I'm married to someone who often looks askance when I tell him about other unusual names people have used for their children...I can always predict how he's going to react! He tends not to like the especially trendy ones.
Needless to say, we stuck with fairly straightforward names for our boys: Christopher Hugh, Kieran Robert, and Nicholas Robert. Since I got to use my top boys' names, I thought I'd focus on girls' names:
1. Susanna: This was our first-choice girls' name, which we never got to use because we had all boys! I wanted to use Susanna Hope or Susanna Marie.
2. Michaela: I doubt my hubby would have gone for this one, but I always liked it...and she could have been named after him!
3. Kate: Not sure whether this would have been derivative of a longer name (perhaps Katharine), but I've always loved the name Kate.
4. Zora: Ala Zora Neale Hurston...what an unusual, cool name it is...namesake of a real renaissance woman.
5. Kayra: This is the name of one of my son's friends, and I really like it. It means grace, favor, benevolence, and kindness.
6. Sophia/Sophie: I am very fond of at least two wonderful young women named Sophie!
7. Karen: I have never met a Karen I don't like. Karen was the name of my favorite teacher (fifth grade) and Chris' primary nurse in the NICU. Karens are often amazing.
8: Renee/Renay: When I was young, my family had a framed print of the "Girl with a Watering Can" by Renoir hanging up on our living room wall. My dad used to call her Renee, so I wanted to be called Renee. Then both of my older boys had an amazing second grade teacher named Renay, who has become a close friend of mine...now I think I might go with that spelling, since she is so wonderful!
9. Maria: By third grade, I wanted my name to be Maria--and my third grade teacher humored me and called me that name. And then there's Maria Von Trapp, of course!
10. Eleanor/Rosa/Maya: I could have named a daughter after so many women I admire, but these two names come to mind in particular.
Thanks to Stasha at http://www.northwestmommy.com/ for organizing Monday Listicles. Read about other names (or photos from people's phones, the other topic) by checking out the other participating bloggers.
Needless to say, we stuck with fairly straightforward names for our boys: Christopher Hugh, Kieran Robert, and Nicholas Robert. Since I got to use my top boys' names, I thought I'd focus on girls' names:
1. Susanna: This was our first-choice girls' name, which we never got to use because we had all boys! I wanted to use Susanna Hope or Susanna Marie.
2. Michaela: I doubt my hubby would have gone for this one, but I always liked it...and she could have been named after him!3. Kate: Not sure whether this would have been derivative of a longer name (perhaps Katharine), but I've always loved the name Kate.
5. Kayra: This is the name of one of my son's friends, and I really like it. It means grace, favor, benevolence, and kindness.
6. Sophia/Sophie: I am very fond of at least two wonderful young women named Sophie!
7. Karen: I have never met a Karen I don't like. Karen was the name of my favorite teacher (fifth grade) and Chris' primary nurse in the NICU. Karens are often amazing.8: Renee/Renay: When I was young, my family had a framed print of the "Girl with a Watering Can" by Renoir hanging up on our living room wall. My dad used to call her Renee, so I wanted to be called Renee. Then both of my older boys had an amazing second grade teacher named Renay, who has become a close friend of mine...now I think I might go with that spelling, since she is so wonderful!
9. Maria: By third grade, I wanted my name to be Maria--and my third grade teacher humored me and called me that name. And then there's Maria Von Trapp, of course!
Thanks to Stasha at http://www.northwestmommy.com/ for organizing Monday Listicles. Read about other names (or photos from people's phones, the other topic) by checking out the other participating bloggers.
Love all the #10 choices!
ReplyDeleteThanks Robbie--notice how I got in a few extra? :)
DeleteWith both of our kids I never really thought of too many names - I always said that I would know their names once I saw them. And it was true - my daughter just looked like her name had to be Pauline when she came out and my son looked like his name had to be Marius :)
ReplyDelete(And yes, you can come and visit me in Vancouver)
That is very brave of you (and intuitive)!
DeleteOoh, I like Zora. Simple, unique.
ReplyDeleteWith Renee/Renay, it'd be cool to name a child after someone, particularly not a relative. Though I always wonder about alternative spellings... The people I've known whose names were relatively common but spelled differently got endlessly frustrated by people getting it wrong.
Then again, *is* 'Renay' an unusual spelling where you live? Here in Canada it would be, probably because of French being so common here that we expect it to be spelled the French way.
I've never seen "Renay" spelled that way, so I suspect it is an unusual spelling. I will ask her! I have another friend whose name is spelled a little differently: "Shelia" vs. "Sheila." I'll bet she has to correct the spelling all the time!
DeleteWhat a great set of names...I do like Zora...sad I didn't think of it for my list.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Wayne!
DeleteSophia was on our list a few times as well! I think naming kids is the hardest part of pregnancy!
ReplyDeleteActually, it was extremely easy for us...my husband and I agreed completely on each of the names we chose, so we were lucky that way!
DeleteSo many pretty names. Too bad you never got to use one. I have five boys of my own, and Rebecca Slade was the girl name we were going to use for the last four. Hopefully Grandma Slade knows that we were at least wanting to name a girl after her!
ReplyDeleteOh, I love the name Rebecca too!
DeleteI love the name Sophie too!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Bridget!
DeleteI never got to name a girl even though I always had WAY more girl names than boy names. Oh well..
ReplyDeleteYes--me too, as you can see! Beyond the boys' names we used, we also liked Matthew and Daniel.
DeleteYou are right! I've never met a Karen I didn't like. Loved your spin on this list! Ellen
ReplyDeleteYes, Karens are amazing! Thanks, Ellen!
DeleteI love all those girl names! I never got to use girl names either, we only had 1 picked out anyways.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteRenee made it into Lil Duck's middle name slot. I'm always intrigued at the names others like (or choose) and why.
ReplyDeleteNice! It's not that common nowadays.
DeleteBeautiful names! I always found it easier to think of girls' names than boys. Probably because, as a speech therapist, I work with lots of little boys, and many names were ruled out because they became too common or reminded me of some little hellion. ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Amanda. I totally get that about coming to dislike names if you associate them with hellions. My brother-in-law (an adaptive PE teacher) felt the same way about their name choices.
DeleteIf Zane has been a girl, his name would have been Kate--maybe Katie.
ReplyDeleteNice! Zane is such an unusual name--traditional but different. I like it!
DeleteThese are lovely, as are your boys names!! Zora in Slovenian means dawn and is a common name.
ReplyDelete