I came out with jet black curly hair - so long they could put it in a pony tail - and as my mom says, I looked like a butterball. (I wasn’t fat at all. 21" and 7.5 lb. I was just round somehow.)
I grew up into a very thin person with light brown straight hair. I’m glad they didn’t name me based on appearance lol
@sevmom yes for now. It was just something that popped into my head.
But think of names like Ashley, Leslie, Carol that quickly went from male to female names.
My point is just that even if you pick something that’s considered x name now, it won’t necessarily be that in a few decades.
The one we picked seems pretty timelessly unisex.
Some neighbors of ours named their baby girl Lincoln. It is perfect for her. The name has gravitas, and she is a very solemn little baby.
@sevmom @romanigypsyeyes I have a name that was decidedly masculine in the 60s, so much so that when teachers called it at roll call and I didn’t answer quickly enough, they’d ask if “he” was here. I hated it.
And now you only hear my name on girls, and I still dislike it.
When I was a teenager, I got the paperwork to change it legally to Caroline. My dad then reminded me that when I was applying for college, there might be some confusion about my academic record if it was under a different name. So I kept my birth name.
My parents gave my sisters and me what were masculine names at the time and all three have become more common for girls than boys over the past 50 years. Interestingly enough, they also gave us very “feminine” middle names. People always joked that if my dad couldn’t get a boy (now he seems to me like he was an original #girldad, he loved having daughters), he would just name us like them! I remember hating getting my schedule in junior high and being assigned to boys’ gym classes but, to be honest, we’ve all sort of loved the more gender-neutral aspect of our first names and it’s much more common now. My boys have traditionally masculine names and my D’s formal first name is the feminine version of a masculine name and she goes by the more (at least historically) masculine nickname.
My in laws agreed that she would name the girls and he would name the boys. They had three boys!
@chardonMN , that seems so unfair. I’d have never agreed to that.
Your child’s name is so personal. So many names that sound great then get rejected. We had both our kids’ names chosen before they were born, but we waited to find out the sex on their birth day.
Now I can’t ever imagine having a Toby or an Audrey instead of the daughter and son we ended up with. By the time my son came, Toby just didn’t seem right for him, yet if D had been a boy, that’s who she would have been. And wow, my son as an Audrey, no way.
To the surprise of no one, my name is Linda, haha. While I wish my parents had been a little more creative (because truly, I have one of the dullest names on the planet), I’m at least glad they didn’t name me Jennifer, the alternative. No offense to all the Jennifers out there!
I’ve never been a fan of my name, but it turns out some people are. We visited China nearly ten years ago. We hired guides in various places, and all but one had given herself an Anglicized name. One was called Linda, but her real name was Li Na, which I think is pretty. I had to disappoint her when I explained that Linda isn’t a particularly elegant name and that there are literally millions of Lindas out there.
My advice is to give your child a name they won’t mind having as an adult. And ideally, avoid spelling it weirdly. Everyone wants to have something unique about them, but the people I know with alternatively spelled names really hate having to spell it out every single time.
P.S. No, it’s not Lynda. Still amazed at how often I get asked that. Lol.
My sister’s name is Linda… ?
Linda means pretty, cute, nice in Spanish. I think it’s linda. 
It’s not spelled weird, it’ll be fine as an adult, and everyone I’ve run it passed has liked it.
A preggo group I’m part of is brutally honest about names. And there have been some doozies. Rangar comes to mind and was torn to bits. They all loved the one we picked.
Oh yes, @doschicos . I went on a real blind date once. The guy asked my name, and I told him it meant “pretty” in Spanish. He thought I was named Bonita!
@romanigypsyeyes, given the range of names I’ve seen recently in my GS’s cohort of 1-year-olds, I think our world is more accepting of all monikers. What is it I hear all the time, “you do you!” My GS’s name is that of an archangel (and a tennis player 
) and his nicknames range from the obvious to the absurd. I’ve not participated in this thread before, but all I see in your descriptions of you and Mr. R are two thoughtful, loving people who will make amazing parents. You’re growing a very lucky kid!
On that same trip to China, one of our guides was named Lisa. I can’t remember her Chinese name, alas. She was a truly delightful person who actually spoke pretty poor English. We taught her a bunch of cool stuff like how to say “bad a$$” and “dude.” Lisa was married and had a son. And again, I can’t remember his Chinese name, but I will never forget what his name meant in English: Astronaut.
Beauty is in the eye, right?
I love so many of the names suggested here, almost makes me wish I was having another baby so I could pick one! I think your description of one syllable. unisex, not too popular sounds great - can’t wait to hear what it is.
DH and I started dating when I was a freshman in college and we talked about baby names for years. We agreed on one unisex name that we would use for sure -Dylan - because we both loved Bob Dylan and that was one of the things he first liked about me when he looked through my CD collection (we are so old.) Problem was we had never tried it out with his last name! By the time we were pregnant with D19 we realized the names did not go together at all. After trying lots of the names we used our other favorite that we had picked way back in college. Oh and turned out my brother used the name Dylan 8 years later never having known it was one of our favorites!
Romani, I think your baby’s name might be my hubby’s name?
@Lindagaf feel free to PM me your guess. I’ll tell you yes or no.
I’ll give another hint: Baby will share name with a character from an 80s film. The film wasn’t exactly a hit when it was released but I would say most adults have at least a passing familiarity with it. 1
That’s the name I was thinking of I believe.
I’m enjoying this discussion of names. I’m still clueless about your choice @romanigypsyeyes
Regarding names for our kids, we didn’t find out the sex of the baby till their birth day.
DH got the privilege of naming our kids - I had my say in approving suggestions for the top 3 boy and girl picks for each one. I recently found a notebook with all our deliberations, top choices for every letter possible and the meanings of each. One of the kids hates their name and the other loves it.
Funny story about my name. My mom picked my name, got my dad on board and they called me by the name for 6 months. Well, when my grandfather, a very busy absent-minded doctor, went to the village office to register my name, he was confused. There are at least 3 names that rhyme with mine each beginning with a different letter and he picked one randomly. The wrong one!
Long story short, it was too difficult to get the name changed so I now have a different official name from the one everyone in the family calls me. C’est la vie.
I would guess Ren after the character in Footloose, but I thought that movie was very popular.
I am also enjoying the baby name discussion. Since D1 is a kindergarten teacher (and I help out in the classroom) I get to hear what all the “new” names are. Game of Thrones names have entered kindergarten.