Friday, April 29, 2011

Baby Naming Backlash?

I read an interesting article about baby names today.  A year ago, I was all over baby naming websites, books, lists, and the like seeing that little bit was on her way.  We had basically had her name picked before I even got pregnant, but that didn't stop me from the fun of second guessing myself.  There are even neat, little baby naming polls that you can generate and post on things like blogs or facebook or to just email out to family and friends.  I love baby names; there are just so many good ones out there.  There are, however, those that I loathe.  Interestingly enough, some of those names made the most hated list.  I think burnout plays its part in getting names on this list.  The "Mc-names" of the nineties really got under my skin, Mackayla, McKenna, McDonald's.  Eh?  Too, I find myself frustrated with the shift of once masculine names toward the feminine.  My husband and I both liked Sidney Alexander for a boy, but most of my friends frowned at that saying it was a girl name.  We eventually ruled it out, not for my friends' comments, rather the acronym "S.A.D."  As much as I loved the name, I couldn't imagine having that looming over our child's head : ) 

It's interesting to see the differences in the styles of our daughters' names.  One is not very common and the other's is a family name, very old-timey, but making a shift back up the list.  I find myself drawn to looking back through the family tree to pull inspiration.  I love names that have been around awhile...not sure that we will ever have another child, but I'm always playing around with names.

Here are some that I like:

Boys                   Girls
James                 Jane
Emery                Hazel
Alexander          Elizabeth
Thomas             Camillia
Davis                 Evelyn
Evan                 Stella
Maxim               Rose

Five of the boy names and two of the girl names are family names.  I used up two family names (first and middle) for our baby girl so the pickins are getting slim on family names for a daughter. 

One thing that I discovered that I thought was neat was the many Elizabeths in my family because the women named their daughters after themselves.  Kuddos to them.  Women hardly ever pass down their own names, but men do all of the time.  On a similar note, my grandma told me that it was common for women's maiden names to be included as their child's middle name back in the day.  Too bad that tradition has faded, I liked it a lot, too. 

Are there any traditions in naming that you like/dislike?  Were there any traditions that you liked, but couldn't follow because they clashed with your new last name?

3 comments:

Mrs BC said...

Camelia, Stella & Rose are 3 of my favourite girls names!

For some reason in my family, many of my ancestors went by their middle name. I have no idea why, but I'm glad it stopped with me..

Also, Sidney was my grandfather's name!
x

A Kitchen Witch said...

Neat!

GardenOfDaisies said...

I love using family names, especially as middle names, because then things don't get so confusing after a few generations. My daughters middle name is the same as my middle name. And my son's middle name is my husband's first name. We were extra careful with initials, made sure they didn't spell out anything negative.