new here, need help

[sexyusagi.livejournal.com]

Okay, so we have 10 days until my due date and we cannot agree on a name.  We are really feeling it's a boy but have chosen not to find out the sex.  We've got nothing but Hana for a girl's name that we can agree on (pronounced Hah-nuh instead of the 'regular' way).  I'd prefer Hazel and he's prefer Hyacinth.

For boy names, we have Attila Barana (Buh-rah-nuh) and Mako (May-ko) Barana (our daughter Omaha acutally came up with Barana so it's probably not even a real name but we both like it).  I was very hesitant about Mako (sharks, Maaco paint jobs) but am even more hesitant about Attila even though I do kinda like it.  I just know the kid will always get Attila the Hun jokes...

Anyway, any opinions would be appreciated!

Comments

[kitchen-poet.livejournal.com]

I adore Hazel and I really like Hyacinth. Hana is just so so, but Attila seems like a joke name or a dog's name to me. :( Maybe because our neighbor has a huge, mean dog named Attila? Either way I can't shake the association that Attila is meant to imply something to be feared. And yeah, I think he would hear plenty of Hun jokes....

[calixbat.livejournal.com]

Ah I love love love Hazel. I don't mind Hana either. Much better than Hannah.
I don't mind Attila. However when I was away we named this huge scary spider Atila, and I realy do associate that name with her and scary spiders that run away and try to eat me in general...I also see it as a girls name, because once again..we decided the spider was a girl.
I LOVE Mako . I like Barana but it reminds me of Barack Obama.. some play on his name or something. lol

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

Hana reminds me of the road to Hana in Hawaii. Hazel and Hyacinth are both pretty. I must say, unless you have a really important reason for using it, don't name a boy Attila. It has too much negative potential. Mako is a good name.

[wistfuljen.livejournal.com]

Attila is AWFUL. I like Hazel and I LOVE Hyacinth (I have a thing for H names, my son is Holden).

I hope you have a girl.

[krosp.livejournal.com]

Hazel and Hana are both nice. If it's between Mako and Attila I would rank Mako 1000 times higher than Attila. I agree with the other commenter who thought of Barack Obama with Barana, but maybe that's because it's all over the media right now (and I live on the other side of the world, hmm...)

[tryyingtoevolve.livejournal.com]

I love Hazel. Hyacinth is okay, but Hazel is 55859595x better.

The boy names are atrocious. No offense, but seriously? Attila? That's trying way way way too hard. He's going to hate it. And what if he's some geeky little kid with glasses and a pocket protector who likes math? Everyone is going to make fun of a Little Attila like that more than they would a Little . . . Jacob. Or something. I'm not saying to name your kid Jacob, just that there are other, much better and still unique names that would be much much much nicer to use on a child.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

I like Hazel a lot as well as Hana (you said you pronounce it Hah-nuh instead of the regular way, what is the regular way? because that is the way pronounce it too).

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

my name is hana. i love my name, but i ALWAYS get "hannah". i've learned to deal with it though. i never grew up around other girls with the same name. my middle name is jane, btw.

i don't like any of your boy's names. attila seems way over the top and mako sounds rather feminine. also, i wouldn't go with the made up middle. it's sweet that your daughter picked it out, but it's a completely bogus name and rather bizarre. =/

maybe come up with two boy's names you'd use for the middle and ask her which one she likes better..then use that one.

i think good alternative for the boy names would be something like atticus and micah.

[azelmaroark.livejournal.com]

maybe come up with two boy's names you'd use for the middle and ask her which one she likes better..then use that one.

What she said. When my sister was a kid, she thought Princess was a great name. I agree with others who say that it's sweet that you want to let her be part of the decision, but there are ways to do that without letting a young child (I assume) pick out a name that...well, that a young child would pick. =P Personally, I thought Banana when I read the name.

Attila has female associations for me -- bad, bad ones. Mako isn't quite so horrible, but as others have said, it sounds feminine and looks made-up.

I don't like Hana, as it'll always be mispronounced and I prefer the traditional Hannah, but Hazel is awesome and Hyacinth is okay.

Some names you might like, based on Hazel:

Jasper
Owen
Heath
Adrian
Spencer
Ezra
Everett
Julius
Corbin

Lucy
Violet
Evelyn
Ivy
Laurel
Clara

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Okay, Attila is hilarious, but that's the problem. He WILL get Attila the Hun jokes. Even kids know Attila the Hun. If you don't want to set him up for that, don't name him Attila.

As for Mako... I'm not really sure what that is? I don't like it at all, sorry.

I don't think it's a good idea to let your kid help name the baby. When I was a kid I thought 'Maple' was an awesome name. I knew someone whose older sister was allowed to name her, and the name she wound up with was 'Treean'.

I like Hazel. It's different, but people still know how to spell/pronounce it, and won't think, "What were their parents smoking?" Try to stay away from weird spellings and pronunciations, because they will only create confusion and frustration for your kid.

[emtotherescuee.livejournal.com]

Hazel, I looveeeeee it! I once met this adorable little girl named Hazel(lle) with pretty long blonde hair, gosh, she was so freaking cute.

Anyway, I don't really like any of your guy names. As much as I LOVEEE "out-there" names, I can't really imagine any of your names being on a child. But that'll probably change with other people once he's born. I would "support" Attila, but it sounds a little feminine, you know? And sharks came to my mind when I saw Mako.
So...yeah.


Anyway, congradulations! I hope everything turns out well:]

[emtotherescuee.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when I was little, I swore on my life that I was going to name my future daughter Halo D:

[emtotherescuee.livejournal.com]

LOVE Micah

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

Attila sounds like a girl's name to me =\.

I do like Hana & Hazel, though!
I also like the sound of Mako.

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

haha. my brother wanted to name me zsa zsa. :(

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

oh, i forgot to add: mako (pronounced MAH-ko) is a japanese girl's name. i feel like most people won't get that it's pronounced may-ko. i, personally, would probably initially think it was mack-o or mah-ko.

[istytehcrawk.livejournal.com]

I love Hazel and Hyacinth, but not any of the others.

[arbus.livejournal.com]

i love hazel. and thats about it. sorry.

i think your boys names are horrifying. i hope you guys are able to come up with something wonderful before he/she arrives.

good luck :)

[twolittlelines.livejournal.com]

Our children have a friend who's name is Mako. It's his nickname, real name is Maklin. I've never heard anyone pronounce it any way other than Make-lin or May-koh.

I too like Hazel and don't mind Barana.

[http://users.livejournal.com/__recidivist/]

It's usually han-ah.

OP: Chana (khah-nah) is a fairly common name among Orthodox Jews in the US. I prefer that spelling and pronunciation, but Hana is growing on me.

[mrandmrschippy.livejournal.com]

Hazel - okay
Hyacinth - Cynthia would sound less pretentious
Hana - boring

Mako - sounds and reads like a girl's name, most Japanese girl names end in -ko meaning 'child', and May is a girl's name
Barana - just don't go there...banana, Obama, it's all been said, plus the 'a' ending makes it sound feminine
Attila - people will either think Hun or if not they'll think it's a girl, though of the three it's the best as at least it's a real name

Have you tried buying any name books or looked online as it's hard to believe these are the only names on your shortlist after so many months!

[sexyusagi.livejournal.com]

LOL. Unfortunately we've looked at so many sites it's not even funny anymore. We are just really stuck. We are pretty convinced it's a boy so I'll admit we haven't really thought as much about girls names. As for boy names my husband has come up with most of them as I'm stuck on Bodhi since that was the name we'd agreed upon if we'd had a boy last time. I assumed (incorrectly) that we'd just use Bodhi this time and thus my mind has really not been able to go elsewhere; my work schedule has me so completely burned out.

Girls:
Hana
Hazel
Hyacinth
Subira
Sakura
Shona

Boys:
Mako
Bodhi
Guion (guy-un)
Makoto
Kenta
Attila
Ezra

[ladycash.livejournal.com]

Hyacinth reminds me of the bird. It's a macaw.

[solagirl.livejournal.com]

I love Bodhi. I say stick with that! Bodhi Ezra and Bodhi Guion are nice :)

[mrandmrschippy.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay, sounds stressful!

Are you and/or your husband of Japanese origin and/or Buddhist - this is the impression I get from Sakura, Bodhi, Makoto, Kenta...and then you throw in Attila and Ezra and Hyacinth which are completely UN-Buddhist/Japanese...?

You don't say why you're not sure about Bodhi anymore, but I have to say, this will sound like 'Body' to a lot of people so, however beautiful the concept, it could be hard for a child to live with. (I see there's an actor called Bodhi Elfman, IMDb says his nn is Jimmy - which suggests he doesn't actually use the name in his private life - but then he called his kid Story, and he's a Scientologist, so who knows...).

As you're finding it hard to agree on names with your husband, why don't you pick the first name (with the proviso that your husband doesn't absolutely HATE it) and let him pick the second (ditto). Also, make one of the names a little more mainstream than the other, so your child has a choice if, for example, she utterly despises being called Hyacinth.

I like Ezra, btw. And Omaha.

Anyway, based on your shortlist, here's some suggestions. I like unusual names too but I'm a believer in not being over-creative or giving out confusing messages/associations with a name, for example what it'll look like on a job application form. While some of the following are 'teasable' I think they're still carry-offable.

You have a few with tree associations (Bodhi, Sakura, Hazel) so - WILLOW. And Hazel also makes me think of eyes, so IRIS (which has a beautiful meaning in Greek myth).

Alternative flower/nature girl names: POPPY, FLORA, SAFFRON, SUMMER, SAPPHIRE.

Others, with a similar flavour to your names: TRINITY (g), TITUS (b), JAGO (b) [pr. Jay-go], ANGEL (b) [as in the character in Tess of the D'Urbevilles], ELECTRA (g), HORATIO (b), MERLIN (b), ATTICUS (b), ATLAS (b), BACCHUS (b), INDIANA (b/g), FLORIAN (b), BLUE (b/g), INDIGO (b), ECHO (g), COSMO (b), COSIMA (g)