Children's names

Like a River or the Rain.

Caroline as Caroline Kennedy? I like that name a lot.

I was catching up on some Girl Scout paperwork this evening and from the registrations I have the most popular name for girls age 6 through 15 in this area are...
Sarah
Katie
Chelsea
Hannah
Meagan
Alexa
Ashley
Sidney
Rachel
Sierra

Piel said:

I've been doing some geneology research and read that the Scots name their children following a pattern. First son is named after PGF, second after the MGF, and the third after the father. First daughter named after the MGM, second after the PGM, and the third after the Mother.

Click to expand...

Interesting. Jewish traditions vary widely betwen Ashkenazi and Sefardi tranditions (basically European vs. Asian Jews). The latter even allow naming kids after living relatives.

In the Ashkenazi tradition, naming a baby after someone is a great honor; some rabbis believe that the good deeds that the new person will perform will count for the one they've been named after as well (especially important for Zohar-based traditions which believe in a certain form of reincarnation). In addition, it is common to give kids both a "secular" name and a "Hebrew" name. Those are often related, or at least start from the first letter (such as secular name "Stanley" and Hebrew name "Shlomo"). Another option is to use the Hebrew name as a middle name. Finally, when naming after a deceased relative for the purposes of a secular name, it's common to just use the same first letter (for instance, my father, Gregory, is named after his grandfather Girsh).

Since Russian uses patronimics as well as first names, and since Ashkenazi Jews don't name kids after living relatives, tranditionally you'd know that if a Jew has the same first and patronimic (such as Isaak Isaakovich) he's been born after his father's death.

Many Jews give their children any name they like as a "secular" name, and use the Hebrew name to name the child after a deceased relative.

IDLERACER said:

My parents pulled that stunt on me (Daniel Ephraim). I'm not fond of my middle name and never use it.

There are two basic rules to remember when giving a child a name:

1. If your last name is a noun of some sort, do not name you're son "Harry" or your Daughter "Ima."

2. If your last name is a plural noun of some sort, do not name you're son "Seymour" or your daughter "Lotta."​

Click to expand...

Well, IMO, Harry, Ima, Seymour, and Lotta should not be used PERIOD and should be banned by the Federal Government. Harry Potter notwithstanding (but then again he's British).

Ephraim, I think, is a cool name. However -- it is pretty unwieldy to actually have to SAY; looks awesome on paper, tho.

My cousin has a friend who named her children Ronan and Grazia. I was like "Ronan and Grazia? Sounds like an ice-dancing couple!!"

"And now, representing Canada (or Australia) -- Grazia Martinelli and Ronan O'Shea!!"

seanibu said:

Madelyn is one of those that I would worry about because of the matti thing, makes me think of bedhead.

Click to expand...

That's my dog's name (look to the left of this post!), and whenever someone asks me, "How's Maddie?" I correct them: "It's MADELYN."

My husband and his sister are Sephardic Jews and thus named after their grandparents, who were alive when they were born. They're Israeli so they don't have middle names.

I'm Ashkenazic and it's a big no no to name your kid after someone who is alive. I was given a different Hebrew name from my secular name. Even when I lived in Israel, I never used it, just used my secular name.

When my daughter was born, we gave her a secular name and her middle name is a Hebrew name. My mother and the Rabbi were somewhat confused by this at her baby naming ceremony since it is so unusual not to be given a separate Hebrew name, but we figured that she's our little girl, so... As it was, I had to convince my husband to GIVE her a middle name since he just didn't understand the concept or purpose. (And really, when you think about it, how often do you use your middle name?)

Her name is Emma Hilah (pronounced "Hee-LAH"). "Hilah" means "halo" in Hebrew. I wanted to feel that there is an angel watching over her.

I named her Emma after the Diana Rigg character, Emma Peel, from that old British spy series, "The Avengers." I wanted my daughter to be a real independent, tough minded girl, just like that character.

Piel said:

Caroline as Caroline Kennedy? I like that name a lot.

Click to expand...

Ah, but then your child will spend the rest of her life saying "CaroLINE not CaroLYN, you can read it there on the paper where it says LINE at the end"

Trust me, I know. One of the people who influenced me the most, I knew him for 9 years, never learned to say it right.

soo...
Aaron
Calvin
Carter
Andrew
David
Brandon (Allthough the newest baby in our family is Braedon, so I probably couldn't get away with it)
James
Charles
Thomas

Margaret
Adrienne
Rebecca
Charlotte
Serena
Julie
Ruth
Isabella
Mariana

I'm a long way from children, I just like names.

Heh, my first priority in picking a name for a hypothetical child is that it not land me on the offenders' list at "Baby's Got a Bad, Bad Name" (http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com). Meaning no names after Indian tribes I don't belong to, silly spellings involving too many Ys (M'kynzy?), and nothing that sounds like it could ONLY come from a fictional character.

I'd also like to have a name that sounds somewhat Slavic, though not Jewish (no offense against Jews, my family's just Slavic, not Jewish and I wouldn't want to be explaining. Or culturally swiping, either) Helena Michaelina would work for me, assuming my husband's last name worked with it as I wouldn't have a child without a husband around and DEFINITELY wouldn't saddle them with my last name, which was the source of much more teasing than my first. Helen/a is my paternal grandmother (long-dead, since my father was a toddler--presence or absence of an A on the end depends on which documents from which country you're reading) and Michaelina is my maternal great-grandmother, whom my mother didn't really like but whom she likes more than my grandmother. Not really pleasant women on that side, but I like the name. Also Karolina, another maternal-side name. Helena Karolina would also work.

Boys? I would likely want to go the route my parents went, which is Mom named the girl, Dad named the boy, but my taste in boys' names is weirdly distressingly Anglophilic. Michael, Alan, David, Nicholas...about as exotic as I get is Jozef (hate the -ph spelling) and Matthias. I could actually be convinced to go with Nicholas Alexander, which was almost my brother's name. My dad reconsidered and went with Christopher Alexander instead. I got named, btw, Jennifer after a character in my Mom's favorite books when she was a kid. Apparently there was a chance it would have been Jennifer Ann or Laura Ann and Mom liked the Jennifer books better than the Little House books.

Another thing on my maiden name. When people find out what it was, I just tell them it's all behind me now! By the way, My grandfather's name was Flournoy Minafee Butts and father was Cecil Flournoy! They called my grandfather Ferd. When I sent out birth announcements of my son, Fred, my aunts didn't look at it hard enough and thought I had named him Ferd and went through the ceiling. My mother's sisters were not very tactful and when I was pg with my fourth, they said something about she shouldn't be having more children, she has a nice family now. Think they were worried I would keep going to meet my mother's seven. My sis named her daughter Marilys. I don't know where she heard of it but I always liked it a lot. One of my orthopedic Dr's name was Dr. Tinker!!

Piel said:

I've been doing some geneology research and read that the Scots name their children following a pattern. First son is named after PGF, second after the MGF, and the third after the father. First daughter named after the MGM, second after the PGM, and the third after the Mother.

You will also find instances where a child is named 'out of pattern', after an aunt or uncle who has died, or after an admired other relative or friend of the parent.

If a child dies in infancy, his or her name is often given to a subsequent child..

These are only general guidelines and were not always followed.

Click to expand...

Tres interessant!

I was named after my dad's stepmother--Elaine. His mother died when he was very young and her name was Evelyn. My mother's mom's name was Susan. Middle name is my mom's mom's maiden name... which incidentally is a boy's name, ha ha.

for awhile, our family got stuck on first names that start with "j."

so there's julia, julie, judith, joyce, john, etc. and that's only scratching the surface of "j" don't forget joshua, jethro, jedediah, jezebel, etc. from the bible

My Pastor named his 4 biological male children after men of the Bible for their first name and then for their middle names he gave them names that were activities he enjoyed

There's John Hunter
Joshua Fisher
Jeremiah Trapper
and
Joel Archer

then his two adopted sons they continued with the middle name theme - only with a bit of a twist
Michael Remington
Anthony Colt

The three girls have much more "normal" middle names lol and are not named after books of the Bible lol

Tonichelle said:

The three girls have much more "normal" middle names lol and are not named after books of the Bible lol

Click to expand...

Good thing, because once you get past Ruth and Esther, this opens up the gates to things like Corinthia, Proverbia and Lukette -- tho I'm sure, except for the last, they actually did pop up now and again in the 19th century....

My aunt was originally suppposed to be named Josephine, after one of my grandmother's aunts. Josephine got wind of my grandmother's plan and took my pregnant grandmother aside and told her "I have been stuck with this name for 88 years, I have hated it every day of my life and if you stick that poor innocent child with this name, not only will I never speak to you again but I will haunt you from my grave for years after I am gone." This is in part how my aunt ended up being named Anna Maria.....

Piel said:

Kerryfan are you from near Shaker Heights or Mentor, Ohio?

Click to expand...

Yes, I live near Shaker Heights, Ohio. In Cleveland Heights. In fact, the Mentor swim team is that one I complain about.