The Art of Choosing a Unique Baby Name: A Personal Philosophy

When it comes to choosing a baby name, I have always been particular about my preferences. What started as a list of names that we liked has evolved over time, and now I find myself gravitating towards names that are less common but still easy to pronounce and understand. My friend Everly is someone who got us talking about the importance of choosing a unique baby name. She's now one of my closest friends, and it's amazing how much of an impact her name has had on me. I remember when we first started looking at names, Everly was at the top of our list, but as time went by, I started to feel a strong association with the name. It's not just about the name itself, but also about the memories and emotions that come with it.

For me, choosing a baby name is not just about picking a name that sounds cute or trendy; it's about finding a name that feels right for my child as an adult. I always try to picture them with the name, imagining what kind of person they would be, how they would carry themselves, and what kind of life they would lead. This approach may seem old-fashioned, but it's one that has served me well in my quest for finding the perfect name.

One way I've tested names is by doing something called the Starbucks test. When ordering a drink at Starbucks, I use my baby name on the cup to see how people react. It's not just about the reaction, but also about whether or not it causes any confusion. For example, when we tried out the name Carter, we did this test multiple times, and it was a nightmare! Nobody could understand us; they would write down Evan or Avon instead of Carter. This experience taught me that sometimes, a name may be popular in our area, but if it's not easy to pronounce or spell, I'm not sure it's the right choice for my child.

Another important consideration is how others perceive the name. While some people don't care about this aspect, I believe that my child will be hearing their name frequently throughout their life, and it's essential to choose a name that will stand up well to scrutiny. My friend Carter has been to several playdates with other Carters, and I must admit that it can be challenging at times.

Despite the challenges of choosing a unique baby name, I've found that it's always worth the effort. If you want my philosophy for picking a baby name, it's simple: I try to picture them as an adult and see how the name will fit into their life. It's not about being trendy or following the crowd; it's about finding a name that feels authentic and right for my child.

For now, we're still waiting on our number one girl name choice, which is something that 90-95% of us have decided on but hasn't been set in stone yet. I want to leave it open until I feel confident that I've reviewed all the options and can give you guys a little hint: the girl name that we're most likely going with is not common at all, not even in the top 1,000. There's one person I've heard of who has a daughter with this name, but it's very unique and not something that when you hear it, it's like weird in any way – it just feels right.

In our next video, I'll be reacting to your name suggestions, and I want to encourage you all to leave your recommendations in the comments below. While we're still in the process of choosing a name for my child, I value your input and would love to hear your thoughts on names that might suit us. Who knows; maybe one of you will inspire me to try something new!

As I wrap up this article, I hope you enjoyed our little bonus video about baby names. If you're like me and spend hours researching name options, take a second to subscribe to my channel for more mom and pregnancy-related content, lifestyle home organization cleaning, and fun topics that interest me.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everybody and welcome back to my channel I am so excited to be making this video because I have an obsession with baby names that started a very very long time ago before I ever even thought about becoming a mother any time I've ever heard a name I liked I've written it on a list on my phone and I continue to transfer that list phone to phone for over 10 years now now that I am pregnant with my second child it's going to be a little girl I am just so down deep in the rabbit hole of baby name ideas so I just wanted to come on here and share some of my favorites these are names some of them are still on the table that we might actually use I'm also going to share the boy names that we like and the boy name that we would have picked if this baby were to be a boy I am currently 19 weeks pregnant I'll give you guys a little bump update here so I'm almost at the halfway point and I'm not sure if I'm going to 100% pick the name before she's born or if I'm going to maybe narrow it down to two and then see when she's born what she looks more like also I decided I'm gonna make this a two-part video today I'm gonna share with you guys our favorite names and then I want you guys to leave your name suggestions down in the comments I'm gonna do another video where Ryan and I react to your name ideas look who knows maybe one of you guys will end up naming my baby for girl names I tend to like a little bit more on the unique side and for boy names I like something a little bit unique but not crazy in case you don't know my son is named Carter great Thomas so Carter is not the most unique name but his name was very very close to being even James so I'm gonna put that on the boy list because I still do really really like that name and when Carter was born I actually thought he looked more like an even and that's what I wanted to call him probably for the first like five or six days he was born so if he would have been born and I hadn't decided on it already he probably would have been even James Thomas some people think that name sounds more like a girl name I don't to me it reads more masculine now for a girl name that I just absolutely love I think it's so cute and that is Quinn so that would be qu I and n it's one syllable it's simple it's a little bit unique I just think it's cute it's pretty something about it I just really like you know I could call her Queenie little Quinn so that is definitely on the list as a girl name that we like okay now back over to the boys I'm gonna save the boy name to the very end so you have to watch the end another boy name though that we do like I mean this one's kind of a little bit out there but it's briar Bri a our I just love the way it sounds briar it sounds strong now the issue with that as a boy's name is Briar Rose which I believe was the real name of Sleeping Beauty so it does have kind of a female connotation to it but to me that name just sounds more masculine so I liked it I had it on the table for a boy named Ryan did not like it as much but you know what I still stand by it what do you guys think does Briar sound more masculine or feminine to you now back over to the girls side a name I love is eliana I just think it sounds so beautiful Eliana I like that there's a lot of good nickname potential you could be Ellie you could be Anna you could be Elle I just think it sounds elegant classy something about it I just really enjoy next boy name that I have loved for years is Tristan and this is the name you guys I was lobbying so hard for Carter to be Tristan I think it almost kind of sounds ethereal like a medieval Prince Tristan I thought tooth and nail I tried to make a bet with Ryan that if he lost I got to name the baby Tristan I tried everything but he for whatever reason just didn't love it on the girls side this is another one I kind of was lobbying for hard but just Ryan doesn't love it and that is Noel and Oh a ll e so first of all it has an association with Christmas Noel that makes everybody happy I think it sounds very feminine there's good nickname potential there you could be noe or L so I like not about it I just adore it but Ryan is not on board with it as a first name but it is still a contender to be a middle name next boy named that both of us like was Byron so there's the association there with Lord Byron who was a famous poet every Byron that I've ever met or even known about like celebrity Byron's have always been very handsome classy guys so I just have a good association with the name and I thought fire and Thomas sounded like a nice strong male name okay next girl name on the list is London now one of my good friends her daughter is London and she's just such a doll also a girl I follow on Instagram her daughter is London and both of them are just the cutest little girls I like place names I think that's kind of cool and cute and I think it sounds like a classy girl London next boy name I like is Graham no that is not one that is too crazy out there or unique but I think it's a cool name I just picture a cool smart nice guy named Graham now I do have a small worry that maybe if I had a boy named Graham he would be called graham cracker but graham crackers are pretty delicious next girl name on the list is Sienna again it's just one of those names the way it sounds the way it looks it just sounds elegant beautiful I don't know if you're noticing any kind of trend in the names that I like for girls but I like girl names I just sound really elegant and romantic kind of I probably would pick it if Ryan would let me but again I don't know what it is about men like they're really good at vetoing names but they're not good at coming up with names does anyone else have that experience I'm like okay what are you bringing to the table what ideas you have oh nothing that's what I thought all right now we are getting down to it you guys we're gonna talk about the boy name if this baby were a boy or if there's a surprise and it ends up being a boy and nine is Pierce Pierce Thomas I just think Pierce I love it something about it it's strong it's solid the only Pierce that I've ever heard of is Pierce Brosnan and he's a great guy okay he's been married to his wife for over 20 years he seems like such a great guy so I have a positive association with it but to me it's strong solid masculine you also could go like Pierson and then call him Pierce for short but we probably just would have went with Pierce so now our number two choice for a girl name this name has a story okay so the name is Everly and we wouldn't have spelled it e ve are my guys I absolutely love the name Everly Ryan and I love the name Everly so much for a girl that when we very first started dating like six months in and started talking about kids that was always the name that we referred to our unborn child as oh one day we'll have little Everly and Everly that's and Everly that so we really had our hearts set on this name now what happened was about two years ago I became friends with somebody in my music class and her daughter's name is Everly and that's actually how we became friends because I said to her I'm like Oh Everly that would have been Carter's name if he were a girl so that got us talking and now she's one of my very dear closest friend and it's not like we can't use the name because she knows we had that name on our list for many years but it's more so the fact that now I just have such a strong association between the name Everly and a little Everly like I just picture her now I can't picture my child with that name I don't know if that makes sense I kind of just want my own unique name and not a name that I have a very strong association with so it still could possibly happen I mean like I said it's our number two but another thing I will say that I notice is that name is becoming quite popular in my area like a lot of the little activities I have Carter in there are one or even two Everly's in the class now with all of that said we do have a number one girl name choice which I'm not going to reveal in this video I want to keep it a little bit surprised we haven't 100% set that name yet but I would say maybe like 90 to 95 percent but I still want to kind of leave it open and I want to hear from you guys so now you guys have heard the style of names that I tend to gravitate towards what I like so based on that leave your name recommendations down in the comments and then in the future I'm going to do another video where I react to your name choices I don't want to lock it in with her name until I feel like I've really reviewed all of the options and I will give you guys a little hint okay the girl name that we are most likely going to go with is not common at all it is not even in the top 1,000 there is one person I've heard of who has a daughter with this name but it is very unique but it's not something that when you hear it it's like weird in any way it's just not commonly used as a name but again I'm not locking in quite yet I will say this because at this point I have named a child and I've learned some lessons when it comes to naming a baby so one thing I will say even though Carter is more of a popular name we've definitely met a few other Carters I will say that I really really love that his name is easy to pronounce and easy to understand because you underestimate how often you say their name like you tell everybody their name everyone wants to know and never once has anybody asked me to repeat myself to spell that it's a very clear strong name oh and another thing that we did with naming Carter which we will do again is called the Starbucks test so what you do is you go to Starbucks you order a drink and when they ask you for your name use the baby name that you want to go with and see what not just the reaction is because obviously everyone has different opinions but can they understand you how bad is it because with Carter like I said his name was going to be even and when we did at the Starbucks test we did it multiple times I mean it was a nightmare nobody could understand us people were writing down Evan they're writing down Avon and that is when we realized you know do we really want our child to live his whole life getting misunderstood and having to spell as me so again that's a personal choice some people don't care and the last thing I will say about baby names if you want to know my philosophy for picking a baby name like how I ultimately do it is I picture them as an adult and can this name bring them into adulthood and what do I picture them as like Carter great Thomas I picture as a successful happy handsome guy in a suit maybe just living his best life like I don't just think of the baby and what would be a cute name for a baby but how would I picture them with that name and carrying it as an adult so that's kind of the philosophy that I use in case you cared I really just like talking about baby names if you can't tell but I'm gonna cut it off there again don't forget to leave your suggestions down below because I'm going to react to them I'll see if I can get Ryan on here to react with me but he's like so opinionated I'm worried that he might offend somebody anyway with all of that said I hope you guys enjoyed this special little bonus video I have probably myself watched at least at least 50 of these so if you're also like me and just in a rabbit hole of watching name videos take a second to subscribe to my channel because I do share mom and pregnancy related content in addition to lifestyle home organization cleaning all different fun topics so I would love to have you as a subscriber and with all of that said I will see you guys very soon with a new video Ihello everybody and welcome back to my channel I am so excited to be making this video because I have an obsession with baby names that started a very very long time ago before I ever even thought about becoming a mother any time I've ever heard a name I liked I've written it on a list on my phone and I continue to transfer that list phone to phone for over 10 years now now that I am pregnant with my second child it's going to be a little girl I am just so down deep in the rabbit hole of baby name ideas so I just wanted to come on here and share some of my favorites these are names some of them are still on the table that we might actually use I'm also going to share the boy names that we like and the boy name that we would have picked if this baby were to be a boy I am currently 19 weeks pregnant I'll give you guys a little bump update here so I'm almost at the halfway point and I'm not sure if I'm going to 100% pick the name before she's born or if I'm going to maybe narrow it down to two and then see when she's born what she looks more like also I decided I'm gonna make this a two-part video today I'm gonna share with you guys our favorite names and then I want you guys to leave your name suggestions down in the comments I'm gonna do another video where Ryan and I react to your name ideas look who knows maybe one of you guys will end up naming my baby for girl names I tend to like a little bit more on the unique side and for boy names I like something a little bit unique but not crazy in case you don't know my son is named Carter great Thomas so Carter is not the most unique name but his name was very very close to being even James so I'm gonna put that on the boy list because I still do really really like that name and when Carter was born I actually thought he looked more like an even and that's what I wanted to call him probably for the first like five or six days he was born so if he would have been born and I hadn't decided on it already he probably would have been even James Thomas some people think that name sounds more like a girl name I don't to me it reads more masculine now for a girl name that I just absolutely love I think it's so cute and that is Quinn so that would be qu I and n it's one syllable it's simple it's a little bit unique I just think it's cute it's pretty something about it I just really like you know I could call her Queenie little Quinn so that is definitely on the list as a girl name that we like okay now back over to the boys I'm gonna save the boy name to the very end so you have to watch the end another boy name though that we do like I mean this one's kind of a little bit out there but it's briar Bri a our I just love the way it sounds briar it sounds strong now the issue with that as a boy's name is Briar Rose which I believe was the real name of Sleeping Beauty so it does have kind of a female connotation to it but to me that name just sounds more masculine so I liked it I had it on the table for a boy named Ryan did not like it as much but you know what I still stand by it what do you guys think does Briar sound more masculine or feminine to you now back over to the girls side a name I love is eliana I just think it sounds so beautiful Eliana I like that there's a lot of good nickname potential you could be Ellie you could be Anna you could be Elle I just think it sounds elegant classy something about it I just really enjoy next boy name that I have loved for years is Tristan and this is the name you guys I was lobbying so hard for Carter to be Tristan I think it almost kind of sounds ethereal like a medieval Prince Tristan I thought tooth and nail I tried to make a bet with Ryan that if he lost I got to name the baby Tristan I tried everything but he for whatever reason just didn't love it on the girls side this is another one I kind of was lobbying for hard but just Ryan doesn't love it and that is Noel and Oh a ll e so first of all it has an association with Christmas Noel that makes everybody happy I think it sounds very feminine there's good nickname potential there you could be noe or L so I like not about it I just adore it but Ryan is not on board with it as a first name but it is still a contender to be a middle name next boy named that both of us like was Byron so there's the association there with Lord Byron who was a famous poet every Byron that I've ever met or even known about like celebrity Byron's have always been very handsome classy guys so I just have a good association with the name and I thought fire and Thomas sounded like a nice strong male name okay next girl name on the list is London now one of my good friends her daughter is London and she's just such a doll also a girl I follow on Instagram her daughter is London and both of them are just the cutest little girls I like place names I think that's kind of cool and cute and I think it sounds like a classy girl London next boy name I like is Graham no that is not one that is too crazy out there or unique but I think it's a cool name I just picture a cool smart nice guy named Graham now I do have a small worry that maybe if I had a boy named Graham he would be called graham cracker but graham crackers are pretty delicious next girl name on the list is Sienna again it's just one of those names the way it sounds the way it looks it just sounds elegant beautiful I don't know if you're noticing any kind of trend in the names that I like for girls but I like girl names I just sound really elegant and romantic kind of I probably would pick it if Ryan would let me but again I don't know what it is about men like they're really good at vetoing names but they're not good at coming up with names does anyone else have that experience I'm like okay what are you bringing to the table what ideas you have oh nothing that's what I thought all right now we are getting down to it you guys we're gonna talk about the boy name if this baby were a boy or if there's a surprise and it ends up being a boy and nine is Pierce Pierce Thomas I just think Pierce I love it something about it it's strong it's solid the only Pierce that I've ever heard of is Pierce Brosnan and he's a great guy okay he's been married to his wife for over 20 years he seems like such a great guy so I have a positive association with it but to me it's strong solid masculine you also could go like Pierson and then call him Pierce for short but we probably just would have went with Pierce so now our number two choice for a girl name this name has a story okay so the name is Everly and we wouldn't have spelled it e ve are my guys I absolutely love the name Everly Ryan and I love the name Everly so much for a girl that when we very first started dating like six months in and started talking about kids that was always the name that we referred to our unborn child as oh one day we'll have little Everly and Everly that's and Everly that so we really had our hearts set on this name now what happened was about two years ago I became friends with somebody in my music class and her daughter's name is Everly and that's actually how we became friends because I said to her I'm like Oh Everly that would have been Carter's name if he were a girl so that got us talking and now she's one of my very dear closest friend and it's not like we can't use the name because she knows we had that name on our list for many years but it's more so the fact that now I just have such a strong association between the name Everly and a little Everly like I just picture her now I can't picture my child with that name I don't know if that makes sense I kind of just want my own unique name and not a name that I have a very strong association with so it still could possibly happen I mean like I said it's our number two but another thing I will say that I notice is that name is becoming quite popular in my area like a lot of the little activities I have Carter in there are one or even two Everly's in the class now with all of that said we do have a number one girl name choice which I'm not going to reveal in this video I want to keep it a little bit surprised we haven't 100% set that name yet but I would say maybe like 90 to 95 percent but I still want to kind of leave it open and I want to hear from you guys so now you guys have heard the style of names that I tend to gravitate towards what I like so based on that leave your name recommendations down in the comments and then in the future I'm going to do another video where I react to your name choices I don't want to lock it in with her name until I feel like I've really reviewed all of the options and I will give you guys a little hint okay the girl name that we are most likely going to go with is not common at all it is not even in the top 1,000 there is one person I've heard of who has a daughter with this name but it is very unique but it's not something that when you hear it it's like weird in any way it's just not commonly used as a name but again I'm not locking in quite yet I will say this because at this point I have named a child and I've learned some lessons when it comes to naming a baby so one thing I will say even though Carter is more of a popular name we've definitely met a few other Carters I will say that I really really love that his name is easy to pronounce and easy to understand because you underestimate how often you say their name like you tell everybody their name everyone wants to know and never once has anybody asked me to repeat myself to spell that it's a very clear strong name oh and another thing that we did with naming Carter which we will do again is called the Starbucks test so what you do is you go to Starbucks you order a drink and when they ask you for your name use the baby name that you want to go with and see what not just the reaction is because obviously everyone has different opinions but can they understand you how bad is it because with Carter like I said his name was going to be even and when we did at the Starbucks test we did it multiple times I mean it was a nightmare nobody could understand us people were writing down Evan they're writing down Avon and that is when we realized you know do we really want our child to live his whole life getting misunderstood and having to spell as me so again that's a personal choice some people don't care and the last thing I will say about baby names if you want to know my philosophy for picking a baby name like how I ultimately do it is I picture them as an adult and can this name bring them into adulthood and what do I picture them as like Carter great Thomas I picture as a successful happy handsome guy in a suit maybe just living his best life like I don't just think of the baby and what would be a cute name for a baby but how would I picture them with that name and carrying it as an adult so that's kind of the philosophy that I use in case you cared I really just like talking about baby names if you can't tell but I'm gonna cut it off there again don't forget to leave your suggestions down below because I'm going to react to them I'll see if I can get Ryan on here to react with me but he's like so opinionated I'm worried that he might offend somebody anyway with all of that said I hope you guys enjoyed this special little bonus video I have probably myself watched at least at least 50 of these so if you're also like me and just in a rabbit hole of watching name videos take a second to subscribe to my channel because I do share mom and pregnancy related content in addition to lifestyle home organization cleaning all different fun topics so I would love to have you as a subscriber and with all of that said I will see you guys very soon with a new video I\n"