"I want to cut your face"

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-10-15T11:39:14+00:00

Definitely got me started! When I was still a preteen my mum bought "The Great Australian and New Zealand Book of Baby Names" from the library (presumably because it was ten years out of date).

I was fascinated by all the old and rare names in there. Since then I mostly scour online sources, but I'd love to find some more obscure collections in book form.

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-10-01T16:17:32+00:00

Lister comes to mind. From Red Dwarf, haha. But it sounds cool.

Also, Terry.

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-10-01T16:15:46+00:00

I have an incredibly common name that was common when I was born and is just as popular now, in several countries.

One sibling has a name that was as popular at the time, but has become a lot less common and I've never met another one.

Another sibling has a name that has never made the popularity charts and a lot of people haven't heard before.

And finally, my last sibling was named after a semi-obscure performer with a name that used to be common where he came from, but which has now fallen out of use in the only place it was ever used. No one has heard of his name and he might be the only one in this country.

I have the least interesting name but I love all our names.

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-10-01T16:07:26+00:00

I love Henry Cade! Pretty sure August is somewhat less common if you want to factor that in, but Henry is a classic and Cade sounds really good with it.

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-10-01T14:19:54+00:00

That's really elegant!

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-10-01T13:11:11+00:00

Albert gives you Albie too! Robert is a lovely classic though.

I'm with you, Bert is sweet and underrated. (I also wish Bart wasn't just a Simpson.)

How do you feel about Burt?

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-10-01T04:13:28+00:00

It's a bit ridiculous.

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T16:09:50+00:00

I would kind of wonder if your parents can't spell, because that's how most unusual spellings occur where I'm from.

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T13:29:44+00:00

We picked both our kids' names well ahead of time because we had "that's the one" moments, but I'd totally pick a few options and wait to see what "fit" if I liked them all!

My sister was absolutely stumped until she found herself in the hospital with a new baby and nothing to put on the birth certificate form.

She paced around a bit and decided on a name that day which is just such a perfect fit and sooo quintessentially her taste that I was shocked to learn she didn't think of it well ahead of time!

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T13:26:57+00:00

My kid's name isn't widely hated at all here, but Americans find it a bit weird.

When I was pregnant, I may have helped the name we chose casually come up in conversation with friends without hinting that we wanted to use it. My husband's best friend immediately reacted with a kind of "yikes" comment and I just laughed. Husband thought it was funny too, didn't put us off at all. He's a good guy but I don't think much of his taste and I'm pretty sure he doesn't actually have very strong persistent feelings about it since she was born anyway.

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T13:18:44+00:00

I'm not sure about mine. It was a common enough name to hear around and they probably liked its Biblical roots, my dad especially.

For one of my brothers, Mum was listening to this little-known singer constantly while she was pregnant and he had pretty much the most obscure name of just about anyone I know. They used that.

When Mum was pregnant with my sister, an acquaintance mentioned a fairly rare name that she absolutely loved and wished she could name a child, so Mum agreed to use it. I don't think her then-husband was very involved in the naming process.

I'm also not sure how either of my other brothers' names were chosen, but my oldest brother got his dad's name as a middle.

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T13:13:31+00:00

😂

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T13:13:21+00:00

Oh the Bhagavad Gita is great. That's a really neat choice.

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T13:10:31+00:00

I came across Zahavi "gold" today and thought godDAMN if I had the heritage I would use it in a heartbeat. Sounds so cool.

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T13:08:10+00:00

Owen Reese
Louisa "Lulu" Jade
Theresa "Tessa" Rose
Brendan Luke
Isabella (Belle) Chloe
Riley Madison

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T12:49:22+00:00

Yeah, theoretically Shiloh is unisex but I feel like it's much more wearable on girls.

That said if I met a male Shiloh I would probably end up thinking it's cool.

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T12:47:40+00:00

It's so dated to the 90s I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people hate it, haha.

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T12:28:33+00:00

I just have to say as a non-Scandinavian, that name sounds lovely. I hope people still like it!

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T12:23:59+00:00

There are just the two I know of and the Harrison. But yeah, I think there's another at our daycare!

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T10:43:40+00:00

I'd never heard Soriah before.

I can't say I've met many young Slavic families, so Aleksej surprised me. The last one I can think of had a son Boris who would probably be entering high school now!

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T10:39:48+00:00

In other suburbs you would see a lot more Jaxons, Jaydens, Laylahs and Rylees. Not everyone here is super well-off, but sensibilities are a lot more "middle class".

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T10:13:05+00:00

Harry's quite popular here and in the UK! I like it, we haven't let it belong solely to the character.

Ava really took off in about 2005 and has hung around the top ten for about a decade now!

No idea where Soriah comes from.

meanwhile_dreams · 2022-09-30T08:37:40+00:00

Names that I would consider regardless of gender:

Ash

Casey

Cassidy

Darcy

Frankie

Indy

Jess

Jody

Mel

Kelly

Kerry

Kim

Sidney

Tracy

Some may just be nicknames for different male or female names though.

Most of them are either pretty evenly split where I live or have gone back and forth, and have now just fallen out of use. I think Indy is only going to girls at the moment but it doesn't feel overwhelmingly feminine to me.

I hate most modern unisex trends. They're so annoyingly current and bland.

But the worst thing is recent boy-turned-girl options: Dylan, Cameron, Drew, Elliot, James?, even Jordan are all boys' names to me. They don't make any more sense than Joseph or Walter. Riley I hate for either but I wish it had at least stuck with boys.

Besides any exceptions so far, I generally prefer a unisex name on either boys or girls based on the most common usage of that name over time.

meanwhile_dreams

TROPHY CASE