I can't actually remember all mine but I do know that when I was 10 or 12 I had a list of girls names that were made up creatively spelled atrocities. At the time I thought they were beautiful but I do remember them having extra vowels, y's and various other additions to 'pretty them up.'  Shame I lost the list!

I think when I was about 20 I was going to name a boy Mason and a girl a version of Madeleine (but spelled creatively).  I shudder at that thought now :)

Haha, this is a great thread!  I think I'll enjoy following this one :)  In my tween years I loved several of the super-trendy names of today like Madison, McKenzie, Makayla, etc.  I guess that's not really embarrassing, but looking back I'm very glad that I was too young to be naming kids because my tastes have matured quite a bit since then.

Great topic! I, too, remember adding ys to names and otherwise altering the spelling to pretty them up. I don't remember many particulars, although I do remember liking Rhiannon without the h (Riannon), which now seems very strange to me.

Actually... digging around in some of my old papers, I found a character list for a story I was outlining, oh, around 9th grade maybe. It seems it was a boarding school story, possibly something along the lines of the Gemma Doyle books, but probably entirely set in an alternate fantasy world. The girls in the class included: Sancia, Adaire, Tamasin (not sure where that extra a came from), Allyriane, Riannon, Bryony, Jerica and Cat. It looks like there were also peripheral characters named Jenna and Calla. What an odd assortment of names—I think I just cherry-picked them from a baby name book without any regard to their origins.

I remember being misled by baby name books on a number of occasions. For quite a long time I thought that Aidan was a beautiful name for a girl because I first found it listed on the girl side of the book. 

I sometimes wonder whether one the reasons I dislike creatively spelled names so much is because I remember liking them when I was young and so they remind me of my own juvenile ignorance.

Oh I love this thread! When I was young I wanted to have seven daughters. I don't remember all their names but what I do recall is- Symphony, Carlin and Abigail.

Interesting combo no? My theoretical boys were all to be given up for adoption. I'm sure my real life son is glad I changed my mind about that.

.

I've been an obsessive namer since I was a little girl.  I remember Denim and Lace from that book too!  And she wrote on the top of her schoolwork, Jayyne Jonstone (instead of Janie Johnson).  I can't remember all of them but off the top of my head: Reuben, Seneca Falls (after the birthplace of the women's suffrage movement), Flora, Cadence, Raven, Reyna.  Defintely more girl names than boring boy names!

I've been writing fantasy stories since I was a kid, and I have always loved to make up names. In one book I planned in high school, I named the evil prince Gazebo...years later I'm working on a novel in that same fantasy world, and I can't stop myself from loving Gazebo as a bad guy name!

I had a story about some twins named Lelsey (made up version of Leslie??) and Kelsey.

I also played Barbies A LOT as a little girl, and though I don't remember what I named them (I usually just had them reenact fairy tales) but I remember making my little brother play with me, and he always just named them "sister" and "mother." LOL.

Whenever I named my character in my pokemon games I always pretended my name was either Emily or Clara! Very normal, actually!

Late lurker here, but I love this topic. I had an on-going story I was writing when I was about 12 that featured my children Alexandra Rose (Allie), Jack William, and Madeline Amanda (Mandy). I later skipped about 10 years and added two much younger children, Samuel Peter (Sam), and Olivia....something. Probably Grace. Looking back, they really aren't bad.
I remember wanting to name the second boy Peter Samuel, but being cowed by the association of the Thomas the Tank Engine train, Peter Sam. I now have a cousin named Peter Samuel, and nobody's ever called him a train. At least I was being teasing-cautious!

I remember The Face on the Milk Carton! I actually like the name Janie because of it.

I was obsessed with the letter Z as a kid/preteen because of the Legend of Zelda video game. Zahra, Zala, Zinnia, Zelda, Zenaida are the ones I can think of wanting to name 5 daughters...lol. None of them are bad on their own but together it's too many "unique" Z's!

I was obsessed with names all through my childhood and teens, as well! I don't remember a lot of my faves, but a few were (this would've been in the early 90's)

Girls:

Nathalie

Emma

Avonlea

Boys:

James (I actually ended up naming my real son this over 15years later)

Jack

Orson

Henry

***

I guess I predicted the Emma and Jack trends years in advance! Most of these aren't terrible but the only keeper for me was James. 

When I was late elemenatry school aged, I really loved the name Joya.  I named our cat and several stuffed animals that name.  I have no idea where I came up with it, although I like the meaning "joy."  I still sort of like it, even though I know it sounds dated.