I began thinking the other day about how our kids name will affect them as they grow up.

For instance Kaitlyn and Kaileigh both seem like young kids names. When we named them we named them based on what they MIGHT want to be called as an adult. We did this because we dont know ANYONE (older) with those names. We suppose Kaitlyn could be Kate and Kaileigh could be Kay or Leigh which both sound more like "adult" names.


I've just curious if anyone else has thought about how their name will affect them as an adult?

[preciousgiftsmama]

I think Julia and Ty or Thomas-Ty are good adult names. We use tons of nicknames in our family, so they are rarely even called their names. We call Julia, Bugs or Buggy mostly, and Ty we call Brodder (brother) mostly. But there are lots of derivitives of those names we call them too.

Anyway, I didnt think much of it when we named them as they are family names and sound good as adult names. My best friend has a 13 y/o daughter named and spelled as your Kaitlyn. I think they are both beautiful names and suit children and adults just fine

BTW I grew up with a Kaylee in school. Spelled different than your daughter of course but same pronounciation.

[shockandawe]

This is one of the reasons we did keep coming back to more older and dated names. We knew that she could shorten it if she wished, but when she became an adult and had to use her legal name for things, then it would seem age appropriate.

Yep. When ever we come up with names we try to imagine how they would sound on a resume or in the office setting. We think that both of our kids have names that are common enough that they will do just fine. I also wanted names that people wouldn't misspronounce and that we wouldn't have to spell. Although that has kind of back fired on us. I have been asked several times if Caleb's name is spelled with a K or a C and it has been pronounced "Kay-Leeb" and "Clyb". I have also had people try to spell Grace's name "Grayce". I get really frustrated... I'm like, "Come on people they are Biblical names I didn't make them up"

[.s.o.p.h.]

Rick really wanted to call Eva, Evie. I prefered Eva cause to me it sounded more 'sophisticated' for an adult.
So we agreed on Eva and she gets called Evie sometimes anyway.

[Arei_720]

The first time I heard the name Caitlin was on the NBC soap Sunset Beach and the character was an adult!

I think both my choices will suit my girls later in life

[Vincent'sMommy]

I think Vincent is sort of an older name but I like a lot of older names for babies. I think it would be a good professional name for an adult and it has several nickname possibilities (Vince, Vinny, Vin) although we don't use any of them. Most of the time we call him Hammy or some variation of that.

[Lilly Bella]

no, i think sierra and makenna are cute baby girl names but that's ok because they aren't going to grow up anyway!

[Mom-Mom]

I think both Samantha & Charlotte's names are suitable for adults.

[MelKD]

Most definitely. Brian chose Josh's name, I didn't like it at first, I wanted Peyton or Alexander, but now I absolutely LOVE his name. And if "Josh" is too informal for him, he can always go by his full name, Joshua.

And with Leila, no offense to anyone, but I vetoed Kayli and Haley for that reason. Brian has been dead-set, even since before we met, to name his little girl Kayli, so it was a hard battle to fight. To me, they just sounded very "kiddish" and when she's older, and out in the working world or something, I wanted a name that sounded mature. It's not that I don't like those names - I just couldn't change my frame of thought about them.

[Jule'sMomInOR]

Juliana is definitely more of a grown-up name than a kid name. I think the toughest part will be fighting to keep people from calling her "Julie". Not that I despise the name, but I named her Juliana and that's what I want her to be called! LOL.

[Alison79]

I think our names work well for adults with good kid nicknames. Reid is the only one that doesn't have a nickname, but I think it works well for a child and an adult. I fought hard for Max to be a Maxwell but DH won with Maximus. I'm sure he'll probably just go by Max and his middle name is William which has so many nicknames that he could go by one of those, too. Eleanor is called Ella now but I have a friend who was named Eleanor and went by Nora. Her middle name is Elizabeth specifically so that she could go by something else if she wants. Evelyn could also go by Lynn is she prefers. Right now she's mostly Evy or Evelyn. Christopher and Lucas are both pretty classic boys names.

[TarrahLovesHuLo]

Hunter's name is older. Hunter Ross Alan .....

London is different, but her name won't dictate her career choices or her success so I'm not worried about how "distinguished" something sounds.

People will love or hate a name based on personal opinion, not how mature or distinguished it sounds. I would hope judgement isn't made based on a name....they didn't even pick it themselves! LOL

I just seen a book the other day called "Freakonomics" and in one chapter is talks about how your name does distinguish how far you go in life and how just a name on a resume can be your first impression. Whether we like it or not people do base names as either a young name or older name (just as everyone has said how they feel their childs name is here). Older can be seen as mature. For instance (((MY OPINION))) The name Martha is a strong mature older name. But yet the name Molly sounds young and cute.

The study was also done with "unusual spelled" names. It said something along the lines of if they cant figure out how its pronounced they usually go on to the next application (if they have enough to do that)

I had trouble at first for Kaileigh . Some people said Ki lee others said kay lee.

Whan I was teaching I would get students with names like "Diamond", "Precious", "Ax" and even a little girl named, "Babe". They were smart kids but I just couldn't see a "Diamond" or a "Babe" as a CEO.

[shockandawe]

I've had personal experience with my name have an impact on me professionally. As a teenager I pushed hard and had everyone call me Becky. It's stuck in a personal setting, and I still prefer it. It doesn't sound young to me, but it does sound much friendlier.

But as soon as I started working full time, Becky just wouldn't stick. Finally I gave up pushing "Becky" a few years in (I was in my mid twenties at this point) and suddenly I started being recognized more seriously at work. With everything else that was working against me (weight and gender and assertiveness), my career started making just the slightest advancements just by going by my full legal name. So this was definitely an underlying influence on our decision.

[sfarrow3]

My BIG isssue with names are just the spellings and stereotypical names. For example. I am African American and in my culture there are a lot of Latosha, Laquitas, Bongquisha and ghetto nonsense!! (in my opnion) so I wanted names that weren't race based (hahaha if that even makes sense). I also am big on spellings. My name is Shantel (Shawn-tel) but due to the way I spell it I get all kinds of things. So I say that to say that London and Caden are simple spelling names and aren't ghettoish! hahaha (If I offended anyone using ghetto or if you have a ghetto name I do apologize haha..not my intent!!)

[Daffodil]

I hope her name is ok...I mean, there is Ariel the little Mermaid, and Ariel Sharon lol... I think she'll be ok though, its not that different from Danielle, although I don't know any Danielle's or what their occupations are LOL

[sethsmum]

I think my boys will be alright. They all have 2 middle names to choose from if not. They are proper names at least, Seth, Caspar and Tobias. I think Toby is a bit kiddish, but then there are a few professional Toby's over here. Toby Young is a journalist, the guy that wrote how to lose friends and alienate people.

Legally I am called Rebecca, but I don't think anyone has called me that for a long time, I always go by Becca, and DF calls me Bec. I think my name is quite young sounding.

I think people generally would judge only if you had a really ridiculous name like some of the celeb kids, Moon Unit, Pilot Inspektor etc

[dinamommy]

Yes, I did, but more so for Eli than for either of my girls. I think it's more acceptable to have foo foo girl names than it is to have complicated boys' names. My husband is pretty eccentric when it comes to naming our children (as you can see by Tyrael's name--that was all him), so we have major issues when trying to name them. I wanted something very matter of fact for our boy, but that would still be cute for when he's a baby. There are just so many names that I couldn't see calling a baby. For instance, my friend has a little boy named Robert. He has always been called Robert, not Robbie or Rob or Bob. It's a great adult name, but I couldn't see calling a baby that.

As far as my girls go, I love Tyrael's name and I think it will be fine for an adult. Poor kid gets it mispronounced every time we go to the doctor's office, but she just corrects them with a smile. Haha! I wanted to spell it phonetically, but Wes wouldn't hear of it.

Bella's full name is Arabella, which I think is fine too if she wants to go by that instead of Bella as a teen or adult.

Just on a side note, this thread was cracking me up. Kristen's comment about her girls staying babies was funny! If you have a ghetto name I do apologize : This part of Shantel's post about killed me too!