So, what IS "your style?"

I think any time someone inquires about a name on this board, at least three people reply that it's "NMS." So now I'm curious. What is "your style"? What names definitely fit into that category? What names definitely don't? Are there any exceptions?

Poster No. 1

My style is old-fashioned and heritage-oriented. I love family names and traditional names, and I like when parents honor their backgrounds with cultural names. Like any old-fashioned person, I think boys names should be masculine and girls should be feminine.

• Names that are "my style" are Josephine, Elsie, Henry, Isla, Emma, Byron, Gretchen, Vera, Atticus, and Victor. I also am fond of Valentina, Carmine, Donatella, Gianni, and Adriana (our love of The Sopranos fueled this, too).
• Names that are definitely NMS are Kelsey, Brecken, Aiden, Caitlyn, Harley, Kiana, Camden, Tristan, and Alexa. Also: Madison/Addison and Mackenzie are definitely NMS in the least.
• The exception to the rule is definitely Emery (for a girl), and to a lesser extent, Xavier (despite being Latin, its experiencing a surge in popularity). 

Poster No. 2

Classic, Old, Uncommon (but fit with the previous two categories), Cultural

Some names that I love:

• Fiona, Ramona, Francesca, Vivienne, Anouk, Adair, Matilda, Mairead, Beatrice, Norah, Vida, Juliet, Joanna, Marta, Astrid, Esther, Violet, Theresa, Sylvia, Eleanor, Bridget, Julia 
• Jasper, Oliver, Henry, Sullivan Miles, Archer / Archibald, Atticus, Thatcher, Sawyer, Leif, Augustus, Gray, Nigel, Lawson, Louis, Oscar, Walter, Silas, Jude, Fabian, Liev

Names that I hate:

• Kylie / Kylee, Miley, Avery (on a girl), Raleigh, Emmaline, Madeline, Elle / Ellie / Ella, Ava, Alexis, Alexa, Lexie, Brianna / Brynn / Bri-anything, Harper (on a girl), Cadence, Emery, Emerson (on a girl)Kenzie, Makenzie / Mckenzie (really and Mack/Mck), Aubrey, Macy, Skye, Brooklyn, London, Callie, Michaela (or w/e it is), Brayden, Jayden, Aiden, Ryder, Parker, Maddox, Jaxon, Lennox, Braxton, Tait / Tate, Colt, Cole, Peyton, Brady, Brody, Kyler, Tyler, Camden, Cameron...I think you get the picture
• Boy names on girls (Harper, Avery, Aubrey, Emerson, Grayson...)
• Un-needed y's (Caitlyn, Kaitlyn, Mylee, Camryn, Ayva, Kaydynce)
• K names (Kaitlyn, Klara, Khloe, Konnor, Korrine, Kallie)

Poster No. 3

I think, for a lot of people, saying "not my style" is a polite way of saying, 'I hate it." For me and I think for the majority of the board regulars (we tend to be a bit more out-spoken) it means we don't have any strong opinion of the name one way or another. Just thought I'd define that.

I have two naming identities and they are very, very different. I love unpopular antique names and foreign names. I also believe in family names, but I'll clarify that in a moment.

Names that are "my style" and we would actually consider using are Adelaide, Aislin (family), Audrey, Augusta, Averine (f.), Bernadette (f.), Charlotte (f.), Elizabeth (f.), Eveline (f.), Georgiana, Katherine (f.), Laurel, Margaret (f.), Susanna, Eric (f.), Jacob, Joseph (f.), Kyle (f.), Thomas (f.), William (f.). 

Names that are "my style," but we would not actually use: Araceli, Ayane, Lemonie, Lilija, Lilou, Marijke, Marigny, Sonali, Nils, Roark, Thayer.


Names that are not my style: Brooke, Addison, Nora, Paisley, Kailey, Jayden, Brielle, Aubriana, Emiliana . . . anything beginning with Alex, anything I perceive as trendy, anything that can be shortened to Allie, boys names for girls, "unisex" names, names that start with the letter D, and, for the most part one-syllable first names for girls.


Exceptions: I love Kay. Everly, Isla, Lily, Carlie, and Emme. There are others, but despite being exceptions, we still will not consider using them ourselves.

On family names: I don't believe in using a family name that you pulled from nine generations back or needed a family tree to find. It's absurd. The point of using a family is to honor someone, IMO, and you're not honoring someone you never met, nor heard of.

Family names are also, far too often used as an excuse to choose something completely ridiculous. So, I can't use a blanket rule: "if it's a family name, go for it," like so many people on this board seem to do.

There are a lot of family names on our list and each of our kids will receive at least one family name, but they're all from people I know and was close to, people I would like to remember in my children, or whom possess qualities I would like my children to have. However silly that seems, it makes more sense to me than choosing the name of your grandfather's great uncle, twice-removed.

Please refer to THIS post for more!