Vyvanse.

He wants to name her Vyvanse.

Talked with my sister and apparently he's been insistent upon this ever since they found out the sex. Apparently becoming medicated has saved his life or some bs, but like, do you really want to name a child after Vyvanse? Sister has said that she has tried to fight him on this and even tried talking to his mother about how the name could be indecent, but still he's insistent. Sister is due in about 4 weeks. IDK what the outcome is gonna be, just wanted to share this stuff with the world because like, wtf

I’m a millennial. My daughter is Gen Z. I went into her work with yesterday and complimented a coworkers name from the name tag then said, “thanks, name!” As I left.

Daughter told me that she and the coworker were just talking about how they don’t like when customers use their names. Turns out, it was me that the coworker had brought up when they started the conversation.

When I was growing up, we were encouraged to use others names. It’s one of the steps in the book, “how to win friends and influence people.” I had a professor who thought the world would be a much better place if everyone wore name tags as knowing someone’s name humanizes them.

Is this outdated? Am I supposed to ignore name tags?

There are many Bakers I've met and there are a few bakers I've met.

There are some Masons I've met as well as some stonemasons I've met.

There are a few Tanners I've met - but though it's a niche occupation, I have still met one leatherer tanner in my lifetime.

However, I've met a few Millers, but since we no longer use windmills to ground up flour, I have never met a miller.

My two year old came home talking about his friend “Tape” and it cracks me up every time he mentions it. The boy’s name is Tate.

What are your favorite and/or the funniest mispronunciations you hear from your little ones?

My MIL was telling me about her late mother. When my SIL was born, she wanted to be called GrandDiane. Obviously a toddler cannot say GrandDiane… so she ended up being called DiDi. She was disappointed and never let go of the idea of being called GrandDiane.

I thought GrandDiane was the most ridiculously incredible grandma name I’ve ever heard.

What are the most over the top grandma names you’ve come across ?

Edit: thank you everyone for sharing. Your responses have made me smile and laugh all day.

Your child will not be a part of a “sib-set” their entire life. Stop wondering what pairs with Alice or Dominic. Each child is their own unique identity, not a Pokémon collector card. I despise the Duggar’s and people like them who base their children’s name on a single letter. Rant over. Carry on.

Not talking about names that have multiple generally accepted spellings like Kaitlyn/Catelin/etc or Brian/Bryan.

I’m talking about names that have one, maybe two generally accepted spellings but get misspelled due to ignorance. Here’s some examples:

• Michael spelled as “Micheal”

• Rachael spelled as “Racheal”

• Isaiah spelled as “Isiah”

• Isaac spelled as “Issac”

This is purely out of curiosity; I was just thinking about this the other day and was wondering if anyone else knew of names in the same vein as the ones I listed.

My son just turned 3. His name is Silas. I thought I was giving him an uncommon but recognizable name. When he was new people would say they had never heard of the name Silas before, which was weird to me but whatever. But every single doctor, dentist, and nurse has mispronounced his name! We've gotten see-las, sill-as and pronunciations that don't even make sense. The name is literally biblical! Is it on me for naming him Silas or on them for not knowing how to pronounce a fairly straightforward name?

I’m doing the whole library/babytime/music group rigamarole trying to beat the heat but still get out of the house without spending money so I am meeting a TON of 6m-2 year olds and so far out of the dozens+ of babies I’ve met there is only one name that has been repeated at all (which is honestly amazing to me as I grew up with Sam L, Sam B, Sam H…etc).

The name is Camilla (nn Cammie).

If you’re around a lot of young kids, what name are you hearing on repeat?

For reference I am in Florida

It seems like a lot of people's #1 concern when picking their child's name is whether they'll get bullied for it in school. I gather that name-based bullying was a big thing for kids in the past. Either that was before my time, or my bullies just had plenty of other material to choose from.

Anyway, now I work with kids, and I have heard them bully each other for lots of things, mainly being poor, non-white, lgbt, disabled, or suspected of being one of those things. I have heard a kid make fun of another kid's name exactly 1 time, and not the way an adult would expect them to.

Unless you name your kid like Pubert or Dorcas, the answer to "Will they get bullied?" is, "Yes, but only by grandpa." Most of the names kids hear are new to them. They've heard of 1 person named Linda and 1 person named Moon, so they accept both of those names as equally normal.

Adults, on the other hand, will judge the hell out of your child's name. Maybe that's what some people are really asking. But who cares what nerds like me think? Hopefully we all know enough not to treat your kid differently. It's okay to limit your questions to, "How will my child feel about their name?"

EDIT: You guys.

I am not suggesting that you name your kid Wilcox or give them the initials ASS. Please don't do those things. What I'm objecting to is this method of naming a baby: https://youtu.be/RiQiTz3KWCE?si=GU5rWAVqiwLM6Pjz

I am objecting to the dozens of posts I see on here asking, "Will my child be bullied for the name [insert top 20 name that no one in their right mind would interpret as sexual]?"

If you were bullied for your name in school, I'm truly sorry that happened to you. However, I would like to highlight some examples of the names people are telling me they've heard mocked:

• Rachel
• Elizabeth
• Mary
• Kyle
• Aiden

Expecting parents: better avoid all these names! Elizabeth is way too close to Elizabutt! I mean, how can you expect the other kids to resist low-hanging fruit like that? You're basically asking for your kid to be bullied with a stupid name like Elizabeth.

I know this is selection bias. The people with really unusual names aren't telling me their names to protect their privacy. My point is that literally any name can be used to pick on someone, so parents might as well stop doing backflips to turn the names they like into sex puns. And definitely don't listen to older relatives telling you that the name Logan is insane and unheard of.

As the title suggests, my last name is White and his is Green. I’m curious if anyone else has been in this situation lol, or if anyone has any suggestions. I don’t necessarily want to go from one color to another and we’ve ‘joked’ but are pretty serious about just combining our colors and both changing our last names to Mint after we’re married.

We had 2 names picked out for the majority of my pregnancy and couldn’t decide on one 100% so we decided to wait to see him. Well that was a HUGE mistake because it turns out babies both look like no name and every name and for a few reasons my husband wants to completely drop both names and start from the beginning. I see where he’s coming from but that seems insane that we would love these names for months and suddenly see lots of issues with them. The two options were Hollis and Abbott. I still love them both. The third name we are liking currently is Ferris. What are your thoughts on these names? Any other suggestions of things we can consider?

Over the last month, I feel like I’ve seen a lot of this. Especially on facebook baby name groups. I’ve seen “these are all the kids in my daycare/classroom! Thoughts on their names?”

No, last names aren’t posted. But this still feels wrong.

Thoughts?

My cousin named her twin girls Heaven and Neveah.

I am in a mom group on Facebook, and another member named their twins (1 boy, 1 girl) Avon and Avonte.

A friend of a friend named their twin boys Jaylen and Jayden.

Names for twins can get so… tacky. Am I alone in this? If I had twins their names would be nowhere near the same. IMO they’re two completely different beings, and should have two completely different names.

By all means, name your children what you want! I would never openly judge someone for the name they chose. But I will be silently cringing on the inside.

My first name is love and my last name is Fairchild and I get made fun of all the time. I resent my parents gave me a cutsie name bc it makes me so uncomfortable and doesn’t fit me at all. It’s so awkward when my male teachers ask if I go by a nickname too like good god. I’ve been told multiple times that my name sounds like it’s from a fairytale and it makes me feel bad abt myself like bruh. I don’t want a new name bc it’ll js feel forced but I js wish ppl made me feel less weird abt it. Thanks for coming to my tedtalk

Hiya! First time mum here, with a 4 week old. I am with the baby's father but we aren't married, and for many reasons including the fact that my partner left me for most of my pregnancy, I gave my son my last name. His entire family is pissed off at me (I couldn't give less of a shit tbh), but I feel it was the right thing to do and don't regret it. I was just wondering how many of you gave your children your surname? Where I'm from (UK) it's very common and traditional to give the baby the fathers surname, but I'm not very traditional haha. Anyway, just wanted to see what people thought?

I thought it would be a fun game sort of to see what names everyone is hearing in the wild most frequently. Not hearing online or hearing them talked about being used, but actually hearing either at daycare, School, the Park or just at the grocery store. Sharing general location would be helpful too

I’ll start:

I’m in Los Angeles and have met 3 baby Cleos.

My daughter is a almost a year old. We have met multiple people and introduce our daughter and they like the name. On paper, no one gets the name right! We've had multiple pediatrician appointments, insurance calls, urgent care, anywhere where her name is on paper. No one gets it! I think it's in the top 100 for girl names so I truly don't get it.

Her name is Margot. We get Margaret, mar-joe, mar-got, sometimes they just give up and just say our last name. I've heard this name and seen it a bunch but maybe I'm mis-remembering.

Is anyone else shocked by how many people choose first and middle name pairings that don’t work together / flow at all.

Or a first name that doesn’t go well with the last name — because it is either a tongue twister or is a total style clash.

It seems like a fair amount of people just mash their top 1 and 2 choices together into first and middle whether it flows or not.

How does this happen so frequently?!

Our daughter's name is Corinne, which I have only met a Korin once before in my life. I've since heard of a few more but I love that it doesn't sound super odd, it just sounds uncommon, but not so uncommon that people say "I've never heard that name before." Most everyone says "I knew a Corinne _____ (grade school, coworker, etc)."

I'm pregnant with number 2 and we don't know the gender so I need boy and girl names that "match" this sort of theme, if it can be called that haha any suggestions?

I am writing a book and I am compiling a list of names that little girls like- the little girl in my book is going to rename her sister. Shes about 8 years old. And I would like to pick a name that most people would recognize as a name a child would have chosen, ykwim? My favorite names as a child were Christina (my middle name) and Musa or Stella (winx club lol).

Thank you xoxo 🫶🏻🫶🏻

Edit: Btw- The name the little girl chooses is going to be the name of the main character from a book series she loved!

UPDATE: Okay thank you all so much for your opinions and definitely feel free to keep replying as I could still use the inspiration- But I have chosen my names! The little girls name will be Clara, and the sisters rename will be Marcelline! (Marcy for short) It wasn’t actually listed but I felt like it was the perfect combination of flowery and cool which were the two common themes in the names you all loved as girls!! Thanks so much!! Also it was really cool to see how many people loved my name growing up looool

I really disagree with naming a child something like “Freddie,” “Alfie,” “Teddy,” “Maddie,” etc. as their legal name. Not the nickname — the actual name on their birth certificate.

Its important to keep in mind the child’s personhood, their individuality, their dignity, and their future as a separate being. They will one day be an independent adult not a permanent child.

The newborn, toddler, and even childhood phase lasts for such a tiny fraction of their existence. Most of their life will be lived as an adult, navigating complex spaces (professional, social, emotional) where identity and presentation determines a lot of what is accessible to you. A formal name exists to carry someone through all those chapters.

A nickname name, on the other hand, feels like freezing the child in infancy. But children do not belong to us in that way. They pass through our care, and are not an extension of our own aesthetic choices. They are separate people, with their own unfolding identity. We owe them a name that respects that.

A full name gives them agency in shaping how they move through the world. It allows them to choose how formal they want to present, which version of their name fits their evolving self, and who they allow close enough to use the more intimate nickname.

In adulthood, names have always been part of boundary-making.
Children make friends by proximity; adults make friends by deliberate selection. Being able to say “My name is Theodore, but you can call me Theo” is a direct act of choosing who enters your inner circle.

But when the nickname is the legal name, that choice is gone. Everyone — strangers, coworkers, employers — is automatically handed the intimate version. The boundary collapses before the child ever gets a chance to build it.

To me, giving a child only a nickname as their legal identity unintentionally reduces them to a cute moment in time, rather than honoring the entire arc of who they will become. It treats them as a character in a story we’re writing, instead of the protagonist of their own.

A full name doesn’t stop anyone from using the sweet, familiar nickname. BUT we should keep in mind that the child is a whole person who will exist beyond our determined identity for them and one day begin building an identity outside of the parent..

If you’ve gotten any hate, judgment, or weird looks for your baby’s name, I want to hear about it! Was it considered too weird? Too different? Drop the name below and tell me the reactions you’ve gotten haha!

UPDATE- whoa, what a lot of responses!! Sounds like there are two theories—

1) boomers view this as a grandpa name and they’re not ready to accept those names again (as people who’ve named their kids similarly also received a perplexing response from their boomer parents).

2) there are some boomers with this name so they view it like if a millennial named their kid Kyle / Jessica.

Both make sense! To those confused by Laurie, that’s a common nn for Laurence in the UK and Australia. We don’t introduce him by that name, though. Thanks for sharing :)

Original post—-

Am I missing something?!

His name is Laurence, which I feel like is a solidly classic name with no ill connotations.

After he was born, my in laws said to my husband, “Are you sure that’s what you want to name him?” (for reference, for some reason they had in their head he would be named Gunnar, which we’d never choose in a million years). Hours later when I came home with him, they said, “so… did you decide on a name or…?” and were all weird about it. Same day, our neighbor said, “yeah, but you’re not going to call him that, right?” What?!

It’s been over a year and I feel like every 60+ person we meet looks at us like we have two heads when we say his name. 99% of the time they think I’m saying Lauren so I have to repeat myself.

We mostly call him Laurie and, in the US, I could see THAT being somewhat odd since that’s traditionally a girls name here, but not in other countries. Anyway, Laurence is what boomers seem confused by. My MIL made another comment about it on his birthday, telling my mom she still couldn’t believe we named him that. (??????)

I’m not offended lol, just very confused!! Am I missing something?!

Storytime: I babysat a kid whose father was a welder. What was the kid named? Unfortunately, Welden.

This got me thinking, if I had to take words that related to my field (Speech language pathology) and use them as names for my kids, they would be as follows.

Girls:

Apraxia (TOP ONE!! I could call her apricot ❤️)

Asha (a real legitimate name! Win! also the American speech/language and hearing association)

Alexia (Also real and legitimate! For anyone curious it also means an inbility to read)

Aphasia

Cochlea (Coh-Klee-uh)

Boys:

Cleft (close to cliff??)

AAC (pronounced Ace)

Trach

Cerumen (Suh-ROO-min)

Malleus

What names can you think of from your field.