I just run
cat /dev/urandom | strings | head -10Until I find something that slaps.
In general I look for receipts or random pieces of paper I find on the side of the curb on a rainy day. But that’s just me.
My third son, for example, is named Hmmmblehgjlighininah Stornagherighison
That’s so poetic.
Don’t have kids, but one important tip to keep in mind for the name is, does the name work on an international basis? So many names in my country does not work at all for when they travel abroad.
For example, a very common name here is Simen. Although an alright name, as soon as pronounced in English it does not sound great…
On a related note, unless there is a very good reason to choose a different one (e.g. naming the kid after someone else) try to pick the most common spelling variant if there are multiple.
“Sir, I don’t think he’s a ‘Susan’”
“That’s because you’re not a linguist, Tucker. It’s pronounced, ‘Shu-shan’.”
I actually met a male ‘Susan’ in Asia once! I never knew quite for sure how he pronounced it!
We have Dung…yeah…
It’s a tradition in my family, that all children have the same 1st letter.
I come from a family like this and my husband’s family did the same. Coincidentally my husband and I also share the same first letter. Our family gatherings can get confusing so most of us have family nicknames.
This is my grandmother Ursula…
And my grandfather Umbridge. My uncles ‘Uncle 1’, ‘Uncle 2’ and ‘Uncle 3’, and my step-aunt, Ugly.
My mum here is ‘Unfortunate’ (gran and gramp were big Les Miserables fans but couldn’t stand French).
Here’s my brothers Ulysses and Ussher. And my sister Ungoliant. My youngest sister miscarried, you can find her grave over there, marked with her name: Unobtanium.
Oh, me? Pleased to meet you: I’m Umphrey.
For our kids, we wrote down a small set of rules :
- french origin (with my very french and common surname, living a in french-speaking country)
- kind of rare (I have a very common firstname)
- that would go well or be used in english as well
- that would survive the atrocities of the local heavy accent (teachers and so on…)
- not too long, easy to write
- aesthetically pleasing when written down
My wife and I have first names that start with consecutive letters of the alphabet, so I wanted a name that would continue that.
I’ll be honest, the name we chose (that starts with that letter) came from my high school crush. But my wife was aware from the beginning and I was so introverted back then, especially with girls, that it was never remotely serious. The only takeaway from that was that her name was kinda cute (but ages well too - plus her legal name has a lot of flexibility for nicknames)
War of attrition.
We used this app called Codo which is a cooperative task list app.
We added all the names we could think of, all the names suggested (dumb or not), everything.
We would take time and sift through the list and check off the names we didn’t want to go with.
Near the end, we were down to 10 names. I started referring to the baby by the names listed and we would further trim the name list based on that. Turns out some names sound great on paper but when spoken, are not the same.
Final days led to the final three and we just had to choose from there.
For first names we separately compiled lists of names that we liked from whatever sources we could find (Internet lists, books, media l names used in media, etc). We went through each other’s lists and vetoed names that were a hard no. Then we wrote the names out on a sheet of paper in random order in a playoff bracket style arrangement. Each pair had a winner until there was only one.
For middle names, it had to be something that flowed well with the first name. It also had to be able to convey that special sense of “you done fucked up” and disappointment when said with the first name (while emphasizing the second), like “John PAUL”. Finally, candidates were from (mostly deceased) family members.
Names and initials were checked to minimize bullying potential; if we could think of a way to abuse it the name or combination was rejected. For example, Karen would be a no due to current slang usage. Or if the initials would spell ASS.
We found a few of those “top 1000 baby names for 20XX” lists, and (over the course of a few days) independently went through and picked out any that we liked, then compared lists - surprisingly large number of names on both lists, which we whittled down to a top 3. In theory we were going to wait to meet them and they could have had any of those three, but we had both gotten used to name number 1 by that point so it was pretty much settled.
Middle names were grandparent names.
First you have to pick something you like, like some sort of hobby to draw on for inspiration. Like say you like motorcycles, you might want to name your child Harley. But people would tease them if you just named your child the same name as a motorcycle, so you need to modify it into something cool like Hurley. Now you have a name that means something to you, and you know your child won’t be teased.
something cool like Hurley… your child won’t be teased
“I don’t know, Hurl, you’re looking kinda queasy! snigger-snigger-snigger … Don’t you want to… Hahahaimsofunny”
I’ve come to the conclusion kids are going to make fun, and though it’s worth being a bit careful over a teaseable name, more important to help your child carry their name with confidence and comfort them when they’re hurt.
We picked oldschool names for our children. Because here in Germany is actually a trend for names (especially girls) which looks like the parents used dices with la, le, lo, li, lu and ma, me, mi, mo, mu and dice the name.
A combination of grand parent name + Rare name
Told the granddads to choose a name as is Korean tradition.
My girlfriend and I agreed easily for a girl’s name, but couldn’t agree on a boy’s name.
Eventually (like months into the pregnancy), by talking, one name came out and we both loved it.
We knew the names we liked, and waited for the surprise. It was a boy :)
