October Baby Names Hot Topic - Made up names

[Maribeth]

Making up baby names is something few people did 50 years ago. Our parents had all the classic names, but nothing new, and rarely spelled differently. This has opened up a wonderful creative fountain of ideas in baby names. Some of you have fashioned names by blending ancestors' names, some have used items, seasons, emotions and virtues as names. Let's list some we have created or chosen ourselves, and any we have simply heard of recently.

Also, what's your opinion? Is this trend on the upswing, here to stay, or is it going out and are people going back to standard names?

Share your thoughts with us for the baby names cubby!

[Jelly-Anne]

I made up a name when I was about 5 and was sure I would name a future daughter it, but didn't!! It was "Jadasteen" Don't know where it came from and am certainly glad I didn't think about it when we had a girl!!

[Susue]

I personally have a love for traditional names but I believe the more unique names are probably here to stay for a while. Just ask Courteney Cox and Gwynneth Paltrow

[CNYMom]

i love the fact we went with a traditional name for our daughter. We (she) get some many compliments on her name - makes me smile when people just adore her and the name. Also, we chose to spell it the way we wanted people to pronounce it-so there was no confusion- MADELYN ELIZABETH

[bugsmom]

I really don't care for made up names. My mom is a middle school teacher and works with a very ethnically diverse population. The first few weeks are hard for a teacher who has to learn new names and spellings and pronunciations of what at one point were simply names.

[Maribeth]

From Melissa in email:

I had a friend in high school from Puerto Rico whose parents made up her name- Xiomara (pronounced Zee-oh-mah-ra). I thought it was interesting.

[Mrs. Cheezer]

I'm not a fan of made-up names, only because they're hard to remember sometimes! I do, however, like unique and/or traditional names. If this baby is a girl, she'll be Grace Hana. If a boy, we're between Bennett Chase and Brady Chase. I prefer traditional names for girls, and surnames for boys - don't know why - it's just the names I happen to like.

[missing]

I don't care for made-up names or 'creative' or 'unique' spellings. It just sets the child up for a lifetime of having to correct people.

We picked easily pronounable names for our children, spelled them traditionally, and kept it very gender-specific. No confusion there.

[hedra]

If the name has meaning for the family, go for it. Made up or not, blended or not.

Less confusing is good, though. And it should (IMHO) be something that could be used by anyone from a CEO to a plumber without causing snickers.

One of my best friends' son's name is a blend of his father's name and his grandmother's name (Amiran - Amir plus Anna), and it would have been Amiranna if he'd been a girl. I don't see anything wrong with that name at all.

Oh, and funny story - one of the names I'd chosen for a boy the last time was Daeland, which is a really OBSCURE gaelic name (was used breifly as a last name in gaelic, not as a first), which means 'god's fire'. I mentioned the name and one of the other moms on the BB said she knew someone who 'made up' the same name, as a blend of Dale and Andrew, I think (for race car drivers?). So you never know when a made up name is really not a made up name! LOL!

Here to stay, IMHO. But I bet it will be more and less popular as the generations who had made up names themselves start having more kids, depending on what problems they had with the names.

[ElizabethJ]

Another one here who's not much on it. I worked for 5 yrs in a public university, and it was ridiculous, and often sad what names children got saddled with. To each his own though. I'm sure there are some who think my kids have boring names.