How did you choose your kids' names?

I chose DDs names because I had never taught a child with the names and they were traditional but, at the time, not popular. I liked them and they were not long (they have a longish surname). I had taught too many Christophers and Carolines some of whom took ages to master the writing of theier names

Does anyone like their own name ? I was named after my mother and hated her name especially having two with the same name in the family. I gave in to HD and called our son after him and generations before him and regretted having the same two name problems in the house . Daughter hated her name too .

judy no, but same number of letters. I was a huge fan of Jane Austen.

When a very voluble Welsh friend heard that my (Scottish) dad was David, she said,'Oh that's a good Welsh name.' My dad, riposted,'I was under the impression that it was Biblical'. Collapse of Welsh friend.

I wanted my daughter to have a classic name that would carry her anywhere and sounded classy but also a beautiful sound so I looked to the classics for her first name Helen and history for her middle name Josephine and thankfully she loves her names. (She was Helen the Melon at school but it was affectionate and she didn't mind).

baubles - was it Anne?

My son has his dad's first name as a middle name....my first daughter just had a name that I had liked from my teens....not overly used,but not unusual same as my sons,my 2nd daughter,was a traditional and I used a name for a middle that had been used by several generations...Mary but slightly changed to marie .....surname of smith needs careful choice.....my DGD has a made up adapted name and a beautiful French middle name she is mixed race and her names are unusual and suit her.
with my children I wanted names that would grow with them (sadly 2 girls didn't make it) and like bags could holler up the street and down the alley .

DD has the same first name as me but shortened it as soon as she started school. Problem is her shortened name is a man's name in the country where she now works.
I chose three names for DS but DH wasn't having the third and insisted on reversing the first two so that DS ended up with a very common biblical name.

We just chose names we liked for our children. We don't have a tradition of family names on either side.

We chose the names for our 4 children that reflected our international status so could fit into all of our cultures, had some link to literature or history and sounded beautiful with our lovely, surname. Nothing outlandish, though.

May sound strange, but it has worked. They all love their names and at interviews for uni or jobs, the interviewer invariably remarked on their names...and they got the place!

We have one son and one daughter who have been given family names (DH'S family had the same names in his family as I did!) We like the names anyway. Our other son and daughters have quite ordinary names and all 5 have slightly unusual middle names.

GA, I hated, and was embarrassed by, my unusual name for years but have recently come to terms with it and, even, sometimes answer to it!!

I did used to quite like my name but we moved to the Uk when it got shortened to Pam- you know rhymes with spam and ham! Although I did correct people for a while eventually I gave up so everyone except my nearest and dearest uses the shortened version. My children were given names that can't be shortened!

My three daughters all had names that were unusual at the time, though one of them was subsequently popularised by a character in a soap. They girls all really love their names.
My sons have classical names, not terribly unusual, but no other boys at their schools shared their names. Nowadays the name of my youngest son has gained in popularity.

My name was a real source of angst when I was younger. My paternal grandmother was Lilian, my maternal aunt was Lily and so I was named Lillian. It just didn't fit! I never felt comfortable with the name and even other people used to comment that it didn't suit me, so I happily swapped it in my early teens for my very plain and unremarkable middle name, which does suit me and by which I've now been known for almost 50 years. Oddly enough in the last few years I've made my peace with the name; it's still my name on all 'official' documents, at the health centre, the bank etc., which I used to resent, but now I don't mind owning the name.

My surname in my first marriage (and during which both children were born) was unusual and Czechoslovakian, and I knew that they would be often asked "how do you spell that?", so both boys were given short names with obviously spelling.

However both names were (at the time) not common, although the name given to ds2 is now very popular.

I chose names that were different from all previous family names. The first DC could have had a very different name however neither reflect the true person. The second has a name which can be shortened and mostly is. The short version suits better than the full name. They have middle names but they are very rarely used.

thatbags I think you're alluding to my thread about SIL naming my GC after his family.

In my case, I named DD first name after grandmother and middle I just liked. DS first name was name we liked and two middle names after DH deceased GGF.

Mu middle name was after my aunt who was killed in the Holocaust.

I didn't know at the time that there were books of baby names, but it didn't matter as finding names wasn't hard.

We both liked simple classic names for our three DC, which also went well with our surname.We also tried to imagine them at any age ( including old!) with the names.
Another consideration was that they were readily understood and the spellings also the usual ones.

My (Scottish) father had only one 'first' name and that was his maternal grandmother's maiden name. My father apparently wanted to call me Morag but my mother refused as she said I would be called 'Rags' at school

My son's father and I loved a particular Scottish name but decided against it as it didn't 'flow' with the surname. My DS now uses his middle name anyway which is also a strong Scottish one. My great nephew was given the names of his paternal (Irish) and maternal (Scottish) grandfathers, although the little bit of family tree I've done indicates the maternal grandfather's own grandfather was also Irish. Traditions can get complicated.

I worked with a chap who had 3 first names, the first and last of which had been passed from father to son through the family. He had 2 sons himself and continued the tradition. Each of them was only know by their second name, unique to each generation. What a palaver

ninathenana, I remember saying to my best friend when I was about 14 that if I ever had daughters I'd be calling them Sarah and Emma. She burst out laughing at the very thought of such old-fashioned names. By the time my girls were born in the 80s you couldn't throw a stick without hitting a Sarah or an Emma, so I had to invest in the book of baby names after all

Yes nina I agree Emma is an old fashioned name and I like it too. To be honest it was a long time ago - 1973 - and I don't remember quite what my thought process was then. But the name that we finally chose REALLY suits my darling daughter and I have no regrets.

Mainly by trawling through a book of baby names. I came across it recently, and can't believe what awful names we circled at the time - the DC had very lucky escapes! They have fairly traditional but uncommon first names, and a classic family middle name each. When it came to DD2, we were struggling right up to the week before she was born. Then we spotted a name on a Victorian gravestone as we were taking a short-cut through the local cemetery. We both said at the same time how much we liked it, so that was that settled! DS was going to be Adam until a baby in the next street got the name first a week before him. We knew they'd be in the same class so changed to our back up, which I much prefer now.

Son's name chosen by his dad. I was just so pleased after losing first child at 3 weeks old we couldn't agree on a boys name and it didn't seem an issue so left to his dad.

Daughter after a very elegant dark haired nicely spoken lady I admired at work. Turned out a blonde, tomboy football playing girl. Not at all like the lady I'd admired but lovely in her own way.

DanniRae
Isn't Emma an old fashioned, classic name? it would be in my top five of favourite girls names.

Don't you find that. our DC or DGC grow into their names.
I can't think of anybody that I would say 'oh that name doesn't suit them'.