What are your favorite names?

Was that his given name (on his birth certificate)?  My dad's given name was Jimmie, and when he was old enough to realise that was the female spelling, he had it legally changed to Jimmy.  Not James, which Jimmy is short for, but Jimmy.  Kooky Texans.

I live in Texas.  When I was in my teens, I knew a family where one son was named James, and the other was named Jimmy.  Yes, those were their legal names.  Their last name?  Dean.

My brother & SIL once met some people - I think this was in Texas also...well they had a family of about 5 or 6 children (my brother was hiring the man to process a deer into venison for the freezer) and the youngest child was named Lastun.

True story - I swear!

My brother & SIL once met some people - I think this was in Texas also...well they had a family of about 5 or 6 children (my brother was hiring the man to process a deer into venison for the freezer) and the youngest was named Lastun.

True story - I swear!

I believe you!  I had to obtain my grandparents' full names in support of my first time UK passport application, and was very amused, though none of them reflected their parents' prescience of knowing whether they would be the last born....

I'd love to name a daughter after a literary character, but so few of the women I like in books have names I like. 

I have to admit that a large part of why I love William is because of Will Stanton in The Dark Is Rising.   I really like traditional names for boys, but for the most part I hate the potential nicknames/diminutives - Will is one of the only ones I like (Ben being the other).

As a teacher, you learn to love and hate names based on the kids they are attached to.

This is so true!!  I'm a librarian, not a teacher, but the same principle applies.

my middle name is Ann, just like every other Julia or Julie I have ever met, so a different middle name is always good!

Every single other Megan I've ever met has been a Megan Elizabeth - it's really nice not being one myself!

My uncle was given one of those grand, preposterous, four-name Southern monikers beginning with William. They called him Billy. So when my mother was born, they named her Betty. Just Betty. Because it sounded good with Billy.

That, I think, was the beginning of Mother's feminism.

Have an uncle that was named William on his birth certificate.  But I've only known him as Buddy or Uncle Bud.  Not sure why though. 

My cats:

Fergal (he's orange!)
Ulla (yes, I love the producers)
Cecilia
Odette

I really like my grandmother's name, Zenaida, but I don't know how well it rolls off English tongues ;-)

My mom is convinced I should name my first born after her and my MIL in this form: Marie Claire. But I am *NOT* naming my possible future daughter after a cheesy women's magazine!

I really want to go with Hispanic names for my future children, because we will be living in England with an English last name and well, I just want them to never forget their Hispanic roots too!

Rocio and Paloma are beautiful girls names, I think. I've always liked Felipe or Javier for a boy.

David is a lovely name (my DH's)  But you'd have to make sure people called him David, not Dave.  What a waste of such a nice name!

Unfortunately it becomes Dave in the US 

Unfortunately it becomes Dave in the US 

It often becomes Davey here in the UK, though. 

It probably wouldn't matter what we named our kids, they would have some weird nickname in a few years time anyway. Everyone in this village does, even me! DH is Munchie, and I am Munchie's Lass or Mrs. Munch, and then DH has friends called Armit, Stoney, Hilda (a man!), G, Wilkie, Hoggy, Lockie, and there's even a lady here that the folks call Bacardi Breezer! 
And whatever the nickname is, it just sticks. Besides his mother (and my parents and friends) I am the only one who calls DH by his given name (which is Adrian, the best name ever, IMO!) Even his superiors at work and his former teachers call him Munchie. 

It often becomes Davey here in the UK, though. 

It probably wouldn't matter what we named our kids, they would have some weird nickname in a few years time anyway. Everyone in this village does, even me! DH is Munchie, and I am Munchie's Lass or Mrs. Munch, and then DH has friends called Armit, Stoney, Hilda (a man!), G, Wilkie, Hoggy, Lockie, and there's even a lady here that the folks call Bacardi Breezer! 
And whatever the nickname is, it just sticks. Besides his mother (and my parents and friends) I am the only one who calls DH by his given name (which is Adrian, the best name ever, IMO!) Even his superiors at work and his former teachers call him Munchie. 

My last name is Hutton and in school I had a couple nicknames based on this- Jesse The Hutt and Huttdog were the most common. Even the teachers always called me Jesse The Hutt.

I swear I don't look like that slug.

I'd love to name a daughter after a literary character, but so few of the women I like in books have names I like. 

My favorite character is Arkady Renko, and there's no way I could do that to a kid.   

I would have loved to be a Przywojski (real name) because teachers and coaches always took the time to learn how to say it correctly.  Not one of them ever got my name right. 

When I was younger, being an Amoscato was a pain in the a$$ because no one on Earth can pronounce it.  Now that I'm older I like it because telemarketers can't pronouce it, so if I answer the phone and someone says "Can I speak with Mr. Ahmiscaytoe please?" I just say, "There's nobody here by that name." 

Carl

SO and I have been discussing names as we've been broody over thinking of children.

We came up with naming a son after me so his first name would be Jesse. We thought of using James for his middle name. His name would be Jesse James Jr.