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May. 1st, 2007 08:50 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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babynamesHello everyone! I (like a lot of others, I'm sure) got to this from the featured community page, and it tickled my fancy because I love naming things. I love words, and I love the sound and look of names. I also like discovering the meanings of names. I look for excuses to name things - I even named my computers (and anyone who is familiar with A Midsummer Night's Dream will understand why I named my desktop Helena and my laptop Hermia.
All the stuff below is cut by theme, since this post got a bit long.
Since I don't have any children, I'm going to start off talking about my cats. I like to find names that "fit", which made things interesting... I dithered over my first cat's name for the first week I had her before choosing (and because of that, almost two years later I think she's still under the impression that her name is "Kitten"), but had the second cat's name decided as soon as I met him. And I didn't even realize there was a theme to them until later.
My first cat, a female tortoiseshell, ended up being named Ariel. I wanted a Shakespearean name for her, and the moody and mischievous air spirit from The Tempest seemed like an appropriate character to name a cat after (and to be perfectly honest, it doesn't hurt that that's the name of Disney's Little Mermaid, either). Also, Ariel is a Hebrew name meaning "lion", again appropriate for a cat.
My second cat was simply perfect for a name I'd discovered when searching for names for Ariel. He is a gorgeous, sleek, golden-eyed all-black cat (and incidentally, he's a polydactal, but that doesn't really apply to this story, it's just neat). Fairfax, which was what the adoption group was calling him, is a great cat name... but he was just too perfect for the masculine Persian name Numair, meaning "panther". And then I realized I had two housecats named after big wild cats. I think if I get a third I may be obligated to give it a name that means "tiger" or something.
The only problem is that people have trouble pronouncing his name. I pronounce it nue-MARE (which may or may not be right but sounds right to me; the website I found the name on didn't have a pronunciation guide, so for all I know it could be nue-may-EER), but my sister calls him nue-MAHR, one of my friends calls him nue-MEER, and the people at the vet's office have called him NUE-mee-ahr... and none of those pronunciations make any sense to me. Not to mention that I have to spell his name several times every time I call to make a vet appointment. I still love the name and think it's perfect for him, but it's made me wary of naming my children anything too unusual.
My parents had an interesting naming strategy, which I think was my mother's influence. Our surname is very common; not on the same level as Smith or Lee, but I'm sure it's one of the one hundred most common surnames in the U.S., and probably one of the top fifty or better. My father's parents also gave their children common first names (partially because my grandmother hated nicknames): he's Paul and his sister is Beth. There are probably hundreds of people with the same first/last name combo in the U.S. alone. And I'm sure my mother, despite her uncommon maiden name, got really tired of running into other Patricias (or Pattys, Patsys, and Pats; she goes by Pat), since it was a common name in her generation.
Also, my mom was influenced by the feminist notion that if you give your daughters non-gender-specific names, people won't automatically discriminate against them upon, say, seeing their resume (although she worried a little less about the femininity of middle names). Consequently, I am Hilary Paige and my sister is Kelsey Piper (Kelsey was pretty uncommon in the mid-80's, though it's more common now; for a long time, when her name was mentioned to someone new they'd often remember it as Chelsea).
There have been a couple of times I've been friends with Hillarys, I believe I've met two other Hilarys (one of whom was a man), and I've known of a Hilario (also a man), but that's it for people I've met with versions of my name. (I'm not counting the three famous ones here.) I do like having an uncommon name.
The only problem with that is having an uncommonly spelled uncommon name. Hillary is the traditional spelling in the U.S., and people expect that spelling so much that my name often gets misspelled even when I take the time to spell it out, whether I do it verbally or write it down. I've also had people spell my name Hiliary, Hilery, and Hilerie, plus the two-L versions of all of those, plus Hillory... and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few. I do prefer my name the way my parents chose to spell it, but it's annoying to have it constantly misspelled. Then again, misspelling bothers me in general, so maybe that's just me.
Also, unlike my paternal grandmother, I like nicknames, and there are no good ones for Hilary. The most common one has been Hil, which I hated until I was about eighteen, when I finally became resigned to it. I've had a couple people call me Hilly, which for some reason I didn't mind so much (maybe that had to do with the people). I tried going by Ree for a while (spelled that way because if I'd spelled it Ry I'd feel I should be pronouncing it like the bread), but no one understood where I'd gotten that one from.
Because I like naming things, I've been thinking for a long time about what to name my kids. There are a lot of common names I like, but I want to give my children uncommon names because I enjoy having one.
My boyfriend, Charles Edward Uncommon-Surname (and he goes by Charles and dislikes being called Charlie, Chuck, or Chaz), and I have been occasionally discussing names for our hypothetical children... and he likes "normal" names (as he terms it), especially for first names. He respects my desire to give my first daughter the middle name Armella, after my maternal grandmother, but after that we disagree. Below are my lists of names in no particular order, most of which Charles disagrees with.
Girls' names: (some of these I don't like with Armella, especially the ones ending in A... but I do want two daughters)
Cecily Armella (pronounced SESS-il-ee, a version of Cecelia/Cecil. This is still my first choice name for a girl, but Charles thinks it's weird)
Lily/Lilith (I like Lily better generally, but Lilith Armella better as a combination)
Emily/Amelie (I think they derive from different names, but I put them together because they sound similar)
Ariel (but I unfortunately already used this for my cat)
Zoe (one syllable: it rhymes with Joe, not Joey. This is my mother's middle name... kinda makes up for Patricia, doesn't it?)
Gwyneth/Gwenneth/Guinevere (I like how these sound but not how they look, oddly)
Charlotte
Rhiannon (rhee-ANN-ohn)
Aurelia (ohr-AY-lee-ah)
Alexandra
Marie (but only as a first name; it's the most common female middle name in the U.S.)
Shannon/Sionnan (the second one pronounced SHAW-nan; it's the original Irish form of Shannon)
Erin/Aerin
Robin
Viola
Megan (this one is a little too commonly used for me to actually use it, but I love it)
Caitlin (nickname Cait/Kate; this one might be popping up a little too frequently too)
Helena
Hayley
Eve (is it weird that Lilith is on my list too?)
Molly
Tessa
Boys' names: (these are a little thin, since I don't particularly want a son; some of them are names I like but probably won't use because everyone else has)
Asher (Charles actually doesn't object to this one)
Tristan
Aidan
Kevin
Derek
Cameron
Wiley (my maternal grandfather's first or middle name; whichever it was, he went by the other one)
Alexander
Michael (I love this name, but I'd only use it as a middle name)
Scott
Jonathan
All the stuff below is cut by theme, since this post got a bit long.
Since I don't have any children, I'm going to start off talking about my cats. I like to find names that "fit", which made things interesting... I dithered over my first cat's name for the first week I had her before choosing (and because of that, almost two years later I think she's still under the impression that her name is "Kitten"), but had the second cat's name decided as soon as I met him. And I didn't even realize there was a theme to them until later.
My first cat, a female tortoiseshell, ended up being named Ariel. I wanted a Shakespearean name for her, and the moody and mischievous air spirit from The Tempest seemed like an appropriate character to name a cat after (and to be perfectly honest, it doesn't hurt that that's the name of Disney's Little Mermaid, either). Also, Ariel is a Hebrew name meaning "lion", again appropriate for a cat.
My second cat was simply perfect for a name I'd discovered when searching for names for Ariel. He is a gorgeous, sleek, golden-eyed all-black cat (and incidentally, he's a polydactal, but that doesn't really apply to this story, it's just neat). Fairfax, which was what the adoption group was calling him, is a great cat name... but he was just too perfect for the masculine Persian name Numair, meaning "panther". And then I realized I had two housecats named after big wild cats. I think if I get a third I may be obligated to give it a name that means "tiger" or something.
The only problem is that people have trouble pronouncing his name. I pronounce it nue-MARE (which may or may not be right but sounds right to me; the website I found the name on didn't have a pronunciation guide, so for all I know it could be nue-may-EER), but my sister calls him nue-MAHR, one of my friends calls him nue-MEER, and the people at the vet's office have called him NUE-mee-ahr... and none of those pronunciations make any sense to me. Not to mention that I have to spell his name several times every time I call to make a vet appointment. I still love the name and think it's perfect for him, but it's made me wary of naming my children anything too unusual.
My parents had an interesting naming strategy, which I think was my mother's influence. Our surname is very common; not on the same level as Smith or Lee, but I'm sure it's one of the one hundred most common surnames in the U.S., and probably one of the top fifty or better. My father's parents also gave their children common first names (partially because my grandmother hated nicknames): he's Paul and his sister is Beth. There are probably hundreds of people with the same first/last name combo in the U.S. alone. And I'm sure my mother, despite her uncommon maiden name, got really tired of running into other Patricias (or Pattys, Patsys, and Pats; she goes by Pat), since it was a common name in her generation.
Also, my mom was influenced by the feminist notion that if you give your daughters non-gender-specific names, people won't automatically discriminate against them upon, say, seeing their resume (although she worried a little less about the femininity of middle names). Consequently, I am Hilary Paige and my sister is Kelsey Piper (Kelsey was pretty uncommon in the mid-80's, though it's more common now; for a long time, when her name was mentioned to someone new they'd often remember it as Chelsea).
There have been a couple of times I've been friends with Hillarys, I believe I've met two other Hilarys (one of whom was a man), and I've known of a Hilario (also a man), but that's it for people I've met with versions of my name. (I'm not counting the three famous ones here.) I do like having an uncommon name.
The only problem with that is having an uncommonly spelled uncommon name. Hillary is the traditional spelling in the U.S., and people expect that spelling so much that my name often gets misspelled even when I take the time to spell it out, whether I do it verbally or write it down. I've also had people spell my name Hiliary, Hilery, and Hilerie, plus the two-L versions of all of those, plus Hillory... and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few. I do prefer my name the way my parents chose to spell it, but it's annoying to have it constantly misspelled. Then again, misspelling bothers me in general, so maybe that's just me.
Also, unlike my paternal grandmother, I like nicknames, and there are no good ones for Hilary. The most common one has been Hil, which I hated until I was about eighteen, when I finally became resigned to it. I've had a couple people call me Hilly, which for some reason I didn't mind so much (maybe that had to do with the people). I tried going by Ree for a while (spelled that way because if I'd spelled it Ry I'd feel I should be pronouncing it like the bread), but no one understood where I'd gotten that one from.
Because I like naming things, I've been thinking for a long time about what to name my kids. There are a lot of common names I like, but I want to give my children uncommon names because I enjoy having one.
My boyfriend, Charles Edward Uncommon-Surname (and he goes by Charles and dislikes being called Charlie, Chuck, or Chaz), and I have been occasionally discussing names for our hypothetical children... and he likes "normal" names (as he terms it), especially for first names. He respects my desire to give my first daughter the middle name Armella, after my maternal grandmother, but after that we disagree. Below are my lists of names in no particular order, most of which Charles disagrees with.
Girls' names: (some of these I don't like with Armella, especially the ones ending in A... but I do want two daughters)
Cecily Armella (pronounced SESS-il-ee, a version of Cecelia/Cecil. This is still my first choice name for a girl, but Charles thinks it's weird)
Lily/Lilith (I like Lily better generally, but Lilith Armella better as a combination)
Emily/Amelie (I think they derive from different names, but I put them together because they sound similar)
Ariel (but I unfortunately already used this for my cat)
Zoe (one syllable: it rhymes with Joe, not Joey. This is my mother's middle name... kinda makes up for Patricia, doesn't it?)
Gwyneth/Gwenneth/Guinevere (I like how these sound but not how they look, oddly)
Charlotte
Rhiannon (rhee-ANN-ohn)
Aurelia (ohr-AY-lee-ah)
Alexandra
Marie (but only as a first name; it's the most common female middle name in the U.S.)
Shannon/Sionnan (the second one pronounced SHAW-nan; it's the original Irish form of Shannon)
Erin/Aerin
Robin
Viola
Megan (this one is a little too commonly used for me to actually use it, but I love it)
Caitlin (nickname Cait/Kate; this one might be popping up a little too frequently too)
Helena
Hayley
Eve (is it weird that Lilith is on my list too?)
Molly
Tessa
Boys' names: (these are a little thin, since I don't particularly want a son; some of them are names I like but probably won't use because everyone else has)
Asher (Charles actually doesn't object to this one)
Tristan
Aidan
Kevin
Derek
Cameron
Wiley (my maternal grandfather's first or middle name; whichever it was, he went by the other one)
Alexander
Michael (I love this name, but I'd only use it as a middle name)
Scott
Jonathan
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 04:43 pm (UTC)And one of my middle names is Ariel.
My brother's name is Charles but he's always gone by the name Chaz. He really dislikes being called Charles.
Lilith is a nice name.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 05:03 pm (UTC)I think Robin is very pretty, and very uncommon. And Wiley is way cool.
that is just crazy!
Date: 2007-05-01 05:34 pm (UTC)Re: that is just crazy!
Date: 2007-05-01 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 06:20 pm (UTC)And kitty names! I have a calico named Jellybean London, Bean(ie) for short. :D
Most people spell Hilary with two Ls? I much prefer it your way. :) I get the misspellings too...my name is Theresa. I've gotten Teresa, Tereesa, Thareesa, Teresia, Taresa...you name it, I've seen it. It's actually kind of amusing.
I love your girls names. Cecily is on my list too, and I love Rhiannon, Charlotte, and Molly. Your boyfriend doesn't like your lists? I see several names I'd consider "normal"...Emily, Alexandra, Megan, Caitlin, even Lily...and most of the boys names! Poke him and tell him to take another look. ;)
no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 06:31 pm (UTC)And speaking of Midsummer names, here's what a big geek I am: you can assign names to hard drives. So I named Hermia's hard drive Lysander, and Helena's hard drives are Demetrius and Puck. And I think Lysander is a great name for a flute. :-) I'd consider it for a child, too... but probably not if I end up marrying Charles, LOL.