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Still obsessed with names

Every reader must already know how obsessed with onomastics I am. I’ve had some more thoughts about it recently and I realised I don’t think I’ve actually talked about our plans for children’s names and whatnot. Originally I belonged to the school of thought that you should never reveal your intended baby names, for various reasons. But now I fear I’m so behind with the various stages of life that someone is bound to use them before us and I don’t want them to think we’re being weird and copying them!

 

We’re not even definitely sure if we’ll have children together, but here are our current ideas.

 

Ruby – After the gemstone, this name became personally significant to us for a few reasons, including that, when Will proposed to me in the giraffe house at the zoo, there was a poster on the wall near to us about a giraffe named Ruby! That kind of seemed like a destiny thing.

Saffira – The Hebrew word for Sapphire, this again goes with the gemstone theme, variant spelling Sapphira. Right now this is what I’d name a 2nd girl if we had one.

Kobi – I’m not good at coming up with names for boys, but I heard this one in Israel when Eurovision was on. Their singer was named Kobi Marimi; I’d never heard of him and at first I wasn’t fussed about the name. But it later grew on me! And will always remind me of that particular trip.

 

 

Here are some other assorted names I really like but (probably) wouldn’t use as a first name, or would use as a middle:

Raziel Raziela – There was a time that I wanted this to be the first name of the child we had first, but names are more than what you call someone out loud at home; you also have to be brave enough to say it at the GP desk, and to school teachers, and in the supermarket. I’m not brave enough to say my own full name in any of those settings, so, it’s unlikely I’d want to hover trying to spell out Raziel to a receptionist.
It’s a gorgeous Hebrew name and is also a Soul Reaver reference, so I love it, but will (probably) just use it as a middle name and Hebrew name for a child. If we have to move to Israel, and so our children are born there, that may change things.

Daria – It’s Greek, Russian, and from the 90’s TV show I’m a fan of. You also don’t hear it very often. There are just other names that outrank this one for me.

Klervi – A Breton favourite of mine pronounced like “claire-vee.”

Ayamé – This was the name I bestowed upon a baby that unfortunately could never be born. It’s my favourite girls’ name, but I’m not sure it would be right to use it again. It’s Japanese for Iris and is also the name of one of the first female game characters who influenced me, from Tenchu: Stealth Assassins in 1998. Maybe using it for a pet would be a way to bring it back into my life without overwriting another person.

Lara – Another PlayStation-influenced name (Tomb Raider!) that my sister already has dibs on for her child. I could use it on a particularly agile cat though.

Anastasia – A gorgeous Russian name I’ve always had a soft spot for, I’m not brave enough to go around saying it though! Especially with the actual Russian pronunciation.

Esmeralda – Continuing with the gemstone theme, it’s the Spanish word for Emerald and I’ve always liked it but, again, am not brave enough to say it in public! Merry would be a nice nickname from the “mer” part in the middle. Maybe if we had 3 girls it would be a good name for the 3rd one.

Bareket – Related to the above, this is the Hebrew word for Emerald and is usually given as a male name as far as I can tell, although I’ve heard of women with the name. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue for day to day life in England, so would maybe be a religious name and/ or middle name.

Fox – This is another name with painful personal significance, I’m not sure if I could use it again, even though I really love it. Inspired by Fox Mulder of 90’s show The X-Files.

Nazariy – A Russian male name meaning “from Nazareth,” I’ve just always liked it since I found out about it.

Nova – Sounds nice and celestial, although is actually from the Latin for “new.”

Ylva – Pronounced “ill-va” and is the Swedish word for “she-wolf.”

 

I have a very big list of names I like on BehindTheName, although I haven’t logged in and updated it in ages, and some names get deleted from the website database every now and then for various reasons, so it’s actually not as big as it used to be!

 

I’ve also been thinking a lot about pet names! Mainly because I’m desperate to have my own cats.

(I had to scroll very far down my own Instagram on desktop to find that picture, oy.)

 

Freya was 2 when we got her, so we never got to name her, and I personally wouldn’t have named her that if we had her as a puppy, I just sometimes find it a bit crass when wolfy-looking dogs are given stereotypical Norse names.

 

I know what I want to do for my next working dog, I want to get a chocolate Labrador and I want to name them Cola Alfonso, the former because I love drinking cola (obviously) and the middle because I’ve just always loved the name Alfonso!

My next snails will probably be Io and Callie after the moons of Jupiter, hopefully I won’t have to think about that for a good ten years though.

 

The cat name combinations I have in mind at the moment are

Tzipporah BatSheva
Zosma Izida
Aimi Rina

 

For my own enjoyment I’ve also recently made a list of cat names that would go well with particular coat colours/ cat breeds.

Blue (grey):

Tzipporah (Tzippi)
Tokyo
Indra
Tinsel

Siamese:

Pyewacket (after the cat in Bell, Book, & Candle!)
Pooka

Brown/ Cinnamon:

Coffee
Copper
Lara
Babka

Fawn/ Lilac:

Séance
Nutmeg
Motoko
Fantasma

Red/ Orange:

Noodles
Nacho
Ari
Pumpkin
Buffy

White/ Cream:

Ghost
Yuki
Sadako (previously used for a Venus Flytrap plant I had)
Matzo/ Matzah
Megumi
Yeti

Black:

Jiji (after Kiki’s Delivery Service!)
Spooky
Ayamé
Cosmo
Phantom
Puma
Bagheera

Any/ Multi:

Zosma/ Zozma
Aimi
Andromeda (Andy)
Bonkers
Yoda
Yoshi
Nebula
Nova
Solstice
Astra
Iskra
Venus
Koshka
Nazariy
Honshu

 

I’m sure I’ll come up with more before I get to actually having a cat.

 

 

PS: I’m 30! The main stuff for my birthday isn’t happening yet so I’ll probably write about that later. Don’t know what’s going on though yet.

tenortenor-1

Hopefully third decade of life is the charm.

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