It is definitely not me needing to choose names for a baby.  Definitely.  I do however have a number of friends,  both bloggy and "real life",  who are on the hunt for suitable names.  I have very strong ideas about how a child should be named.  Partly I think due to a neat BOOK I read while pregnant with Billy.  It got me thinking about names that work together,  and names that don't.  For instance,  Alexandra,  Danielle and Katherine sound good together,  but Alexandra,  Brenda and Poppy don't.  I think the names should be a similar style and have a similar feeling,  as well as being from a similar era.

Years ago I knew someone who named her first daughter Jubilee.  What a great name.  Very celebratory,  vibrant and fun.  Her next daughter was named Casey.  To me it seems all the creativity and thought was put into the first one and poor Casey took what was left over.  Please don't misunderstand me,  Casey is in itself a great name,  it just doesn't work with Jubilee. 

I have another friend with four children.  Joshua,  Jasmine,  Justin and Sarah.  People kept teasing them about using all 'J' names.  To prove that they weren't,  their last child was named Sarah.  They might as well have named the poor girl Black Sheep.

Another friend picked three syllable names for each of her four children.  I get that. It makes sense to me.   Don't give one child a long name and another a short one.   Unless you are planning to permanently shorten the long one.  Anastasia and Jan is a no go,  but Anastasia shortened to Stacy with Jan is a definite go.

One of my BLOG FRIENDS seems to follow my naming philosophy.  Her children are Clementine,  Emmeline and Milo.  They work together!  Lots of 'm' and 'l' sounds.  Though not so much that you'd forget who is named what.  Like another family I know with triplets.  You know it's coming!  The triplets were named Paul,  Paulette and Pauline!!  So wrong!!!

So,  how did I name my children?  While pregnant with my first,  my husband said he'd like to name him William,  after his father.  William also happens to be my husband's name.  I wasn't too keen on naming my son William IV,  but I agreed,  as long as we named all our other children after someone special in our families as well.  So he became William David.  David is my Grandfather's name.  Child number two is Sam Harrison.  Sam is my husband's cousin as well as my childhood nickname.  Harrison was Bill's Grandma's maiden name.  Child number three is our only girl.  It was a bit harder to pick her name.  Using family names can really limit your choices!  We named her Mackenzie Blaire,  and call her Macy.  Mackenzie is the last name of a lifelong family friend and Blair is my uncle's name.  For a while we debated calling her Blaire Mackenzie,  but since Billy already had a gender neutral name (Billy/Billie),  we didn't want to go there again (Blair/Blair).

I hope I've chosen well.  I hope their names don't make them feel they have to live up to something.  Much like being named Thurston or Brantford.  I also hope their names don't make them feel they have to live something down.  Like being named Bambi or Bunny. 

Oh boy,  this naming game is hard work.  So much to consider.  I'm glad we're done,  I don't think I could come up with another name that fits.

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Posted by cyndiegirl72

We wanted solid names that the boys could be men with. Nathan Patrick and Matthew Robert. Our last name also has 2 syllables so it works and flows. We also watched for the initials standing for things, like the poor child that has the initials WMD monogramed on their luggage. Oh well.

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Posted by SmallWorld

I love naming babies! I could have about six more just to use up all the names! It's all such a very personal thing. One of my qualifiers was always that the name wasn't popular. That has worked perfectly with all but my oldest, but even his is uncommon (Jesse) for his age.

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Posted by Sweetie

I throughly enjoyed reading this post! I think names for children are very important, but I think the MEANING of the name is also important and should be considered in the naming. We have chosen very traditional, Biblical names for all our children, and I think they flow well! We've also given each of our children TWO middles names -- one name from each side of the family.

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Posted by KarenW

I could have had 5 more boys and not run out of names but we only had one. Girls names, for whatever reason were hard for us. John and I just couldn't agree on names. The only name we both liked for our second daughter was Holly. Her middle name is Marie, the french form of Mary, my mother in law's name. That sounded good, feminine and all three names flowed together well. What I didn't do was take the middle name out and see how it sounded with our last name, duh! When I took her to church for the first time and signed her into the nursery, it hit me like a ton of bricks - Holly Woodward. Oh no! What have I done?! It wasn't too long before others figured it out and Hollywood has been one of her nicknames. Thankfully, not a common one but she is my dramatic child. Yes, choosing a name takes a lot of careful thought!

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Posted by quietcajun

All of my children have either a Biblical first or middle name: Kaitlyn Elizabeth, Jordan James, Ian Josiah, Noah Zachary and Hannah Gabrielle (and our little girl in Heaven: Sarah Hope)

I am curious: do you think Kaitlyn, Jordan, Ian, Noah and Hannah go well together?

The next baby will be Seth David or probably Rebekah Grace. Any input?

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