Baby names, interesting article

[TwoBees]

What do you think?

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/baby-name-regret/?hp

[TwinFoxes]

Which part? Asking permission to use a name? I know some people feel strongly about it, but if a friend of mine named one of their DCs the same as mine, I wouldn't really care. With family it could be more of a pain, especially if DCs have the same last name. But I don't think you can "own" a name.

The person who named their child Paris because it was "original and unusual" must have been living under a rock! I've known several Paris's before I'd even heard of Ms. Hilton.

[TwoBees]

Just in general. I thought it was an interesting article for discussion.

[wellyes]

I was just talking about this with my DH yesterday. DD's middle name is my last name, and I said I wanted the same thing for #2 (a boy). He was really surprised. I think of middle names as the place to honor relatives or family hisotyr. His idea is that middle names are "backups" - if you don't like your name, you can always go by your middle name instead.

I guess I can see that, but I still would like the middle name to be a link to me (and his sister) vs a generic name that #2 may or may not like in the future if he ends up not wanting the name we gave him.

[egoldber]

This is one reason I like solid, traditional names. :) Even if a celebrity has your name, it's not like anyone will feel like you named your Kate for Kate Gosselin. But if you name your child Paris, then all bets are off. Of course, not everyone feels that way.

An interesting article I read a few years ago talks about the phenomenon of an "unusual" name becoming popular seemingly overnight.

Where Have All the Lisas Gone? (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/magazine/where-have-all-the-lisas-gone.html?pagewanted=1)

[TwinFoxes]

I have middle name regret. Which I've mentioned on this board like a million times. :) One DD has MIL's MN. It's a very 1950s name. It's not even the fact that it's MILs name (I like her fine) but I would NEVER have picked that name. But DH never asks for anything, and she was very kind to me while I was in the hospital on bed rest. Plus the hospital gave me drugs...;) so, here we are, DD with a blah name.

At least it does flow with her name. But no one says "that's a nice middle name" about her name, unlike my other DD whose MN is Amelia (after my mom.)

[sariana]

TwinFoxes, that's sweet that your girls are named after your mothers. I'm sorry you don't like one DD's middle name. I'm not crazy about my DD's MN either, as I mentioned on another name thread. But DH really liked the name. He wanted it for the first name, but I vetoed that and we switched the first and middle. I LOVE DD's first name, so I guess it balances out.

(Honestly, her name would flow better the other way, but I just couldn't go with the other name as the first name. So too bad for flow.)

[boogiemomz]

we had a clear front runner for DD when i was about 6 months along. my friend, who didn't know her baby's gender, delivered 13 weeks before my DD and named her DD something almost identical (fn+mn), couldn't have been any more alike without actually being the same 2 names. when we got the email that she had delivered and saw the name, we COULD NOT believe it... it's not even a super common name, i think ranked something like 700th last year. i definitely felt like i couldn't name dd the name we liked anymore. i was really bummed at first (and DH thought i was crazy!), but eventually i just kind of lost my excitement about the name and got excited about other names. i told her about it after DD was born and she said "oh, you still could have named her that!!" but who knows, she could have just been saying that since i obviously gave DD a different name. if it were me, i think i would have been a little annoyed if a close friend named her DC the same thing as one of mine.

ETA: i couldn't believe the stat that 3% of parents have name regret and would change their baby's name if they could!! i wonder how many actually go through with it...

[AnnieW625]

This is one reason I like solid, traditional names. :) Even if a celebrity has your name, it's not like anyone will feel like you named your Kate for Kate Gosselin. But if you name your child Paris, then all bets are off. Of course, not everyone feels that way.

An interesting article I read a few years ago talks about the phenomenon of an "unusual" name becoming popular seemingly overnight.

Where Have All the Lisas Gone? (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/magazine/where-have-all-the-lisas-gone.html?pagewanted=1)

I agree with Beth on the solid traditional sounding names. We named DD after DH's grandma who only had one daughter, then one son, and then 4 grandsons and so DH thought it would be nice to name DD after his grandma as DD was the first girl born in their family since his mom 60 yrs. prior. If we have a boy we plan on naming him Ian, which has no family relation to us, but I just picked if off the SSA top 100 names; if it's a girl our first pick is Lauren, which is way more popular than Elisa is and yes it could be linked to Lauren Conrad, but honestly most people aren't going to make that connection:) . We had like Jenna for DD as the alternate name, but DH's cousin was oh but people will think you named her after Jenna Jamison, but honestly the thought never crossed out mind, and it's still a possibility for #2 if for some reason it doesn't look like a Lauren.

Thanks for the link Beth to the article. I haven't read it all, but will read it later. As an example Khloe went from being the 960th most popular name in 2006 to 196 in 2008, all because that is how Khloe Kardassian spells it. I bet when #2 is in kindergarten it will be Khloe with a K instead of a C, esp. if we are still in the general LA area.

[maestramommy]

We are still answering, "no we didn't" to inquiries as to whether we named Dora after the explorer (never heard of her until I was pregnant and even then didn't know what a phenomenon she was until well after) Still, better than a living socialite. No one has asked us about LOTR since we moved out here. I guess that's the difference between L.A and NH:loveeyes:

For a more controversial take, anyone read the chapter in Freakonomics about naming?

[edurnemk]

I love DS's name, I chose it and it definitely suits him.... but I have some regret for not insisting more on another form of spelling of that name. It's a name that can be spelled in 3 different ways, I wanted one spelling, DH wanted another and I gave in. But the spelling I wanted had more relation to our family history and it's the spelling that's known the most in most countries... well at least until an actor by that name became recently famous...

[Carrots]

This is one reason I like solid, traditional names. :) Even if a celebrity has your name, it's not like anyone will feel like you named your Kate for Kate Gosselin. But if you name your child Paris, then all bets are off. Of course, not everyone feels that way.

Hee hee. My stomach did a flip flop when I read this. Katherine (Kate) has been a front runner for our new baby's name. Kate Gosselin makes me sick - but, for some weird reason, I never connected "our name, Kate" to Kate Gosselin. KWIM? It is hard to put into words. Maybe I should just name her Apple. j/k

[newg]

DH and I both love names that have a bit of a story to them....DD was named after me and has DH's mom's middle name as her MN............so for this girl, we'd love to have some family connection with her first and middle name...........possibly a spin off DH's name and my middle name, or a spin off of DH's grandma and my mom's middle name...............
I think you do have to be a bit careful when picking a name........but like PP said, we also like the name Kate/Cate and I would never associate it with the whole Kate G. thing.............I have a harder time with certain names associated with kids I have taught over the years!!

[boogiemomz]

For a more controversial take, anyone read the chapter in Freakonomics about naming?

yes! controversial indeed... we read it when i was pregnant and it gave us some good food for thought, but we tried not to let it influence us too much. now i don't even remember most of the key points, except that many names first become really popular in higher socioeconomic status populations, and then a few years later when those names are too common in those circles, they then become very popular in more middle-class/lower-class populations. interesting theory. they have lists from over the years of the most common names of children of Ivy League grads, for example... interesting to see how they change. though i'm not sure where the authors got this information.

[truly scrumptious]

No one has asked us about LOTR since we moved out here. I guess that's the difference between L.A and NH:loveeyes:


Actually, I did wonder about LOTR when I saw your siggy. Also because I happen to know another couple who named their DD exactly the same as yours - Arwyn, and they DID name her after Arwen.
FWIW, I think Arwen is the prettiest name in the LOTR :):):)

[maestramommy]

Actually, I did wonder about LOTR when I saw your siggy. Also because I happen to know another couple who named their DD exactly the same as yours - Arwyn, and they DID name her after Arwen.

Well, cough cough, so did we:D I toyed with Eowyn for a while, because I LOVED the character. But I decided that would be too much to saddle on a poor child. And we looked up Arwen and found out it was an actual name, not something that Tolkien made up, which fulfilled Dh's requirements for a name.

One of my bf from HS, his DW had a little girl last year, and they named her Arwyn too! We reconnected on FB shortly before the baby was born, and he asked about my Arwyn. Turns out they are huge LOTR fans as well. I wonder if 20 years from now there will be a ton of Arwyns and Arwens running around.

[sariana]

I toyed with Eowyn for a while, because I LOVED the character. But I decided that would be too much to saddle on a poor child. And we looked up Arwen and found out it was an actual name, not something that Tolkien made up, which fulfilled Dh's requirements for a name.

Eowyn seems like a real name too, maybe Welsh? Or do you know that he made it up? It can be difficult to tell, as there are so many "real" names that I just am not familiar with.

I think it's much easier for girls to have less common names. There are so many pretty words that can be turned into names. But boys don't want "pretty" names, so it is more challenging.