Is naming in the genes???

[deathbarbie24]

It is definitely not genetic in my family - I am the odd one out. Whenever I bring names up, they just look at me strangely.

[ashthedreamer]

lol, I definitely agree it's not genetic! My family thinks I'm crazy. My sisters are interested in names, but not to the same extent as I am. I'm not sure when I first became interested in names, but I remember making pages after pages of combos that I wanted to use when I grew up. haha. I think it was a mixture of hating my name as a child, and my love for writing. Although the more interested in names I've gotten, the harder it is to find the perfect name!

[rowanasabe]

I think my name obsession began with my awareness of my own name. Not just "knowing" what my name is, but realizing that my name was what it was because my parents picked it, and it could have easily been something else. This happened at around the age of four, and that was when I realized I utterly hated my middle name (and to this day, I still dislike it).

My obsession really kicked in, when, like other berries, I began writing. I wrote my first story at the age of seven, and made writing a full-fledged hobby by the time I was 10. Creating names became a serious business, and I collected names from everywhere, something I still do.

My name obsession has waned on and off, but was recently rekindled strongly when I married my husband. All of a sudden, the prospect of naming children seemed so real, so that's why I joined nameberry (even though we're not going to TTC for another couple of years). I also am studying to be a jewelry designer, so I also create name lists for my pieces and collections.

So there you have it, my full name-love history. No one in my family-- or anyone I know for that matter in real life-- has as much interest in names as I do.

[whirligig]

I feel like I was born a name nerd. I remember sneaking my mom's baby name book to make lists when I was 5 years old and she was pregnant with my brother.
I definitely didn't get my name nerdiness from my parents, though. My parents never made lists for any of us 3 kids. They went to the hospital and waited to see us before thinking anything up... I think *that* might be why I've always been so interested in names, though. I know my name story goes like this, "You were born, your dad said 'What about Christine?' but we had a friend named Christine so we named you Kristin. And Anne sounded good with it." Greaaaaaaat, such a captivating, emotional story.

I hid my interest in names until I was about 16. I bought my first name book when I was 16, but didn't talk about them with anyone until I was about 19. Then at 23 I had this ethnography course and I researched names for my ethnography, and I'm SO glad because since then I've really felt liberated about my hobby. I'm (I expect) at least 5 years away from having kids so I'm enjoying names as an academic thing rather than a personal interest thing. Keeps my baby fever under control that way, too, haha.

Interesting but what is ethnography? I hope it is the study of names. It would be so cool to do a degree in naming hehe!!!

[yellow]

Uh, no. There is no way something as specific as name choice, or even particular interest in names, runs in families. This is entirely a nurture thing. (Self-guided interests are generally included under the 'nurture' umbrella.)

Interesting but what is ethnography? I hope it is the study of names. It would be so cool to do a degree in naming hehe!!!

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ethnography

[aj_bear]

I deffinetly don't think that my name obsession is genetic! My dad is really uncreative when it comes to names- he had a dog named Dog. When it grew older, he renamed it Red Dog. I don't think anybody has an obsession with names like my sister and I. A lot of my family members got their names from saints, or just what was popular.

I became a name nerd when I was fairly young. My sister liked to create different characters and give them different names, and I liked helping her. I'm sure she still has notebooks full of characters and doodles from when she was nine. But the full blwon naking psycosis didn't kick in until I began seriously writing. I took names from the movies I saw, and when we got the internet, I went to naming sites. I'd have so much fun! And now that I'm getting older, it's become a real passion. Even my sister isn't as into it as I am.

So, I don't think it's genetic, it's based on my environment when I was younger.
-Athena

[valkyrie]

Perhaps it's a tad genetic in my family, in that me nor my brother were given super common names. (well, my name has shot up in popularity since I was born. It's currently #14, but was only #56 or so at the time) Both my brother and I like names, but I guess I ended up being more into it than he was. I think my love of names came from my interests (i.e. writing, roleplaying games, etc.) more than genetics though. I also recall coming up with a plethora of "different" names for my stuffed animals as a kid.

[marinadancel17]

I don't think it's in the genes. My name is a popular 90's name from "Friends" (BTW my parents didn't even watch that show) and my older brothers name is my dad's name...and my grandpa's name...So how did I get interesting in naming?

Well...I was bored some summer afternoon and decided to go on Sporcle.com. I played thhis game where you named the Duggar's kids. I cheated and looked up their names and came across a forum where you pretended to have a bunch of kids whose names all started with the same letter. Then, I went to a baby name site so I could find all the names, where I found videos of a woman talking about names(any other followers of anastasiaruby???) I was hooked. The rest is history...

[auroradawn]

I was born a word nerd--when I began learning to talk, my mom says I would giggle in delight whenever I heard a long, unfamiliar word. When I got a little older, I had to imitate the word until I had the sound right, and before long, I'd be using it in conversation (according to my mom, sometimes it was out of context, but more often correct!) At the age of 3-and-a-half, I skipped home from the hospital chanting my newborn brother's name. My love of names grew out of that, helped along by my love of reading. My parents and siblings are interested in words and names, but none to the extent I am.
I would guess that such a predisposition for language could be genetic--I'm good with words, but not with numbers, and most of my siblings are the same way--but probably not the particular obsession with names.

[blairx]

I'm biggest name lover in my family, but my mom has always liked unusual names and was always good at predicting names that would be stylish in the future. She gave rabbits, cats and horses names like Hazel, Esther, Opal, Scarlett and Ruby - usually names my dad had vetoed for human children. But she's not enough of a name nerd to seek out naming sites and forums.

She mostly likes names that fall into the dusty vintage category that parents of this decade are loving (she was 25 years ahead of her time when she suggested naming me some of the above names or using Mamie as a nickname, for instance!), whereas my naming style is more eclectic. And I agree that it's not genetic.