(no subject)

[breazeale1331.livejournal.com]

hi i'm new. My husband and I are trying to have a baby and we've finialized the name choice. For a boy it's Leonard James after his father and my grandfather and Christopher Kaden. For a girl it's Jadie Grace and Cayleigh Christabella. What do you guys think?

Comments

[neroli.livejournal.com]

Melissa, can you tell us what you need from us, so we can be constructive and help out instead of making you feel bad?

Did you want to hear which of the two name combos we prefer, and why?

[poespretty.livejournal.com]

ooh good point & good comment. I hope she replies/reposts about this. :)

[breazeale1331.livejournal.com]

yeah that's kinda what I was looking for. I was wanting to know what names would be the best for our future children in the eyes of others. We were trying to steer away from names that would get our kids stuffed in trash cans at school. But at the same time we want names that have strong meanings.

[mrsduryee.livejournal.com]

Except for Leonard James and Christopher, "strong" is not the word I think of when I hear your names. Especially not Christabella, Kaden or Kayleigh.

[tigress-oils.livejournal.com]

I agree with mrsduryee

In my mind, I associate "strong meaning" with sturdy or, well, established names. The tying together of syllables--cay and leigh, which could be spelled any number of ways--doesn't necessarily indicate, well, any meaning. I suppose you could reach a little and derive the name from a combination of Catherine (pure) and Leigh, but I'm not sure that's the strong meaning you're looking for. (One source does cite "Kayleigh" as an anglicized mutation of the word "ceilidh," which is a kind of dance. This might be akin to naming your child Waltz or Tarantella!)

I might suggest Catherine as an alternative. If you want something a little less common, there's Aella ("whirlwind"), Calypso (related to the word "concealed"), and Camilla.

Kaden, as far as I know, is made up, and has no meaning.

I rather like Leonard. The "lion" part of the meaning is certainly indicative of strength!

Again, if you're thinking strength, Christabel might sound a little sturdier than Christabella.

[breazeale1331.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your opinion. Do you think that perhaps Katelyn would be a better name then Cayleigh?

[maude.livejournal.com]

I love Katelyn!! Beautiful name AND my favorite spelling of it. Sorry, had to throw that out there...:)

[satunian.livejournal.com]

I like Katelyn too. I do think it's better than Cayleigh. And I agree with what a lot of people said about Christabella... it's just too much. Like something super girly little girls name their Barbies (someone said that already) Christa or Bella could be just fine on their own but it's too over the top together.

[poespretty.livejournal.com]

I love Caitlin (that's my sister's name). It also sounds cute with Christopher, but definitely puts Kaden out of the running (Caitlin & Caden - too much).

Also, maybe Leo is an option? Leo= Lion, which is a strong name, it's not overly new or trendy (I don't think) and it would still honor Leonard without being... an old man name? I don't mean it in a mean way, I'm just not sure how to put it.

Hope that was more helpful. :)

[tigress-oils.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. Thanks for listening to me ramble like I think I'm some kind of expert. ;)

Katelyn is not to my particular taste (but I usually don't like names that look like they are "combined," i.e. Kate+Lyn=Katelyn!). I do think Caitlin is nice! Caitlin Christabel/la. I dig it.

[arbus.livejournal.com]

katelyn is a gorgeous strong name, however you spell it. i prefer the caitlin/kaitlin set.

its just on a completely different level than cayleigh (or any spelling of that name), stronger and classic.

[sotypical42483.livejournal.com]

er... she told us what she wanted, she wanted to know what we thought of the names.

[neroli.livejournal.com]

If you take a look at her follow-up post, she's actually included some more specific information that people can use to shape their responses so that they'll be helpful.

This is exactly what I was hoping she'd provide. Why? Well, if someone doesn't care about name meanings, it doesn't help them much if I deliver a harangue on the meanings of the names. Or, if someone likes names that sound athletic, it won't help them much if I tell them that the names really don't call to mind people who are artistic.

In these cases, my comments could be entirely correct - and completely irrelevant.

So that is why I asked.