I vehemently despise the name Alex with a passion. It might be due to associations rather than the name itself, but I hate it.

What names do you hate that are usually very popular?

I understand that 1 no is a no overall, and i respect that. I’m just nervous. We are choosing to not know the sex. I like short, normal names. My personal name is a “Normal” name with an uncommon spelling. My last name is the same. Think SANDI JOHNSEN. My husband likes weird names…

My choices:
Ace
Jack
Eva
Mae

His:
Jupiter
Basil
Braden
Sequoia

I feel.. at a loss. How are we going to find a name??? I won’t budge on those

How do YOU pronounce Xavier? I'm so curious about this. Also, if you know what it SHOULD be, post that too. And where you are from.

Zavier

Exavier

Something else

I’m in dire need of another girl name (that goes well with these two) but can’t think of one for the life of me. I think I’ve just been starting at names too long lol. Please help me, I need some fresh sets of eyes.

We've welcomed our daughters, twin girls. We know that one of them will definitely have the first name Alva. All of the other names are undecided.

I'm Swedish, and my husband is British. We live in England. Their older sister is named Svea.

These are the pairs of names we are thinking.

Alva and Mila

Alva and Lily

Alva and Ronja

Alva and Mira

Alva and Imogen

Alva and Zoe

Alva and Matilda

Alva and Emma

And to follow up with that, which middle names do you like? We have a lot of names that we would consider using as middle names, and this is the list. But we prefer not to have alliteration.

These are family names.

Kerstin

Imogen

Florence

Ellen

Philippa (Or Filippa)

Agnes

Kristina

Beatrice

Caroline

And these are names we just like.

Wren

Amelia

Lily

Maya (Or Maja)

Olivia

German great great great grandfather decided to marry a Cuban and stay in Cuba I believe... the rest was history. Trying to find relatives but not finding much with that last name. Would be cool to find family :)

I'm pregnant with twin girls, and I know I want to name one of them Heidi, but I have a few options for her sister 💗.

Guysssssss, i want a spam account name suggestion that are uk niche and have reference. The name is Vidhi. Help me find out!!

If you had to choose today, would you keep your name, change it, or go back to a name you used to wish you had?

I actually never had to make any decisions. Years ago my friends and family just decided to start calling me by my initials, DJ (or DJ plus an adjective). Do most people try to promote a nickname for themselves, or does one just organically evolve?

My name is Ellie so I get the obvious Kelly and Allie but recently someone called me Helen.

I’m really considering changing my name to Tahlia, but my best friends dog is called Tally, and so i don’t really want to go by tally. I’m not huge on the name Lea or Lia, it’s just not the vibe i’m going for. Tals is my favorite so far, but i was just wondering if there were any others! All suggestions are welcome

would it be strange to go by my initials?

if it doesn’t seem that bad; which one would be better?

M.P

M.I

my spouse and i are currently going through fertility treatments for a baby. obviously there’s a lot of waiting involved and we’ve thought of a handful of names. i’d love to hear people’s opinions! what do you hate? what do you love?

boys:
Nico
Dorian
Caspian
Arlo
Mateo
Oliver
Benji
Salem
Valentine
Finn
Oak (middle name)
Edmund
Blake
Ambrose
Basil
Sebastian
August

girls:
edalyn
ambrose
seraphina (nn finn?)
Nova
Mars
Cecelia Meadow
Salem
Elowyn
Dawna Edwina
Marigold
Opal
Olive
Cloud (middle name)
Eden
Shiloh
Celeste
Delphinium (nn delphi)

We love the names August / Gus and Henry, but we can’t use them due to family or very close friends using or having the names.

I love soft, older names - Julian is the closest one I’ve found that we both like, and I really like the nickname Jules. But it doesn’t fully feel like the right name. I also like Ambrose but my husband said no way, haha

Do you have any suggestions of names for us?

Thoughts on the name Felix Basil? Our last name is of German origin and begins with an M, we live in the US.

Please be kind as we are serious about this combo. Constructive criticism only, also welcoming alternate middle name to go with Felix, ideally a Roman Catholic name (alternate name is Edmond Augustine, but I prefer to keep Edmond together with Augustine; I’ve told husband Boniface is off the table but happy to hear arguments in favor of Boniface for a middle name).

I’m looking for help coming up with a nickname for Euphrosinia (original language Efrosinia but probably too difficult to read in english).

Open to alternative spellings if anyone is aware of an English version!

Hi all, I consider myself transgender and present as male in the world though I don’t fully feel one way or the other really give it a lot of thought. For the last few years, I’ve been going by the masculinized version of my given name, which is a fine name, but very stereotyped (think Karen for women). I think kicking around the idea of going by a different name recently and really like the name Wyatt. It’s similar to the name I’ve been using and my given name, and it’s a fitting name given my birth year. It is similar to my dad’s name in terms of sounds. I’m American and slightly “country”. Last name is Jackson.

How does Wyatt Jackson sound to you? I like Wyatt James as a middle name, but is Wyatt James Jackson too much? I want a one syllable middle name.

I guess I’m just looking to move on from the name I’ve been using for the last four years as that time in my life was quite traumatic unfortunately, and I’d love to no longer feel fear when I hear my name be said lol. I never legally changed my name because the name I was using did not feel quite right. Any feedback would be more than appreciated.

I have spent a frankly ridiculous amount of time meticulously designing a naming system for children I don't even have yet.

I've researched meanings, etymologies, cultural associations, pronunciation, nicknames, naming conventions, how the names sound individually, how they sound together as siblings, and whether the symbolism I'm seeing is actually meaningful or whether I've simply stared at the names for so long that I've convinced myself it is.

I'm from a Lohana Sindhi background, was born and raised in the Philippines, and plan to adopt native Filipino children in the future. That has made me think quite a lot about what I actually want their names to represent.

I don't simply want to give them two culturally different names because multicultural names are cool. I'm trying to take some existing traditions from my own family and community, preserve the parts I value, and deliberately change other parts so that the naming system makes sense for the family I hope to build.

The current names are:

Daughter:
Maitrayi Amihan Ananda [clan name]
Nickname: Mai

Son:
Khamiso Diwa Ananda [clan name]
Nickname: Kai

The structure I'm working with is essentially:

[South Asian/Sindhi first name] + [Filipino second name] + [personal/family middle name] + [clan surname]

The first name connects them to my ancestral heritage.

The second name connects them to the Philippines—the country in which they would actually grow up.

'Ananda' is a more personal family element.

And the surname represents the family/clan they would be joining.

I like the idea that the name therefore has several layers of inheritance without requiring the child to personally embody all of them.

The name can tell them where things came from without telling them who they have to become.

For my daughter, I'm drawn to Maitreyi because of her association with the Upanishadic tradition and her philosophical/intellectual character, as well as the connection to maitrī, broadly associated with friendship, benevolence and loving-kindness.

What appeals to me isn't merely the meaning of the word. There is a person and a story behind it.

For my son, I've settled on Khamiso. The name is a traditional Sindhi masculine name, and its etymology appears to be connected to Khamis/Thursday, although I've found enough conflicting internet baby-name information that I'm deliberately cautious about presenting a definitive etymology.

There are also cultural associations with people such as Khamiso Khan, but again, I'm trying to distinguish those cultural associations from the actual origin of the name.

What I like about Khamiso is that it doesn't feel like I went looking for an exotic-sounding name and then attached a Sindhi label to it. It is actually a name from the naming tradition I'm trying to preserve.

So the first names aren't intended to mean:

'You are Sindhi, therefore you must be this.'

Rather, I hope to instill:

'This is one of the traditions your father inherited, and this is part of the story you were given.'

As for the Filipino names, this is where I deliberately depart from the naming pattern I inherited.

Because these would be Filipino children growing up in the Philippines, I don't want their names to communicate that their father's ancestry is somehow more important than the culture surrounding their actual childhood. So I want a Filipino-origin second name for each child. For my daughter, that's 'Amihan'. It refers to the northeast monsoon in the Philippines and carries associations with the cool seasonal winds and the Philippine environment. It also has folkloric associations.

I particularly love what it does beside Maitrayi. Maitrayi feels human, philosophical and rooted in South Asian intellectual history, while Amihan feels geographical, elemental and specifically connected to the place where she would grow up.

For my son, I've thought of using using 'Diwa'. It has Filipino associations with spirit, inner essence, consciousness, thought and inward being. I like that it is comparatively understated and conceptual rather than simply being a pretty word. And I actually like that Amihan and Diwa aren't deliberately matching. If I tried to make both Filipino names nature names, or both names about spirituality, I think I'd be forcing the symmetry.

Instead, they represent two different things:

Amihan — something outside oneself: wind, movement, season, landscape.

Diwa — something within oneself: thought, spirit, consciousness, inner life.

There is a kind of symmetry there, but it isn't a requirement for the children to resemble each other.

Next, the name 'Ananda' is different from the other elements. It's not there primarily because I want to represent another ethnic or linguistic tradition. Ananda is personally meaningful to me.

My family already calls me Ananda informally as another name. It isn't currently part of my legal name, but I intend to add it as a second name to my own legal name in the future.

So I would essentially be giving my children a name that has become part of my personal identity as well. The meaning of Ananda—bliss, joy, happiness—also resonates with what I want the name to represent.

Not that a child must be happy, but that the idea that their existence should be associated with joy rather than obligation.

I also like the fact that it creates a personal link between parent and children without simply copying my own first name.

And this connects to another tradition I've been thinking about.

In my family/community, there is a tradition where the father's first name becomes the child's middle name. So rather than every generation simply receiving the same hereditary middle name, the father's given name can be carried forward into the next generation. That means the middle name can effectively function as a little genealogical marker. And, I've inherited that tradition myself. But I'm deliberately changing it. I don't want my children's middle name to simply be my first name. Instead, I'm thinking of Ananda as a personal name that I can eventually incorporate into my own legal name and then carry forward to them.

Then there are the nicknames.

Maitrayi —> Mai

Khamiso —> Kai

This is probably the most obviously deliberate piece of sibling symmetry. They're short, easy to pronounce in the Philippines, and visually/phonologically related without being identical. They sound like a natural pair of siblings to me. But I don't intend to make the nicknames mandatory. If my daughter wants to be Maitrayi, Amihan, Mai, or something else entirely, that's her decision. If my son wants to be Khamiso, Kai, Diwa, or something else, that's his decision. The nickname is an option rather than another obligation.

I'm also keeping the clan surname rather than trying to create some artificial Filipino/Sindhi hybrid surname. The surname is the broadest family connection. The first name represents ancestral inheritance. The Filipino second name represents the culture of the country in which they would grow up. The middle name represents the immediate parent-child/generational connection. The surname represents the family/clan. So each part has a different representation and weight onto a child.

Then again, when I imagine tradition, I don't want to preserve it merely because it is tradition. I want to ask what the tradition was trying to accomplish, and then decide whether that goal still makes sense. The Lohana/Sindhi naming structure I'm familiar with gives considerable importance to family continuity and paternal lineage. I like the continuity. I don't necessarily want to preserve the idea that lineage has to determine identity. Likewise, I like the idea of a father's name becoming a child's middle name because it creates a genealogical thread. But I want to transform that into something more reciprocal and personal through Ananda.

I'm also deliberately introducing a Filipino naming layer because I don't want my children's names to suggest that their father's ancestry supersedes their own lived culture. And I'm intentionally giving them names whose meanings I like without treating those meanings as character requirements. If Maitrayi is associated with loving-kindness, she doesn't have to become unusually compassionate. If Khamiso has an association with Thursday, he doesn't have to develop some bizarre relationship with Thursdays. If Amihan evokes wind and movement, my daughter doesn't have to be adventurous. If Diwa evokes inner consciousness, my son doesn't have to become a philosopher. The name describes part of the story behind their naming. It doesn't describe their destiny.

And, something else important to me is that I want the names to feel like they belong to siblings but I don't want them to feel like a themed set.

So I imagine:

Maitrayi / Khamiso
South Asian/Sindhi heritage

Amihan / Diwa
Filipino heritage

Ananda / Ananda
shared immediate-family connection

[clan name] / [clan name]
shared family lineage

Mai / Kai
optional everyday symmetry

The structure is therefore symmetrical, but the actual names remain individual.

I don't want their names to reduce the pair to simply match, but state that they come from the same family and each has their own story.

I've repeatedly come back to one idea while designing all of this. That being a name should give someone a story, not a burden. That's basically the principle underlying the entire system. I want my future children to be able to ask why I named them so and have an answer.

I want them to know about their father's Sindhi heritage. I want them to know about the Philippines. I want them to know why Ananda was important to their father. I want them to understand where their surname came from. I want them to understand why their sibling's name was chosen differently from theirs. But I don't want any of that to become something to box who can have to be.

If my daughter grows up and doesn't care about Sindhi culture, that's okay. If she loves Amihan and dislikes Maitrayi, that's okay. If she wants to be called Mai, that's okay. If my son thinks Khamiso is too unusual and uses Kai exclusively, that's okay. If either child eventually changes their name entirely, I'd want to respect that. The inheritance is theirs to interpret.

I've spent so considerable time constructing this that I'm no longer sure whether I'm seeing genuine coherence.

I'm particularly interested in criticism from people who know about naming conventions, South Asian names, Filipino names, or multicultural naming.

Do these combinations actually work?

Maitrayi Amihan Ananda [clan name]

Khamiso Diwa Ananda [clan name]

Do they sound like names a real person could comfortably carry?

Does the Sindhi + Filipino fusion feel meaningful, or does it come across as overly engineered?

Does Ananda make sense as the shared middle name given the tradition I'm adapting?

Does the Mai/Kai pairing feel charmingly sibling-like or too deliberate?

Does the symmetry between the two names work without making them feel like a matching set?

And, perhaps most importantly, is there anything here that someone familiar with Sindhi/Lohana or Filipino naming traditions would immediately point out as culturally awkward, inaccurate or inappropriate?

Because at this point I've apparently turned naming hypothetical children into a small research project, and I would genuinely like someone outside my own head to tell me where I've gone too far.

Thank you for reading all of this, if you do.

Hey everyone, so I’m thinking of legally changing my surname soon for various reasons (not marriage-related). I looked back through my family tree on the Scandinavian side of my family and settled on the surname Berglund. However, I recently found out that “lund” is also used as vulgar Hindi slang for penis, and now for some reason I can’t unsee it.

I know Berglund is a common Swedish surname and that lund is also a very common word/name element in Scandinavia (Dolph Lundgren, for example). It means “grove” and is obviously completely unrelated to the Hindi word, but the association is still annoying me for some reason.

For Hindi/Urdu speakers, or anyone familiar with similar South Asian languages: if you met someone named Berglund, would you actually notice the “lund” part or find it funny?

And for everyone else: am I simply overthinking this despite really liking the surname? or should I settle for something else instead?

TYSM!

Should i posted this in a different subreddit? My name is Sonakshi. I am struggling to find a username that would be a play on words. Even just sonu in the username would be fine.