Name News

Halfway to the hospital the 23-year-old mum told the paramedic that the baby would be coming 'in the next three pushes'.

The impulse to soften ethnic names, to make them palatable to the white majority is influencing a new generation of parents.

Lala is a hugely worldly name and has a number of meanings in many languages but we choose it for the meaning of Tulip in Spanish, as our surname is Spanish. Bam we choose as it was popular in the States but we hadn’t heard it in Oz. We love short and sweet names.

Woody Patrick

Woody has been floating around a minds for a couple of years, we first seen it on a street sign and Mark mentioned it would make a nice baby name one day and I instantly fell in love! not long after we came across Woody Guthrie, an old folk artist and we both fell in love with his music and personality. So Woody was perfect! When we found out Woody was a boy we had a few other names floating around but you always go back to the first choice :)
Mark chose Woody’s middle name which is his fathers middle name. I feel it goes nicely with Woody and adds a special touch.

I really struggled with names. I had a list of names I liked but I didn’t love any of them. Neiva was my favourite at the time but it wasn’t until she born that I really loved the name. My great grandmothers name was Neiva and she was a very loved and respected lady in our family so it’s great my daughter is now named after her.

These are name stories from The Best Gift of Life website, as mothers interviewed are asked how they chose their childrens' names. There are so many places to find a great name, from books you disliked, movies you didn't watch, and baby name phone apps you hated! Many of these names have been featured in…

My first born is called Ryland I put no thought into this name as everyone told me that a mother gets a a strong feeling and knows the sex of her child. Well I’m calling bull shit as I was totally convinced I was having a girl right till that last push and I was told “it’s a boy” I still didn’t believe it I was shocked but full of giggles and happiness. I know you don’t have to name them strait away but I was happy with Matts choice. Then along came Reid I realised I wasn’t good at guessing the sex of bubs and I wanted to have input on this name but turns out Matt and I don’t agree on many names at all. I wrote a crazy list which would have had about 50 names. Matt only liked one that was Reid. Thinking back I had some pretty crazy names on my list which I’m glad he said no to. Ryland was 2years 4 months when Reid was born and he always spoke of his imaginary friend “Alex” so we decided to use ” Alex as a middle name for Reid. Then along came Pearl. Pearl was always my favourite girls name but when I was pregnant with number one Matt didn’t like it. With number two I mentioned it again he said no but by number three he couldn’t picture not calling his girl Pearl. As Ryland had input on Reid’s middle I decided to discuses middle names with the boys. The conversation went a little like this
me “so if we have a boy what would you like his middle name to be?”
Ryland “I don’t want a boy I already have a brother! Can we call our girl Lavender or Rosemary”
me “if it’s a boy or a girl we will love the baby the same. So is there any name that you like”
Ryland “shame”
me “Shane”
Ryland “no shame like a shame”
Oh thank goodness we have a Pearl Lavender

I am actually the most indecisive person ever, so I definitely found it hard! Harper’s name was picked out from very early on, it was a name we’d always both loved and was an easy choice. With Jack and Billie we discussed names throughout the pregnancies, had a shortlist and made the final decisions on the way to the hospital! Their middles names Ella, Thomas and Rose all come from grandparents on both sides, so that was an easy one.

Selene and Brendan have named their son Izaya Gnarly to indicate the “gnarly” start he had in life, but he will be called Gnarly. I think if you want to give your child a very unusual name, that’s a good way to do it – put it in the middle, and then call them by their middle name.

  Lin Zhang and her husband Cheng-Hung Tsai met each other in Darwin, and bought their first house there. The house was on Charlotte Street, so they named their daughter Charlotte. They loved ...

This year is the centenary of World War I, and just a few days ago there were commemorative celebrations for the first Australian troops to leave for the battlefields of Gallipoli. Because of this,...

X Marks the Spot for Future Celebrity Twins A reader named Alison has kindly sent in an interview with Shannon Bennett, head chef at Melbourne's Vue de Mond and judge of the ABC Delicious Produce A...

Allegra? Margaux? Harrietta? I was assured that whatever I called her, she would grow to be her name. Anouk? Arabella? Imogen? The list was long, but nothing seemed right. Adelie? Wilhelmina? Emmeline? Ottilie?

Dan 27 – Bronte 24 – Riley 5 – Kaeden 4 – Hudson 2

Mark "Soda" Soderstrom and his wife Kate welcomed their third child on September 16, and have named their son Otis. Otis joins siblings Felix, age 3, and Sienna, age 1. Mark is co-host of The Breakfast Show on Mix 102.3, and his radio partner Jodie Oddy queried the choice of the name Otis (in a…

I have always known that her name would be Violet, even before I fell pregnant. I did have a list of some other names that I love just incase I changed my mind last minute
but I think Violet fits her perfectly.

I never thought I would have a name already picked out before I gave birth but we decided on a name for Arlo when I was about 5 months pregnant. We knew we wanted to pick a strong and different name. I’m surprised we agreed so easily. This time around has been kind of the same, around the 4 month mark we decided on a name that we both loved. I tend to come up with the first name and Raul picks out the middle name.

We did have another name picked out but we weren’t 100% sure. I still remember driving with myself, my husband and my sister, we were throwing names around and my sister came out with Morrison. We immediately all loved it and that was that!

Names are fairly absolute things, so fundamental to our identities. What happens if you get lumped with the wrong one?

DO YOU hate cutesy abbreviations of perfectly good names?