Jordyn (kudos on the creative/feminizing spelling though). Chances are you won't have 19 or more children, so you won't have to have that many names on hand. But if that is in the realm of possibility for you, plan ahead.

So basically, yes, I am suggesting naming all of your children before you even have ONE. Haha! We did that, and the stories of our names will be forthcoming.

So go for style...and figure out what yours is!

These are my very own CATEGORIES along with a few examples. I'll elaborate more with some bigger examples later. This will just get you started with your new hobby - Name Loving. It's just so fun!

Classic:         James, David, Emily, Laura
Old & New Again:        Henry, Ruby, Claire, Abigail
Gender Neutral:         Taylor, Kennedy, Jordan
Whimsical:        River, Palace, Coco
Biblical:         Jeremiah, Noah, Gabriel, Chloe, Rebecca, Leah, Sarah
Foreign:           Anya, Tatiana, Cruz
Popular/Trendy:        Heath, Ava, Ethan, Mason, Cassidy
Creative Twist: - changing the common spelling of any name - Emilee, Lorah, Lauryn,
"It's all about the meaning": choosing names in large part because you like the meaning of the name.

There are likely more that I am not thinking of right now. And as you might notice, a few of these "cross-over" nicely between categories. If you get into it like I do, and break everything down you get this...

My category? Surnames!! Almost every single one of my fave names are/used to be surnames. I also have quite the thing for names from the UK. So my style tends to be more gender neutral or masculine sounding names (many surnames sound more masculine). I also would consider myself to like "cowboy" sounding names. I personally am not into the meaning of the names so much, as far as, I don't think a 'negative' meaning ever has to be mentioned, and likely will not shape your child into any particular type of person. Just because your name means "Strong in Spirit", doesn't mean you will be. Likewise, if your name meaning "balding", it doesn't set your path on a hairless future. That's only my opinion though, some people really like to give a name with a strong meaning, and that is fine! I am also not a huge fan of super girly sounding names. I truly love very very few girls names (only 3 in fact). There are others I could live with, and I'll elaborate at a future time, but they all pretty much fit into a gender neutral (surname) or trendy category.

One day, you'll all love names as much as I do!! - Or you'll all be sick of hearing me talk about it!! Either way, you'll love me, right? :-D