What Did You *Almost* Name Your Kid?

[mom2bee]

For those of you who had more than one name up until the last minute, what did you almost name your kid? (Any one of them or all of them, doesn't matter.)

 

To clarify because I'm not sure if my question makes sense as it is written: If you were considering Robert James or John Matthew and you went with Robert James, then you almost went with John Mathew but didn't.

 

 

I'm in desperate name choices for some story characters.

 

 

[Lara in Colo]

My son -----  Galen, Gavin--- Also like Devlin

 

My daughter(s)--- Jordan, Ainsley,

[Karen in CO]

I almost named my older dd Liberty.  I dreamed that was her name.   I also dreamed Wolf Blitzer stepped off a bus and handed her to me which made me consider naming her Wolf.  The name I gave her is actually perfect for her although she would like to have Liberty or Wolf for her middle name.

 

My younger dd was almost Gabriella, but when she was born, it was obvious that the other name we selected was her name.

 

For fictional names, it is good to look at the census reports of names by year that way if you're looking for a name for someone about 30 or about 40 years old that you can pick a name that was common during that time.  For instance, my name was only popular in 1968.  :)

 

 

[Veritaserum]

My first was going to be Hannah. We changed it to Audrey shortly before she was born. We almost went with Clara instead, but another dd got that name 8 years later. :)

[Tap]

Rebecca Lynn for my middle daughter because it is 2 of the grandmothers names.

I would have loved to have named ds18, Asher but it was an old boy friends last name so I didn't bring it up.

DD6 was almost Maggie, but I struggled with finding an adult version.  We considered Magenna but we never really loved it. We opted for a different name instead. 

[Parrothead]

If dd had been a boy she would have been Raymond Alex.

[nmoira]

DD the Elder was going to be Eliot, until I found out that was Sting named his daughter.

 

Other names under consideration were Magda and Freya.

[AlmiraGulch]

My oldest DD was almost named Kendall.  My youngest DD was almost named Ryan.

 

Each of them ended up with other equally gender ambiguous names.  

[Alexigail]

kieran

[Loowit]

We almost named DD Gwen.  She would have been a good Gwen, but I think her name suits her better.  Her middle name is her birthstone.  We joke that if she had been born much later she would have had the middle name Bloodstone.

 

DH wanted to name middle boy Monica if he had been a girl.  I am glad he was a boy.  Nothing against Monica but it isn't my style.

 

Up until my youngest DS was born we were strongly considering Phineas.  I am glad we changed our minds.  His name suits him and now with the popularity of Phineas and Ferb it would have probably bothered him.  I did ask him once and he said he would have rather been Ferb.

 

 

[mermo]

The twins were going to be Ryan (boy) & Emily up until a week prior to birth, can't really recall why we changed both.

[freesia]

Kayla and Joshua were always in the mix but never used. Elise was another strongly considered name.(And then there were the names I loved but dh didn't including Kieran, Aiden, Erin, Hope, Nicholas, etc., etc, LOL)

[texasmama]

Dd 1 was almost Amanda.  Ds 1 was almost Andrew.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

For our boy- Felix, Theodore, James

For our girls- Daphne, Hazel

 

[Miss Marple]

Nicholas

Yehudi (as a middle name) - it just went sooo well with the first name we chose, but dh said absolutely not.  Looking back, it would have been a good fit for this son :)

Zachary

Gabriel

 

 

[sparrow]

Dd was almost Catherine, but it's one of her middle names instead.

[ondreeuh]

DD17 would have been Pandora. She says now she kinda wishes she had that name instead of her own, which became popular several years after her birth. If she had been a boy, we talked about Sage.

 

DS12 was going to be Collin. I still like it better than the name we gave him, but his name suits him and has a lot of meaning in our family. My girl name was Camille.

 

With DS5, we didn't know until delivery if he was a boy or girl. The other boy name we considered was Zander.

Our girl names were narrowed down to Brynn Elise, Amara Rose, and Sylvie Rose.

[Delirium]

I thought she was a he and had picked out the name Daedyn Scott. I don't know what I was thinking.

[KRG]

If my boys had been girls they would have been named Sarah Elizabeth and Jenna Suzanne.  Once we picked their names there were no other considerations.

[go_go_gadget]

If my DD had been a boy she would have been Jasper, but she got the name that would have been DS's had he been a girl. 

 

My parents were going to name my sister Laura, but my paternal grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer (which had a much higher mortality rate then), and they decided they wanted to make her middle name Louise in my grandmother's honor. Our last name begins with an 'L', though, so her initials would have been ''LLL'', which they thought was a bit much. So they gave her a different first name, and ten years later I got the ''Laura''.

[KungFuPanda]

We would have named our daughter Katherine, but we couldn't agree how to spell it. DH wanted a "C" and I insisted upon a "K."

[Kathryn]

DS1's girl name was Lillian Grace.

DS2's girl name was Eleanor Elizabeth.

With the llittle girl we lost this spring our choices were Clara Sophia and Oliver Thomas.

[musicianmom]

We almost used a name for oldest dd, but ended up using that name for younger dd.  Ds would have been Margaret Rose if he'd been a girl, though.  

[Guest]

My son Collin was a toss-up for a long time between Collin or Carter.  We ended up with Collin mostly because we wanted William for the middle name, after FIL. (Collin was the first baby born after FIL died.) I liked the "L-L-I" repeat in the names together.

 

My SIL ended up using Carter a couple years later.

 

If he had been a girl, we were going to name him Georgia. I still really like Georgia. 

[Scarlett]

At the last minute we used a family name for ds's middle name. It was almost Alexander. I still love Alexander.

[twoxcell]

If my oldest was a girl we planned to name him Adele. We never ended up using that name and I'm glad now. We were set pretty early on the girls but my youngest I wanted to name him Silas. Dh didn't like it though. 

[Ravin]

We didn't find out DD's sex until right before birth. She would have been James David. Our runner-up girl name was Elanor, and runner up middle name was Cordelia.

 

For DS, runner up names were Brand, Bard, and Fëanor.

[Jenny in Florida]

Had my daughter been a boy, she would have been Kieran Gregory.

 

By the time we were awaiting our son, Kieran was still my first pick for a boy, but we got cold feet when the actor Kieran Culkin started showing up more frequently in films and then we suddenly started meeting a few people who had or were planning to name their sons Kieran. Since my husband and I both hated growing up with names that were consistently in the top 10 in terms of popularity, we had made it our mission not to do the same thing to our kids. So, we went back to the baby name book and chose the name that became our son's. Both names remained on the possibles list almost up until he was born, but the name we chose just felt right.

 

If he had been a girl, his name would have been Eleanor Joan, which I still really like. (Fortunately, my daughter likes it, too, and has it on her mental list of possibilities, should she ever provide me with a granddaughter.)

[kahlanne]

Celena Carol "CC" was almost Olivia Morgan or Anne Melissa

Nathan Christopher "Nate was always going to be his name

Annabelle Scarlett "Annie" options were Sophie Scarlett or Chloe Annabelle

Evangeline Hope "Evie" was nearly Evangeline Halle or Jubilee Hope

Zeke Wilson was nearly Charles Cullen "Charlie"

Elsa Rosalie options were Elsa Juliette, Esme Rosalie, Plum Elizabeth, Sadie Plum, Eliza Josephine, Sadie Elizabeth  or for a boy Beaudry Robert "Beau" or Jasper Jameson

 

I am sure there were more considerations but I cant remember. Each combo of ours had a family name btw which explains Plum.

[ladydusk]

My oldest would have been James Atchison if she had been he. Atchison is my Dad's middle/ grandma's maiden name.

 

We didnt have backup names for the others.

[Kakids]

Owen, Laura, and Charlotte

[freesia]

We would have named our daughter Katherine, but we couldn't agree how to spell it. DH wanted a "C" and I insisted upon a "K."

We had this problem with Mark/Marc. Neither of us would budge.

[Michelle My Bell]

I would have loved to name my son Jack but that was an old boyfriends name. I also considered Luca and Justice.

 

I REALLY wanted to name one of my girls Elizabeth.

[bobbeym]

DS19 was supposed to be Christopher Daniel, but once we knew he was a boy we knew that name didn't fit. Now he's Alexander Jacob Raymond.  For a girl we considered Rebecca Marie, but it would have been later Alexis or Alexandria in the event the sonogram was wrong.

 

I wanted to name DS15 Adrian or Zachary but DH didn't like those names.  He's Andrew Jason. 

 

DS19 and DIL have names picked out for their future kids. Anthony Jacob, Ian Alexander, Elizabeth Grace, Emily Ann.

 

[Laura Corin]

'Calvin' was almost named 'Piers'.  As Piers Morgan is now a famous/notorious figure and our surname is fairly similar to 'Morgan', I'm glad we didn't.

 

Both boys would have been 'Kate' if they had been girls.  We now have a garden gnome named Kate.

 

L

[peachskittles]

My 3rd son was to be Rose if he was a girl. If I wouldn't have had strong protests from family, I would have named him Darryl.

 

My daughter is the only girl out of 7 children. Well, we didn't realize number 7 was going to be a boy, but still, my only girl was a hard name choice. I wanted to name her Gypsy Rose. She ended up actually being named after a step-child in my husband's family tree for her first name and taking my great-grandmother's middle name.

 

My last son would have been August Suzannah if he was a girl. Or possibly Gypsy Rose (since I really do like that name). Oh yea, I even thought of Isabel Rose. His other boy name choice was Robert Otis but we decided it was too normal. His middle name was a toss up between William or Gray. We decided to not go with Gray even though it fit his first name nicely.

 

We also had a name of Vlad Kasimir for a boy. Number 4 would have been a perfect fit, but *sigh* we decided on something a bit more traditional. Number 5 was all set up for the name, but that name screams big and rawr to me. Number 5 was my smallest. It didn't fit at all. In a few years, we might try again and it will definitely be a front runner for a boy.

[Melissa B]

Cassandra

Evyn

Marina

 

 

D'artagnan

Alexander

 

 

[Cinder]

Our almosts:

 

ds1--Luke. But then dh and I would look at each other and one of us would say, "Use the force, Luke." Or "Run, Luke, run!" Then we'd bust up laughing and we just couldn't do it.

 

ds2--Kieran

 

dd--Grace

[HelenNotOfTroy]

We didn't find out DS was a boy until he was born. Our other boy name choice was Alexander and my girl choice was Charlotte, while DH liked Gretchen.

[Scrub Jay]

The first one was named two years before she was even made. :)

 

The baby was almost named Beatrix or Lorelei. She really isn't a Lorelei but she could have pulled off Beatrix.

[Jennifer in MI]

Our first three, if they'd been girls, would have been Evelyn Grace.  

 

Our third boy, William, was supposed to be Jonathan.  He was born and he just wasn't a Jonathan!  So, William he was!

 

Then, we finally get a girl and she's not Evelyn, but Margaret.  I always loved the book Little Women, so we call her Meg.  If we have another girl, she'll be Josephine and we'll call her Jo.

[Corraleno]

Also-rans for DD: Mia, Emilia, Allegra

 

For DS: Carter, Jasper, Felix

 

Jackie

[MicheleinMN]

Samantha or Laine 

 

Nathaniel Owen

 

Sophia Jean or Elizabeth Jane

 

Elias or Gabriel

 

 

 

 

[Robin M]

We almost went with two grandfathers names James Joseph until a relative said "oh we can call him Jimmy Joe."  I'm like h*ll no.  (I didn't really say it out loud but was thinking it)

 

 

 

I've been using Seventh Sanctum name generator for character names for writing - lots of good ones

[elegantlion]

If ds had been a girl, he would have been Kira - yes, from Star Trek. We never got to the middle name. 

 

 

I often use baby name generators for character names. For minor character, sometimes I look around, especially at books on the shelves, and try to mix up names. I have several works in progress and try to avoid similar sounding names. I did notice a trend where I tend to us males names beginning with "Br"  - I had to totally change one protagonists name completely because I didn't notice the trend until AFTER I'd written half the story. 

[----]

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[sassenach]

On the line up we had Jordyn Faith, Jacob Matthew, Noah Andrew, Katelyn Ashley, Zoe Allison.... I think that's it.

[meena]

For a girl: Natalia, Isabel (pronounced eesabel not izzabell), Lauren

For a boy: Luke, Gabriel, Ezra

[VeritasMama]

Liam

Jack

Michael

Elizabeth

George

[bettyandbob]

James. Dh was horrified that I planned to call him Jamie. Dh wanted to call him Jim and said Jaimie was for a girl. So, the name we went with is completely different.