What name would you love to see….on someone else’s baby?

Have the same last-name-starts-with-S issue, so that rules out names like Max or Grace.

Cowardice:
-Penelope
-Ivy
-Corinne
-Blanche
-Piper
-Sloane
-Abbott
-Callum
-Asher
-Wyatt

Then there’s Meredith, a name I love but can’t use because it’s my middle name, and Kate, which I also can’t use because Catherine’s my first name! Sigh…

I love the name Georgia, but it’s too rhymey with my last name (Borges). I couldn’t condemn my child to that.
Also love Gabe for a little boy, but when said out loud with my last name… makes for some teasing from other kids.

My list of names that I wouldn’t use is pretty simple and would include names like Owen, Ian, Addison and Phoebe. None of these names sound as good in German or Spanish as they do in English. Since my SO and I share a trilingual household our children’s names would have to be equally beautiful in all three. Passable is not an option.

I put the boy name Roux up on the forums a while back. I love it. It’s simple and complex. To me, it’s beautiful.
However, got a resounding ‘no’ from those who commented. I still love it, but the meaning behind it does not work for me, and I guess that’s kind of important.
Roux means red or red-haired or it refers to the fatty starter you create for a cream sauce.

Names I’m just not brave enough to use:
GIRLS:
Appoline
Eden
Elowen
Fairfax
Odessa
Silence
BOYS:
Ashley
Calix
Dimitri
Indiana
Laszlo
Painter

And since my last name rhymes with ‘ray’ that eliminates a long list of my favorites like:
May/Mae
Holiday
Day
Sunday
Vrai
Mabel nn May
Mireille

Sarabi I adore Roux

I know these names will make me look like a crazy person, but i would be so gleefully jealous to meet a little: Kelilah, Maudeline, Verabelle, Hartlyn, Swan, Prairie, Morna, Hallow; Darwin, Price, Porteur, Schlomo, Persius, Oleader, Braver, or Hipolyte!

I adore nature names, but my last name is Day, so I can’t really pull them off. For that reason, I’m also wary of using any color names. But I’m always excited when I see those names on other kids.

While I agree that may be true for certain names ahem Green Day or Gray Day, I think other’s really work with your last name…i.e. Violet Day, Ruby Day or Scarlett Day

Our last name ends in -ley, which rules out first names with a similar ending. Such a shame because I love:

Zoey
Sadie
Edie
Maisie
Hadley and so on…

There are so many. Sometimes they clash (or go too well) with my last name, sometimes my husband hates the name and sometimes the name just doesn’t feel like my baby:

Philippa, April, Hugh, Otto, Bianca, Georgia, Humphrey, Raymond, Rhea

Juniper – I love it so, but I don’t think I’d ever be brave enough to use it.

Winter! I like I spelled Wynter.

I can’t think of specific names, I just want them to be more exciting! A around here it seems like giving a girl a boy’s name is the most ‘out there’ you can get, and I’m getting bored with it! I’m always so excited waiting for friends to announce baby names, but then they do and it’s a big let down I would also like to see more subtle matching names, instead of same first letter or rhyming.

Piero, Orin and Annabelle

Our last name ends in -bell and thus, I can’t ever use a name I really love: Mabel.

My last name begins with a strong T so my beloved Kate and Elliot are out.
My husband hates Penelope and Harper.
And names I like but can’t imagine on a child of mine include Eva, Rebecca, Lila, Rachel, Matilda, Silas, George, Jake, Francis, Jameson.
I definitely encourage everyone else to use them though.

I have so many names I love but won’t be able to use either due to cowardice, fear of mispronunciation(I live in the south) etc. etc. haha!

They include:
Carrigan
Liliana(pronunciation)
Fleur
Amos(sigh,too matchy with anus)
Spruce
Fox
Tatum(last name begins with tay, ugh)
Chesleigh
Daphne(too chicken to use)
Dante
etc etc etc..

Mostly it’s names that I used to have on my list but have since lost their sparkle for me:

Miriam
Lydia
Madeline
Gemma
Meredith
Miranda

Theodore -our family name is Teo… Theo Teo is just wrong!!!

Adelaide -I think this name is beautiful; except when my in-laws say it and then it is quite ugly. Maybe I’ll get over that though and use it anyway if a baby girl ever comes along.

Cowardice: Phoebe (I’m afraid of Phoebe Buffet connections)
Tabitha -afraid of teenage witch associations
I”m sure there’s more, but that’s what I can think of for now!

Lydia. It’s one if my favorites but my husband had a serious girlfriend named Lydia and we’re still friends with her family. It would be too weird.

My DH and I are pretty adventurous with names IMO. We have a son Eldon and our short list for our next baby is Ulrik Luther, Gregor Horatio, and Anastasia. But even so there are a few names that I love but don’t quite have enough courage to use as first names (perhaps middles…).

Jemima
~Love the sound and meaning and the awesome nickname Jem, but can’t get over the Aunt Jemima syrup association.

Ursula
~Personally I think it sounds lovely (I love my U’s what can I say), but I’m not completely sold on the meaning and the association of the villain from The Little Mermaid is definitely a turn off.

Meriwether
~It’s so fresh and interesting and has a great meaning, but the nickname Meri is just too cruel for a guy. But if you either used a more manly nickname or just went with the full name all the time it could work.

Whole-hearted support for anyone with enough guts to give their child these awesome names in need of redemption!

I really want Kermit to come back, and would really use it myself, except that I have a (deserved) reputation as a huge Muppet fan and would get much trouble about having named my baby after “the Frog”.

We were going to name our son Wolf. It would have suited our family and our naming style, but whenever we mentioned it to people they thought we were crazy. Eventually we got tired of people’s responses and decided that it would be unfair to our son since he would be the one stuck dealing with it for the rest of his life. We named him Luther and used Wolf as his middle name instead.

Most of my favourite names don’t go with my last name-aaarrrhhh!!!

Eimear
Elektra
Nola
Mila
Merida
Jasper
Oliver
Inka
Cassia
Calla
Callista
November

Anajo – I love Ulrik Luther btw. Luther is my sons name and Ulrik is great. We like a similar names: Alrik. I was also contemplating the name Eldon a few days ago. I had a neighbour named Eldon years ago and I was thinking about how uncommon it is. I always liked the name Sheldon, but I have a cousin with that name and couldn’t use it, Eldon might be a good alternative.

For me it’s the names that have a huge personal or (pop) cultural reference like Allegra or Ursula for an example of the2nd quality. It’s all cold medicine & sea witch to me, but I am jealous of those who can look past that stuff. Besides that I love simple names like Jeanne as much as daring names like Marigold and if I love something I’m not afraid to use it…but I would add names like Helena & Corinne to the list. I just don’t want to spend my days correcting pronunciation isdues. Or names like Veronica, which I LOVE, but I loathe Ronnie so very much and fear that even if I enforce Vera or Vinca during her childhood eventually she will pick Ronnie!

Bernice. I want to think I’d be brave enough to use it for a girl, but I don’t know…

One of my all time favorite names was ruined by association, and therefore would just be too weird to use. I adore the name Hallie, but would get tons of side-eyes because of the association. A few other names I’m not brave enough to use:

Portia- Love it, hate that people would thing it was after the car brand.

Cedric- I still contemplate using it but I’m afraid that it’s too HP.

Leander- My all time favorite boy name, but I’m afraid it’s just too unheard of and will sound made up.

Hiram- Love, but can’t really see it on a child of ours.

Mireille- Gorgeous name, hard pronunciation for English speakers.

I really like the name Aria but wouldn’t use it for several reasons:

1. Way too girly for me, I usually like boyish kind of names on girls

2. In German Aria sounds almost like the word “Arier” which means “Aryan”. But even if I was living in the US (as a German) I would avoid that, especially since kids in our family are very blond and blue eyed. Just names we avoid here.

But I’d totally encourage others to use it, it’s so pretty.

Also sometimes I kind of like popular names but wouldn’t use them because of popularity. But if others would go for Amelia I’d really like it.

@Maggiemay, SO with you on Juniper! I’m also in love with Althea, but would never be brave enough to use them.

Our last name starts with a D, and that’s one letter I just never liked for an alliterative name. We liked but passed on: Dexter, Declan, Delaney and Delilah.

I love the name Igor – but I am a little chicken to consider-because my dh and I are noticeably big and tall, 6′ and 6’8″

I love Spencer & Jasper but my fiance’s ln ends in -er so it’s an immediate no.
I also love Rose as a first name but when I say it, it comes out as “Wose” courtesy of a speech issue. I also love Delilah and I’m hoping Martin changes his mind on it.
Wolf is amazing on boys, although I like it as a nickname for Wolfgang. Pike is equally amazing bu. I’m too chicken too use it myself.

I will never be able to use my favorite boy’s name, Silas.

But the good news is, the reason I can never use Silas is because I have a daughter named Sylvie. So yay!

I love one-syllable names, but most of them clash horribly with my also one-syllable last name. I love the names Maude/Mauve, Snow, Plum, gorgeous names like that. Too bad, at least I have other longer names that I love.

I love the names Gothicus, Fitzwilliam, Birdie and Apple but I don’t think I would ever use them myself.

I adore Minnie, and it was my partners great grandmothers name, but I’m afraid I won’t have the guts when it truly comes down to it.

My favorite boy’s name since I was 13 yrs old was Jack, after man that was practically my grandfather. But with the last name Jones… it’s ridiculous.
And I refuse for our child to be a FN Last initial. OR to have the exact same name as someone else. (my husband has the matching name to a very bad guy in his home town, and I was Erin D. all through school.)

Then there are the names that are already famous:
Bridget Jones
Gemma Jones
etc.

and I love the sound of Sarah… but its just so popular.

Right now, I am concentrating on how baby names work with our son’s name. Do they sound ok together or completely ridiculous?

I love the name Wyatt. But my last name is a one syllable W name. Le sigh.

Euphemia
Artemis
Severus
Etienne
Wilhelmina
Henrietta

I adore Mireille, but as I’m not French and didn’t marry a Frenchman, the closest I’ll get is using it as a character name in fiction. As I have several international colleagues I hear my name, Paula, as ‘Porla’, ‘Powla’ and ‘Polla’ on a daily basis. It rather irritates me as I attempt to pronounce my colleagues’ names as they would say them in their own language. For that reason I would shy away from using any name which has different pronunciations across the languages, as LexieM says. My childhood bff Claudia had the same issue: ‘Cloudier’ in German, her nationality, but the far harsher ‘Clawdier’ in English and American.

Walker for a boy. It’s a cherished family name on my side but rhymes with my husband’s surname.

Ursula for a girl. It quite simply rocks.

I too chicken to use the names:

Penrose
Fable
Oona

I like these but they’re not my style

Forest
Bellamy
Beckett
Vivianna
Averie
Adela

and, I cant use Elizabeth because it’s my middle

Aspen for a girl. I love it, but I can’t shake the feeling that she would get those ‘ass-pen’ comments.

I also love Echo on a girl, but can’t decide if I’m brave enough to use it or not. It doesn’t have a great meaning, of course, but I’m in love with the sound of it

I have a list of names I love but can’t picture myself using. But I would be so happy to see someone else using it.

Demetria
Aurelia
Scarlett
Persephone
Ramona
Jemima
Allegra
Harriet
Theodora
Yasmin
Coraline
Jessamine

Oscar
Elliot
Gene
Winston
Clark
Arthur
Ralph
Frederick
Lionel
Linus
Franklin
Benedict
Rex

Oh, I love this topic! There are so many names I adore but wouldn’t use myself, for various reasons.

There are names with unfortunate personal associations (Maeve, Caroline, Juliet) and names that are perfectly wonderful but I just can’t see on my own children (Minerva, Evadne, Arden, Meredith, Geneva, Everett, Elliot, Felix, Tobias) or couldn’t use due to my last name (Miranda, Zephyr).

There are names I’d totally use but would want to become a wee bit more mainstream before seriously considering (Waldo, Cosmo, Darwin, Erasmus, Vesper, Valentine, Solace). And then there are names I wish people would STOP using because they’re way out of my popularity comfort zone (Eloise, Lydia, Alice, Jasper, Archer).

The names I really love on other peoples’ babies are always the names that are just a little more daring than I’d be comfortable with. Even if I wouldn’t want to use it myself, I’m always chuffed to hear a name that’s meaningful, beautiful, and really unusual. Besides, I’m sick of Elizabeth, Madison, Noah, and Ben! I’d rather hear about Dove, Willa, Inigo, and Hale. And that’s why I’m on Nameberry.

I’m a huge lover of Irish, Scottish and Welsh names, but I think naming a daughter Caoimhe, Eilidh or Angharad is just asking for her name to be butchered all her life, especially as I have no real heritage to any of them and live in England. It’s a shame because I think they’re all beautiful names and am always happy to meet children with the more unusual names.

My DH’s Hungarian surname limits a lot of great names. Our traditionalist tendencies mean that while I appreciate eccentric names, I would never actually use them because I’m reluctant to allow that kind of self-indulgence. :/

Eccentric favorites I’d love others to use:
(g)
Olympia
Claudia
Inés
Violet
Antonia
Clementine
Isolde

(b)
Percy
Hugo
Oswald
Eugene
Hermes
Cecil
Oscar

*Oops. I meant that DH’s surname name “eliminates” a lot of great names.

Cowardice:
Kendra
Kirby
Harriet
Margot
Clementina
Mirabel
Athena
Harlow
Ava (love old Hollywood, but the names too trendy)
And…
Jasper
Iowan
Ianto
Oswald
Absolum
Henric
Ulysses
Enoch
Felix
Miles

I don’t understand why people say they can’t use a name because it’s their middle name. I don’t see any problem with it, unless you go my your first and middle name. Most people have no idea my middle name is Elise.

I have a son named Diesel so cowerdice is out of the question for me. Its more being limited by what I can get hubs to agree to. He hates everythin with the dre syllablle……so no to…..Alizandre and Draven, ect. There are a lot of names I like that are too trendy…..Samuel, Ava, Jackson, ect. I can’t use any Shakesperian names bc I’ve used Romeo and Mercutio on pets…..hence no Juliet. And TV has ruined some….Violet, Addison, Oscar, ect. And I’m a teacher…..so absolutely no Caleb, Aidan, Jaden, Jayce, Cameron, Samantha, Kaitlin, ect…..and finally, I live in Texas….so no names that will get butchered constantly so no Isla or anything of that nature.
Our next baby list ….. Lincoln, Rembrandt, Harlow, maybe Josephine or Juniper (she would get confused for Jennifer though ) or maybe Winifred (but I don’t like the Winnie the Pooh association…..)
@ AnaJo….I danced on drill team with a girl named Meriweather and thought it was a great unique name….unlike me bc there was 2+ Shannons. That’s a lot of why I want my kids to have such unusual names. I had a VERY common name with my generation.

Uselesskitty- I also think that we must have similar taste in names. Wolfgang nn Wolf was on my personal short list. Almost had my hubby convinced.
We love our son’s name, Eldon! The only thing we didn’t anticipate was that the hard of hearing kept thinking his name was Alvin (nothing wrong with that name just not the one we chose). So we’ve been having to spell it out a little more than we initially thought. Not a big deal. My name is Rebekah and I’ve had to spell it out my whole life, but I love my name even more for being different and have no emotional trauma from my parents decision. My vote is still for Eldon! If you love it go for it. We have no regrets.

TheFutureMrsB- Wolfgang: Love it!

Etak_Llaw- Fitzwilliam and Fitzgerald are both names that sound amazing in my mind, yet I can never think up an adequate nickname. BUT if you like Fitz, Liam, Will or Gerry…

Cheetara09- I agree. I have the same middle name as my grandmother and mother. It’s kind of a family tradition (first born daughter and all that), but few people ever catch on because even if they know my middle name they usually don’t know my mother’s…or grandmother’s.

dieselsmomma- Not a huge fan of boy names on girls, but I can see how Meriwether could work.

I love this topic!

We love unusual names so we have a Dorothy Mary Rainbow (my pregnant addled brain didn’t see the connection between Dorothy and Somewhere Over The Rainbow, even though I’m a massive Judy fan. The Rainbow comes from my husband and my promise to each other – that we wouldn’t bring rain into each other’s lives. Even with the unintended Wizard of Oz fest, no matter – I totally love her name). So I’m always happy to hear ‘out there’ names – they sit much better with them than the same boring names that everyone has. And @Cheetara09 0 totally agreed. My middle name is Mary, my mum’s is, and my grandmother’s was.

However, there a couple of names I would love but am not allowed:
Huckleberry – it’s the only boy name that I truly, truly love… and my husband hates it. I’m hoping one day I’ll win out, but in the meantime I’d be so happy to meet a little baby Huck (and totally jealous).
Jet – I love it, although it doesn’t quite go with our naming style, but it was my dog’s name and my husband thinks it’s weird to name our child after our dog. I disagree…

I love Dicken from The Secret Garden, but my husband (and, to a lesser extent, I) think that it does invite bullying. But I’d love to meet a little boy called Dicken – I think it’s really beautiful.

I loved the name Willow, but we vetoed it because I’m quite chubby and I think it would be a difficult life if she had a similar body type and was a fat Willow. It also started becoming way too popular… I’d still be very happy to meet a little Willow though.

And I absolutely adore the name Mirabelle, but our surname starts with Bell… Such a shame, as I think it’s a totally wonderful name.

And I love Dove and Snow for middle names – absolutely gorgeous.

I really love the name Vesper (preferred for a girl) but not sure I’d ever use it.

My sons are Chess, Indigo and Ronan. My daughters are Violet, Ivy and Guinivere. I am due in 4 weeks — only four more weeks!!!!! — our boys name is Dasher and our girls name is Helena. I think my names are getting more mainstream as I get older.

Names I love but would never use –
Cedar
Pippin
Winter
Fury
Wren

I don’t know if you are still reading this, dieselsmomma, but my name is also Shannon and I went out of my way to find names that weren’t popular because I was on a cheerleading squad with 5 other Shannon’s in my mid-atlantic hometown. Anything above #500 on the SSA list was too popular for any child of mine.

Names that I love but my husband vetoed – Tanith, Spring, Laurel, Lana, Danica

Name that I ALMOST gave my daughter but was too chicken – Evie

I wound up using the name Hilarie for my daughter.

We’ve only been able to name one girl, but on the boy side my husband vetoed Vaughn. I LOVE that name, but my husband said it sounded like a vampire name.

Oops, I forgot a couple other names that I really like but couldn’t get past my husband – Harmony, Cadence and Blythe. I also like names like Felicity, Charity, Patience (that one was somewhat ironic considering what hotheads my husband and I are), Joy – these were not truly considered, though.

I love names like Kaija, Thisbe, Gemma, Thalia, and Sorcha. While they would be a great sibset together, I just know they don’t fit in with my other favorite names: Juliet, Eloise, Matilda, Penelope, and Amelia. -sigh- Alternate universe it is!

Joining the party late, but Ursula! I love it so….so cute but I just don’t think I could bestow it on someone else.

And come to think of it, I wouldn’t want to see it on someone else’s baby…I’d be jealous that they had the balls to use it!

My husband and I both have first names beginning with “J”, so we ruled out J names for our kids… too Duggar-esque Bummer to cross out Jude, Juliet, Julian, June, January. We also have a last name with a “elle” sound, so sadly we ruled out Annabelle, Mirabelle, Adele, etc. to avoid a rhyming name.

I also have a whole group of names I love but won’t use: Uncommon Names that Shorten to Really Common Nicknames. Casualties to this list include…
Marigold
Seraphina
Magnolia
Adeline/Adeleide (there are FOUR Addies in my daughters class)
Evangeline
Annabelle

The only name I worry about using with a Hypothetical Future Son is Garrett. James Garrett has been the name I’ve had picked out for a boy since I was a young teenager, and in all honesty, it would break me not to be able to use it. James has heavily significant spiritual meaning to me, and Garrett heavily significant familial meaning. Garrett’s the problem name.

I suspect strongly that, if I ever have children, I will probably be having them without a partner, and that they’ll therefore have my last name. My last name sounds WAY too similar to Garrett (it originally got to be a family name by being a derivative of my last name, actually), and so it rolls off the tongue oddly. I suspect if he had my last name, I’d give him a second middle name (Lowen) to buffer between Garrett and my last name.

Girls:
Eowyn
Echo
Aura
Maple
Seven
Serenity
Kestra

Boys:
Ronan
Malachy
Hugh
Atticus
Apollo
Percy
Cecil

…I feel like such a nerd cause half of these names are from Sci-fi shows

We did not know the sex of the baby in advance and had to plan for both girl and boy names. We have a Spanish last name with a J pronounced like an H (think “mojito”) so I had to think about how names would sound in Spanish…. Very difficult with J, G, and H. Also V/B. In the planning, I quit on Julia, Geneva, Josephine, George, James, Harry, Henry. We stuck with a name heavy on the vowels.

My husband loves Diego (James in Spanish), but I can’t get over that the syllables break down to “go die!” Plus there is the Dora association.

I know someone named Alyssa Alison Allison. Her brother’s name is Alistair Allison. I am not making this up! I’m 100% serious. How could you ever do that to your kids? It’s names that are like that with my last name that I would never use.