Would You Name Your New Baby Indigo, Lazarus or Waverly?

Greg Johnston (Editor) September 28, 2012 at 04:07 pm

My folks used to joke that they almost named me Farquar Kermit. I never thought that was very funny. But maybe I would have been the only one?

Jeanne Gustafson (Editor) September 28, 2012 at 05:23 pm

My children have such a mouthful of a last name to deal with, I thought I'd keep their first names simple, short, and pronounceable.

Jennifer Chancellor September 28, 2012 at 10:08 pm

My, that's a cute baby. I bet her mom writes really great stories about cupcakes. ;)
Seriously, I refused to give my kids a name that people couldn't pronounce, but I also didn't want them suffering from what I call "Jennifer Syndrome," since I have the most popular name of my birth year. (Thanks, Mom.) Unfortunately(?!) I fell in love with the name Addison long before it became super popular, so she's stuck with it. ;)

Michelle Smith September 28, 2012 at 11:55 pm

Jennifer, I can relate! My first, middle, AND last names were the most popular names of my birth year. So I also wanted to give my kids distinctive names without being too "out there." But wouldn't you know it, all three of them ended up with names that were among the most common of their birth years. Oops. They seem to have survived it just fine, though.
And that is a really cute baby. :)

John Oval September 29, 2012 at 03:47 pm

Girl at my work named her kid "Tank". Funny because he is kind of small.

John Oval September 29, 2012 at 03:55 pm

Then again, it is better than my forth grade teacher named Richard Smack. He always requested to be called Dick. I still laugh about that.
I like Roman names. You can't mess with a kid named Nero. He is going to give you a beating or hack you computer.

Rebekah Berry September 29, 2012 at 04:29 pm

In 1982 we named our son "Jacob" after my husband's middle name and my grandmother's maiden name. So many people tried to talk us out of using that "old man" name. We had never heard of anyone with the first name "Jacob" before... :)

Rona September 29, 2012 at 04:36 pm

I had a love/hate relationship with my name as a child. On the first day of school, I always knew when the teacher reached my name. There would be a pause, and they would say "Werona" as if asking a question. On the other hand, I always had people say "what a pretty name" which softened the embarrassment I felt at people stumbling over my name. These days I like it - it often becomes a conversation starter when meeting new people. I find, once people work it out - they don't forget it. I just say "it rhymes with the song "My Sharona" or the city of "Verona" and that seems to help people make a connection to remember. For my own children, we gave them fairly standard names - however we still have people stumbling over the pronunciation or spelling. So you really can't win either way. To parents, I would say if you like the name, go for it. Children seem to grow into names and someone is always going to dislike your choice no matter whether is unusual, unique or common.

CoreyAnn September 30, 2012 at 03:02 am

I like classic names and so our little one is named after an old welsh literary character. The name hasn't been in the Top 1000 for since statistics have been gathered. But there is a national television personality with the name as well as it being encountered in most English Lit classes. People will ask a couple of times to validate pronunciation but they never forget it after that!

Greg Johnston (Editor) September 30, 2012 at 12:54 pm

What is it CoreyAnn??

Lauren Padgett (Editor) September 30, 2012 at 01:26 pm

Aww! I think all new parents should spend some time practicing their child's name to find all the variations of it. That could get old real quick!

Vanessa Zumwalt September 30, 2012 at 04:44 pm

I never liked my first name (Loretta) and used to threaten to change it whenever I was mad at my mom; she had decided on her first daughter's name when she was 12 years old. I finally decided to change it legally at 37...but I asked her permission/blessing before I did. At the time it was about $100 and an hour down at the courthouse--you can change your name to "Hockeypuck" and they really don't care. Point being all those poor kids that have strange names can easily change them when they reach adulthood.

Jeanne Gustafson (Editor) September 30, 2012 at 09:25 pm

I've recently met a couple of neighbors with very interesting and unusual first names. I've been too reticent to ask them if these are given or decided names, and they are so unique I won't post them here, but one has a first name that seems to indicate someone's emphatic love of a certain very popular disco-era band. My favorite unusual name, of Olympic skiing fame is Picabo Street.

CoreyAnn October 1, 2012 at 12:14 am

Bronwyn

CoreyAnn October 1, 2012 at 12:17 am

The name du jour of her birth year were all Madison, Aiden, Allison, Addison, Payton, etc. This one has the same ring but there won't be 5 of them in her class that she has to compete with.