Wow! These name games are reallly popular and got me to thinking...... What is your favorite name and why? Is it your name, your child's name or maybe something outrageous that wouldn't be practical as a name but is still awesome nonetheless?

I'll start first.

My favorite name (aside from Charlotte lol) is: Saoirse. It means freedom and I think it is such a strong sounding girl's name (sear-sha). If I have a daughter I would hope to have the chutzpah to name her this.

How about you guys?

I've always like the name Alexandra or Gabriella (Gabby for short) for a girl and Shane for a boy, but DH doesn't like neither of those! lol.

i love Gaelic names, but like you I'm not sure i would be brave enough to name a kid anything that i liked. I really love the name Niahm (Nee-Av). I used to really like the name Tristan but it seems to be used a really lot now.
My hubby who is really into anime thought Lain would be a good name for a girl. I talked him down to Lena, which I like very much... but chances are there are no children in our future anyway.
I have a lot more names I can't stand... it's very popular here in the Pac NW to name your child a Mc-name... I don't know if it's McDonald's inspired or what... but there are a ton of McKenzies, McKenna's, McKayla's etc. Seems too confusing for school teachers.
A fun game is to go through the local hospital's baby registry and see the pics of the cute kids and the crazy *** names their parents give them. I know it's kinda mean but sometimes I swear I can tell which parents were under 20 by the names and bizzare spellings of names...

Heh. Best name ever: Flower-Darling Daisy-Destiny Anne. I am not making that up; I read it in the Sunday paper my first weekened in Honolulu. I don't even remember the last name, but the rest of it is singed into my mind for all eternity, complete with hyphens.

I could also come up with a couple of doozies courtesy of my work in data entry & even one of my husband's shipmates, but that's not the point of this thread.

My actual favorite name? That would indeed be my own. Sabra. It's a family name, dating back probably to the earliest part of this century, as my grandmother for whom I was named was born in 1929, and herself named for an earlier family member.

It is the name that native-born Israelis are said to use for themselves; it is the name of a cactus native to that land. As so many other names from that area, it has an Arabic meaning as well-restful. BUT since it is a national symbol of Israel it gets very fun. Google has enlightened me to the fact that my name is borne by: a naughty Japanese magazine, a brand of hummus & other middle-eastern delicacies (I actually saw some in the store in Virginia once, but my husband refused to buy it), two or three restaurants of varying sorts in this country, pantyhose, a sports car, a pickup truck, a dessert wine (odd story: I once met a corpsman who asked me if I'd been named for the wine like his sister had), a very fine style of ring, a shoe, and even a few tanks.

But this, oh this is my favorite:


I'm a SUPERHERO!

#1 goofy name I saw was Princesa Vanessa.

In the FAR future i want to name my son Christian, and i might name my daughter Steffini (Stephanie). I might just go ahead and name my daughter Ellie May. lol

I once knew a family who had named their kids 3 of the armed forces--Army, Navy and Marine--no kidding. Oh, and one of my personal faves, the family last name was "Silva", 2 sons first names were Hi-Ho and Sterling

Sabra, while living in Hawaii I know you had to have read not only the "unusual" made up names people give their kids here, but also the atrociously creative spellings to go with them:

some examples:

Chaymes (Seamus)
Liajeydine (Leah-jay-deen maybe, I'm guessing)
Precshuss (Precious)
Chaffon (like Chiffon, but the mother didn't like the spelling... WTF?)
I know there are more, but my mind is going haywire trying to think of them, they are so prolific here. Don't even get me started on the "combined-named-after-their-parents-names"...

Sorry, I digress...
But back to the thread topic, I really like the name Gabriel for a boy (I already have a Michael so another archangel would be in order), or Sara for a girl. I like my name "Noelle" too.

My favorite name misspelling has got to be "Symphany." It's just so close to the actual word that I really think they thought that's how symphony is spelled.

This sort of thing is why, I think, I once had a nurse thank me for giving Linda a "real" name.

I used to work at a hospital and a mother gave birth to two girls and named them Phenomenon and Millenium. Unfortunately, she didn't have the decency to spell either of the words correctly (I can't remember the exact misspellings).

Allison, this is how the very young, (probably) unwed mothers would spell it in Honolulu:

Phynnomynym and Myllennyum -- i kid you not!

I went to school with a set of boy twins who were named Myron and Byron. Seemed cute when they were 5. Not so cute when they were in graduate school...

Elizabeth is my favorite name.

My Neices Are Named Sunshine And Summer Dawn. We Grew Up By Kids Named (and I Kid You Not!) Frosty ~ Stormy~ Blizzard

hehehe. We used to live in American Samoa and we knew people with names like Easter Day and Christmas Day. Samoan names are interesting, the secularized ones are silly and the traditional ones I have a really hard time trying to pronounce.

I had a customer that was Rudolph Christmas JR! I think it was the JR that took it over the top for me.

Other names I like are Patricia, Charlotte (Lottie for short), both are family names. The men's family names are not so great, especially Sigurd. Good old norse name.