What Did You *Almost* Name Your Kid?

[myfunnybunch]

I almost named my younger kids Ruby Claire.

 

They did not cooperate. (They are all boys.) Shoot.

 

Cat

[Donna]

I liked the names Jake for my oldest but ending up naming him after my husband then giving him a nickname that has stuck more than his original name. He would have been Devon Alexandria if a girl...which would have been entirely too much name for his little preemie self.

 

My middle ds might have been Hunter James but we ended up using Hunter for his middle name and not using James at all.I never decided on a girls' name for him.

 

I liked the names Katherine, Alaina, and Emily when pregnant with dd but dh and I both wrote out our own lists of names we liked and the name she ended up with happened to be the only name on both our lists. I never picked a boy's name for her....though I still like Jake.

[Julie Smith]

I wanted my eldest to have the middle name trouble. My youngest danger.

 

 

I just thought those would be such neat exciting middle names.

 

 

My dh doesn't even remember saying "no" to that suggestion. :( I now wish I had done it. My only issue is if I had a third child I would have no ideas for another neat middle name.

[ThisIsTheDay]

My ds was named Cameron for months while I was pregnant.  Unfortunately, that's when "There's Something About Mary" came out with Cameron Diaz, and Camryn Manheim was on tv.  A friend suggested to me that some might think ds was a girl. 

 

Growing up with a gender-neutral name, there was NO WAY I was going to saddle my kid with that, particularly my son. 

 

Two days before he was born, we changed his name to a name that no one would ever mistake for a girl.

 

(Ironically, I still like those ambiguous girls' names like Kendall, Jordan, Kelin, etc.)

 

[Sparkle]

ds#1 - the other contenders were Dylan and Philip

ds#2 - we were thinking Ethan until he was born, and then I decided he did not look like an Ethan at all

dd#1 - was supposed to be Fiona

dd#2 - other contenders were India, Nina, and Cleo

[BakersDozen]

Ds #1 was to be Taylor (my choice). We compromised on Tyler. I would have regretted Taylor and still really regret Tyler, but it is what it is. Jordan was also in the running but too many girls were being given that name.

 

Youngest dd was to be Autumn. So glad I didn't choose that one as every other girl is Autumn lately around here.

 

Oldest dd was to be Megan or Janelle. Didn't use Janelle and am glad for it but did use Megan for dd #6.

 

Dd #3 was to be Carina but as soon as I saw her I knew her name wasn't right. Two days later I decided on Carissa.

[annandatje]

Female:  Ellis, Emery, Hadley, Collette

[Wildiris]

Isolde

Jasper-Rose

Sylvie

Vernon 

[Splash]

#1. Madeleine Jackson Alaina

#2. Griffin Georgia Olivia Tessa

#3. Jack Elena Eliza Kendra Kezia Jaina

#4. Gavin Calvin Cyrus Georgia Eliana Lucia Liliane Tirzah

#5. Josiah Cole Giana Luciana Amara Amaris

[BakersDozen]

"#1. Madeleine Jackson Alaina

#2. Griffin Georgia Olivia Tessa

#3. Jack Elena Eliza Kendra Kezia Jaina

#4. Gavin Calvin Cyrus Georgia Eliana Lucia Liliane Tirzah

#5. Josiah Cole Giana Luciana Amara Amaris"

 

Good grief, I thought these were all one name for each dc,lol!!

 

I love the name Tessa/Tess.

[Luanne]

Up until two weeks before my Rebekah was born, her name was going to be Tabitha.  My mother kept saying she was going to call her Tabby if we named her Tabitha and I wasn't giving birth to a cat so we changed it to Rebekah.  If she had been a boy, she would have been Caleb Michael.  As it is, she is Rebekah Nicole.

[Chelli]

Dd1 was almost Abigail, but my sister worked at a daycare at the time and told me that they had 5 Abigails there, so I didn't name her that.

 

Dd2 was almost Chloe but another woman (whom I did not like and we did not get along) and I were talking baby names and she mentioned that if she ever had a girl that was what she was going to name her Chloe. Totally ruined the name for me.

 

Ds was almost Seth, but dh chose the other name on our list which I loved as well.

[Mommy22alyns]

Sylvia was almost Katelyn Sylvia, but Katelyn was too popular.  I didn't want to be "obvious" with the Sylvia Plath tribute, but it's worked out just fine.

 

I don't remember what other names we considered for Rebecca.  The name just came to me and that was it - that had to be her name.  

[craftyerin]

My boys didn't have runner-up names, but I went into the hospital with 2 names for my daughter.  I even had both names in painted wooden letters to hang on the wall above her crib.  We just couldn't decide until the last minute.  She is Hazel.  She might have been Nora(h).  A large part of why we went with Hazel in the end is that we couldn't agree on how to spell Nora(h).  I wanted the "h", my husband didn't.  

[lynn]

IAll the boys names were set before they were born and I had nothing else we wanted to consider.  If they had been girls they would have been    Katherine Deanna, Kimberly Faith, Kiley Anna.   Baby girl was almost Savannah Lynn but we chose the other name we had it just sounded perfect for her.  

[SKL]

Well, I was going to adopt one daughter from an area that is indigenous Mayan, and I was going to use Maya for her middle name.  Then I decided to adopt two daughters, and I couldn't think of another middle name like Maya.  I decided to use their birth names as their middle names instead.  So nobody has "Maya" in their name.  I was a little sad to let it go, but glad they still have the names their birth moms gave them.

[SKL]

My mom and dad had some doozies that they thankfully did not agree on.  Usually because the person who thought it was a good idea had a past relationship with someone of that name.  LOL.  I will not share them in case any of you named your kids those names.  Except, I'll share "Sandria."  My mom made that one up.  It would have been my name if my dad hadn't hated it.  :P

[ChristusG]

I have three girls and we were pretty set in their names by the time they were born. However, we also had boy names chosen too.

 

1st dd would have been Ephram Gabriel

2nd dd would have been Tucker Blaise

3rd dd would have been Truett Finn or Finnegan Truett

[BigMamaBird]

Growing up I always wanted an Ethan, but it just doesn't work well with our last name.  I was pretty bummed about it.

[Starr]

We liked Rachel but dh thought it would confuse our cat.  :lol:

[Dmmetler]

DD's middle name was almost Hope instead of Joy. The reason why she wasn't was that, in my research, I discovered that "firstname's Hope" was a band in Seattle.

 

I really wanted to name her Melody, but DH pointed out that she might not inherit my musical talents and end up resenting her name (and as of right now, she likes music, but LOVES math and science, so maybe he was right).

 

I was almost Deborah or Debra-the reason why I ended up with a different name was because my parents couldn't agree on how to spell it.

[LostSurprise]

DS1~was the easiest, the only change was Allan (standard family middle name for all males) to Axel

DS2~the kid who almost didn't get named, if you asked dh we almost named him Harvey, Payne or Kincaid (*bangs head*) if you asked me Elias David...middle name changed from Zane to Dean

DS3~looked like a Jude and not a Cal (Caleb or Calvin). Changed the middle name from Allan (again) to Sverre

DS4~stayed the same, finally got an Allan

 

If we'd had girls: 

 

Nina Angeline

Auben Elise

Signe Rose

Eve Patricia

 

[UncleEJ]

When I was pregnant with my first DS, we weren't going to find out his gender and the names we had picked were Rhys Anthony and Rhiannon June. We ended up finding out he was a boy and were set on Rhys until I read a book at 37 weeks in which the main character was named Tucker and fell in love. DH did not. After a traumatizing birth he gave in and he is Tucker Rhys.

 

With my second DS we played around with the idea of Thatcher. I thought Tucker and Thatcher would have been so cute but after a while we decided they were too close. After that I really wanted to name him Dierks something fierce and we almost did but in the end went with Titus Anthony. Anthony is after a friend of DH that passed away. Titus fits him perfectly but I still think he could have pulled off Dierks :).

 

Once we were pregnant with DD, I had a major dilemma. We had two kids with named that started with "T" and I worried about not giving this baby a "T" name. The problem was that my best friend has five kids and they all have names that start with "T", and we were around them a lot. It became a stutter fest around us lol. If she had been a boy I would have wanted to use Trek, but DH hated it. When we found out she was a girl we narrowed it down to Taryn June, Rhiannon June, and June Evelyn. My grandmother was June and DH's grandmother is Evelyn. In the end we decided to honor our grandmas and not worry about using another "T" name. So June Evelyn she is.

[Jennay]

If DS#1 was a girl he would have been Rebecca.

If DS #2 had been a girl he would have been Rebecca.

DD#1 was going to be Rebecca, but she didn't look like a Rebecca so we chose Sarah.

DD#2 also didn't look like a Rebecca  - she's Abigail.

Maybe someday I'll have a Rebecca

 

Other boy names we considered were Timothy

Girl names - Rachel, Anna, Emily

[DawnM]

I wanted to name our 3rd Mae Li.  

 

Mae was my Grandmother's middle name and Li is mine.  My Grandmother and my father were born and raised in China so we both had Chinese middle names.  Our 3rd we thought would be a daughter from China.

 

Turns out we ended up with a BOY as our 3rd child.  

[Stayseeliz]

Well, I always wanted to have a daughter named Priscilla when I was growing up. Glad I got over that!! :) DS would've been Alyssa Have. DD 9 was almost Karis. I still love that name!

[welovetoread]

Child 1- Paige or Sophie. If she was a boy, Zachary. Her name is Alexis.

 

Child 2- Jordyn. Her name is Peyton.

 

Child 3- she was always a Jadyn.

Child 4- I don't remember but her name is Aubrey Ann

Child 5- Aidrik, Max or Michel. His name is Michael

Child 6- Max or Xavier. His name is Aidrik.

[elegantlion]

So no one has said Stormaggedon, Dark Lord of All or Alfie for short.   :tongue_smilie:

 

We do, however, call the cat that now. 

[8circles]

Axel, Rueben, Walter, Luisa, Clara, Cash

[Freckles]

 Isaac Benjamin had dd1 been a boy

We had two girl names picked out until I saw her. She could have been a Hannah Ruth.

 

dd2 was almost Molly Rose

Had she been a boy it would have been Jackson

 

 

[Word Nerd]

Mirabelle was one of our two finalists for DD #1, and we didn't choose the winner until after she was born. We decided it didn't suit her after we saw her, but I still like the name. We both wanted Jemima for our second DD, but we knew in the US everyone would associate it with Aunt Jemima even though it's an old, classic name (it's also a biblical name).

[mamajag]

Claudia Marie.  We kept Claudia but paired it with Elizabeth.  Her middle name was supposed to honor both my and DH's mothers (both named Mary), but I couldn't stand it and neither could they so late in the third trimester I had to tell my husband I wasn't feeling it.  I was crying and freaking out at 2 a.m.

[Pamela H in Texas]

DD was supposed to be Ashley Nicole but then I met someone with that name that was snotty.

Then her name was supposed to be Kirsten Michelle.

IF she had been a boy, it would have been Benjamin Tyler.

 

DS would have been Brittany Anne had he been a girl.  We considered Benjamin Tyler, but didn't go with it at the last second.  We should have.

 

A little boy we wanted to adopt from Russia, we were wanting to name Caleb Alexander

 

Tumbler's birth first name was what we planned for a middle name for a girl; so we went with the full name we thought up 15 years before.

 

We considered Alexander for Swimmer.  We really wanted an A name and went through a few possibilities.  We wondered if we could handle Axel.  We decided against it.

 

The little one was weird. Some names we considered: Carson, Landon, Caleb....

 

So we have been thinking about names for the new three (just in case):  here are some we like but won't be using:  Matthew Allen, Travis, Curtis, Darren, Daniel, Juliet, Liliana

 

A couple names I liked at some point:  Amberleigh Dawn , Kaileigh Alexis, Johnathon Wesley, Adelaide, Cassandra Jean..

Hubby won't allow Noah, Jonah.  We were obsessed with Morgan Freeman at one point.  

 

Oh, I like the name Caleigha, but I'm not happy with any spelling I've been able to think of or have seen.  

 

Oh, and the name Serenity has grown on me.

 

 

[NoseInABook]

DD1 was almost Eliana Claire. I called her Ellie for a few months in the womb but it wasn't her name. DS1 was thisclose to being Jonas. DD2 was almost Eleanor Beatrice, also would have likely been called Ellie. She's not. DS2 was almost Levi and I even called him Levi in the womb but DH decided no at the last minute. 

[Excelsior! Academy]

Some of our previously preferred names we would no longer consider. Different stage of life or something like that.

 

Oldest: Caleb or Tailer Lane (a's anyone?)

 

Second: Rachel. It was even on some of her baby shower cards.

 

Third: Olivia Grace. Still adore that name, but she had a cousin born a few months earlier named Olivia Catherine and they don't even call her by her name. They call her Libby. I am still bitter over it. :p

 

Fourth: Clara Rose. Dh would not have it!

 

We also considered Winston Aristotle if any had been boys. I guess it is good they weren't.

 

I love Lauren Lynn, but dh knew a weird boy named Loren and is convinced Lauren is a boy's name.

 

I also wanted Harrison for a boy. It flows with our last name, again dh wouldn't have it.

 

Fifth: I "knew" her name while I was pregnant. Dh didn't like it at first, but when it came time to name her he "knew" it was her name, too. We never considered any other names.

 

The others came named. :D

[JFSinIL]

My kids are fraternal twins John Francis and Joseph Fisher, then singleton girls Jean Marie and Jaclyn Rose.

 

John was SUPPOSED to be Patrick Francis.  The twins were overdue (they ended up 9 days late) and about 4 days before they finally came hubby said "I don't like the name Patrick".

 

Couldn't he have said that months earlier?  Anyway, the only other name we could both agree on was John.  Since we were using hubby's first name and my maiden name as middle names, the twins ended up with identical initials.  Sigh. No one believes that we didn't plan it that way.

 

Jean Marie was the only girl name we could agree on - another J. (I had lobbied for Fiona - this was BEFORE Shrek came out! - but other folks :-(  laughed at Fiona with our three-syllable Polish last name so we went with Jean).   So the fourth kid had to be Jaclyn or James....I figured otherwise the kid night feel left out ;-)

 

I've told my kids I expect a grandson named Patrick!

 

 

Jean is my mom's middle name...my mil was Rosemary, hence the Rose and the Marie (Jean Mary just didn't look right).

 

[Hoot]

Had it been up to me, DS's name would have been Sebastian and had he been a girl, DH wanted to go with Rhiannon.  DH nixed my name choice and I nixed his though, so neither were really ever *almost.*  Once DH thought of what we ended up naming him, we both loved it and that was it.

[Jan in SC]

Ds1's girl name would have been -

Meredith Elaine

 

Ds2's girl name would have been-

Sarah Caroline

 

Ds3- we gave up on girl names, but the other names we considered were-

Seth, Heath, Jackson

[RocCityMom]

For DS1, our alternative boy name was Graeme Francis.  He would have been Honora Frances if he had been a girl.  

 

The alternative names for DS2 were Cole, Seamus, or Eamon.  

 

The alternative name for DD was Maeve Cecilia.

[Desert Strawberry]

The girl names I didn't get to use:

Rachael Taryn

Jennie (we knew he was a boy, so we didn't put a lot of effort into this)

Sarah Amelia
Amelia Faye
Rebekah Louise

The alternate boys' names:

David Ian
Benjamin Curtis
Ethan Charles
Aaron James
Nicholas Isaac

Also on the list, but didn't make the cut:

Hope

Faith
Bethany
Leah
Genevieve
Victoria 

Eve
Octavia
Jonathan
Nikolai
Adam
Levi


 

[kentuckymom]

I always said I was going to name my first son "William," which is a family name on my Dad's side from way back. DH decided it was too common for a first name, but Squirrelboy got it as a middle name. I pushed for Peter as the first name, but DH yet again thought it was too common. It turns out his actual first name is more common in his generation, but it fits him, so it's all good. If the ultrasound had been wrong and Squirrelboy had come out as a girl, he would have been Petra Lucia.

 

It took so long for us to get Kittygirl, I seriously considered naming her Theodora, which means "gift of God." However, she would almost inevitably end up getting called Dora. Dora the Explorer is kind of cute, but I just couldn't do it. I also seriously considered naming her after my aunt, who died of cancer when Squirrelboy was a baby. However, as much as I loved my aunt, I just couldn't name my child Elma. I never knew a single Elma other than my aunt. We considered going with the girl name we'd picked out for Squirrelboy, but we'd already mentally assigned that name to the Chinese daughter we didn't end up getting (the process got so long we finally dropped out four years in, when I was pregnant). DH really wanted Naomi, but it seemed too old fashioned to me. We went with it as a middle name.

 

ETA: If Kittygirl had been a boy she would have been Paul Johnathan, after both grandfathers. FIL is actually John not Johnathan, but we were afraid people would think we'd named our kid after the former Pope if we'd gone with John Paul. Nothing against the Pope, but it would be kind of  weird for United Methodists to name their kid after a Pope. Paul John just doesn't sound right to me.

[Heather in Neverland]

My oldest ds was going to be Zachary and we changed to Kyle.

 

My middle ds was going to be Julian and we changed to Alex.

 

We had 12 hours' notice for adopting our daughter so she was Natalie right from the start!

[clarkacademy]

My daughter is Devlin but I also liked Diminity, and Skyler Bay

My first son was named as soon as we knew he was a boy by my mom so no thoughts there but his name is Damian, which started the D and N theme. My second son was going to be Dominin. My daughter called Damian Damie and I thought we could call him Dommie. Everyone hated it so I went on line looking for a name that started with D and ended with N, I found Dylan. His middle is Fox after my brother and he is called Fox. My brother was around long before XFiles so no jokes LOL! My youngest was going to be Dailynn Piper or if a bot Davin Caleb. My daughter wanted something different though so she named her pretty much. She named her Skyler Bay. I had also thought of Jaquelin and calling her baby Jack but again my older daughter shot that down. Skyler Bay stuck and my daughter has a great memorie of naming her baby sister.

[Stacia]

Aleksandr

 

Samantha

 

And, a boy name I love (but that we really didn't consider actually using) is Giancarlo.

[prairiewindmomma]

Lucas, Liam, Anderson

Moiraine, Amalie, Genevieve

[Jayne J]

My son would have been Morgan if he were a girl.

My first daughter would have been Alexander if she were a boy.

My second daughter, we didn't even discuss names until we knew the gender. Then we went round and round about which would be the first name, and which the middle name. I wanted Cora for her first name, but Dh 'had never heard of that name before'. It became her middle name. Ironically, he called me at the hospital, right before coming to bring us home, and said that I could have Cora as her first name. The paperwork had already been filed, and I would have had to jump through a bunch of hoops. Wah!

[Soror]

My son's name was going to be Peter but in labor I changed my mind. I don't remember all the contenders for dd1 but when she was born we both just knew. Dd2 was likely going to be Rose but it didn't fit when she was born, it took us 3 days to pick a name. It actually took me a good while to warm up to it though, now it seems to fit her but for a long time I wasn't sure. For dd3 Maria was a strong contender but it didn't work.

[smfmommy]

My third daughter was alsmost named Selena.  I liked the name until the doctor walked into the hospital room, asked the name, and then said, "Oh, like that singer who was killed?"

 

I didn't want her associated with a murder case so we switched to Savannah.

 

 

[gingersmom]

Annabelle (but my husband and I could not agree on the spelling, he wanted Anabel)

 

Nicholas (but I wanted my son to be only called Nicholas and my mother insisted everyone was going to call him Nick, which would have driven me batty. Instead I gave him another name that is often shortened but if someone calls my son by a different name he always corrects them  :001_smile: )

[Stacia]

Oh, and Isobel.