Naming advice

Thank you for your comments and suggestions, everyone!

Sarah Vaughan wrote:
Karen wrote:
Hi,

Our baby is due this Tuesday (1st). We've always hoped for a girl
first and have decided on a name years ago. Both the 20 week and 32
weeks ultrasound looked like a girl, so we got complacent about
finding a boy's name. But of course those scans can deceive, and now
I'm really getting worried we won't find anything suitable if the baby
turns out to be male after all. (Of course we would be equally happy...!)

I would be very, very grateful for some inspirational suggestions!

Our constraints:

- The name has to sound good both in English and in German (but don't
worry, we'll be a judge of that, so suggest away).

- It should not be biblical or otherwise religous.

- It should be clearly male.

- It has to go well with "Skia Louise", which we have chosen for our
first daughter, whether she's coming now or later. Skia [Skee-ah]
means 'shade' in Greek, but we came across it as a font (as in
Helvetica) when designing our wedding invitations. Yes, we're geeks :-).

'Alexander' came into my head today when I was thinking about this one.
Don't know how well it fits your third criterion, though - after all,
unless you always want to use the full name you'd probably end up
calling him Alex or Sandy.

"Xander" is a name DH suggested, and I quite like it but am not totally
convinced yet.


I asked a similar question a couple of months ago in an answer to
another thread, but only got one reply. We're not too fond of the
obvious choices, Roman and Arial/Ariel, because we know people of
those names whom we don't particularly like.

snort I'm *still* trying to work out if you were serious about this
one! Told my husband, to explain why I was laughing so hard - he asked
whether you'd considered Bold Italic?

:-) I was not joking. We wouldn't have chosen Skia if it was a very
common font, but we have yet to meet someone who recognises it.
Actually, there is a longer history to our choice. A couple of months
earlier, I had read about a baby called "Skif". I liked that name
immediately, but thought it sounded too much like a cleaning product.
(It is now the name of a hard disk partition.)

Oh, and if you know of a reason why we shouldn't name our daughter
Skia, such as a particularly nasty meaning in some language we don't
speak, I'd be interested to hear that, too.

Only that she'll spend her life having to spell it or pronounce it for
people. Having spent my first thirty-three years with an unusual
surname and then ended up with a married name that's very easy to
mishear, I can tell you that that sort of thing gets really old really
fast.

I always have to spell my last name, but don't find it too taxing. But
then it only has 6 letters, and Skia has only 4. But this, and the fact
that it's so unusual, is one of the reasons we are choosing such a
standard middle name. She can always call herself Louise if she gets fed
up with being too special.

Karen

PS: Due date almost over, no signs yet... She probably senses that I'm
still too busy (worked until yesterday).

"Karen" wrote in message
...
Thank you for your comments and suggestions, everyone!

Sarah Vaughan wrote:
Karen wrote:
Hi,

Our baby is due this Tuesday (1st). We've always hoped for a girl first
and have decided on a name years ago. Both the 20 week and 32 weeks
ultrasound looked like a girl, so we got complacent about finding a
boy's name. But of course those scans can deceive, and now I'm really
getting worried we won't find anything suitable if the baby turns out to
be male after all. (Of course we would be equally happy...!)

I would be very, very grateful for some inspirational suggestions!

Our constraints:

- The name has to sound good both in English and in German (but don't
worry, we'll be a judge of that, so suggest away).

- It should not be biblical or otherwise religous.

- It should be clearly male.

- It has to go well with "Skia Louise", which we have chosen for our
first daughter, whether she's coming now or later. Skia [Skee-ah] means
'shade' in Greek, but we came across it as a font (as in Helvetica) when
designing our wedding invitations. Yes, we're geeks :-).

'Alexander' came into my head today when I was thinking about this one.
Don't know how well it fits your third criterion, though - after all,
unless you always want to use the full name you'd probably end up calling
him Alex or Sandy.

"Xander" is a name DH suggested, and I quite like it but am not totally
convinced yet.


I asked a similar question a couple of months ago in an answer to
another thread, but only got one reply. We're not too fond of the
obvious choices, Roman and Arial/Ariel, because we know people of those
names whom we don't particularly like.

snort I'm *still* trying to work out if you were serious about this
one! Told my husband, to explain why I was laughing so hard - he asked
whether you'd considered Bold Italic?

:-) I was not joking. We wouldn't have chosen Skia if it was a very common
font, but we have yet to meet someone who recognises it.
Actually, there is a longer history to our choice. A couple of months
earlier, I had read about a baby called "Skif". I liked that name
immediately, but thought it sounded too much like a cleaning product. (It
is now the name of a hard disk partition.)

Oh, and if you know of a reason why we shouldn't name our daughter Skia,
such as a particularly nasty meaning in some language we don't speak,
I'd be interested to hear that, too.

Only that she'll spend her life having to spell it or pronounce it for
people. Having spent my first thirty-three years with an unusual surname
and then ended up with a married name that's very easy to mishear, I can
tell you that that sort of thing gets really old really fast.

I always have to spell my last name, but don't find it too taxing. But
then it only has 6 letters, and Skia has only 4. But this, and the fact
that it's so unusual, is one of the reasons we are choosing such a
standard middle name. She can always call herself Louise if she gets fed
up with being too special.

Karen

PS: Due date almost over, no signs yet... She probably senses that I'm
still too busy (worked until yesterday).

She'll just have to learn a "patter" and practice it repeatedly -- "Skia,
It's spelled with a "K", rhymes with Mia."

--

Jamie
Earth Angels:
Taylor Marlys -- 01/03/03
Addison Grace -- 09/30/04

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On May 1, 2:09 pm, Karen wrote:
Thank you for your comments and suggestions, everyone!

Sarah Vaughan wrote:
'Alexander' came into my head today when I was thinking about this one.
Don't know how well it fits your third criterion, though - after all,
unless you always want to use the full name you'd probably end up
calling him Alex or Sandy.

"Xander" is a name DH suggested, and I quite like it but am not totally
convinced yet.

Just be aware that it's rising in popularity as a nickname for
Alexander. Ours is 5.5 years old, and we are now hearing a *lot* of
kiddos being called Xander (or Zander--they sound the same) who are 3
years old and under at the playground.

I personally wasn't sold on the nickname, and was just going to call
him Alexander, but my husband started it, and it just really seem to
fit our son's personality, so it stuck. :-)

Sharalyn
mom to Alexander James

"Karen" wrote in message
...
Hi,

Our baby is due this Tuesday (1st). We've always hoped for a girl first
and have decided on a name years ago. Both the 20 week and 32 weeks
ultrasound looked like a girl, so we got complacent about finding a boy's
name. But of course those scans can deceive, and now I'm really getting
worried we won't find anything suitable if the baby turns out to be male
after all. (Of course we would be equally happy...!)

I would be very, very grateful for some inspirational suggestions!

Our constraints:

- The name has to sound good both in English and in German (but don't
worry, we'll be a judge of that, so suggest away).

William /Wilhem
Wolfgang
Carl/Karl
Frederick



- It should not be biblical or otherwise religous.

- It should be clearly male.

- It has to go well with "Skia Louise", which we have chosen for our first
daughter, whether she's coming now or later. Skia [Skee-ah] means 'shade'
in Greek, but we came across it as a font (as in Helvetica) when designing
our wedding invitations. Yes, we're geeks :-).


Yes, but are you also Greek? It's kind of weird when people give their kids
ethnic names that are from an ethnicity other than their own (like a
Hispanic baby named Meabh).


I asked a similar question a couple of months ago in an answer to another
thread, but only got one reply. We're not too fond of the obvious choices,
Roman and Arial/Ariel, because we know people of those names whom we don't
particularly like.

Oh, and if you know of a reason why we shouldn't name our daughter Skia,
such as a particularly nasty meaning in some language we don't speak, I'd
be interested to hear that, too.

It does sound like she's a skiing enthusiast from North Jersey. :-)


Many thanks in advance,
Karen

"Jamie Clark" wrote:

Or Zander, which might go with Skia better. Do people actually use Sandy
for guys? Just curious.

yep. I know a Cuban man whose name is Sandy. Says so on his birth
certificate.


--
Rebecca Jo
Mama to Alexander 6/6/05
EDD 7/03/2007

Yes, but are you also Greek? It's kind of weird when people give their
kids ethnic names that are from an ethnicity other than their own (like a
Hispanic baby named Meabh).

the more the world gets mixed up, the more that is going to happen and it
can get confusing, our daughter is called Ada, which is pronounce a-da, like
it's alternative spelling Aida, but she is often miscalled Ad-da, as that is
the pronuciation for the nigerian name Ada. Ada was a commonish English name
100yrs ago and it's pronuciation fits standard English. Amongst ethnically
English, it has high recognition and doesn't get mispronounced, amongst
everyone else we're in trouble. I've also seen the spelling Ada coming from
eastern Europe, though I don't know the pronunciation. Sticking with a name
from your own ethnicity doesn't always avoid confusion.

Anne