Comments on: Naming Rights

By: Lindsay Todd

Lindsay Todd — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:46:38 +0000

And Prince Harry of course. Tried to get my husband to go for Harrison/Harry and he couldn’t get beyond the old man feeling. Grandmothers were Thelma (yuk) and Marjorie (Marjorie May Moler). Margie is kind of cute, but no girl names for me, even the pets are boys. Patti, my friend, never knew the genesis of your boy’s names! Is Declan coming to Liam’s party. Here is the line up of 14 year olds:Liam, Declan, Ben, Ziggy, Max, Will, Amir, Asil,and Alex. Just noticed we have “A to Z”

By: skellie

skellie — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:49:36 +0000

My mom(who is 80)volunteers at a senior center. She says all the old ladies who hang out there are named Dorothy and Ruth. it’s fun to think of mothers choosing these names for newborns. My granmothers were Gertrude and Georgia! My sister and I thought these were awful names, but now I kind of like one of them. Grandfathers were Ralph and Harry, both common in their day. Lots of Harrisons now, sometimes nicknamed Harry (and with the popularity of Harry Potter, it’s cool)

By: rjga

rjga — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:02:26 +0000

In elementary school, I would have gladly switched my name (Rachel) to Cathy or Susan. By my teens, I loved my unusual name. As a grown up, it seems that there are 100 Rachel’s everywhere (most much younger than me). But I miss being different.

By: Singlethreefirstnames

Singlethreefirstnames — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 03:44:56 +0000

Apparently, the Christmas story had failed to resonate with middle school Ian. I’ll wager that the name “John” was less foreign to Ian.
If names were traded as a hedge fund MoBs’ bloggers would have hefty returns.
The ultimate test of the boys’ appreciation for their name will be whether they attach their name or “Chris” to any male born off spring.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:37:08 +0000

Patti, I don’t know a single Declan and only one Gib (not the same as Gibson), both are really cool choices!
Judy, your story of avoiding Emma hits on one of the main tenants of baby name choices. Young parents will generally avoid names they associate with old people. Once the old generation dies out and young pregnant couples have never met anyone with certain monikers, the names are “rediscovered” as brand new and cool again. Hence Julia Roberts with a daughter named Hazel. To me that is just the dowdiest name in the world, but Julia is a bit younger than me and probably never knew old lady Hazels. Even Maxine is coming back into vogue. To me, that name means an old woman at church with a big patent leather purse. Bottom line, yes, Judy/Judith will come back around, maybe in 40 years or so, and it will be a shockingly original choice for a while.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:30:40 +0000

Madison: that name came from the Tom Hanks/Darryl Hannah movie, I believe. The mermaid looks at a street sign for Madison Avenue and chooses it for her human name. Tom says “That’s not a name!” Looks like Darryl was right.
Yes, we have a lot of boys named Colin/Collin around here. A Mid-Atlantic thing.
Hi Logan! The name suits you perfectly. Very cool.
Yes, Malcolm is more common Down Under, in NZ and in the UK. We knew a women from NZ whose husband was a Malcolm – she called him “Mal” which I think sounds terribly harsh. “Mal” as in “bad.” Trust me, the name is pretty rare in the US.
Great stories of your own names, or those of your children, y’all!

By: Patti

Patti — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:26:09 +0000

My name was one of most “popular” of its time, when I was growing up. My parents tried to distinguish me from the other Pattys by spelling it with an “i” – to this day no one gets it right the first time.

We decided to go with “different” when our kids were born. After browsing through the 10 million baby names book, we went through our record collection (yes, we are old). My husband was originally attracted to Elvis (Costello, not Presley). We were living in Atlanta at the time, and I feared for a child named Elvis in the South. We settled on Declan, which is Elvis Costello’s given name. At the time it was rather unusual, but I am coming across more and more Declans every day!

Our younger son is named Gibson, after the St. Louis Cardinals ace pitcher Bob Gibson. People constantly ask if both of our kids have “family” names, which is pretty funny considering we are Jewish!

By: judy

judy — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 01:24:18 +0000

I forgot to add that I have NEVER found another “Judy” under the age of fifty….I’m in my early 40s and am waiting for the day I see a little person named Judy again. Will it ever come back??

My grandmothers name was Emma but we never considered naming our daughter that, it was too ‘dated or old person’ when she was born 18 years go. Now its in the top ten. So maybe there’s hope for Judy still….

judy
justonefoot.blogspot.com

By: L.A

L.A — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:35:16 +0000

I used to hate my name when i was little, i wanted to change it to veronica or something like that beacuse it was a boy/girl name.Now i dont think anyother name would fit me better. oh and my name is Logan haha

By: 12ontheinside

12ontheinside — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:30:47 +0000

Malcolm is not that uncommon here down under. Or maybe that’s just my generation, I don’t have too many friends with little kids.
I always liked my name, although I do remember when I was about 6 wanting to swap my first name with my middle name.