Choosing a name for your baby can be tricky – there are so many things to consider! Here, I take a look at some of the baby names we loved but didn’t use for our children and explain the reason why each one got vetoed.
Naming your child is an incredibly personal choice, and each parent will have their own criteria and reasons why they love (or hate!) certain baby names.
Before we get started with the names, here are some of the main criteria we used when choosing a baby name:
- Unusual, but not too out there
- Easy to read and pronounce
- No unusual spellings of common names
- Goes well with our surname
- Nothing in the top 50 baby names
- Happy to have a unisex name
- Nothing starting with H – alliterative names are not for me
I tend to prefer more unusual baby names, and my husband was very keen on Scandinavian baby names, especially for a boy.
We also didn’t want a super popular name, although I do love some of the top 10 names (Olivia is gorgeous).
We were hoping to go with names where there wouldn’t be several others in their class at school with the same name.
So far we’ve met one little girl and one little boy with the same name as our daughter (one randomly in the park, one is a distant acquaintance) and no one with the same name as our son.
When our son was born we had lots of ‘oh that’s unusual’ comments, although it seemed a very normal name to us. I think, as we had it as a possibility for our daughter we’d been familiar with it for five years.
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Girls’ Names We Didn’t Use But Still Love
Theodosia
This was my top pick if baby number two had been a girl.
Yes, I am a Hamilton fan.
Honestly, I was gutted we didn’t get to use this as it’s just so beautiful and we would have shortened it to Thea as a nickname. Maggie would have been our choice for a middle name.
Luna
I love the name Luna but when I was pregnant with our little one it was getting more and more popular and I also saw several people use it as a name for their new pet, which put me off a little.
Aria
Aria is so pretty for a little girl but it just wasn’t quite right for us although our daughter’s name does begin with an A.
Sylvie
I think Sylvie ticks the unusual but not too weird box, although we did think people might continually think it was short for Sylvia.
In the end, we used a very similar name as a middle name instead.
Elsie
We liked this name as it’s simple and classic, and this would have been my mother-in-law’s first choice for our little girl.
I’m glad we didn’t use it, though, as some family friends chose it not long after us, not knowing it had been on our list.
Delia
Delia is a girl’s name that ticks all of the boxes for me, but my husband didn’t like it, so we didn’t end up using it.
Delilah
I love it, my husband said there are too many songs with it in the title.
Which is why I liked it – Hey There Delilah is one of my favourite songs.
Wren
Wren is such a cute little girl’s name, but our surname is related to birds, so we just couldn’t use it.
Boys’ Names We Didn’t Use But Still Love
Hunter
Hunter would have been my husband’s first choice for a baby boy.
However, our surname starts with H and I didn’t want an alliterative name although in fairness it would have had major superhero alter-ego vibes.
Ambrose
This was my top pick for our baby boy, and there were moments after he was born and named when I wished we’d called him this instead.
Of course, almost a year later, I can’t imagine him being called anything other than his actual name, but the doubts were real for a moment.
The main reason for not choosing this name was that it would have meant he had the same initials as his sister.
I know some families love naming their children all with the same letter, but it’s not something I was keen on doing.
Finally, my husband didn’t like it. He’d known someone years ago with the name, and it just didn’t feel quite right to him.
Leif
Leif was another of my husband’s favourite baby boy names, but I thought it was too difficult to pronounce and spell.
The name we eventually chose for our little one is Scandinavian, although much easier to say!
Indiana
This name was another case of I loved it, husband didn’t like it. We would probably have shortened it to Indy, which I really like, although I do think it comes with the possibility of people thinking he is a girl, especially with the rise in popularity of the T.V show Bluey, which has a girl character named Indy.
Thor/Odin/Ragnor
As well as Scandinavian names, my husband also likes names from Norse Mythology. Of the three Odin is probably the one I would have been most on board with but it still just felt a bit too much.
Oberon
Oberon is the king of the Fae in Greek Mythology and is famously a character in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Which is probably why I like it.
However, the German name it originates from is similar to our daughter’s.
Do you love any of the names on this list? We don’t plan on having any more children, but I always find baby names so interesting to read about.