When I was pregnant, a friend asked what I thought of the name Mabel.Turned out it was her mom’s name, so I’m really glad I didn’t say I wasn’t wild about it. I think she was trying to embarrass me or something.
These days, I love the name Mabel. I’m a big fan of retro names, including Esther, Matilda, and Gertrude. Esti, Tilly and Gerty are cute! Edna and Bertha, probably not. I actually know a Hilda, a Milly, and a Nellie, all of which I love.
I’m sorry to say that some people have probably named their pet one of my kid’s names🐶
Alternative spellings are cool, within reason. I’d probably draw the line at Johnathaughan.
As for unpronounceable names, I was thinking along the lines of names you can’t wrap your mind around when someone says them. Like St. John, or Hermione, or Neveah. Maybe it’s because when I hear someone’s name, I try visualize it. So for St. John (a posh English name), visualizing Sinjin just seems too weird.
I’m not a super fan of tv show or movie inspired names. But of course, you just have to smile and nod.
@Leigh22 a friend’s sister was named by her dad as he went to file the birth certificate with the registrar. Her parents had decided to name her Natalie. But out of nowhere, the dad just thought Carol was better and that was what the birth certificate ended up saying. I think the mom was really hacked off.
I’ve always thought my first name sounded pretentious and have used the short form of it all my life. Only nuns and my mother (when she was angry) used my full first name.
I grew up with an impossible Czech last name, so it was important to me that my first name be common and simple.
I’d probably go with Trudy for the Gertrude nickname myself.
I have known kids my kids’ ages named Matilda and Mabel and Tallulah and Josephine (Josie). No Bertha’s yet. My nephew is married to an Estelle. I think I have heard of some little Louises, too.
I like the common Welsh spelling of Alice as Alys.
I hate to admit it, but years before there was even a thought of naming a little girl Kaylee, I read a book that talked about a Ceilidh (a Scottish or Irish celebration) and was determined to name my daughter (if I had one) that with the traditional spelling.
Then, by the time I did have a daughter, there were a million Kaylees (with various spellings except for mine) in the US. So, sadly I named her something else. Probably for the best, she might have hated me for it.
My dad’s mom was Lily Gertrude, went by Gertie. Mom’s mom was LaFon Elisabeth – have no idea how they came up with that. The only LaFon I know of was Al Gore’s late sister, and my GM predated her. I’ve seen it occasionally as a last name. I liked Elisabeth – H wanted Lisa, I liked Beth, would have happily combined them into one.
My mom said I wasn’t named for anyone in the family – but darned if I didn’t find there were THREE people with the same name on her side of the family! I like their spellings better than mine. I’ve used a nickname as long as I can remember, and changed the spelling of it (using -i instead of -ie) in kindergarten.
My niece-in-law expecting the 4th boy has bought a bunch of onesies with the new baby’s name. There are several MLB players with this name, so she has a onesie for each one!
My maternal grandma was named Rosabelle Laura, her siblings Marguerite, Evelyn, Clifford, Everett, Lena, and Nadine. I loved all those names, but she named my mother Dolores (“many sorrows”). I’ve never cared for that name. My mom never used a nickname. I don’t think it fits her.
D1 is a kindergarten teacher so she see all of the new names. When I was helping her put name tags on cubbies a few years ago at the start of the school year she had a Khaleesi. My remark to D1 was “Game of Thrones is old enough for kindergarten now!”
My mom is the 5th of 8 children and was born at home, but my grandmother had to go to the hospital after having her. My mom was born on Grandma’s friend’s birthday and so she was to be named Fannie after the friend. Luckily my Grandma met a nice nurse at the hospital named Barbara so that is my mom’s name. I was born on my mom’s birthday and she always joked that my name would have been Fannie if that had been her name!
I’ve always thought it very unfair that I got the boring name and my sister got the good name. Maybe I should jazz up the spelling of my name to make it more interesting.
In my childrens’ generation across our family, we have four U.S. President names - Grant, Carter, Jackson and Truman. Just a coincidence! Kind of fun. Edited to add - none of these was actually named after any president!
Let’s see… we have a grandkid named after a cartoon character, another - after a SCOTUS justice, and another has a name straight outta Bible. None of that was intended. The parents just liked the names.
Linda became very popular in the late 1940s. One reason was the popularity of the song Linda.
Jack Lawrence wrote it. Sometimes when Lawrence met with his attorney Lee Eastman, Eastman would bring his toddler daughter with him. Lawrence was absolutely smitten by the little girl who was a cute little perky blonde who was very outgoing. In 1942, he wrote a song about the one year old Linda Eastman… However, Lawrence then went into the service and didn’t immediately publish the song. He did so after World War 2 ended and it became a huge hit, recorded by several different groups.Suddenly, Linda became a popular name.
And Linda Eastman grew up and married Paul McCartney.
But not as cool as me. Going forward, I will be known as Llypndaugh. Kidding aside, the evolution of baby names is really interesting. Anyone know any women or girls called Dorcas? Apparently it’s Greek for Tabitha.
Looking at genealogy Dorothea was a family name for several generations, I used a bunch of family names for my kids, but not that one. My name was the name my mom had in the convent. As a baby, she had almost the same name as my grandmother, went by a nickname that was longer than her name (her mom wanted to call her by the nickname but it wasn’t a saints name so couldn’t be official) went back to her original name because my dad didn’t like the nickname she used since birth. Named my youngest daughter after my grandmother, though it was a little different, turn out my grandmother hated the name I named my daughter so she changed it during a census in her 20’s or 30’s (saw the records), no one ever knew until I mentioned the name to her “that’s a horrible name, that’s why I changed it.” Her death certificate had her changed name on it, but I doubt she went through the trouble of doing a legal change.
