stop being tryndy

A name is an important thing to me. I love names! I love looking at name books and finding names. From the time I found out we were pregnant, I was searching for names.

We went through a lot of names. We had 3 names picked out for J; 2 for if she was a girl and 1 for a boy. The boy's name was Henry David and the girl's were Jillian May or Josephine Danielle. Jillian with a J and not a G. Yes, I hear you all loud and clear - that seems trendy. Changing the G to a J. I had my reasons. I did not want her to be called Gilly. Hard G, like on a fish. Okay? So not trendy, just a different spelling. Anyways. Loved all 3 names and we had a hard time picking between the girls names for J. I consider these names classic, not common but not trendy names.

I cannot stand trendy names.

To me, there is a difference between naming your child something you really like and naming them a popular name just because of its placement on some list. I sat through too many classes with girls named Sarah, Rachel, Jennifer and I vowed that my child would not have to a first initial to their first name to be distinct.

Another naming trend that is like fingernails on a chalk board to me is the usage of the letter "Y." Personally, if I was the letter y, I would feel used and dirty. The y has replaced many fine and suitable vowels in names. The y is becoming misplaced and the tool many parents use to set their child's name apart. Spelling it different with a y really doesn't make it a different name.

And then there is naming your child something that is so hard to spell and pronounce. Hubby has a really nice polish last name that includes lots of consonants together, very few vowels and even a z. I married into a hellish last name. I had a very nice name, which was easy to pronounce for 22 years of my life. I married into this horrid last name; I know the pain of hearing your name massacred and mispronounced. Our dentist's office so nicely put the phonetically spelling of my last name on my chart, so when calling out my name in a buys office, I will not have to hear my name horribly mispronounced. Why would I want to put a child through that for the rest of their life? A mispronounced first name AND last name? I may be a bitch at times, but I am not evil.

The reason for this rant is message boards asking for name help. I am so tired of trendy, out there names. Me, being the in your face type, will often add my two pennies into the mix. There is one board that I found that does a great job in helping with a name. They actually helped me with the name Henry. But if you are a naming nerd like me, here is a site that will make you laugh and cry.

Seriously folks.

posted by Stephanie @ 12:38:00 PM