Names names...

[always-bawling.livejournal.com]

I don't like a lot of the names people people are naming their offspring as of late. To be more specific, basically anything that's on the top 20 list of names bugs me because it's...well...not original anymore.

Which sucks because I really used to love the name Madison. And Emma. But now they're totally overused and it sucks.

I'm worried that if I find a name I love, by the time my child is in school, EVERYONE will have that name. And then it will be like "Emma G., Emma W., Emma K., Emma L." and I don't want my kid to be "Emma W."

So I was looking towards Indian names because I just love the way they sound. Parminder (like the girl from ER and Bend it like Beckham) is so cute. I also like Alka, Kalindi, Trishna, Nidra, Sadhana, and Lavanya.

The questions are:

Are these TOO far out?
And are they inappropriate for someone of any race or color? Like, I might be put off if I saw a little Japanese girl named Shanequa. You know what I mean?

Comments

[lolacat.livejournal.com]

I guess my only problem with naming a child something from a culture other than your own is that, to me, you should have a connection to that culture to justify the name use. I mean, I have friends who are Indian and their names all have specific meanings, and I wouldn't want to just muck around in a language and culture that I didn't have a personal connection to.

Even though a lot of kids end up having the same name, I don't think it's a huge crisis. I know many Jennifers and Ashleys and they all turned out great. I am a Lauren, and there are a lot of Laurens, but it doesn't bother me. I plan to name my son Owen - hopefully it won't be in the top 50, but I wouldn't completely rule it out if it was because I love the name. There are worse things in life than having a name that everyone can spell and pronounce immediately. To me it's a trade off... on the one hand, if you pick Emma for example, your kid might go through a time where they hate the fact that there's an Emma H. and Emma P. in her class. But that will pass and later on she'll be fine with. If you name your little girl Parminder, she will probably go through a period where she hates spelling and pronouncing and explaining her name to everyone, and then later she will probably embrace its uniqueness. So to me, it shouldn't be such a big deal as it is. I think the thing to do is pick the right name for your child and family, and stick to it!

:)

Lauren