The Republic of Heaven

We've all had those moments, admit it. "I want to name my daughter Lyra Serafina!" or "I want to name my son Han Malcolm Adama!"

What names do you think would make great references to your favorite book, TV show, piece of history, academic field? What kind of theme are you tempted to follow if you ever find yourself spawning?

Or, for those rare sraffies who have actually had the opportunity to give a name or two to the continuation of their genetic line, what temptations did or didn't you fall prey to?

Some examples:

Elanor Rose, referring to Sam Gamgee's family at the end of LotR
Bridget Yolanda, encouraging your child perhaps to be a notoriously underhanded, manipulative, clever con woman
Jayne anything. Your son would never live it down. It'd be as bad as calling him Sue.
Jean-Luc (or Luke, for that matter) or James Tiberius
Pippin Galadriel Moonchild
Eddie Roland
Bellatrix/Capella/Vela/Eridani/Sirius/Rigel/Andromeda/etc.

You get my drift. Keep the list going.

When I was a teenager, I was convinced I was going to have five daughters named
Lyra Suiko (*cringes at her appalling, made-up, fangirl Japanese*)
Imogen Amber
Baella Katriona
Ta'iri Dawkinda
Rosie Miriam.

Apart from the last one, every name there is from a book. Thinking about this now, two things strike me:

1. Thank God I didn't have children when I was 15.
2. I have no idea how I was intending to ensure all my children were daughters.

I still have a lot of book-names in my store of potential baby names, but they're a bit more subtle than that, now.

I almost feel like this should go in the girl talk thread. Do men habitually pick out names for their potential future children?


We're naming our child Ulysses.

1. Thank God I didn't have children when I was 15.
2. I have no idea how I was intending to ensure all my children were daughters.

Regarding (1), at one point in my life I wanted to have four daughters so I could name them each after a member of the baby-sitters' club. This was while I was young enough to be baby-sat myself, thankfully.
Regarding (2), just procreate with Henry VIII Or someone with a similar chromosomal disorder.

Jaya: AJ wants to name his daughter Kiara or something similar, and has since before he met me.
I had a long chat with Nathan about potential names but we decided so many were good that I don't remember any of them now.
So I don't think it's a girls only thing the way like... menstruation and boobie-based discrimination are.

I guess I don't really think of names without input from a potential partner/father of my future child. I guess I can like certain names but if I meet someone who doesn't then like a name I've picked out, I wouldn't want to be disappointed that I couldn't have it.

Then again, maybe not really picking future names for children is a Sikh thing, because there's a traditional Sikh method of naming babies which involves...naming the kid after they're born. So that's generally how it's done in my fam-...relig-...people around me. I suppose the upshot of that is more time to think, less time to name a person that might not exist, and you can say "ooh, he/she looks like a [insert name here]". I dunno.

I've slowly become rather fond of the name Zoë for a girl. I like a lot of names for boys, can't really single one out yet. So boys do this too...

I think I liked Zoë from Firefly, and then Caprica sold me on it.

Boys names I consider highly are things like Malcom and Hoban..

1. Thank God I didn't have children when I was 15.
2. I have no idea how I was intending to ensure all my children were daughters.

Regarding (1), at one point in my life I wanted to have four daughters so I could name them each after a member of the baby-sitters' club. This was while I was young enough to be baby-sat myself, thankfully.
Regarding (2), just procreate with Henry VIII Or someone with a similar chromosomal disorder.

Haha. That being said, I am one of four sisters, and my mother is one of four sisters. Which means, by my brilliant powers of deduction that...my father and grandfather are Henry VIII. Yeah, I'm in a really silly mood tonight.

Also, loving the Baby-sitters' Club anecdote. Claudia is actually a name I like quite a lot, but I don't know if it's because of the BSC books (although Claudia was always my favourite).

I almost feel like this should go in the girl talk thread. Do men habitually pick out names for their potential future children?


We're naming our child Ulysses.

Ulysses Singh Bamigan.

My daughter will probably die of embarassment when she finds out she is named Lainey May after a cyberpunk anime character and Spiderman's daughter.
However, if she had been a boy she was going to be Lucas Emmet or Dexter (as in Star Wars, Back to the Future and Dexter's Lab).
For future kids, the geeky husband and I are considering Logan Emmet for a boy and some kind of combination of Matilda, Evie, Kinny or Leila for a girl...all due to terrible sci-fi or cartoon references...plus they sound nice - no-one (I hope) names a child to be intentionally cruel.
Whatever happened to all those kids named after Lord of THe Rings characters in the 60s and 70s??

Whatever happened to all those kids named after Lord of THe Rings characters in the 60s and 70s??

He wasn't born in the 60s or 70s, but I once dated a guy called Beren.

Whatever happened to all those kids named after Lord of THe Rings characters in the 60s and 70s??

He wasn't born in the 60s or 70s, but I once dated a guy called Beren.

I knew a guy who named his son Gareth Beren. As an Aruthurian-Tolkienian nerd, he was quite kind; the kid could have ended up Agravain Glorfindel II.

When I was a teenager, I wanted to name two daughters Raen and Lelani. However, I'm convinced that giving your children flowery, nature names is a surefire way to inspire them to be oil tycoons. I also wanted to name a son Brekke, which is a name I found in some terrible fantasy book; "Dragonslayer" or "Dragonsinger" or something equally embarrassing. Luckily, I wrote a melodramatic story instead and gave those names to my unfortunate characters.

There are two Sri Lankan boy names I like; Suranga and Gayan. The first means something like 'angel' and the other is like 'warrior'. If I have two boys and name them that, maybe they could star in a good cop/bad cop sitcom.

gayan: the new gaylord. AKA child found hanged in bedroom closet at age 9 after a particularly rough day at school. GOOD JOB DI!

gayan: the new gaylord. AKA child found hanged in bedroom closet at age 9 after a particularly rough day at school. GOOD JOB DI!

Hay, that's my unborn son you're talking about!

It is actually pronounced Gaia-n so I didn't even make the connection. You make a very valid point. Incidentally, Suranga is more like 'fairy' than 'angel.'

someday i will convince someone to name their child alexander/alexandra after me. my best hope was with my bff who is having a kid. but apparently they've already got a (decidely crap) list of names lined up. BULL CRAP! why would someone have a kid and not name them alexander/alexandra? it's super international (my parents are bolivian/finnish!) yet not generic like john (sorry crichton) or michael (sorry huginn and nanaki) or blah blah. alex! come on! as an added bonus, it has an X in it. which is always cool as hell.

I like Alexander as a middle name. Is that close enough?

I actually like Heath as a first name though for a boy, because then if I change my last name when I get married, it doesn't get lost entirely. : )

I used to want to use super normal names and spell them super ridiculously. (Lots of Ks and Ys.) I feel like I used to have a list somewhere... I'll have to find that. I also used to make up names by randomly putting together Scrabble tiles. (I'd sort them by consonants and vowels and then pull them at random so I'd have say, consonant-vowel-consonant-consonant.)

Luckily for my children, I have now grown out of that.

Now I'm set on one girl name and one boy name. We'll see if the boy name lasts. The girl name (Vienna) has been set for over four years now and I still absolutely love it, so maybe it'll last the next 7 or so years until I actually get around to reproducing.

He wasn't born in the 60s or 70s, but I once dated a guy called Beren.

I knew a guy who named his son Gareth Beren. As an Aruthurian-Tolkienian nerd, he was quite kind; the kid could have ended up Agravain Glorfindel II.

Even at the peak of my Tolkienian nerddom, I only thought of stealing names that would blend in with the rest of culture. Sam, for instance, would blend in and have the benefit of being shared between Gamgee and Vimes.

I also wanted to name a son Brekke, which is a name I found in some terrible fantasy book; "Dragonslayer" or "Dragonsinger" or something equally embarrassing. Luckily, I wrote a melodramatic story instead and gave those names to my unfortunate characters.

I remember a female character named Brekke in Dragonquest, the second Dragonriders of Pern book. She was essentially married to F'nor(d). Rather embarrassing, yes.

I remember a female character named Brekke in Dragonquest, the second Dragonriders of Pern book. She was essentially married to F'nor(d). Rather embarrassing, yes.

Not as embarrassing as being named F'nor(d). Wtf?

Best evil name ever had to be Moon Unit Zappa

Or Dweezil.

I remember a female character named Brekke in Dragonquest, the second Dragonriders of Pern book. She was essentially married to F'nor(d). Rather embarrassing, yes.

Not as embarrassing as being named F'nor(d). Wtf?

Well, his name was F'nor (everyone who gets to ride a dragon has their name turned into a contraction as a sign of respect. Weird culture), but fnord is its own completely different corner of nerd culture.
His brother, the male lead of the story, is named F'lar.

someday i will convince someone to name their child alexander/alexandra after me. my best hope was with my bff who is having a kid. but apparently they've already got a (decidely crap) list of names lined up. BULL CRAP! why would someone have a kid and not name them alexander/alexandra? it's super international (my parents are bolivian/finnish!) yet not generic like john (sorry crichton) or michael (sorry huginn and nanaki) or blah blah. alex! come on! as an added bonus, it has an X in it. which is always cool as hell.

I want to call my girl Alex if I ever have one. Or Jamie or Sam or Rory or some other unisex name.

The boy will be Raphael.

Also, Bee - where i come from, Vienna is a kind of sausage.