How did you choose your kids' names?

My grandmother had 3 sisters all born in the 1800s and they were all called after flowers which I rather like - May, Daisy, Lizzie and Lily ....... all back in fashion now.

If it's any consolation a baby relative is almost 1, she is named Grace Lily which I think is beautiful.

The then Mr absent and I had quite a difficult time finding some sort of convergence about names. We didn't know what variety of baby we were expecting and if absentdaughter had turned out to be a boy, he would probably still be called Baby Absent because there was never the slightest approach to agreement on a boy's name.

After lots of thought and trying a first name with the second name to be sure it was okay (absentdad had a friend called Percy Hersey which was a terrible warning for me) we settled on Grace. We both liked the name, I was going through a Catholic religious revival phase, it worked well with the rhythm of the surname, was quite unusual at the time and couldn't be abbreviated.

She – absentdaughter – loathed the name from fairly early on, called herself by another name and eventually changed it legally. My Mama was horrified because "Grace, dear, is an old woman's name". She was mollified when I pointed out that even old women were babies once.

I tried to give my beautiful daughter a beautiful name but a rose by any other name…

Son's dad was an avid footy fan and wanted to name him after a player, I said a definite no to that! His dad is from wales so appeased him/compromised by naming son a real welsh name

I once worked in a school and was surprised to hear of two children that had the same names as DS's friend and sister though they were much younger. They were unusual names and I discovered that the father had two children with one mother and later, these two with another partner. He had given them the same names!!

Luckily the compromises are all classic names.

All the names are compromises- we had to keep going until we had something we both liked. I like classic names.

We chose DD1s name just because we liked it : it's a palindrome! DD2 is the female version of our last Kings' name and DD3's name is Shakespearean meaning 'in her image' - or 'last born daughter' which by chance, she was. They were all supposed to be Thomas! I am happy to say our eldest GS was given that name. I was very keen on Francesca but realistically it didn't flow at all well with our surname. I was named after the main character in The Little Princess. I'm happy with that only I have always been known by its derivative!

Reminds me of that song 'It's Liza with a z not Lisa with an s'

It's with an 's'!
Unfortunately the shortened version picked by uni friends is with a 'z' and I don't like it!

A couple of mentions of Edna above; a friend hated being called that. We asked why, she rolled her eyes and said 'Gladys??' Both after Edwardian aunts.
My own aunt was Beatrice Lily, my mother, her SiL, disliked abbreviations and always said it should be Lilian, aunt gently ignored her! Another aunt was Elsie May which now sounds sweet for a baby. Both aunts' names seemed very old fashioned in the 50s!

Deedaa - in U.K. we had an Audie Murphy in school in the 60s

We spell it with a z, Jalima - being Zoutherners

My husbands granny had one daughter ,his mum,but she always wanted to have a son who she would have called after her husband...so when we got married I promised her if we ever had a son I'd call him after his GGF ,my son took a long time in getting here after multiple miscarriages but finally after 13 years of trying he got his name,sadly granny didn't live to meet him.My daughter was called after a lovely woman I knew at work,very talented artist/photographer,my daughter has exactly those same skills ,my first daughter who didn't survive had the name of my favourite singer(Barbra)

grannypiper she can pronounce her name however she wants ,if thats how her family have said it since she was born then thats how its meant to be said.As long as she's doing the job she's paid for her name or how she says it is irrelevant.

I named my daughter after the "what Katy did books".

I chose my children's name because I liked them. Fortunately they have both told me that they like them too.

When I named my daughter my granddad said "you can't name her that.... there used to be a barmaid working in the (very rough) pub near the dock gates with that name"

maggiemaybe My Dgd's best friend called Ariadne but prefers t be called Hetty !

Anya It drives me mad that she cant pronounce her own name, i shout at the t.v when she is on

I love it that my grandsons' best friends are Arthur, Arnold and Stanley.

My mother and aunts were Edith, Evelyn, Florence, Mabel, Beatrice, Edna. Not terribly suitable for the early 80s child, but much in demand now!

Yes, it's Cornish, Jalima. A diminutive of Thomasina.
merlotgran The one in the book was spelt with a 'z' but DD's is spelt with an 's'.

My close relatives, aunts in the 1920 were Evelyn, Doris and Edna. With an Alice Maud and Kathleen Jane as grandmothers. only Kathleen and its derivaties would have worked in the late 70s.
My dad was "Maurice" which was very Edwardian in 1915.

I would have liked my FILs name Thomas/Tom but OH didn't.
I ended up with one standard name for DS "C" which he always shortens.

With DD it was a name from the Victorian/ Edwardian era that was not in vogue. A colleague of my husband had a daughter with the name and as I really liked it I chose it. DD still really likes it.
My name is totally traditional in the sort of Janet and John mode.

Good grief, Grandma2213 and grannypiper!! Perhaps both people named on the birth certificate should have to be present when the name is given

That SNP woman Mhairi Black pronounces her name Maaree when in fact it ought to be pronounced Vaarree if she knew The Gaelic.

I wanted to call my DD Mhari Jennifer and her father deliberate lower case f ) agreed, he registered her with a completely different name whilst i was still in hospital, unbeknown to me it was the name of a woman he was having an affair with. I have never told my DD.