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January 5, 2016 6:15 PM Subscribe
It isn't easy to name a baby these days. This expectant couple followed a simple 64 step plan. Introducing...The Baby Naming Tournament.
I really, really want to see the filled out bracket. Because the idea is great, but useless to childless me. I just want to see how the names shook out.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:27 PM on January 5, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 6:27 PM on January 5, 2016 [10 favorites]
(we didn’t want anything that had ever been in the top 500)
Ever ever? Because I feel like most "legit" names must have been in the top 500 at one time or another...
posted by subdee at 6:42 PM on January 5, 2016
Ever ever? Because I feel like most "legit" names must have been in the top 500 at one time or another...
posted by subdee at 6:42 PM on January 5, 2016
Like above, this left me with more questions than answers. Did seeding matter? Clearly they consulted a bunch of data while choosing a name, but was that data in service to help determine which names were seeded higher? And yeah, I can understand not revealing the name you chose because it's presumably something unique and you'd like to keep it that way for like 3 years or whatever, but the starting 64 would have been nice to see.
Anyway, won't be any use to me. I told her on our very first OKCupid date that the names and order are already set:
Normalb
Grandmab
Doctorb
Khamirb
They're gender-neutral and totally unique while still paying tribute to our heritage.
posted by carsonb at 7:09 PM on January 5, 2016
Anyway, won't be any use to me. I told her on our very first OKCupid date that the names and order are already set:
Normalb
Grandmab
Doctorb
Khamirb
They're gender-neutral and totally unique while still paying tribute to our heritage.
posted by carsonb at 7:09 PM on January 5, 2016
Ever ever? Because I feel like most "legit" names must have been in the top 500 at one time or another...
I'd actually think the list of "legit" (by which I'm guessing we're talking recognizable in white American circles) is bigger than you'd figure on first glance. I just grabbed a couple dozen names from the bottom of a top 1000 list from 1930, then checked similar lists for one random year a decade leading up to 2014 and deleted the names that got popular (it turns out there was a five year period where everyone was naming their sons Sebastian - who knew?).
The kinds of recognizable names that might never have broken the top 500 in the U.S. are things like: Eartha, Octavia, Zula, Francesca, and Rhiannon (although I'd be surprised if this one didn't eke over the line one of those years) for girls, and Shea, Lars, Simeon, Marcellus, Llewellyn, Ulysses, and Benedict for boys.
posted by northernish at 7:14 PM on January 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
I'd actually think the list of "legit" (by which I'm guessing we're talking recognizable in white American circles) is bigger than you'd figure on first glance. I just grabbed a couple dozen names from the bottom of a top 1000 list from 1930, then checked similar lists for one random year a decade leading up to 2014 and deleted the names that got popular (it turns out there was a five year period where everyone was naming their sons Sebastian - who knew?).
The kinds of recognizable names that might never have broken the top 500 in the U.S. are things like: Eartha, Octavia, Zula, Francesca, and Rhiannon (although I'd be surprised if this one didn't eke over the line one of those years) for girls, and Shea, Lars, Simeon, Marcellus, Llewellyn, Ulysses, and Benedict for boys.
posted by northernish at 7:14 PM on January 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but we did a similar (but much simpler) version of this.
When my wife was pregnant, we had a vague idea of a name, but upon seeing the actual kid, it just... didn't fit somehow.
So, armed with 3 simple rules*, a baby name book, the baby name explorer website (top 100 names in your state, etc) and a couple of days of free time in the hospital, we did an impromptu survey.
I would call out names and my wife would give them a thumbs up/down.
If it got a thumbs up, it went on the patient info whiteboard in the maternity room.
If someone (nurse, doctor, orderly, etc) walked in and said something like "Hey, my sister just had a kid named Jane!", it was crossed off.
Similarly, if a visitor walked in and said How do you pronounce that/I would have spelled it with a Y/Let me tell you about my ex-con uncle named Jack, etc, it was crossed off.
Names that got Oh, what a lovely name/my favorite aunt was named Jill/That reminds me of a great novel, etc, got stars.
In the end, we took a list of about 10 names and crowd-sourced it down to one.
It's rare enough that we've never met another child with it, but not so rare that it causes comment.
It's one of those cyclical names that is currently in a down-cycle, so it has a classic feel to it.
It's a nice name, and one we probably wouldn't have chosen on our own.
* 1) Must not be easily shortened into a nickname (Robert -> Bob)
2) Should not have to spell it out over the phone. (That's Jingleheimer, J-I-N-G-L...)
3) Standardized pronunciation (Yes, my name is Jill, but it's pronounced sh-eel)
(The name we chose violates all three. Go figure.)
posted by madajb at 7:36 PM on January 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
When my wife was pregnant, we had a vague idea of a name, but upon seeing the actual kid, it just... didn't fit somehow.
So, armed with 3 simple rules*, a baby name book, the baby name explorer website (top 100 names in your state, etc) and a couple of days of free time in the hospital, we did an impromptu survey.
I would call out names and my wife would give them a thumbs up/down.
If it got a thumbs up, it went on the patient info whiteboard in the maternity room.
If someone (nurse, doctor, orderly, etc) walked in and said something like "Hey, my sister just had a kid named Jane!", it was crossed off.
Similarly, if a visitor walked in and said How do you pronounce that/I would have spelled it with a Y/Let me tell you about my ex-con uncle named Jack, etc, it was crossed off.
Names that got Oh, what a lovely name/my favorite aunt was named Jill/That reminds me of a great novel, etc, got stars.
In the end, we took a list of about 10 names and crowd-sourced it down to one.
It's rare enough that we've never met another child with it, but not so rare that it causes comment.
It's one of those cyclical names that is currently in a down-cycle, so it has a classic feel to it.
It's a nice name, and one we probably wouldn't have chosen on our own.
* 1) Must not be easily shortened into a nickname (Robert -> Bob)
2) Should not have to spell it out over the phone. (That's Jingleheimer, J-I-N-G-L...)
3) Standardized pronunciation (Yes, my name is Jill, but it's pronounced sh-eel)
(The name we chose violates all three. Go figure.)
posted by madajb at 7:36 PM on January 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
The whole origin of "Wendell" was a family joke that if my father had done any more drinking the night/morning I was born, he'd insist on naming me Wendell instead of Craig because of the alliteration with our "W" last name (with the bonus that if you pronounced the W's like V's, it sounded 'very Jewish' which he thought might have been positive since most of the family his parents left behind in Germany were Nazis). While Wendell was the 230th most popular boy's name the year I was born, it fell out of the Top 1000 right after my 40th birthday. Meanwhile, Craig just made the Top 50 the year I was born, dropped out of the Top 100 in 1989 and had fallen to #930 by 2014, making it likely to fall out of the Top 1000 in '15 (in spite of ... or possibly because of ... the ubiquity of Craigslist, Craig Ferguson, Jenny Craig and Daniel Craig). Considering how often "Greg" has been written down instead of Craig, there were times I would've rather been Greg - or Gregory (I like the idea of a shorten-able name).
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:47 PM on January 5, 2016
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:47 PM on January 5, 2016
We came to a decision about the first name very easily (to the chagrin of every traditionalist in the room), but the middle name was hard, and we wound up with a Google Drive Middle Name Comparison Matrix, with categories
"Overall flow," "Middle-as-given suitability / Initials Usage," "Honors ideals/cultural heritage/historical role models," "Honors family/friend(s)," "Daddy's top," and "Mama's top."
But in the end, with 15 points total, Jonathan beat out 16-pointers Alan, Franklin, and Reason. Pretty much because "Mama's top" is secretly worth extra points.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 7:54 PM on January 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
"Overall flow," "Middle-as-given suitability / Initials Usage," "Honors ideals/cultural heritage/historical role models," "Honors family/friend(s)," "Daddy's top," and "Mama's top."
But in the end, with 15 points total, Jonathan beat out 16-pointers Alan, Franklin, and Reason. Pretty much because "Mama's top" is secretly worth extra points.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 7:54 PM on January 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
I was disappointed the author didn't include a description of what went down in the Tournament or even reveal the name they went with in the end.
The writer's bio says she has a 3-year-old named Winnie. So maybe Winifred or something similar?
posted by zerbinetta at 9:05 PM on January 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
The writer's bio says she has a 3-year-old named Winnie. So maybe Winifred or something similar?
posted by zerbinetta at 9:05 PM on January 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
I had to pick my own name a few years ago. I had a single requirement: start with R, because I'd be damned if I was changing my initials. I didn't want anything common, like Rob or Ryan, in part because my old name had been uncommon and I wanted something similarly unusual, and also because I know way too many Robs and I'm dating a Ryan.
It turns out there aren't a lot of R-names, so I asked a couple of close friends to help me come up with a document of names, cut out all the joke names like "Rot" and "Ron Paul 2016", then narrowed it down to maybe 15 or so "I guess I could work with these?" names.
Then I polled a wider group of friends (with internet surveys!), I think with questions like "Could you remember how to spell this?" and "If you had to yell this name across a wide field and get my attention, could you do it?" and "Is the pronunciation obvious?"
Then I cut a handful from the top 10 because "eh, maybe it's TOO mythological", "this is a comic book character", "there's a character in a TV show with that name" (the top-scoring name on all counts!), etc, and sent the final 6 to my parents.
They rejected all 6 and suggested (unknowingly) the top-scoring name, so I gave up and went with popular opinion, even though I wasn't really into it.
Um, but I really like it now! This has a happy ending! small-group-sourcing my name was awesome!
posted by you could feel the sky at 9:09 PM on January 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
It turns out there aren't a lot of R-names, so I asked a couple of close friends to help me come up with a document of names, cut out all the joke names like "Rot" and "Ron Paul 2016", then narrowed it down to maybe 15 or so "I guess I could work with these?" names.
Then I polled a wider group of friends (with internet surveys!), I think with questions like "Could you remember how to spell this?" and "If you had to yell this name across a wide field and get my attention, could you do it?" and "Is the pronunciation obvious?"
Then I cut a handful from the top 10 because "eh, maybe it's TOO mythological", "this is a comic book character", "there's a character in a TV show with that name" (the top-scoring name on all counts!), etc, and sent the final 6 to my parents.
They rejected all 6 and suggested (unknowingly) the top-scoring name, so I gave up and went with popular opinion, even though I wasn't really into it.
Um, but I really like it now! This has a happy ending! small-group-sourcing my name was awesome!
posted by you could feel the sky at 9:09 PM on January 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
We created a massive Excel file of all the names we could think of, with rankings on a scale 1-5 for both him and me. As we struggled to find boys' names we both liked, things got silly and so some selections from our list:
Gatherer
Hidden
Helicopter
Gizmoduck
Sharkweek
Hazel
Fiver
posted by daisystomper at 10:44 PM on January 5, 2016 [7 favorites]
Gatherer
Hidden
Helicopter
Gizmoduck
Sharkweek
Hazel
Fiver
posted by daisystomper at 10:44 PM on January 5, 2016 [7 favorites]
This actually sounds like fun. I am vaguely debating mentioning it to a pregnant co-worker if it comes up in conversation.
But yeah, now I want to know some names, like what R-one was finally picked? (Okay, don't tell me, it's the Internet and I should not know these things, but now I wonder since most of my male relatives on both sides were either Robert or Ronald for sheer originality.)
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:00 PM on January 5, 2016
But yeah, now I want to know some names, like what R-one was finally picked? (Okay, don't tell me, it's the Internet and I should not know these things, but now I wonder since most of my male relatives on both sides were either Robert or Ronald for sheer originality.)
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:00 PM on January 5, 2016
I would wager a large sum that there is a kid named Fiver somewhere in America right now. It's been discussed, anyway.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 3:07 AM on January 6, 2016
posted by Pater Aletheias at 3:07 AM on January 6, 2016
I wanted to have a very boring normal traditional first name (which surprised all my friends who assumed I'd do something wacky) but an interesting middle name, so that child could choose which to use.
This is an idea from a book that I don't remember the name of.
If we had a boy it was to be Tycho after the astronomer who lost his nose in a duel about maths and had a pert moose until it got drunk and fell down the stairs and was generally flamboyant and exciting.
Sadly history afforded women less leeway to live that way and recorded those that did less well, so I didn't have a middle name candidate... if only there was somewhere I could ask for help.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:14 AM on January 6, 2016
This is an idea from a book that I don't remember the name of.
If we had a boy it was to be Tycho after the astronomer who lost his nose in a duel about maths and had a pert moose until it got drunk and fell down the stairs and was generally flamboyant and exciting.
Sadly history afforded women less leeway to live that way and recorded those that did less well, so I didn't have a middle name candidate... if only there was somewhere I could ask for help.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:14 AM on January 6, 2016
I wanted to have a very boring normal traditional first name... but an interesting middle name, so that child could choose which to use.
That's what we did, because I have both first and middle names that were considered somewhat un-masculine by my peers at school, and I remember feeling that I'd give a lot to be called Jon or Dave.
But we had a lot of difficulty deciding on any names until I realized that we both had the same initials. So we used those as a guide, and there are now five JAT's in the family. Whether that is endearingly eccentric or just plain annoying seems to depend on the mood the kids are in. In any event, it means there are few secrets in the post, and makes sharing of things like library cards quite simple...
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 4:51 AM on January 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
That's what we did, because I have both first and middle names that were considered somewhat un-masculine by my peers at school, and I remember feeling that I'd give a lot to be called Jon or Dave.
But we had a lot of difficulty deciding on any names until I realized that we both had the same initials. So we used those as a guide, and there are now five JAT's in the family. Whether that is endearingly eccentric or just plain annoying seems to depend on the mood the kids are in. In any event, it means there are few secrets in the post, and makes sharing of things like library cards quite simple...
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 4:51 AM on January 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
Before we knew our eldest daughter was our daughter, my dad suggested an old family name if our spawn ended up male.
"Asel," he said with a straight face.
All I could think after the flattest denial in history was who would do that to a kid?
posted by jferngler at 6:27 AM on January 6, 2016
"Asel," he said with a straight face.
All I could think after the flattest denial in history was who would do that to a kid?
posted by jferngler at 6:27 AM on January 6, 2016
This is how naming our son went, way back in 2001:
Mr. Lucinda: I want to name him [FirstName MiddleName], after my grandfather, who was a very important guy in my life.
Me: I have no boy name hills upon which I am ready to die, so okay.
(about a month before he was born, while watching the MST3K episode Warrior of the Lost World)
Me: LET'S GIVE OUR KID "MEGAWEAPON" AS A MIDDLE NAME
Mr. Lucinda: Yeah, okay!
(he was kidding. I was not.)
posted by Lucinda at 8:38 AM on January 6, 2016
Mr. Lucinda: I want to name him [FirstName MiddleName], after my grandfather, who was a very important guy in my life.
Me: I have no boy name hills upon which I am ready to die, so okay.
(about a month before he was born, while watching the MST3K episode Warrior of the Lost World)
Me: LET'S GIVE OUR KID "MEGAWEAPON" AS A MIDDLE NAME
Mr. Lucinda: Yeah, okay!
(he was kidding. I was not.)
posted by Lucinda at 8:38 AM on January 6, 2016
One of our friends has a middle name we love and a first name that is also great and fits well with that middle name. So, we just reversed the order when it was time to name our oldest daughter. It gave her a great name and was a nice way to honor someone terrific.
posted by Area Man at 9:57 AM on January 6, 2016
posted by Area Man at 9:57 AM on January 6, 2016
I have no child, but while I understand the fun of picking out a great name, I’ve never understood the "must be unique" thing. (Plus the fact that everyone I know that insisted on that criteria now have children with very common names because everyone else in the world picked same unique name.)
posted by bongo_x at 10:13 PM on January 6, 2016
posted by bongo_x at 10:13 PM on January 6, 2016
"I wanted to have a very boring normal traditional first name (which surprised all my friends who assumed I'd do something wacky) but an interesting middle name, so that child could choose which to use.
This is an idea from a book that I don't remember the name of.
If we had a boy it was to be Tycho "
Hah, I think I read that book! The kid was even named Tycho!
Uh, I think anyway. I vaguely remember they each had a regular name and a famous name, but I can't find confirmation of that online at the moment.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:17 PM on January 6, 2016
This is an idea from a book that I don't remember the name of.
If we had a boy it was to be Tycho "
Hah, I think I read that book! The kid was even named Tycho!
Uh, I think anyway. I vaguely remember they each had a regular name and a famous name, but I can't find confirmation of that online at the moment.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:17 PM on January 6, 2016
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