The Baby Name Wizard

To me, Graden is basically just another "aiden" spin. It's more of a "stick a consonant or random assortment of consonants in front of Aden, and *poof* you have a name"
Also, I don't know if it's because of the trend that I tend to shy away from it, or if it's because of the fact that my last name ends with a strong -n sound, but I really like VERY few names ending in "n".

My hubby's middle name is Benton, a name that hasn't been on the top 1,000 since the 1970s but seemed to be a well-used name for a century before. So, do y'all think is this likely to be perceived as a made-up name. It seems to fit the formula of this post, an alternate way to arrive at the nickname Ben. We're definitely using it, but I wonder if it will seem date-stamped with all the other -n names?

This conversation is interesting to me, because I am pregnant with my second child and if it's a boy I was thinking that a name ending in -n would sound good with my first son's name, which is Porter. After reading these comments, I'm kind of liking Cullen. I don't like the derivations of Aidan (ie. Graden) because they are just too common and trendy. The reason we chose Porter, other than that we loved it, is because there are not many other Porter's out on the playground, yet it's not sooo different that people are asking, "What was that? How do you spell that?"

Do any of you have any other suggestions for sibling names that would go well with Porter? We are having a hard time coming up with either girl or boy names...

I'm actually a huge fan of Graydon nn Grady.

Imho, it has the aura of a southern gentleman, a la Atticus Finch.

I do think some parents are considering Graydon since Grayson is rapidly turning into Gracen et. al for girls.

However, I have to respectfully disagree that most folks using Graydon did it to have a more formal version of Grady.
I'm sure this was true for some, but I think for the most part, Graydon has a quite different feel and appeal than the other n names. Now, Graeden is a different story!!

I guess what I'm saying is that I think it's more likely that a couple using Graydon had a list of names like Miles, Simon, Leo, and Oliver than Aiden, Colton, and Jackson.

I do see how it has a similar vibe to Max, which I used to think of as sort of an artsy/sporty name until it got uber popular.

I don't know if any of that makes much sense, but that's my two cents worth!

Erin-

I like Cullen with Porter.
I think you can use any girl's name to your taste.
The only ones I'd avoid for either gender are other surname/ first names.
I like quite a few, but multiples in families start sounding a little like a law firm-kwim?
If you give us a little bit more information about your tastes, you will get lots of good suggestions. The gurus on this board love to be asked!

Maya-I love Holden, and again, I think this name has a very different vibe than Caden, Brayden, and so forth.
The one we know is brother to a Grace, and he's smart as a whip.
Now, if you don't want to hear something really off-putting, skip the rest of my post....

O.k.-Here it is-I actually tried to get my dh to consider Holden, but he said kids would forever be making jokes along the lines of "Holding my..."
Of course, much the same can be done with any number of names, but if you hadn't considered that I thought I'd put it out there.

I'm afraid I don't like the name Cullen. Reminds me of
a) culling (as in killing animals)
b) sullen
and
c) it was the last name of my fourth grade teacher who never liked me.

Sorry to whoever likes it...

Interesting stuff.

For those who asked about names such as Calvin, I do not think that they remotely belong in this discussion. That's a fine name, not trendy. It has a great history. There are many, many male names that end in -n that "just so happen" to end in -n. It doesn't make them less strong or meaningful, and it certainly doesn't take away from their depth of character, substance &/or history.

Many come to mind. Stephen/Steven, Kevin, Evan, Ethan, Nathan, Ryan, Brian, Colin, Jonathan, Aaron, Sebastian, and the most timeless name of them all - John. Sure, they all end with "n," but I don't think that any of them, Calvin included, should be grouped with all of the "-aden" names.

I like Holden. I don't like Cullen. I much prefer Colin.

I don't like commenting on the names of children who have already been born, that seems less appropriate.

J&H's mom-

Thanks for your feedback! I guess as far as our tastes go, we have a variety of likes. For girls, I prefer pretty, but my husband likes kind of boyish names, I guess, though he does like some of the more feminine ones I've thrown out. If Porter was a girl, his name was going to be Avery. My husband still really loves that name, but I'm finding that every little girl at the park seems to be named Avery now. He suggested Elle, which I think sounds ridiculous with our one-syllable last name, and he suggested Alex which is too male for me. He keeps throwing out Top 20 names, which, though I like, I keep vetoing (namely Abigail, Sophia) Currently, we are both kind of liking Lila(h)and Anabelle. I like Eliza, but he does not.

For boy names, we haven't really discussed much, but we have leaned towards -n names, such as Gavin.

So, as you can see, I'm pretty much open to any and all suggestions. :)

Rjoy - the fact that Beck is a nn for Rebecca does not bother me. In fact, my next door neighbor is a girl named Becky. Somehow Beck just doesn't seem feminine to me. I don't really mind names that could be masculine or feminine. In fact, if you look at all my children's names, you may not know which are girls and which are boys: Coby, Campbell, Beck (ett).

Of course, my older children (4 and 2) have been saying Becky which I probably will have to put a stop to soon. :)

names to go with Porter: Foster, Ellis, Miller, Logan, Graham - I think Porter goes well with tons of names!

Cullen (and any parents of Cullen) will spend a lot of time correcting people who think they're hearing "Colin," soooo..... maybe just go for Colin instead?

- Cullen reminds me of a more estabished name, Callum (Scottish), recently used by Kyle MacLachlan and his wife.
- I know a Clifton but there are certain names that I don't think will be popular in the near future no matter what the added ending.
- I didn't even know Grady was a name! It makes me think of Brady.
- If Gretchen catches on maybe Gwendolyn will, too.
- I know a couple that had the Max issue...ended up with just Max.
- I have a three-year-old cousin named Stella and have always liked the name.
- It would be really interesting to break down the top 1000 name list by age demographic of the parents (Maya commenter). I have a niece with that name and her parents are 35+.

Cullen reminds me of Cullen Skink, a traditional Scottish soup made of smoked haddock and potatoes. But I doubt this would occur to most people, except perhaps in Scotland.

I would suggest "Danson" (nn Dan/Danny) but it sounds too much like "Dancin"... or Sam from Cheers. Maybe combo Irish/-n names will take off next, much like Aiden/Caden/Brennan but with the happy nickname possibility. I nominate Finnlan (nn Finn) and Bryson (nn Bry).

re: Cullen
The name most strongly reminds me of William Cullen Bryant, a poet of the American romantic era. I don't know a lot about him personally, but in this case I would guess Cullen is a mother's maiden name or other family surname. Seems posh New England patrician to me. And yes, cullen skink is probably a Scots or Caledonophile-only association.

re: Holden
A totally respectable name. NOT associated with this trend. I wonder about it: I see it doesn't crack the top 1000 until the '80s, a few years too late to be really linked to the book (whose readers probably would have started with the babymaking in the mid-60s).

At the end of the day, it's not a name I would ever use, because I loathe the character from Catcher... (and the book) with a passion. Until angsty teenage boys stop reading it, the name will never be totally free of that association. But that doesn't stop it from being a nice and usable name. (Though, yes, I knew a Holden in high school, and my friends and I swapped "Holden" for "holding" in song lyrics...but it was more a tribute than a mockery.)

Speaking of Olympic names, I was watching some swimming finals (U.S.) and of course there is Dara Torres, who has been getting a lot of attention. In addition, though there were three women named either Kara or Lara (or maybe another -ara name?) It was crazy.

The problem with Stella in the UK is that it means beer - people talk about getting in the Stella's, or getting tanked up on Stella - after Stella Artois. I think they've changed the name now to just Artois, but it's an unattractive connection.
A shame because it's a lovely name.

Scads of Stellas out here in SF. Even a Stella and Sloane sibset (sisters). And I know a baby Gretchen, whose name I thought was charming when she was born.

I like Cullen precisely because it is a New England surname--that's my heritage--but agree that most people would hear "Colin."

For Porter, I think the key is not another -er name, but you probably new that. I myself would probably balance it with something simple like James or Henry, so the names didn't seem too theme-y. I loved J& H's mom's remark, "I like quite a few [surnames for first names], but multiples in families start sounding a little like a law firm. When a friend told me her second child, a girl, would be Taylor, sister to her little boy Mason, I blurted out, "Wow! They can start a law firm!" Ooops.

I'm going to sound like a snob here, but, um, here I go. I think "Holden" is like "Atticus" (from To Kill a Mockingbird) another name that has an appeal to people who want to be edgy. Both books are required reading for high-school English even now, and to me (admittedly a college professor of English) the names give off the impression of the parents' having stopped reading right about there. But as always, if you love it, use it!

Apropos of Laura's post on words that should be trendy names a while back, some siblings for Graden: Burden, Curtain (spelled Curton, of course, nn Curt), Cordon, Harden, Happen, Raisin (spelled Razen no doubt), Sodden...

oops, "knew" that. Typo. Embarrassing when you are burbling on about high school English.

Our eldest son's name is Atticus and I definitely did not stop reading after high school. We named him that, not because of the book (although as far as characters go, you can't get much more honourable than he). It was a name that wasn't even on our radar, but a friend suggested it and we loved the way it sounded. My husband hadn't even had read the book.

Both my husband and I are writers and Atticus was considered the first publisher (of Cicero's letter's), so we liked that. More research revealed that Atticus was an Armenian saint. Also, a friend of ours, a man who we both admire, played him in the local stage version of the play.

We weren't trying to be edgy or cool. We just liked the name. We got a bit of flack from the grandparents when we first announced his name (which just reconfirmed why we didn't discuss our shortlists with anyone), but they've since fallen in love with it because they've fallen in love with him.

would like to have some trendy names for soft beverages.

I'm constantly surprised that Laban hasn't become popular. It's never been in the top 1000 names. But it has the two-syllable DAH-dah rhythm, the N-ending, the trendy A-sound, and isn't a million miles from Hayden et al. Are there any obvious bad connections anyone has with the name that I'm missing?!

Double post: I just realized it sounds a TEENSY bit like labia. But not much.

Erin-

The first girls name that came into my head to go with Porter was Casey.
After looking on the voyager it does look like it might seem slightly old fashioned, but there is a character on Greek with the name, so it is still out there. In Britain I know only two Casey's. One who is 17 and one who is roughly 10/11.
However I think any girls name ending in -y would sound great with Porter.

Lucy
Josie/Jodie
Macy
Molly
Rory (which could work for a girl or a boy)
Ellie

I also love Avery but can see why you might find it too popular right now.

Re: Porter--I love Gavin with it. Of your girls names, I'd suggest Anabelle over Lilah. I have a feeling Delilah/Lilah will be taking off and too much opularity with a name seems to bother. Even if they don't take off, Lilah is still likely to get lumped with all the Lilys. Other names I think go with Porter (some have already been suggested) Graham, Henry, Loretta, Ruth, Claire.

Popularity, opularity, poopularity...I've obviously had too much vitavetavegimin this morning.

It's funny, I knew three Cullens, but had never met a Colin until my cousin named his baby (now nearly 3 years old) Colin. I guess that is like the "Ethel-Mae postulate" that was mentioned a few weeks ago. So to me, Cullen is a nice name, and not at all confused with Colin.

Beth-It's funny you mention Holden and Atticus as being named after characters in novels. My husband and I named our son Grady after a character in the novel Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon. Please don't read the book, or you might have a lesser opinion of us! The character Grady is a philanderer and pot-head (although I'd argue he's a good guy at heart). We really chose our Grady's name more to honor the author, who I think is America's greatest contemporary novelist. We were also considering Clay to honor the same author and his book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay....but in the end we really just liked the name Grady better.

I heard a "Dalton" being called on the playground yesterday. What is the nick name for that? Dolly?

Just thought I would share some of the recent babies names in my circle...(Toronto area). We have a 6 month old named Chelsea. So far we know a Lilly, Charlotte, Elianna,Evelyn, Alley,Austin, Karter, Morgan, Aiden, Sam, Cameron, Hailey, Landon, Madeline, Jayla, Hunter, Kole, Ainsley, and Izzy.

I thought it was interesting that the boys names were so modern sounding.. and the girls had an old fashion flare.

As for the name Dalton.. the nick name I have always heard was Dalt.

If I were choosing a baby name from Kavalier and Clay, it'd be Luna or Josef. But what was the hunky 1930s actor's name...Tracy Bacon! Very entertaining choice, I thought.

New Baby Alert-

JazMia Mae (AAAHHH, horrible!)

Born to a teenage mother I know. Mae is lovely, but hearing JazMia is just revolting to my ear.

I have been a lurker for a long time and finally feel a need to comment!

We just had a boy 8 weeks ago who we ended up naming Gavin. Took us a long time to come up with a name.

We have an SON last name and I was adamant that Baby would not have a first name that ends in N. And no trendy -aiden type names. But I loved the name Gavin enough, and thought it was uncommon enough, that I was happy to use it and I absolutely love it.

I agree that nesm like Calvin, Colin, Gavin, etc don't fall into the "end in N" trend. At least I like to think so!

Erin - we get lots of compliments on the name so I would go with Gavin if you like it! People know it's an old name and no one seems to think it's trendy. Not yet, anyway, I hope it's not going to be the next big name.

I met a little girl on a playground last year whose name was Dalton. I asked her what her name was and she immediately replied, "Dalton. It's a family name. I was named for my mom's side of the family." I thought it was so interesting that a child of five or six years old would already have a canned story to tell strangers about her name--obviously she'd gotten some reactions to her name that caused her to come up with the speech.

Dalton McGuinty is the Premier of Ontario and I haven't heard of any little ones being named after him around here! I don't see that happening but maybe I am wrong!

My sis is a Rebecca but she's NEVER been called Beck. Becca and Becks, but never just Beck. Beck is SO totally masculine for me. I love Beckett and would have loved to use Beck too but dh didn't like it. Plus it's pretty alliterative with our B ln. Too bad!

Seems to me that if 1/3 boys have names that end with 'n' that Calvin, Holden, and other old names still fall into the category since they still end with n. The are still set apart from the Aiden family and but still are part of a name trend. Which I don't automatically think is a bad thing, it's just a thing.

I've heard of some Gracen's too. :-\

Part of me is saying pretty please stop publicizing the name Grady - it's my toddler's name and I fear it will become too trendy. At the moment we know of no others IRL, apart from a senior citizen. The other part of me is saying well, perhaps it's better to be a few years ahead of a trend?

Any suggestions for sibling names?

Grady's mum
As a fellow mother of a toddler Grady, I agree! He's the only Grady I know of, apart from a few eldery gents.

so is the current opinion that Lila is too popular? I hadn't heard the name until this year, and I think it's lovely. I was considering it for my first child- due in December- but don't want her to be one of a dozen Lilas running around on the playground. What are some good, less popular alternatives to a name like Lila?

Arg. I struggle with this trendy "ends in n" thing. I have always loved the name Owen, but now fear that it falls right into the Graden, Braden, Jackson trend. Thoughts on whether Owen aligns more with Braden or with Calvin? Not to mention my last name ends in "n" and I can't decide if the double n is a deal-breaker for me...

Kara:

I think anything old fashion sounding right now is in.. and Lila has that feel to it. If you love the name go with it though. Your child will fit right in with the Lily's, Evelyn's etc. crowd.

I would also say that to me Owen aligns with the Braden, Aiden, Jackson, Mason crowd. I know 2 little Owen's already. I do like the name though.

I think Calvin is a nice name that ends in n though.. a little different.. haven't heard it yet.. and it would kinda go well with the old fashioned sounding trend.

SusieQ,

In the Biblical story, Laban is portrayed as the bad guy in the love story between Jacob and Rachel. So if you are religious, then you probably wouldn't want to name your son after him. (Of course, Delilah has taken off so who knows? Next thing you know, we'll see Salome on the charts.)

I think Beck is a strong, masculine name; great choice!

Grady reminds me of gravy, so not a good name in my book.

I also dislike all -aiden names, especially with kre8tive spelling thrown in the mix.

Owen to me isn't part of the trend, I like it.

Lila(h) sounds lovely, but I have no idea on the polularity of it.

I like Annabel with Porter very much. That's a lovely pair of attractively quaint names.

Other possibilities: Henry (as others suggested), Jane, Eleanor, Charles (Charlie), Libby or Libba, and James. I think Porter is such a strong, unusual name that you're best off keeping things simple with the sibling.

My favorite boy's name for years has been Simon, which is British and old-fashioned to my ears but also Biblical. I'd hate to think it's part of the "ends in N" trend :(

I think Cian/Kian is going to explode soon. And not just b/c we used the name a few years ago.

I'm surprised it hasn't made any noise yet.

Though a kids store we shop at said there was a baby Cian who came into the store.

Tirzah - Salome is actually common in Switzerland. I've met one Swiss girl with this name, and mentioned it later to another Swiss woman who told me it was completely normal there. It is all "Bring me the head of John the Baptist" to me; I wouldn't use Delilah or Laban either. But, I must admit it is pretty. There'a a sweet, shy little creature called Salome in one of Tove Jansson's Moomin books, too. She was a Swedish speaker - I don't know whether Salome is used in Swedish outside of Moomin Valley.

aj, i know a baby Cian who is about 6 weeks old! his dad is Irish and they wanted a traditional Irish name. i think it's near the top of the popularity charts in Ireland right now...

Kara-- my sister-in-law just had a baby and named her Isla (the "s" is silent so name rhymes with Lila). It's apparently a Scottish name and although the actress Isla Fisher has it, the name itself is not in the top 1000. I've also seen it spelled "Eila." I was a little jealous when she chose the name since I had my sites set on Lila(h) for a little girl. Of course I'm not even pregnant yet so I can't really complain...:)Her daughter is just gorgeous and it fits her perfectly.

Random things.

My older dd is Rebekah and has never been plain Bek. Bekah, Beks, Bekkers, yep. I will say that it was confusing in her swim class with Beckett nn Beck. While not exactly the same, it was close enough to make both of them turn to answer.

Kellen is the first name of a football player (thinking Cleveland Browns). Pretty sure he has a teammate named Braylon.

My ds shared a NICU room with a Grayson. His mother said she liked the name Gray, but wasn't sure about how he'd feel in the future with a color name. So, she lengthened it to give him the option.

Do I think Graden/Graydon/et al will catch on? As long as the -aiden ending is popular, parents will continue to try to make an "original" name with that ending. Would not be surprised to see a kid named Taiton to get the nn Tate for example.

Yet Another Guest -- do you use a nickname for Atticus? My husband and I like it, but not the seemingly inevitable nn of Atty/Addy ... Do you mind shaing your other children's names? I'd just like to see what kind of sib set Atticus fits into IRL ... thanks!