Baby Name Poll Results

I really think the best names are the ones that are:
1) Not overly used - stay away from the top 50 or top 100 names for your area
2) Easy to pronounce and spell
3) Aren’t overly tacky or trendy and will age well

There are many names out there that fit into these criteria... many. As far as middle names go, I personally like to honor important family members with them. First names I feel should be unique to the family.

Most of the time I tend to stay away from family names just because most of them are waaaaaay too old for my taste. I tend to like more common and modern/trendy names but I absolutely hate overused names like ones that have been in the top 5 for years and even the new ones (Emily, Ava, Olivia, Aiden, Jacob). I like uncommon names but a lot of them I don’t think I could ever have the guts to use and some of them are just really far put there. Most of my favorite girl names (I don’t have kids) are in the top 100 but I don’t feel are overused and most of my boy names are old last names and are very trendy.

For me, I just was in love with the name Isaiah. So, that is the name we chose for our first child together. For our second child, another boy, we kind of started a theme, cause we thought that since Isaiah was so obviously biblical, that his brother should have the same, so with lots of thought and debate, we chose Elijah. For our third child together, we really loved Lily and Hannah. Lily being the biblical flower, and Hannah, well, is just a fantastic woman biblically, and I really loved her name!! Well, in the end, I ended up having a dream about the name Grace. So, that is what we named our third child, first daughter. I am currently pregnant, too early to find out gender yet, but this baby will be either Hannah or Daniel. I personally don’t like to use family members names, no matter who it is, cause I feel the child needs his or hers own name, cause they are their own individual. So, in the end, I like themed names for sib sets, I think that is super cute. GL!!

I just look through names until I find ones I like. Then I look at meanings. Some I won’t use because of meanings. Then I run them past my hubby who nixes at least 2/3 of them. Then I match them with family names for the middle name. Or, if I like the family name enough to use as a first name, I match the ones I just like as middle names.

I try to stay away from ones that are too popular. I love Sophia and Aidan, but they’ve gotten way to popular for me to be comfortable using them.

On the other hand, they can’t be so uncommon that people can’t pronounce or spell them. I love Sorcha, but it’s pretty out there so it’s not getting used either.

It depends on the circumstances. We usually pick names we like and add a family name. But my husband’s cousin just died and my husband is massively torn up about it. He’s hinted about naming the baby after his cousin and I’m seriously thinking about it. At the very least, it will be the middle name. So sometimes things happen to alter how you were planning to proceed with the naming.

I personally look for names nowhere near the top 200 and that are gender appropriate for first name and then I give a more common middle name that I love and another middle name that is another uncommon variant of someone we want to honor. I would never touch anything popular or mispelt or new age unisex.