Note: I realize this post might be aggravating if you don't know my kids names, so if you are curious please send me an e-mail @tjbjohn@msn.com and I will tell you their names.
So, being pregnant you tend to think a lot about names. How do people pick names? Do you like common names or uncommon names? Do you what your kids name to mean something or be named after someone? T and I are pretty relaxed people and just decided to name our kids whatever we felt liked. We didn't make any rules or name them after anybody (even middle names). Plus, how do pick one grandpa and not the other?
We just liked the names. It's not that we don't love and honor the ones who came before us, we just didn't feel the need to name our kids after them.
But, I know a lot of people worry about their kids names sounding good together. T's philosophy is that you are raising individuals and not a collection, so that shouldn't matter. I admit that if you know the B family, and they named their next kid Bob or something that would be kind of crazy. They have a rule that the everyone has to have a different first and last sound from the other kids. That makes it challenging.
Sometimes when I hear someone say what they are going to name their kids, the other person comments on how well that goes with their other kids names. I don't usually even think about that.
People have commented how B is common and C & T are not. Capri (I guess I can name the un-born) will be uncommon too. Most people have seemed to like these names. But even if they don't, I don't really care. They are my kids and I get to have fun naming them. I guess I worry more their names sounding too similar than complementing the other names. I did like the name Stace for a girl, but thought that was too close to T.
Also, I do think about how well it goes with our last name. We have a short last name, so most of the names have two sylabbles. See, another rule broken! Also, poor C has 9 letters is his name. He has more of a challenge writing his name and fitting it on those tiny lines, but it will make him stronger. Notice, that the next child had 4 letters though.
My husband grew up with 4 out of the 5 kids starting with T, but I think they just more like T names than did that on purpose. When I look through books I usually an drawn to M or C names. One thing we have done (kind of accidentally) was that each of our kids middle names start with J. (I know, so does our last name) I don't know if we will keep that up for Capri. Her middle name is still up for negotation.
So, how do you decide on a name? Do you have rules for yourself? How important is it to you?
Isn't there a quote in spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility! Truly naming your kids is the most power you will ever be given....so I say have fun with it!!! As long as your happy with the name that's all that should matter, but I read a thing once that said if you choose to name your kids something hard to pronounce give them an easy middle name that they could choose to go by because potential employers won't call if they don't think they will get the name right. BTW my cousin has a daughter named Kapree, spelled differently than how you were doing it but still cute.
ReplyDeleteFor us, we didn't want to have the most common names, nor names that were too obscure. We wanted their names to be pronounceable, as well as mostly spellable. The older girls we actually had picked out their names before we were engaged, and then with Bella we had no name picked out so we went with a long ago family name.
ReplyDeleteI read a book in Jr High about a girl named Caitlin. This was back in the old days when this wasn't a common name--in fact, I had never heard of it before. At the time, if I could have picked my own name, it would have been that....hence our oldest daughters name.
ReplyDeleteOur second was my husband's choice, since I named the first. My only criteria was that the name not sound like a neighborhood....unfortunately, all my husband's choices, including the one we selected sound like neighborhoods. Some of our options: Summer Stone, Autumn Stone, and what we ultimately picked: Brooke Stone....and ironically, it sounds like a neighborhood reversed too: Stone, Brooke.
Our girl's middle names are family names...we thought it would be good to kiss up to the relatives! :D
I've only named one so far, but I just pick a name that I like. I do like to pick names that aren't a dime a dozen. Something not super common, but bottom line, if I like it, I'm going to use. However, my husband is the sixth, so more than likely, my first son is probably decided for me. I have never thought to think about whether kids names go with each other. Why does that even matter?? I don't get it.
ReplyDeleteI heard the name Kaytlin when I was in High School. I had never heard of it before and LOVED it. So her name was picked out before I even met Dave.
ReplyDeleteMy friend named her baby McKenna and I thought that was so cute, but I didn't want three syllables and that made me think about just using Kenna and both Dave and I LOVED it.
I found Kamden's name is a baby book. I didn't think Dave would like it so I didn't tell him about it. We had decided on Kolby. One day, Dave and I both said we didn't really like Kolby and that is when I said, "What do you think about Kamden?" Thinking he wouldn't like it. He said, "I LOVE it!"
For us there is absolutely no rhyme or reason. I just know that if I have a bad association with the name, then it's out. We have never had a name picked out before we were at the hospital (I have long labors), but we never waited to see the baby either. For Kaitlyn, I had never really heard of that name before (ha! now it's all over the place). I knew I liked something that started with "K" and it was a name we didn't hate, so that's how she got named. With Marissa, I still wasn't sure when I wrote it on the paperwork at the hospital. I thought it wasn't very common, but wasn't exceptionally odd. Neither of us hated it, so again it was picked. And, I have such a hard time picking out first names that neither of our girls have middle names. I wasn't about to attempt that.
ReplyDeleteI think it's funny that three commenters named their girls Kaitlyn (all spelled differently).
ReplyDeleteI try to think of a name that can work when your kid is an adult. After all, they are adults longer than they are children. It's difficult for me to imagine an 80 year old man with the name Skyler (just an example). I also tend to stick with more traditional spellings and sounding names.
ReplyDelete(I hope no one here has a child named Skyler. I certainly don't want to offend. It's just a name that came to me right then.)
ReplyDeleteBoth Trav and I have to like it. Our oldest's name I have liked since junior high. It also happens to start with a T and both our dad's name start with a L and that carries out the tradition of the TLJ. Our youngest son got the other grandpa name for the middle name. Our girls don't have a middle name, like me. I like having no middle name. E's name also I have liked for years. Trav had to get used to the idea. The other girls we just liked. Trav was big on spelling and would write out all variations on a piece of paper and we would decide at the hospital.
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