When you chose your babies name do you avoid names that have already been used by friends/church family for their kids?

Our son is called Joshua - one of the most common boys names at the moment, so we didn't worry too much that we knew other kids called Joshua. Another member of our church has a first child called Joshua a few years older than ours. If we have a girl this time (and we won't know until the birth) the girls name that we have fallen in love with is very similar (but not exactly the same) to the name of this family's second child.

Has anyone else had friends or aquaintances name their kids the same as their kids? Did it bother you at all?

Not really a world shattering issue - but I was just interested in what others thought. I suppose it may not even be an issue in the end - if we have another boy :D .

We just tried to avoid names of people we didn't like. :lol: When we were going through the name-choosing process, one of us would blurt out a name and the other would say "No, I used to know a person with that name and they were so stuck up towards me" or something like that. Other than that, our guideline was to choose a name that wasn't common, but wasn't weird either. We're not keen on naming our kids after vegetables or holidays.

Now as far as naming kids with the same names as friends, etc, we had picked out our daughter's name (Riley). Then we found out that my SIL's sister named her son Ryland. We had already had it picked out (and everyone knew what it was), so we didn't change it. Other than that, we stayed away from the names of kids of people we knew.

I think it would only be an issue with us about the names if we know someone who we didn't like with that particular name.

I certainly wouldn't pick a name that someone else in the family had chosen for their own child.

The name we have picked Matilda is actually the same name some friends of the family picked for their daughter, but since DH and I have little contact with these friends anymore, it's only my sister and parents who see them, it's not awkward or anything. In fact my parents told these friends of the family and they were very flattered.

the church we were going to there were about 5 Jacksons but we all just laughed about it (my DS name),

My DD name is really uncommon - Paris - but I CANNOT stand it when people ask me if I named her after Paris Hilton... plurrreesse,

If a close friend copied or "stole" (ROTF) a name we were picking it would bug me LOL.

One of our friends who lives right across the road from us has a daughter named Hannah. It doesn't bother us, though. We chose the name because we like it, and gave no thought to who else might have the name. And my cousin's ex-boyfriend's name is Steven.

IMO, I think that unless you chose really uncommon names, you will likely know or meet someone with the same name.

We have a neighbor and know someone at our church with our ds's name. We actually used the identical first and second name of someone in IL's church but didn't know until we did it.

With #2 we are using a name that DH's coworkers child is named and they also happen to be our neighbors. DH also has a second cousin with this name. We are using a different spelling though.

We felt as long as it wasn't some one we saw on a very regular basis or if the person was at least a couple of years older that we could use the name.

We also spent alot of time researching the meaning of names and picked the meaning that we felt God called us to. So that sort of helped us feel more comfortable with the fact that we were using similar names to people we know.

I think it okay to use names similar to people you know. Even if you don't your child is likely to end up meeting someone with their name at school or church or if you move. I do think if you know someone who has adamently claimed a name, I have 2 SIL's who have done this, that you respect that and not use it.

I like unique names and names that aren't gonna get my children picked on in school :lol: ! I don't think we'll ever give any of our kids a name of someone who's related to us - it may cause confusion at family get togethers (which we do quite frequently down here). As far as friends and church family, I would try not to, unless I really just loved the name!!

I have this problem... all the boys names I like are mostly all used in our family already... Michael, Daniel, Benjamin, Nicholas, Mark, John, Jack...
The only ones left that I like are Reuben, Timothy, Ethan, Jacob, Matthew, Samuel and Luke. Then out of those one of my school friends has a boy named Jacob. One of my ex workmates has a boy named Matthew. And another of my school friends has a boy named Luke. So that leaves... Reuben, Timothy, Ethan and Samuel. We had a rabbit named Samuel (was already named when we got him). So I didn't really want to use Samuel. Even though that was the name we decided on for if this baby was a boy. The runner up was Matthew. Before I remembered my ex workmates son is Matthew :lol:
Ethan is common and one of my ex workmates has a grandson named Ethan. :roll:
No one liked Reuben when I talked about the name... and then I started thinking "Roo as in Kangaroo" so yeah... that kinda put me off Reuben :oops: :lol:
So one name left.... Timothy... doesn't really go well with Abby IMO
Maybe that's why we are having another girl LOL because we cannot find a boys name!

All my life I've said that if I had a girl her name would be Rebecca. My uncle beat me to that name LOL He named his little girl Rebecca. *sigh*

But I still have tons of girls names I like :wink:

Oh yeah and one of my ex workmates had a baby girl this year and named her Mikayla. Which was on my short list for Sophie :lol: But I didn't like it THAT much that it annoyed me. Even if I did LOVE it I would have used it anyway. :wink:

I think it would only be an issue with us about the names if we know someone who we didn't like with that particular name.

I certainly wouldn't pick a name that someone else in the family had chosen for their own child.

The name we have picked Matilda is actually the same name some friends of the family picked for their daughter, but since DH and I have little contact with these friends anymore, it's only my sister and parents who see them, it's not awkward or anything. In fact my parents told these friends of the family and they were very flattered.

the church we were going to there were about 5 Jacksons but we all just laughed about it (my DS name),

My DD name is really uncommon - Paris - but I CANNOT stand it when people ask me if I named her after Paris Hilton... plurrreesse,

If a close friend copied or "stole" (ROTF) a name we were picking it would bug me LOL.

Yeah I would be :evil: if my sister or SIL stole the name I picked for my child. If they knew what we were naming the child and then decided to use the name. But if they had no idea what we were naming our child then I would just have to choose a different name... that's why I told my sister what we are naming this baby. Not that it matters because she isn't pregnant LOL
Neither is my SIL... but she doesn't know what we are naming baby.

There is a little feud going on in our family.

When I found out that Josiah was a boy last summer I wanted so badly to name him Jesse. That is my grandpa's name and I wanted to use it to honor him!

But my cousin (who was raised by my grandfather after his mom and dad divorced) and wife had already chosen that name in case they had a boy. (they were pregnant with there second and had had a girl already.)

Turns out they have another girl.... so they don't use the name for a second time! My grandma begged me to use it because she didn't want the name to end up not being used...

But I kept thinking that if I used that name it would cause such a huge problem!!

When their baby was close to being born she (cousins wife) called me and asked me how attached to Abigail I was (name I had picked before finding out Josiah was a boy). I said very attached... but I'll give you Abigail if you give me Jesse...

She said NOPE!

Anyhow long story short... We ended up naming him Josiah Christian so that when he is older we can call him JC... that is what my grandpa goes by anyways... he is very rarely called Jesse... so I think in the end we still won!

Ooooh! :evil: Bekah I would have been mad... just with the fact that she would use Abigail when she knew that that was the name you were going to use. Did she name her daughter Abigail in the end?
I would probably name your daughter Abigail anyway. Even if that means 2 of them. :lol:
She wasn't going to have a boy anyway so she should have just swapped with you (let you use Josiah and she has Abigail) or let you use Josiah and Abigail! There are plenty of names out there she could choose from.

We choose the names we wanted for our babies and didn't really care what anyone else thought--that sounded mean didn't it???? :D Actually we liked some names but elimnated them because they rhymed with bad words or could sound like a bad word. Also we didn't name them anything that could cause them to be made fun of and did not name our son a name that could be a girl's name either. Best of luck--picking a name can be stressful! Stephanie :D :D

Renee

She didn't use Abigail... she used Mia... further reasons why I can't use Jesse if this one is a boy!

Well all the names we picked out had meaning...We didn't really care what others thought either.......

Our first was Emily Rose - Emily was a name in a movie we saw and meant "too soon", Rose represented the walk through the rose garden my hubby would whisper in my ear to get me to sleep at night...He'd say " we're walking through a rose garden, look at the white roses..Can you see them? " and so on

Angela was named Angel for months but after such a difficult pregnancy hubby said " what if she isn't one and the name doesn't fit? :shock: :lol: " So Angela, and Marie is my middle name

Our third was Dalton Rodger, Dalton meant "too eager" and Rodger is hubby's middle name...

Soooo........I'll never copy those names :lol: But otherwise if we had more I'd name them anything I wanted to :wink:

Renee

She didn't use Abigail... she used Mia... further reasons why I can't use Jesse if this one is a boy!

Oh ok! Well that's good because you can name this one Abigail if it's a girl :D ;)

Jesse is nice but you would have two boys both with names starting with J.
What other names do you like?
I like Ethan, Matthew, Samuel, Luke, Benjamin, Reuben, .... I think those are all the bible names I like for boys...

We are going with Daniel this time if it is a boy... but I have a hunch it might be a girl... my pregnancy this time is SOOO similar to my pregnancy with dd...

I like Daniel. One of my cousins is Daniel. So I couldn't use that name.

So what will you be naming this one if it's a girl? Or is it a secret? :wink:

Abigail if it's a girl!

Woohoo! Another Abigail for C'Moms! :D I think we have 2 now.

I didn't read everyone's posts, but I'd thought I would leave my 2 cents anyway. Sorry if it sounds like a repeat...

If my kids' names were Madison and Emily, I wouldn't think anything about it since they are sooo common. Since their names are Eden and Amaris, I would think it very odd if someone I knew used either name.

my daughter is kwynn elyse. we liked the name quinn, but when she turned out to be a girl we changed the spelling so it would look more like a girl's name. our son is jakob kors ( named after both of his dutch grandfathers) and our third child is grayce anne maria. anne and maria are both family names.
their is a family at our church, who we don't know very well. their kids names are benjamin, jacob and grace. my husband is ben, son jakob, and daughter is grayce. (completely unintentional)