Dying to know how grandma got the nickname Dick!
I have synesthesia. If you are not familiar with it it is sort of an overlap of senses so that when I say or visualize a word, I see the letters as specific colors. Or the word itself will have a color. My first name, to me, is visualized as orange, which is horrible. It is also a rather dated name and hardly heard in anyone younger than me. Hate my name.
I teach 550 elementary aged kids so I am exposed to ALL the trends. I also live in a heavily Irish community so there are lots of gaelic names such as Maeve, Braeden, Shiobhan, etc. The name Henry is making a big comeback as are names like Mary, Lyla, Marian…
The book Freakonomics discusses the socioeconomic impact of baby names–I found it very interesting. One example in the book is about a father who named his sons Winner and Loser. Ironically, Winner became a criminal, while Loser became a detective for NYPD–his coworkes called him Lou because they felt uncomfortable calling him by his given name.
Personally, we selected classic non top 10 names–more like top 20-30 names for our children. Interestingly, none of them every had a classmate with the same name, but we were still able to find personalized merchandise.
My husband has a “Silence” on his family tree. I am not a fan of cutesy names. I’d use Silence before Bryleigh for example. I also really dislike Aiden, Brayden, Cayden, etc.
I don’t like the last names as first names: Kennedy, Cassidy, Mckenzie, Madison, Avery, etc. I especially dislike Addison-it’s the name of a disease.
@EPTR - as a child, I knew a boy from an Irish American family whose name was Sean. He absolutely hated it and insisted on being called Henry. I wonder what he calls himself now.
I personally hate when people use their kid’s name as a tool - Abbie Hoffman’s child named america, for example. I once saw a gravestone for a Byrd W. Brane!
prefect,
I have a TON of students with last names as first names. Lot’s of Addisons too. Most go by Addy. I have never made the connection to the disease, lol but now I won’t be able to help it.
Here is a map of the US showing the most popular girl’s name per year, starting with 1960. Jennifer ruled for 5 years or so!
You might have sympathy for the late States Rights Jones . His obit should hopefully explain the origin of his name http://yellowfootprints.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8915
It’s interesting when really old fashioned names become popular again. For girls today, most of them are older names, Emma, Emily, Sophia, even Abigail. I like those better than Taylor, Madison and Addison - those sound like the made up names to me!
ETA - I’ve met two babies recently who were named for Grandmothers - Millicent and Olive.
Link isn’t working from my phone . Google States Rights Jones. He was in the USMC and died in 2002.
"I dislike names that sound common but are spelled oddly and not often phonetically. I also dislike cutesy names. I know a set of twins- Cleo and Cloe. "
My twins’ names sound nice together (IMO) but they are decidedly not matching. When they were born, there was another set of twins in NICU named Nathan and Nathaniel Daniel. And an Ariel and Zoe (=A to Z).
My “serious” hs / college boyfriend and I discussed names for children and we were going to name a daughter Courtney. I reconnected with him on FB many years later and indeed - his daughter is Courtney!
I was too in shock when my oldest son was born to relate to the whole concept of naming him so we just kind of stuck him with my name and something okay for his middle name which he ended up using. He says he likes his name and it “flows” so we didn’t mess him up too badly.
But when my second son was born I took it all very seriously. I distinctly remember being in a Barnes & Nobles flipping through books and thinking about how things sounded together. What I came up with, without knowing the sex of the unborn child, has been considered brilliant by him and everyone else who thinks on it. He loves his name. He loves his middle name and he loves all his various nicknames.
I like how celebrities do it. They name their kids weird things because their kids are special. All kids are. So, my advice is, take the time to find the perfect name for each new child. I am totally into names now partially because I screenwriter as a hobby. I literally obsess over character names even if they aren’t main characters but when I write I have to see them in my mind’s eye. Anyway, one of my favorite names is a little used name nowadays probably because it comes from one of histories villains … Wilks. John Wilks Booth.
I’ve already thought about grandsons names and believe my kids aren’t old enough yet for that to happen but I have a boy’s name in mind that I will lobby heavily for when the time comes. Great thread by the way. I am enjoying the replies thus far.
I had great-great grandparents who were named Adam and Eve – seriously!
In the “older name” category, I have a lot of Eves / Evas / Evelyns in my family. My great-grandmother was Eva Antoinette (last name), which I always thought was beautiful.
My S was the first male grandchild on either side and our fathers had the same name…it was basically inevitable. We always called him by the full name, unlike his grandfathers. In recent years he has been going by a nickname, but not the same one as his grandfathers. I like the nickname, although I don’t use it. 
It is so weird to me seeing the reign of Emily. Growing up I never knew another Emily until I was in eighth grade and I never met another until people my age and a bit older started having kids. There was never any Emily’s on key chains or other trinkets at all. I so wanted to be a Debbie or Lisa.
I am at an event and at the next table are 2 adorable girls, about 4 and 5 maybe. Named Sophie and Abby. Cute - Kids and names.
I despise weird spellings of names and names like Moon Unit and Apple. Just no.
My grandmother’s name was Jewel. She despised it and told everyone in the family not to name anyone after her. Instead they used her maiden name as a first or middle name (it was Gordon - not common but a fine name.)
I’ve got a name that has two very common spellings no one ever seems to pick the right one. My kids have simple names - a little bit more popular than I would have liked - there was often another kid with the same name in the classroom.
I wanted to name a girl Margaret after my aunt, but dh hated the name. Luckily no girls appeared - I don’t think we ever settled on a name we both liked.
I was watching Say Yes to the Dress the other day and one of the brides was called Precious Jewel. I don’t usually go for names like that, but it really touched my heart.
I have a name that is uncommon on women my age, but very common for girls under 20. I’ve never liked it, but it is mine, so I kept it.
I like the Old Testament names (not the weird ones like Mehitabel or Ben-Oni, but names like Rachel and Jacob are beautiful to me.) In the old New England burying grounds, a lot of the markers have “Christian virtue” names, so there are a lot of names like Patience, Chastity, and so on. There was an 18th century man in Weston, VT whose first wife was Submit, and when she died, he married Experience. My husband and I still laugh about that one.
We gave our daughter a classic name, that is also from the OT, and our son is a 4th, so I didn’t get much choice in his name.
And I must agree that this thread could veer off into racist territory. Many white people don’t like the names that some African-Americans name their children. These names often find their way into discussions like these because they are made-up names with unconventional spellings. However, it helps to remember that many people of African descent were brought over to this country against their will as slaves, and were given new names by their captors. These names were from English, not African, culture. While I don’t like misspelled or made-up names as a rule, I find it completely understandable that families whose ancestors were enslaved or oppressed would want to make up new names for their children that are not connected to their oppressors’ culture. I’d do the same thing and so, I suspect, would many of you.