Popular or unique names in your country

bellafleur

O.G.
Apr 26, 2007
1,954
1
I'm just curious what names you find beautiful in your country or language, for babies, adults, people you're friends with, etc. They don't have to be popular or conventional per se. I'm interested in names you love because of how they sound, the name of a celebrity in your country, or because you really like a friend who has that name, etc.

I'm posting this in General Discussion in hopes of reaching international tPFers, not that I don't want to hear from Americans too:smile: DH and I have looked through baby name lists and haven't found anything that speaks to us. We need some international inspiration! Plus it's just an interesting topic:smile:
 
A friend of mine is Irish and her dh is Dutch (although they live in MI) and they named their daughters Annefleur and Nicolina. Another friend named her daughter Irelyn. I thought those were beautiful, unusual names that didn't trip the "weird" radar for me. I, personally, dislike when people make up ridiculous names, spell words backwards to make names or create "unique" spellings for existing names, but that's just a personal bias. And I guess what one person considers ridiculous another person might consider beautiful, so it is all in the ear of the beholder.
 
I live in England, and there are lots of different names here....
Popular for my age group (Late 20's) : Gemma, Emma, Chloe, Francesa, Sophie, Hannah
Popular children's names I've heard lately: Poppy, Daisy, Holland, Freya, Niamh (pronounced Nieve). My friend's daughter is 14 and she has a friend named Nirvana....Now if that's not unusual, I dont know what is!!! Some "old fashioned" names are still popular here...Edith, Lucy, Adele..etc.

For some reason I only retain the girls names...lol. My DD is named Ireland! ;)
 
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A friend of mine is Irish and her dh is Dutch (although they live in MI) and they named their daughters Annefleur and Nicolina. Another friend named her daughter Irelyn. I thought those were beautiful, unusual names that didn't trip the "weird" radar for me. I, personally, dislike when people make up ridiculous names, spell words backwards to make names or create "unique" spellings for existing names, but that's just a personal bias. And I guess what one person considers ridiculous another person might consider beautiful, so it is all in the ear of the beholder.

I totally agree with you! My husband and I both have misspelled names and it is so annoying, not fun or cute. We don't feel like special unique snowflakes because our names don't have standard spellings. We constantly have to deal with people trying to spell them the normal ways. My husband's college diploma has the wrong spelling. One of my debit cards has the wrong spelling. People that email him at work constantly get his email address wrong (he's gotten calls from people asking why he hasn't responded, why they haven't gotten things taken care of, etc. because of it). We have both had to go through life telling people our names, and then spelling it... and they are pretty "normal" names so of course people assume they are spelling it correctly.

We joked that if we have a boy, we're naming him Dave, but we'll spell it DHAYVE. ;)

One name I'm kind of sick of is the one of heaven spelled backward ("Nevaeh"). Of course, personal preference and I'm sure some find it lovely.
 
I live in England, and there are lots of different names here....
Popular for my age group (Late 20's) : Gemma, Emma, Chloe, Francesa, Sophie, Hannah
Popular children's names I've heard lately: Poppy, Daisy, Holland, Freya, Niamh (pronounced Nieve). My friend's daughter is 14 and she has a friend named Nirvana....Now if that's not unusual, I dont know what is!!! Some "old fashioned" names are still popular here...Edith, Lucy, Adele..etc.

For some reason I only retain the girls names...lol. My DD is named Ireland! ;)

I love the name Freya!!:smile: I found it on a list somewhere, I think it's a Norwegian goddess. I'm Scandinavian and German, and my husband is Italian, so it would be nice to have something of my heritage that still sounds good with his last name. Now watch we'll have a boy:smile: I seem to to only retain the girl names too! But I would be thrilled with a boy or girl, I really don't care. Anyone else have interesting names from other countries?
 
I totally agree with you! My husband and I both have misspelled names and it is so annoying, not fun or cute. We don't feel like special unique snowflakes because our names don't have standard spellings. We constantly have to deal with people trying to spell them the normal ways. My husband's college diploma has the wrong spelling. One of my debit cards has the wrong spelling. People that email him at work constantly get his email address wrong (he's gotten calls from people asking why he hasn't responded, why they haven't gotten things taken care of, etc. because of it). We have both had to go through life telling people our names, and then spelling it... and they are pretty "normal" names so of course people assume they are spelling it correctly.

We joked that if we have a boy, we're naming him Dave, but we'll spell it DHAYVE. ;)

One name I'm kind of sick of is the one of heaven spelled backward ("Nevaeh"). Of course, personal preference and I'm sure some find it lovely.

I am just like you two; I have a "misspelled" name to a pre-existing name...what's even more interesting is that the pre-existing name isn't even a popular name! For a long time I hated my name because people spelled it wrong, pronounced it wrong, or were very derogatory about it (and some immature people still do it, and I think it's so irritating). And, I'm not trying to diss my heritage or anything, but I notice that Filipinos tend to do this a LOT with names (either change pre-existing names or come up with something you normally wouldn't use as a name)...and I have other Filipino friends/relatives that have struggled with their names, too.

I actually grew to accept and love my name, though...I just hate it when people spell it wrong or ask me how to pronounce it. It's phonetic!
 
In Scandinavia the popular names right now that I like are Freja (Freya), Frida, Maja (maya), Mia,Tea, Josefine. For boys : Lucas, Emil, Victor, Gustav.

France : Léa, Ines, Lilou, Eva, Juliette. Nathan, Hugo, Paul, Adam, Oscar.
 
I totally agree with you! My husband and I both have misspelled names and it is so annoying, not fun or cute. We don't feel like special unique snowflakes because our names don't have standard spellings. We constantly have to deal with people trying to spell them the normal ways. My husband's college diploma has the wrong spelling. One of my debit cards has the wrong spelling. People that email him at work constantly get his email address wrong (he's gotten calls from people asking why he hasn't responded, why they haven't gotten things taken care of, etc. because of it). We have both had to go through life telling people our names, and then spelling it... and they are pretty "normal" names so of course people assume they are spelling it correctly.

We joked that if we have a boy, we're naming him Dave, but we'll spell it DHAYVE. ;)

One name I'm kind of sick of is the one of heaven spelled backward ("Nevaeh"). Of course, personal preference and I'm sure some find it lovely.


I can very much relate to this. My name is Slavic in origin, I don't pronounce it the way it should be pronounced, nor do I pronounce it as it's spelled. I love my name, but 30 years of my life correcting people has gotten annoying. To top it off, there's a famous female out there with my name who spells it like I do nor does she use the slavic pronunciation. Since her name is famous, my name gets butchered.

My name is also punctuated -- to aid in pronunciation, but since people don't read or pay any attention to grammar anymore, it is useless.

Hmph.


As for the original names, I've always loved names with meaning. I adore the name Honor, Grace, of Faith. They have beautiful meanings to me. I also like flower names for some reason. Violet, Rose, Amaryllis.
 
I can very much relate to this. My name is Slavic in origin, I don't pronounce it the way it should be pronounced, nor do I pronounce it as it's spelled. I love my name, but 30 years of my life correcting people has gotten annoying. To top it off, there's a famous female out there with my name who spells it like I do nor does she use the slavic pronunciation. Since her name is famous, my name gets butchered.

My name is also punctuated -- to aid in pronunciation, but since people don't read or pay any attention to grammar anymore, it is useless.

Hmph.


As for the original names, I've always loved names with meaning. I adore the name Honor, Grace, of Faith. They have beautiful meanings to me. I also like flower names for some reason. Violet, Rose, Amaryllis.

Yeah, I wish I at least liked the name itself, but I really don't. I only have it because my parents thought I was going to be a boy, so they had a boy name picked out that they liked and adapted it to a similar female name. Ugh.

That must be really annoying to not only have your name regularly misspelled, but to also have a celebrity affect it. Reminds me of my friend Brittany (a common, easily spelled name here) who always had people spelling her name "Britney" once Britney Spears became popular, haha.

Love the name Grace!
 
I find it that in the city that I live in, there are a lot of Biblical names among boys for some reason. I have three kids but only one has a Biblical name and it's Ezra.
 
I am just like you two; I have a "misspelled" name to a pre-existing name...what's even more interesting is that the pre-existing name isn't even a popular name! For a long time I hated my name because people spelled it wrong, pronounced it wrong, or were very derogatory about it (and some immature people still do it, and I think it's so irritating). And, I'm not trying to diss my heritage or anything, but I notice that Filipinos tend to do this a LOT with names (either change pre-existing names or come up with something you normally wouldn't use as a name)...and I have other Filipino friends/relatives that have struggled with their names, too.

I actually grew to accept and love my name, though...I just hate it when people spell it wrong or ask me how to pronounce it. It's phonetic!

I hope not from CASIMIRA BUKAYKAY to

CASHMERE BOUQUET!!!!!!!!!!!