How did you choose your kids' names?

DD1 was named after the pony mad girl in my favourite book. It's not so unusual now.

DS was named after our favourite classical pianist/conductor and DD2 has the name of a Daphne du Maurier character.

I love Cornish names and often tease her that she was nearly called Demelza.

When I had our first daughter, I wanted to call her Lynette, but we thought that it would be shortened to Lynne, so we named her Lynne. Lo and behold, when she started to play out with other kids, they called her Linny-pinny! Our eldest son was named after his dad, with his middle name being that of one of hubby`s favourite brass band players. My MIL was upset because he wasn`t named after his paternal grandfather, so when the other boy was born he had the name we`d chosen, plus the names of BOTH grandfathers, thereby giving him 3 Christian names. The midwife said "he`ll think he`s royalty when he grows up!"

merlotgran just wondering if the pony-mad girl is the same one that DD2 is named after?!

Is it Cornish too?

I love Cornish names and often tease her that she was nearly called Demelza.
Well my DS is called Ross, merlotgran, and I must admit it owed more to a particular character in a certain series of books I was reading at the time than to the book of baby names We did both love the name as well though!

Son number one has the name of an ancient Greek king, I didn't give a lot of thought to yelling the name when he was born, that came later. It was my choice and I would have chosen the feminine version for a girl, bearers of this name tend to opt for the diminutive and we weren't an exception and adopted the shortened version from the outset, but I still love the long version. Our other son has a diminutive of a Hebrew name but that wasn't my first choice, my husband vetoed that but agreed to it for a middle name. I like classical names often centuries old, but timeless. We didn't use family names although my husband did want to use my foreign grandfather's first name which again is a quite classical name.

When I grew up in Cornwall,proper Cornish names were unusual. However,one girl at school had a lovely Cornish name and I resolved that,if I ever had a daughter,I would call her by that name,even though I wasn't at all friendly with the girl in question. Fast forward to when said daughter was 30. We were buying a house and during the process we discovered the purchaser was none other than the one from school!

I named our ds1 Dean as my maiden name is Welsh and it means dweller in a Welsh valley.....my ds2 is called Nathan meaning gift from god.....both my boys are adopted...we were only waiting 7 weeks for Dean but took 4 years for Nathan so he was a gift from god to us

I note the number of posts that say 'we' 'our' and 'us' relating to their children's names, with envy. I had no choice! My (now ex) went off and registered them without asking me. I did not really like the names but as Cherrytree59 said they grew into them. I suppose they had no choice really did they?!

Yes, it's Cornish, Jalima. A diminutive of Thomasina.

Floradora9 - My mother hated her name and always called herself something else. She was named after a 'Lady' that her grandmother worked for in service. Interestingly when researching that family in later years I found out that the said 'Lady' called herself that name because she hated what she had been named. I don't think my mother ever knew that!

My mother was named after the lady that loaned the horse and trap to get my grandmother and the baby to church for the baptism. I always thought it a lovely story but sadly the lady did not have a particularly nice name and my mother was stuck with it as she only had one forename.

I wanted to call my DD Mhari Jennifer and her father deliberate lower case f ) agreed, he registered her with a completely different name whilst i was still in hospital, unbeknown to me it was the name of a woman he was having an affair with. I have never told my DD.

That SNP woman Mhairi Black pronounces her name Maaree when in fact it ought to be pronounced Vaarree if she knew The Gaelic.

Good grief, Grandma2213 and grannypiper!! Perhaps both people named on the birth certificate should have to be present when the name is given

My close relatives, aunts in the 1920 were Evelyn, Doris and Edna. With an Alice Maud and Kathleen Jane as grandmothers. only Kathleen and its derivaties would have worked in the late 70s.
My dad was "Maurice" which was very Edwardian in 1915.

I would have liked my FILs name Thomas/Tom but OH didn't.
I ended up with one standard name for DS "C" which he always shortens.

With DD it was a name from the Victorian/ Edwardian era that was not in vogue. A colleague of my husband had a daughter with the name and as I really liked it I chose it. DD still really likes it.
My name is totally traditional in the sort of Janet and John mode.

Yes, it's Cornish, Jalima. A diminutive of Thomasina.
merlotgran The one in the book was spelt with a 'z' but DD's is spelt with an 's'.

My mother and aunts were Edith, Evelyn, Florence, Mabel, Beatrice, Edna. Not terribly suitable for the early 80s child, but much in demand now!

I love it that my grandsons' best friends are Arthur, Arnold and Stanley.

Anya It drives me mad that she cant pronounce her own name, i shout at the t.v when she is on

maggiemaybe My Dgd's best friend called Ariadne but prefers t be called Hetty !

I chose my children's name because I liked them. Fortunately they have both told me that they like them too.

When I named my daughter my granddad said "you can't name her that.... there used to be a barmaid working in the (very rough) pub near the dock gates with that name"

I named my daughter after the "what Katy did books".

grannypiper she can pronounce her name however she wants ,if thats how her family have said it since she was born then thats how its meant to be said.As long as she's doing the job she's paid for her name or how she says it is irrelevant.

My husbands granny had one daughter ,his mum,but she always wanted to have a son who she would have called after her husband...so when we got married I promised her if we ever had a son I'd call him after his GGF ,my son took a long time in getting here after multiple miscarriages but finally after 13 years of trying he got his name,sadly granny didn't live to meet him.My daughter was called after a lovely woman I knew at work,very talented artist/photographer,my daughter has exactly those same skills ,my first daughter who didn't survive had the name of my favourite singer(Barbra)

We spell it with a z, Jalima - being Zoutherners