I've said many times before that naming a child is possibly the thing I enjoy most about having a baby
(I'm not the Earth-Mother "Oh how I love all these little kicks inside me..." type...Pregnancy & I do not mix well, and I don't enjoy any of the physical aspects of it...At all! #sorrynotsorry)
I find it both exciting and a terrifying responsibility,..after all, unless you mess it up so badly that they go to the extreme of changing their name by deed poll, then they're going to be lumbered with the name you choose for life.
Many people believe that names aren't important...but I disagree.
I think names can really influence a persons life.
I think a person's name can have an effect on many aspects of their future - I think it can be a factor in the job they'll end up with (while becoming an accountant named Rainbow may not be impossible, it's probably pretty uncommon...), a factor in how confident they are throughout their school days, and can have all sorts of other knock on effects.
To me, many people become their name...and this is probably part of the reason that I'm so concerned with the names I bestow upon a child.
I also have always loved the art of naming - I love looking in to the history of names, their meanings, where they came from and so on - there are plenty of names that I love the sound of but would never use because they have a negative meaning or negative namesake (possibly why there are so few Adolf's around?!)
So to me....deciding on a baby name is a long, drawn out and difficult process.
I went through all of the same issues with my son.
We went back and forward on so many names before finally settling on the one he ended up with.
He was very nearly named Ossian - but we decided it would end up with a lot of mispronunciation here in England.
He was also nearly named Macaulay - but after numerous comments about "Not leaving him Home Alone" we realised that, sadly, the name is still far too associated with the 90s child star to use.
Our main concern when choosing his name was that we wanted something that sounded strong, something that was very uncommon (it was important to me that he be the only child in his class with his name) and something that couldn't easily be shortened.
His name came about as a bit of a joke - I was browsing through a forum about baby names when I saw a post stating that somebody had named their son Thames, after the river. I laughed about this and told Jon we should call our baby Mersey after our own local river in Liverpool - Jon then laughed and suggested the name of the river in his own hometown....Tyne.
We laughed...then stopped...and realised that actually, we liked the sound of that! The more we said it, the more it grew on us....and we knew of course that it WAS a name....the actress Tyne Daly being its most famous bearer ...but it was usually only heard on women and only in the USA, and was very uncommon here in the UK.
And so that's how we came to name him.
This time around, my concerns are different.
I've never regretted the name we chose for him and it suits him completely - but I DO get tired of having to always explain where it came from, and I get VERY bored of having to spell it out when older ladies in supermarkets assume I'm telling them that his name is "Time"!!
So this time, I'm trying to choose a name that isn't overly common but is easy to say and spell - and isn't likely to be misheard quite so much! And perhaps not draw quite as much interest!
But it's hard.
There is a shortlist of around 10 names that we're working off at the moment....but it's impossible to narrow it down!
Here are some of the names we're considering and their meanings:
Tobin - Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Tobin is "God is good".
Elijah - Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Elijah is "Jehovah is God"
Penn - of Old English origin, and the meaning of Penn is "enclosure; hill". Probably an occupational name referring to a person who lived or worked around a sheep pen
Tobias - of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Tobias is "God is good"
Noah - of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Noah is "peaceful".
Tate - of Middle English origin, and the meaning of Tate is "cheerful".
Greyson - of Old English origin, and the meaning of Greyson is "son of the gray-haired man; son of a judge".
Gage - of Old French origin, and the meaning of Gage is "pledge, oath".
Jonah - of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Jonah is "dove". Also means "peace" as the dove is a symbol of peace.
Luca - of Italian origin, meaning "Bringer of light".
I love all of these names for different reasons, and I`m finding it so incredibily difficult to narrow it down.
If baby had been a girl, the name was already chosen - it would have been Piper Seren, as simple as that! No further thought required!
But I find boys names so much harder to choose.
Fingers crossed we decide on something soon!
How did you decide on your own childrens name? And if you had to choose one from our list, which would you go with? I'd love to hear from you!
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