name game – My Inner MishMash

This or that based on top 100 in the UK (Boys’ edition).

A while ago, I did a this or that name game on here using girl names from last year’s top 100 for England vs Wales, so I thought we could do the boys’ round this week. As always, feel free to comment on your choices as shortly or extensively as you wish, or just list them, or share feedback on your favourite/least favourite names, whatever you want really, it’s just for fun, after all. Just like the first time, in each pair, the first name is from the top 100 for England, the second for Wales. If a name ranks at the same spot in both countries, I take a name from the same spot in Scotland, in which case I write (SC) after it. If the name ranks on the same spot in Scotland as well, I just skip it. We also have a situation where Dylan ranks in the UK on the same spot as Alexander in Wales and vice versa, so in that case I paired each of them with the corresponding name in Scotland. Here’s the list

Noah or Jack (SC)?
George or Oliver?
Oliver or Arthur?
Muhammad or Theo?
Arthur or Leo?
Leo or Charlie?
Harry or Archie?
Oscar or George?
Henry or Jack?
Theodore or Oscar?
Archie or Finley?
Freddie or Brodie (SC)?
Jack or Tommy?
Charlie or Jacob?
Theo or Alfie?
Alfie or Harry?
Jacob or Osian?
Thomas or Roman?
Finley or Elijah?
Arlo or Theodore?
William or Thomas?
Lucas or William?
Roman or Arlo?
Isaac or Henry?
Teddy or Luca?
Tommy or Albie?
Alexander or Dylan?
Edward or Harrison?
James or Elis?
Luca or Isaac?
Joshua or Lucas?
Albie or Harri?
Mohammed or Mason?
Max or Jaxon?
Elijah or Hunter?
Reuben or Ollie (SC)?
Sebastian or Rowan?
Jude or Louie?
Mason or Teddy?
Rory or Tomos?
Louie or Logan?
Benjamin or Ezra?
Ethan or Hudson?
Adam or Max?
Hugo or Jac?
Joseph or Ronnie?
Reggie or Ollie?
Ronnie or Rory?
Louis or Sebastian?
Harrison or Macsen?
Ezra or Reggie?
Jason or Caleb?
Logan or Finn?
Daniel or James?
Zachary or Jesse?
Samuel or Zachary?
Albert or Oakley?
Dylan or Carter (SC)?
Alexander or Carter (SC)?
Hudson or Benjamin?
Frederick or Joseph?
Hunter or Myles?
David or Ethan?
Frankie or Louis?
Jesse or Blake?
Toby or Hugo?
Rowan or Joshua?
Grayson or Edward?
Oakley or Sonny?
Felix or Toby?
Riley or Carter?
Carter or Ellis?
Bobby or Evan?
Finn or Brody?
Alfred or Grayson?
Michael or Samuel?
Blake or Elias?
Gabriel or Jude?
Jasper or Eli?
Mohammad or Frankie?
Sonny or Jax?
Stanley or Ioan?
Otis or Muhammad
Caleb or Riley?
Milo or Cai?
Ralph or Idris?
Liam or Tobias?
Chester or Tomi?
Elliot or Daniel?
Ellis or Morgan?
Yusuf or Jackson?
Charles or Parker?
Rupert or Chester?
Kai or Gabriel?
Harvey or Gruffydd?
Brody or Hari?
Nathan or Joey?
Jackson or Rhys?
Leon or David?
Ibrahim or Elliott?
Tobias or Mohammed?

Bibiel’s picks:

Noah or Jack (SC)? Duh! The Scots know what’s TRULY good.
George or Oliver? Definitely Oliver, it might be very popular almost everywhere but I quite like it nonetheless, and definitely more than George.
Oliver or Arthur? Oliver again.
Muhammad or Theo? Theo.
Arthur or Leo? Hm, it’s a bit tough, because Arthur feels better than Leo in terms of like its etymology, history, vibe and all that, but then sound-wise I much prefer Leo… Well Leo.
Leo or Charlie? Charlie.
Harry or Archie? Hm, Archie I guess, though I’m rather neutral about both.
Oscar or George? Oscar definitely.
Henry or Jack? JACK!
Theodore or Oscar? Oscar again.
Archie or Finley? Absolutely Finley!
Freddie or Brodie (SC)? Hm, don’t care about either… Freddie I suppose?
Jack or Tommy? JACK! 😀
Charlie or Jacob? Jacob, especially that in Wales it’s pronounced as JAH-cob at least sometimes.
Theo or Alfie? Theo.
Alfie or Harry? Hm, Alfie?
Jacob or Osian? That’s tough as I like both a lot… Well Jacob, I think.
Thomas or Roman? I don’t like both, but Roman feels extremely dated in Polish and not quite as classy as it seems to be viewed in the UK. Thomas is at least rather universal and I quite like Tommy, so Thomas.
Finley or Elijah? Elijah.
Arlo or Theodore? Hm I don’t really like either much. Theodore I guess is a bit better and more in line with my overall style.
William or Thomas? Definitely William, I like it and even though it’s just as common as Thomas if not more in the overall population, it feels a lot less bland to me and it has lots of adorable nicknames.
Lucas or William? Here it’s going to be Lucas, because Lucas has more character than William.
Roman or Arlo? Hm Arlo this time lol.
Isaac or Henry? Isaac.
Teddy or Luca? Luca, Teddy is so childish.
Tommy or Albie? Tommy.
Alexander or Dylan? Definitely Alexander.
Edward or Harrison? Harrison.
James or Elis? Elis is a lot more interesting, and both Welsh and Swedish at the same time and I like such coincidences, though it has different etymology in both of these languages.
Luca or Isaac? Luca.
Joshua or Lucas? Lucas, don’t like Joshua, I know it isn’t really seen like that by most people but to me naming a kid Joshua would feel like naming them Jesus. 😀
Albie or Harri? Harri.
Mohammed or Mason? Huh, Mohammed I suppose? I don’t really feel either at all.
Max or Jaxon? Jaxon, but really why do people spell it with an X?
Elijah or Hunter? Elijah.
Reuben or Ollie (SC)? Ollie definitely.
Sebastian or Rowan? Rowan. Sebastian doesn’t have the best connotations in Poland, again very contrary to the UK and the Anglosphere where it seems to be like the ultimate historical romance hero name or something from what I know. 😀
Jude or Louie? Louie.
Mason or Teddy? Ugh Teddy I guess.
Rory or Tomos? Rory, although I prefer the original Scottish spelling Ruairidh because Rory looks like it’s supposed to be a nickname of something.
Louie or Logan? Hm, I don’t mind both at all, but then don’t particularly like them either… Let’s say Logan.
Benjamin or Ezra? Benjamin, although I dislike the nickname Ben and it feels rather inevitable here haha.
Ethan or Hudson? Hudson, really not a fan of Ethan.
Adam or Max? Max, Adam’s so boring, I mean it even means human. 😀
Hugo or Jac? Jac!!!
Joseph or Ronnie? Ronnie, ‘cause I don’t like Joseph and ‘cause Ronnie actually isn’t too bad.
Reggie or Ollie? Ollie.
Ronnie or Rory? Rory.
Louis or Sebastian? Louis.
Harrison or Macsen? Macsen of course.
Ezra or Reggie? Reggie.
Jaxon or Caleb? Caleb.
Logan or Finn? Definitely Finn. I like Finn names. 😀
Daniel or James? Daniel is less boring than James, but then I much prefer the nicknames of James to those of Daniel. Still, we’re talking full names so Daniel.
Zachary or Jesse? I think Zachary but these two have a very similar vibe to me.
Samuel or Zachary? Samuel, I really like it actually.
Albert or Oakley? Hmmmmm… Mmmmmmm… Lol I totally can’t make up my mind. Albert, I guess, again because it makes more sense with my style overall than Oakley would.
Dylan or Carter (SC)? Dylan for sure.
Alexander or Carter (SC)? Alexander, even more assuredly. 😀
Hudson or Benjamin? Benjamin.
Frederick or Joseph? Frederick is less boring I guess.
Hunter or Myles? Myles I think, I’d be even more sure if it was Miles.
David or Ethan? David.
Frankie or Louis? Louis.
Jesse or Blake? Jesse.
Toby or Hugo? Toby.
Rowan or Joshua? Rowan.
Grayson or Edward? Edward.
Oakley or Sonny? Oakley, I’m far from liking it but why’d you call a kid Sonny, really? 😀
Felix or Toby? Felix is really cool.
Riley or Carter? Riley.
Carter or Ellis? Ellis.
Bobby or Evan? Bobby.
Finn or Brody? Finn.
Alfred or Grayson? Grayson.
Michael or Samuel? Well that’s actually a difficult choice because I like both in a very similar way. But Samuel is less common overall, so Samuel.
Blake or Elias? Elias, though I think I’ve already mentioned somewhere that I don’t like the “-EYE-“ pronunciation and prefer the Scandinavian way (eh-LEE-as). But then it’s Wales so I think it’s possible that some people actually do pronounce it like that because it would make sense in Welsh too. Question is though if it’s actually popular with Welsh speakers. Btw, Brits do rankings based on mother’s age so I think it would be also a great idea if they did based on mother’s first language, that could be really interesting.
Gabriel or Jude? Gabriel definitely.
Jasper or Eli? Eli, though Jasper is really really cool too.
Mohammad or Frankie? I guess Frankie feels closer to me culturally though neither is my style at all.
Sonny or Jax? Jax, out of two evils. 😀
Stanley or Ioan? Ioan.
Otis or Muhammad? Otis, I guess.
Caleb or Riley? Hm, Ca… no, actually, Riley. 😀
Milo or Cai? Milo.
Ralph or Idris? Idris is cool.
Liam or Tobias? Liam definitely.
Chester or Tomi? Tomi.
Elliot or Daniel? Elliot.
Ellis or Morgan? I think I slightly prefer Ellis, though Morgan is cool too for a boy. In fact, I guess the only reason why I didn’t choose Morgan is because realistically a British Morgan would probably have their gender mixed up a lot, as I don’t think it’s tied to one gender as strongly as in the US where it seems to be quite decidedly a girl name. Then again, we’re talking about Morgan in Wales here, and I guess in Wales it’s more clearly a boy’s name. Still, I think I’ll stick with Ellis.
Yusuf or Jackson? Jackson definitely, I’d call him Jack anyway.
Charles or Parker? Charles for sure.
Rupert or Chester? Hm, Rupert.
Kai or Gabriel? Gabriel.
Harvey or Gruffydd? Totally Gruffydd. Oh and by the way, in case people don’t know it’s pronounced kinda sorta like Griffith, it’s got nothing to do with being gruff. 😀
Brody or Hari? Hari.
Nathan or Joey? Hm Joey? Don’t care about either.
Jackson or Rhys? Hah, Rhys, I think. If it was Jack vs Rhys I’d say Jack but I think I do like Rhys more than Jackson.
Leon or David? David I guess.
Ibrahim or Elliott? Elliott.
Tobias or Mohammed? Tobias.

So, how about you, lovely people?

This or that based on top 100 in the UK (girls’ edition).

Today I thought we’d do something different instead of question of the day. The UK’s ONS (Office for National Statistics) has released baby name statistics for England and Wales this week, which I always find interesting to look through as a name nerd, regardless of a country really as long as I have some sort of an idea what’s been popular there, and I also like to read what other people who are into it think of any changes in baby naming trends based on such statistics, ‘cause myself being near-dyscalculic I usually won’t notice a lot of stuff that might be going on. And I saw that on one of the larger naming websites – Nameberry – someone put together names from the top 100 for England and Wales together with those for the US so that people could vote which names for each rank they like more.

So I thought we could do a similar thing here, except to make it a bit different I decided to put English names against Welsh. In situations where a name ranks the same in both England and Wales, I pick a name of equivalent rank from Scotland, although sometimes names rank the same in all three countries like Olivia is #1 or Isla is #3 everywhere so then I just skip it. The first name in each set is from England and the other from Wales, and if a name ranks the same in both countries I’ll write (SC) after the other to indicate that it ranks on the equivalent position in Scotland.

For now I just did it with girls’ names, but I can do the boys’ as well if people end up liking this and/or if I’ll feel like it. Feel free to comment on why you chose one name over the other or what you think of them in as much or little detail as you wish, or not to comment at all and just list them, it’s up to you.

Here we go:

Amelia or Emily (SC)?
Ava or Freya?
Ivy or Ella (SC)?
Florence or Rosie?
Lily or Ava?
Freya or Grace?
Mia or Lily?
Willow or Evie?
Sophia or Mia?
Isabella or Ella?
Rosie or Elsie?
Grace or Willow?
Sienna or Florence?
Daisy or Evie (SC)?
Poppy or Evelyn?
Elsie or Phoebe?
Emily or Millie?
Ella or Erin?
Evelyn or Sophia?
Sofia or Mila?
Charlotte or Isabella?
Phoebe or Poppy?
Evie or Emily?
Harper or Maya (SC)?
Maya or Hallie?
Millie or Lottie?
Matilda or Isabelle?
Sophie or Sofia?
Alice or Sienna?
Emilia or Bonnie?
Ruby or Aurora?
Isabelle or Aria?
Luna or Penelope?
Maisie or Charlotte?
Aria or Maisie?
Penelope or Alys?
Bonnie or Ffion?
Eva or Imogen?
Mila or Ruby?
Eliza or Seren?
Ada or Luna?
Violet or Mali?
Hallie or Violet?
Arabella or Matilda?
Esme or Zara (SC)?
Jessica or Thea?
Delilah or Eira?
Imogen or Nancy?
Chloe or Emilia?
Eleanor or Ada?
Lottie or Layla?
Layla or Mabel?
Margot or Ayla?
Thea or Eva?
Aurora or Alice?
Elizabeth or Eliza?
Mabel or Gracie?
Emma or Nansi?
Scarlett or Lola?
Erin or Sophie?
Harriet or Jessica?
Rose or Lyra?
Lola or Megan?
Orla or Delilah?
Ayla or Efa?
Nancy or Harriet?
Zara or Lilly?
Iris or Mabli?
Bella or Maya?
Robyn or Iona (SC)?
Molly or Scarlett?
Maria or Cadi?
Olive or Molly?
Lyla or Orla?
Maeve or Eleanor?
Ellie or Frankie?
Maryam or Chloe?
Darcie or Myla?
Heidi or Lili?
Edith or Lyla?
Gracie or Nia?
Lyra or Maeve?
Amelie or Martha?
Lucy or Autumn?
Hannah or Eleri?
Myla or Harlow?
Amber or Maddison?
Jasmine or Amber?
Summer or Eden?
Eden or Iris?
Clara or Lucy?
Elodie or Nevaeh?
Holly or Olive?
Anna or Zara?
Lara or Arabella?
Lilly or Bella?
Beatrice or Darcie?
Sara or Elodie?
Esmae or Mollie?

Bibiel’s picks:

This is gonna be so tough, I like so many of these to bits. 😀

Amelia or Emily (SC)? Amelia. It’s been very popular over here for girls around Sophie’s age and for babies, so I don’t like it nearly as much as I did when I was younger, but Emily seems more boring and overused to me even if not in my country. Even my liking for Emily Byrd Starr doesn’t make me like Emily more than Amelia.
Ava or Freya? Of course Freya. I love Freya, and I dislike Ava.
Ivy or Ella (SC)? Ella, even though it’s so popular around the Anglosphere. Not a fan of Ivy.
Florence or Rosie? Both are extremely sweet and I love them. But I think I love the sound of Rosie more.
Lily or Ava? Lily ‘cause I don’t like Ava. Lil- names are extremely overused here so Lily feels boring, but I can’t say I dislike it.
Freya or Grace? Freya, Grace isn’t overly interesting.
Mia or Lily? Mia, I like the sound.
Willow or Evie? Willow, I think it could make a sweet nickname for Wilhelmina.
Sophia or Mia? Hm, Sophia I guess…? I like both, but at the same time I seem to see Sophia everywhere so Mia feels more interesting, while on the other hand Mia is so short that it feels incomplete compared with Sophia. But yeah, Sophia, I think.
Isabella or Ella? Isabella, you can call her Ella anyway and have other possibilities included as well, it makes more sense as a full name to me, and I also happen to like it a lot.
Rosie or Elsie? Awww, Elsie.
Grace or Willow? Willow.
Sienna or Florence? Florence, don’t like Sienna.
Daisy or Evie (SC)? Daisy I guess, though feel kind of ambivalent towards both.
Poppy or Evelyn? Oh my flip… … … 🤔 OK, Evelyn. But I love Poppy so so much as well.
Elsie or Phoebe? Elsie, though Phoebe is sweet.
Emily or Millie? Millie, although if I had to choose between those two for a real life child I’d go with Emily because of what I said re Isabella and Ella.
Ella or Erin? I like both, but Erin is more interesting. And Celtic.
Evelyn or Sophia? As much as I love Sophia, Evelyn is far more intriguing.
Sofia or Mila? Hm… Mila I guess? But I really don’t know, ask me in five minutes and I’ll say Sofia.
Charlotte or Isabella? Isabella. I should like Charlotte because I generally like names like that but I just don’t, for some reason.
Phoebe or Poppy? Poppy!
Evie or Emily? Emily ‘cause I just like it more than Evie even if I see fewer Evies.
Harper or Maya (SC)? Maya, not too big on surname/unisex names although Harper isn’t very bad.
Maya or Hallie? Maya again.
Millie or Lottie? Millie for sure.
Matilda or Isabelle? Isabelle for sure, but nothing at all against Matilda.
Sophie or Sofia? Sophie, I think, but I’m very changeable with Sophie names.
Alice or Sienna? Alice. It may be plain but it has something really cool about it.
Emilia or Bonnie? Emilia, don’t like Bonnie.
Ruby or Aurora? Ruby, gem stones are so cool.
Isabelle or Aria? Isabelle.
Luna or Penelope? I like both, but so many pets around the world seem to be called Luna these days, and then there’s Soy Luna that Sofi likes, so I think Penelope wins. It’s really nice as well, feels very sophisticated and you can call her Poppy or Nellie which are both nicknames that I like. Only the name meaning isn’t quite as cool as Luna’s since Penelope means duck.
Maisie or Charlotte? Maisie is lovely.
Aria or Maisie? Maisie, totally neutral about Aria.
Penelope or Alys? Penelope, but Alys is cool too and makes me think of Alys Williams and her voice immediately.
Bonnie or Ffion? Ffion is so cute. And no, it isn’t Welsh for Fiona, it means foxglove in Welsh.
Eva or Imogen? I don’t like Eva, so Imogen. Imogen has something slightly quirky about it that I like.
Mila or Ruby? Mila.
Eliza or Seren? I love Eliza, but especially pronounced our Polish way – e-LEE-zah. –
Ada or Luna? Luna, don’t like Ada.
Violet or Mali? Mali, but only because of nice associations with this name, as I’m quite neutral about both of them as such.
Hallie or Violet? Hallie.
Arabella or Matilda? I really like Arabella.
Esme or Zara (SC)? Zara I think. Esme and variations on the theme are too Twilight.
Jessica or Thea? Jessica.
Delilah or Eira? Hmmmm… If it was for a real life kid, then definitely Eira. Otherwise Delilah.
Imogen or Nancy? Imogen.
Chloe or Emilia? Chloe is cute.
Eleanor or Ada? I really like Eleanor.
Lottie or Layla? Lottie.
Layla or Mabel? Mabel is pretty cool.
Margot or Ayla? Ayla, though neither feels thrilling.
Thea or Eva? Thea.
Aurora or Alice? Alice.
Elizabeth or Eliza? I love both, but Eliza wins.
Mabel or Gracie? Mabel, though Gracie is nice too.
Emma or Nansi? Nansi, but solely because Emma is so popular in the US so I see it all the time.
Scarlett or Lola? I think Lola, ‘cause for some reason I don’t really like Scarlett that much, but then I don’t particularly love Lola either.
Erin or Sophie? 🤔 Erin…? Yeah Erin. But Sophie is sweet.
Harriet or Jessica? Jessica, though I quite like Harriet too.
Rose or Lyra? Rose.
Lola or Megan? I like the Welsh feel of Megan.
Orla or Delilah? Delilah.
Ayla or Efa? Ayla, but both are meh.
Nancy or Harriet? Harriet.
Zara or Lilly? Lilly.
Iris or Mabli? Iris.
Bella or Maya? Bella I guess…
Robyn or Iona (SC)? Iona. I really like Robin for both genders, but Robyn not really, and Iona is so Scottish.
Molly or Scarlett? Molly.
Maria or Cadi? I have a lot of fun associations with Cadi, but it feels so nickname-y so even though Maria is very common around the world, I choose Maria. It has more of a character than Cadi.
Olive or Molly? I like olives, yay! 😀 If it was Olivia and Molly I’d probably choose Molly, but Olive feels very cool and unusual and not quite so omnipresent as Olivia.
Lyla or Orla? Orla definitely.
Maeve or Eleanor? Eleanor, even though Maeve’s very close.
Ellie or Frankie? Ellie, I don’t like Frankie for either gender while I really like Ellie.
Maryam or Chloe? Chloe.
Darcie or Myla? I guess Myla, but neither is my thing.
Heidi or Lili? Heidi.
Edith or Lyla? Lyla ‘cause I dislike Edith.
Gracie or Nia? Nia.
Lyra or Maeve? Maeve.
Amelie or Martha? Amelie is even better than Amelia.
Lucy or Autumn? I really like Lucy.
Hannah or Eleri? LOVE Eleri. Hannah’s slightly dull.
Myla or Harlow? Myla, ‘cause Harlow is even worse.
Amber or Maddison? Amber.
Jasmine or Amber? Jasmine.
Summer or Eden? Summer, don’t like Eden one bit.
Eden or Iris? Iris, of course.
Clara or Lucy? Lucy, even despite all my liking for Clara.
Elodie or Nevaeh? Lol, it’s like asking a kid whether they prefer their favourite ice cream flavour or cold overcooked brussel sprouts. Of course Elodie! 🙂
Holly or Olive? Olives are yummy.
Anna or Zara? I love Anna.
Lara or Arabella? Arabella.
Lilly or Bella? Bella.
Beatrice or Darcie? Beatrice.
Sara or Elodie? Elodie.
Esmae or Mollie? Mollie.

So, how about you? Any thoughts on these in general welcome as well. 🙂

Big this or that game with similar names.

How do you people feel about a this or that name game? This one will be just generally about names that are similar in any way, either they’re variants of each other, or different spellings, or one is the full form and the other a nickname of it, or they sound similar or just have a kind of similar vibe. You tell me which one you prefer for each of the pairs below and feel free to expand on that and say why if you want.

Elin or Helen?
Nils or Lars?
Ella or Bella?
Jake or Jack?
Emily or Emma?
James or Michael?
Ava or Eva?
David or Isaac?
Christina or Kristin?
Kevin or Kieran?
Elisabeth or ELizabeth?
John or Peter?
Christine or Justine?
Erik or Elias?
Frances or Francine?
William or George?
Maria or Mary?
Luc or Michel?
Wilhelmina or Wilma?
Matti or Antti?
Eugenia or Euphemia?
Basil or Cecil?
Noelle or Natalie?
Nathaniel or Nathan?
Felicia or Felicity?
Felix or Phoenix?
Natalia or Julia?
Nicholas or Noel?
Petronella or Dulcibella?
Jasper or Casper?
Rachel or Ruth?
Leonard or Bernard?
Xenia or Sonia?
Serge or Ivan?
Sofia or Sophia?
Joseph or Jacob?
Tiffany or Brittany?
Jeremy or Zachary?
Amber or Crystal?
Tyler or Dylan?
Sofie or Sophie?
Harry or Charlie?
Kirsty or Kirsten?
Christopher or Christian?
Jayne or Rayne?
Andrew or Thomas?
Melanie or Stephanie?
Stefan or Stephen?
Anna or Anne?
Adam or Alexander?
Evie or Stevie?
Taylor or Jayden?
Ann or Nan?
Edward or Henry?
Margareta or Margherita?
Timothy or Anthony?
Erika or Ulrika?
Fredrik or Sven?

Mine:

Elin or Helen? – Elin for sure! I love both, but Elin has more of a personality, plus it’s both Swedish and Scandinavian. If I had to choose between Elin or Helena, I would probably have more of a problem.
Nils or Lars? – Both are kind of nice but at the same time feel rather bland and boring to me. I think I very slightly prefer Lars though, obviously pronounced the Scandinavian way LAHSH.
Ella or Bella? – Both are super popular in America and I prefer them as nicknames, yet I still do like them both as standalone names as well. I think I choose Ella though because I know a lot of dogs called Bella, plus I don’t like the association with Bella Swan and the “beautiful” meaning is slightly cliche.
Jake or Jack? – Duh!
Emily or Emma? – Both are boring and overused but I think I like Emily slightly more.
James or Michael? – Michael.
Ava or Eva? – I dislike Ava slightly less than Eva I guess.
David or Isaac? – David, I think, though I feel pretty neutral about both.
Christina or Kristin? – Kristin all the way, but mostly just because I’ve seen it a bit less in my life than I have Christina so it’s not as boring, and because of Kristin Lavransdatter whom I really love. I’m rather neutral about all Christine-related names.
Kevin or Kieran? – Most definitely Kevin. I actually quite like Kevin or even more so its original Irish form Caoimhín, but I really dislike Kieran, and Ciaran (the Irish form) as well, for that matter.
Elisabeth or ELizabeth? – Both are amazing but I prefer Elisabeth ‘cause it’s more aesthetically pleasing to my brain as is the Scandinavian pronunciation.
John or Peter? – That’s a hard one, I think I pretty much like them equally… Huh, I can’t make up my mind! 😀 Well okay, let’s say Peter ‘cause I like the sound better I think.
Christine or Justine? – Christine I guess?
Erik or Elias? – Elias, and again I prefer the Scandinavian pronunciation compared to the English, i.e. with the “ee” rather than “I” sound in the middle, but even with the English one I still prefer Elias.
Frances or Francine? – Francine, but mostly because I once wrote a short story where there was a Francine. She was supposed to be a very narrow-minded, unlikeable character but I ended up really liking her ‘cause she turned out totally different than I planned. 😀 Talk about not having control over your characters.
William or George? – Absolutely William! I love William and the vast majority of its forms and I dislike George and the majority of its forms.
Maria or Mary? – Maria. I see both everywhere since Maria is so common in Poland and Scandinavia and Mary in the Anglosphere but I think Maria is more… I don’t know how to put it… colourful or something? Kind of more flexible because it fits better in all types of name combos. Not that Mary doesn’t, but Maria does it better.
Luc or Michel – Michel, it sounds and looks nicer, and it has the Mish sound in it.
Wilhelmina or Wilma? – Wilhelmina hands down. I love Wilhelmina but Wilma is meh.
Matti or Antti? – Matti! Antti is okay, but Matti’s even better. This Finnish form is my favourite variant of Matthew.
Eugenia or Euphemia? – Definitely Euphemia. I used to really dislike Eugenia but it’s been slowly growing on me. Still, I like Euphemia a lot more.
Basil or Cecil? – I don’t like Basil and feel rather neutral about Cecil, so Cecil.
Noelle or Natalie? – Noelle, it’s lovely.
Nathaniel or Nathan? – Nathaniel.
Felicia or Felicity? – This is really difficult, because I would generally say Felicia, because I love it slightly more than Felicity, but only pronounced fe-LEE-see-uh. If Felicia was to be pronounced the standard English way fe-LEE-shuh, I think I’d vote for Felicity.
Felix or Phoenix? – I love Felix, so it’s Felix, but Phoenix is fairly nice too and surprisingly I quite like it for both genders.
Natalia or Julia? – Hmmmm… This is complicated, because both of these names are super popular here in Poland for babies and also among gen Z, so I’m really quite fed up with them, but at the same time I do think these are nice names and before I discovered Emily of New Moon and before Julia became super popular I had a brief moment when I wanted to be a Julia. I think Julia is more popular than Natalia now though and Sofi had like five Julias in her class, so Natalia feels more refreshing, hence I choose Natalia.
Nicholas or Noel? – Noel, though they are both cool.
Petronella or Dulcibella? – Dulcibella’s been my guilty pleasure for a few years now, why don’t people call their kids this anymore when -ella names are so popular? I wish I could see at least one birth announcement of a Dulcibella. And nn Dulcie is so literally sweet.
Jasper or Casper? – Jasper, ‘cause it’s like the stone, and jaspers are one my favourite stones. In fact, you regular folks on here know that I give my stones human names, and I’m so creative and original that I have one cute little reddish jasper stone called Jasper. 😀
Rachel or Ruth? – Rachel. Ruth is more unexpected these days and has more of a defined personality as a name, but I feel a little ambivalent about it whereas Rachel is very unequivocally warm and kind of cosy imo.
Leonard or Bernard? – Leonard, but both are meh.
Xenia or Sonia? – Xenia I suppose, but to my Polish ear they both feel nicknamey.
Serge or Ivan? – Serge, just because I don’t like Ivan.
Sofia or Sophia? – Sofia but both are lovely.
Joseph or Jacob? – Jacob, not a fan of Joseph really.
Tiffany or Brittany? – Uhm, no idea… They’re so similar I always mix them up anyway. I guess Tiffany sounds a bit nicer though.
Jeremy or Zachary? – Zachary I think.
Amber or Crystal? – Crystal.
Tyler or Dylan? – Dylan, but don’t care for either really.
Sofie or Sophie? – This is an impossible choice! I can never make my mind up about it. I guess I’m the same with Sophie and Sofie as I am with my languages – the one I like more is the one I’m seeing/thinking about at a particular moment.
Harry or Charlie? – Charlie, not crazy at all about Harry.
Kirsty or Kirsten? – Kirsty looks better.
Christopher or Christian? – Christopher! I like it a lot, Christian not so much.
Jayne or Rayne?
Andrew or Thomas? – Andrew.
Melanie or Stephanie? – I like Melanie a lot more.
Stefan or Stephen? – If it was Steven and Stephen, I’d choose Steven, but as it is, I think I choose Stephen.
Anna or Anne? – Anna, of course, though I really like both.
Adam or Alexander? – Alexander for sure, not a fan of Adam.
Evie or Stevie? – Evie is a lot fresher, though I’d much prefer something longer like Evelyn or Evangeline, it’s really childish imo as a standalone option.
Taylor or Jayden? – Taylor, though don’t like either.
Ann or Nan? – Actually, I guess Nan. Ann is really underwhelming compared to Anne/Anna, and Nan at least feels more dynamic and has something bright and zippy about it.
Edward or Henry? – That’s difficult because I just don’t like either… but… perhaps I dislike Edward a bit less. Not sure here really.
Margareta or Margherita? – Margareta, but both are super clunky imo.
Timothy or Anthony? – Timothy because I like Tim and because I don’t like Anthony.
Erika or Ulrika? – Erika.
Fredrik or Sven? – Both are kind of boring but I choose Fredrik solely because it reminds me of Cornelis Vreeswijk’s Fredrik Åkare character which generally I’d say is a positive association.
Over to you, guys. Which ones do you prefer?

This or that (name game with different spellings).

I thought we could do a little name game today, to have a bit of fun. In case the post title isn’t self-explanatory enough, below there are pairs of names, which are essentially spelling variants of one name, and I’m curious which of these spellings you prefer. Are you more traditional, or more creative, or a bit of both? Feel free to just list your preferred spellings, or comment on your choice as shortly or extensively as you wish. Here are the names:

Violet or Violette?

Juliet or Juliette?

Katelyn or Caitlin?

Adeline or Adalyn?

Amelia or Amilia?

Louisa or Luiza?

Isla or Ayla (EYE-luh)?

Evelyn or Evalyn?

Cecilia or Cecelia?

Maisie or Maisy?

Mae or May?

Aria or Ariyah?

Wren or Ren?

Emmeline or Emmalyn?

Lucy or Lucie?

Lily or Lillie?

Claire or Clare?

Jane or Jayne?

Lila or Lyla?

Elizabeth or Elisabeth?

Amelie or Amalie?

Seraphina or Serafina?

Sofie or Sophie?

Ariel or Arielle?

Caroline or Carolyn?

Sophia or Sofia?

Zoe or Zoey?

Finn or Fionn (FINN)?

Felix or Feliks?

Greyson or Grayson?

Lucas or Lukas?

Martin or Martyn?

Oscar or Oskar?

Phillip or Filip?

Michael or Mychael?

Emmanuel or Emanuel?

Callum or Calum?

Alasdair or Alistair?

Eric or Erik?

Paul or Pól?

Glen or Glyn?

Tommy or Tomi?

Stephen or Steven?

Mine:

Violet or Violette? – I don’t care for this name either way, even though I like a lot of floral names and most people with more or less similar tastes to me tend to love it. But I think Violette makes this name look more sophisticated and I much prefer the French pronunciation over the English one.

Juliet or Juliette? – Again, don’t care for it either way but Juliette looks more complete.

Katelyn or Caitlin? – Actually, I have a little bit of a dilemma here. I tend to favour traditional spellings because they’re… well, traditional, they usually have more history to it and often just are more aesthetically pleasing. In this case, Caitlin is the original, Irish Gaelic spelling of this name and yes, I really like it, especially when pronounced the Gaelic way. Katelyn, on the other hand, looks very modern and, I’d say, seasonal, which is to say I don’t think it’ll ever be trendy again. And I tend to dislike names that are seasonal like that and look modernised. But I actually like a lot of names with the -lyn ending, despite my classic/traditional leanings, and while Caitlin has more history and sounds better, Katelyn looks better imo. Caitlin is just not impressive in the way it looks in writing. Plus, I like the nickname Katie, and it’s much more obvious for Katelyn than Caitlin. At least I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a Caitlin that would go by Katie, it seems to be Cait most often, which I don’t like at all in this spelling. So yeah, I think I’m voting Katelyn.

Adeline or Adalyn? – Adeline for sure! Adalyn’s not too bad, but Adeline has a lot more character and looks beautiful and refined. I like the frilly Adelina even more.

Amelia or Amilia? – Amelia. I don’t dislike Amilia but it looks a bit like someone couldn’t quite decide whether it should be Amelia or Emilia. 😀

Louisa or Luiza? – That’s super difficult, I really like both. Luiza is the Polish (and apparently also Portuguese) variant and is pronounced pretty much the same. I think I choose Louisa though, it looks a little bit nicer.

Isla or Ayla (EYE-luh)?- Definitely Isla. It’s lovely, even if very popular right now. Ayla meanwhile… I never know how to pronounce it. It can be EYE-luh but it could just as well be AY-luh I guess.

Evelyn or Evalyn? – Evelyn! It looks nicer, is more vintage, plus I don’t really like Eva. I don’t like Eve either, but Eva- feels a lot more prominent in Evalyn than Eve- does in Evelyn. To me Evalyn looks like you deliberately want it to be a combination of Eva + Lyn, rather than a variant spelling of Evelyn whose etymology is totally different from Eve/Eva.

Cecilia or Cecelia? – Cecilia, I think. It’s a lot more graceful. I don’t mind Cecelia but if I wanted to go the -celia route I’d rather use Celia alone than Cecelia.

Maisie or Maisy? – Absolutely Maisie. Maisy is very unattractive aesthetically imo.

Mae or May? – May. It looks a lot fresher and more natural, as in, it makes me think of the month of May, of the plant may, of nature in general. Mae feels bland and boring and rather dated and just like a filler middle name.

Aria or Ariyah? – It feels like I’m seeing Aria in all birth announcements from the English-speaking world these days and I’m a bit tired of it. Ariyah’s not really my thing but you don’t see it everywhere, plus lately I’m liking a lot of -iya(h) names for girls very much.

Wren or Ren? – Wren. Ren looks like a nickname to me and is so short that it doesn’t feel very interesting. I don’t like Wren enough to use it myself or anything, but it looks lovely as a middle name with something longer and frilly haha.

Emmeline or Emmalyn? – I like both but Emmeline looks better, and here it’s a bit the same as what I was talking about regarding Evelyn vs Evalyn – Emmalyn looks like Emma + Lyn and Emma is SO popular for babies right now in SO many places and I’m quite fed up with it.

Lucy or Lucie? – It’s nice to see Lucie because it’s less common and always draws attention, or that’s at least how it is in my case, but I guess I’m more attached to Lucy.

Lily or Lillie? – I like Lily, but I also see Lily everywhere in the English-speaking world where newborn babies or people’s future naming plans are concerned, I guess especially in the UK, and it probably feels even more so to me because in Poland we’ve been having a bit of a Lil-
names epidemic (Lilianna is particularly popular). So neither feels particularly breathtaking at the moment, but Lillie stands out a bit more so I’m gonna pick Lillie.

Claire or Clare? – I think Claire looks fuller, but I much prefer Klara from either of these.

Jane or Jayne? – 100% Jane! Jane may be plain and boring but to me it’s actually a lot more interesting than Jayne.

Lila or Lyla? – A lot of girls with Lil- names in Poland are nicknamed Lila so it’s also everywhere, but I’m still choosing Lila over Lyla because it looks better. Also, even though it’s so popular here, I much prefer the LEE-lah pronounciation over the LIE-la one, and Lyla isn’t so flexible where pronunciation is concerned.

Elizabeth or Elisabeth? – I love both, but because Elizabeth is so common in the English-speaking world, I always appreciate seeing Elisabeth more. It also looks more elegant to me and has a strongly Scandinavian air.

Amelie or Amalie? – Amelie. I also prefer Amelia over Amalia, for no specific reason I guess.

Seraphina or Serafina? – Serafina. – I almost always will prefer a name spelled with an F rather than Ph. Also Serafina lends itself a bit easier to the nickname Fina that I find adorable.

Sofie or Sophie? – Well, today I feel like I’m more inclined to say Sophie but ask me tomorrow and the answer might be different. I can just never decide which one is better!

Ariel or Arielle? – Arielle. Here in Poland Ariel is viewed as pretty much exclusively masculine (and very rare) name and while I myself don’t see it as either exclusively feminine or exclusively masculine, I prefer Arielle or Ariela for a girl. Also I don’t know where it’s produced, sold and wherever else it might be known under the same name but here I think Ariel is more commonly known as the name of a type of detergent than actual people.

Caroline or Carolyn? – The Carolyn as such is a lot less interesting than the Caroline spelling, but I much prefer the -lyn pronunciation over the -line, so I pick Carolyn.

Sophia or Sofia? – Sofia, I think. Sophia is too popular. Not that Sofia is not, but in the English-speaking world it’s slightly less than Sophia, and I am less exposed to the naming trends of the countries where Sofia is currently in like top 10. For me Sofia is very distinctively Swedish.

Zoe or Zoey? Undisputably Zoe.

Finn or Fionn (FINN)? – Maybe some of you expected me to choose Fionn, because I’m a Celtophile and Fionn is the original, Irish version of the anglicised Finn, but in this case I think I prefer the look of Finn.

Felix or Feliks? – Felix has more character and is kinda zippier, I like it more. Feliks feels a lot more serious.

Greyson or Grayson? – Greyson, just because I’m more used to this spelling, but I don’t like the name either way.

Lucas or Lukas? – Lukas, I suppose, but I like both and my preference isn’t very big at all.

Martin or Martyn? – Martin. Martyn makes me think of the Polish feminine name Martyna, which I don’t like.

Oscar or Oskar- Definitely Oskar, although that doesn’t mean I don’t like Oscar.

Phillip or Filip? – I prefer the way Filip looks, I’m actually really fond of it, though I don’t like how popular it is here among children and teens. In the English-speaking world, it would be really cool and refreshing to see a Filip though, I think it could give Phillip a younger feel, although perhaps Phillip itself will be ready for a comeback in a while, I’m not sure.

Michael or Mychael? – Michael for sure.

Emmanuel or Emanuel? – I think it looks more full with the additional M but I don’t mind it with one M.

Callum or Calum? – I guess I’ve been exposed to Callum a lot more because Calum feels glaringly incomplete.

Alasdair or Alistair? – Alasdair, the properly Scottish way. –

Eric or Erik? Neither is interesting, but I think I have a very slight preference for Erik. –

Paul or Pól? – Pól is the Irish spelling and I really love it. I’m rather neutral about Paul. –

Glen or Glyn? – Glyn is amazing, Glen is meh. –

Tommy or Tomi? – Actually, I don’t care for Tommy, but I’ve seen Tomi used as a legit Cymricised (Welshified) version and when I first came across it I was like “Well, it’s actually quite nice”. So yeah, Tomi.

Stephen or Steven? – I don’t like either at all, but if I seriously had to choose, I’d choose Steven. I know the ph was the original spelling but it doesn’t make sense. 😀

Okay, now over to you, which spellings do you prefer? 🙂

Question of the day.

I found this super cool name game on Reddit, on a subreddit called Namenerds, you can find it

here,

and as I had no idea for an actual question, and I myself love name questions, I thought we could do this, perhaps you’d find it fun too. 🙂 In this game, you’re an influencer and you have twelve children, which you obviously have to name, and there are different rules for each child. You can of course use nicknames as well. Here are the rules for all the children and below are my kids’ names:

Kid 1: (Male, 13) Name of your hypothetical honeymoon location, middle name is animal-themed
Kid 2: (Female twin, 11) Name starts with the same letter as Kid 3, middle name is Greek mythology themed
Kid 3: (Female twin, 11) Name starts with the same letter as Kid 2, middle name is Roman mythology themed
Kid 4: (Female, 10) Flower name, middle name is an English monarch name
Kid 5: (Male triplet, 8) Name starts with letter K, famous author middle name
Kid 6: (Male triplet, 8) Name starts with letter K, Movie character middle name
Kid 7: (Female triplet 8) Name starts with letter K, Fairytale character middle name
Kid 8: (Male, 7) Named after your favorite relative, Middle name starts with the same letter as the first name.
Kid 9: (Male, 5) Named after a scientist/inventor, Middle name is gender-neutral
Kid 10: (Female twin, 4) Name starts with P, middle name is star and space themed
Kid 11: (Male twin, 4) Name starts with P, middle name is plant themed
Kid 12: (Female, 2) Name can also be used as a surname, middle name is color themed
BONUS::
Dog: (Pug, Male) food themed
Cat: (Calico, Female) old person name

Alright, let’s do it:

Kid 1: Gwynedd (pronounced like Gwyneth except the th is pronounced as in the, not as in Thursday) “Gwyn” Lynx (this is the only animal name that I like enough that I could perhaps use, plus it has feline connotations and sounds very influencer-like imo as influencers like lyn names and the letter x).

Kid 2: Marigold Helena (HE-le-nuh or heh-LEH-nah, NOT heh-LAY-nuh or heh-LEE-nuh!, perhaps she’d go by her middle because while I like both these names I love Helena more. In this case I’d happily call her something like Nellie or Hellie or Ellie but I’m gonna have a Kornelia as well so it’s not a good idea really. The Polish Helenka would have to suffice, and will work well to suggest the right pronunciation for strangers. If she’ll be called Marigold then I don’t think I’d use any nicknames, I’m not crazy about Goldie).

Kid 3: Michaela (either mee-khah-EH-lah or mee-ka-EH-la, NOT mi-KAY-luh!) Proserpina (would it be very very wrong if I used the nickname Micha or Michi? If yes, perhaps she’d be Mimi).

Kid 4: Salivia (sa-lee-VEE-ya) “Sallie” or “Via” Anne (salivia is Swedish (archaic I guess) for sage. It appears in a well-known Swedish folk song “Uti Vår Hage” (In Our Garden) along with several other plant names, and ever since I heard it for the first time I think all of them would make for great names, but Salivia is my favourite. It’s a herb, not a flower, but I guess it still counts, what do y’all think? Also, my other question to you is: even with the different pronunciation, does this still look/sound too much like saliva to you? I think I’d sometimes call her Sallie Anne as well).

Kid 5: Kristoffer (I very much like Polish Krzysztof too but I don’t want my followers to break their tongues and Kristoffer is also very cool) Jack (after Jack London whom I don’t care for, but… well, he’s a Jack 😀 I don’t like Chris quite as much as I do Kristoffer or Christopher but it’s a long name so I guess he’d end up being called that sometimes, as long as no one calls him Kris because that means crisis in Swedish).

Kid 6: Kilian Alexander (that was a difficult one because I don’t really have any more favourite K names for boys, and because I hardly watch movies. 😀 I sort of like Kilian but I’ve heard that for many people Killian/Cillian sounds like killing or something, and while in Polish it’s pronounced with the ee sound rather than ih, I’m not sure I’d be able to get English natives to say it that way. Alexander simply fits well for Kilian imo, plus I like this name, plus it would honour Olek, and apparently there was some movie about Alexander the Great called just Alexander. Not sure how famous it is. Perhaps to avoid the kill trouble he’d go by Alexander, and then we’d nickname him Sandy or Xander or Alec, I don’t know, I like most Alexander nicknames).

Kid 7: Kornelia “Nellie” Zofijka (Kornelia obviously in honour of Cornelis Vreeswijk, and Zofijka obviously in honour of my sister Zofijka, whose full name is of course Zofia but I don’t like Zofia, I despise the default nickname Zosia, and I’m an influencer so I don’t give a flip, I’m gonna call her Zofijka. In Polish we pronounce it zaw-FEEY-kah, but I wouldn’t mind it being pronounced close to Zofika or something like that, and also it’s just a middle name which I have a feeling she wouldn’t use a lot, due to other Zofijka.

Kid 8″ Jacenty (my grandad’s middle name, pronounced yah-TSEN-ti) “Jacek” John (not very satisfied with this combo, ’cause John is so filler, but other J names for boys that I like also start with Jac-).

Kid 9: Fulton (officially after Robert Fulton to whom I have no connection whatsoever, unofficially after Venerable archbishop Fulton J. Sheen who would make for an amazing patron saint and whose name I kinda like despite I generally am not a big fan of surname names) Lux.

Kid 10: Pilar Stellamaris (could you go more Catholic than this?! 😀 But Pilar is one of my most favourite P girl names, and since it’s a name very closely connected with the Virgin Mary due to one of her titles being Our Lady of the Pillar, and since I chose Pilar I thought we’d go Catholic and Marian-themed all the way, ’cause Stellamaris is another of Mary’s titles, meaning star of the sea in Latin. And obviously it’s also star- and space-themed).

Kid 11: Pio (yeah, let’s keep the Catholic theme, and aside from the Padre Pio connection I think the name is quite cute and it matches Pilar well and I don’t really have better ideas other than Phillip, which feels very matchy-matchy sound-wise with Pilar and also I prefer Filip anyway, and Peter which I like but is underwhelmingly boring with my other kids) William (as in the flower sweet William, which is also a name with numerous patron saints so it fits this recent theme. If Pio turns out not very practical he could go by William and then I’d probably call him Billy).

Kid 12: Elwy (my current faza’s Jacob Elwy Williams’ surname, which is apparently also used as a girl’s name somewhere, and is also the name of a river in Wales) Sapphire.

Dog: Biszkopt (BEESH-kopt, sponge-cake biscuit in Polish, I love the word).

Cat: Euphemia (Fiffi).

Yay, it’s a freakishly diverse sibset, but I think, especially given that I’m an influencer so I’m allowed to go crazy, it doesn’t feel glaringly mismatched or anything. What do you think about my kids’ names?

And what do you choose for yours? 🙂

Question of the day, or more like a fun name game.

Earlier today I was just mindlessly scrolling through the Namenerds subreddit and found a fun game. I had actually a lot of laugh reading it. I was thinking for a long time that I’d like to do some name games on here like I used to for a while in the beginnings of this blog, since I’m into baby naming and all things names so much, but also wanted it to be light and not too demanding or full of rules, so that it would actually fit on a blog, and just couldn’t come up with any good idea. So thought I’d steal this one from Reddit, maybe you’ll like it:

What would you be named if your name had to be a combination of the names of your grandmothers/grandfathers (kind of like Renesmee from Twilight is a smoosh of Renee and Esmee)?

Me: My grandmothers are Helena and Stefania. I think Helenia sounds quite interesting. It does have a clear invented name feel but it’s not all that obnoxious. It flows really well. I love Helena and Helenia sounds even more dainty.

Stelena could be some trendy spin on Stella. I like Stella, and Stelena is not awful, but it does scream “I’M MADE UP!” Also I don’t really like when -ena names are pronounced -eena or -ayna (-ena with the short e is the only way to go in my opinion) and I think Stelena wouldn’t avoid the -eena pronunciation in English.

What else… oh, there are actually legit Polish names, or rather diminutives, Hania and Henia. Hania is from Hanna and Henia is from Henryka. But Hania is very popular for kids right now and it’s not really my cup of tea, whereas Henia is suuuuper elderly and not in a charming vintage name like Hattie has been in the US lately. 😀

Now that I think of it, I remember my Mum’s invention “Hestefa”. We call my grandmother Stefania Stefa for short most of the time. We were on a walk, I think I might have been about Sofi’s current age, and Mum was telling me something about my grandma. I asked “Which grandma?” to which she responded: “Hestefa”. We both laughed at that, and then I thought that it sounds like some German aristocrat, especially coupled withh our very German-sounding last name. Her Excellency Countess Hestefa von Z… 😀 Obviously I had to share that with Mum, and then we kept laughing at that all the way back.

Oh wait, Hestia! LOL. That’s interesting! I don’t love the name very much but I like the goddess Hestia and I vaguely remember that years ago, back when I used to do more social media, there was a sort of personality test going among my Twitter friends which told you what your goddess archetype was, and mine was Hestia according to it. Hestia is cool. I guess I could live with that.

But, as I keep thinking of it, I’ve convinced myself that Helenia rocks!

Your turn. 🙂

Time to reveal…

…the truth… about both of my new blogging ideas. I don’t know yet whether I’ll bring them to life, particularly one of them, which hugely depends on whether you’ll like it, and that’s why I need your opinion.

The first one is a name game. I stole the idea from Behind The Name, where there are lots of different name games. While I’m generally not the best and not always inspired to create name games myself, I thought this one would be great to do with you. Though I need you to tell me before I’ll run it, whether you like it and whether you’d like to play it. I think it’ll be good to have at least 4 people playing. Here are some basic facts about the game.

It’s an adoption agency type of game and I would call it “Emisha’s Adoption Agency”. It’d be a very personalised name game, for all those who have any interest in names, but also those who don’t know much about names and aren’t particularly interested, but are interested and like children, are welcome. Those who don’t particularly love children in general are welcome too, it’s just an imaginary play, I myself am not very much into children either, apart from my sis, but I love helping people to name their kids. You’d have to make up a family – be it imaginative, or your own, or any family that you know, or just you – who want to adopt a child, or children. I will make a form that I will post here, and all you have to do is make a post replying on your blog – or do it in the comments – if you prefer. Just paste the form, fill it in with the information about the family, their preferences about the kid(s). Adoptions can be global, which imo makes it more fun namewise, the more that we’re all from different places.

Then, I will match your family with the kid(s) that suit them. So, I will name them, and will give you a bit of an info about their background. I will make a separate post on my blog for each player’s family, and pingback it to their post where they filled in the form, or if you filled it in the comments I will comment on one of your posts and notify you that I’ve matched your family. If there will be more people playing, it may take me some time to match the families, so please be patient.

Then the next thing is actually not obligatory, but very welcome, and it adds more fun to the game. You can make another post – or leave it on my blog in comments section, as you wish – about how your family is doing with a new member(s) and how the new one(s) is/are settling in. It depends on you how fast the time is passing in this game so you can write about them after two, five, or ten years, or as many as you wish, after the adoption. As I said this isn’t obligatory to do, but I’d love to hear about your family and how are they doing.

If you won’t particularly like the child(ren)’s name(s), if they’re babies or toddlers you can change it, that happens often in international adoptions as far as I know, but if they’re older, it may be a problem. Therefore, apart from the normal form, there will be an optional section, which you can fill with the names that you like, to give me some hints about your taste. I won’t use any of those names for your child(ren), but I will use them as inspirations to give them a name that you’ll like.

So that’s it, very briefly, I’m looking forward to hear whether you’d be up to playing it or not and if so, I think we can start it some time at the beginning of July. Also let me know if you have any questions, or suggestions about it.

And then there is my second idea, which is another series of posts, to accompany question of the day and song of the day. It would be weekly. I thought it would be good if I did something linguistic on my blog more regularly. And, with the help from some other people, I came up with the idea of a word of the week series. But, there wouldn’t be just English words. There would be words from any language in the world, even from those that I don’t speak and even from those that I’m not particularly interested in, although words from the languages that I know would probably dominate since most of the words I know and love are in these languages I knwo and love. There would be words that I like, love, that interest me or that sound funny to me, that annoy me or that I just hate, or that have anything else that makes them indifferent to me. I would add some info about them, like their usage, or definitions, or my associations, also the synesthetic ones, and how I feel about it, or whatever else would come to my mind about them. There are lots of new words that I come across every week and I think so is with everyone of us. Also words can be very inspiring, and I thought that maybe after the death of Daily Post and their word prompts, my weekly word choices could be an inspiration for someone else’s post. I need to think about it more and make it a bit more clear and concrete in my brain, and think how I could make these posts even more inspiring, because if you get a foreign word, it often may be hard to relate to it in any way, but that’s the basic idea of this series.

What do you think? Would you be interested? Do you have any thoughts about it? I am already always writing down the words from all the languages that appeal to me in any way, or that draw my attention either positively or negatively, but if I’m gonna do it on here, I think I need to know what’s my readers’ opinion about it. 🙂

So that’s it, looking forward to read your thoughts. 🙂

Spring name game.

You know it’s snowing here? :O Really! How is it where you live? Anyway, I thought we could play some spring name game, so maybe the spring would finally come to all of us. Are you looking forward to this season? Below you’ll find the list of questions and my answers and just follow the instructions, and leave me your answers in the comments, I am very curious to see what yours will be. Or if you prefer you can make a pingback. And let me know if you enjoyed this game, so I’d make more of them in future. If you’re not from an English-speaking country, feel free to use names characteristic for your country, or for country(ies) you particularly like. It isn’t anything obligatory, but very welcome. Because My own favourite countries are a few, sometimes names of siblings might not be particularly matchy.

Here we go:

1.

Name a child boy/girl using March, April, or May as either their first or middle name. Add a first or middle name to go with the name you selected and a nickname you like.

My choice: Lucy May. She may go by Lou/Lu if she wants, but I think Lucy’s fantastic without any nickname as well, if not better. Moreover, LUcy May is short enough to call her Lucy May at times. I’d surely do so.

2.

Name siblings using the initials SP RI NG. You choose the sexes.

My choices: Saskia Philippa, Rhian Isla, Noelle Grainne.

3.

Name boy-girl siblings. Each must have a spring themed first or middle name. A few name ideas:

Anthea
April
Aviv
Avril
Bloom
Breeze
Brooke
Chloe
Dahlia
Daisy
Spring
Brook
Keby
Leif
Leaf
March
Maxwell
Rain
Raine
Robin
1. Weldon
2. Berilo

You can but don’t have to use any of these names.. They’re just suggestions and if you have any other spring names on your mind, use them!

My choices: Rhys Jacek and Elen Gwanwyn. Jacek is a Polish form of Hyacinth, while Gwanwyn is “spring” in Welsh.

4.

What would you name boy/girl twins? Use the initials of those names and select new names for them.

My choices:

Raine Joel and Elmerald Giselle.

5.

Rename yourself using these rules:

Your new first name:

You can select between the three names for the month you were born.

January: Denver, Easter or Emerald.
February: Flora, Lily or Maxwell.
March – Maia, March or May.
April – Meadow, Neo or Raanan.
May – Rabi, Rain or Rose.
June – Season, Spring or Stormy.
July – Sunny, Thalia or Green.
August – Verna, Zinnia or Hyacinth.
september – Anemone, Apple or Attwell.
October – Aurora, Azalea or Jarek.
November – Bloom, Bluebell or Neville.
December – Bradwell, Brooke or Claribel.

Choose a middle name with the letter based on the day you were born:

1-5 – R
6-10 – S
11-15 – I
16-20 – H
21-25 – K
26-31 – T

Remember that your middle name mustn’t be associated with spring.

My choice:

For my first name… mm, let’s choose Lily. It’s cool and quite universal, and I like it, although not love it, there are so many Lil- names popular over here right now for babies. And my middle name should start with R so… let’s be adventurous and multicultural and open-minded and choose Rhianwen. Rhianwen is a Welsh feminine name and I think it’s beautiful and goes well with Lily.

Looking forward to seeing your choices. 🙂

Rename yourself.

So as promised, I’m posting the name game in which we’re going to rename ourselves completely. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Rules:

Your first name will depend on the second letter of your actual first name. Below are lists of names for both girls and boys with three names assigned for each letter. These aren’t names starting with this letter, but three possibilities of choice you have depending of your actual first name’s second letter.

As for the middle name, the choice will be based on the month of your birth. So go to the list of middle names for your gender, and pick one that you like the most or that fits you the most from three names assigned to your birth month.

Surname depends on the first letter of your actual surname, I’ve assigned a random surname to each of the letters.

If you still aren’t sure how to do it, see how I am doing it for myself below. To make it more challenging, you can’t change the spelling of names you choose.

And please do let me know in the comments how you renamed yourself, do you like it, does it fit you, or to which spelling you’d change it if you could, what nickname would you use. I’m very curious what will come out of this. ALso please let me know how did you like this game overall so if you’ll like it, I might make more name games in future, also with other types of names maybe, as many of these here are a bit unique and all oscillating around English-speaking countries, while there are also so many brilliant names in other languages.

And remember you don’t need to tell me your real name or anything personal, that’s not the case here.

OK, so here we go:

First names, girls.

A – Katelyn, Lenore, Hanna.
B – Joy, Deirdre, Mae.
C – Harper, Larissa, Euphemia.
D – Ashlyn, Sibyl, Tabby.
E – Simone, Lauressa, Skye.
F – Isabelle, Sunshine, Topaz.
G – Avalon, Sheenagh, Leatrice.
H – Nan, Angelle, athena.
I – Danielle, Raquel, Christianne.
J – Leann, Eleanor, Mandy.
K – Rachel, Vera, Rita.
L – Louisa, Fallon, Beatrice.
M – Cathy, Nellie, Marybeth.
N – Whitney, Prue, Quintella.
O – Rowanne, Lyndsey, Naomi.
P – Caitlyn, Wynona, Angelina.
Q – Elissa, Stone, Susan.
R – Meagan, Charity, Tilda.
S – Candy, Catelin, Vickie.
T – Tamela, Maureen, Camryn.
U – Alisia, Livia, Deloris.
V – Katie, Lizzie, Totty.
W – Rue, Ethelyn, Petronel.
X – Michaela, Elea, Ina.
Y – Pip, Shari, Bettice.
Z – Rosie, Rebeccanne, Christabelle.

First names, boys.

A – alex, Joel, Phoenix.
B – Kevin, Sinclair, Ezekiel.
C – Cullen, York, Clancy.
D – Alexander, Grahame, Nelson.
E – Lowell, Michael, Jack.
F – Callum, Raine, Ruben.
G – Wilhelm, Reece, Maxwell.
H – Ford, Ranulph, Desmond.
I – Lyndon, Ingram, Phil.
J – Franklyn, Emory, MCKenzie.
K – Lucius, Rolf, Christian.
L – Luke, Gordon, Lucian.
M – Gabriel, Zachary, Fulke.
N – Ethelred, Olaf, Jacob.
O – Linton, Riley, Ozzie.
P – Lachlan, Cameron, Christopher.
Q – Claud, Royce, Stevie.
R – Benjamin, Jackson, Grey.
S – Louis, Brennan, Rain.
T – Rowan, Nathaniel, Cliff.
U – Xander, Merlin, Jeff.
V – Charlie, Nicholas, Farrell.
W – Dashiell, Bill, Clay.
X – Landon, Mike, Leo.
Y – William, Delbert, Vincent.
Z – Lewis, Albert, Lucas.

Middle names, girls.

January – Angelica, Carmel, Merrilyn.
February – Gloriana, Ginger, Josephine.
March – Veronica, Celestine, Modesty.
April – Missie, Lizette, Kerenza.
May – Christy, Lori, Dulcie.
June – Jeanette, Hyacinth, Happy.
July – Renae, Elyzabeth, Ida.
August – Dory, Crystal, Tory.
September – Anemone, Cindy, Hortense.
October – Libbie, Honour, Jodie.
November – Emelia, Sarah, Aileen.
December – Ursella, Lilly, Nettie.

Middle names, boys.

January – Ocean, Ramsey, Peter.
february – arwel, Torquil, Cornell.
March – Dillon, Karl, Ross.
April – Clifford, Ariel, Odin.
May – Neely, Garland, Glen.
June – Joyce, Lionel, Roswell.
July – Devon, Samuel, Smith.
August – Mel, Emmanuel, Montague.
September – Jeffery, Cornelius, Griffith.
October – River, Timmy, Geordie.
November – Geoffrey, Reynard, Tim.
December – Crispin, Greer, Daniel.

Surnames.

A – Randal.
B – Wallis.
C – Wilcox.
D – Garrard.
E – Fortune.
F – Alberts.
G – Chamberlain.
H – Mulvihill.
I- Gillingham.
J – Cook.
K – Neil.
L – Merrill.
M – Fanhope.
N – Eccleston.
O – Bernard.
P – Payne.
Q – Dickinson.
R – Fisher.
S – Davis.
T – Humphrey.
U – Fairburn.
V – Blackwell.
W – Milward.
X – Kelsey.
Y – Blakeley.
Z – Williams.

Mine.

So my name is Emilia. The second letter in my name is M, which means I can choose my new first name from Cathy, Nellie and Marybeth. Honestly I like them all to some degree, but the only one that doesn’t seem to clash with my personality and looks is Nellie. So I choose Nellie. Yippee! I must say I really like those kind of vintage, sweet nicknames of girly names. I think I would prefer to have some longer name like Helena or Cornelia and then go by Nellie, but it’s really OK, I think I would quickly get used to being Nellie.

My middle name. I was born in February, so I can choose from Gloriana, Ginger and Josephine. Mmmm… Definitely not Ginger. Quite cool name, but not my style and would clash so brutally with me so that people wouldn’t even believe I’m Ginger. 😀 Josephine is nice and similar feel to Nellie I suppose, but… I have an impression it doesn’t go well with Nellie. Nellie Josephine… I don’t know. And it doesn’t really suit me I think. OK, I’m gonna pick Gloriana. It doesn’t sound perfect with Nellie either, but it is a pretty name, kind of princessy, not quite like me, but not so very different, I like it.

My surname starts with Z, so simply my new surname would be Williams. Nellie Williams… I think it’s fine. Nellie Gloriana Williams not so much, but I’ve seen worse sets, I wouldn’t be unhappy with that as I like both these names, even if they don’t play very well together.

I’m very curious how you guys will rename yourself.

The names to this game I took from here

Baby name game.

I wanted to share with you something that I’ve found on one of my favourite blogs about baby names, The Name Garden, which is on Tumblr. The post I want to share is a name game, the link is here:

http://thenamegarden.com/post/168092139151/welcome-to-the-last-of-our-baby-name-games-using

If you like baby name games and have never seen this blog, I strongly recommend you to have a look at it. So if you have Tumblr, you can comment on there about which names of these baby announcements would you pick for your children. Also I am very curious about it so I’ll be happy if you would share your choices with me. Here are mine, since we can pick names for three or more children, I will pick for more.

Jack Michael, Eleanora Ann, Liam Daniel, Isabelle Elizabeth, Angus Philip, Seamus Noel, Gabriella Nancy and AnnaLeigh Jayella.