(no subject)

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

Okay so my cousin is having a baby and she was totally planning on naming her Savannah Gabriella. Which I know, I know.. Its very popular but I was like whatever its not THAT bad, ill just call her Hannah and that will be cute.

So today she told me that she changed her mind and now she is going to name her.. But before I tell you the name, let me remind you that I live in a small town in RI where the "trendy/creative" name trend hasnt really been a problem with newborns.

But apparently it has because she is now going to name her.. Nevaeh Grace.

Omg. Shoot me now. How do I tell her nicely how bad her child's name is going to be. She was telling me how beautiful it is and she saw it online and never heard of it before.

Comments

[ashleyyynoel.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

I live in RI too and I'm very thankful that I don't run into 40+ people with kre8tiv names daily. But... it won't be long, I'm sure. :(

[taraemily.livejournal.com]

This is going to sound completely stupid, but how the hell do you even pronounce Nevaeh. :P

[indicinderelly.livejournal.com]

I'm not the OP so I have no idea, but it reads like:

Nev-ay-uh
But I think it flows better (though, not to the point of my liking the name...)
Nev-ee-uh

[idrinkacidrain.livejournal.com]

Or Neh-VY-uh, or neh-VAY.

[lustdumpster.livejournal.com]

i'd just be honest with her, tell her her daughter is going to sound like a stripper with a filler middle name.

[anapology.livejournal.com]

Show her the Stats..

http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/babyname.cgi

How this abomination of a made-up name jumped out of nowhere and it's really not as unique as she thinks.
Heaven spelt backwards? Most people would call that the epitome of trash.
The Nevaeh trend is such that when she's older people will be able to date her just by her age, it will got really old really fast.

Plus Grace is such a filler middle name, it's the most used middle name around right now. It's the Lynn of the 70's and Marie of the 80's.

I hope she gives her daughter a real name!

[anapology.livejournal.com]

*uh, date her just by her name, even. Also her age, but that should have gone without saying!

[redriotroses.livejournal.com]

Louise of the 90's too! Totally agree with your comments on the name though.

[anapology.livejournal.com]

Yes yes, I agree with you on the Louise.

[idrinkacidrain.livejournal.com]

And Grace and Rose of the 90s. And Anne of the 50s/60s.

[anapology.livejournal.com]

I'd say Grace was more a now thing.

[schexyschteve.livejournal.com]

Savannah Gabriella is so pretty! Tell her that this tiny little baby will eventually grow up into a person and unless she wants her daughter to be a stripper, go with Savannah Grace. Only, you know...tell her nicely. :)

Tell her that as far as popularity goes, Nevaeh is nearly as popular as Savannah (ranked 31 and 30, respectively, for 2007). Although idk whether this will help or harm the argument.

Tell her it's "heaven" backwards and is completely made up and just plain tacky.

[perfectcherry.livejournal.com]

If she wants to brand herself and her daughter as ignorant trash, Nevaeh is the perfect name for that! At least names like Madison and Addison sound somewhat respectable despite their blandness, but Nevaeh is just "heaven" spelled backwards, which is just ridiculous and the only name I think of as more trashy is Unique. If she wants a name that hints at how she believes her child is god-sent, she should consider something like Celeste.

I don't care for the name Savannah, but I think it's a nice name that is respectable, so I really hope she'll return to her original choice or at least something a little more tasteful than Nevaeh. I think Anapology is on the right track: you should show her how very popular both Nevaeh and Grace are right now. You should also remind her that there are a lot of things one can find on the internet that one should not incorporate in to their everyday life!

I think Gabriella and Grace are both lovely, classical names and do not have a problem with either, despite the current trendiness of Grace.

Is she sure she's having a girl? Maybe she'll get a shock and have to come up with a boy's name instead. At least then Nevaeh would be out of the question! Good luck trying to talk some sense in her; I'm glad you're there to demonstrate good sense and good taste!

[searlait.livejournal.com]

Shit. Good luck on that one.

I don't know how to sugar coat "ugh, fuck, there's probably a couple thousand strippers named Nevaeh, ugh, it's horrible, oh god".

Someone tried to convince me it as a beautiful, en vogue baby name "because it's my cousin's name!" and I gagged.

[missmaxattax.livejournal.com]

Show her this! lol.
hmm... I'd seriously stress to her how BEAUTIFUL Savannah Gabriella is, though. lol.

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

I agree with anapology, you should her the stats...possibly along with some other name sites. On babynamewizard for example, she can see how ridiculously popular it has become over the past few years.

If after that, she still wants to use the name...I'd say go ahead. (http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager)

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

*sorry about the huge link!

[sloane-hd.livejournal.com]

Though Nevaeh is way better than Savannah in my opinion, it's still a big NO.

[sdjma.livejournal.com]

Is she and Evangelical Christian? Because, if not, I would strongly recommend against that name. I'd just tell her that people are going to assume she is based on that name, and unless she wants to give that impression, she should choose another name.

BTW, the NYT ran an article on that name a year or a few years ago. You could look it up in the archives. It *does* sound pretty, and it has a lot of the characteristics of classical names, which they think is part of its rapid rise in popularity. But, srsly, I hope she does not choose that!

There's Hope

[crossingthesea.livejournal.com]

Harsh comments, but I do have to say that my bias in seeing those names is that the parents are quite young. They are modern soap opera type names.

If she started with names like Savannah Gabriella (too heavy a combination for my taste, but good names separately), then there is hope. How about gearing her toward names in the same style but with lighter sounds, like Siena or Liliana or Jessmina? I think there is hope yet.

Re: There's Hope

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

My cousin is about 35, and she already has two kids, Brittney and John. So i dont know why she is going so different in her names. She is also with another guy this time so many thats different.

[sarahness.livejournal.com]

Nevaeh is the worst name I can think of. D:

[so-there.livejournal.com]

ok, new rule. everyone has to be a member of baby_names for at least 9 months before attempting to name a baby. yes, that's everyone in the entire world.

[so-there.livejournal.com]

though honestly Nevaeh and Savannah don't sound too terribly different. I mean, to the ear. meanings and everything else aside.

[nandy-pandy.livejournal.com]

When I first saw the name, I thought it was supposed to be like "Nivea" (the brand) but spelled "creatively" -- not that there would be any reason for someone to name their kid after lotion, but you never know. After that, I thought for the longest that it was like Nevada, only the "da" would be a "yay!" instead.

Then I looked it up on YouTube for the hell of it, and I still don't get how people got Ne-vay-uh from Nevaeh.

[chirpygirly.livejournal.com]

So true about the pronunciation. While I like different, unique names, I think they should at least be spelled phonetically.

I also agree with just being honest about the name "Nevaeh", and that it's just heaven backwards, and that it's basically a rising Emily, meaning it's gaining popularity to the point of being over used. Not that I have anything against the name Emily. Just overly popular names! :/

[nandy-pandy.livejournal.com]

Oh... no... I think this is one of those times when neither saying something nor saying nothing is a good idea.

However, just based on what you wrote, maybe she doesn't realize just how trendy-to-the-point-of-obnoxious that name is. She said she'd never heard it before, so perhaps part of the draw is that she perceives it to be a lot less trendy/common than it is. If she's fully aware of all that but still likes it, though, I would just back off. After all, it's her kid. You could always call her Grace. :{

[littlehounddog.livejournal.com]

I think Savannah Gabriella is cute. WORLDS better than Nevaeh. :p