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Naming your child has got to be one of the biggest responsibilities involved in parenting. Before our children have language to express themselves, or in some cases before they even open their eyes, their parents have chosen the moniker with which they will walk through life for all their days. This name could take them to the Courthouse, the Whitehouse, or even to the Moon. This name could end up on a marquee someplace in bright lights, hordes of people waiting outside.
Don’t screw it up, amirite?
I personally feel that one of the hardest things about naming my children has been about trusting my instincts– and sticking to my guns. Every parent will tell you that it’s important to love your child’s name. You say it, text it, and yell it about a million times a day. You get baby blankets and clothing emblazoned with it upon your little one’s arrival, and generally speaking– it’s a word you hear constantly for the rest of your life. Picking the right one can feel overwhelming. When you factor in your partner’s choices, other people’s opinions, or your own personal associations with certain names, it can feel like an insurmountable task. To combat this, I’ve always stuck with my instincts– and I urge others to do the same.
I get asked a lot how I “came up with” the name Marlowe, if it has a special meaning, or if there is some kind of wonderful story behind it. This is the true story: I read it in a magazine about ten years ago (magazines are an amazing place to come across interesting names, by the way) and it really struck me. I loved the spelling: M-A-R-L-O-W-E, and the fact that I didn’t know one person with the name. I loved that it was pretty but also strong. I could imagine a CEO named Marlowe, and an artist named Marlowe, and that excited me. It quickly became one of my favorites on my list of Girl Names (Yes. Yes I have had a list of Girl Names and Boy Names for over a decade. In my cell phone. Like a normal person). Of course at this point I hadn’t even met my husband yet, and so I had nobody weighing in at all. Fast forward about 8 years later, and I found myself actually pregnant, and actually expecting a Girl…and I immediately hated some of the Girl Names I had previously loved. Nothing like a really real female fetus in your body to give you the reality check you need. Some of the names were borderline ridiculous. But Marlowe still stood out. I still loved it! I ran it by my husband and he loved it too! I was only four months pregnant and already my little girl had a name. We chose Mae as her middle name to honor me (my initials backwards), and then Martino as her last name. Fun Fact: the past two years have been the first time I’ve ever been a part of a family where everyone has the same last name. Yahtzee!
I got a bit of criticism from some people in my family who knew we had already chosen our daughter’s name– they didn’t understand why we weren’t waiting to “meet her” and decide then. But this is where the trusting your instincts part comes in that I mentioned earlier. What it was impossible to convey to them was that the child I was carrying in my body felt like a Marlowe to me. I already knew her, and I knew as much as I knew anything that this was her name. I was positive. Of course even now I can’t imagine her having any other name, but I’m glad I didn’t allow myself to be pressured by others to second-guess or delay her naming. I believe that our children convey their essence to us subconsciously while we carry them, and help up choose a name that’s right for them. I think that’s why names that I had previously adored on my baby name list suddenly felt so wrong.
With my current pregnancy, we are adhering to the same guidelines. Before we knew we were having a boy, there were a few names that we liked for either gender. But as soon as we cut in to our gender-reveal cake and saw the blue frosting inside– we looked at each other, smiling, and knew immediately which one it would be. Kyle and I both love our little Boy’s name, and Marlowe loves it too! She talks to him in the mornings in my belly and calls him by name all the time. Like Marlowe, Baby Boy’s name is a little unusual, but also feels classic. At least to us! Ha! When the time is right, we can’t wait to share the name along with the first picture of our son– but until then we are standing in solidarity with all the parents struggling to pick the perfect moniker for their new child. Trust yourselves and embrace the challenge– and remember that the baby’s parents have the only opinions that truly matter!
Do you guys have any great baby-naming stories? Let me know in the comments below!
First two photos by Nina Suh for Love And Lemonade Photography
My husband and I find out the gender in about 3 weeks, and we’ve been going over names lately. If it’s a boy, no problem, we’ve had a name forever we love. But if it’s a girl, Ugh! Lots I like but none that are sticking out yet. I feel like now it’s likely a girl just because we don’t have a girl’s name! 🙂
Bonnie is a great option 😉
Funny reading this as the first comment because Bonnie is a name that has stuck out to me for my baby! (Currently 15 wks pregnant with my first) still don’t know the sex. This is DEFINETLY a sign! Or at least I’m taking it as one! 😀
I am also 3 weeks away from finding out the gender and we have the opposite problem. If it is a girl we have a name we both love and was super easy to come up with. If it is a boy we have zero options that we both agree on as of right now!
I’ve always been fascinated with how people come up with names. Thanks for posting this! I have a pretty uncommon name myself, which I’ve enjoyed. Though lately it seems to be becoming more popular. Young Clayburns keep popping up everywhere now on social media. I think that’s the problem with unique names. They’re unique at first, but because they’re unique lots of other people start using them as everyone strives for unique names.
My husband and I didn’t tell anybody our daughters name until the day she was born. People had a problem with that but I just laughed it off. I didn’t want opinions or comments even though it’s not weird or anything. We just wanted to keep something for ourselves. We named her Charlotte because I’ve always loved that classic name. Also because SATC is my all time favorite TV show ?
Her middle name is Amelie. My favorite movie ☺️?
LOVE BOTH NAMES TO PIECES!
Thanks! ☺️?
I have a Charlotte Rose❤️ I have always, always loved the name Charlotte.
You can’t go wrong rigghhhtttt? ??
When we finally settled on a girl name, we kept it to ourselves. Not really because we were afraid of others’ opinions, but because we wanted something to ourselves. I felt like when I was pregnant, everyone wanted to know our life story. Keeping the name to ourselves was just reclaiming some part of that.
I too had a list of baby names that I absolutely loved. That’s till I got pregnant with my son of course. My husband has an awesome name and I just couldn’t think of anything better for a boy. Yes, we didn’t want a Jr. but every name that I picked just sucked as the months went on. Now, 13 months later I know we chose correctly. We named him after my husband but changed his middle name. I tell my husband everyday our son proves that he’s an Axel because everyday he does something very similar to his father. So glad we ditched the other names because Ethan isn’t so fitting now. 🙂 Can’t wait to see what name you pick.
What is a gender-reveal cake?
It’s a cake that the bakery makes with a specific color inside, pink or blue to reveal the baby’s gender. You can request at the ultrasound appointment that they write the results and place in a sealed envelope to give to the bakery.
A party is then planned and when you cut into cake, everyone invited finds out at the same time.
I too had a baby name list since….college! Glad I’m not alone.
My husband and I have a long and hard to pronounce last name, so we felt that our baby girl needed a short, sweet, and simple first name to give her a fighting chance at filling in those scantron bubbles during school tests! Do they even have scantron tests anymore??
One of the names we had thrown around was Iris, but we didn’t commit to it right away. The summer of my pregnancy we did a lot of traveling between Chicago, my husband’s hometown, and Michigan, my home state visiting family. One of the roads we pass as we exit the highway and head into my hometown is called Iris Road, and I always get excited seeing it because it means the road trip is almost over and we are close to my house for a fun weekend on the lake. Once we saw the sign our first trip in that summer, we knew our little girl was going to be Iris!
Iris is now 11 months old and traveling with her as we drive past “her road” to go and see grandma has been so special.
On a side note, this is such a fun blog to follow and I have really enjoyed trying out some of the recipes and projects. Best of luck to you and your family with the countdown to your newest family member!
I also have the baby name list on my phone! During my IVF journey it reminds me of the end goal in all the ups and downs! I googled our last name origin and there are lots of stories of notable Phillips’s! Great for inspiration!
I love this and totally agree. I shared the story of our son’s name through a memoir I wrote to honor his name. You can read it here: http://presentoverperfect.blogspot.com/2014/07/whats-in-name.html
We made the mistake of asking our families to weigh in on names for our son. When we told them what our favorite was we got some nasty responses. I couldn’t believe how rude people could be with a child’s name that wasn’t even their’s!
When we finally settled on a name we decided to keep it to ourselves. We loved it and no one could tell us different.
When my son was born the family gathered around the end of my hospital bed eagerly awaiting to hear his name. In unison we proudly exclaimed…
Jude Aloha
(Cue the crickets.)
But we didn’t care! He was our Jude! Our little Hey, Jude! And every once in a while – even after almost three years – I stop and say out loud to my husband – I love Jude’s name!
I love it!!! I liked Jude for my Owen’s middle name, but I didn’t want his initials to be OJ :/
I totally get why you didn’t want those initials! ?
Hey Jude! I love that song! 🙂 Awesome name! 🙂 could work for a boy and a girl both
That’s what I loved about it too!
Hah! We had the same crickets when everyone crowded into the hospital room to meet our daughter and hear her name for the first time. We didn’t realize it was such a “unique” name, because we’d been in love with it for so long!
(Jude Aloha is awesome.)
As long as you love it – that’s all that matters!
I have a Jude:) Jude Ryan. He is 7 1/2 and I can’t imagine home with any other name. It’s so fitting. My daughters name is Marlo:)
My husband was the fourth John in a row, and I told him any future son probably wouldn’t be named John before we were even engaged! I’ve known and imagined and dreamed my son Owen since I was in high school and saw it on a sign. (A family owned store called Owen Electric, that he now points out every time we drive by!) Luckily he was on board with the name switch, and just expected his family to go along with it too. Our Owen is an amazing 4 year old now, and there never a mention of him being a John, because he just IS Owen! (Also, I did some research, and Owen is a Celtic translation of John. I think. Even if that’s not true, his family believes it is… ?)
My daughter is Magnolia Scout, which just thrills me when I see it or say it. Pretty much everyone else has the same reaction.
Can’t wait to hear baby boy Martino’s name! I’m sure it will be great.
PS Ive had a list of names in a journal for just about as long as I can remember. I think it’s totally normal! You can just say you’re and onomastician to sound fancy!
I love this!!! I felt exactly the same as you.Both my kids have unusual names but nothing too crazy! My daughter is Miley and we combined our names to get it.When we found out our second was a boy we knew right away we wanted something different but strong.We chose Atticus and decided to keep it to us until he was born.Some loved it while others including my mil absolutely hated it and made us feel pretty bad about it.We get so many compliments on it and he we couldn’t imagine any other name for our little guy! My advice is there will always be someone who will dislike your name even if it’s common so do you and don’t worry about others opinions.
Atticus is an awesome and strong name, love it!!
I have been obsessed with the name Lauren for a while now. When I was pregnant I wanted a girl so badly and I was already calling her Lauren. Then I found out we were having a boy which was no shocker with my husbands familys history. We had a really hard time picking my sons name, but only one name we actually agreed on. We named him Carter. I love the names Grant and Graham which made me realize I really like presidential names.
Great story love it!! With only 1 girl I wanted it to be unique and I got that! 🙂 surprisingly boy’s names were so hard to come up with and I have 3 and the last was the hardest to come up with!! But all their names totally fit them and their personalities 🙂 ♡♡♡..
Love this story btw! I too got my daughters name from media (well the spelling at least from a blogger funny enough). My daughters name is Sydne Blaire – no hyphen. Sydney is my maternal grandfather. Blanche is my paternal grandmother. Now I just said my daughters name is Sydne Blaire…so what happened to Blanche! Well when my father had told me his mothers name we were on he beach in Jamaica. Now by the time I got back home I had already set in my mind I heard him say Blaire! I was dating my then boyfriend, now husband. I too had a growing list, which I too have had for decades! When we started talking about having a family, getting married and such we discussed names. He had his ideas for boys only. I obviously had my list. We went through them and decided I’d name our daughter he’d name our son (at least their first names). I told him I always wanted my first daughter to be named after my grandparents whom I never got to meet but heard such wonderful things about them from my parents (they died before I was born). He agreed.
Then I was pregnant and we found out we were having a girl. He then felt very tied to our baby more so he said your family names are in the mix what about mine! We took the beginning of his fathers name and the beginning of his mothers name and created our daughters middle name (Alana – Anastasia & Alphonsus) – which we later found out has a significant meaning in his native language – it means my fathers land (go figure). Then! My husband is Nigerian (Igbo) and his family has a custom that his father named all the grandchildren. Since his father recently passed away his mother now has that responsibility. So within 24 hours of our daughter being born his mother called us with the name she felt best suited her….Mmesomachukwu (which in Igbo means The Grace of God). So this is the long winded story of my daughters beautiful super long amazing name!
Sorry this is so long but I love stories about naming children. It such a big part of their identity and I love sharing how we named our daughter. So thank you for creating a space for that. ☺️
I will never forget the look on my mom’s face when I told her we were naming my daughter Betty. Not Elizabeth, but plain old Betty. She HATED it. I too was just about 4 months along and she was surprised we wouldn’t wait. It’s been the perfect name for our little. We went back and forth with a few other names (but not really) for show. (Plus, Betty Russell sounds like a movie star or a president – so it works!)
The middle name was harder, Sabine is special to us for many reasons. Also, I figure when she goes through her dramatic teenage names she can go with Sabine to irritate us.
Love this! And I cannot wait to hear Baby Boy’s name! Our son’s name is Duncan–it was the boy name my husband and I aways loved long before we were married. My husband is half Scottish and half Korean (I know, such a contradiction ?!). At our wedding, we took a traditional Korean wedding photo where nobody smiles in hopes that the couple’s first child is a boy. From our wedding day, we called that photo ‘No Smiles for Duncan’. Fast forward 4 years, and our boy Duncan was here, with our framed wedding photo hanging in his nursery.
We find out the gender of our little one tomorrow and I’m so excited to bite into those cupcakes (for 2 reasons)! Actually, one of the reasons we aren’t waiting to be surprised is because choosing a name my husband and I agree on is so hard for us. So instead of thinking about both girls and boys names we’ll only have to focus on one gender. Also, I highly recommend not sharing the name with family and friends before the baby is born. We didn’t tell anyone the name we picked for our daughter and I’m so happy we didn’t because not everyone liked the name. I didn’t want anyone else influencing our decision.
I have two sons, an almost 8 year old, Theodore Graham (Theodore, as the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie had just come out when I was pregnant and I loved Theodore, and Graham is my stepdad’s surname). My now 5 year old is Samuel Owen (Samuel, after Sam Winchester from Supernatural and Owen is my husbands granddads middle name). Samuel went almost 3hrs without a name and I wouldn’t let my husband leave to go back to our older son (who was home with his grandmother) till he had a name. We have had our girls name set in stone since I was pregnant with my oldest, we just haven’t had the chance to use it yet. Currently TTC our 3rd after a miscarriage back in January this year.
Our surname plays a big part in naming our children, not an easy name to work with 🙂
I don’t have any children and am not pregnant, but Samuel is my top baby boy name right now 🙂 Haha! I absolutely adore the name Theodore. I think I’d go with Theodore Henry! I’m not sure what I would choose as a middle name for Samuel though…
Another favorite of mine is Jonah.. as in the little boy from Sleepless in Seattle.
By the way, I am so sorry about your miscarriage. I read through the top portion of your comment and posted in a hurry when I saw you had chosen two of my favorite names! Sending a hug your way!
My husband and I couldn’t agree on any names while we were trying to get pregnant. He disliked every name that I had ever loved. I was watching Lord of the Rings and heard the name Strider and fell in love. My husband liked that it meant “great warrior”. I got pregnant two days later. I knew the second I did. I knew it was a boy and his name roared through my head. We never ever wavered on his name and didn’t care who didn’t like it. His name fits him perfectly and he loves it! I tell him that we named him for a king and at least we didn’t name him Aragorn. Lol
I’ve always loved short, classic sounding names. This will be our third (1st girl!) and my boys really like inputting Disney names. Their current favorite is Minnie Mouse Hopps. We used to like Lily, but I know WAY too many Lilys now, so we want to go with Calla, like Calla lily. It’s simple, pretty, AND makes my boys happy because Calla is technically a disney name. It’s the princess from the Gummi Bears tv show. I love finding a name that makes the whole family happy.
Long before I even became pregnant my husband had come home one day and said if we ever have a little girl I would love to name her Elliet which I just happened to love. Well when we found out we were having a daughter, we knew her first name would be Elliet and nothing or no one was gonna change our minds. Her middle names, Sophia Grace, were harder to choose and we didn’t find the perfect ones til right before she was. She’s 2 now and the older she gets the more Elliet Sophia Grace totally fits her! I love the name I gave her and I love saying it when she does something, to me it’s the most beautiful name that I could of given her 🙂
I’ve always known what I’ve wanted my little girl’s name to be. When we found out our second baby was a girl I knew the name belonged to her. We kept her gender a secret until she was born, but her name was already decided. Her name holds so much family meaning and represents 5 strong women in our lives. Her first name, Millicent (Millie for short), honours my mom and great-grandma. Her middle names, Grace and Margaret, pay tribute to 3 of our grandmothers. Millie Grace Margaret is such a sassy, fun-loving, joyful, and determined toddler. I know her name suits her because she shares so many character traits of the women she is named for. I am excited to see where it takes her!
I too had a list of names that I had kept in mind (and on my phone). I really started to glance at it often when we began our IVF cycles and through my miscarriages. It was my little secret list that I’d look at every now and then when I felt down about our infertility struggle. It kept me looking to the future.
As a kid I remember watching the biographic Disney movie, Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken about Sonora Webster. The character’s spirit in real life and in the film always stuck with me, she was a fighter and acted despite her fear. It was classic to me, and it also had Mexican ties which I loved given my heritage. When our 3rd IVF cycle finally worked, I knew in my heart that we were heaving a girl. I was 5 weeks pregnant and on our drive into Yosemite for a trip when we drove through Sonora (a small quaint town). I kept seeing Sonora antique store etc, Sonora this…and that. At that moment I let go of all fear I had about losing this baby and I knew the universe was telling me that she was a girl and going to be fine. My husband couldn’t deny that it was fate seeing her name all over the day after we found out we were pregnant.
Her middle name was in tribute to our incomparable fertility doctor who stuck with us for 3 years and realized our dream, Dr. Rosen. I am eternally grateful to him.
Sonora Rose is my dream come true!
Thank you for sharing your sweet and intuitive story. Inspiring!
The hubs and I decided not to do a gender reveal before the baby almost 8 years ago. While we had an idea of boys names, it was my husband that made the suggestion of Kailani It was unique and it meant sky and heaven in Hawaiian.
With a tweak of the spelling and the addition of her middle name, Kaylani Hope was born 3 minutes shy of midnight, 3 weeks earlier than expected. Her eyes? They’re hazel and they change color, one being sky blue. I can’t imagine her being any other name.
We’re expecting our second child finally in April, only this time we will find out the gender and yes we already have names!
Can’t wait to hear Baby Boy Martino’s name.
I’m right there with you- I’ve had a running name list on my phone for years! We had our names picked out for our little one before the 20 week scan- Eden and Jaxon. It was set, we were certain. We cut open our reveal cake and- BLUE! BOY! My husband looked at me and said Jaxon doesn’t feel right- he exclaimed, “he’s Connor”! So that was it, he was Connor from that moment forward, and our son is SO a Connor. I couldn’t imagine anything else! Thinking back, it makes me smile that my husband was the one feeling the name vibes. We love our Connor!
I’ve also had lists of names since college; a girlfriend and I had a regular pho date during which we discussed raunchy celeb news and baby names.
When I was pregnant 2 years ago, my husband and I chose not to find out the gender. It was amazing, but made the naming process that much more challenging to agree upon! Names he had “liked” before were now immediate no’s. We chose the middle name first-Shawn-after my late father, and knew it would work for a boy or girl.
We finally agreed on a boy’s name, and everyone was sure that’s what we were having, so we didn’t spend as much time debating the girl options.
2 weeks before I was due, my hubby admitted he’d fallen out of love with the name. I was heartbroken!
About that time, I listened to an old mix of mine, and an old favorite band came on: Eisley. We loved it, and when my daughter was born, realized it was hers all along. (Only after she was a few months old did my nerdy hubby tell me it also had a Star Wars reference…hah!)
Aww I follow Sherri on social media and am in love with her little girls and her as a mom! Found out about her music after. So relaxing! Love to listen to it at work.
🙂 She’s pretty awesome!
Hi Eva. 🙂
Marlowe is a cute name for a cute little girl. 🙂
My name is not really Rita, I just have went by it for a few years… Here’s the story,
When I was 1-3, I used my real name (that I will not say) Well of course, I was going to use it because I couldn’t really talk at the time (I’m autistic and still have speech problems)
When I was 4-7 I liked Jessica, I would sign and write that I was Jessica. I still like the name. 🙂
When I was 7-8 I would say my name is Punky Brewster because that was my favourite show!!! (This was 2009!)
When I was 8-10 I was D.J. (Donna Jo) from Full House.
When I was 10-12 I was Demi or Demetria.
When I was 12-14 I was Rita
When I was 14-15 I was Rita or Freddie Mercury
Now I’m 15 and call myself Rita or Lorenzo but I prefer Lorenzo because I love Lorenzo’s Oil!! 🙂
I just never really liked my own name as my name, a name itself I like it but it is because there are so many other kids with that name it confuses me. You made a good choice on Marlowe Mae because I never heard it before. Except with my dog who is named Maggie Mae after the song Maggie May by Rod Stewart but we like M-A-E as spelling. 🙂
Take care and God Bless.
I love your passionate stance on names. Just a quick question, were Marlowe’s initials intentionally MMM?
Oh wow. We had such a hard time naming our little one. For some reason we were really thrown by the fact we were having a boy. We had a long list of girls named we both loved but could not agree on even one boy named. We got in legitimate fights about (probably not aided by pregnancy hormones). When we met him we realized NONE of the names on our short list felt right. 3 days after he was born (!) we settled on Lachlan Rider (‘locklin’…the traditional spelling causes some confusion but I love it. ‘Rider’ because daddy is a cyclist) It was a name that was lightly tossed around at the beginning of the pregnancy but thrown out. While recuperating at the hospital my husband started researching the orgins and felt it really fit our fierce little guy (basically Scottish for Viking) I liked that it was part of my heritage, and classic but still a little different… And really matched the rough and tumble that comes with little boys. We call him Lach. Ahhhh I love baby names.
I love Lachlan! also one on my list! LOVE it!
I named my daughter at 3 weeks also. Her name was to be Alice. My husband never liked it but I didn’t care. That’s who she was…. 2 weeks before she arrived the St. Jude telethon was on (irony because my son’s name is Jude) and Marlo Thomas was the spokes person. I turned to my husband and said, Marlo, that’s a great name. He then agreed. We never spoke about it again until my daughter was born. I doss, well we have to name her. My husband says : I really liked that name Marlo. I said: I do too! Let’s name her Marlo.
In the end, I wanted US to name her. Not just me and we both equally loved the name. It’s so her!
We decided not to find out the sex of the baby, which meant we had to come up with TWO baby names. If we had a boy we decided to name him after my late father-in-law, so that was set. However, we were VERY far apart on girl names. We had a list of about 10 names and hoped seeing the baby would make one name surface as the winner. Luckily, we had a boy because after a very long labor I would have been willing to fold to whatever name my husband (or anyone in the room) chose!
Hahha you honesty made me laugh about letting anyone in the room choose the name of it was a girl.
Hi Eva,
That is very nice sharing your process for putting together names for your progeny.
I love learning about the hidden meanings in words.
For you, your family with your wise co leaders of your blog, the Oxford Etymological Dictionary, as well as the American Heritage Dictionary have the root meanings of each section of most names.
It is fun family time, I betcha Marlowe, as well as the rest of your family would enjoy exploring!
Dictionaries for me, usually lead my curiosity on unique paths.
Exploring with dictionaries your name.
Pretty neat!
Looking forward with the rest of the wise co leaders of your blog, for baby pics.
Your work is appreciated.
Greg Fillmore
I remember mulling over boys’ names for quite a while when I was pregnant with my eldest (I did NOT have a list going into pregnancy.) Then one night, in the bathtub (which was probably too hot but I really had trouble ditching the hot bath) his name just came to me. Graham Kirk. Graham, for my great-uncle who was a fighter pilot during WWII where he was shot down after flying a successful mission over Croatia. Kirk, my husband’s middle name (and his father’s, actually.) Both names are Scots. Both my husband and I have a lot of Scots ancestry. Both names are traditional but not too common. It just was a EUREKA moment…bathtub included! Nearly 6 years later, I can’t imagine Graham being anyone other than, well, Graham. He just LOOKS like one. Incidentally, 2 years after that, I had a second boy, who we named James Michael after my husband’s dad and my dad. We call him Jamie and, again, I can’t see him being anyone other than Jamie. Only trouble is people think I named him for either the GoT character (yikes!) or the Outlander character (less yikes, but no!)
I loved your story about naming Marlowe, my husband and I knew our babies name almost right away , I read it in a book and loved it (mind you this was wayy before the McK name phase) her name is McKinley Jacklyn , as soon as we saw her we knew. I had someone come to my hospital room and when I told them they said “who would ever name a baby McKinley? that’s terrible” …anyway whatever was my thoughts… my son, I found BOY names hard to pin down, I’ve always liked Declan but my husband wasn’t down with it. We named our son Brennen, I love Brenden but its more popular so we went with Brennen.
Funnily I wanted names that were hard to turn into nick names and McKinley is Mee Mee or Meems to everyone (thanks to my son) and my son is Brenny… funny how sometimes you just know what your child’s name is even before you see them.
btw I’ve had names listed on my phone and still add to them even though I’m done with having them I’m hoping I can influence someone with a favourite name .. Anyone like Declan? feel free to use it lol
I’ve always known what I want to call my kids Alivia for Olivia Benson because she represents the light in a world of darkness and August for my great Uncle whom was an influence on me.
My middle name is my great-grandmothers name. As a child, I always found myself asking about her. I wanted to know who she was, hear stories about her etc. etc. I was so curious to know her story… I figured that she must have been pretty great if they wanted me to carry on the name. My middle name gives me a sense of history, connection and pride… and it makes my mom happy bc she gets to talk about her grandmother and keep her alive through me!
When my husband and I found out at our ultrasound we were having a boy, in my mind I automatically knew his name would be Landen. My husband was not sold on it and we fought about it the whole pregnancy. I just KNEW this lil man inside of me was Landen, and I didn’t know are what anyone else thought it was always going to end up his name. It was like he was whispering to me from inside… “hello up there… my name is Landen. Please feed me cheeseburgers…”
My mother wanted to name me Erica Nicole so that she could call me “Ricky Nicki” because that would be a good party name. She literally told people it would be a good party name and that is why she was naming me that. During labor when my dad found out she was serious and not joking which he assumed the whole time, he told her they couldn’t name me that. So on the spot, when I arrived, my mom says let’s call her Correy. It’s still a fun party name. And my dad gave in. I love the idea of having a fun-spirited name but I will also be careful not to impose a personality on a child before they are born.
I’m pregnant with my first now and I’m just cracking up at my list of baby names I’ve written down through the years. I have no clue how I’m going to choose!
NOTE TO ALL ABOVE:
Thank you thank you thank you thank you for all of the AMAZING stories you guys wrote in with! I love how unique all of these baby naming stories are and I definitely discovered some adorable names I had never heard of! I’m always blown away by how creative you guys are. Thanks for sharing with me and with each other!!
xoxo
EAM
I was supposed to be named Melissa Lee but my mom heard the name Courtney in a maternity store and fell in love with it and my dad picked my middle name Lyn spelled with one N instead of two. I’ve also said my first daughter If I ever have children will be named Kennedy Rose after my maternal grandmother who’s name is Rose Emma Kennedy
Hi Mrs. Martino:
This article made me think a lot. You made a lot of great points about the importance of a name to a child. When I was growing up, I always felt like an outsider in my classrooms because my name (Shahed) was so different than the other kids, especially when my name was read on the roll sheet. When I graduated high school and started working, I changed it to ‘Shawn’ for short, just so I could fit in and communicate better with people. I think that ultimately a name should be something that resonates with one’s essence. I loved your quote in the article that said a child conveys their essence subconsciously, beautifully stated! Our name becomes a part of us, whether we like it or not. I would like to think though, and maybe this is too idealistic, but I believe who we really are transcends any names or labels that society places on us. Anyway….. thanks for another good article
PS Marlowe is a beautiful name