Name nerdiness

I have posted before about how I am a baby names nerd. I love reading blogs, forums and even you tube videos about baby names. There's something so special about choosing someone's name for them. What a massive (but fun!) responsibility! My first thought when someone tells me they're pregnant is: what will they call their baby?? And when someone announces their baby's name I love finding out their reasons for the name. I don't necessarily judge names; I find it interesting how we all have our own naming styles (and sometimes don't realise it!).

I'm sad that I can't talk about Chloe and Livia's real names (for the sake of privacy & because I work as a teacher). But those are two names I really like too! I would say our naming style is slightly modern with a European twist. I like to use uncommon names but not really unusual (Chloe is an exception here! = very common). I would say top 100 but not top 25 (if you want to know how popular names are, check out the Office for National Statistics).

People don't realise that they often favour certain letters/sounds in names. These help names to 'go' with sibling names. Our two girls have 'eh' and 's' sounds in their names. I haven't told my friends that I like to analyse their children's names but here are a few observations. I have a friend who uses names with 'm' and 'o' sounds. Another friend who has 'ee' sounds at the end of names. Another who likes double letters. Another who has 2 syllable names with the stress on the first syllable. Are you bored yet?!

So there you go. More goes into naming than you realise! We didn't think to ourselves 'we need names with these sounds in them'; it just happened naturally. I haven't even gone into themes (nature, occupation, surname-names, granny chic etc) or length (all 3 syllable etc). There are lots of reasons for liking names. What makes you like a name? Really interested to hear!

Edit:

Reading this back I realise maybe I should have put in some examples but it was difficult as I don't really want to list other children's names. I'll give you a couple of made up ones.

Oscar and Ava - strong 'ah' sound at the end.

Juliet and Lauretta - strong 't' sound.

Benjamin and Oliver - noticeable 'i' sound and same syllables.

Michael and Simon (my brothers!) - 'i' and 'm' sounds.