No regrets on naming my daughter Teresa... the only thing that hubby and I had a debate on was the spelling. Teresa was named after my cousin Theresa and my husbands godmother Teresa. My cousin and his god mother were/are strong women. My cousins birthday was just before my due date, so the thing we decided on was if she came on or before she was Theresa if after she was Teresa.

My cousin passed away on the day that she was born.

Her middle name is Kathleen... going to sound strange but I had a dream that I had to name her Kathleen.

I went traditional... I can't stand most of the weird modern made up kinda names, and I can't stand weird spelling variations.

I know she's only weeks old but Lucy suits her perfectly.

Her middle name is Helen, I never used to like my name but it has grown on me. Gordon wanted to call her Helen and I said no, I named her Lucy so he got to pick the middle name

I like Lucy as it is a name that grows with a person.

Helen

I really like my name, but at the same time I wish that I could have been Francesca, which is what my mum wanted to call me. My sister always said it suit me better, but Amanda is still a really lovely name, and it's not overly common either which I like

If my sister was a boy, Mum wanted to call her Beau. We're all quite thankful she's a girl.

my daughter is FRANCESCA people tell me ive spelt it strange but to me ive spelt it normal, he dad picked it i wasnt keen at first but she is deff a francesca, or cesca for short i just hope when she is older she doesnt get fran (sorry those what are called fran) but i really dont like it. she also has 2 middle names ISLA which most people cant pronouce lol and her other is ELLAND (after elland road leeds united ground) which was also her dads doing.

i dont regret the names we have chosen.

^ One of the Ladies I work with is named Francesca. We call her Fran or Franie. She is a sweet person and we all love working with her.

I'm just responding because I find it interesting what people think of as common names differs depending on where they're from!! I don't know any Krystals or Kaylas IRL. I don't think of it as common at all. In fact, I actually used to think it was one of those trendy made up names. Crystal always made me think that a hippy named you (Spelt with a 'C') As soon as I found out the name Kayla was real, I thought it was a beautiful name, but it depends on how common it is wherever I live when I get round to naming kids...

I know one Summer, I think it's an incredibly unusual name, but her name is apparently Summerly, and her mum was a hippy. As for Logan, I think it sounds like the kind of name that could grow with a person. However I think it's more of a surname than a first name. Poko, I think Carly's a beautiful name, and I love how it sounds with your surname, but I can see why it got jokes. Emma would have worked, but somehow I don't think that's you either. Though I think whoever mentioned that a name really does grow with a person is right. You probably would feel like an Emma if you were one. Jon, my parents made the same mistake with my brother and I... He's Eoin Mark, and I'm Emma Marie, so when things come addressed to E M Surname it can be confusing. I fixed everything to have Miss in mine though, so it's usually ok. I won't be making that mistake if I have more than one child!

One thing I would regret would be if I chose a name that later became a gender neutral name. (I would never name a child something that could be gender neutral.) I want my kids to have unusual names, but not unusual spellings of usual names. Part of me thinks that's a bit cruel. I always have to spell my surname to people, and I would hate to have to do it for a first name. Although I do love Irish names, so I might give a traditional Irish name, even though they'd have to spell that. I think peoples' reactions to that would be different than to a kreatyv name. As Helen put it.

My mum's Patricia, and she gets Tishie. (Or Titchie from my tall younger brother) And to piss her off we call her Patsy. She hates that. As for my name, I was going to be Anna, but my granny said I wasn't to be called after either granny (Annie's) so they chose Emma instead. My sister was almost Sinead, but when she was born mum didn't think it was her, and the woman in the bed next to her was calling her daughter Fionnuala, so mum and dad just took the shortened Nuala and straight up stole the name. They were in the same class at school, but thankfully the original was still called by her full name. Whereas Nuala gets Nuls and Noodles as well. Dad's twin sister called her daughter Sinead a year later, without even knowing my parents had considered it for Nuls. Eoin was either Eoin or Niall, I'm not sure why they changed, and Thomas I have no idea about. Granny's step-brother was Tom, and she loved him, so dad wanted a Tom too. He's Thomas Joseph after granda, and gets TJ, Tom, Tommy-Joe, and Thomas. In equal measures. We used to dress him as a girl and call him Ann. I'm not sure where that name came from, if he was going to be that if he was a girl, but he's 20, and we can still get a rise out of him by calling him Ann.

My niece is Lucy Louise. Nuala and Mervyn had decided Lucy, and were calling her Lucy-Lou, then realised that Louise would be a good second name. Now we call her Lulu. Absolutely love that name, I hope she goes by Lulu when she's older. I've always thought of Lucy as a really pretty, girly name, but also one that doesn't really age well. Lulu doesn't either, but if she goes by Lulu and tells people her given is Lucy, I think it might.

my neice is called Summer Marie say it too quickly and it sounds like summery the name does suit her though

i love both my boys names my eldest is Jack Raymond Dale Mc.....
my husband picked his first name then the rest we picked together Raymond is after his great grandfather and Dale was my mother maiden name and is also my brother name my youngest is Lewis John Joseph, wee picked the names together we both liked Lewis, John is after my husband dad who passed away on the day lewis was born and joseph is my grandfather name

i like strong traditional sounding names nothing too quirky lol! if i ever have a baby girl we like the name Freya Rose.... i little bit different but not too out there lol!

xxx

My mom always said that you should give a child a strong dignified name that will sound good whether she or he is writing it on his or her first grade work sheet or receiving the nobel peace prize. They also made every effort to think of every possible nickname that could come out of mine and my sister's names. I'm very appreciative of that, and will definitely use the same process when naming whatever kids I have LOL. And I absolutely love my name and all of my nicknames. So I became Kathleen (Kate, Katie, or Kat for short). They considered Katherine, but my dad pretty much said it wasn't Irish enough and that it sounded to stuffy with my middle name LOL. While Katherine is a very nice name, I'm definitely in every way shape and form a Kathleen (Kate, Katie, or Kat)

No way Jose Piper's name suits her to a tee. Leighton on the other hand- I dont know. She should have been named Little Runner!

Funny story- at my job today we received a resume where a guy legallt changed his name from Michael Whatever to Rock Star- you heard it Rock Star- that is now his legal name. Crazy huh. Great laugh this morning

Po

when i was a child i was so upset with my name and i tried so hard to go to court to change it from allison to brooklyn now i love my name i can go by allee and it sounds very nice thankful for my mum for naming me allison thx xxxxxxx

I dont regret the names I ve called my children however my husband not keen on my babies name (bit late to tell me now lol)

Ashleigh Danielle
Sophie Lauren
Archie Mark
Stanley Jai

sometimes wish Id maybe done Stanley a double like Stan-Lee ???

Angie x

I do wonder at some spelling choices. For example anything ending in "ly" or having that sound and all the derivations thereof. Ashley. Ashly. Ashlee. Ashlie. Ashleigh. Ashlea. Aisling.

Aisling isn't a variant on Ashley, it's a completely different name. It's Irish and means "dream".

My mom wanted to call my Kayleigh (no idea how they were going to spell it actually) because there was a song of that name in the charts in late 1985. I think it was Marillion. Actually I'd've preferred the band name over the song name! I don't know why but I've always had an aversion to names like Kayleigh, Hayley and Ashley. I knew a lot of tramps with these names as a kid. I also find the name Nicola very difficult due to knowing a lot of really horrible Nicolas in my time.

Oops, I digress.

I'm Louise Sylvia which I like. Had my dad had his way I would have been Sylvia Louise but my mom put her foot down. Sylvia is after my dad's mom, who died a few years before I was born, almost to the day. I like being called Louise because although it's ridiculously common as a middle name (almost as common as Marie and Jane), I know like two other first-name Louises. I can't pronounce my own name though due to my Birmingham speech impediment and it's only got worse now the surname starts with an S.

When I was little I wanted to change my name to Debbie. WHY?! Then I decided Debbie wasn't cool enough, it was the mid 90s by then, so I decided Carly would be better. I am so not either of those names! Then I started Irish dancing and wanted to be Bernadette or Niamh. I was watching Moesha once and asked my mom why she didn't name me Brandy, and she replied "because it's a dog's name". That shut me up on Brandy!

If I do ever end up having kids, which I doubt, then any girls will probably have unpronounceable Irish names while the boys would have plain old names. Ciara, Caoimhe, Niamh etc for a girl, James, Daniel, Matthew etc for a boy. I feel sorry for any kid with a kreatyv spelling but I feel doubly sorry for a boy with a stupid name. A girl I went to school with named her son Kayden. I don't even know what that is!

I remember a member on here who had a niece and nephew called Jaxson and Storm which made me sad. Especially as the S in Jaxson is utterly redundant - the x makes the cks sound on its own!

I worked with a woman who named her kids Charlie and Charlotte, and went to school with a lad called Alan whose younger sister was called Alanna. Lazy or what?

My main problem with kreatyv spellings is that it's not unique. Whether you're Jennifer, Jennafur, Gennifa or whatever else, your name SOUNDS exactly the same. There aren't enough names in the world for us all to have the same name so let's just accept a little duplication and get on with it. I also LOVE emailing/calling people called Louise. Dear Louise, xkjhguldhglth, Kind regards, Louise. Hi can I speak to Louise please? It's Louise here. Comedy gold.

Louise sort of mentioned it, but it bothers me when parents just take their names and change it a bit for their kids. Like Will Smith and his wife Jada. They named their son Jaden and their daughter Willow. Blech, get over yourselves!

I have an affinity for old, Hebrew names. This was true even before I became more religious, I promise. Haven't named any children yet, but I like to think I'll have at least one Yitzack and one Rivka, middle names yet unknown, after my grandparents.

I love the names my parents chose for my brother and me. And I love the name they would have given my brother if he'd been a girl (or if they'd had another girl after him).

I'm Jennifer Leah - Jennifer after my great-grandmother, who wasn't actually a Jennifer at all, but changed her name in the 60's from Devorah to Jennie. I spell it Jenny, but it's still the same. Leah after Jennie's mother, my great-great grandmother.

My brother is Charles Adam. Charles after our great-grandfather and Adam just because they liked it and thought it went well with Charles. We've always called him Adam, because shortly after he was born, my mom decided she didn't want anyone making nicknames for him from Charles until he was old enough to choose one that he liked himself. I always thought it was vaguely ironic that I didn't get the same freedom in choosing a nickname from my first name, but then, my brother still goes by Adam all these years later, so... *shrugs*

The sibling that never was would have been Sarah Emily. I think, truthfully, it would have been my name if my parents hadn't decided to name me after deceased family instead, because it's my mom's favorite combination of names. That said, I don't think I'd have made a very good Sarah.

My brother has expressed regret regarding my nephew's name. Of course, that has more to do with his baby-mama drama than anything else. My nephew is Lucas Antonio, and my brother really didn't get any say over it at all. He was told he was allowed to choose the middle name, but baby-mama didn't like anything he chose, so he got Antonio after her dad. That said, that kid is definitely a Lucas. Even if the name is trendier than trendy these days.

I have four children, my eldest is Martin, he would have been Hayley if he'd been a girl, I prefer Martin and I'm very glad he wasn't a girl now.

My daughter is Ellen, named after one of my students of the time because she was just one of the nicest kids you could hope to meet but she would have been Kieran if she'd been a boy.

Which brings me to my next son, who of course is Kieran, I don't think I even had a girls name for him and I still really liked Kieran so that was that.

My youngest was going to be Kathleen after my grandmother but he was a boy so he became Eamonn. I love the name and it really suits him.

One of my mums friends reaction to the name Eamonn was, 'Oh, poor child!'

I was fairly lucky with the names I picked, none of my children ended up in a class full of people all with the same names, unlike me. Samantha had to be one of the most popular names of the year I was born in and I was always in a class with at least three other people with the same name.

^ That's kind of why I like Margaret or even Maggie. It's traditional but yet still somewhat uncommon so it's unlikely she will have 50 million classmates with the same name.

^Tradition was evidentally big the year James was born. His class has a Lorna in it. Lorna?! And they had a Kelly, but she's moved away. I don't think I've ever known a little kid named Kelly.

Maybe it's a regional thing, I know a lot of Kelly's who are my age and younger.

Kelly is pretty common around here. While technically a unisex name, the preponderence I know of are girls. My daughter and son-in-law on his side have niece named Kelly. His side of the family is VERY Irish (my daughter, like me, is totally German.) Names like Sean, Patrick and Ryan abound in that family. This area with people from all over the country living here has no predominant ethnic group, but there are enough Bostonians, many who are Irish, that in the pro baseball games against the Red Sox, Red Sox fans will out number the locals.

Jon

Jon

I know Kelly's my own age, but Kelly seems to have taken a bit of a gap, heh...

No, I do not regret my daughter's name a bit! It fits her so well! I thought of the name when I was around eight years old. I pitched it to my husband when we were pregnant and he loved it right away! It matches her personality. Her name is Arianna and she is a fiesty princess! lol