Ideas for names that aren't names

[american_mama]

I am not pregnant or planning to be, but I have a name question, just for fun. What ideas do you have for names that aren't names? Everyone laughed at Gwyneth Paltrow for naming her child Apple, but, as an example, Quince (also a fruit) sounds reasonable to me as a name. Toni Braxton's son Denim seems like a big stretch to me, but Jett Travolta sounded do-able as a name.

The name book "Beyond Jennifer and Jason" believes object or word names will be the new trend in names and lists several examples. It suggested the girl's name Camera, which I think sounds kind of nice especially if you change the spelling.

What ideas do you have? Do any of my ideas sound good to you or do most sound outlandish? I am putting an asterisk by names that weren't my original idea.

BOYS
Clarion *
Bright (probably helps that I know a large family with this last name)
Khaki
Bridge
Summit
Everest
Blue (* when used as a middle name i.e. Bonnie Blue Butler)
Lake
Reign *
Church
Cotton
Quince
Van
Oak *
Wood
Indigo * (although I think this is much better as a girl's name)


GIRLS
Solace *
Clarity (A BBBer's user name)
Serenity
Coral (we would have used this but it clashed with our last name)
Blue
Juniper *
Lake
Verve
Honor * (A BBBer's DC)
Journey * (also a BBBer's child)
Justice * (also a BBBer's child)
Sojourner
Meridian *
Mesa (Maisa looks even prettier to me)
Briar *

[LarsMal]

Girl- Skye

[egoldber]

Girl- Skye

LOL! There are two Skyes in Sarah's grade. :)

[MontrealMum]

If you want some more ideas, just look at the Puritans and 1st few generations of colonists. Cotton, Increase, Prudence, Honor, Chastity...tons of names like that there :) Out of that group I like Honor and maybe Prudence...I think with any name the meaning has to be taken into consideration, at least, for me it does. For example, Apple wouldn't make my short list, but it doesn't have any negative connotations or anything. I could see Indigo as well (though I keep reading that as Inigo, and think: Inigo Montoya...), but the very famous Cotton from our history kind of ruins that name for me ;)

I knew a girl named Syke growing up, and DgD is India.

[LarsMal]

LOL! There are two Skyes in Sarah's grade. :)

I know three people who have it either as their first or middle name!

[AnnieW625]

Elisa has a little friend named Skylar but she goes by Sky.

Here is what I could think of:
Honor
Hope
Charity
Chastity (went to high school with one)
Echo (I knew one)
Sunshine (sibling of Echo)
Rainbow
Leaf
River
Clover (went to high school with one)
Wave

[s_gosney]

Slightly OT, but we've been reading books about a little girl named Clementine who thinks that the most beautiful words in the world can be found on labels in the bathroom, so she named her kittens mascara, laxative, and moisturizer. LOL. Let's hope that this never catches on as a naming trend.

[Happy 2B mommy]

I personally know a little girl named Autumn Rain.

And I know 2 women who are named Summer and went to college with a girl named Prairie - which I think is a beautiful name.

[Jenny_A]

I know a Valentine and a Chastity. Honestly, I'm not one for the object names, but to each his own! I do think Skylar is pretty and it doesn't make me think of the sky when I first hear it. But I tend to chuckle to myself when I think of a 'Rainbow Smith' or a 'Khaki Smith' (no offense to any Rainbows or Khakis out there.)

[Gena]

When I was in college, a friend and I had a running joke that if I ever had a son I would name him Truck. Or maybe I would change the spelling to Truk or Truc. Or maybe I would use it as a middle name.

I didn't do it though. DS has very traditional first and middle names (and I love them).

[fivi2]

I love the name Atom for a boy. Seriously. If we ever have a boy, I want to name him that. (don't know if dh would be on board.)

[specialp]

I knew a "Peaches" a long time ago.

[JenChem]

My cousin just named her DS Dominion (her inspiration was a verse from Genesis) and has caught a ton of flack from the family. I think it's kind of cute because her DH calls him Mini.

[trales]

I know 2 Boston's and a Peachy (she is 85).

[Nyfeara]

When I was growing up, I heard Coral for a girl and two boys named Blade and Steel (brothers).

We had a Peaches and Olive in the family too (different sides of the family).

[fivi2]

I know an Olive also.

These aren't all that unusual:

Cliff
Heath/Heather
Stone
Forest
Meadow
Amber
Rose
Daisy
Jade
Willow
Ash
Rowan
Field
Hunter
Melody
Harmony
Charisma

[KpbS]

I once knew of a boy named Brown. DN's classmates included Treasure and Shade.

[shawnandangel]

My brother named his one daughter:

Skyler Eve - I think it is beautiful. Their other daughter is named Paisley which I think is pretty too. (He has two other girls but their names are more "normal")

[Corie]

Here is what I could think of:

Echo (I knew one)





My husband went to high school with a girl named Echo.

[sariana]

I know of a story with sisters named Skye, Shadow, and Stormy.

I have always liked Asia for a girl. It is the name of a character in an Anne McCaffrey novel.

[firsttimemama]

I know an Echo too
Several Echos out there apparently..

[wellyes]

I love Fox for a boy. Not because of Mulder or the news channel.... I just think it's a lovely, masculine name.

[Melbel]

How about Seven? (Seinfeld reference)

I have great Aunts who were named Ruby and Pearl (the other 8 siblings had more traditional names). I imagine any precious metal or gem would be fair game (i.e. Diamond, Sapphire, Emerald). On that same line, I have heard status symbol type names (Mercedes, Chanel).

I went to college with a Sunday (spelled Sonday IIRC) and a Summer.

I have also heard city names being used (i.e. Paris).

We chose very traditional names for our DC but to each his/her own!

[KrisM]

DH wanted to use Truss and Bridge.

[tarahsolazy]

I have a Forrest, but 2 Rs.

My DH wanted to name Forrest Echo if he had been a girl, really badly. I was not on board, lol.

I know of a boy named Khaos, which I think is pretty out there, and not something you want to call to your kid, unlike virtue names like Honor and Prudence.

One of my favorite old sci-fi books has a main female character named Silence.

[Corie]

I have also heard city names being used (i.e. Paris).





My daughter went to preschool with a little girl named Britain.

[JMS]

I know quite a few people with names that were mentioned (ie., Skye, Britain (boy), Mercedes). A couple PPs mentioned my daughter's name, Honor. I happen to love it :) and it so suits her. Unfortunately it's becoming less uncommon than I would have thought and was actually somewhat popular in the early 1900's in England, Scotland, and Ireland.

If DS2 had been a girl two of my serious considerations were Scotlyn or Scotland and Jameson (I didn't mind the whiskey connotation it was the porn star that was holding me up). :)

[Edensmum]

Sailor
Piper
Amethyst
Pool
Airy
Lake

[Snow mom]

Recently I've liked the name Juniper. Not sure if it more male or female appropriate. We also considered Sequoia as a boy middle name but if you look at naming things it's considered a girl name.

[mamica]

I once knew a girl named January. I've heard boy names of London & Dallas.

[bluestar2]

A few months ago, I met a Ranger and a Sailor!

[kijip]

Maybe because I am 29 and thus the right age for many of my friends and former classmates to be the product hippies after they went a little yuppie but wanted to show they were "different"... so names like Summer, Mellow, Skye/Sky/Skylark, Rainbow, Forest, Lightening, Ocean, Sea, Autumn, Spring, Winter, Jinx, Orion, Trinity, Rain, Reign, Peace, Serenity, Justice, Truth, Insert nearly every color name etc are not all that unusual for people I know. :hysterical:

[cuca_]

On that same line, I have heard status symbol type names (Mercedes, Chanel).


Actually, Mercedes is a very traditional Catholic Spanish name that comes from the Spanish name for Our Lady of Mercy. It has been very common in Spanish speaking countries for many generations. That said, I don't doubt that some people might have named their kids Mercedes after the luxury car brand, though! :)

[TahliasMom]

i love the name Willow. I ended up naming my newest kitty Willow as I dont think I'll have any more kids. hehe. My other kitty is Merigold, named after a friend i went to college with. :) i have a friend name Amber, i think it's really beautiful and matches her well as she has reddish hair. i think Autumn is really nice but the rest are a big crunchy for my taste. maybe i been too long in the corporate world too long.

[mom2binsd]

A few months ago, I met a Ranger and a Sailor!

Ranger made me think of a very interesting character in the Janet Evanovich books!!!

[MCsMom]

And old friend married a girl named Tuesday on a Tuesday.

They are no longer married...

[justincase]

I know a Sierra, Windy, and Rio. I think Windy is pretty but she got annoyed, always having to correct people that it wasn't Wendy.

[lizajane]

ok, sorry, but it is really bugging me...

skylar is not a made up name and has nothing to do with the sky.

it is a made up spelling from the name schuyler, which is a dutch name that goes back many, many generations in my family.

[egoldber]

I'm a little confused because many of these names are not at all new or made up. Many are very old (perhaps old-fashioned) names. Thinking particularly of.....

Olive
Chastity/Honor/Hope/Temperance/insert your favorite virtue here
flower and jewel names were once very very common (I mean LONG before 60s LOL!)
Coral is also a very old name

[TonFirst]

Beth's right - Coral was a very precious commodity. I LOVE the name Olive and strongly prefer it to Olivia, which is pretty common in my region (four in my son's playgroup, if you count siblings).

I like Quince, especially as an alternative to Quint for a fifth child (or fifth generational name), but it also makes me channel Rosie Perez's hysterical character in "White Men Can't Jump" saying "Foods dat staht wit da lettah Q!" Khaki kind of makes me snicker, but I can see it working in certain circles. I believe there is a poster here whose son is named Atom, which is my son's name, but we chose the traditional spelling of Adam. My daughter's name is pretty old-school, but is pretty common in France and in Latin cultures.

Cotton is pretty old-school down here in Atlanta, but I tend to see it spelled Cotten. It's not a name I would choose, mainly because I am a nerd and the name makes me think of Cotton Mather. My nerd cred also makes me wince when I meet girls named Emily Rose, since it makes me think of that creepy Faulkner short story. I was on a baby name board a few years back and many of the mamas were all, "Oh, Emily Rose! I LOVE that name!" And all I could think was, "No! That's the creepy story where the creepy spinster has her old boyfriend's corpse in her bedroom! Squick!'

[Ceepa]

I guess the thread is more about uncommon names than non-names, but I don't think anyone was trying to upset or confuse others here. :D

[egoldber]

I guess the discussion about names like Olive confused me. Did no one here watch Popeye as a child? Or am I the only one old enough? :ROTFLMAO:

Or maybe it's that I had old parents who loved watching old movies. And who read Agatha Christie mysteries as some of my first chapter books. ;)

[Ceepa]

I guess the discussion about names like Olive confused me. Did no one here watch Popeye as a child? Or am I the only one old enough? :ROTFLMAO:

Or maybe it's that I had old parents who loved watching old movies. And who read Agatha Christie mysteries as some of my first chapter books. ;)

I LOOOOVE the name Olive.

[trales]

don't doubt that some people might have named their kids Mercedes after the luxury car brand, though


I believe he named the luxury car brand after his daughter.

[ha98ed14]

When I was growing up, I heard Coral for a girl and two boys named Blade and Steel (brothers).



OMG! I thought for sure I was the only one who knew a boy named Steel. His brother is Thunder.

[Crayons]

Sierra
Unique
Brook
Stone
Thankful
Nautica
Tiffany
Mercedes
Lucca (the City in Italy)
Blue Danger

[wellyes]

How about Clover? I was thinking of it for DD but my husband said "Clover makes me think of Bunny which is a stripper name".


Mercedes is a very traditional Catholic Spanish name that comes from the Spanish name for Our Lady of Mercy.

This discussion reminds me of that scene in A Fish Called Wanda where the idiotic, arrogant character played by Kevin Kline asked of a girl named Portia "why would someone name thier daughter after a car?"



Brook

Hmmmm, Brooke was a not-uncommon name when I was a kid (1980s) and I know a 8-month old Brooke right now. Wasn't that the snooty girl on The Facts of Life (sitcom)?


a boy named Steel

OK, he is either going to grow up to be gay or to be a figure worth of a cheesy romance-novel cover. No middle ground there.

[egoldber]

In the 80s, Brooke was a character on a soap, maybe All My Children? Blair was the snooty girl on Facts of Life.

[KBecks]

Oh, how about brand names?

Kleenex
Tide
Pepsi
Sprite
Prius
Chex


LOL!

[kijip]

I met brothers Jett and Dash (T was baptized at the same time as a Dash who had an older brother). I imagine them being slow runners for some reason, just to not match the names. I think it is cute.

[Happy 2B mommy]

DH wanted to use Truss and Bridge.

HE must be a civil engineer! DH wanted to name kids after soil types - Rocky, Phil, Sandy and Clay!

Seriously, he loved the name Willow for a girl and lobbied hard for it when DD was born. As much as I like the name and thought it sounded great with the last name, I had to remind him that we are shaped more like big, thick, heavy oak trees and it was likely DD would have the same body type. Willow just seemed cruel.

[american_mama]

>> I'm a little confused because many of these names are not at all new or made up. Many are very old (perhaps old-fashioned) names. Thinking particularly of.....

Olive
Chastity/Honor/Hope/Temperance/insert your favorite virtue here
flower and jewel names were once very very common (I mean LONG before 60s LOL!)
Coral is also a very old name

Well, as the original poster, I can tell you what I wanted to talk about, which was names that had never or hardly ever been considered names, ala the Apple and Denim examples. Object or word names are not my preference in naming, but because they are so unusual, I think it's fun to try and find ones that actually sound do-able as a name. I wondered if my taste matched anyone else's, and what other ideas people would come up with. I like the Airy suggestions someone had, but Pool not so much.

I agree that many of the names suggested here are uncommon, but not unheard of. Nature names particularly have a long history of becoming names, common or not: I've known Skye's, Starr's, Oceana's, and the lake... oops, I mean the like ;-). I did not know that Cotton or Cotten was a first name in some regions; I have never heard it outside the song "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and then it's obviously not Joe's actual name. (What is cotton-eyed anyway? Is it like cotton-mouthed? Perhaps Joe needed some Visine.)

I also did not know Coral was a name. When we were considering it, I asked my father, who likes old names and looked in name books, and could not find it listed. Cora, yes, Corinne and Corinna, but not Coral.

Dash is a great name, normalized in large part to me from the movie The Incredibles. I think Auburn would be a nice alternative to Autumn, Amber, and even Aubrey or Audrey.

The singer Kelis just had a son named Knight. Donald Trump's child with his second wife is named Baron, which while egotistical, certainly seems to fit the circumstances. Those also seem to somewhat fit the object/word name tradition, although not quite as much as Apple.

[KpbS]

>> I think Auburn would be a nice alternative to Autumn, Amber, and even Aubrey or Audrey.


I would just think you were a huge fan of Auburn Univ.

[cuca_]

I believe he named the luxury car brand after his daughter.

Yes he did. It is a very traditional name.

[kijip]

Oh, and how could I ever forget these classmates...

Mocha (a man) and Little Bee (a woman).