Names like Nevaeh, Destiny, and Kiearah, and Brianna, Braden, Tyler, Taylor, Caden, Connor, Preston, Paxton, Peyton, and Jayden - are beyond trendy but they're horrible names on top of that.
Some of the problem is the way they are prounounced...
"BREEEEEAAAAAHHHHNNNAAA!" in a nasally whine...
OH GOD! SCRATCH MY EYES OUT!
I grew up with a fairly traditional but at the time very trendy name (Jessica) and it drove me nuts. By the time I was in 4th grade there were about 30 Jessica's in my elementary school. The rest were named Jennifer, Lisa, Michelle or Amy. All of us hated it! To add insult to injury - we all had the same two middle names: Marie or Ann.
I know that not everyone wants a traditional name, or they're going for something unique but lift your head out of the sand. These names are so overused right now - Are you intentionally naming your kids after Britney's?
I do have a list of names that I find fundamentally acceptable, and in some cases I really like them, but I cannot believe the amount of overuse they get right now:
Addison
GraceLily
Emma
Emily
Hannah
Rose - more as a middle name
Olivia
Ava
Reece (girl or boy)
Savannah
Tristan
Connor
Brody
Brady
Abby
Violet
Jack and Jackson and Jaxon and Jax'n
Maggie
Madison
Tyler
Taylor
And you thankfully never hear these anymore - I can't imagine naming a little baby any of these names, even knowing they won't be a baby forever.
JudyRuth
Barbara
Linda
Carol
Ethel
Gladys
Harold
Cathy (Not Catherine, Cathleen, etc. - just Cathy)
Alice
Nancy
Willard
Fred
Clarence
Lawrence, and any form of it
Walter
Albert
Arthur
My advice on avoiding ridicule or regret while naming your child:
1. Open the baby names book and really read it!
2. Research your family lineage and find something solid and timeless, even unusual.
3. Consider how the child will feel about the name at age 15, 20, 25, and 40!
and
4. When you hear a name you love while pregnant, buy it off the person who is "claiming" it. I bartered with a bad-ass NorthFace jacket for my daughter's name AND now my sister feels like she had a huge part in naming her - Win/Win!
I really like the name Harriet (sort of old school but cute and unusual) but I could not name a girl Harriet Hatcher! I also really liked Piper with middle name Jane - I mostly liked that it would become nickname initials of PJ like my sister BJ (for Bonnie Jean) but I am grateful we didn't use that. I loved Jack Robert (JR for short) but I wouldn't have been able to stomach how many Jax, Jack, Jackson, Jaxons there are now.
Do you think anyone is going to take President Nevaeh or President Jayden seriously in about 40 years?
So, tell me your baby names and why you chose them....
Also, since I've opened this can of worms, it's only fair to let you openly criticize my children's names. In case you haven't caught them in previous posts, they are first and middle:
William Anderson
Georgia Cate
O
Posts
OMGGGGGGGGG brilliant. Just brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on most of those names! (Hi, I'm Kristin by the way.. one of Bonnie's online buddies!)
ReplyDeleteI have a Logan Michael.
Now, I KNOW Logan is being totally overused right now, but I have never known one. I'm sure when he gets to kindergarten he will have 3 friends by the same name. However, my husband and I both decided on the name years ago even before we ever thought of having a baby! It was totally a name that just stuck with us.
Michael is very timeless and is after my dad, so that was 100% set in stone.
I wish Logan was not in the top ten list, but he is. :( If you knew him though, he really IS a Logan. I think it is a very strong name, that he will continue to like for the rest of his life.
If we had had a girl, her name would have been Madeline Sydney. I hated Sydney, but it was a compromise, because my husband wasn't too keen on Madeline hehe.
Anyway, I agree their are too many variations of the same name. I HATE when someone has a name, let's just say Michael. But it is spelled like Mykal, Michel, Mikael, etc. Just spell it normally!!!
Oh!! And you didn't get into these names which I personally cannot stand: Aiden, Braden, Caden, Hayden, Jayden, Kaden, Zayden, etc. (or any various spellings). FIND A NEW NAME!! I have a nephew named Kaden, a step cousin named Aiden, a friend's kid named Braden.. I can't even keep up!!
Ok.. end rant hehe!
I'm Bethany - another of Bonnie's online buddies.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is Victoria Elizabeth (after two of the most powerful British Monarchs) and Andrew Stephen Merrill. My son is named after my husband (Andrew Stephen), but the only reason I agreed to it was because it was also after two British monarchs, hehehe. His second middle name is for my grandfather, who died of lung cancer. Because my son has a congenital lung problem, I felt compelled to name him for his great grandfather (whom I was always extremely close to).
The names that annoy me the most are the names that look like someone dropped Scrabble on the floor and attempted to pronounce the tiles in the order they fell. Included in this category are the names where the parents did their damndest to remove any and all vowells daring to impose themselves upon the consonents. After all - the apostrophe is an acceptable alternative.
I tend to be extremely traditional in my names (in case you couldn't tell), and will be naming our next Abigail Anne or Alexander James.
FWIW - I do really like some of the names on your list, but completely agree they are waaaaaaaaaaaay overused.
HA... another of Beej's online mamas!
ReplyDeleteI'm an Amy and in 1974, it was the 2nd most popular name that year. I never hated my name, I just hate when people shorten it to Aim. It's 3 letters people, you can pronounce 2 syllables, can't you!?
Anyway, my son's name is Ryan Caleb... the 12th and 17th most popular names last year. We decided his name years ago while watching the OC. I wish I was kidding. We were talking names and we both liked the names Ryan and Caleb. Ry's first name would have been Caleb if we had a last name that went with it. Caleb Willis is pretty hard to say, even for me.
I also hate the name Nevaeh. It's nowhere near as unique as people think. Don't even get me started on celebrity names.
I completely agree with EVERYTHING you wrote.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant!!!
It took us 6mos and 3 days after my daughter was born to come up with a name. We made lists, we practiced YELLING her name, we said it over and over and over again. We had 100s of lists, and I am still finding them now, she is 6.5mos old...um... yea, we tried really hard to come up with the PERFECT name.
Thank goodness we are NOT on your list ;). I guess it goes to show a little obsession and quite a few fights can land a good name.
My daughter's name is Pilar Soledad. [Peelar]
Pilar because my husband is Nicaraguan and we wanted a latino name, but also because there is not one in his family. We did not want to give her a name that someone else had, we wanted her to be the only one. Soledad is after his grandma who passed away. I refused to give her any name from my family, mainly JEAN - sorry Bonnie, I just couldn't pass that along. I hated being a TJ, but to each his own.
My husband really like that she was a PS, for p.s. I love you... I thought that was really cute.
After all the fighting we did, I am the one to got messed around. I wanted her to have the perfect name and initials... I never imagined my daughter after all we went through would end up a PMS for monogramming. I found this little treasure out when I recieved my first monogramed shower gift.
- Terri
Mother to Pilar, July 2008
Hey, I'm Pikake (another one of Beej's online friend- Beej is just popular ;P)
ReplyDeleteThe names of my children are somewhat traditional (I think),but I've never heard of any. Ashlyn, Siena, and Mercedez. They all have Hawaiian middle names, so I'm not going write it down. When I choose names for my kids, I want something that has a nice sound AND meaning. I agree that most names are over-rated. I really like Georgia Cate... it's a simple combination, but unique! William Anderson is ehhh... okay. No offense. I know a lot of Williams and Anderson is a common last name. But hey, it meets your approval, so who cares what I think.
I also hate the name Naveah. What do people see in that name? And no, it's not cool just because it spells heaven backwards.
PMS .. Oh I'm sorry.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with your list! All of these weird names with odd spellings just gets old.
I'm also a Jessica and I ended up with SOOO many others in my classes. I missed out on the Ann and Marie, but my mom's middle name is Marie and my sister's is Ann.
My boys' names missed your list! I have Ryan Alexander and Ian Xavier. When we chose Ryan, I didn't know of any kids with the name. I have always loved the name. It seems like he's going to end up with quite a few in his classes now though. With Ian, we wanted a name that worked well with Ryan. But our final decisions really came down to the name meanings.
Their middle names were tricky. Since the boys are 1/2 mexican, we needed names that could also be pronounced by my husbands family. Ryan and Ian are extremely difficult. I didn't want just outright mexican middle names to go with the obviously white first names, so we worked with it. Ryan is known as Alejandro and Ian is known as Javier. I know it will be confusing for them, but they only see that family like every other year. And I love having the common x's in their middle names.
Great List
~Jess
Another online buddy here :)
ReplyDeleteMy oldest son's name is Jeffrey Neal- he is named after my husband's father who passed away before we got pregnant and his middle name is after my grandfather who has also passed.
My youngest son's name is Jacob Andrew. I know that Jacob is highly overused however- I haven't really come across too many where I'm at and with my older son's, my husband's and my name all starting with J's we didn't want to have this guy feel left out and the only J names we could agree on Jacob because it sounded nice with Andrew, which is my husband's middle name and the male form of my mother in law's middle name, Ann, so we wanted to keep that going.
I love the name Georgia for a girl- it was one of our choices if Jeffrey was a girl.
I agree with your post as well. I didn't know what I was going to name my son till 3 weeks before he was born. He's bi-racial so I had a really hard time.
ReplyDeleteSo funny BTW.
Oh my! I LOVE ALL THE COMMENTS LADIES! Read more blogs and comment more!
ReplyDelete@ Jaime - Jacob is like William - very old fashioned and traditional so it's hard to claim "overuse" when it's been in the top 20 for, like, hundreds of years - good call!
@ Pikake - I hear you about William Anderson being a bit eeh.. It was the name of the first immigrant to America on my husband's side. I was nonplussed until I thought of Wil as the nickname because my favorite movie of all time is Good Will Hunting. Also, Liam can be used as a nickname... not that we do.
@ Terri - Pilar Soledad is so nice! Well done! And I love that you also took it seriously enough to fight, we did too! It's a huge responsibility to name a person!
@ Mom's of Ryans - I almost used this for a girl - it was a TOP 5 (along with Elliott, Piper, Georgia, Kathryn). It's a GREAT name, girl or boy.
@ Kristen - I did get Jayden, Caden, and Braden in the first paragraph! And, to support how great minds think alike - I actually had Hayden on the list but I removed it because when I thought about it, Hayden is only guilty by association. It's unfortunate, but I think it was the ORIGINAL and CLASSIC, semi-traditional basis of all the oozy, irritating variations.
@ ALL - We left out Riley (and various obnoxious spellings)! Thank you for writing because I felt nervous posting that but I'm so glad other people feel strongly about it! NONE of your names are the least bit awful - all GREAT choices!
I love the spins you're using with mixed heritage! That is what makes a name as unique as the child and parents.
Haha duhh I can read, really.
ReplyDeleteHey, do you mind if I add you to my blog list? That way I can keep reading!
Mine is www.logankeogh.blogspot.com if you wanna check it out too. :)
Kristin,
ReplyDeleteI'd be honored! Add me and I'll add you! And feel free to spread the word, if you like what you read. Although, I subscribe to several blogs that I don't always love. I don't have many readers yet because I've purposely kept it on the DL from from all my close friends, although a few have stumbled in and I don't mind at all. I'm not sure I can explain why I've guarded it from my close circle, I guess I want readers who aren't my everyday peeps. There is nothing here I wouldn't say or don't already say, but I just ...ugg... maybe it's just time to put it out there. Thanks for the inspiration. Read archives too!
Thanks again! And sorry for the misspelling of your name the first time!
Jes
I love this topic! My daughter's name is Joia, it means jewel in Portuguese. My Mom used to call me that when I was little, so it always sort of stuck with me. When I told my Mom that we were thinking of naming the baby Joia if we had a girl, I thought she would be pleased, but instead she looked at me with surprise. Turns out, Joia was not only her pet name for me, but it was actually her childhood dog's name too.... nice.
ReplyDeleteBut, I agree with most of your comments... I think people are getting a little crazy with the names these days. Its like they forget that their children actually have to grow up with these names. My cousin actually named her son Logan b/c of Wolverine in X-Men. Don't get me wrong, I like the name Logan but why would you name your son after a comic book character?
My biggest pet peeve is substituting the letter "y" or an apostrophe where they don't belong. Like Haidyn or Hayd'n. silly...
Yay I am so glad this dialogue has begun.. I actually like some different spellings (Josh and I disagree on that one). Whatev.
ReplyDeleteAfterall our lil sister's name is pronounced Carrie but spelled Ciarrai with an accent mark above the last i (it is gaelic).
I fundamentally love the names Hannah, Abby, and Grace but gahhhh, I could NEVER EVER do it, there are A BILLION ZILLION of them akin to Jessica and Jennifer in our day.
I always liked Logan, reminds me of Logan Airport in Boston (lol)
ReplyDeleteAnother online friend... lol.
ReplyDeleteI did decide to name my daughter Alexys Marie, yes with a y. I love the name but hated the spelling Alexis. We played around with spellings & names for a long time. I hate all the -Aden names. HATE. I agree that Hayden is guilty by association. I like that name.
For the longest time I loved the names Landon, Logan, and Jordan... for girls. If we ever have a boy he'll be a junior so I don't even get to play around with boy names. I do really like Elijah and Malachi though.
Hey Jes-
ReplyDeleteWell I just think you're a bitch. J/K I love ya! Great post!
I don't like when people give their children ethnic sounding names that have nothing to do with their own culture. I could never name my fair skinned, golden haired daughter Malisha or Giavanna..I think she looks like her name (Allison).
And it's so true about pets names. I always feel bad when we meet a little girl named Maggie and my daughter exclaims "my big smelly dog's name is Maggie too!" I love Addison but settled for Allison since I know a dog called Addy
LOL, my cousin from the dirty ham wanted me to name Owen Giovanni, HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. So for the longest time while I was prego Josh and I referred to him as Gio. btw- I am not even .00001 % italian.
ReplyDeleteHey another Beej friend here.
ReplyDeleteMy real pet peeve with names is when people mess with the spelling. It seemed to all start with common names and parents wanted to make the name unique so they screwed with the spelling, like Nancy became Nancee, Erika became Erykah, or Emily became Emeleigh. Now it has moved on to the trendy names too....Mason will be Mayson, Brianna becomes Bryana. There is no end to it and it is the stupidest thing EVER that parents do. The poor kids will have to spend their lives spelling their names for everyone or correcting people b/c they misspelled it.
My first daughter's name I am not crazy about b/c it is so common...Sydney, it fits her well, but I hate how often we run into other Sydneys, but we did name her after her paternal great grandfather who was Sidney, he died young and it was very meaningful for hubs family to have another Sydney Waterbury in the family. I love my second daughters name, Norah, we couldn't decide on the spelling Nora or Norah, went with the "h" at the end but I don't consider that a weird spelling, kind of like Sara/Sarah are both acceptable spellings. kwim? And then our son is Wesley, hubs picked the name and I love it now too. Traditional but not common, yet, still masculine. (At least that is how I see it)
I love the name Georgia and William is another one of my faves...so in my book, you done good mama! P.S. Georgia is so flipping ADORABLE!! I see her pics all the time on BJ's website.
Hey Jes,
ReplyDeleteThis is a fun post! Amy showed me your blog before but I finally got a chance to sit down and read a bunch of posts this weekend. You are a great writer!
Ok, so for names...I have a Colin Frederick (yes, I did say Frederick). Honestly, Colin came from a baby name book and we both really loved it and still do to this day. You hear it, but it's not overly popular I guess but at that time it wasn't used much (8 years' ago). Frederick is Colin's godfather...
Then I have Carter David. Carter came out of left field. I was looking at the same baby name book and we could not agree on even one name. One day, Tim was wearing a Vince Carter b-ball shirt and I just said the name Carter out loud and Tim was like, that's it! It was funny, because even in the delivery room, I was like are you sure you want Carter? Are you sure? David is for my grandfather (that was in the running to be his first name). Now, of course it fits him and I have only met a couple of Carter's since...people seem to like it.
And, no, I was not trying to pick a C name to go with Colin's, it just happened that way...that kind of drives me crazy, when everyone purposely uses the same first letter...
Jenn,
ReplyDeleteHi! How are you? Thanks for reading and commenting!
I always loved your baby names. Did you know my brother Jamie just named his newborn son Colin? It's a great name!
My friend Maddy whose husband in Mike has 3 kids will M names - Morgan, Michael, and Marlee. The first two were coincidence, but by the third child, they didn't want her to feel left out if they didn't use an M name.
Ugg!
I will gladly offer my children's names for your scrutiny!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is Charlotte Grace. She turned 13 last year, and when I named her this, neither name was particularly popular or trendy. Charlotte was close to #300 in the charts, and I chose it because Charlotte Bronte is my favorite author. LOVE Jane Eyre! Grace was not to be her original middle name, but when I was 7 months pregnant, my Grandma Grace had a massive stroke, and clung to life by a thread in a hospice until the baby came. I gave Charlotte "Grace" as a middle to honor my grandmother.
Now I'm expecting in July, and this boy will have two middle names. Asher Theophilus Sweet. Asher is my favorite boy's name; it is very Old Testament (the 8th son of Jacob and the father of the tribe of Israel), and it means "Happy; blessed." Theophilus is an old family name on my side, and if you google "Theophilus Sweet" you will find two men who were somewhat important and I am directly descended from them, and to google "Theophilus Whalley" you will find the great-grandfather of the eldest Theophilus Sweet. It is also the real birth name of Mozart, not Amadeus: Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. It means, "Friend of God," and it is the honorary title to which The Book of Acts is addressed in the New Testament. Sweet is my last name (didn't take the husband's), so we have decided to compromise and carry on my last name as a second middle name for our son.
I have been accused frequently as of late of giving my daughter an "overly popular name" and a "filler middle name," but this criticism seems to forget how different the naming trends were in 1995. If I had known the way things would go, I might have chosen different names... but probably not. Her name was unique in 1995 at least. Charlotte could care less about the popularity--she loves her name, and is proud to be named after the two namesakes I chose.
Asher is currently ranked at #232, and it seems to be becoming quite popular, but for the reasons I have selected it, I refuse to change it. I highly doubt Theophilus will become popular again as it was with the Puritans in the 17th- and 18th-centuries; so far it isn't even in the top 1000 anywhere. But if he should choose to go by "Theo" someday, that will be his option, and when he is an adult, he will appreciate the importance of the four namesakes (family + Mozart) for whom I named him after.
enjoyed your blog :-) I don't much care for really trendy names, but it turns out my poor babygirl has a trendy name...once traditional, now trendy. Isabelle. (IsabellA is the popular name now)
ReplyDeletemy husband likes the idea of naming his kids after kings and queens, he likes multisyllabic names. Isabelle fit the bill on both counts and is very pretty and has a lovely meaning (God's Oath..the spanish form of Elizabeth)
Her middle name is both her birthstone and her great-grandmother's name, Ruby.
Having an 'original' name is overrated I think...but I do hope the poor child doesn't have to be one of 10 "Belles" in class someday.
My husband is from Morocco so we tried to pick names for our boys that are Arabic names that can be pronounced by people in the US and in Morocco. We also wanted names that had meanings that we felt fit our kids personalities. We also wanted names that aren't over used. I was always one of 800 Jessica's and my husband was never the only Tarik in his group of friends. Our oldest son is named Samir (Sah-meer), which means "the entertainer". Our younger son's name is Riyad (ree-yad) which means "beautiful garden". Samir is more common then Riyad in Morocco, but neither are terribly common.
ReplyDeleteHey ladies, I just know Busterpeach is gonna love mine lol. My youngest daughter's name is Madisyn Parker. I also have a Skyler Reece, Michael Paige (girl), and a Spencer Riley. Their dad named every single one of them besides Maddy. The boys are both S.R.'s and the girls are both M.P.'s I first picked Addison but Dad had a fit because it didn't start with a M so I caved and decided that Madisyn would do. NOW as for the spelling, I chose to spell it that way because I like the way it look when I write it that way better. As for my name, I am an Ashley, even though I was born and named right as Ashley was an insanely popular name, it never bothered me, I have always went by Ash at all of my jobs (well the ones that required name tags anyways) and would never let any of the new ashleys put Ash on theirs, I always had to be the only one somehow and I made it work. I am sure all my children will find a way to make their names their own, and I am not worried how many other ones are out there.
ReplyDelete