More on the name game

[rkold]

A few caveats, while I am looking for some opinions, I don't care if you prefer other "V" names or other names which begin with a different letter. I also don't care if you prefer the "V" names and think they would make a better first name. It has been my fondest wish since my grandmother died in 1994 to have a little girl to name after her. So the "A" name is coming first. What name you all like the best is not necessarily the name I am going to pick, I'm just letting you all give a little input. I already have various family members all campaigning for their favorite lol

So the next stage with baby naming is finding out what various people think of when they hear a particular name. For example, when I say the name "Clementine" someone might think the song "Oh My Darling Clementine" while someone else might think those yummy little readily peelable oranges one eats in Winter. Anyone who would like participate, please make a comment with what is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the following names.

The following first names are our current top choices:

Adina

Alice

Anne

Anya

Aviva

The following list of names are our top choices for middle names:

Vera

Verity

I might be willing to consider suggestions for other girl's names that start with A but again, I want a name that is not popular of which all of the following are: Abigail, Alexandra, Alexis, Alison, Amelia, Audrey, Aubrey, Audra, Ava. I also do not like gender neutral names, WASPY surnames as first names (think Addison) and I don't want a name that sounds made up. Also I am paying attention to ethnicity of names, Akiko is a perfectly nice name, but sounds really sort of silly when no one in her family is Japanese.

Comments

[codename-windy.livejournal.com]

Ah, they come from the same root? I was not aware of that. I mean, I know that most names come from some root that has a concrete meaning, but I admit to not being very much in the know when it comes to the roots of names that are nowadays "just names". Hence different associations. ^_~

Out of curiosity, what is the root for Anne and Anya?

True, true, "exotic" does strongly depends on where one is located. XD

[rkold.livejournal.com]

Anne and Anya are different forms of Chana/Hannah, a Hebrew name meaning gracious and merciful. Anne is just the most common English form while Anya is a slavic usually Russian form. Anna and Annie are also other variations.

Verity means truth and so does Vera. Again it's just another geographical variation.

And yeah, I know some people don't know the roots, which is one reason I wanted opinions. I have a friend who really likes Aviva and thinks it is a pretty name, but not knowing Hebrew she doesn't know it means Spring, which is a negative IMHO since our daughter will be born in October.

To me, Annika sounds extremely exotic and foreign sounding, but considering it was #69 in MN in 2009, in MN it is probably not an exotic name. While in NY, Chaya was #81, Miriam was #90 and Chana was #92 and all seem like completely normal names to me.

I personally hate the name Alivia. It's a made up spelling for Olivia and no matter how popular it might become it just sounds dumb. The same goes for Rylee.