What Should I Name My Daughter? Siobhan and Other Baby Naming Disasters
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Let's Start with Siobhan
Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start...
Julie Andrews seems to have an answer for everything. And I guess I have a thing for the wisdom of Julie Andrews. Just read my other hubs. We've already established I ain't no Mary Poppins.
But what I AM is pregnant. And the clock is ticking. Only two months or so to go, and we don't have a name yet for little baby what's-her-name.
Beware: Choosing the Perfect Baby Name for Your Child is Harder Than You Ever Imagined
What's in a name? Everything! A child's name is either a blessing or a curse. A good name can be a gift we give our beloved child. A bad name? Well, it can be a sore point with that child that eternally bruises her ego and sends her into conniptions, scarring her for life.
So what's wrong with Siobhan ? It's pronounced ShiVON. Hard of hearing grandma or grandpa? All of a sudden she's a dessert. A lovely chiffon. And don't expect anyone to know how to pronounce it. Kindergarten? Yikes! Nyet. Next!
My husband and I just don't seem to see eye-to-eye on the baby naming issue. After two kids with unconventional names, I am ready to settle into more traditional territory. Katey or Katherine sounds nice to me.
But my husband is attracted to strong female names, just as he is attracted to strong-willed female me. Katherine is strong. Taming of the Shrew, by Shakespeare, anyone?
First he suggested Sloan. Anyone here besides me seen Ferris Bueller? Can't shake the image. And it isn't necessarily a pretty one. I kept wandering around the house for days singing "Cameron was a wandering man...let my Cameron go!" Nyet. Next!
The next name he suggested was Dagny. My husband kindly related his source, a strong and idealistic character in that famous book by Ayn Rand. But immediately I remembered that my husband's brother named his sweet little college car after that same character.
So!? My husband replied.
So!! I reminded him of OUR named cars (it's a family thing, I guess), and said, how would you like it if your brother called you up and said, "Wow, I just loved that old car Courtney that you once owned that is now in the junk heap, and I've decided to name my first-born after her!" My apologies to anyone out there who has named their child Courtney. It really is a lovely name. But in our family, the name has already been taken...by a car.
Personal associations become more pronounced over time, which is one of the reasons I feel I'm having a tough time selecting a name I like. I'm older now, and have been through many years of school with my other children. And they have many, many classmates that conjure strong associations with the names I like. Some good, and some not-so-great.
I hear school teachers have the greatest problem with this. One teacher I know had encountered so many children that she just had to lay all of her preconceptions aside and choose a name she liked. She had known so many horrid people over the years that almost all the good names were nixed by association. The names she chose for her children were in spite of the personal associations she had formed.
But I am still having a hard time getting over the "name-your-child-after-the-family-car episode."
And speaking of associations, every so often my husband says, "What about Trish or Twila? I knew some nice girls in high school by that name." REALLY?!!! NYET!!!!!!!!
We started considering more off-the-beaten-path names, but many have associations we can't shake.
Simone—Ruined. By Al Pacino and the movie he starred in by that same name. Unless you don't mind your child sharing the name of an artificially created sex-goddess that doesn't even exist. Next!
Lola—she was a showgirl. Next!
Daphne—A pretty name, except for the Scooby-Doo association. Next!
Triona—Not bad, but it sounds like the name of a triceratops character in Land Before Time XXV, The Great Three-Horned Calamity. Next!
Ophelia—A very strong name. I like it, but I fear she'd grow up with a complex. Next!
Maybe the letters have it. Our last name begins with the letter "A". We considered some of these combinations:
Ione Kennedy Eugenie A---
Patsy Tamarind A---
Diane Nerisse A---
In case you hadn't guessed, my last name starts with "A." Well, you get the picture. Nyet, nyet, and nyet! Still, I love that IKEA store....
After much thought, my daughter provided just the right insight into the baby naming issue. Mom, she said, we just need to come up with a name that will be mis-spelled, mis-pronounced, and altogether easily forgotten!
So here it is: Caoimhe.
I don't know how to say it, can't remember how to spell it, but gee, I sure do like it.
What Should I Name My Child?
But seriously, what name will we pick? I can't tell you. Because there are two other baby girls on the way in our extended family, and they share our last name. It's hard enough coming up with a name we like, but now we have to make sure it's not going to be used by someone else in the family.
Traditional family names are out. My husband favors his Polish background, and I can't pronounce half of those names either.
And Julie Andrews? Well, we REALLY liked that name Lisle, from the Sound of Music, but as my dear friend pointed out, although it is a great name, Lisle is SOOO Von Trapp!
NYET!!!!!!!
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You also have to think about initials - do they spell a word? And how would the initials fit your surname? Don't make the mistake of an old friend of mine, surname Jelley, who called his daughter Katie Yvonne. With initials, a vowel as a middle initial is often a mistake, especially as you don't know what her married name might be in later life. For example, if your name is Atkins, you may think there is nothing amiss with naming your daughter Belinda Ursula. But that might well put her off marrying a Mr Smith or, even worse, a Mr Morgan!
In my husband's culture, it is not allowed to name a child the same thing as anybody in the entire extended family, with only occasional exceptions made for honored elderly or dead relatives. They have big families, too, so hundreds of names can be nixed in a single go. Fortunately in our case, most of those names are unpronouncable to Americans anyway (Mohiniso? Fakhriddin?), but it certainly made finding a name for our daughter an interesting process. I am tempted to leave her an only child for that reason alone. We didn't know her sex before she was born, and every single boys' name and almost every girls' name I have ever liked was nixed either because it was already in one of our families, one or other of us knew someone with the name who we hated, or it couldn't be pronounced by speakers of one of the three different and largely unrelated languages we had to accomodate. It kind of astonishes me we managed to find any name at all!
I had an aunt that was called "sister" for 9 years, came here in a covered wagon ("here" being Oklahoma) and finally named herself Louise.
Names are so interesting!! and, so important. They last way beyond a lifetime.
I don't think you'll have to worry about us taking a name you like, if we have a girl, since I think our taste in names is different than yours. I vote for "Katherine" for you. I like it, but it is overused in my extended family so is not a very good choice for us.
By the way, if you have any cast off name suggestions, I could sure use some ideas. We are due in one month and haven't come up with any likely names. Our daughter wants "Susan". She's the same one who wanted "Hamra" for our last baby. I think her taste is becoming more conventional, but not exactly what I'm looking for.
I think you perfectly identified the problem! There is no perfect name. Someone will screw it up no matter what. Even my name, besides never liking it because it was too common, and more Dr. Seuss jokes than anyone should be allowed to bear, people don't seem to get it. "Hi my name is Sam. Simon? No Sam. Simon? S-A-M. Sam?? Really?? yes REALLY." Not sure why this happens. Just choose one you like.
Find/choose a nice name you would have felt very comfortable with. It is about your daughter and you wish just the best for her.
I love beautiful and rare names. In my opinion, the more you sound like the heroine of a novel, the better! "Brooke" is very odd (and kind of ugly) in non-English speaking countries, and so I spent most of my childhood with a weird name. On the one hand, it was hard to find personalized kids' knick knacks (like those cheesy magnets at tourist shops - so disappointing), on the other hand, if I ever become famous it will be more catchy. Go odd names!
I hope you find an answer to your naming dilemma. Our friends wanted to name their boat but couldn't come up with one they all agreed on. Consequently they had "Nameless" painted on the boat instead. I think that anything you would choose would certainly be better than Nameless. Good luck! I personally love the name Andrea.
Hehe, I liked reading this and seeing I am not the only person who had such a hard time picking a name. I have the problem that if I can associate the name to any one I have ever known - I don't like it. This drove my husband nuts. We finally chose our name from the movie The Godfather. Santino, nickname Sonny. The middle name? I joked if we gave him a middle name that started with an O, his initials would be S.O.S. - therefore our love of literature brought us to Odysseus. Yup, Santino Odysseus. We like it!
My favorite girl name was Novalee, from that movie with Natalie Portman where she gives birth in a Walmart. Too bad I think I am the only person who really loves that name.
I'm having a really hard time trying to find names because of my fiance's surname Mann! We like unusual names but they just sound stupid with his surname! His ideas have Maverick, for a boy and Missy for a girl! The more I think of names the more I think that nothing actually goes!! It's going to be bad enough when we marry and I'm going to be Mrs Mann but think of our daughter Miss Missy Mann! He actually really likes this name! I think he's crazy! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Why don't you just call her Julie Andrews?
What did you choose, in the end?
I love Siobhan but didn't name my daugher that for every same reason you mentioned.
There actually was a study that corrolated "ethnic" names with poverty - so you are right on here, names do matter.
Sorry Shakespeare
lovely name - and congratulations!
my other half calls me a lion cub (because of the "mane") and so our son gets called "mini cub"
Loved reading this - it is SUCH a chore to name your children! It's as permanent as a tattoo, and there are always those associations we have. The best names in the world can be ruined by one unpleasant person you've known or dealt w/ at some point in your life. I hope you came up with a great name, after so much consideration!
Just pick a name. I like foreign names, as it saves you from having a kid who know 50 other kids with that name in school. Whenever my mum would yell at one of us at a church function using our names, about a quarter of the other church women would look up and go "Yes?" (Michelle, Elizabeth, Ruth, and Danielle) I know you've already had this baby, but if you have another one any time soon, just remember that. When I start having kids, we've decided that either our first daughter will be Andrea Becka (Andrea being a name that means something to my spouse, and Becka being the name of a friend of mine, who was killed by a drunk driver my sneior year of high school) or we will name our first daughter Andrea and our Second Becka. I also like names like Aria (Both for it's connection to Mary, being a derivitave of Maria, and for it's musical connotations) and when I write fiction, I make up names, like Marisil, or Annika (Which I found out later is actually a Norwegian name, which I am completely in love with) Unfortunately I don't have ANY tips for naming boys...I suck at coming up with boys names. My spouse likes the name Seth...but who wants a name like Seth Sillars?!
I think my name is only pronounce "Shuvahn" if you're American. I am English, and have an Irish family (hence the Irish name), and Siobhan is pronounced "shuvorn"
Everyone at school had very plain names - Dean, Adam, Ben, Sarah, Jane etc. I was glad to have an original, slightly unique name!
""Dawnell" or "Brylee""
No offence to your college mates, but those are both horrible AND egotistical (-:
Evie, on the other hand, is lovely.
Evangeline Brooke....so cool wannabwestern!! bet shes sitting up already? her name means like a angel that lives near a brook...funny eh? in the desert, with the Rio gone long dry...Siobhan mans God is gracious...that He is!
Caoimhe is pronounced kwee-va
Siobhan is shuv-awn in Ireland,I know other countries alter pron because of accent differences.
One that's easy to say and a beautiful name is
Aoibhe pron eeva
Aoife pron eefa.
Good luck with birth and baby.
Itakins.
Yes I see ,a bit similar!!I have 6 daughters all with Irish names so this subject always grabs my attention.Good luck with choosing,it's not easy.I know!
Hi there again ... I would so love to give you a sensible answer or a list of great names, but your hubs always leave me laughing till my sides hurt, so I can't even think. thank you.
My fiance & I comprised a bit on naming our baby girl that we are expecting in June - we decided to officially name her "Siobhan" but change the spelling to "Shavonne" when it came to things like school & other events - almost like a nickname. That way, when she is old enough, hopefully she will take a keen interest in using the proper spelling of her given, birth name. We take pride in our backgrounds and heritage & we don't want to ignore it or suppress and definitely want to teach her about other cultural customs and traditions. :)
My Daddy named me Dixie and threw in Wanette for my Mom (Wanetta Sue) so never had to worry about a nickname, some of the kids in school made up tacky names but now that I am grown I really like my name and get me riled up and the southern really takes over (its ok I am a Texan). But you know almost everyone that I meet remembers me.
I'm a "Ceinwyn" and never minded having to pronounce it:) My dad wanted my sister to name her second daughter "Boudica" after the Celtic warrior queen, I'm glad I got "Ceinwyn" instead of "Boudica"
My son is going to be a "Griffin", easy to spell and pronounce, not very common but not off the charts, and the mythical beast was usually portrayed as strong and noble.
Thanks for the great read!
Well Diane has served me well so I like it. However in your husbands defense there is a home improvement or decorating show that comes on here and the hosts name is Sloane and she is a very lovely and beautiful woman. But I'm sure once you pic a name, by the time she is a year old you couldn't picture her with any other name, whatever it may be.
We named our son Isaac Alun, after his two grandfathers. In the case of "Isaac", it was my father-in-law's first name, but he never used it, he went through life with his middle name. "Alun" (the Welsh version of Alan) is my Dad's middle name, but what he's always called.
my name is siobhan, and i absolutely love it. people end up remembering it pretty fast because its unique. i wouldnt change my name for the world.
caoimhe is pronounced kind of like QUEE-vuh
Name her something foreign... Like Haruhi or Mikuru! Or Iris, if you're in too Greek stuff... I like Haruhi though.
I personally like to see girls with names that reflect nature (eventhough I probably would never name my own child with a name like that)...for example: Sky, Breeze, Rainbow, Rain, etc...
My name is Seonaid and my sister is named Siobhan. We are both fans of having different names. I am pregnant as well and I am planing on naming my daughter Ayla or Grainne ("graw + nya" with a strong a st the end)but i'm open to suggestions.
My mother just had a baby in august, and for his middle name she took the first letter of the middle names from her grandparents and parents and husbands parents, And then her and her husbands middle names, and came up with Allister. So his name is David Allister M. And we like to call him Davey Crockett. (Though since he likes to sit inbetween my legs and sleep leaning back on my baby belly, I call him Davey Crotchett. :P)
But I really liked the name Allister, I just wish my boyfriend was as into uncommon names as I was, but we're naming our baby boy Douglas Michael. Michael is after his father, and his brothers middle name is Michael. As for Douglas, we just both liked the name, and he was very keen on having that as his name. (:
Congrats on your little girl, I love that name, Evangeline Brooke. (:
OI, whats wrong with the name Siobhan!
Its a AMAZING name.
I very much enjoyed reading this. I am expecting my 4 th child, a daughter due in about 8 wks. We still can't agree on a name. We have Daniel Lee III, Cadence Luciana, & Sebastian Levi. Dan , Cadee, & Ian. I seem to have too many rules for baby naming and every name can be associated with something or someone or honey that's your niece's name "oh yeah." So I am becoming more and more fond of Siobahn and it seems most people with the name really like it too! My husband likes Melody & Liberty and those are the only suggestions he has come up with :\ I feel like I have read all the name books and websites and still have yet to see anything that stands out to me. I also can't remember any of the girl names I liked with my other pregnancies??? I believe there is such a thing as a perfect name so I will continue in my search. My list now consists of Elana, Vanna, Eloise, Julia, Celina, Chelsea, Pearl. Some are family names. None of which I am crazy about... Evangeline is absolutely beautiful. Congratulations!!! (belated)
My name is Siobhan and people always tell me it is a beautiful name and to be honest I think it suits me perfectly as a am brunette and naturally a little dark It makes me sound sort of exotic :) but People always pronounce it seye-o-bah-han and it is basically the story of my life, even on my graduation nobody thought to ask how to pronounce it right, so on stage getting my diploma i was sio-bah-han once more. It also really bothers me that people spell it "chevonne" or "shovan" or "shiobhan" like. seriously. LOOK UP THE NAME before naming your child. Siobhan is correctly spelt with an accent over the "a" . I would rather go through life having it mispronounced than having the embarrassment of it being spelt wrong.
Why not Julie- after Julie Andrews? Anyway, I hate celebrity baby names, they're just awful only that kind of name will fly in the strange world of Hollywood. So out here in the real world, I agree traditional is great, but a twist on traditional is even better. I like Stella, Erin, Claire, and speaking of celebrities, if I were to consider a different type name,I would name a girl Lolavie. it was supposed to be Jennifer Aniston's name of her perfume but she dropped it. Thank goodness because if I had another girl I'd name her that. My daughter's name is Haley- fairly common, plain, but I wanted it that way. I'm into meanings- Haley means female hero. Lolavie means laugh at life, Stella means star, Rane means queen. Cool hub, now I just need to get pregnant again- lol.
I really like that name, Veronica. Never heard of the actress though. I was named after "Laura" Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie. Not so bad I guess better than Lindsey after Lindsey Lohan- You think anyone will name their kids Britney or Lindsey anymore- lol. Fun hub I could talk about names for a while. I like Reine, that's pretty. When naming my daughter I had "Hayley" Mills in mind- not the same spellig though but I grew up watching some of her movies.
This is hilarious! I actually knew a girl named Siobhan and I couldn't for the life of me, figure out why it's got that stupid "b" in it. Entertaining read.
Great hub. I've gone through this twice in two years. The names we chose for our boys were biblical, since most boys names have been commandeered as girls' names, anyway (EX Ryan, Aidan, Taylor). What we did was this: We went through a name book with 10,000 names. I made a list of a page full of boys' names, and a page full of girls' names. My husband did the same. We circled the ones that were on both of our pages. Then we narrowed down from there into first and middle names. Then we tried yelling them across the room, combined with our last name to see which ones sounded stupid. Then we tried out the initials. It worked pretty well.
BTW- Lauralolita- Siobhan is a traditional Irish name- different alphabet and all that. That's why the strange pronunciation/spelling.
Oh, and I just saw that Van Trapp name listed in a book recently- Liesel.
my name is siobhan and i love it most of the time, but it gets annoying some times when im in class and we get new teachers and or friends (im 15, but dont worry im not pregnant)and i have to go through the whole process of telling them how to pronounce my name right(it gets embarresing after the first 5 yrs of it), some times i wish my name was spelt how it was pronunced, just to make things easier.
p.s personly i like the name jullian for a boy and peyton for a girl
I named my daughter Eva Helène because her father is French and I'm American.The first name is PanEuropean and the second name is French for Helen. Now, our second child now due will be called Elsa Romane. Elsa which is PanEuropean and Romane which is French. It is the feminine of Romain like the actor Romain Duris which means Roman.
GREAT hub! Too funny trying to name kids. It can be soooo nerve wracking! I wanted to name my firstborn "Pandora," but...
My husband HATES his given name. He says that's the name his mom gave him, and that he goes by the name he chose. Which is not any part of his real name!
My daughter's name is Rielynn LouAnne. I really like the name Riley, but it's too common, so I used the middle names of my Mom, Step-Mom (who has passed), and my Mother in Law and came up with Rie (for Riley) lynn(for my Mom) Lou(Mother in law) Anne(step-mom). Rielynn LouAnne, and my great Aunt calls her Riley Lou...I am very happy with my daughters name and I hope she can appreciate it when she grows up.
am name is shioban i am 10 i live in maserton it is cool they i love my nana lost and mum dad
Mikuru and Haruhi are both Japanese names. Haruhi is pronounced like Har-oo-hee. And Mikuru is pronounced Me-koo-roo. Haruhi means spring or clear weather, depending on the characters used to write it. And Mikuru means "to forsee" or something of the sort.
My fiance is so difficult when it comes to names. He finds something wrong with every name that I like. The only names that we have settled on are Isabella, Natalie, and Mia for girls and Landon for a boy.
Names he has tossed to the side? Helen, Abigail, Claire, Farrah, Sophia, Lena, Juliet, Charlotte, Carson, Stephen, Adam, Gage, Wyatt, Mason, and Liam.
































wannabwestern Hub Author 4 years ago
What factors influenced your baby name choice?