Here we are again having to play the name game. Just like before we are not finding out the sex of baby #2 so that means we need to come up with both boy and girl names and well I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. The first time around at by 20 weeks we had decided on our boys name: Henri Francis however now that name is off the list due to the overwhelming number of Henry’s that we know. As for girls names we had a really hard time but eventually by 37 weeks we had decided on: Everly, Evelyn or Edith and at the birth we decided that Edith was the perfect fit.
Side note can you believe Edith jumped so much popularity via BabyCenter?
So here we are trying to make lists of names and the only thing that we both agree on so far is that:
- Henri is off the list.
- No ‘E’ names for either boy or girl.
- The name cannot have been in the top 10 most popular in the last 10 years.
- The name cannot be one that is going to automatically be shortened (examples: Abigail–>Abby, Eleanor –> Nora, Steven–> Steve)
We are ideally looking for an older name something from the 1900-1950’s. so that is why I ask what’s your grandma, grandpa or great, great-great grandparents names? Share with us for some inspiration! Or share an older name that you love.
What were your “rules” for deciding on a name?
The Name Game –> A post regarding deciding on names the first time around.
Grandparent names: Alice, Joe, Jean, Frederick
My grandmothers name was Ruth and my husbands grandfather is Louis. I like less popular/older names too, but I am partial to ones that can be shortened or have nicknames. My babies are Bennett (Ben) and Lucy (Lulu).
Lucie was on our list the first time around – not sure if we are going to add it to the list this time around though.
Elaine, Dorothy, Stanley, Leroy Bobby
Grandparents: Orpha, Alvin (I love this is one and it’s one of my choices if we ever have a little boy!), Joseph and Helen (my name).
My grandmother was named Helen, I love the name! (Well she was actually Mary and Helen was her middle name, but she went by Helen)
Oh, do I have a plethora of old-fashioned girl names from my grandmothers: Opal Adell, Mary Josephine, Maggie, Susan Ida, Lavada.
We did not have children but if we had my only certainty would be that they would be called by their first name. My mother-in-law called both her boys by their middle names. It’s led to lots of confusion throughout their school years, in the military, and even now in my husband’s professional life.
3/4 of my grandparents name are easily shortened: Evangeline (Van), Stanley, Robert. Doris isn’t shortenable, though!
My parents way overthought our names, with the deliberate intention to shorten them, which I found obnoxious, so as someone who tried to switch to my full legal name when I went to college and ten years later still have relatives who don’t use it (even my parents, who chose the name, struggle with it, since they used the nickname for so long!), I applaud you for the non-automatic nickname rule!
My boyfriend and I have a naming scheme in mind for our future children – we’re L and M, so we’ll continue that with N and O. I got the idea because my immediate family is JKLM, but my parents say that wasn’t intentional.
That’s a fun idea!
My grandmother’s name is Annie Genevieve, Janette; and my grandfathers were Duncan & Alec
I really like Duncan!
Bernice, Warren, Doris, William đŸ™‚
i loved the name game, and spent many hours thinking, daydreaming, researching while pregnant. we too love older, more traditional, but unique names and that’s how we ended up with woodrow! some of our grandparents names made our long lists too – here there are: doris, fanny, wayne & chiam.
and if i haven’t yet said so, congratulations to you all!! xo
I like the name Rae for a girl, although I would never use it because we go for unique and different names that we haven’t heard before (which is also why I’m interested in seeing what other couples consider for choosing names :)). Or, I really like Nia’s middle name: Annabelle (partially why we included it in her name!). My grandma’s name is Sylvia, and grandpa’s, Charles (standard male name I feel!).
Can’t wait to hear what you come up with!!
Mildred, James, Nancy, Joseph