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Anyone want to throw out some relatively uncommon name suggestions for us?! I think we have a pretty good list but I'm always curious about what else is out there. I'm avoiding anything really popular-- the most popular was in the 200s on the 2010 Social Security names list.
DH and I are not in agreement right now about most of the names though... and we are not making a decision until we see her, but I'm starting to get nervous we won't agree at that point either!
Re: any name suggestions
Why don't you tell us what you're thinking and we can either reaffirm how awesome your choices are or tell you why DH's names are fantastic? :P
I haven't told anyone (family included)... and for some reason I feel weird putting them out there. I don't know why. I'm superstitious!
My DH both love classic/older names. Some of my favorites are Victoria, Isabelle, Audrey, Mae, Anna, Grace, Sophia, Lilian. I also love our girl name we have already picked out, but I of course am keeping that secret for now hehe.
Good luck!
Cordelia
Bronwyn
Eloise
Berta
Felicity
Marisol
Nadia
Rhonda
Wendy
Dana
Millie
Ruth
Helen
Pretty much all of those are super popular.
Here are 2010's rankings:
Victoria - 32
Isabelle - 105 (Isabella is #1)
Audrey - 52
Mae - 988 (not so popular as a first name, but pretty common as a middle name I think)
Anna - 28
Grace - 18
Sophia - 2
Lillian - 21
I was just browing the hospital website where DD was born and I came across some of these interesting girl names:
Adilyn
Daelyn
Caelyn (also Kaelyn)
Madilyn
Harley
Leevi
Amaya
Kassadi
Emerence
Naveah (a classic!)
Bryleigh
Jaiden
Briella
Mellissa (notice the extra "l")
Lyila
Jaelynn
Nadiah
Brayah
Addyson
Makiyah
Alainah
Hayleigh
Alli (not bad except it's also the name of a weight loss drug)
Alexzandria
Aeris
Aleisha
Syerra
Alivia
Arieanna
Arhianna
Kynlie
Annekah
I wish someone had told me that you get extra points for using more letters than necessary. I could have named DD Hellynne.
You also get extra points for replacing the "normal" letter with one that sounds the same. Like your Y in Hellynne. I think that's the route most people take when they want an uncommon name, not realizing that it doesn't really give the kid a special-sounding name.
Mesa, do you tend to like boy-names-as-girl-names, foreign names, older/traditional names, words as names, etc.?
How about Brunhilda or Ermentrude?
(I was serious about the first question. Not so much about the second.)
I like foreign names for the most part. I'm Jewish and have been trying to name someone after a deceased family member but have not had any luck (letters to work with are: L, S, F, W)... my one name I came up with, DH hates and I love -- it was based off my grandmother's name and he just doesn't like it.
A girl I went to college with has a daughter about the same age as the boys named Emerson... I really like it, they call her Emmy
and a former student of mine just had a little girl and named her Leighton which I also really like (except I am a little hesitant about the full name because her full name is Leighton Jacob LastName.... Jacob after FormerStudent's brother who passed away... which is great, but I probably would have used a more girly first name in that case, but anyways!)
if we had had girls we were going to use Grace Rose and Lucy Ann... if we have a girl for baby # 3 she will probably still be Lucy, but middle name is in the air...
I like Brownwyn, Annika (I had an Annika in the afterschool program and she went by KiKi), Arryenne, and Addie
Okay, so (and all I did here was pull up the top 500 or 1000 names from a couple of years and start backward and pick out what I liked) how about:
Kenley
Rowan
Adeline
Ainsley (Love this one...like Ainsley Hayes from The West Wing!)
Vivienne (Although Vivian, which I like less, is 158.)
Genevieve
Deirdre
Beatrice (Love!)
Clara
Cecelia
I was behind a girl at Bruce's Burritos the other night and her name was Maeve, which isn't my favorite but is one you don't hear a lot. Although Maeve Pilgrimlastname might sound too stuffy. And I had another good one in my head but it fell back out pretty quickly. I'll post if I remember it.
Also, looking back through the name lists from years ago, even the names in the higher numbers are distinct names. Nowadays it's the same 20 names spelled differently. Sad, I think.
ETA: Francesca, Fiona, Finley, Adrienne
Emerson's a good one too. And I was going to make a joke about another name, but then it occurred to me that someone might have it and might not care to hear my thoughts about it.
Laurel
Lindsay
Lynn
Lisbeth
Loretta
Sasha
Stella (this is getting popular, #85 last year)
Sandra
Summer
Shannon
Sharon
Shirley
Stephanie
Frances
Francine
Francesca
Fanny/Fannie
Winona
Willa
Wilhelmina
Willow
Wanda
I love the name Maeve and I love the name Moira (or Maura), but I'm a sucker for Irish names...unfortunately, so is the rest of my family, so I didn't use them.
Don't get toooooo hung up on the popularity lists. I've never in my life known an Eloise and it has NEVER been a popular name for as far back as the SS Indices exist (not even close!), but since my Ellie was born stinkin' stupid Denise Richards named her new baby Eloise and my ped's office said that they're starting to see more babies with her name. Argh.
Here are some other girl names we considered: Lillian (nixed for popularity), Beatrice, Anne, Louisa, Ava, Violet. And I have ALWAYS loved Frances Ruth, but I seem to be in the minority because everyone else always makes a face. (I would've called her Francie for short, like the girl in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn".)
I love names.
One of the top on my list for girls is Carolyn - Caroline is in top 100 right now but Carolyn hasn't been popular for awhile.
Delaney
Annelise
Carly
Cerise
Alaina
Fallan
Savannah
Kayley
Samara
Simone
Taryn
Kendell
Lane
London
Teagen
Ellery
Sheridan
Blair
Hayley
Kennedy
Meredith
Parker
Taylor
Reese
Riley
Did she spell it that way? It's usually spelled Elspeth.
I love names!
One of the teachers I used to work with has a daughter named Elspeth, She calls her Elfie.
I've always been and forever will be in love with the name Jenieva or Genieva, I like the J better, I always wanted a daughter named Jenieva Leigh, My mom's favorite aunt who passed away shortly after I was born was named Genieva, and mom always talks about her, MH however hated it.
I've always pictured having twin girls naming them Jenieva and Jenica... but meh.
I've only seen it spelled Elsbeth. I just looked it up and Elsbeth is Dutch or German and Elspeth is Scottish.
Hahahahaha
)
As for names, I really loved checking out the Italian, Irish & French names - they were absolutely beautiful, but DH isn't at ALL a fan of non-traditional names. That's why Katie's middle name is Belle...I got my little European kick in there
).
Jake blowing out the candle at Katie's coming home party
Katie Belle
Kristen, Chad, Jake, Katie & Sadie the Wonderdog, est. 6/17/06
This is why I'm thankful that our name is very foreign. I can get away with exotic type European names and DH is on board because they sound the best!
I was just throwing out suggestions, I didn't have the time to look up each one to see the popularity of them.
Yes, she did! It's part of what won me over. I don't like the Elspeth spelling.
Wow. That is a lot of names.
One of the names listed made me think of a Lily Allen song, "Alfie" and I think that is a cute name.
I like Oliver and Olive.
Rahm is a good one (and part of the make up of Abe's name).
Here are names we were considering if our baby was a girl: Maybelle (our #1 pic . . . and likely the name of any future daughter!), Sadie, Annabelle, Quinn, Eloise, Grayson, Amelia, Audrey, Hadley
P.S. I went to school w/an Elsbeth, but everyone called her "Ellie"
So excited to meet Peanut this fall!
*Outdated* Wedding Bio