Learning you’re going to become a parent brings a whole new world of anxiety and stress. Every decision you make seems like The Most Important one of your life.
Will you co-sleep? Will you breastfeed? Will co-sleeping and breastfeeding make your child a narcissistic sociopath? Will you cry-it-out? Will crying it out give your baby a lifelong gaming addiction?
Forget it all. None of it’s important. Your kid’ll be fine. Probably.
You know what will give your child lifelong issues? Naming them Rocket Zot. Or Abcde. Or Number 16 Bus Shelter.
What chance does Number 16 Bus Shelter have in life? How does one even pronounce Abcde?
This, right here, is what will make your children hate you. Burdening them with a name they’ll spend their life spelling/ explaining/ correcting for people. It’s a lifelong blessing or curse, so take it seriously.
But but but… I can name my kid whatever I want, you whine. It’s MY choice! Yep, it sure is… and won’t affect you in the slightest. Your little Mg’winni Bear, however, will crawl through her life in shame and embarrassment before she turns 18 and changes her name to Jane.
Your child is not a pet. Your child is a human being who will suffer the consequences of your decision. Welcome to the jungle playground, dude.
Here are some ways to help you choose a baby name that won’t make your offspring hate you for the rest of their life:
1. Imagine them as Prime Minister.
You’ll never see the headline “Wizdom has been elected Prime Minister.” You need to be able to take your PM (semi)seriously. Give your child a fighting chance.
2. Visualise their job application.
Even if you don’t have aspirations for your child to run the country, I’m assuming you want them to be employed at some point in their life.
Imagine a recruiter flicking through job applications. Do they stop at the application of Glittyr Faery or do they keep going?
Try to imagine the job opportunities for Sparrkyl Dusst. Where’s she headed?
3. Yell it loud and bogan.
You’re going to need to say this name A LOT. How does it sound when you scream it across the playground in your best bogan?
“FERRARI-LEEEEE get here NOW!!!”
Seriously, get your list of baby names and start screaming them out. You’ll cull that list quick smart.
4. Pretend they are your boss.
Does the name command respect? Would you be able to take direction from a person called Peace Pear Moonharvest?
Can you imagine this? “Oh bloody hell, Miaow wants me to stay back tonight to finish that report….” yeah, I don’t think so.
5. Say it over the phone.
If your child had to make a doctors appointment or book a table at a restaurant, would the person on the other end know what they were saying? How many times would they need to repeat themselves? Would they need to spell it out over and over?
I know a Lance. It’s not the most common name but it’s also not weird (Lance Armstrong? Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin? DJ Lance?) But every time he says his name over the phone it makes me laugh.
“My name is Lance… no not Jason, Lance.”
“No, Lance, not Matt. Not Blaine either, LANCE. ”
“No I said LAAAAAANCE, not Francis.”
“Seriously? Who’s called Bang? Is that more likely than Lance???”
So how hard do you think it’s going to be for Semperton or Quazhanie?
6. Do the kindergarten spelling test.
When you’re feeling creative and decide to throw a bunch of letters together to invent that special one-of-a-kind name for your little darling, just try and give some thought to that poor child once they hit school.
Try to imagine those pudgy little fingers wrapped around the HB pencil, trying their damnedest to spell out Zynfendanee. It’s just mean.
7. Will they spend their life spelling it for people?
You might be thinking you’d like to give your child that extra edge by giving them a normal name with ‘innovative’ spelling.
For the love of all that’s good and holy, please spell your child’s name correctly.
Don’t condemn your child to a life of saying to people “No, it’s Catherine with an X” or “That’s Jayden with an H” or “It’s Tiffany with three i’s”
I mean, my name is Lauren which is probably one of the most common names in the history of the world and I still need to spell my name to people sometimes (seriously, how many Lorens are there?). So spare a thought for Whendhi and Djohnn.
Same goes for kids with names that are spelled correctly, but pronounced creatively. … Why would you do this to them?
8. Do the schoolyard challenge.
As your final step, ask a teenage boy for his opinion. Challenge him to do his worst with the name, as if he’d just encountered little Quinoa in the playground. If only the parents of Drew Peacock had done this…
What did you name your kids? Did you have any tests or rules when you were deciding? What’s the worst name you’ve heard?
This post originally appeared on Essential Baby
96 comments
Our four have reasonably well known names, though the youngest is Melody (who gets Melanie often, or her nickname, Mouldy :O). We were careful to avoid the first initial of F or P since our surname is Hart (to avoid Phart). Then our sons both have partners with the first initial S, so they are Sharts. The most unusual name I’ve known is Cassiopia (which reminds me of something pharmaceutical), and then some people we knew called their son Clement. With the surname Foote. I still chuckle because it sounds like a disability! It’s nigh on impossible to avoid having to spell a name, as simple as it may be. I still have to spell our surname, and I used to have trouble with my maiden name of May! But I so agree….give the kids a fighting chance, and heed the advice of Johnny Cash: ‘If I ever have a boy, I’m gonna name him Bill or George, anything but Sue! I still hate that name!’
We agonised over our sons names. How they are spelt, what their initials would be, how they could be shortened, then finally came up with what we thought were acceptable names.
When they got to school each of them were immediately labeled with a shortening of our surname and are known as that by everyone to this day! You can’t win this one ?
[…] I think it’s best if everybody just ignores me until this child is out. Just stick me in the corner like a pot plant. Chuck a Tim Tam at me now and then and don’t try to engage in conversation. Definitely don’t let me make important decisions like what I should name my child. […]
My younger boy was always going to be Vinny from when I first found out I was having a boy but I wanted him to have a “proper grown up ” name too. My dad said to put Sir or professor in front. I didn’t really like Vince or Vincent so I named him Ivan – a good strong name, not common but not weird. His brother is Lex and people always ask if it’s short for Alexander, it’s not!
I have always complained about misspelt names for the sake of them being unique. It is not fair for your child to never be able to find a personalized pen ever in their life as well as always having to spell it for everyone they meet.
I have just recently had my thit’d child though and went with my husbands spelling and now it plays on my mind that I have not spelt it the way I wanted.
Her name is Shea (pronounced sh-aay) I never wanted to spell it Shay but I am now wondering if it should have been Shae.
My other two are Micah and Emily.
But my son Micah gets Meeka all the time anyway.
Maybe I am one of the ones I pick on all the time.
Ohh no.
I wouldn’t mind if people weighed in.
SHEA. That’s not a name, it’s SHEA butter! And pronounced she-a anyway. Shay is an Irish boy’s name, I think. So it’s both weird and complicated. It’s more “drag Queen” than “prime minister”, let’s face it. Choose something else for future baby, quick.
Micah is pronounced Mee-ka as far as I’m concerned, how else would you say it?
Just don’t name your daughter Wendy!! Not because it’s mine but because of the torture I went through a la Dave Thomas!!
William Bryce & Rhys James are strong names.
William is a traditional name & in the top 10 annually for decades. Bryce is a non traditional name that’s gotten some more attention in recent years.
Rhys not Reese like the candy bar- is a Welsh spelling. Strong and non traditional at least in the US. James after my WWII veteran grandfather- you cannot get much stronger than that!!
Mine are Darcy and Ronan. I wanted strong names and it’s almost impossible to make them sound bogan! Only issues so far are people asking if Darcy is spelled with an apostrophe (D’arcy) which is strange because they seem to be expecting the weird option! Ronan isn’t too common but I think Ronan Keating means most Australians are familiar with it. And some of my elderly in-laws keep calling him Rowan, which annoys me no end because they’ve SEEN IT SPELLED OUT from the moment we announced it in the email after he was born.
I have a brother called Lucien, which we pronounced with a “sh” sound, and literally every time we told someone his name they would say, “Oh, Lucien,” with the c sound from Lucy. As if they were correcting us. As if we didn’t know his name and they had to point it out to us. Used to drive us all crazy (especially since Lucius Malfoy is pronounced with the sh sound!)
It’s such a big decision! We went with short and sweet for the girls. For our first daughter, the only name my husband liked was Mia, so Mia she was. I knew before I was even pregnant with number two that if it was a girl her name would be Zoe, to stick with the short & sweet convention (and both names are easy to yell, lol!) but also because when you put the meaning of both girls names together it means My Life, which is basically what they are. My Life, living on in two little bodies, so it worked for us, and I’ve never regretted either name, I still love them. If we were ever to have a third though (which is HIGHLY unlikely) I have no idea what we would call them, I couldn’t possibly use a name with more than three letters now, lol!
We have an Ashlea and Isabel. They call themselves Ash and Isabel is always Izzy. When I was pregnant with her, I said it will NEVER be Izzy! But she is an Izzy! I know a lady whose daughters names are spelled like this
Abbeygayle and Izzybelle. I always felt so sorry for them!
I also knew a boy from my.school days named Wayne Kerr. Say it fast.
Our 4 year old is Elizabeth and she gets called Lizzie 🙂
Our son is Jackson and gets Called Jack
(They both usually only get.called by their full names when theyre in trouble 😉 lol)
For the new baby we are thinking of names that are traditional and pretty. .I like Adalyn or Violet
We had a similar rule, although slightly different. It had to pass the following test: would you trust him if he was your lawyer/doctor? Does it sound good when spoken by a sports commentator? Would you employ him as a tradesman and could he front a rock band? We went with Arthur John…
Ooh, I like the tradesman one. It’s pretty important to have a trustworthy sounding name if you’re self employed. I think I’d go with an Arthur over a Qixstr
Golden rule for if you are tempted to mess with spelling; a k is not better than a c, two k’s are not better than one! Rebekkah, Lukkas, Jessikka etc.
Hahaha!! And y’s and i’s are not interchangeable. Tiffanii and Eryn???
I’m a teacher… One year I had 6, yes SIX Emily’s in class all spelt differently!!! What a year!!! I gave them all numbers!
Emily
Emilie
Emiley
Emilee
Emileigh. And wait for it……
Emmalee
Holy crap.
I love the PM test! Very sensible. Both our boys have short names, that was a rule hubby put in place as we have a long surname. Can’t wait to hear what you name your little one. xx
A couple of naming stories for you: (1) My middle granddaughter was named Lauren Elisabeth but then about 2 years later her cousin was named Laura Beth, which annoyed my daughter to no end. Plus, little Lauren was turning into quite the unique personality, so at age 3 her name was changed to Larken. Now 15, she’s a rock climber, accomplished cook and baker, a science geek, plays guitar and clarinet, and aspires to be an astronaut. (2) When I worked at a hospital long ago, I frequently spotted unusual names, such as two sisters, Pretty Lips and Velvet Lips, whose last name actually was Lips, and a kindly old gentleman named Frost Tinklepaugh (pronounced tinkle-paw). In my head, I was sure he must be one of Santa’s elves.
Frost Tinklepaugh!!! That’s the best name I’ve ever heard!! He absolutely HAS to be an elf.
As for Pretty and her sister Velvet… Just no.
I was once loading the boot of my car with the weekly groceries when I heard a woman screech “Shakira, get off Beyoncé”. My head nearly snapped off my neck as it whipped around to see who was screeching. I shit you not, 2 girls under 5 getting a telling off by their mum.
We have a Joel Anthony and Blake Jackson, huz chose the first names (after Blake 7 and Joel Garner) and I chose the middle names. The criteria was the bogan mummy voice yell….
Shut up!!! Are you serious?? There’s a little Shakira and her sister Beyoncé out there? Can. Not. Cope.
I thought it was bad when I heard a mother calling for her daughter Sephora…
Haha, my sister-in-law is Lorin! Brilliant post and something dear to my heart as I love the science (okay, gossiping) over baby name choices. I chose old-school and correctly spelled after I won the “i” vs “y” battle with my husband.
Oh there’s really a Lorin?! How funny! And I find it funny that your husband would care about the spelling. It seems like a more female thing to want the creative spelling.
My husband could not stand the name Luca, and I loved it. But, he was ok with LuKa. Don’t get it. So, my 9yo is Luka. Lol
He thought “Lyla” would make the pronounciation clearer than “Lila” and to be fair, I have had people call her “Leela” but I’m still happy with it – although I did later discover a great great aunt from the early 1900s in the family tree called Lyla so it’s not a modern boganic spelling after all!
Names are tricky. We went with short strong names, as our surname is one that needs spelling out! But three girls – Ruby, Evie and Milly, and our little man got a more unusual Jett. I really regretted it for a bit. But it is strong and short. Uncommon, but not too quirky. With 5 great Uncles who all had 3 boys, and on it went my short list was quickly gone 🙂 I accept Jeff fairly regularly for him.
I love those girls names so much! And I think Jett is cute. I can see how he’d get Jeff even though I’d guess that Jett is more common than Jeff these days. I can’t imagine there are too many little Jeffs walking around anymore.
I hated my name growing up because all I wanted was those stickers with my name on them. My Mum tried to buy a few different ones (Jackie and I can’t remember the rest) and cut them up to make “Jacinta” but that was just embarrassing!! So I wanted to name my kids something that was different but still normal so hopefully they won’t hate me even though you can’t get Colby or Amity on anything!!
My one rule when naming my kids was that their name was their name – I didn’t want something long just to shorten it from day one! It’s a pet hate!
I could have had anything I wanted with my name printed on it as a child – didn’t mean I got it! Your mum is so cute for trying. Colby and Amity are adorable. And you can get everything personalised for any name you want these days!
A child at one of our pre-schools had all the staff guessing…To-a…was it Toe-ah, or Too-ah, or Toww…? Nope it was To-dash-ah. Really. Her Mum was really annoyed that no-one had “worked that out by themselves!” I have since seen similar in a book – with La-dash-a….but I don’t envy her her future.
I honestly don’t understand how this is becoming a thing. Since when are we allowed to use punctuation as letters? I really would have thought this wouldn’t be allowed. I’m sorry if this offends anyone but I just think it’s incredibly stupid. Next there’ll be A.a – Adotta? Em&a – Emanda? My@a – Myatta?
Which even if allowed and pronounced should still be To hyphen a!
One “rule” I wish I thought of when naming my second son was how annoying it is to hear your child’s name said constantly in a four-year-old whine as your little darlings play together (aka bicker over the same toys for hours on end). Think “Absa-dee-eee, I had that fiiiii-irst,” or “Quiiiiiiiiin-ooooaaaa, it’s MY turn noooooow.” Way to ruin a perfectly sensible, sturdy name (though somehow still funnier with these substitutes).
Practice whining your chosen name over and over, once you’ve tried the bogan yell test.
Bahahahahahaaaa….. I love this!! I never even thought of that but as soon as I started to whine a couple of the names I like it turned me right off! I don’t know if I can handle hearing that over and over again!! BRILLIANT.
I’ve always followed your rule 3. Yell it loud with a stop that sense of urgency. Plus I like names that can’t be shortened to anything else. The spelling got me though. It took me more than a year to teach my son Jarrad not to introduce himself as “Jarrad with an A” as there were 3 in his pre primary class with different spellings. My other two sons we’ve ended up with ‘big’ and ‘little’ as a prefix because we came across someone else with the same name. Did Ethan ever hate being Little Ethan.
Oh I can imagine! Especially when he’s a grown up but still known as Little Ethan. We have that a few times in our family where kids have been named after dads or grandfathers and they are forever known as “little…” Not so cute when they’re 28 and 6 foot 4!
We named our son Harri (the Welsh spelling) as his grandfather hailed from Wales, and our surname is Welsh. He is 15 and he loves the fact that his name is fairly popular/standard but just a little bit different with the spelling (just have to say “Harri with an I” when spelling it out.
See, I have no problem with it if it’s an official spelling. It’s Welsh, that’s normal. You can’t complain about a name that is normal in another country. I love names from different cultures. It’s when people just throw in a few extra letters to make it ‘unique’ that irks me.
I have the same issue. Coming from an Irish home I named my daughter Abigael. Moved to Canada to find that it is with an ‘i’ here. (Abigail) People always comment on how different the ‘e’ is, like an accusation. Hahaha. It’s like the, I don’t have an accent YOU have an accent argument. My name is a common Irish name (pronounced Shi-vawn) and people always seem confused when they meet me. Most say they expected someone of a different nationality and a few blunt people say they didn’t think I would be white…..
Really? Siobhan is fairly common in Australia. Although I’ve heard of kids being called Siobhan but they pronounce it See-o-barn. Ugh!! (It’s what I mean with my “spelled normally but pronounced creatively” comment in the post)
[…] was inspired by this article on naming your […]
Ive got two girls Lilah Claire and Rae Marie, Lilahs nane causes some confusion, people here it once then start calling her layla, it also gets spelled Lyla sometimes, but the spelling i took was from Delilah without the De. Rae has no trouble with her name but most people assume its short for something or a nickname
Oooh, Lilah is pretty! And I wonder what Rae would be short for?
Rae is short for Raelene
Of course it is!
Rachel mabe? Rae is my middle name. 🙂
Yes meet lots of girls with rae as their middle name, i love it as a first, its a strong name, i think it passes most of the tests,
Lilahs name is pretty i like how it is kind of sing song, liiii laaaa, not sure if it works for a bosses name, but i think it works for all ages, i could imagine a grown woman or older lady with the name
We wanted a French sounding name to go with our surname, so we chose Brigitte.
Didn’t realise til after how many different spellings there are! Poor girl is forever having to spell out BOTH her names….??
It drives me crazy when people try to get creative with spelling. Why? It’s just so bogan. You’d be surprised how many people can’t spell Renee. It’s really not that difficult, people. I chose what I thought were elegant and old fashioned names for the girls and now they’re both in the top 10. How does that happen???
SO BOGAN. I think old fashioned and elegant names are so popular for a good reason, they’re timeless and people recognise the names will age well. I’ve been against using a name in the top ten because I didn’t want my daughter being one of 8 Olivias in her class… But I’ve realised I like most of the popular names! I think we might end up with one of the top 10 or 20…
These are actually really useful tips Lauren, not just funny. (BTW – I have heard of a Loren. He’s the founder of YWAM, the global cult I was a part of in my early 20’s – HA! but he is the only one).
I heard a bogan say our 2nd boy name choice and decided it was no longer an option while we lived in Australia, way too whiney. I guess this is a rule of ours. For every name ending in ‘er’ say it in with “uh” because that’s what Aussies do with their “ers.’ Helpful for this Canadian.
We also pictured our son’s name on a resume and wondered how this would help his chances. Good call.
I’m surprised when I have to spell Jessica for people too!
Thanks Jess! I do actually mean it when I say these are my rules. I think they’re good ones to live by and will hopefully steer us in the right direction.
And yes, I’m certain the Aussie accent ruins a good many names.
Some of those names that BDM have had to put their foot down too are just amazing! In NZ there were twins apparently called Benson and Hedges. Yep. You know all about my biggest little lady’s spelling… though it IS technically traditional ha ha. I have to spell my name all the time too- amazing the amount of extra c’s and h’s that find their way into my name apparently…. Can’t wait to hear what Miss Poppet’s name is! x
Argh! To, not too. Brain fried. I’m going to claim child induced brain frying for the next couple of decades….
It actually makes me angry when I hear some of the names people have tried to give their babies. Like Bonghead? For Christ’s sake!
I have a niece called Sascha with a C. I think it’s the European spelling.
The creative spellings. GAH. My kids have standard spellings, but the proliferation of ‘other’ spellings means they’re still doomed to lifetimes of spelling out their names. #teamIBOT
Oh, and my obstetrician had a client who named their kid Abcde. Apparently it’s pronounced ab-sa-dee.
I just can’t deal with this…. That people are really doing this.
That’s what’s really annoying Em! That previously normal names have been corrupted and now people can’t assume the spelling of anything.
My eldest is Lawson. You have no idea how many times i was asked how to spell it when he was born!! Seriously Law and son. One of the midwives said she had got into trouble too many times from new parents spelling their baby’s names wrong.
I did #3 and the huz did #8.
Pilot inspektor is prob the craziest name I’ve heard but it’s Jason Lee’s kid so can prob get away with it. Just imagine though… #PilotinspektorforPM
😉
Oh god yes, Pilot Inspektor… I think the misspelling of Inspector bothers me the most.
I’m glad I’m a bloke. If I’d been born a girl my name was going to be Kathleen Frances.
You would have been a lovely Kathleen 😉
Our boys names are pretty standard (Liam and Aiden) although I did get the inspiration for Liam’s name thanks to watching back to back episodes of Tori Spelling’s reality show while on bed rest! Growing up I kind of resented having such a common name but now I really appreciate it! My younger sister is called Tiffany (mid eighties baby if you couldn’t guess!) and she used to cop a lot of bimbo and barbie comments.
OMG, I was going to be called Tiffany! Our parents must have been on a similar wavelength. I know about 8 Laurens and half a dozen Lauras. Epidemic!
I have Cohen and Finley (Finn). Slightly less common names but not crazy! I’ve heard of twins Fish and Chips and I went to school with a Sundowne! And my son goes to school with a Kodak. Number 16 Bus Shelter is bad though! And Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii (!). Yes, New Zealanders (not proud to be a Kiwi right now! Haha).
You kiwis are nuts! 😉
My mum told me she was going to call me Tinkerbell when I was little. I was always happy Dad named me.
Was she serious? Tinkerbell is awesome!! For a puppy 😉
We definitely went conventional with Grace. Easy to spell, say and usable for any future career path. We only had ‘classic’ type names on our list.
And I feel you on misspelling Lauren. My husband has a friend whose name is Laurn, pronounced the same as our name, and I had a teacher who always wrote my name as ‘Lauran’. It’s not like it’s an unusual name!! I’ve picked up takeaway orders for ‘Warren’, ‘Laura’, ‘Lisa’, ‘Oran’ (wtf?!), ‘Loralai’ and ‘Amanda’ (also wtf!).
Yep, I get Warren, Laura and even Lawrence too!
I answer to Laura. I get called Laura nearly every day. I don’t bother correcting people anymore. It’s basically the same so I guess I should just be grateful they’re not calling me Warren 😉
My daughter is Lucy, after my nanna. Quite fitting that it is also close to Lucifer, little devil that she is. The Stuntman is Gus, or Angus when he’s trying to climb the pantry shelves.
Oh I love Angus!! Gus is the cutest name ever. It was in our top three when we had Thud.
My girls all have biblical names and all three get mispelled even though the names are known and becoming more common. the worst baby names I’ve heard are Bambam and Revival. Crazy!
Bambam!? Like from the Flintstones!? Oh poor child….
I was pregnant at 20 & a massive hippy. I was adamant that should I have a daughter she would be called Imogen- Posey & if it was a boy he’d be named Isaiah Blue. All was ok with that until 2 weeks before & my husband said he could not have a son Isaiah, so we put two names each in a hat & agreed that whatever was pulled out we’d be fine with. I put in Isaiah & Elijah. He put in Zane & Kai. Zanes was pulled out & as the years went on I am so glad it was. My names just would not have suited the person he’s turned out to be. All three after him then had to be given names that couldn’t be shortened & im very happy with them all 🙂
Also, my mum thought she was helping me out by spelling my name phonetically but I’ve spent my whole life spelling it.
I think we might have to resort to pulling a name out of a hat! Seems the fairest way. I’m glad it worked out for you Reannon. Zane is very cute.
Until birth boys of my boys were known by their father as ‘Schmo Beastley’ – the latter word said with a lisp. Thankfully we were able to agree on far more traditional and conventional names once they arrived.
Thanks to the crazy spelling trend I have in the last couple of years been asked how to spell my surname. It is NOT spelled with an X.
I’ve been spelling my surname my whole life Ellen! And even when I spell it out to people they still insist on putting a random space in there (Du Bois).
My name is Jess Newman. It’s amazing how many times that needs to spelled. Or I pick up a pizza for Jeff. (My husband is Tim and he picks up pizzas for Kim. We make a great couple.)
My step sister’s husband had a rule with names, that if it wouldn’t pass his ‘lawyer test’ it didn’t go through. Basically he assumed that a lawyer was a high position to aspire to, and you need a normal name for that. Their three girls are named beautifully and normally. I think everyone should use the same rule.
I once started a new job and my project manager was surprised when I was female. He was expecting Alan.
Yep, that’s similar to my PM test. You might think BooBoo is a cute name for a kid, but that kid has to grow up and get a job and be respected by their colleagues. You’ve got to give them a fighting chance!
I have thought long and hard about this and I think that Abcde is pronounced Ab-suh-dee. Which is stupid. At least I only have to say “Tracey with an e”.
Is Charlotte acceptable? I like the name Charlotte.
I love Charlotte! I think it’s a beautiful name.
We wanted names that were not super common but not super weird either. Master 6 is Darcy, named after Mr Darcy from P&P as my husband and I met in a University English Lit class. Master 4 is Eamon…this was the name I agonized over the most because I wanted to spell it correctly but because it is an old Irish name I thought Aussies might pronounce it incorrectly. Thanks to Eamon Sullivan the Olympic swimmer, we don’t have too many problems, people get it right about 70% of the time. Master 3 is Felix… This was another agonizing decision because I was worried it might be too hipster. However through my husband’s line of work he meets Felixes really regularly, about once a month, of varying ages from babyhood to elderly men and he asked all of them how they felt about their names and they were overwhelmingly positive, especially the teenage Felixes and the twenty-somethings. For that reason we went with it. It means “Happy” and it suits him immensely (I should have called the others “Sleepy” and “Obedient” but oh well!)
That should say Master 7 months is Felix… Yes he’s the 3rd born but he was only born in May. Whoops.
Oh lord, Felix is adorable. I’m totally ok with names that are a bit uncommon. I thought my sons name was a bit unique but in the last year or so it’s shot straight up the list of top boys names in Australia. I’m starting to hear it everywhere and it shits me!
It’s only names that are completely invented or misspelled that really bother me. Poor kids have to live with that shit.
I have a daughter named Bennie. We love it. It was my mum’s nickname 🙂
I’m actually a big fan of girls with unisex names. I think Bennie is very cute.
Fairly traditional names here for our three girls. Although we call Elizabeth ‘Beth’ and have done since birth. Which has me wondering why we didn’t just opt for Beth in the first place.
Well at least she can always revert to Elizabeth when she grows up. It’s good to have options!
As a “just Beth” I can confirm it has been the bane of my life being asked “is that short for Elizabeth or Bethany?” so you did the right thing!!