Comments on: Baby Name Shortlist – How To Decide

By: bawa

bawa — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 10:11:00 +0000

Reminds me of out name choosing days and how they worked out. Same rules as you to choose one but had to work in Spanish, Basque, English, Punjabi & Hindi, at least…you can picture the nightmare. I literally “invented” one for my daughter, then found out when my husband went to register it that a version with a different spelling was registered in the Canary Islands; he battled hard for it to be spelt the way we wanted, with an “i” instead of a “y”.
For my son we gave him a simple name, with easily recognisable version in western countries, i.e. Mikel and my Dad’s name as a testimonial, purely decorative, horrible to pronounce by anyone who is not a Punjabi. Come teen years, guess what he is known by? A shortened, hip version of my Dad’s name, as his friends say Mikel is too common and there are too many of them!!!
On top of that we have our daughter complaining why she wasn’t given an exotic second name, discrimination, etc. etc.
So much for all our efforts…

By: erik

erik — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 16:46:50 +0000

Ha! I just discovered this, more than two years later.

By: Ray Tibbitts

Ray Tibbitts — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:19:39 +0000

Due to my not caring what people call me has led to a virtual “potaje”
Some people call me “Rye”, some “Rey”, some “Tomás” (my first, legal name; Raymond is my middle name.) Very few call me Ramón, and even fewer call me “Junior” (Yúñor)

My wife calls me “Ray” (English pronunciation, & soft “R”)

Sometimes it helps me to know where someone is coming from, based on what version they use. i.e. Telemarketer vs. cow-orker.

By: Erik R.

Erik R. — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:00:50 +0000

I’m with you on the Y names, Ray. Nokia? Now that you mention it, “iPhone Rasmussen” has a nice ring to it.

Of the others you listed, Eva was pretty high on our lists but dropped in the quarter finals. And there’s no way I’m giving my kid a name that means “pigeon”.

Hey, Ray, how do the Spaniards do with pronouncing your name? Does it sound like “rye” or have you trained them to call you “king”? Or do you just go by Ramón in some places?

By: Ray Tibbitts

Ray Tibbitts — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:31:13 +0000

Forgot to mention…

Spaniards:
Please for the love of all that’s worth loving;

Stop naming your kids Yésica. (Yonatan, Yenifer, etc.)

By: Ray Tibbitts

Ray Tibbitts — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:26:54 +0000

I vote for Fiona. (Just don\’t use Lucia, my wife says.)

I wonder if you\’ve already vetoed: Nikita, Paloma, Ramona, Bianca, Eva?

Nokia??

=^)

By: Betsy

Betsy — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:03:37 +0000

Have you considered Elise? That would be pronounced the same in both languages Eleeese.

By: Godfather Tom

Godfather Tom — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:08:23 +0000

You’ve undoubtedly given this a lot of thought. I dare say, more than most. All good choices. My order would be Elisa, Lydia, Fiona and Nora. Alternative suggestion – Alyssa. Later.

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:20:19 +0000

Yeah, the veto thing worked well for us as well.

We did almost what you are doing, but didn’t limit it to a day of calling the unamed baby one of our ideas. We would come up with a name we both liked it and called the baby that until we either a) decided it just wasn’t right b) decided we wouldn’t try any more because we liked the one we had chosen.

We had fun messing with the grandparents by calling it the most outlandishly obsurd names we could come up with.

My vote: Fiona (I like Fiona Apple

By: simon

simon — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:20:23 +0000

I vote for Lydia. More suggestions here: