Question of the Week:Has your taste in names changed over time?

a few of my favorites have been favorites for over a decade (i am barely two decades old, so that says a lot), but most of the names i liked when i was younger are a very different style than i enjoy now. i read the old name lists i made and can’t help but cringe at some of the combinations i came up with.

My top girl’s name used to be Stephanie Sue. My top boys’ names used to be Jonathan David, Christopher Leroy, and Alexander George.

Now my top girls’ names are Connie Frances, Susanna Ruth, Rebecca Celeste, Octavia Rose, Sibyl Gertrude, Hepzibah Hope, Eurydice Ava, and Penelope Jane. My top boys’ name are George Atticus, Edgar Jonathan, Clayton Robert, Lionel Mark, Desmond Charles, Arthur Gilchrist, Walter Conrad, and Howard Kemuel.

My top girl names are Alisa, Anise, Jamie, Sara, Anita, Carol, Fran, Elizabeth, Margaret, Alana, Ellene, Anne, Hella, Helen, Charlsie, Merle, Marcel, Joe Anne, . My top boy names are Mark, James, John, Gary, Kent, Steve, Mack, Mickey, Brian, Cary, Wayne, Mitchell, Grant, Stewart, Karl, Phillip, Preston, Ruben, Michael, Joshua, Daniel, David, Adam, Francisco, Marlton, Marlon, Clay, Alton, Barry, Cullen, Sully, Dack, Miguel, Neal, Peter, Garrett.

When I was a young teen I loved Juniper, Piper, Bridget and Aurelia.

I still love Aurelia and I’m coming back around to Juniper.

I think the more time I spend compiling a list I can see my style developing towards boho-eccentric-classical – classical as in Greek/Roman classical. Obviously my long-standing love of Aurelia fits in there pretty nicely.

Some of the names on my list have changed especially when they’ve become popular. At that point…off the list they go. Many have remained the same. Some of my names are a little different than the norm, but nothing cruel if ever used. I definitely keep in mind that the wee ones grow up and have to use the name they are given.

In my college days, I was infatuated with girls names with nicknames that were for boys, such as Raina with the nickname Ray, and Andromeda, with the nickname Andie. Now I tend to favor short names with no nickname, and Celtic names.

My taste has definitely changed over time. When I was younger, I preferred very frilly names such as Angelina, Francesca, Alessandra, Juliana. Top of the list now includes Nola and Isla.

The first name I liked (When I was about three or four) was Bonnie. I still think it’s cute in a GP sort of way, but now I’m fourteen and my favorite name is Reagan.

The first name I loved was Cleo(patra). As Cleo, it’s still a love, even though I have a grown Leo. So my girly loves have remained pretty stable. But boys names for me have changed a bit more, Porfirio was a favorite at 2 but it’s strictly middle material now. Arthur, Rufus, George or Cosmo (for my G.Grandpop) are more likely to be first for me. But I was thinking earlier: Arthur Porfirio George? George Arthur Porfirio? George Porfirio Arthur? hmmm, maybe!

It’s embarrassing to admit, but when I was 12-ish, I was obsessed with having boy/girl twins and I thought Patrick and Patricia would be perfect twin names! Even other tweens recognized that idea as a really, really bad one… Live and learn, right?

I still love Irish names. Actually, I still like both of those, just not in a sibset. Maeve has been my frontrunner girls’ name for years, and I’m constantly in fear of some celebrity making it popular. Seamus was my favorite boys’ name for a long time, but my husband vetoed it, and now we have a gold retriever, Seamus.

I’m actaully still a teen, so it will be interesting to see how my name preferences will have changed by the time I have kids. Right now my top 5 girls are probably Calista, Penelope, Adele, Dahlia,and Juno, and my top 5 boys are Jasper, Rhys/Reece, Oliver, Archer, and Felix.
I have loved names for about as long as I can remember, though. The first name I can remember bestwoing on a baby doll is Serena- not sure where that came from! I remember loving at different times (before I became a really serious name nerd): Amy, Augusta, Natalie, Natasha, Miranda, Ava, and Vivian. The only ones I still like are Miranda and Vivian.

My taste has gone from traditional to SUPER traditional. I named my oldest daughter Abigail (Abby) when I was 26, and now I wish I’d gone more traditional and way less popular.

My taste in names has changed a lot.
Literally every week I am updating my list.
At the moment, I’m kind of lost, but I really like Ezra and Noel for boys.
But since I was 6 years old and my father bought me a rabbit that I named Phoebe, I have been in love with that name (:
I got it from Friends (TV Show).
Well, I am 14, so I will probably change my style some more, but I know that I will always be in love with Phoebe

I’m seventeen, so I’ve still got room to grow and my name preferences will change probably. I’m in constant fear that some celebrity will make one of these names famous, or tons of people will start naming their babies these names.
When I was little, I loved the names Rebbecca and Paige. Paige is still cool, but I love really super unique names.
Girls: Marlowe and Kaspar.
Boys: Milo and Atticus.
I know I don’t want kids now, but my feelings about it may change someday so I’m keeping these names close to me.

I’ve found that my taste in names has changed a bit after discovering Nameberry! Suddenly there was this whole online community of people who like unique names, and I discovered that some of the more unusual names I like could indeed be useable. And I’ve found that my taste continues to creep further into the realm of unusual and vintage. My taste wasn’t necessarily “popular” before, but it is becoming decidedly less mainstream than it used to be (especially as I discovered that a lot of my favorite names were at the top of the charts right now – argh). There’s definitely overlap, though. I still like a lot of the names I liked when I was younger, but most I wouldn’t use unless my husband really liked them and had vetoed my newer favorites.

Long-standing girl favorites as a teen: Ella, Catherine, Sonia (still love!!), Alice, Clara
Current girl loves: Coraline/Caroline, Sylvia, Adelaide, Adrianna, Alice, Junia, Imogen, Marjorie/Margery, Emmeline, Miranda, Elinor, Marianne, Theodora, Anthea

Long-standing boy favorites as a teen: Marcus, Isaac, Aaron, Aiden
Current boy loves: Marcus, Roger, Adrian, Ebenezer (hehe), Rory, Aquila, Charles

When I was 14 I used to collect lists of names. I even used to draw faces to go with them in sib sets! My mom had kept a dozen of them and gave them to me (with a LOT of other stuff she had saved) last year. Surprisingly, my base tastes have not changed alot – i’ve only added some fresh names in the same genre. When I was 29 I had my first daughter and named her Emma, even though it was starting to get popular, because that’s the name that just felt right and had been on my lists repeatedly for so long. She’s now 10 and has to contend with other younger Emmas but she sees it as a high ranking name like, “she wins!!”.

My very early lists date back to around the time when I was 8/9. I’m still a young teen now, actually. My taste hasn’t completely changed, and I still adore many on my very first list. At that age, I was very much for changing the spelling (Amelia I still love; Amileah, not so much). Others where:

~Eliza – Still love.
~Seren – Still love, but not really my style any more.
~Annabelle – Still like, but prefer Annabel.
~Jenna – Not so much…
~Addie- Only as a nickname for Adelaide.
~Emerald – Meh.
~Iris – Still love. I always dreamed of 2 daughters named Emerald and Iris
~Aira – No, this isn’t Aria. I think I kind of made it up. I thought the Irish name Eira (pn Ay-rah) didn’t look right, so I altered the spelling slightly. I don’t mind it, with the proper spelling.
~Estella – I don’t mind it, but it always makes me think of the character ‘Estelle’ from friends.

For boys, I liked:
~Noah – still like, it seems to jump on and off my lists quite frequently.
~Oran – Don’t like.
~Alec – My grandfathers name that I still love, and am adamant on using for my first son.
~Jack – Another family name. Still like, but too popular.
~Paddy – I feel I should like it, but it’s too… I don’t know.
~Asa – Too trendy.

My current list is:
Arabella
Clara
Matilda
Pippa
Beatrice
Cordelia
Mabel
Rose
Margo

Alec
Ezra
Theodore
Leo/Leonard
Wilbur

My taste in girl’s names hasn’t changed very much at all, really. As for boys, I used to like Devin and Riley. Now I like Dashiell and Theodore. HUGE difference! Where I’ve always pulled girl’s names from literature, I now do the same with most of my boy’s names.

Yes! I have had lots of favorites, especially for girls, over the years, and I’ve often seen favorites become too popular for me…

As a kid, I loved Victoria, Cassandra, Samantha…very 80s…
As a teen, my favorites were Zoe and Sydney…
In college, it was Sophia all the way…

Fast forward to today. I’m 32 and have two daughters: Penelope Victoria (I guess that one stuck, and the middle name comes from her paternal grandmother as well) and Vivian Anita. I often wonder what my young self would think of the names I chose!

I still have a list of faves, even though we’re 98% sure we’re done having kids: Beatrice, Harriet, Matilda, Eloise…

When I was a teen, my favourite girl’s name was Caitlin, after a Welsh girl I babysat. When I was 27, I named my first daughter Caitlin Louisa. Do I still love Caitlin? Yes, but I wish it hadn’t been hijacked by all these people who spell it incorrectly and I wish it hadn’t become so lower class.

Names that I like now that I hated when I was young are the more vintage/clunky names such as Waldo, Bertram, Berte, Mildred, Humphrey, Louis, Albert, and Esther.

Some names that I might have considered for children when I was young and would never use now are Matthew, Robert, Jennie, and Cameron.

It will be interesting to see what my grandchildren will be named.

When I was a kid, most of the names I liked were from characters I liked. So I went through phases of Ember, Allana, Inara, and Trixie. I still do that though. I want names to have meaning for me. Whether they are from relatives, friends or characters. (And naming people after characters who make me see things in a different light makes more sense to me than after relatives I never see. As a result, I have Beatrix, Dexter, Alexander, Theodore, Gwendolen, and William on my list.)

But I think nameberry has changed the way I look at names. My name preferences are much better now.

I’m only 14, so it’s hard to say, but I think it’ll be interesting to see how my style changes. I’ve loved names for a long time, but before I was really a name-nerd, I just liked naming things. Also, I write a lot, and in some of my earlier stories there are some… interesting names! That was always my favourite part, naming the characters!

I had twins named Sunny & Skye (oh boy)
Sisters Meagan, Maddy, and Morgan (brother to be Mason… good Golly)

Yes and no. My tastes twenty years ago definitely leaned more towards the ‘old-fashioned’. About the age of 16, I pictured myself as an adult with 8 children living in a converted railway station (can’t quite recall why!). I can’t remember all the names I gave them, but Mildred and Horace were definitely among them!

But I was also always drawn towards unusual and intriguing names, especially those from mythology.

Now I’d say the names I like most are any with ‘layers’ (as Shrek would say); names with plenty of depth of meaning — names which take you on a journey — regardless of origin.

As a result, my shoebox of favorites these days is a very eclectic mix!

The first two names I ever remember loving, when I was around 8 or 9, were Tiffany and Crystal, only I always spelled it Christal, and my friends spelled it Krystle. We actually used to have huge arguments about this, which seems rather silly in this day and age of kre8yf spellings.

Needless to say, my tastes have changed, but I wouldn’t say they’ve gotten “better,” just different.

I started that thread! My tastes have changed dramatically. From naming my Cabbage Patch kids Christina & John to my teenage love of Kassie to naming my actual children Arienne, Vienna & Clio. Seeing as how I’m kind of obsessed with uncommon names now, I’m kind of horrified at naming my Cabbage Patch kids Christina & John.

Well… My names at first when I was VERY young (I was curious) was going to be Japanese names I heard from a show I used to watch called Inu-Yasha.
Girl names: Kagome (Ka-GO-May) Sango (Song-Go)
Boy Name: InuYasha (E-New-Yah-Shah)
Made up names: NaJalyn, NaJahylah, Haruru, Jounetsu, Shikoku

When I had gotten a little older, they were:
Vladimira, Jaelynn, Dannielle, Brandi, Vera, Jurnee, Rosary, Analiesa, Kaida, Aoi, Yume, and Asaya

Bradley, Jacob, Jake, Kaleb, Cameron, Jonathan, Ethan, Eryk, Damien, Zaiden, and Alexander

Now, I think of:
Girls: Vladimira (again), Mira, Miryen (Mira & Ryen), Aerean, Kennedy, Kenyetta, Payslee, Aliesa, Marley, Sapphiriah, Will, and Solara

Boys: Kaiden, Kenyada, Chuy (Chewy), Veryn (Vair-en), Drake, Ryen, Vaughn, Vance, Wyatt, Shiloh, and Jemel

So yeah, my taste has changed

Well I still adore Louisa and Greta/Gretel just like I did when I first heard them in the Sound of Music, but Brooke, Laurel and Alyssa no longer make the cut. My tastes now run to Verity, Imogen, Susannah and Dinah.

For boys I loved Jonas, Asa, Seth, Heath and Dashiell and I still would use any of those names now.

I’m a teenager now, but I found a list of “favorite names” from when I was nine. Some stars of the list? Lindy, Mindy, and Cindy and Jamie, Janie, and Jenny. Now my favorites include Shiloh, January, Story, Adelaide, and Elodie. So I’d say it changed a lot.

I’m still a teen, but I’ve always been a name nerd so if my mom had let me name my little sister she would have been named Louisa Ariel, just so I could call her Little Louisa!!! SHUDDER!!! And my little brother would have been Bryce Cameron, so I could call him Baby Bryce, it also sounded like Bryce Canyon!!! Thank heaven my mother thought before letting me talk her into Louisa and Bryce and named them Chloe and Sam… Some of the names from my lists from when I was younger:
Olivia–Olive, yes. Olivia, no!
Mason– Kourtney Kardashian ruined this name for me.
Molly– We named our dog Molly….
Vanessa
Marta
Marley
Sophie
Autumn
Everly
Zoey
Willow (yes, in all of my old lists I planned on having AT LEAST 25 children and no boys… I came down from that cloud very quickly)

Current loves:
Miriam
Piper
Juniper
Natalie
Nora
Delaney
Gwendolyn/Gwyneth
Adele
Beckett

Archer
Owen
Lane
Everett
Atticus
Crew
Derek
Powell
Eric

When I was a teenager, I loved the name Gypsy, I thought it was exotic and unique. I soon discovered that some people think it sounds like a stripper name and off the list she went.
I also was convinced that I had invented the coolest boy name on the planet. The name was Jaxson and I thought I was the only living soul to come up with adding the cool x in there. This was the early 90′s mind you, so I had never seen anyone spell Jackson like that and I was sure when I had a son someday, everyone would think I was so original. Now, I run into Jaxson or Jaxon or Jaxen and am reminded of how fun it was to be a teenager who believed she invented baby names.
Now I am twenty years older with a very different taste in names and leave inventing baby names to someone else.

definitely! When I was younger I loved the name Heath for a boy. I loved a lot of older names, Ryan for instance was my new boy name. Now I like more creative names, more unique names. I probably would have liked the names I like now but back than I guess I didn’t know it was okay to be really creative with names. it makes me wonder what my children will name their children.

My favorite girls names when I was younger were all “tomboy” friendly (I was a huge tomboy) so Samantha nn Sam, Alexis nn Alex and Josephine nn Joey or Joe.

Now a days I tend to still like “nickname” type first names that have a little spunk but are a bit more sophisticated…Edie being my absolute favorite and Percy being a guilty pleasure…but I combine them with more elegant and feminine middle names like Celeste, Patience, Cordelia, Simone, Adele, Julianne.

For some reason I had an obsession with J names on boys…but forget the popular Joshua “Josh” and Justin of my school years…I prefered Jude, Jeremy, Jesse, James, and Johnathan.

Today I tend to like more uncommon boys names that are easy to pronounce and spell with classic and traditional middle names like Christopher, Theodore and Sebastian which I love but would hate to see shortened to their more common nicknames.

My tastes have changed a little since I was young; when my sis Emma and I would makes endless alphabetical lists of names for hours on end! I would say the biggest change is a slightly more realistic maybe less adventurous way of choosing names. With (a little!) maturity I have become a little more sensible/boring. Also influenced by my naming my first daughter Alyssa – a rare name here in the UK! – and having everyone misspell/mispronounce it for the last 6 years! Hmmm I still love more interesting and unusual names but learnt a bit of a lesson! A shame really as it will probably deter me from naming future children anything massively wild or exotic. I’ll try my best though!

As a teen I loved typically girly names – Anastasia, Ashleigh, Ariana etc. I still love girly names and still like many of the ‘A’ names. Aisling and Adelaide being good examples. My 2nd daughter is Francesca so I have stayed within the girly genre, but while not too popular at least everyone has heard of it!

Other faves are Cara, Celeste, Maya, Kira – big question if we have another girl is do we stick to the theme of girls names ending in a? Never thought I’d do a theme but a lot of my fave names do seem to end in a.

On the boys side I loved Fox when I was younger (wholly inspired by Mulder from the x-files! oh dear) also liked Harrison and Zack.

I’ve always found boys names harder to consider as while I like many more ‘normal’ names they are so so popular!

Now I like Max, Henry and Isaac.

In general my tastes haven’t changed very much, it is my life experience that has changed the way I look at them.

My name taste has definitely changed. There are a few names from my childhood and teens that I still like, but there has been a lot of evolution of my lists over the years.

I actually have several old lists from various points in my life, (and I’ve been a name aficionado for 30-some years) so it’s easy to track my onomastic inclinations:

1980 (age 10):
GIRLS: Alison, Andrea, Athena, Brynn, Cassandra, Carmen, Cindel, Deirdre, Hermione, Iantha, Jade, Kimber, Maeve, Simone, Tamar (Yes, Hermione way back then, for its connection to Hermes. I loved mythology! I could never have guessed what was in this name’s future.)
BOYS: Derek, Elliot, Jared, Julian, Lucas, Marcus, Philip, Roger, Sebastian, Simon, Xavier

1988-1989 (age 18):
GIRLS: Adair, Brynn, Devin, Eden, Ember, Ivy, Kiana, Meredith, Miranda, Miriam, Morwenna, Nara, Orla, Phaedra, Quinn, Rhiannon, Rowan, Sage, Salem, Shea, Solange, Tamryn, Teagan, Terra, Veronica
BOYS: Cillian, Curran, Dorian, Elgin, Gareth, Jaegur, Jarek, Kai, Kian, Lachlan, Morgan, Rhys, Riordan, Terran, Xavier

1993-1994 (23 and pregnant…Hence the names were specifically being geared for naming my child.):
GIRLS: Amaris, Eluned, Evelyn, Lyris, Valoria
BOYS: Damien, Dominic, Dorian, Duncan, Leif, Vincent (My son ended up named Dorian Leif. “layf”)

NOW… Well, I still love Cassandra, Meredith, and Veronica, Dominic, Dorian, Gareth, and Kai. There are none from my old lists that I actively dislike; they just don’t click with me as they used to. For completeness and comparison, my other current faves include:
GIRLS: Anya, Arden, Eleanor, Hollis, Isidora, Lydia, Margaret, Marina, Natalia, Sibyl, Silvia, Susana
BOYS: Byron, Conrad, Dimitri, László, Malcolm, Nolan, Roland, Samuel, Trevor

the first name i can really remember liking was “bianca” from Ten Things I Hate About You. Needless to say i dont like that name at all anymore! I have been obsessed with names for as long as i can remember and i used to like names like boys names -Santino, Heath, Cash, Harlan, Omri. and girls names – Stella, Zoey, Reese, Piper. I dont like any of those names for boys anymore. now i like – Declan, Stellan, Abel, and Juda. And witht he girls names i still LOVE Zoey, and like piper, pippa, Harlow, Adelena, and Sookie. cant wait to see what names i actually end up nameing my children! im 23 now so we’ll see.

My taste has been pretty consistent for ~15-20 years actually!

One thing that has really changed though is that I used to think more about names that I just liked, and now I think more seriously about names I would actually use.

There are many names that I really love, but for one reason or another wouldn’t seriously consider. Names that don’t go well with my (married) last name, that are clearly associated with cultures/origins other than my own (I love many Italian and Spanish names but would feel a little weird using them since my husband and I don’t have any Italian or Spanish ancestry), are too hard to spell, etc.

I’m also more drawn to family names now and used one for my daughter.

Old favorites below. I still like most of these, regardless of whether or not I would use them

Girls -
Elena/Helen/Helene
Lucia
Maria
Lydia
Lana
Tara
Meredith
Nadia
Araceli
Francesca
Maite
Marisol
Silvia/Sylvia
Sonia

Boys:
Michael
Sean
Daniel
Timothy
Peter
Diego
Alexander/Alejandro
Javier
Lorenzo/Lawrence (though I still dislike the nn Larry!)
Felipe/Philip
Salvatore

I’m only 16 now, but in the 6 or o years since i became a name nerd/staring making lists not too much has changed.

When I was about 10 I thought Alex was just the best name in the world, but then i found out that it was also a girls name and I was completely horrified! My stepsister just recently had a baby girl named Alex which still doesn’t seem quite right to me, for some reason. Theo is another name that I was gender-confused with, as I had found the name in the book “Ballet Shoes” and this character is a woman, so finding out Theo is traditionally masculine was a tough time for me! Theo is one of my favourite girls names now.

When I was 11 I stumbled across the name Apphia and it has been my absoloute favourite girls name since, and I hope it doesn’t change.

My boys name list has definitely grown considerably, beating the girls by a good few. Names like Felix, Charlie, Cedric and Everette to name but a few!

I like Irish names now too, which is very recent. I’m 100% Irish and am starting to embrace that with my name lists. Traditional spelling is very important to me, and as there is no “K” in Irish, it’s always Cillian not Killian. I also (at the moment) don’t like the idea of simplifying Aoibhínn too Ayveen or Cliodhna to Cleona to make the name more pronounceable, like what happened to Aodhán.

Of course, it’ll all probably change, I’ll look back at this and cringe.

My sister named me when she was 14, (a decision I will never forgive my mother for) and I got Samantha, while my sisters have Siobhán, Fiona and Roisin. Needless to say Siobhán’s taste has changed, and her own children have lovely names (Aaron, Aoife and Tara)

Yes mine has changed completely! When I was a teen my favorite names were preston and christina! When I was 20 I ha my first daughter and named her Emmalie( emily), in which I extremely regret! Now I’m 24 and my favorite names are Charlotte, Julia, Melanie and Genevieve. Boys Preston is still a favorite but I also enjoy Nathaniel, Benjamin, Marshall, Myles and Abram! I love traditional names!

[...] In the past few months we’ve seen some pretty eye-popping and conversation-stopping celebrity middle name choices–Saint, Seven, Bunny, Bear, for starters—which leads us to the Question of the Week: [...]

I’ve already posted in the thread on the forums, but I wanted to share my thoughts again and reflect on names I liked. Over the course of my childhood and teen years, I liked:

Charlene – was my all-time favorite girl name when I was little. (between the ages of 5 and 7, I believe) I got it from Disney’s Dinosaurs. Still like it a bit, but not nearly as much.
Sonya – from the duck in Peter and the Wolf, which I loved more than anything as a 5-year-old. I even “adopted” the name for some time. Still like it quite a bit.
Xanadu – I was dead-set on naming any future daughter this in high school. No middle name, just Xanadu. I have since grown out of that phase, and it is strictly GP.

Ryan – This was around the same time I loved the name Charlene. I was so convinced I was going to marry a man named Ryan because of strange dreams I was having at the time.
Jeffrey – Another one of those “I’m so convinced this will be my husband’s name” names. This was later in my early high school days.

I’m still a teenager but I’ve ran into name lists I came up with as a tween and dear lord do they make me cringe! I mean, the style of them are still vaguely the same: I am in a love affair with noun names, but they were a lot more um… BA when I was younger heheh. I remember Ace was the best name ever. And Amber. I still respect them, but I feel like the A- names have gotten a little overused lately. Now I like things that are nouns, have charm and can pass for normal. For example I think Chamomile and Serendipity are perfect (both for girls). They have nice meanings and are charming, IMO, but you could always shorten them to Cammi and Sera and they seem regular. I guess I would just hate to be stuck forever with a normal name… (Says the girl named Eros)

Yes when I was younger my fave names were Dorothy, Freda and Emma (Which I still like but its too close to Emily and my niece is called Emma). I now love Molly, Sophie and Miranda. My fave boys name was William which I still love but my fave is Eamon.

Im only a young teen but ive been name obsessed since i was 7,writing long list of names alphabetically organized for
hours and hours!The first name i remember loving was what i wanted to name my sister when I was four,Snowflake.Fourtunetly,im glad to say they went with their own choice and used Cecilia.When I was 8-10ish I loved names like Vivvian,Sophie,Hazel,Bella,Annabel,Jack,Jake,Charlie,David and Jacob.I still like Vivvian,Hazel,Annabel and Charlie but all the other names are way too popular and commen for me.My favprite names now are Charlott,Rosemarie,Sadie,Liliana,Indigo,Cecily,Juniper,Ophelia and Florence for girls and Ezeikiel,Crimson,Calix,Ocean,Louis,Cecil,Cato and Porter for boys.