NaNoWriMo names.

[The Jade Knight]

So I'm writing a modern (Fantasy) novel for NaNoWriMo, and I figured it'd be easier to ask for names than make up all of my own.

So, here's your chance.  Throw out names you like, hate, have been thinking of, want to name your children, have named your children, etc.

Bonus points for including background or description (as short as "son of Norman immigrants" or "a name I really loathe" to as complex as you like).

FYI, story takes place in North America, so naming will be biased that direction, but so far surnames have included Jèrrias (Norman), American (English?  Maybe Scottish), and Italian.

[Nessa]

Names I've wanted to give my children (but my husband didn't like):
Tess (or Tessa)
Megan
Charlotte (common nickname is Char, which I think is cool!)
Nicole (although I don't like the nickname Nikki)
Justin
James
Douglas (although there are some stupid nicknames for Douglas)
Zack
Marisa
Anita


Names I think are weird that my family/friends have named their kids:
Kyler
Fredrick
Ashlynn
Mikayla (the sound of the name isn't bad, I just think the spelling is strange)
Edward
Raylene
Lowell
Ashton (Kutcher-style, I mean how can anyone take a kid seriously with that name?)


By the way, here's a website I often use to search for names:

http://www.babycenter.com/pregnancy/babynaming/index

[stacer]

I love that name engine--it lets you search by the beginning or ending of the name, and comes up names from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds.

[Chimera]

I really loved the name Ashton after I read M. M. Kaye's The Far Pavilions, but it was right after this that Ashton Kutcher started dating Demi Moore and became popular. Then it seemed like everyone was naming their child Ashton. So I would never use it. It's one thing to name a child after a character in a book, another to name him after a jerky actor. And since that's what people would think, no way.

Another name I like but would never use is Isaiah. And some more:
Carter
Ian
Marlowe
Rolan
Owen (my nephew's name. Except for his parents, we all disliked it as first. Now we think it is cute.)

Girl's names I like but would never use for my children:
Isis
Viola
Autumn
Jade (heh, your pseudoname. Sorry, but I've always thought of it for a girl.)
Azure

I tried to pick names that are kind of different. But I also like more normal names, like Jeremy and Jake and Angela and Kara.

And girls I've known:
Kendra
Kendall
Aisha
Scarlett

Okay, I'm having too much fun thinking up names. I'm posting and moving on.

[stacer]

I was just talking with a girl named Stacia tonight, a name I coveted as a child. I had so many names I would have rather been named beside my own, and often experimented with spelling my name a different way, including Staci, Stacey, Stacie, Stacia, etc. But the best name I found that covered them all was Anastasia. With a name like that, I could have Stacy for my nickname, or Ana, or Ann/Anne, or Stacia, and so forth.

A name I plan on using for a child of mine, if the people I know will stop associating it with The Facts of Life:

Blair

It's my dad's name, my grandpa's middle name, and my great-grandma's maiden name. I want it to continue in the family, at least as a child's middle name.

Then there are the names I loved as a kid but now realize they don't have the appeal to me now as they did then:

Victoria
Valerie
Veronica  (yes, I liked V-names. They sounded elegant back then)

I can't remember the rest.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I knew a Viola. She was a drinking, smoking, red haired Irish terror. She was pretty cool too.

[The Jade Knight]

[insert one of Ari's viola jokes here]

[Chimera]

I always liked the name because Twelth Night is probably my favorite Shakespeare comedy.

[scAri]

Who invented the viola?

...We don't know. Whoever did it was too ashamed to take credit.

[The Jade Knight]

Thanks!  This was very helpful already.

I've just named one of my characters "Kyler Edwards".  It's nice not having to search for names on my own.  =þ

[Oldie Black Witch]

Just to add to the list:

My name is Charisa.
My sister's name was Desma.
I've named my children Caelan, Morgan, and Padraig.
I really like the names Siobhan, Liam, and Jaran.

The names Gertrude and Gretchen are hideous--something about the "rude" and the "tch" is what does it, I think.

And that's the truth.  

[MsFish]

I always liked the name because Twelth Night is probably my favorite Shakespeare comedy.

According to my Shakespeare professor the name Viola in Twelfth night is pronounced like vie-uh-la with the vie vowel being like the vowel in pie and the emphasis on the first syllable.  It's in meter in the play somewhere and that how you can tell.  So the Shakespearean name isn't like the instrument at all.  

[stacer]

My old roommate's name was Siobhan. It's a really popular name in YA chick lit to name snobby girls right now.

[Chimera]

Really? I have never heard nor read that name in my life. What books?

[Chimera]

According to my Shakespeare professor the name Viola in Twelfth night is pronounced like vie-uh-la with the vie vowel being like the vowel in pie and the emphasis on the first syllable.  It's in meter in the play somewhere and that how you can tell.  So the Shakespearean name isn't like the instrument at all.  

That's true. They pronounce it correctly in the movie Shakespeare in Love--which incidentally was on TV the other night, reminding me of how much I like the name. It is said like Violet, with an -uh sound on the end insted of -et.