Name stealing?

[betsy buttercup]

I think Naomi and Susannah are fine. Your friend had a chance to use Naomi and decided not to, so that means she must not love it so much as to be offended if you used it. I'd mention it to her, but I'd expect her to give you the go ahead. If anyone I talked to during the naming process of my three sons wanted to use one of the names I almost used, I'd be thrilled, because those names were awesome but I just didn't want to use them. Susannah is fine because it's totally stylistically different from Savannah (much prettier than Savannah I think). Funny thing, my mother-in-law's name is Susannah and they named their cat Savannah, and I highly doubt she was a "junior."

Lily is a more sticky situation. It's not like the Naomi thing where your friend had the opportunity to use the name and decided not to. She hasn't had a chance yet. Does your friend have any daughters, or would a theoretical Lily be her first? If she had the name picked out before she even knew the gender, that means she probably really loves it and would be hurt to some degree if you decided to use it, even if she said she wasn't. If I were you I'd try to pick a different name. Honestly Lily is so overused right now anyway, and your other picks are way better.

I love the name Tabitha, like a lot. Is there any way you can chage your cat's name to something else besides Tabby before the baby gets here? What does the cat care, right?

[jesba]

I really think these are all non-issues. I'll add another element which is that certainly Lily and to a lesser extent Naomi are really pretty popular names: it's not like you never would have come across the idea of those names without your friends' thoughts, especially if, as I think is clear, you are drawing from Biblical names which are in fact a pretty closed set for girls. I mean I agree you might float it by your friends if you are losing sleep over it or they seem like the kind of people who would be really sensitive about this stuff. But you might do well to remember that this is not a phenomenon that non name-nerds are even always familiar with. Would the future daughters see your own daughter enough for this to really matter to them? My mother had two friends who had daughters with my name and if anything we thought it was cool to share it, although to be fair we never saw each other often.

I think back in the day this "name stealing" idea didn't really exist, it was more, "sometimes kids have the same name."

I do like the idea of Galilee nn Lilee/Lily! Beautiful!

If you are really hung up here is another option for Lily: Elizabeth. Biblical, beautiful and Lily is a traditional enough nn for it but there are so many other she doesn't have to be exclusively Lily.

Also the meaning of Susannah is Lily so you could conceivably have Lily as a nn without it being the only nn.

I do think Tabitha when the cat is Tabby is a bit much. I might suggest the lovely Talitha, also Biblical, Tally is a great nn in my opinion. OR, you could easily (I would think) rename the cat : D.

Good luck!

[nat108]

I would be livid if a friend used a name I loved BUT I love uncommon names. Lily is very common so it's not unheard of that others would like it and use it.
Naomi is uncommon so it could be name stealing. However your friend didn't use it when she had the chance
Susannah & Savannah aren't close

I'd discuss the names with your friends. It would seem very underhanded if you just used the names without saying anything

[bakingno.2]

Thanks ladies. This definitely helps.
I definitely will talk to my friends before we decide. I think there are some other reasons that I'm not totally enamored with the names, and I didn't want to bring it up until I was serious.
Yes, Tabby Kitty just kind of walked into the name when he showed up on our porch and never left. So, we could actually name him
I am intrigued by the idea of Talitha or Tallie. How do you pronounce Talitha? Like Tabitha or with the stress on the leeth?

[jesba]

Glad you like Talitha (or could rename the cat for Tabitha : D!). If you look around the internet, both pronunciations are given for the name. There's probably scholarship on how to say the Aramaic word, and there's more consensus on the internet for that than for the name (mostly giving the pronunciation like Tabitha), but I suspect no one knows for sure. I prefer the pronunciation like Tabitha, but the stress on leeth doesn't bother me.

[erinlw]

I think that you'd need to ask your friends how they'd feel if you used Lily, Naomi or Savannah/Susannah. We can't really say if it's stealing their names because we aren't them. Discuss it with your friends and see what they say about it.

[desperatelyseekingname]

i have changed my mind on name stealing quite a bit over the years, i used to think tons were off the list but now i think very few are. i think if it is a unique name that someone mentioned then that is strange. but the ones you mentioned are known names. like others said i think if you just mention to them that you are thinking of using the name then it is fine

[southernmomma]

I've always heard Talitha pronounced Ta-LEETH-Uh. I think it's lovely, and Tally is a cute nn.

[capri]

I actually think it would not be good to rename your cat. They are usually very intelligent, sometimes territorial and can become jealous when a new member of the pack arrives. She might feel threatened and confused if she finds everything, including her name, is being given to the baby.

Anyway I prefer your other choices!

Also, I personally would not appreciate it if my parents told me my name used to belong to their cat...

But Talitha I think is lovely and far enough from Tabby for it to be given to your daughter.

[gigigibbons]

I took Gemma off the list because my brother wants to use Emma. You know in the future. Someday. If he gets married. If he has kids. If that kid turns out to be a girl. And IF his hypothetical wife/gf would also love the name. And then that's IF he doesn't change his mind by then.

Then I realized how stupid that was and told him if I have another girl I'm using Gemma anyway and he can either still use Emma if all those "IF's" come through or he can suck it up because that's a lot of "if's" for me to cross off a favorite.

By the way, I have changed my baby name in the past for a friend. Our name was Audrey, we were wholly set on it and were due first, but she wanted to use Aubrey. We LOVED Audrey. But she had the name chosen since high school and was moving back into town (because I argued that they would never get to see each other anyway for it to matter.). So I reluctantly let it go and struggled the rest of the pregnancy to find the perfect name. Which I didn't decide on until after she was born. Guess what? We're no longer friends, and the fact that I bent over for her just pisses me off all the more now.

So take it from me, if you love the name just use it. You can be considerate about it first (I encourage this) but be firm and stand up for the name you love the most.