The Issue of Naming Your Baby

on July 2, 2009 at 7:00 AM

My husband and I had a name for a boy that we've loved even before we got married. It's a palindrome -- a word that can be read the same way frontwards or backwards. I'm not telling you the name because people can be mean and at mention of this name in other arenas the response is sometimes less than favorable. It's one of those names you love or hate. And it's not off the table for us, so....

Anyway, with twins on the way my husband is convinced it's two boys. So the name is being thrown around again. But here's the thing...we learned about a man who has the same name -- he is my husband's college sweetheart's husband.

Are you following me?

And he's a ventriloquist. Which is besides the point, but I'm throwing that in for effect.

So now my hubs and I are unsure. Names do carry personality if attached to people in our lives in some way. For example, the name Heather is a beautiful name, but I had three ex-boyfriends who dated Heathers before me, so I would never name my child that since I have that association. I also love the name Parker, but that was the last name of an ex of mine.

It gets complicated.

Have you ever had to avoid a name because of association?

About the author Michele Zipp

loves vintage and will defend skinny jeans to the death though she is highly superstitious and "death" is probably a bad word choice. She has a touch of the hoarding disease and enjoys sleuthing, the worst reality shows, and wearing high heels, even at the playground. She's an AP mom of twins, slightly crunchy but with a pedicure.

Filed Under: baby names

Comments (14)

athenax3

on Jul 2, 2009 at 9:41 AM

Yes, dh and i would lay in bed at night and toss out names, and then the other person would toss out some horrid association, lol, like "Tammy"- "slutty cheerleader in high school" - "Josh" "dating one, all hands and sweaty"- so one and so forth- once we came across a name that didn't have any negative connotations for either of us, we'd put it on the list to be considered, lol- it was a long process. This time around we've chosen two specific possible boy names that are particularly rare, therefore have very few associations- we are still tossing names around, but we're pretty sure we've landed on the winner, now we're just holding it up and comparing it to any other names we think of, lol....

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Jessy0419

on Jul 2, 2009 at 9:54 AM

Oh yeah! My youngest's name is actually the name of a girl who was a horrible snob when I was in middle school so I'm not fond of it, but I spelled it different so it's ok. But yeah, I nixed a lot of names due to that same issue. Especially if it's someone you don't like, why would you want that reminder every time you call your child's name?

LelandsMommy

on Jul 2, 2009 at 10:22 AM

Yes, a lot of good names get nixed because of assotiation with a not so nice person. Luckily, my hubby and I tend to go with less traditional names, so it's not a huge problem for us. Back when we were picking names for our 1st, we both liked the name Bailey for a girl, but it's my mom's last name. But we had a boy so it didn't matter.

Mommygoose

on Jul 2, 2009 at 10:38 AM

Oh yeah!!! I worked in child care for about 10 years and sooooo many names I associate with the children I remember, good and bad. Andrew~sneaky, Samantha~cutie pie, Corbin~shy, Nathan~lovie but evil, lol I could go on and on!!

Cafe Sheri

on Jul 2, 2009 at 11:10 AM

The ventriloquists of the world rarely get the love and appreciaton they deserve.

mmmommy0207

on Jul 2, 2009 at 11:51 AM

Before we found out that DS was a boy, we already had our boy's name, but we would throw around girls names when we were watching TV. I was stuck on Jenna and Annabell. He said we weren't gonna name our kid after a porn star and that Annabell sounded like a cow's name. He wanted Cassie. I had a dog named Cassie when I was a kid. And don't get me started on how many times I threw out a name and he said " I used to date a girl named _________" At one point I was like "what kind of skank were you?" LOL Now we're having another boy...those names are so much easier!

mrsflorea

on Jul 2, 2009 at 1:36 PM

We are pregnant with our first, and I have always loved the name Elizabeth - it was also my grandma's sister's name. However, at my last job, the front office manager's name was Elizabeth, and she was the biggest b-word ever! We used to call her "Elizabitch". So no Elizabeth for us, but we are not sure what we're having yet either!

chevygal86

on Jul 2, 2009 at 4:05 PM

i'm having the same problems right now..i love the name bryan, but thats the name of a horrible ex of mine, i like the name brandon, but its too common and i have a childhood friend that was mean to me growing up that has that name. i also like the name michael but that was also an ex of mines name. i was really liking the name brayden, but brittany spears and an old co-worker of mine named their kids that. so i want a unique name and so far i'm left with the name Chevy Lee Quintana and I dont know how much crap I've gotten for picking that name. Everyone thinks its stupid....I keep telling people that its my decision and not theirs becuz its my child...I joke around and tell everyone that if they dont like it that i'm going to just name the boy Justin Other Quintana!!!!

Freela

on Jul 2, 2009 at 8:56 PM

Not personally, but that's because we were choosing Sanskrit names so I didn't have a lot of associations with any of them. However a good friend is a kindergarten teacher and had a REALLY hard time choosing names since she had associations with so many kids from her classes over the years... some good, and some not so good!

Pollymom

on Jul 3, 2009 at 1:17 PM

My hubby and I had such an easy time naming our son...but now we're having a daughter and it took us literally months to agree on a name. I really liked Danielle, but he hated a girl in school named that so we had to come up with another. We've settled on a complete name for this baby that is not associated with anyone we know - finally! LOL