Favourite Kids Names
June 1, 2007 at 8:00 AM
by Ashleigh
Francine tagged me to give you my favourite kids' names. Much much harder than it seems!
I remember when I was pregnant with Sebastian trying to choose a name that satisfied both his dad and I. Names like Nigel, Bryan and Kevin were absolutely out. So were Jason, Jarad, Jonathan and George.
Oliver was a possibility and Joachim (my Joe) may well have been an Oliver if my friend Gretchen hadn't had an Oliver already.
Sebastian was the only reasonable choice.
I remember producing name after name for Brad only to have, 'Are you absolutely insane?' either said directly to me or implied with one of those looks.
Joe was really difficult. I had picked out his name if he was going to be a girl. He would have been called Dana.
In fact, I was so convinced that he was a girl that I had no boys' names picked out.
Thus, a few minutes after a rather precipitous c-section delivery Brad had named him Joachim and it was all done and dusted. Subsequently he became Joe 'for short' or as a baby, one word 'BabyJoe', pronounced by my mom's maid as Bebejoe, which was very cute.
Little did we know then, living in England, that our chosen names would be perfect for Holland. Joachim is easy for Dutch people to pronounce and Sebastian just gets a longer 'aaa' after the i. Perfect! Unlike registering Joe's name at the registry office in England where the clerk looked at us and said 'Yo-what?' when we told her his chosen name. I pictured this poor child going through life being called 'Yo-what'? Thus the shortening to Joe!
Girls' names are even harder. No Stephanie, Amelia (can I feelya, Amelia?) or Emma.
Sebastian might have been a Chloe if he was a girl, but I may have regretted that as Chloe has become rather popular as a girls' name.
My daughter (who doesn't live with us) is called Arianne which I still love as a name.
It's pronounced A-ri-anne, not Aryan as some people insist.
Dudes, what's with wanting to call people Aryan? Did you not read any WW2 history??
So there you go, five favourite kids' names.
If you fancy joining in on this meme, please just jump in and leave a comment so I can come and read your selections.
Comments
Oh boy, didn't we have some go-arounds when I was pregnant with Max! My ex wanted a Frisian name, which is only pronouncable if you're also Frisian. And boy do those names look weird to the unintiated! It was easier with Nicky (who is named after *all* his forefathers) and I got pretty much free rein with Rowen's name. :D
I like classic names.
For girls: Grace, Claire
For boys: Ryan, Tristan, Christopher, Joseph
See, I *knew* you'd make an interesting post out of this tag. Heh.
It's amazing how names I once liked, now don't do anything for me anymore. Frank was almost a Patrick. PATRICK?! WTF?
Had he been a girl, he would have been an Emma. Still a very pretty name, but nothing I'd actually choose for my child anymore.
Oh well. I've burdened these innocent souls now. Nothing left to do about it :p.
June 1, 2007 6:34 PM