Expectant parents often labor over names for the children. Hours are spent searching for just the right name for their baby whether with books or online sources. When TechyDad and I found out that we were expecting our first child, we did not have to think too much. It is a tradition in most Ashkenazi Jewish families to name for relatives that have passed away. We immediately knew who we wanted to name our baby after. TechyDad and I agreed that we would name our first baby for my Nana and TechyDad’s paternal grandfather.
For quite some time, we looked at boy and girl names that started with our target alphabet letters.Needless to say, we had no problem finding girl names, but always had difficulty with boy names. Then when our ultrasound confirmed that we were expecting a son, the name hunt intensified. We stretched the traditional rules a little when naming NHL, but we were happy and that is what matters.
When we were expecting our second child, we did not think about names until we knew if we were having a boy or a girl. I knew that I wanted to name for my other maternal grandfather, but beyond that things were up in the air. Several weeks before the little guy was born, my paternal grandfather passed away from a long fight with Parkinson’s Disease. From that moment, we knew that our second son would be named for both of my grandfathers. There was no debate really, JSL’s name was very quick and easy.
So my question for you this week:
How did you decide on the names for your children? If you do not have children yet, do you know the story behind your name?
Have a great weekend everyone and Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms out there!
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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.
Aloha #98
I have no clue why my parents chose this to be my name.. but i know for sure the names i want my kids to have… and the story behind them are at least bizzare… if we have a boy we’ll name it Max.. my husband and I watch the Simpsons sometimes.. and there was this episode when Homer changes his name into Max Power.. and that moment husband said our boy will be named Max.. we made a compromise with the Power name.. whew i got rid of that at least.. but Max.. i guess we can make a Max out of our little boy :) And if we have a girl.. i would want to call her Sonya… because Sony wouldn’t be a girl’s name, right?:):):)
I know we’re weird people that our kids would hate for choosing these names for these reasons.. oh well.. we’ll be the parents… what can they do then?:):):
Happy Mother’s Day and here’s my Aloha!
I married someone who had a name in mind for a girl, and there was little to no chance of MY changing her mind. Her moms name is Carol Ann, so Anny wanted to name our little girl CarolAnn. Boo. I told her she should mention it to her mother before we “bless” our daughter with such a unique name that she would have to spell every day for the rest of her life. Her mother laughed at her, faked flattery and insisted we look for a new one.
Two days later we were volunteering with a friend named Abigail (Abby) at church. On the way home I said “I like Abby” and Anny said “me too, she’s nice!” I clarified that I liked “Abby” as a name. We thought on it for a day and it was done. Now there are three Abbys in her class at daycare, but she is totally an Abby in her attitude, so we are very happy with her name!
.-= RobMonroe´s last blog ..Daddy Daughter Date =-.
I think we just went with names we liked. Finding a name we liked for a boy was much harder than girls…for us.
.-= pam´s last blog ..We Love Colors {giveaway} =-.
If we had had a boy, he would have been named after my hubby since his is a long standing ‘family name’. But since we were expecting a girl, I did extensive research on names that started with ‘S’ so she’d have the same initials as me. I found a great website that had extremely detailed info about names – I wish I could remember where it was, because I would love to look up PN’s name and see how much on the mark the description was/is! :)
.-= Stacy (the Random Cool Chick)´s last blog ..Aloha Follow Friday – The Mother’s Day Edition =-.
We just went with names we liked. But, both of my girls first name is Ana (like me).
Happy Friday and enjoy the weekend.
Happy Mother’s Day
.-= Annie´s last blog ..Aloha Friday!!!!!! =-.
William is actually a name that has been used in my hubby’s family for generations- hundreds of years. Luckily, my father had an uncle William who had passed, so I can stick to the naming the child after a passed relative. My daughter was named after my father’s sister who had passed.
.-= Harriet´s last blog ..Did you know…Success if the opposite of failure? =-.
We wanted very strong names for both of our children. Our first child is named Josiah, which means healed by Jehovah. In the bible, he was the youngest king of Judah. We didn’t name him until he was born and we looked into his little eyes and saw his bright red hair. We knew at that moment he was, indeed, a little king. :)
Our 2nd child is named Liam, which means protector and strong-willed warrior. He was conceived against all odds, was thought to have a genetic disorder (which he didnt), I almost miscarried, then he came 5 wks early and was on a ventilator because he couldn’t breath on his own. He has, since the very beginning, been a fighter. The name fits him very well, though we’ve started calling him E-Man because Josiah can’t quite say Liam and the nickname has caught on. lol! Great question! :)
.-= Roxanne D.´s last blog ..Aloha Friday =-.
Our daughter is named after her daddy. My name, who knows where it came from. lol
http://lovemy2dogs.blogspot.com/2010/05/aloha-friday.html
.-= Tammy @ LoveMy2Dogs´s last blog ..BBQ Shrimp Recipe =-.
Well since I have so many kids lol the ones from my ex husnabd all have 2 Ghanian middle names but their first names I chose/made up because I like unique names. My 4th boy we compromised on a first name & daddy got to pick the middle…for our girl I knew that her middle name would be after my maternal grandmother & her first name I made up (to only learn that I didn’t actually make it up) daddy didn’t fight with me on it this time but he still rubs it in my face that I alone named our daughter lol
.-= Jess´s last blog ..Aloha Friday- =-.
I just chose names I liked for the younger 3, Dawn was named for my mama and her middle name the ex had to use his mom’s middle name even though she herself hates it. Yeah that’s only a small part of why he’s an ex.
.-= dddiva´s last blog ..Summer Bash Proposal =-.
We looked at lots and lots of names and looked at our favorites with our last name, hummed and hawed a lot and eventually picked one that just sounded right. For my second child, I had my son say the names so see how they sounded coming out of his mouth – haha
.-= Jen E @ mommablogsalot´s last blog ..ww: infectiously cute =-.
For Alex, we went through a baby name book and picked out a handful, then narrowed it down. It was between Alexander and Matthew and I decided I didn’t like the way Matt T… sounded – too hard. Of course I didn’t realize until it was too late that Alex rhymes with our last name! Oh well. :)
For Zach, I found a book that grouped like names together, and Zachary was listed as compatible with Alexander. We were torn between Zachary and Nicholas, you may remember, and it wasn’t until after he was born that we settled on Zachary. Mostly because Jon and I had different ideas on how to spell Nicholas!
.-= Nancy´s last blog ..CO vs NJ, part 4 =-.
I was meant to be called Donna, but my mum decided at the last minuite, it was too common, so decided to call me rachel instead, which was the most common name in the year I was born!
.-= Rach´s last blog ..Aloha friday #133 =-.
“My husband is a die-hard Cowboys fan, so he wants to name our first child Dallas” Hopefully when the time comes he will change his mind…
.-= 3 Cuzins @ Cuzinlogic´s last blog ..Aloha Friday #13/Friday Follow #11 =-.
I love names with a story behind them…
There is no real nice story about why we chose Isla. We saw the name Isla Fisher and added it to our list of girl names.
For some reason which I have yet to figure out (pregnancy hormones?) I had convinced myself we were having a girl and was literally shocked (although not displeased) when the ultrasound confirmed we were having a boy.
We wanted a strong name that not only blended well with our last name, but one that would last from infancy through adulthood.
I don’t have kids just yet but I do know how my mother came up with my name.
.-= The Social Frog´s last blog ..Aloha Friday =-.
I have three children, had names all picked out and changed them all at the last minute (while filling out the bc)
.-= Vicki´s last blog ..Review: The Seeker In Forever =-.
I don’t have any kids so haven’t had to go through that :)
.-= Thom´s last blog ..Weekend Reflections – #33 =-.
My first child I named her what I was supposed to be named that my dad had wanted, which was Patricia or Susan – I named her both. My second child I only wanted a name that the family hadn’t used yet, and being from a very large Italian family it was a little difficult, but I found one. My next child was named Angelina because I really liked the name Angel her middle name was after her godmother. My fourth child was named after my Godfather & Grandfather & my husband’s boss at the time. My last child I let my oldest daughter name her. I had lost my third child to S.I.D.S. and my oldest child took it very hard. I thought being as it was a girl she would like to do that, and she gave her first name was different, but the middle name was after her sister.
.-= Xmasdolly´s last blog ..Wordless Wednesday – I HATE TRAFFIC! =-.
Like you we followed the Ashkenazi tradition and named our daughter after loved ones we miss dearly. My husband’s family does carry the tradition one step further in that boys are named after male loved and girls after females.
We knew from the beginning that we would name a girl after my grandmother who passed away when I was in high school. Two days after finding out we were having a girl, my mother in law passed away. So it was a no brainer that she would be the other namesake. Though my grandmother has the first name and my mother in law the second, we reversed it for the her Hebrew name.
Add in the fact that I have always like boys’ names for girls, and we got Sprout’s name (which I think we officially decided on a week before she was born).
.-= Jolly Green Mommy´s last blog ..Friday Follow =-.
I guess we pretty much just tried out a bunch of names until we found the ones we liked. :)
.-= Smellyann´s last blog ..Aloha Friday =-.
My son’s name is Ian which is the Scottish form of John (which is my paternal grandfather’s name). My father was also going to be named Ian, but my grandmother named him Eric instead…no one knows why.
My daughter’s name was picked before my son’s name was. My husband loved the name Lillian. I agreed because I also LOVED it. My sister has been doing using Ancestry.com and found out that there is 2 Lillians on my side.
My husband loves to shorten names…you can not shorten Ian and shorten Lillian to Lily is pretty. =D
.-= Melanie @ Whimsical Creations´s last blog ..Aloha Friday #25 =-.
Mainly they were just names that we liked and agreed on.. our youngest and only boy carries my husbands middle name.. along with all the other men in their family.
.-= Brittant´s last blog ..Aloha Friday #9 =-.
We named ER after a character from a favorite book from my childhood. Way back in the day I told my mom after reading it that if I had a little girl I was going to name her E. My mom remembered that, but didn’t think I would.
I really like the Jewish custom of naming babies after relatives that have passed. I didn’t know about it until my SIL told me. Her mother, who is still living, happens to have the same first name as E and my SIL gave me permission to use it. Which irritated me at the time, because I don’t think anyone needs permission to name their kid anything they want.
.-= Katie´s last blog ..Happy Mother’s Day =-.
Mostly went through a baby book and picked out different names and narrowed it down to the two we chose.
.-= Sue´s last blog ..Aloha Friday/Friday Follow!! =-.
I just really liked the name we gave my first daughter and I wanted something Irish for my second daughter.
.-= hip chick´s last blog ..Monochrome Weekend =-.
When son #1 was born we named after my father, Stephen. When son #2 was born we let son #1 name him. He chose Sam. When son #3 was born we looked to the family tree and chose Seth. When son #4 was born I was going with a strong name, that by the way didn’t start with an S. His brothers wouldn’t hear of it. Outnumbered we named him Sawyer. It sure made labeling clothes and lunchboxes easier! :)
.-= Teresa´s last blog ..Homemade Simple Coupon Booklets =-.