What influenced you to choose your child's name?

My daughter was named for my wife’s best friend, and my wife.
My son was supposed to have a traditional name (James David), but we changed the first name when I realized the two kids would have the same names as my wife’s best friend and her husband.
Instead, we gave him the first name of John, for John Lennon.
I was named for my father and his father.
My wife was named for a popular movie about a deaf girl. Several years later, they realized my wife was deaf. Weird, huh?

We liked it. Nothing more complicated than that.

Growing up as a Lisa, in an era when that was the most popular name on the freaking planet, I wanted my girls to have names that weren’t quite so ubiquitous (but not overly weird, either). I also wanted them to have names they could shorten into nicknames, since I never had that ability.

My ex and I named our first daughter Madison after the mermaid’s name in the movie “Splash”. At the time, almost 19 years ago, we’d never seen that as a first name. Unfortunately, plenty of other woman my age must have had the same idea, because it quickly became one of the top five popular girl names. Sigh. You can’t win! Her middle name is Jeanette.

The second girl’s first name isn’t unique, but isn’t very common these days, either – Jessica. Her middle name is Yorke, and I love that pretty much no one else has that name.

The third girl’s name we really struggled with, until we came across a name we loved in a Walmart ad, of all places. She’s Alaina, middle name Faye.

All three go by their nicknames, anyway. All of their middle names are after our deceased grandmothers, (Thank goodness that in the Jewish tradition, you can just use the first initial if you want…“Yorke” is for “Yetta”!)

We wanted a more traditional name, and one that was not uncommon but not overly popular, so we chose Matthew for our son. We went through a long list together, too many that we chose had negatives for one or the other of us. I’ve never really been a fan of using family names.

My daughter we had a short list of about five names, but didn’t decide until the hospital said we had to. I liked Sarah best, and my ex couldn’t choose from her top three, one of which was Sarah.

I am glad we chose the names we did, I like them and so do the kids.

I wanted Russian names and names that were somewhat traditional. I had two kids and they got those traditional Russian names.

We still have 3 months to change our minds but our daughter will most likely be Maya Mary. Maya because I liked the sanskrit word and my husband is nice to me. Mary after my husband’s grandmother.

@nikipedia congrats!

Thanks!!! :)

My middle name is Peter, because I was delivered by a male midwife called Peter.

We decided to use family names: his family if it was a boy; mine, if it was a girl. Fortunately, we had one of each. The boy was after an uncle and a grandfather; the girl was after a grandmother. Not terribly original, but I grew up with a name that was unknown by most people and I was looking for easier to cope with names.

My mom named me after a girl she used to babysit when she was younger because she was so sweet. She also gave me the same middle name as her, which is based off of my grandma’s first name, so we could have the same initials and all three of us have that connection in our names.

Neat answers so far!

My mom said I would of been Shaun if I were a boy…and Shauna if I were a girl. So, I’m Shauna. She said she knew a sweet, shy, little “black girl” down the street with that name. My dad always said it was from my uncle’s name, Shane. I believe my mother’s version…as my dad was racist while I grew up in his house. I could see him not admitting that.
Oh and my middle name is a tradition on my mom’s side. The eldest daughters, dating back to over a hundred years ago, have all had the middle name May. Not sure why.

My sister was named after the actress from Bionic Woman, Jamie. She would of had that name no matter the sex. My brother is Brandon, which would have been Brandy if he were female. I don’t remember where his came from.

My partner’s youngest sister just had her baby yesterday (April 27). They named her Giana. They both, her and husband, simply liked the name but changed the spelling (from two n’s to one).

Simply narrowed down from a short list of names we liked.

@Nikipedia: Mazel tov!!

I was going to be Megan but while mum and dad were on holiday in America they met a family who’s little girl was called Leanne and loved it. My dad wanted to add an A at the end to make it Leanna but my mum wasn’t keen so they kept it as Leanne.

Just the ability to choose fantastic names…it’s a gift I know.
As for myself, I was named after my Dad as an act of defiance from my mum, he wasn’t keen, she went through labour…no contest.

My oldest daughter is called Danielle because we liked it and didn’t know anyone with that name. Her middle name is Clare after my grandmother.

My middle daughter is called Leah Marie. There was a song we liked about a Lea and Marie after my mother who was Mary. My sister had already named her daughter Mary so we used Marie.

My son is called Matthew James. After nobody. We just liked it.

They suit their names.

My son has 2 names handed down in our families. The elder of my 2 daughters is named after my paternal grandmother, and the younger is named after a minor character in The Iliad.

I was hungry at the time, so I called it ‘Dinner’.
He cowers in a corner everytime someone says “It is time to eat dinner”. Hilarious.

My naming criteria:
* not completely unheard of
* not “popular”
* sounds pleasant, along with last name
* no obviously horrible nicknames or initial problems
* a significant meaning
* first or middle name is after an actual person
* no unique or bizarre spelling

Newer criteria:
* my husband agrees

For my first (I was single), I was planning on adoption. When I decided to keep him, I looked through a name book. The book fell open to a page. I saw the meaning “gift from God”. I liked the name. Done.

For the second, we painfully scoured books and online name databases, generated a master list and only both really liked one name (for boys. We had a few possibilities for girls).

Now we’re thinking about a jazz theme, since the oldest is a musician and the little one shares his first name with a famous jazz musician. So Charles, Parker, Ella, Norah, etc.

My mom has a name that is used by both sexes, and found this to be handy in her professional life – people she corresponded with but never met in person would give her greater consideration (she felt) when they assumed she was a man. So when she had a daughter – me – that was her primary criteria. My full name is feminine, but my nickname, which I usually go by – and always in professional correspondence – goes either way.

If I ever have kids I would also choose a sex-neutral name for a boy and for a girl, both for the above reason and so that if the kid discovers she or he is trans, name switching, if desired, would be straightforward.

@augustlan The “Madison”/Splash thing gets a page in the book “Freakonomics”. Apparently almost no one used it as a name before that movie. Then bang, uber-popular name.

When I was expecting, my husband and I agreed that he would “choose” the boy name, and I would “choose” the girl name. As we didn’t know the sex of the baby at the time, it seemed a fair way of each having a chance. Of course, we agreed on the names, but it was ultimately my husband that named our son. Ian, because he just liked the name, and Bradley, after his favourite uncle.

Future child names, should we ever bear more (ugh…) or adopt (hopefully) are Morgan Elaine (that would have been Ian’s name, had he been female), Arthur Myron, and Connor Thomas. I’m hoping to sneak at least one Tolkien name in somewhere, “Arthur Haldir” has just too many “Rs”.

I was named after an Elvis Costello song, because my dad is awesome.

Her first name is my middle name.

Her middle name is my sister’s middle name.

My sister’s middle name is a feminine version of my stepfather’s first name.

My ex-wife….

Same as @Rarebear.

Lucky thing too. I found out my daughter would have been really pissed had we gone with my second choice: “Strawberry Pitaya”.

I wanted to name my middle daughter Jaquelin Marie after Jackie Kennedy. It just sounds so elegant. But she was the first born grandkid and mom kind of fussed about naming her after her. I was NOT going to call the poor kid “Cornelia,” so I settled on “Corrie.”

My son, Chris, was named after my boyfriend in 3rd grade. :)~ Then, because he was the only grandson on both sides at the time, he has 2 middle names, one after my ex’s dad, August, and one after my dad, Joseph. Loooong name for such a little boy. Not so little any more tho, at 6’ 4”.

I wanted a name that was easy to pronounce and spell, because the last name he was getting is neither. I also wanted him to have options for nicknames, and a name that isn’t easy to twist into a teasing taunt by brats and bullies. His middle name is the name of my grandfather who died a couple months before my son was born, which was conveniently a single syllable name.

I have no intention to have children myself but if I did the names are already chosen! For a girl it would be Jemma Danielle, Jemma because I think it’s pretty and I also like it shortened to Jem. It’s not too common but it’s also not pretentiously unique. I just like Danielle. For a boy it would be William (no thoughts on middle names) because it’s my dad’s middle name and I think it suits any age.

For me, I chose the way I described above, but prior to that, I was looking for a classic name, something not too trendy. The name Madison is and was very popular when my daughter was born almost six years ago, but I didn’t want to have her have a name that there’d be one of in every classroom.