Henry (age 7) was telling me about an idea he’d had for a video game, and he said the main guy’s name was Zade, or maybe he said Zane. “Did you say Zade?,” I clarified, zeroing in on the part of the story that interested me most. “Yes,” he said, “Because Jade is a girl name.” I said I’d been checking to see if he’d said Zane, and he said with a laugh, “Zane?? Zane is a SIDEKICK name!”
It’s common for parents to say they’ve loved a name ever since they were a child. And it’s common for parents to say that they accidentally used a name for a pet and now wish they could use it for a baby. I wonder if there is any information about the next generation’s naming preferences to be found in what the current children/teenagers are naming their toys and story characters.
When I was still in college, I adopted two cats. I named them George and Oliver: names that seemed to me like perfect pet names, because they were whimsical and appealing but clearly not names I’d want to use for real children. A decade or so later, I was wishing I hadn’t wasted those excellent baby names on cats. When names are coming in but are not quite in, it’s common to see them first on animals: all those pets named Max and Sam and Jack right before the “appealing one-syllable old-man names” style hit.
Elizabeth (age 9) favors -bert names. She has toy animals named Herbert, Albert, Filbert. But I liked that kind of name too as a child: they seemed funny. And yet those weren’t an accurate prediction of names to come in my generation of parents. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the -bert names for the next generation, though.
When she was younger, around age 3, she thought her new baby cousin should be named Windiest, the most beautiful name of all.
My eldest, when he was younger, kept wanting us to name a baby Plum.
My friend’s teenaged daughter named their dog Zola.
As a child, I named a doll Megan, but that was an on-trend choice rather than a predictive one. I named another doll Jeanette Isabella for the Christmas carol; years later, I changed her name to Nina. I thought the most beautiful name I’d ever heard was Stephanie; again, on-trend rather than predictive. But I also named goldfish Cleo and Milo and Theo, and I named snails Simon and Silas. Names that seemed quirky enough for pets back then, but now seem perfect for babies.
The name Zade isn’t unheard-of (61 new baby boys given the name in 2013), but it’s very unusual: Henry hasn’t encountered it anywhere, and thinks he invented it. It shares one of the dominant sounds in the recently-popular -aden names, but is an offshoot rather than belonging to that group.
If you have children or spend time around children, what names have you noticed them favoring? Names such as Fluffy or Butterscotch won’t give us any information, but what about the others? Which names are they using that are currently in style, and which are they using that aren’t, and which names do they think they’re inventing?
I know a toddler named zade! I have boys and my girl is little, so we don’t have too much name talk yet. I am pregnant though, and from the beginning my 5 year old son has insisted that if Baby is a girl her name is Lucy. He is absolutely set on it. We think he likes this name because of reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. But it is funny that he likes the on trend girl name and not the slightly dated Susan. I am excited to see the responses from other readers. And your daughter’s love of -Bert names is awesome!
I have a four-year-old. He often gives me bizarre names that don’t make sense, but occasionally he comes up with real names. His imaginary friend is Olga. Olga has a sister named Violet. And their mom’s name is Gray (Lady Gray maybe).
I’m expecting and I just asked him what name we should name the baby. For a boy? Noah. For a girl? Mattea or Kenya. He just learned about Noah in Sunday school. Mattea is a girl in his class and Kenya is our dog’s name (which we found to be a great dog name but maybe in ten years, it’ll be a more mainstream girl name?).
Maybe he is a little too young to have his OWN opinion. Olga really did come out of nowhere, though. At the age of two.
Zola is a kid name on Grey’s Anatomy.
My daughter is obsessed with naming everything “Sierra” – the name of a friends dog. She tends to favor names that are already used by people she likes.
Levi is my 5 year old daughter go-to name and it has been for a while now. She’ll name all her babies that doesn’t matter on the gender.
Almost 2 years ago when I was pregnant with my other daughter, Piper wanted to badly for her name to be Eliza… sadly we didn’t use it (we went with Felicity) and a couple months later we bought Piper a rabbitt and she named it Eliza.
I forgot to mention that I kind of regret naming our dog ‘Romy’ I think now it would be the cutest little girl name but maybe to close to my niece Ruby…
so we just got a cat and named her Visa… so I won’t have to worry about that name ever being a potential kid name
My son is 6, and he is insistent that he will have 2 boys named Roger and Toby. I have no idea where he came up with them, but he’s been saying it for a while. My daughter is only 3, so she mostly makes up nonsense sounding names for things. She was calling one of her dolls Journal for a while, and just named a purple bunny she got for Easter “purpster”.
My daughters keep naming things with a -uma- sound in them. Zuma, Duma, Pumar, etc. I think its from Paw Patrol, but it has extended to fairies and pirates. Also, they name a lot of things Cindy, which seems like a mom name to me, I wouldn’t expect it to come around so quickly to name their kiddos, but perhaps it will.
When I was pregnant with my second I asked my then preschooler (now teen) what baby names he liked. He said Gwen or Joy for a girl (both names of people we knew) and Joshua for a boy (a name that was high on our actual list and he might have heard us discussing). Then he added Gertrude McFuzz (a Dr. Seuss character). I’d be happy with grandchildren named Gwendolyn, Joy, and Joshua, and if she were my own granddaughter, I bet could warm up to Gertie, too.
My daughter is always changing her dolls’ names. One went from Clara to Lila to Violet. Another one went from Eliana to Bella. Her taste seems pretty on-trend at the moment.
My four year-old mostly just suggests Disney princess names when we discuss the new baby on the way. The one outlier is “Una” (YOU-na). I think it’s because it’s the beginning of the word “unicorn,” but who knows? We recently brought home six baby chicks which she named Honey, Sunny, Stormy, Lala, Loopsy, and Lukey. I can’t pinpoint her naming style at all! :) Our new baby turned out to be a boy, and the ONLY name she will consider is “Ted.” I asked her opinion on Graham and she said, “No way! It sounds like an old person name. Like short for Grandma.” That was a perspective I hadn’t heard. The name is now off the list.
Our 16 yr old neighbor raises chickens and they have names like Nancy & Betsy. Our dog’s name is Monty aka Montgomery, and our cat is Abra. These are the names they came with from the shelters. My 9 yr old favors names like Ashley which sounds SO sophisticated to him. All the kids name boy things Bob. The name Bob is hilarious to them and they squeal with delight when we drive by a Bob Evans. Names we “wasted” on animals are Boyd, Maggie, and Ruby.
My three year old has an imaginary friend named Laura, a doll named Ellie and a turtle named grace. She also has a doll named Lalu, a doll named Baby Jesus, and an imaginary friend named Bara. Not sure we’ll see those last three popping up on people any time soon!
No kids yet, but my niece really favors the names from My Little Pony. Everything she owns has a pony name, even non-ponies. And honestly, out of context, I could see them happening. Not all of them are usable, but I could imagine a future SSA list involving Twilight, Celestia, Luna, and Rarity.
My nephew is similarly pop-culture influenced. I wouldn’t be surprised if the dwarf names from the Hobbit started to sound appealing to him when it came time to choose a baby name.
I was definitely one of those people who wasted a lot of great names on stuffed animals and pets! My sister named things after inanimate objects until she was halfway through elementary school.
My four year old daughter, who’s name is Ally, is always asking us to call her Hallie, or Mrs. Hatchabelle. I have no idea where either came from. As far as her babies, she most commonly uses Everley, after a baby that she adores at daycare. We are expecting a baby boy in September and she is really pushing for the name Handsome. When we asked my son what a good boy name might be (before we told him we were expecting) he told us “I don’t know, maybe just Bill”. Proving that he has never really given the art of naming any thought at all. Which seems perfectly normal for a 7 year old boy :)
I’m kind of fascinated by my 2 year old’s affinity for Lisa…we’re not sure where she even heard the name. It might be a mispronunciation of Lucy (which is a dog she’s met) or she just really latched onto the little girl in the Cordoroy Bear story. I’m also amused that we have a doll named Sia, named after a little girl she met at the Pumpkin Patch. Lately we’ve been hearing a lot of Cosy the Panda/Bear/Horse/Whatever we’re playing. I guess I can look forward to grandchildren with very S heavy names.
A little boy I grew up with had a very significant imaginary friend named Everett, and its an association I can’t really get over when other people bring it up as a serious baby name candidate.
It has been observed that trendy names get popular in Utah before they get popular anywhere else. Also, Utah has the youngest average age of first time parents. I think you’re on to something. I have also wondered if something in the generational mind makes certain names appealing to those raised at the same time. Did one person hear Noah and everyone else copied or did everyone hear Noah, think it was a great name, and saved it until they had a child, shocked that everyone else was using the same name? I’ve heard it from more than one parent of kids with popular names: “We liked/picked Jayden/Noah/Sophia before it became so popular.” It would be interesting if we could sort baby names by age of parent, and see if the teenage moms chose the names of tomorrow!
I am 32 and I read Maeve Binchy’s book “Evening Class” when I was younger- maybe high school? And I loved all things Irish and fell in love with the name Aidan. If I had been a teenage mom, I totally would have used it! Fast forward just a few years and it was the IT name! Now I could never use it and it has lost its appeal. SO sad.
My cousin’s daughter Isabel is 14 and I remember being disappointed that they used the name because I would have wanted to use it down the line, I was 18/19 at the time. After that Isabel and its various forms really blew up as a name. I also had a rabbit named Hazel, which I would totally use as a name. My current cat is Ninja, so no risk there. :)
My 9 year old is quite passionate about names (I wonder where he got that from). His current favorite is Fox. My 11 year old daughter quite likes Constance, Gwen, and Caroline. She likes Elizabeth nicknamed Bess. At the store the other day she was surprised that the lady helping us named Linda was an older lady. She said it sounded like a young persons name -I got the sense she liked it.
Fox could grow on me, but wow granddaughters names Connie, Linda, and Bess would be something.
When I was three, I wanted to name my new brother “Mo.” Spelled like that. When that brother was three and we had another new brother, he insisted (and told many people) the baby was named “Zachary.” (He wasn’t.) We eventually got a puppy over a year later he named Zachary.
My two-year-old’s favorite stuffed animals are named Panda and Green Frog. I named her favorite doll/lovey “Amy,” because I thought it was an easy name and wouldn’t be represented among the kids she met. And also because all my best friends and roommates growing up were named Amy (born in 1974). I didn’t stop to think about how many *adults* she would meet named Amy, though!
None of this data is longitudinal enough to show any patterns in my family. :)
Oh this is interesting to think about.
When I was kindergarten age, my imaginary friend was named Agno. My favorite girl name was Patience. This was ~ 1995?
Do your kids know about One Direction? Only because I think Zayne is one of the members, and 9 is about the right age for them I think.
Zayn is no longer a member of One Direction, alas. Heh.
I was talking about names with my husband and son the other day, as you do. We were reading a book and it had a character named Basil. So I was all “We should have another boy and name him Basil!” So my son, who is 7, chimes in with: “We should call him Steve!” Which is because he likes Minecraft. I told him that friends at church recently named their first son Stephen, so technically he could call this baby at church “Steve”. He thought that was the coolest thing.
My daughter is 9 and she named a doll I made for her: Samantha. Which seems kind of boring to me! Though she couldn’t spell it and wrote down something more like “Smmntha”. :/ She wrote a story in school and I think the characters were Max & Ava, so she’s on trend there.
Oh and my 4 year old likes to call everything Bob. He has a dump truck and a tractor named “Trucky and Bob”. You’d think the truck would be called Trucky, but the truck is named Bob and the tractor is named Trucky. I took him to the farm last fall and got video of him calling all the kittens “Bob”. I think it started with our 7 year old trying to insult people by calling them “Bob” – which totally doesn’t work, since his own middle name is Robert, after his great grandpa, who went by the name of Bob! We did explain that to him – that he couldn’t insult his brother by calling him by his own family honor name. I could imagine my 4 year old growing up and wanting to name his son Bob. Or maybe his daughter Bobbie.
This is interesting! My son just turned 3 and doesn’t really name things yet. His stuffed animals are all named Doggie, Monkey, One More Monkey (yes, really), Teddy Bear…Teddy Bear is his favorite and he does refer to him as Peanut once in a while, but probably because that is what I call his baby sister.
A decade ago when I was in college I named my dog Cohen. It isn’t a name I personally would use for a human, but it did get trendy for a while there not long after I named the dog. And now I have cats named Zelda and Ursula and kind of have namer’s remorse and wish I had saved one for a daughter (not that I think my husband would go for either option on a human).
As a young child I remember naming my dolls after favorite peers, mostly (Heather, Andrea, Kimberly). Then as I was in middle school and early high school my favorite names were Jewel, Rose, Selina…mostly pop culture stuff, I suppose (I think Rose was inspired by Titanic). Rose is the only one I still find appealing. For boys Damon was far and away my favorite name when I was a teen (inspired by Matt Damon, of course).
Our niece, who was 3 at the time and is now 4, thought her impending baby sister should be named Karia (prn like Korea), and then she moved on to and became obsessed with Susie. Baby is actually named Isla. :)
When I was 8, I advised my pregnant mother to name her third girl Mabel or Hazel. I was in a Little House phase at the time. She became a Brianna-variant! This was 1984.
I remember starting to crush on the name Lily as a girl name. Probably mid-90s.
Oops, just realized I’m off topic! Sorry!
Not that off topic! I appreciate it.
My 4yo son’s imaginary friends are Nelson and Ruby, but Nelson is a girl and Ruby is a boy.
We had our 5th baby last year and my six year-old was pushing hard for the name Lisa. He thought it was the most beautiful name in the world. We don’t have any close friends or family named Lisa, so I’m guessing he heard someone call his Kindergarten teacher by her first name (Lisa).
The three-year-old, of course, wanted to name the baby Cheeto or Jane (which is her own name).
My 11-year old was right on trend with her suggestion of Lila.
A little off topic, but illustrative of the mysterious ways of trends…No kids yet for me, but I was born in the late 1980s and first became interested in naming when I was in the later years of elementary school. By middle school I was lurking on early naming boards and forums, and keeping obsessive lists. This was the mid/late 1990s and very early 2000s, and for girls my perennial favorite names were Isabella, Ava, Sophie, Emma, Scarlett, Fiona, Lily, Felicity, and Mia. My favorite boy names back then were Henry, Oliver, Liam, Milo, and Theo. Surprise! Look what’s top 10 (and 100) popular now, twenty years later? I’m not trying to say I had any kind of special knowledge or predictive power– I remember talking to other girls around that same time and we all had close to the same favorites (to our perpetual astonishment and occasional chagrin). In particular I remember asking a close friend sometime around 1998 what she’d picked for her future kids, and both of us being shocked to find we each had chosen Ava (!!). In 1998, Ava was really uncommon at #350, and the years when we were born it hadn’t even ranked in the top 1000. Neither of us had ever met one. Now of course it’s top 10. I’d also at that point never met an Isabella, Scarlett, Lily, Milo, Henry, Theo, or Mia my age– but since I’ve been an adult I’ve met a number of people born and raised by artsy parents in NYC in the mid 1980s, and all those names are represented; their parents were ahead of the curve.
Trends like this are mysterious and fascinating to me.
I don’t babysit as much as I used to, but one of my favorite questions of the kids is what their favorite names are. I’ve mostly sat for boys though, and the ones I knew were not really keen on names and rarely named their toys anything name-y (so to speak). More like Greenie the Dinosaur, Growler the Bear, that kind of thing. (I had dolls named Cassiopeia and Christabel… lol.)
I did recently have a fun “What are you thinking of naming your kids?” talk with a friend of mine (not the middle school one), and it was a hilarious repeat of earlier times. We both named the same name (Pearl) as our current top pick. Same incredulous looks at each other. Neither of us knows anyone named Pearl… It made me wonder if it will head top the top in another decade?
When I was a freshman in college, I drove past a street named Addison Rd. I thought that would make a fantastic girls first name. LO and behold, ten years later, it became very popular. In 2003, a close friend had a sister named Evelynn. I adored it and locked it away in memory. I felt it had all the qualifications of a fabulous name without being terribly popular. In fact, it was down right old-fashioned and lovely. In 2010, when I was pregnant with my first, I saw that it had quickly became popular. I would have still used it had he been a she, but now, five years later, it’s more popular, and I just can’t add it to the potential name list.
Mid 80’s here and I’m actually kind of similar! When I was 11-12ish, I thought the best girl’s name ever was Eleanor. That has since popped up the charts.
Also, there’s a street in my town called Ryland and I thought that would make a great name too. That’s pretty on trend as well.
Lol so funny – late 1980s birthday here as well – and Ava was my #1 name for a good 3ish years!
My three year old son is 100% convinced that my daughter’s name is Feliciwee. He will correct you if he hears the T in Felicity too strongly.
Another fun story – a couple of years ago my daughter mentioned that a boy in her class had a new baby sister named Rose. Which is my daughter’s name. That summer I met the family randomly at the pool and I’m like “We both have Roses – nice name!” The Mom told me that it was her son who suggested the name. They didn’t realize that he was just suggesting the name of a girl in his class. They didn’t know anyone else with the name and liked it, so they used it! So my daughter had a baby named after her. :P And kids like the names of other kids in their class. :)
WINDIEST. Oh my gosh that is adorable. (It IS a pretty-sounding word, though! Just maybe not as a name…) Zade is cool too!
When I was little I had a doll named Aina. (Pronounced like AY-na.) Sort of an unfortunate-sounding name, if you know what I mean. There’s a video somewhere of my parents asking me over and over again what my doll’s name is, and I just keep insisting, “Aina! Her name is Aina!”, clearly very confused about why everyone thought it was so funny.
I also had dolls named Pearl, Lila, Samantha, and Muffin. I still love the names Pearl and Lila. I like the name Samantha, but it’s not really in line with my naming style anymore. And Muffin…well, at least it’s original.
As for pet names…when I was about five years old I named my pet kitten Rebecca. I still like that name for a person, but it’s not exactly the most conventional name for an animal! She came with the name Annie (which, looking back on it, is an ADORABLE name for a cat) but I guess I didn’t like it at the time. When my mom asked me why I picked the name Rebecca, I said, “My friend at school has a little sister named Rebecca, and I think it’s a beautiful name.”
My then three year old was going though everything -Ella phase. She called her bracelet Godella. Her dolls were Ella and Bella and Flella. And Jella. You get the idea. Then we got a minivan that she named Stella. And it stuck because damn who doesn’t love the name Stella?
10 years ago, my son’s imaginary friend was named Carriolli, like carry and ravioli mixed together. I’m pretty sure he made it up, but he was very consistent about it and she was around for years
When I was very small, I had an imaginary brother and sister named Boogo and Ravioli. Also two imaginary dogs named Packy and Balf, but that’s beside the point here.
I have a nephew named Zaid (pronounced same as Zade). It is an Arabic name and in keeping with his family heritage.
This is all very fascinating.
I don’t have any news to share about what little kids around me are naming things, but I have seen interesting patterns in my own life.
As a child, I was completely enraptured by names. I used to keep secret lists in my room and read the school directories and yearbooks for inspiration (the best I had access to at the time). But my biggest name crushes came from outside sources.
I adored all the American Girl names, some of which have seen a lot of use since (Samantha, Molly, Felicity, Addy).
I was very into the part of Cinderella where they reveal her real name is Ella–I thought that was gorgeous (and here we are, with Ella being a very popular name). I often wonder if that’s a similar thing that happened with the generation that named Cindy–seems every girl goes through a Cinderella phase. Did they just zero in on the first part of her name, and we zeroed in on the last?
I had a porcelain doll I named Olivia. I thought it was a gorgeous name. My grandmother told me the name of the doll in the catalog was Kelly. I remember thinking that was a terrible name for a dainty doll, and I stuck with Olivia. Olivia’s definitely been resurrected since.
I thought Rose was the most beautiful name in the world (still do). That was likely influenced by “Titanic”. I also loved Jack for a long time since then, but ended up having a nephew named Jack!
Finally, I fell head over heels for the name Annie. I thought it was the sweetest, most approachable, most lovable name in the world. I always envisioned having a daughter named Annie. I think this was a variety of sources coming together–“Father Of The Bride”, “Annie”, “Sleepless In Seattle”, Anne Frank (a big obsession I had for awhile), Anne of Green Gables, princesses and queens named Anne… That one never went away. We plan on naming our daughter Annie! I also fell in love with the boy name Rory on a TV show when I was in high school. I remember being very upset when “Gilmore Girls” happened and it became unisex. Fortunately, I think boys are still holding down the fort with that name, and we will likely use it for a son.
When I was little my favorite dolls were named Caroline Augusta and Adele. I would still use those names. ;)
My little brother (19 years old) told me he planned on naming his kids Bruce, Ruth, Janet or Wayne. That was shocking to me as those feel like baby boomer names and not quite old enough for a comeback. But then Michael is a bit hipster….
Yeah, I am excited to see mid-century names hit the charts again!
My 5 year old son thinks if we had another now her name should be Lily.
And I have to share this story – when I was pregnant with above 5 year old, I had a vivid dream he’d been born and we’d named him Zabe. I half woke up and told my husband what the baby’s name should be. But he misheard and thought I said
Zerb.
I was born in the late 70’s. I remember loving the names Rachel, Renee and Denise when I was around 10 or so. I thought Renee was so glamorous sounding! Later, in high school I used to write a lot of fiction and always named my characters Isabelle/Izzy and Macy. If I were a teen mom I totally would have been right on trend with those names! By they time I had kids, I thought they were too popular/trendy and didn’t like them anymore. So interesting.
Quick poll of my kids came up with the following:
Persephone
John
Anastasia
Kobe
Klaus
Mary
All names of people we know so more about the person than the name. Similar trend when we had the last baby – all suggested names of their friends.
Oh and I didn’t list them but when I asked ‘what is the best name?’ They all nominated their own name first :)
I renamed myself Josephine and Imogen in the early ’90s – names I thought very sophisticated.
I regret using the name Cora for a dog seven years ago. *sigh*
As a kid, I loved Norah thanks to Pete’s Dragon.
Felicity used as an American Girl doll has made it unusable for my husband since his little sisters were devoted to the books.
Jane was often a middle name for girl dolls, and Jay was the male middle name counterpart.
Interestingly, my husband recently asked if our friends secretly loved how we name our children (adventurously) because they keep using names from our list for their pets. Which kind of feels like an annoying complement from our friends…lol!
I definitely think we can predict some future popular names based on kids’ tastes. When I was a kid in the 80’s and early 90’s, my absolute favorite name was Sophie for a girl and Luka or Lucas for a boy. My sister had a stuffed animal named Olivia. I also loved the name Fiona as a teen. We knew no Sophies, Sofias, Lukas, Olivias, or Fionas growing up. I planned on naming my daughter Sophie NO MATTER WHAT, but when the last ten years happened, I had to take the name off the table. And I’m the fourth or fifth to chime in that the little kids around me ALSO love the name Lisa despite not knowing any Lisas! I have to think that name will make a big comeback.
Funny regarding “Lisa” because my mom loves that name and suggests it with every grandchild (13 so far). Since names tend to skip generations in a certain pattern, perhaps she is on to something but is just a generation too early. :) She also loves, loves, loves the name Carl. Slightly off topic, I know, but maybe revealing. :) My kids are still too young to have name tastes, but I can remember my favorite name as a little girl was Claire or Clara… most of my dolls got that name. We now have a “Clare” (her middle name) and might even us a variant of the name as a first name for a future girl (we kind of regret not using it as a first name to begin with because it really is the one girl name that hits the sweet spot for us as a couple). Needless to say, the name has risen in popularity since i was 8 years old, though. I also loved Amanda, which was more on trend at the time.
I am trying to think of what my nieces and nephews like.. one loves “Rose” variants.. so she seems on-trend.
Oh wow, this just triggered a memory from elementary/middle school (mid-90s) of a pair of close-in-age sisters I knew named Clare and Carolyn, who confessed to wishing they were named Clara and Caroline because those names were “more beautiful”…we were in theater club together, and they would test the waters of trying to get everyone to use those versions of their names. (It didn’t stick…) In hindsight, they were totally on to something, as now Clara and Caroline are more stylish and more common than Clare/Claire and Carolyn.
Oh wait…correction! Claire is more popular than Clara as of 2013. Clara is catching up, though.
Kaela – according to my mom (another name nerd like me?) the reason Clara took a dive for several decades is because of some cartoon cow named “Clara?” It lost its elegance for a bit. But it’s back now that the association has faded. I personally love Clara, but it rhymes with my name, so we nixed it for a first name for our daughter. So interesting regarding the twins!! I have a twin too, but our names are so classic, it’s hard to complain. :)
This is great! Still laughing at Zerb and Windiest.
I really think kids’ taste can be predictive: like others above, I was an early ’80s baby who love, love, loved Sophia, Isabella, Lily, Adeline, Madeline, Amelia, Clara, etc. Also, Bennett, Micah, Luke, Noah, and Levi. I named my actual pets Moses (cat), Mona (pony, short for Mon Amie), Poppy (rabbit), Dallben (dog), and Tommy and Tommie (cats, one male one female).
My children haven’t voiced much opinion yet, but the few times have been noteworthy. Our oldest wanted to name our 2nd: Runs-On-Sidewalk. Two years later, he wanted to name our 3rd: Father [celibate priest’s last name]. Awkward. He also loved our adopted cat’s name: Sally. I hated it, and tried to change it to Wren, but 5 years later she is still Sally Wren. He also named a cat Lorelei and a little doeling goat Tulip.
My boys’ imaginary sisters are Maria Aveny, and Booma Flowerwood.
Right now, my daughter (4 1/2) only invents names. The only ones I’ve overheard her use are Aviva (pronounced Aveeva) and Andina (pronounced An-DIE-na, not Andeena). I suspect she makes up others, but her imaginative play is always conducted in very hushed tones. While I think Andina sounds a little too much like a female part of the anatomy to ever catch on, Aviva seems like it might already be in use, and I wouldn’t be surprised to encounter a little girl with that name in the next 10 years (although Google tells me it’s the name of an insurance company in the UK).
My sister just found out of her pregnancy so I got to talk to my 7 year old niece (aka my mini me) about possible names for her new sibling. Among a few ordinary names she informed me she liked the names Oriella (play off on Oreo and Ella) and Camriella (play off on Cambrian and Ella.) im seeing the Cinderella theme in her made up names.
The other names in her list included Hannah, Annie, Molly, Skylar, Ezekial, and Andrew.
We’ve been talking about names a lot with our 6 year old daughter since I’m pregnant now. It’s been so interesting to see what she gravitates towards. She offered us three options if it was a girl: Caroline (her absolute favorite name, she tells me she wishes we named her Caroline), Daisy (we know someone with this name), or Maya (her closest friend from preschool). Funny thing is Caroline was a top runner if it had turned out to be a girl. For boys, she has an imaginary brother named Stephen, who’s married to a guy named Jason, and I have no idea where she got those names! She’s not too big a fan of our boy name choice (Theodore).
I loved thinking about baby names when I was growing up. I have younger brothers, and I spent many hours reading my mom’s baby name books. I remember loving very trendy 80s names, like Tiffany, Stephanie, Nicole, etc. However, the names that I actually really used for pets, dolls, etc were much more in line with what’s popular now….I named them things like Charlotte, Rose, Violet, and Annie. I’ve had the name Theodore (Teddy) picked out since I was 12, and have purposely avoided using it on any pets since then!
My 6 year old daughter likes names, and talking about when she’s grown up and has kids. She consistently likes Sarah, Ella, Rose, Anna, Lily, and Lamplight. She has liked Lamplight for years, as well as the others. She likes Tim and George for boys. Also Dinosaur, not because she likes it, but because a little boy would love having Dinosaur as a name.
As a little kid, I had an imaginary friend named Violet, and a favorite baby doll named Sophia. Both are names I still love, but would be too popular to actually use! I think it’s interesting to watch as people my age start having kids and the names I thought were SO beautiful as a kid become more and more popular. I guess I wasn’t the only one!
My friend is very good at naming pets. She currently has Ruth, Jerome and Stanley (all cats) and Wayne (dog). I find her naming style for pets completely awesome. Don’t you see Ruth and Stanley coming back one day? They fit in that traditional naming style of George and Fred and Mary.
My daughter (almost two) loves the names Lily and Sasha. (Names of school friends.) We have a squirrel in the backyard called Howard. (I don’t actually know if it is the same squirrel, day after day, year after year – all squirrels are just “Howard.” Much easier to pronounce than “squirrel.”)
When I was growing up (born in early 80s), we had a lot of cats, and I delighted in naming them. Scarlett, Kimberly, Rebecca, Taylor. (The male cats are less memorable. Rhett – with Scarlett, of course – and Joshua and Romeo are three that stick out to me.) When I was a kid, I had dolls named Katherine, Madeline, Emily, and Jocelyn.
Our dogs, named by my parents, were Renee, Jessica, and Kerry.
My little brother (born late 80s) used to name all pets/dolls “Sam,” regardless of sex.
When I had my son in 2007, my daughter suggested we name him Silver (whether he turned out to be a girl or a boy.)
My ten year old is BEGGING for a dog that she can name Hazel. It makes me smile. I never really had animals growing up, but I named my toys things that I’d now name kids. Well mostly. I’m not a fan of Crystal anymore.
This post reminded me of Elmo’s pet fish, Dorothy! I know she was probably named via producer and not an actual child, but it makes me wonder if some kiddos will have a certain fondness for that name. I can get on board with that one, but I worry for the day my kids tell me they’re thinking of the names Donna and Sharon ( quintessential mom names, in my opinion) for their baby!
Pregnant with my third child my five year old son was, for several months, quite insistent that if a boy he be named Spike. At some point, however, he switched to Laser. Neither of these ‘names’ are even remote possibilities…And, just for something different, if the baby’s a girl he thinks she should be named Rose. Five weeks to go and hoping the disappointment of rejected names will not be too much for big brother to bear.
Long-time reader commenting for the first time (maybe I’ll revive this comment section?). Names are my favorite thing ever. I’ve had a loooong list going for at least 6 or 7 years that has travelled across various devices over the years.
I’m almost 20, so my childhood wasn’t too long ago, but here’s what I remember:
When my younger sister (born 2001) and I (1998) would play together, for the longest time she would always call herself Belle and I was always Marie or Maria. I thought it was just the perfect name, but I really didn’t care for my sister’s choice, and still don’t care for the name.
I loved baby dolls. Loved them. All 14 had names, ages, personalities, etc. I know I gave them middle names at one point, but they didn’t really stick and I only remember that one was Ethan. Their first names were: Joseph & Jeffrey (twins – I guess I named Joseph after my dad), Joshua, Matthew, Michael, Benjamin, Amelia called Emmy (this doll had dark skin and I knew a little girl with dark skin called Emmy), Annabel (pre-named; it was a Baby Annabel doll), Emily, Rose, a doll already named Maria when I adopted her from a friend, twins Timothy and Tamara (named after my mom and her twin brother – although they were originally called Slinkey and Binkey – I think – when I was about 4) and my most special and beloved baby named Christopher, but usually called Chris, or Baby Chris to distinguish him from my brother.
I guess what’s interesting is that I called almost all of them by their full names and most boy names are biblical. I still like a lot of them, though not all :)