You can't have missed all the chatter yesterday over the latest Beckham baby's name - Harper Seven. Lots of mixed views on whether it's a good or bad name and from what I've seen, opinions are very divided. Apparently the Beckham boys picked the name Harper after one of the girls from the Wizards of Waverley Place and Seven is David Beckham's favourite number. I may not like the name, but it's not my baby, it's theirs.
I spent my entire first pregnancy with my nose stuck in a book of baby names looking for something that jumped out at me, however in the end my own children have been given extremely traditional names. It was kind of important to me that they had names that wouldn't cause them any bother throughout their life and I'm confident that the monikers I have given them will stand them in good stead. There was no rhyme or reason to how we picked our children's names. My daughter has simply been given two names that we liked when I first found out I was in the pudding club. My son? We thought he was going to be a girl and therefore the only name we had prepared was Alice so when he arrived we didn't have a name for him and honestly, the labour was so hard-going that I couldn't have cared what we called him, so my husband decided there and then.
Whilst I truly believe what people name their children is their business, I'm not really going to judge anyone, celebrity or otherwise. Oh okay I am. I was rather pleased to read today that some countries do overrule people who want to lumber their children with ridiculous names that are practically verging on cruel. Names that have been vetoed include "Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii", "Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116", "Fish and Chips" (for twins.." and "Sex Fruit". On the other hand a look at some of the more unusual names in Scotland last year included "Twinkle", "Starlet", a boy called "Heaven", "Goodluck" and one girl simply named "Baby". Still they're not quite as bad as "Moxie Crimefighter", daughter of comedian Penn Jillette.
A quick look at the top baby names of 2010 reassures me that most of the public at large tend to opt for the more traditional names like Jack, Oliver, Emily and Chloe which have been hanging around for a good few years now. I wonder what names will be popular in 10 years time?
Was it important for you to give your baby a name that helped them blend in or made them stand out? I'd love to hear about how you chose the name of your children!
love & kisses
Mrs M x
Mrs M x
Post in association with Bounty
We knew with our first born from the moment we knew we were pregnant what he would be called assuming it was a he obviously! What we didn't know was that it would be a he and to compound issues, for nine months we could not decide on a girls name! Right up to the very point of our first child being born we had no idea what our child would be called should it be a girl and at the moment the surgeon cut my wife to start the C section she turned to me and said " you decide but make it good!" So with very little thought but some originality I decided....
ReplyDeleteOut popped bouncing baby boy, the light of my life I must admit, and he fits his name so well that I find it unbelievable that we got it right (you know when you look at a face and think that the name just doesn't fit).
Oh....had it been a girl, well.... Delilah :o)
My little one is called Flynn, meaning son of a red haired man - Can you guess what colour hair my OH has?
ReplyDeleteWe had around six names on the list and two were instantly discounted as my friend had her baby and called it two of them (I'm not bitter and I hadn't told anyone what our names were so that was not a nasty comment) So then we were down to four and when we were in labour, we got down to two.
Flynn was my favourite name from the outset, but OH kept changing his mind. So when he was out of the room, the midwife said to me, 'which of the names do you like best?' so I told her, when OH came back, she went on about how she'd delivered four boys of the name xxxx in the last week, so she liked the originality of Flynn.
Think after the work I had to put in to deliver the wee chap my OH would have let me have my way in the end anyway.
We knew we were having a boy so that made it easier, but we had one girls name picked out. I wont tell you cause might need to use it one day *winks*
Am I the only person who pictures how someone would be from their name?
ReplyDeleteWhen we had our son we went with a traditional name which would grow with him, so he's James. I believed he would be Jamie when a baby and child. I could see him being robust, with curly hair, very cute.
As he grew into a young man I believed it would be James. I felt it was professional sounding and would stand him in good stead.
And in the twilight of his life I could see him as a Jim, an old, happy, wrinkly man, in a flat cap. So for me the name was ideal and would grow with him!
As soon as he was born though, I refused to shorten his name so to me has always been James.
However he and his friends had different ideas. Since 11 he has been known as Jimmy! That conjurs up all sorts of pictures in the line of cheeky chappy, big smiles, lots of fun, not serious at all, in the middle of it all. And that is exactly what he's like. He will be 18 in a couple of weeks!
He likes it though which is the main thing, but to me he will always be James
We wanted a traditional name so trailed round graveyards looking for inspiration (no, really!!), came to several conclusions for boy and girl names then waited to see what came out!
ReplyDeleteHowever, it was only while watching Pirates of the Caribbean 4 that I realised that most of my husband's inspiration had come from the real name of Blackbeard the Pirate...
We deliberated for ages and just could not agree on names we both liked for a boy. Girls names were easy we both love the same name so it was a no contest but boys names... We finally picked a name after we visited Cadbury World and stood looking at keychains with names on. While our son is no longer with us we plan to use his first name as a middle name if we have another boy in the future.
ReplyDeleteMy boy was named after my two grandads, then when my girl came along we gave her a traditional name along with my second name, and they both have the same initals! And yes, that was intentional... we didn't know it was a girl so had a boys set of names with same initals ready too!sad but true! Nat
ReplyDeleteWe knew from the start that we wanted names that were well known and easy to spell but also not too popular. We toyed with Hector and Frank for our son but settled on Henry, and for our daughter we rather liked the names Martha and Alice but went for Betty in the end (and no, it's not short for Elizabeth).
ReplyDeleteHi there, loved your blog on choice of names for children. I have three, two boys and a girl, my first born we named Joseph Roy, Joseph was my husbands grandfather and Roy my beloved grandpa, then I'm afraid we were influenced by our favourite television programmes - Grace Emma, Grace from Waking the Dead, Emma was my Great Grandma and then Benedict Alexander, we were struggling for a name for our little fella and one evening we were sat watching mastermind and the answer to one of the questions was eggs benedict, and my husband and I both liked it! Voila!! Alexander is my dads name, I'm all for being inventive with baby names but I think you have to look long term, going through school and beyond, children have a lot to cope with growing up - their name should not be part of the struggle, we were also very conscious that somewhere within their names we wanted family names to involve them with their heritage, just personal preference...... Thanks again for an interesting and thought provoking piece.
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