Naming Bryce and Gwen was quite fun and then challenging. My favourite site is the "Baby Name Wizard Voyager". It allows you to see the relative popularity of names dating back to the 1880s, in a super cool interactive display. We also used the babycentre.co.uk site, which has UK name popularity.
Some of the names that one or both of us liked but didn't quite make the cut:
Boy
Matthew - couldn't quite handle the "t" or "w" ending with Orchard
William - didn't want a free willy
Spencer - overplayed in a local Telus ad
Christopher - too long
A little further back:
Logan - name of a co-worker
Aidan - taken by friends
Ansel
Harrison
Hudson
Bennett - taken by friends
Sander
Angus
Liam
Peyton
Ffion - ok, not serious but neat.
Girl
Katherine
Elizabeth
Sofie
Maeve
Olivia
Grace
A little further back
Mackenzie - D just couldn't go for this
Quinn
Charlotte - too webby
Isabel - grandma's name but little too fussy
Abigail
Emma - too trendy
Ella
Claire
Chloe - too trendy
Chloe
Sarah
Bronwen
Imogen - too wierd for Deanna
Niamh - again, not serious but fun
Apple - couldn't come close to doing that!
Comments (4)
Lucy wanted 'Ben' if our first was a boy, until I pointed out the obvious, same goes for 'Neil' :)
Imogen seems to be popular in Blighty currently, but I haven't come across a boy called 'Paul' in years - there were three in my class at school, but then I was born at the height of Beatle-mania.
I like the name 'Aidan', probably because in the NE of England and St Aidan is a local hero, along with King Oswald, Venerable Bede, Hilda, etc.
It's tricky stuff naming, but it's funny how little I think of why we called our kids what we did. After a while their names and themselves somehow become inseparable.
Posted by Paul Downey | November 29, 2005 3:36 AM
Posted on November 29, 2005 03:36
good links...we are in the middle of name shortlists right now. new baby expected in a few weeks. i read your list of lessons learnt so far..and am already acting on them. my parents offered some food for after the birth and i accepted!
Posted by colin a | December 4, 2005 12:49 PM
Posted on December 4, 2005 12:49
Interesting, we actually thought the naming process would be fun, but neither of us actually enjoyed it very much. Invariably, when one of use found a name we liked, the other didn't.
Posted by emd | December 5, 2005 4:05 PM
Posted on December 5, 2005 16:05
Erin, we found ourselves in the same situation. It got pretty stressful after a few days. We were also surprised at how much some people gave us a hard time about it. Seems like something that shouldn't be rushed to us...
Posted by Dave Orchard | December 5, 2005 11:31 PM
Posted on December 5, 2005 23:31