Just curious because of the other thread about someone American wanting to use names from different languages where they have some distant ancestry.

What do you hear and think “American.”

The overall opinion on reddit seems to be anti "hippie" or "made up" names. Think plants, places, words, themes etc. I'm 26 and I have a "hippie" name. Nobody in my city has my name. I actually know the a girl in the city an hour away has my name because its so rare that I've been told. These aren't small cities. I think mine is maybe 500,000 people? Other one is over a million.

I LOVE my name. I have always loved my name. I remember always being thankful I didn't have a regular name. Nobody ever had to use my last name so people would know who they were talking about which in high school made me feel so cool. I get a ton of compliments on my name and I get to talk about my parents when people ask about it. I'm proud to introduce myself.

I had a best friend named after a pepper because her dad grew peppers and she also loved it. We're adults now, we still love our names. I have 2 friends with regular names that had unique names on their short lists and both wish they had been named the unique names. The obsession with "applying for jobs" is really odd to me. I've never had a problem and Im sure in 20 years problems would be even more rare. Who is reading a name and judging the candidate based on that other than maybe a racist?

This conversation has also always been super confusing to me because all names were never names until they became names. what makes Rose, Lily, Azalea all normal names but Zinnia, Lilac and Tansy hippie names? All are flowers.

I have my own personal opinions about name trends that I just think are stupid, like im sure everyone does. What gets me is the way certain names are talked about like its a moral failing to name your kid that and that the kid will hate it. Why would a kid hate a unique, cool name? I love my name. I wonder if the people saying the kid will hate it or won't find a job have a unique name themselves, because it sounds like they are just assuming.

Expecting my second and stumped when it comes to boy names, I want something relatively unique but not a tragedeigh and I’ve always liked the name Soren, it’s Scandinavian and means “stern” or “serious”
My husband has Scandinavian ancestry so I thought it would be nice to have a name that reflects that.

If it’s a girl I want to name her Aoife, which I hope wouldn’t be a pronunciation nightmare for her (we live in the US)
Edit: Aoife is pronounced “ee-fuh” which is why I would be worried not many people would be able to pronounce it correctly in the US
Edit 2: I really appreciate everyone’s perspective and education on this!! I don’t know why but boy names have been hard to decide for me.
Edit 3: I apologize if I don’t reply to all the comments but yes we DO have strong ties to Ireland, I WOULD pronounce Soren correctly, my name is very simple and is also mispronounced so that isnt a complete deal breaker for the name Aoife, they would have simpler family names for middle names and if they chose to go by those I wouldn’t mind at all. Thank you to those who are being so kind and positive and to those who aren’t - I’m going to choose what I want regardless but I always appreciate the education that people from other countries can offer! :) I hope everyone has a lovely day!

Soooo many girl names end in -a and I’m looking for more variety. I love names that hit that sweet spot of unique but familiar

My husband and I are due with our first baby and we need help with a girl name! We are a Swedish American couple so names must work in both. I generally love vintage names that are not fussy and have a nice rhythm to them.

Some examples:

Iris Elizabeth
Eleanor June

Other names I like: Josefine, Beatrice (husband doesn’t like this one), Vera, Esther (Estie), Margaret

Eleanor and Elizabeth are both family names. It would be sweet to use one but not a dealbreaker.

Please share all your vintage name inspo! 💗

So I’m a girl named Lazer, but I go by Laz. I personally love my name and how I’ve never met another person with it. I do get concerned looks at school sometimes, especially when there’s a substitute and they’re doing attendance. People often tell me that it’s a “boy name”. What do you guys think?

Bennett is my maiden name. My dad passed 10 yrs ago this march.

But I didn’t change my last name when we got married. Neither did my sister and we both love still having the family name and tie to dad <3 But baby will take my husbands last. And for Christmas cards and return address etc. we’ll go by the ______’s as a family unit.

My husband loves Bennett for a baby girl. And call her Bennie.

I love it too but I’m just hung up on it being confusing if my legal last name is still and also Bennett.

Pickups from school? Doctor’s Apt’s? Could this be an issue like hi I’m Mrs. Bennett here to pick up Bennett. Or do I just in those scenarios go by my husband and kids last name??

The other name we are loving is Remi.

No lore, explanation or hesitation with Remi. Honestly surprised my husband likes Bennie more than Remi… thoughts?!!! And June will be middle for either option.

ive been debating between cecilia, lydia or irene for a character but im leaning more towards lydia and irene but i cant really choose between them

the characters last name is Lim! korean descent ^^
(also other name suggestions are always welcome)

I've always wondered this: for a long, long time, it's been perfectly OK to name a girl a traditionally masculine name. In fact, there are a host of names that are considered girls' names that started out as boys' names: Carol, Leslie, Lauren, Taylor, and many others. It's considered edgy and cool now. Yet somehow no matter how progressive they are, those same parents don't think it edgy or cool to name a boy a traditionally feminine name. like Sophia or Olivia or Daisy.

Why is that?

I had a really hard time picking a name for my beautiful baby girl- I stalked this page relentlessly for ideas and eventually settled on Ava as my husband loved it and it’s been on my list for years.

Now I feel slightly regretful that I didn’t name her Lila. Maybe because Ava is so popular / feels slightly overdone? Or because people tend to give sweet “awws” to the name Lila and not so much to the name Ava given its level of saturation.

I ended up with Ava as it felt it would age better on an adult but will I always look at her and think “Lila”? Parents who have experienced something similar would love to hear from you.

Let’s say the last name is Smith

My name is saori and I always hated it, I just think it sounds so weird and unpretty, I really never liked it but i always thought that I could do nothing with that, we don’t choose our name.

That’s a japanese name if you wanna know and im not japanese at all, and that’s even weirder cause I’ve already got different origins and I never really knew how to fit with all of those.

So I’m 19yo, almost 20, and I recently started to think about maybe changing my name for naomi, I really like it and prefere it over saori. I started to use it with strangers as well and I love that. I know it’s also a japanese name and its really close to saori, but thats why I wanna choose it. It’s feel different enough but not THAT different, and I really feel that naomi is me if you know what I mean.

But I really unsure about my loved ones, especially my family members like my mother who really love my name. If it can be easier for them I could accept that they use my old name, even if I would prefere my new one. But my mother is a bit closed minded and she will definitely not like this. And the rest of my family will also find it really strange im sure.

And even if I would like to move to the uk in comings years, in my country it’s a bit harder to change a name if you’re not transgender, or for another good justifiable reason.

I really don’t want to spend the rest of my life tensing up everytime I heard my name, it started to feel really too much recently.

If you have any advices or opinions I’m open!!
(Sorry for the spelling mistakes, I’m not a native speaker)

I feel like I’m losing my absolute mind and my pregnancy hormones are definitely not helping, but I desperately need a reality check.

I’m 26 weeks along with our first baby, a girl. My husband’s grandmother passed away last year, and she was admittedly a wonderful woman who practically raised him. Her legal name was Bertha. For the past two months, my husband and his mother have been relentlessly insisting that we have to name our daughter Bertha to "carry on the legacy."

I told them very gently from day one that I think giving a child born in this generation that first name is basically handing her a lifetime of schoolyard bullying. I offered to use it as a middle name, or find a modern variation like Birdie or Beatrice, but they treated that like a slap in the face.

last night at Sunday dinner, my MIL literally started crying, saying I’m "erasing his grandmother's memory" and my husband went completely quiet instead of backing me up. He told me on the drive home that I’m being shallow and that "names grow on people."

am I genuinely being a horrible person for putting my foot down on this? I dont want our kid to spend her whole childhood hating her legal name.

so i am very stubborn and i like that! i took a new last name for myself that i really like last year (complicated story why) and i feel like ive entered a new chapter in my life - recreated myself! now i plan to get married sometime soon but my bf would like me to get his last name which would sound funny with my first name.. and maybe its vain but idc, its my name. he is not happy with a joint name and doesnt want a new one. its a hill im willing to die on. help!

Any boy's names with Co in it? Because I'd lile to have his nickname "Co" (read: Co like in coconut).

Colin? Colby? Jacob? I love Constantine but too long for first name.

It doesn't matter English, French, Greek, etc.

TIA!

Thoughts on Beau (for a boy!) .

I like Beau / Bo but won’t be using it because my partner is from an area where everyone calls B.O (body odour) “bow”. So the same as Beau lol. Now that I live here with him I hear the word a lot (like “he smells like bo” etc)

Just wanted some other thoughts on the name tho!Little sad I’m not able to use it.

Was for sure wanting a Dalton but when I got pregnant I started to like Levi a lot!! Idk!

Last name is hyphenated short Vietnamese last name and short Korean last name. Both are common and start with P.

Aurora Wren

Eleanor Blake

Roseanne Jae

Korean name is Sayeon, Vietnamese name is Lien (but neither will be on official birth certificates or used often)

So i’m planning on changing my name, i’ve been going by new name for 4 years now so socially everyone calls me that (aside from my dad who kinda just doesn’t say my name anymore and has said he’ll call me it once it’s legally changed). we didn’t have the money to change it when i was younger but i’m 18 now so 1 i don’t need anyone to sign off and 2 i have the money now. i have a trip to japan next year and i haven’t had an in date passport since 2014 i think so i don’t wanna renew a passport just to change my name after so wanna get it done now. i’m just trying to figure out everywhere im gonna have to go in and change my name, it feels like there’s so many random places im gonna end up forgetting about and then only realise when i need to access such places and have a whole faff with the name change

I’m looking for name ideas for baby girl #2, who is due in December! Her big sister’s name is Kendall, and I’d love to find a name that sounds good alongside it.
Please share your favorite girl names, especially ones that you think pair well with Kendall! I’m open to all styles and would love some inspiration.

There's this guy in one of my classes named Storm; I think it's so freaking cool and I've never heard of it before

How common is it?

So this probably seems random but I’m looking for 4 letter names that start a consonant then vowel then consonant then vowel… like Tori, Lisa, Lucy, etc. Looking for boy and girl names. Thank you!

I’m expecting boy / girl twins. Looking for vintage girl names that go with Archer. I don’t want two A names. I dreamt of a girl named Evaline, and was wondering what you all thought of that, or similar names that ARE NOT Evelyn, Adeline, Amelia, or anything like that. Evaline seems vintage enough, and I could call her Eva or Evie. Her middle name is going to be Jade.

ALSO looking for boy middle names for Archer. Thanks!

Barrett
Abbott
Abel
Iver

Love the nn Bear/Abe

My other two have names that start with A