B names for boys and girls

We are expecting our first child, we do not know yet if it is a boy or a girl. My name is Blayne and my husband's name is Blair, and our last name also begins with B, and is long and slightly challenging. I really like that both our our names are somewhat unusual, and since we have all the Bs going on we decided to just go with it and stick with B names. I find that it is a pain that both of our names work for either boys or girls, as people we meet for the first time have a hard time figuring out who is who. So our main qualifications would be that it starts with B, is somewhat unusual, has a masculine or feminine identity, and is something the child won't have to spell every time they meet someone (which I find that i have to do often). The names that we have agreed on so far are Briley and Bryce or Bryson. Beatrice/Beatrix have been firmly shot down. Middle name for a girl will probably be Marie and for a boy either Mathew or Thomas (all family names). What suggestions do you have for us?
Thanks,
Blayne

Hi Blayne! I think I have a good list of names for you with their current ranking on the SSI. Let me know what you think.

Boys:
Barrett (609)
Beckett (480)
Bennett (361)
Benson (n/a)
Braxton (202)
Breckin (n/a)
Brennan (263)
Brooks (601)

Girls:
Belinda (629)
Belle (n/a)
Betsy (n/a)
Bianca (204)
Brenna (420)
Bridget (357)
Brielle (338)
Britta (n/a)

I really like Beckett Mathew, Brennan Thomas, Bianca Marie and Britta Marie. Good luck on your upcoming ultrasound! Keep me posted.

Big News from the Snob

I'm back. Again. Posting at work has become tricky as I've been temporarily moved from my nice, quiet office upstairs to the loud main desk downstairs since we're short a few employees. I'm trying to keep this on the down low--only my boss at work knows as do some of my mama friends. We're surprising our families at Christmas so those of you that know me in real life--hush! Keep it off facebook please.

I ran out of things to pee on.

We went back home in the beginning of October and apparently we had a stow away and I didn't know it. One the drive back I started to think about freaking enormous my tatas were and how I feel crazy bloated, so we stopped at Target and I threw a 3 pack in for fun. I got a BFP at 11 PM that night, CD 27! Eeek! I had my first appointment this past Monday and my eggs must have been itching to get out of there since my ultrasound showed me at 8w 4d and not 8 weeks exactly. They bumped up my due date to June 10. Woot!

The lil' Junebug says hello.

And thank goodness for this blog, I already have all my favorite names in one spot. I know this is nerdy, BUT the Social Security site will have the 2009 names up by May so I can have an even more accurate idea of naming trends and popularity. I am thinking if it's another boy we'll do a more surname-sounding name and if it's a girl, well shoot. Girl names are the best!


No J, C, B or W names though. My husband tattoos our kids' initials on his shoulder and I don't want the same letters over and over.


We still have 11 weeks until we find out! But with Christmas coming up and everything in between, I am hoping it flies by. My semester ends December 7, thank goodness! It's truly amazing how 6.5 hours a week in class manages to utterly destroy any semblance of free time. I can't go to the gym; I have to read for class. I leave work early to get the boys from school/daycare and then somehow make up the time later in the week. I timed this pregnancy perfectly though--I can take the summer off from grad class AND work and just enjoy the sunshine with a new wee tiny baby.

I'm already feeling like I have a pooch--perhaps because it's the third baby in 5 years? I wore maternity pants to work yesterday, which was hilarious. They are so comfortable with the band but they are huge in the butt/thighs so I sagged all day. It's back to the regular pants with a rubber band trick.

An Apology and Irish Names

I have not touched this blog in months. I went to post the link on a board today and freaked out because I thought it had been removed. I couldn't even remember my own link. Fail. As if working full time hadn't been enough of a time sucker, I'm taking 6 graduate credits this semester. I've been slowly but surely working on this MA in English for three years now and I still have at least two years left of part time classes. However, by the end of the semester I shall have an awesome list called Faulkner names since we are reading NINE William Faulkner novels back to back. I really liked Quentin, Cash, Candace/Caddy and Cora (from The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying). It's sad that while I read these novels I make little notes regarding names. Ah hell, I have a paper due Monday. There goes what little weekend I had.

Anyway, I've been playing around with Irish-Celtic names lately and here are some of the more unique but definitely usable ones I've found, along with their SSI ranking.

Cara (463)
Deira (pronounced dare-uh, n/a)
Maeve (638)
Mairead (Maw-reed or may-reed, Gaelic form of Margaret, n/a)
Miren (n/a)
Neala (n/a)
Neave (n/a)

Arden (n/a)
Declan (347)
Desmond (413)
Eamon (n/a)
Finn (368)
Keane (n/a)
Kian (pronounced like Ian, but with a K, 607)
Malachy (n/a)
Quinlan (n/a)
Teague (n/a)
Vaughn (846)

Baby Update!!

Hello Theresa-We had our baby girl June 9th she weighed 6lbs 1oz and was 18.5 inches long. We named her Aleah Kay and just out of curiousty I went back to the blog to see your suggestions. And sure enough Alia was on there. It took a few days but we finally got her named. I was happy to see you did suggest it too. We decided to spell it Aleah, because I found out my mom was going to name me Leah. I guess my daughter was meant to be an Aleah! Thanks for your name help. I also added her picture along too.

Abbey

Congratulations Abbey! I am excited I helped pick a winner. ;) Aleah is beautiful.

Names for baby #3 for Tracy.

Hey Baby name snobs! I think we're getting close to needing that list. Eric and I are already going back and forth with names. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that we are on the same page...again. We, of course, don't know the gender, yet. But, with as long as it takes us to name a child, we better start soon! We tend to like less common names for the middle name. I prefer names that aren't in the top 10 (of course, we didn't plan that well for Olivia...) but we're still open to those, too. Names that end in a "b" sound are kind of hard to say with our last name (i.e. Caleb).

Our other two children's names are

Olivia Breanne

Austin Davis

I tend to like old fashioned names. Here are some names that *I* like:

Charlotte

Amelia

Adeline

Caroline (though this one is edging on too popular for me)

Eva

Emmett

Elliot

Benjamin

Eric tends to like names like:

Micheal

John

Ben (not Benjamin)

Nathan

of course, I can't remember any of the girls names he likes. Most likely, I'm blocking those out.

Can't wait to see what you can come up with!

Tracy


Hey Tracy.
Here are some for you to take a look at. I didnt go into middle names too much just because my list is so big. With you and your husbands taste being quite a bit different it would be cool if you narrowed down what I have here or lemme know if Im on the right track. Then we can go on too middle names. :)

Boys
Andrew
Alexander
Asher
Simon
Julian
Adrian
Carter
Charlie
Oliver
Russell
Henry
Bryce
Wesley

Girls
Louise
Avery
Francis
Abigail
Lillian
Hazel
Evelyn
Camille
Lena
Clara
Lydia

Hope some of these help you guys out!
-Jessica

Name Updates

Camille, who was one of my very first posts, named her sweet little girl. She is due any day now with Elena Lorraine Aerin.

Also Kim, who we did two lists for (one with C/K names, one without) had her baby boy! AND she picked one of my names! Quentin Lee was born 6-22-09 and weighed in at 7lb 5oz 20 in. Congratulations, Kim! I think Quentin goes great with Colin, Claire and Keegan.

My friend Krystal is due any minute and will be naming her babe Dexter. Send her lots of labor vibes!

Ashley picked Ryder for her little boy. Ryder will join siblings Reileigh Marie and Reece Gavin.

Thanks for including me on your path to baby naming. <3

Tara's wee little baby hippie

Tara is one of my Alabama mamas. She has two girls, Trinity and Journey, and she's pregnant with another darlin' girl. Here is her dilemma:

He doesn't like Liberty cause Libby sounds werid (he chuckles every time I say it). But when I said Story he said, "Surprisingly I don't hate it." But he said it doesn't go with Trinity and Journey. We have pretty much agreed that the name will end in the long e sound. We also like Amy's idea of sticking with doubling names (using names that are also words) since we have that so far. Personally I like Stormy. We don't like Harmony, Destiny, Epiphany, Serenity (too much like Trinity), Ivory, Ebony, Ivy, Paisley, Charity, Sidney, Clarity, Marley, there's more but it's early...Anyone have any names that end in the long e sound and double??? The middle name will most likely be Diem.

I suggested

Amory
Cecily
Divinity
Everly
Greylie
Jolie
Kenley
Mercury (I really like Mercy)
Merrily
Novalee
Polly
Roxy
Serendipity (too wild?)
Verity

I personally am opposed to Stormy (as well as Dusty and Misty) as well, I just don't like them at ALL. I like Sunny but Sunny Diem? hehe

It's looking like the front runners are Story, Serendipity, Genesis and Felicity. I like Felicity but it doesn't quite work with Journey and Trinity for me. Of my suggestions I love Merrily (so happy!) and Everly. We need suggestions!

Quite possibly the most detailed email ever, but we like that around here

My husband and I have 3 biological children and are now adopting a fourth child, a baby girl from Ethiopia who we have recently been matched with. We want to keep her Ethiopian name, but since we think it will be a bit hard to carry as she grows up in the States, we will use it as her middle name (sorry…we cannot share it with others). So we are considering names as we hope to bring her home in the next few months. There are several limitations to our search.

First of all, our 3 kids are named Tate, Emma and Jack. We want a name that fits well with their names. We did not intend to have a “theme” in naming our kids, but they each have 4 letters and now it is very important to our kids that their sister has a name with 4 letters in it. It wouldn’t have mattered as much to me, but since we are adopting her, it is a way for her to be part of our family identity. There is flexibility as our daughter is Emma, but we call her Emmie. And our son is called Jack, but his given name is Jackson.

Secondly, the meaning of the name is important to us. We wouldn’t want to have the original meaning of the name being “bratty child who wipes snot on others”, for example. We kind of thinking naming a child is pronouncing a blessing on them and so we want their name to represent something significant. That’s why we would like to keep her Ethiopian name as a middle name.

Third, our oldest has an unusual name. I love it. Had I known that the names Emma and Jack would be EVERYWHERE when I named them, I may have chosen ones slightly more unique. We don’t like strange spellings or names that make you go “huh?”, but I have thought it might be nice if our daughter had a name that every 5th child in her class wasn’t named. As far as the kind of names we like, usually more feminine is better than androgynous. Our other names are kind of cute and preppyish. I prefer short vowels to long ones and nicknames that end in the “y” or “ie” sound for some reason.

Finally, we are white people who will be raising an Ethiopian daughter. We will be a blended family and want to embrace her culture and help her find her place as a part of our family. We still have no idea what that will all look like, but my point is that we don’t want her to have a name that seems decidedly “white” as I think Lily might be. We are proud of her heritage and skin color and don’t want to make her something she is not.

My husband is usually easy going, but Luci is the only name he likes. For some reason, though I like the name more than any others we’ve considered, it doesn’t seem perfect to me. I also like Eden, Eliza (Liza), Aubrie or Cambrie(Brie…who wouldn’t want to be named after cheese?), Tess, Iris, Ivey, Lila, Desi(meaning “desired one”) and Quincy (Quin). But none of those fly with him.

Can you help? I know you can’t help convince my husband to be a little less high-maintenance, but can you offer us any others or offer input on the current choices? Thanks!

Missy,

First off--congratulations on your new daughter!! This must be such a very exciting time in your life. I think adoption is a such a wonderful thing and I think it's great that you are putting so much time and thought into your new child's name.

Secondly, let's talk names. I stuck with shorter names since that made more sense than to look for long names with short nicknames i.e. Samantha 'Sami'. I did put the definition next to them so you wouldn't have to thumb through 30,001 names to look it up. :)

Alia (ascender)
Aria (lion of God)
Cora (maiden)
Dara (compassionate)
Elle (light)
Evie (life)
Gwen (white wave; new moon)
Iola (dawn)
Jane (God is gracious)
June (born in the sixth month)
Kira (light)
Leah (weary) --maybe not the best meaning, but pretty
Lena (illustrious)
Macy (sea of bitterness/it comes from Macia, which comes from Mary)
Nora (light)
Rory (famous brillance)
Rosa (rose)
Ruby (precious stone)
Vera (true)
Wren (songbird)
Zara (dawn)

Any winners? I really like them all, but with Emma, Jack and Tate I think of my names, Alia, Cora and Lena are my favorites. They are short but they sound like full names. Lucia is one of my favorite names right now--Luci for short.

For those of you interested in following Missy's blog and her path to becoming a mother of four, here is the link!

Boy names for Amy

We found out we are having our 2nd boy, figures since I had several good girls names I loved! Anyway, my husband and I are having some trouble agreeing on names, and I just haven't found much that I really like. We don't like really trendy or ordinary names, but we dont' want anything wacky either! Our 17mth old son's name is Bryson middle name Charles-after daddy and gpa, (i wanted Bryce he wanted Mason, so we compromised) anyway, we want something that will sound good with it, but nothing that would be corny he suggested Tyson, umm..Tyson and Bryson, love the name but, no thanks, sounds like rhyming twins names, which i am TOTALLY against being an identical twin myself.

A few of my favorite names currently are Blayne and Brenden, my husband likes Carson and hasn't mentioned much else worth mentioning, he usually just shoots down names I come up with, lol. The middle name will be Edward (family name) if it helps, also our last name sounds like 'moss-man', I know that is a factor when thinking of names. So, thanks so much for any help you can give me, we need it! :)

Hi Amy,

Bryson is currently 178 on the SS list so other names that are similar in popularity are Garrett, Miles, Hudson and Leo. Brendan is right there too.

I do NOT recommend Tyson, lol. Tell your husband that I said no way. You could do something like Tyler but otherwise it's just too rhymey.

I like Blayne a lot and Blayne Edward has a nice ring. What about Blaze? Blake?

Brendan is one of my brother's names so I am partial. I also like Brennan.

Carson is definitely climbing up the charts at record speed, in the '90s it was 282 and it's currently at 89. I like the 'son' names better than the 'aden' names so that's good news to me. ;)

Other 'son' names I like are Dawson, Samson (Sam) and Wilson. Do you call Bryson Bryse?

Hopefully that gave you more ideas! You were headed in the right direction, we just need to get your husband to agree. :)

Shannon's baby girl's names

Shannon is in the home stretch and is due in just a few weeks. She and her husband like names like Sophia, Caroline, Emma, Camille, Claire, Isabella and Olivia. Jane may be a middle name option--and Stella is also a contender for the first name as it is a beloved family's members name. Because they have a difficult last name, they want something that is easy to spell and pronounce.

I picked names that are very feminine and just a titch more uncommon but are inspired by the names you like.

Sophia---Lucia
Caroline--Georgia
Emma--Emery (nickname Emmie)
Isabella--Isla (pronounced eye-la)
Olivia--Violet
Claire--Clara
Camille--Elise

What about Estella/Estelle/Stellan for a middle name in honor of your grandmother?
Of your name choices, I like Sophia Jane, Stella Claire and Olivia Jane a lot.

Of my options, my favorites are Lucia Jane, Violet Jane and Stella Elise.

Is anything jumping out at you? Good luck! Please keep me updated. <3

sorry for the delay, folks

Hi guys! Sorry my posting has been pretty sparce--I started a new job about a month ago so right now I am learning how to balance working 40 hours a week (which in the car industry, they refer to as part time--nice, eh?), erratic babysitters, housework, etc. I also was pretty burned out by the whole April Rose nonsense. If you don't know what I'm talking about google April Rose, Beccah, Trisomy and Illinois and you can read the sorid details. This was my first 'wtf' in the blog world. I never realized that so many people on blogspot were connected and worked together. I also never realized that you could make up to $50k a month. I know this is very, very uncommon but I've pretty much decided to stick to babynames. I am over kid pimping (see: Jon and Kate plus 8).

Back to your regularly scheduled (happy) blogging!

Kim's List, take two

Ugh- We are still trying to figure out names...Husband really doesn't like Cal and I really don't like his number one pick Liam. Any suggestions? Tyler Lee (middle name of my brother and father) T___ sounds awfully cute to me but it doesn't go with our unintentional "c" or "k" name choices for the sibset. But your recent blog about matching sibling names together has allowed me to be a bit more open. It had some good points!

What do you think of Carter Elias/or/Carter Elliott??? Thanks again for your help! I check every day now for updates on your blog! Like Cameron and Camden but not sure of middle names. I like your suggestions but we haven't agreed on any of them. I really like Keifer, Kenley (old boyfriend named ken so that is out ) hubby doesn't like them either...

Where does Carter rank? I tried to figure it out on the website but didn't.
(P.S. Thanks again for any help... we are running out of time and the drs say i should go any day- already dialated to 3!!!
I had the girl name all picked out...Keira Ann... but this is def a boy to be here soon.)


Hi Kim! A brief summary for the readers: Kim's other children are Colin, Claire and Keegan. She wrote in a few months ago looking for a K or C name.

Alright, let's get to work. Carter is 65 on the SSA list. I'm not a superfan of Liam either. Tyler is definitely a little more trendy while Colin/Claire/Keegan are of an Irish/Celtic background. But if you love it, do it. I like Carter Elias.

Since you are open to breaking away from the C/K, let's throw some new names out there.

Ambrose
Beckett
Chandler
Connor
Duncan
Dylan
Finn
Henry
James/Jameson
Lewis
Malcolm
Oliver
Pierce
Quentin
Rory
Sean

Names for our friend Jackie!

Hi girls!!

I've talked to Jessica about names and hoping you can compile a list for me??? Pretty puhlease??!!!

Here's some information... if you have time, let me know what you girls can come up with!!

Likes & Dislikes:
-I like traditional names, but not overly traditional and about every traditional boy name out there has been used in our family.
-I don’t mind popular names, but not really popular names since I already have an Aidan.
-I also don’t like really weird, unusual names.
-I don’t like weird spellings of any kind.
-I don’t like weird celebrity names like Apple & Moses.
-I like really girly names.
-Not really a fan of Mc girl names.
-Boy names for girls don’t bother me, but it’s really not what I’m digging right now.
-Also, I’d like a name that doesn’t necessarily stand out and goes okay with Aidan & Cameron….doesn’t have to be Irish though.

Thanks girls! And I love ya!
Jackie.

Jackie!!
So Ive been working on this on and off for awhile now. And really I was hoping Id have more then I do at this point. But I really just want to get my suggestions out and over to ya so I can get more of a idea if Im on the right path. :)

So for girls names I have:
Camilla (been suggesting this one a lot lately. I LOVE it and its #634 on the SSI website what a wonderful yet totally accessible name!)
Maura
Julianne
Courtney
Rory
Cora
Charlotte

And Im almost tempted to say Kirsten hehehe. (as in Kirsten Dunst because our friend Jackie looks a lot like this gorgeous actress)


Boys:
Beckett
Cullen
Everett
Ewan

Hopefully T will add to this list soon! your due date is quickly approaching! Eeeee! so exciting! I cant wait to find out what your having!

xoxo-JJ

I know we have readers

I know people read this blog, I have a handy little tracker on the side that shows me where people are reading it come from. If you were to look at our comments you wouldn't think that people are submitting requests or reading. But they are out there! Not surprisingly, many readers hail from Michigan (our home state!), some dally in from Florida and Alabama, mostly friends I've made as we moved around the country but there are a lot of baby namers in Minnesota, Ohio and even the UK that read this blog. Come out come out where ever you are. ;) There is another name blogger out there, her name may rhyme with Whistle, and DANG does she ever get a lot of comments. I don't even think her name suggestions are that great. But then again I'm totally a snob and a little bitchy depending on the day so it might just be me. I still like that Laura Wattenburg though.

Even if you don't like the suggestions, or think that Madison is the best name EVER, we still want to hear from you. We need validation from the internets. Jessica is a half step from emailing ya'll personally and asking what you thought about the names. It's just that oftentimes we spend a decent amount of time brainstorming (that list of East Indian inspired names took hours, literally) and we want some love. We're not too proud to beg.

At least tell me what your kids' names are. We might steal them for our cool name vault.

Peace!

Girl names for Robyn.

Hello Baby Name Snob!

My husband and I are expecting our first child.. We don't know what we are having yet but are having a hard time coming up with girls names. If it's a boy we will name his Austin Brady.

Right now Mackenzie is leading the pack but we are not 100% sold on it. We also like Hailey, Alexis and Kendell. Our last name is C***** and the middle name will be Ann. Would prefer a not too trendy name (which is why we are not sold on the ones I mentioned).

Thanks for your help!

Hi Robyn.
So Im thinking how about a variation of Mackenzie? if your thinking you would like to head away from overly trendy I think Kinzie is a super cute name that is still pretty close to the sound of the original front runner.
and here is a list of some others that I think are up your alley yet still not too overly used.

Keely
Brinley
Evelyn and very cute nickname 'Evie'.
Charlotte
Macy
Avery
Margaret nickname- Maggie.
Camilla
Felicity

Retro but unique for Jennifer

I found you on the nest. :) I thought it would be fun to toss our names around with you and see what your thoughts and suggestions might be.It's very possible we are having a girl but it was our unofficial ultrasound and they didn't want to give us false hope. So I am still throwing bothboy and girl names around to be certain. Our last name sounds like Ree - See- Me - Us. Our first son is Broderic Scott.

I am like many of your readers. I like retro names, our names that sound like names but are still unique.So for girls we have Selah as our leading name. (SAY-LAH). We are throwing around Ashlyn, Rose, or Ann for middle names. Ashlyn is to honora family member. Other girls names are Daphine, Calista (Callie), Maggie, and Stella.We definately like names with nicknames and that is my struggle sometimes, if I can't get a nick name out of it I go a bit buggy. With Selah we were thinking of calling her Seely.

Boys are interesting. One of our favorite names is Bennett. :) However, my husband and I recently thought of the name Thorsen and we would call him Thor. We were made fun of a little bit. I am wondering what you think, is it to over the top?? We also like Quinton (Quinn), Byron, Larson, and you suggested to someone else the name Blaise... how do you pronounce that? For middle names I would like to use Donald or Robert and that makes it quite a mouthful with our last name. This is one of my setbacks with Bennett, as you can imagine Bennett Robert R_ is a little long.Well, that's it for me. Looking forward to hearing back from you,

Jennifer

Hi Jennifer! I like your style. Selah is a very cool name, it may have some issues as far as pronounciation. I love your girl names. Stella and Calista are beautiful names with cute nicknames. Selah Rose is very feminine and pretty. For Maggie, what about Magdalena for the first name? Following your vibe I also like

Cora Ann
Evangeline Rose
Lydia Ann
Viola Rose

Well Bennett is a great name. ;) Thor may be a little over the top, with the namesake being the God of Thunder or whatnot. But if you love it, use it! Of your names I like Quinton/Quinn a lot followed by Blaise. You pronounce it like 'blaze' but that's the French spelling. I think the name list it was on was for someone that wanted more European style names. Legend has it that my name was going to be Blaze if I were a boy, but I find that hard to believe since my mom named her sons with traditional names like Shaun, Ryan and Garrett.

Quinton Robert has a nice ring. Do you have a nickname for your oldest? Broderic is a good one, I may have to steal it for my blog. Some random other fun names to think about:

Dashiell (Dash) Robert
Finnian (Finn) Donald
Lennon Robert
Wilson (Will) Robert

Keep me updated! Happy naming.

I'll have a western-world boy's names with an East Indian twist please!

Hi there,

I came across your blog and thought it was terrific. I did a few searches on your blog but could not find this topic.

My wife Pooja and I are about to have our first child. We chose not to find out the gender. I am Indian Catholic and she is Indian Hindu. In my family, we have always had Christian names and vice versa for Pooja. Choosing a name that is appealing to both of our sides is proving to be a tough compromise.

Our ideal is a name that is not too Indian for our western world, yet not too western for her East Indian culture. We were able to get a handful of girl’s names that made us happy, however, we are severely stuck on the boy’s names and there’s less than 3 weeks to go!

HELP!!! Thanks in advance for any advice,

Ian & Pooja

The title of your email made me laugh out loud. Since you are due to meet your little person so soon, I bumped you up in queue. Since you already have some girl names picked out (which I'd love to hear, if you didn't mind sharing), I focused only on boy names. I used a plain old 60,000 baby names book and went through it alphabetically, looking for names that worked phonetically for westerners but also had a neat east Indian meaning. The names are Sanskrit (S), Hindi (H), Indian (I) and Punjabi (P). I'm also including their homophones or not quite homophones for your reading pleasure. Here we go.

Alok (S) victorious cry; Alec
Ashwin (H) first; Asher, Ashton
Brahm (H) creator; Bram
Dandin (H) holy man; Daniel
Deven (H) for god; Devin, Devan
Kavi (H) poet; Kavin
Kiran (S) beam of light
Malik (P) lord; Malachi
Rohan (H) sandalwood; Ronan
Sam (short for Sameen, Sambha, Samuel)
Sandeep (P) enlightened; Sander
Shyam (I) dark; Shia
Sunder (I) handsom;, Xander, Sander
Tanvir (I) strong; Tanner
Valin (H) from Balin/mighty soldier

Of these names, my favorites are Ashwin, Deven and Rohan. I think they are easily pronouncable but unique and ethnic. We have a friend named Vijay but my son writes his name as "VJ" and I can't convince him otherwise. I've always loved the name Sachin (Sach) since college when I had a good friend by that name. Good luck choosing the perfect name for your babe. Please keep me updated!

quick personal post

Hi friends!

I want to apologize for the delay in the posting, I promise to finish answering the few emails I have in my inbox as soon as I can. I just got back from a long weekend in Colorado with my college girlfriends and I'm wiped! We only get to see eachother every few years so when we do make it (or most of us) there is very little sleeping involved. Since this is a name blog, I'll give you their names since a) they have cool names b) it's fun to see where we've all ended up.

Jane--blonde, modern with a twist from Michigan, aunt to twins Jack and Nora

Margo--tiny, gorgeous Korean living in Denver, maternal and organized

Kari--semi-hippie with a love of fashion living in the mountains in CO

Kelly--our marathon runner with a heart of gold (and Greek alter ego Kelitis) in Denver

Gretchen--hilarious San Diego dweller that uses expressions that are not appropriate for this blog but freaking hysterical.

Brooke--my Floridian piece of sunshine, the happy go lucky mama of the often talked about Cleo (she's in the pic, taken in Grand Lake)

and we greatly missed Frances Tania Ramos (two more last names), our Filipina bundle of love, living in the Chicago 'burbs.

Also, I need to say that in my excitement I may have screwed up medication that, ahh, keeps my uterus egg-free. And those few days enough hormone escaped for me to think "Ah, screw it...what's the worst that could happen? You'd be due in February..." EEEK. Talk me off the ledge. I'm supposed to be starting grad classes (again) in the fall and working at my husband's store since the boys are big (4 and 2) and in preschool. Yet here I am debating bringing up the "let's just see what happens" subject with the husband. Exhibit 1: James Ciaran.

Talk me off the ledge. Or. Talk me into a baby with a really cool name.....LOL

an AJ for Laura

Hi, I got your blog site from a friend of mine, that I met through a parenting forum. I am currently pregnant with my second child, due end of November, begining of December. I don't know what I am having yet. but I would like to have a name picked out for when I do find out. Me and my husband have a couple of names we kinda like but don't LOVE....

Our son's name is Alan Joesph Jr... so he and his dad share a name. I would like to have a name that has the A and J in it. so far we have Aaden for a boy, and maybe Alexis for a girl... I really would like John for a boy middle name after my grandfather....I would really love it if you could help.

Thanks! Laura

Hi Laura,

Right off the bat I veto the spelling of Aaden, it is just too Gosselin-y to me. If you really love the name (and Aidan John has a nice ring) I'd go with the Aidan/Aiden spelling. For boys I picked out some cool A names for you

Adrian
Aiken
Amos
Anderson
Andrew
Anthony
Archie (Archer)
Arlo
Auden

and they all sound good with John. Arlo John is my favorite of the group.

Here are my AJ names for girls.

Adriana Jade
Amara Joy
Amelia Jane
Anabelle Juliet
Annalise Jane
April Jolie
Arella June
Ariel Joy
Audrey Jane

I think Jane is a spunky middle name that works with almost any name. Also it's the feminine version of John so it still is a tribute to your grandfather.

Happy naming!

Ashley's List

Baby is still "John Doe D." as we call him, lol. He's nameless and will most likely remain nameless until he is born since mom and dad DO.NOT.AGREE on names at all. Any suggestions? I'll give you the names he refuses to let me name him... Nolan James, Charlie, Zachary James, Ethan James. I could go on and on and on....

His favorite names are:Micheal, Dalton and Grant Jordan.

The names we semi agree on: Christopher Joseph III and calling him Trey (This is pretty much our back up plan, He always wanted a III, Im not a huge fan of having a III but naming him Trey is better.) Trey is a common name for 3rd child in generations that's named as a III. Jack (We both like this name but not in love with it)So feel free to give suggestions, we both are not in love with trendy common names such as Holden, Carter, Conner, Aiden type names. They are all WAY too popular right now and I had a popular name growing up and hated it. (P.S, I have NOTHING agaisnt these names) We like classic, solid names more so in top 100-200 lists. If this boy turns out to be anything like his father, tall and huge with size 18 foot, he can't have a wussy or trendy name. It.Just.Wont.Fit. Let me know if you can help,
Thank You, Ashley

I feel your pain in regards to the III. My husband is a Jr but technically the third Donald in his family. Just the other day we were driving and he blurted out "If we have another boy can we name him Donald?!" We ended up with James because it's my husband's middle name and that was as far as I was willing to budge. At least Christopher isn't an awful name like Donald. I love my husband but I refuse to call any child Donny. With Bennett we were literally arguing while I was on the table (c/s) over his middle name, he wanted Donald and I wanted Jude. I won.

So I racked my brain and looked through the books to find names that were masculine and suitable for a very large man. hehe!

Abram (Abe)
Austin
Ben (Benjamin, Bennett, Benson)
Cade
Calvin (Cal)
Clayton
Jackson
Jake
Miles
Nicholas
Samson/Samuel (Sam)
William/Wilson (Will)
Weston (Wes)
Wyatt

Any winners? I think most of them would work well with a middle name of Christopher, Joseph or James. I like Austin Joseph, Miles Christopher and Weston James. Nothing wussy about them.

Special thanks to Jessica W for her input on non-sissy names. :)