Let me put my cards on the table: I’m out of boy names.
When Holden was still in utero, I had lots of great ideas. When Milo was baking, I had fewer great ideas. Now, I’m all tapped out.
As I look around our preschool, kindergarten class, and my extended circle of mom friends, I see a few wonderful names that might work perfectly. But am I allowed to use them?
There’s one in particular that I have my eye on. It fits most of my crazy self-imposed name rules: has two or three syllables; is uncommon but easy to say and spell; ends in an “N”, “R” or hard vowel sound; and would create decent initials. Without further research, I don’t yet know whether it is also the brand-name of a mediocre product in Australia and a literary name, but c’mon, you can’t have everything.
So, I’m trying to figure out if I can use it without violating a code of friendship.
Would you “steal” a friend’s baby’s name? Does it matter if they’re a close friend? Does it matter more if she’s an okay friend but your kids would cross paths (A LOT)? What if it’s a relative?
Has a friend ever “stolen” one of your favorite baby names? Did she ask you first? Were you flattered, angry, or totally indifferent?
IMO, its only “stealing” if you use the First and Middle names! Friends of ours (that we met through MOPS) have a daughter named Madelyn (Maddie for short) and our DD is Madeline. They just had a baby and named her Noelle. That has always been on our list. Our next baby girl will be named Olivia Noelle. I have always loved Olivia ever since our best family friends named their (now 19yold) daughter that. I think its flattering, not stealing. and with a first AND middle name…you get to be creative/inventive/different than your friend!!!
I seriously doubt any of our parents worried about such things, given all the Jeffs and Davids and Jennifers and Megans in our generation. Pick a name you can believe in, that fits your family culture, one where you can say for sure “That’s my kid’s name.” I have friends whose kids have names that are similar to each other and everyone seems to still get along.
OK so embarrasingly enough, ever since I read this, I have been obsessed with finding more names that fit the Holden/Milo pattern: Australian consumer brand/literary reference. Here’s what I have so far:
Allen (lollies/Allen Quatermain)
Bond (underwear/James Bond)
Clayton (nonalcoholic whisky/War of the Worlds film’s Doctor Clayton Forrester)
Cooper (beer/Twin Peaks’ Dale Cooper)
Fletcher (Fletcher Jones clothes/Hill Street Blues’ Chief Fletcher Daniels)
Pascal(l) (lollies/philosopher Blaise Pascal)
Perkins (paste/superhero Neptune Perkins; Parks and Recreation’s Ann Perkins)
Rip (Rip Curl clothing brand/Rip van Winkle)
Rossi (boots/Titanic’s Fabrizio de Rossi)
Sao (cracker/Pirates of the Carribean’s Sao Feng)
Toby (Uncle Toby’s cereal/Sir Toby Belch)
Valiant (car/Prince Valiant)
I think you could also get away with Darwin
In fact now I think of it, there’s a small town north of Sydney called Oberon…
I am pregnant for the 3rd time and we were out if names big time ! Just found out we will be having twins before my oldest sons 3rd birthday! 4 boys under three. The easiest thing suddenly was the names!
How about if a co-worker announces a name for each sex as her favs (she is NOT pregnant), you get pregnant-FINALLY pick a boy name you both agree on, yet keep secret and then a month and a half later she says if you pick the two names AND mentions a third (your name) she will never talk to you again….does that count as stealing? I think no. What do you think?
[...] Dad Alec and I started off with no ideas at all. When I asked if people thought it was ok to “steal” a baby name from a friend, you all weighed in. We ended up with lot of opinions on my original question, but [...]