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Naming Your Child
- Thread starter Huntn
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That's an excellent suggestion.
I think the best first names are ones that aren't extremely common (because then the kid will encounter too many others with the same name) but at the same time are not very unusual or unique. Studies have found that teachers give better grades to identical papers written by a student with a fairly common name than to one with a name they haven't encountered before. Other people have that bias too.
Consider both the name you put on the birth certificate and any short version or nickname that you're likely to use.
Names that are easy to pronounce in your culture are very helpful too. In the same vein, names that are easy to spell when you hear them are beneficial. Spending all your time correcting people's assumed pronunciation or spelling is an unnecessary burden for a kid.
Avoid awkward initials, with and without the middle initial included.
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My name is very easy to spell. It's only four letters. It is, E-r-i-k. Erik.
Yet people still manage to consistently screw it up every time with every combination of letters you can think of. People make assumptions and 9 times out of 10 they are wrong. It's rare when I am actually asked how it's properly spelled. You get used to stating your name and adding "With a 'k'".
So being easy to spell is not necessarily a guarantee that the name will be spelled right.
I imagine that even those out there named Eric might agree.
If I did not know you and was going to write your name down I’d ask if that was with a “c“or a “k”.
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The one that is funny is my last name. I tell people my last name and most of the time I am asked to spell it. I spell it and the common response is "Oh, just like it sounds!"If I did not know you and was going to write your name down I’d ask if that I with a c or a k.
Right. So why did you ask me to spell it?!!!!
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My impression was that in Scandinavia historical naming traditions were to add “son” to the fathers name. I worked with a guy from Norway who said it made genealogy research a nightmare, but it also seems that you could not keep adding son, to each next generation, so I assume they no longer do that?
Lars
Larsson
Larssonson?
This methodology of naming seems most suited for a small village or region only.
Scandinavian family name etymology - Wikipedia
Most people know how to spell the names of famous people, so perhaps there would be less of a spelling issue if you name a child Winston Churchill Smith, Jennifer Lopez Garcia, Walt Disney Williams, or Usain Bolt Lee. But then the poor kid might not live up to the expectations that go with their name!
My understanding of this is that in the past (pre-19th century) the system was workable because there were less people. But once you got large populations it became impossible to identify people, so the practice was stopped (by the government).My impression was that in Scandinavia historical naming traditions were to add “son” to the fathers name. I worked with a guy from Norway who said it made genealogy research a nightmare, but it also seems that you could not keep adding son, to each next generation, so I assume they no longer do that?
Lars
Larsson
Larssonson?
This methodology of naming seems most suited for a small village or region only.
Scandinavian family name etymology - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Iceland still continues to do this, but if you're someone's daughter it's dóttir and not son. Iceland also has an approved list of given names which you must choose from when naming your child. You can submit a name for approval (and addition to the list) though. That's decided by a committee that meets solely to approve or deny submissions.
Thanks for the info! The key I would think is to have a persistent family name, and one name being altered would not achieve this. So in my previous example, there would be Lars, then son of Lars, Larsson, but then the son of Larsson would likely start with fresh with a new name, Sven, then his son, Svenson?
I’ve seen in the US where some women when they get married include both family names in their new married name, but this too seems to have limited ability to pass down or names would become too unwieldy long quickly. The interesting thing about family trees is that we (I think) tend to picture them as a single primarily line based on a male last name, but in reality family trees are incredibly large.
The problem with Scandinavian names is that there is only so many to go around. Eventually there are many Larssons, Anderssons, Andreassons, Svenssons, etc. Who's who? That's why the government stopped the practice (at least in Sweden I believe).
The thing about Icelandic surnames is that these are not family names, i.e., your surname is not the surname of your father or mother. You have a given name and your surname is based off your mother or father's given name with dóttir or son added. But Iceland also has a smaller population than other countries so it works. Of course this was the practice in other Scandinavian countries until the government declared surnames to be family names and therefore passed on.
As far as hyphenated names go in the US that's generally a woman wishing to retain her maiden name for reasons of her own. Generally, kids take on the surname of the father (whomever that was) so unless the father has a hyphenated name (I've never seen that) their surnames won't be hyphenated.
I don't think there is a right or wrong answer because names, especially first names/Christian names/given names, are so tightly bound to culture, ethnicities, and demographics. A name is capable of generating reflexive responses, especially if the name has an association with strong emotions.
As well, names seen apart from the persons they belong to drive a very human behavior: our brains' relentless drive to put things into groups and categories. This can result in a person's name having big consequences in many situations, including job searches, university admissions, loan and mortgage applications, and customer service. It's also becoming evident that AI systems "learn" these biases if developers do not take them into account when building algorithms.
So, I believe somebody named Destiny may find her name to be helpful or to be a hindrance. It depends on many factors, including who Destiny interacts with regularly, where Destiny lives and works, and Destiny's personality.
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ETA: here's a thought experiment. What is your immediate, gut feeling when you hear these names?
- Eve
- Sita
- Aisha
- Karen
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This is the closest I could articulate my first thoughts or associations with each name. In order.
- Summer's
- Huh
- How do you pronounce it?
- Entitled middle aged woman
The thought experiment:
My immediate, instinctive response to these four names:
Eve: One of Steve Jobs' daughters is named Eve. Aside from that, it's just an interesting name!
Sita: I think this is an Indian name, and so reminds me of the two lovely daughters my friends adopted years ago from India, each of whom also was given a beautiful name respectful of her original country's culture.
Aisha: A name which reminds me of several young women with whom I worked some years ago whose families were from different countries from my own (Middle East, I think?) and who each from time to time shared something about her culture when it was clear that other coworkers and I were genuinely interested. None of them was named Aisha, but this name reminds me of that time for some reason......
Karen: OK, my age is going to show here but when I hear or see the name Karen I still always think of the incredible singer, gone much too soon from us -- the irreplaceable Karen Carpenter. IMHO the more recent use of the name "Karen" as a sort of insult is really distressing and must be especially so to anyone with that name who does not exhibit the kinds of behaviors seen all too often recently, but these are the times in which we live......
Eve- no
Sita- no, but maybe ok for associated culture.
Aisha- no, but maybe ok for associated culture.
Karen- used to be ok, but no longer.
The thing about Destiny is that it has a profound association, and at the same time it is ambiguous. If I got named that, I would be embarrased, and if I did not change my name as a adult would push the nick name Desy.
Eve - Adam
Sita - drawing a blank
Aisha - lovely name for a girl. Ai means love some of the languages I'm familiar with. I like this name. IMO, it would be a great name in some cultures.
Karen - 👹👺. It used to be such a lovely name.
Sita - drawing a blank
Aisha - lovely name for a girl. Ai means love some of the languages I'm familiar with. I like this name. IMO, it would be a great name in some cultures.
Karen - 👹👺. It used to be such a lovely name.
I have two children, both are named after songs that my wife or I enjoy and have stood the test of time. We also thought long and hard on them, not to just choose something because it was a passing fancy at the time.
My sons name is Jude, named after the popular Beatles song Hey Jude. My wife listened to the Beatles a lot growing up, and when she became pregnant with him (after being told by Doctors she'd probably never have children) she was sat down listening to music, trying to think of a name, and then Hey Jude shuffled on and she knew then and there if she had a boy that would be his name. The middle names were also easy, as they are the names of both of his Great-Grandfathers.
Jude Everett Stewart.
My daughters name is Skye, named after the Skye Boat song. If you have seen the television program Outlander, you've heard this song as it's the opening credits. My wife loves the show, but both of us are lovers of Celtic, folk, Irish, and traditional music. My wife also plays the tin whistle, and this song was one of her favourites to play. Her original choice for a daughters name was to be Isabelle, but I during one of her playing sessions on her whistle, I suggested Skye and she loved the idea. Much like our son, our daughters middle names are that of her Great-Grandmothers, as well as part of a name passed down through generations of woman in my wife's family.
Skye Florence Meta Cinderella.
A funny thing I noticed about both of their names, and it wasn't something that I caught onto right away, is that they both end in the letter "E", both contain 4 characters, and of course both are named after songs.
My sons name is Jude, named after the popular Beatles song Hey Jude. My wife listened to the Beatles a lot growing up, and when she became pregnant with him (after being told by Doctors she'd probably never have children) she was sat down listening to music, trying to think of a name, and then Hey Jude shuffled on and she knew then and there if she had a boy that would be his name. The middle names were also easy, as they are the names of both of his Great-Grandfathers.
Jude Everett Stewart.
My daughters name is Skye, named after the Skye Boat song. If you have seen the television program Outlander, you've heard this song as it's the opening credits. My wife loves the show, but both of us are lovers of Celtic, folk, Irish, and traditional music. My wife also plays the tin whistle, and this song was one of her favourites to play. Her original choice for a daughters name was to be Isabelle, but I during one of her playing sessions on her whistle, I suggested Skye and she loved the idea. Much like our son, our daughters middle names are that of her Great-Grandmothers, as well as part of a name passed down through generations of woman in my wife's family.
Skye Florence Meta Cinderella.
A funny thing I noticed about both of their names, and it wasn't something that I caught onto right away, is that they both end in the letter "E", both contain 4 characters, and of course both are named after songs.
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One of my daughters is named after my grandmother. As it’s Gaelic, it doesn’t quite work with the phonics that my children learn at school, in fact it goes completely against it. It’s a rather common Irish name but not one heard so much hear in Wales. Her name is Aoife which is pronounced Ii-fa. She’s only ever got positive reactions to her name though.
I always wondered how to pronounce Aoife -- I've seen it written a few times but never have actually heard it spoken aloud. Thank you! It's a lovely name. Another Gaelic name which one doesn't see or hear much in the US is Eilidh; on another forum to which I belonged some years ago there was a young woman with that name and she mentioned how frustrated she would sometimes become in trying to convince people that it was not pronounced "eyelid!"
Yeah we get some funny pronunciations in scenarios where someone has to read out her name lol.
My daughter is named after a major female character in a sci-fi book series, only we spelled her name with the English spelling and not the American spelling.
My wife got me into the series by chance before we were married. I believe, as fictional characters go, there are worse ones to be named after. But this one stands for something.
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That’s good. My middle name is an older family name given to the eldest male in each generation. Goes back a few generations at least, but sadly ended with me.
Then there's the English actor with the American spelling...
www.imdb.com/name/nm0000303
(it's probably best you didn't use the name of one of her best known characters)
;-)
Jessica Alba's daughter uses the American spelling: https://people.com/parents/jessica-alba-celebrates-daughter-honor-13th-birthday-tribute/
She and my daughter share the same birthday month/year.