Anatole

Perhaps you can tell us how to pronounce this one? It seems to be a favorite name in novels for French cooks and I have no idea how it's supposed to be pronounced.

I babysit two Russian children and their names are Alexander and Ksenia, but they go by Sasha and Katie. I wish Katie went by Ksenia, it's so beautiful.

Yes I can, I didn't because I thought it was less scary-looking than the others It's Ah-nah-toll, basically. It's always hard to go from French to English because some words in French are tonally flat, which never happens in English! I would recommend putting the accent on the "Ah"

Ksenia is gorgeous! Aw it's a pity she doesn't go by Ksenia!

Another weird one I like is "Philomène." (Fee-low-men) Very old, rather rare, and it sounds a little pompous and posh, but it has character.

Names! Oh dear! I fear I'm no good with this!

Valient Lucy: My soon to be sister-in-law name is Laura, it is a very nice name!

I like some of the names from LOTR like:

Elanor/Elenor (Sam's little Girl) I'm not sure if that is the right spelling...
Eyown
Galadriel
Théoden

I like "Edmund" for a boy name.
Abigale for a Girl

And I know there are a lot more but I am no good at coming up with names off the top of my head

From a page way back...

I knew a girl whose name way Maya but she spelt it Myia...I personally like that spelling better

I know a girl (like 4 or 5 years old) who's name is Maya.

--Benjamin

And sometimes made-up names are fun, at least for girls. I like the name 'Cyra' (pronounced 'seer-ah')

FireFairy: I also like the name Adrian for a boy, but I fear that it's too feminine. It was originally a boy's name, of course, but now, most of the Adrians I meet are girls. It's the same for the name Robin. What do you think?

Hmm, I guess you're right. I've always thought of Adrian as a boy name, but now that I think about it, there are a lot of girl Adrians as well. Robin feels more like a girl name to me, but then there are Batman and Robin, as well as Christopher Robin and Robin Hood, so I guess not...

Haha, I didn't realize my interest in name meanings would set off like wildfire (then again, I am the Fire Fairy!!! )! I get back, and all of the sudden there's almost a whole page more than when I was here last! How did that happen....?

For some reason the letter "a" is a "feminine letter:" it's often used to make male names female, like Alexander-Alexandra, Frederic-Frederica, and so on. It's always surprising to come across male names that don't sound male to our anglophone ears.

You're quite right that in English "i" and "e" and "a" tend to be more feminine, while "o" and "u" are more male. However, in Japanese, it's almost the opposite! For example some male Japanese names are Akira, Shinichi (I couldn't resist ), etc., while female Japanese names are like Yuko, Sonoko, Reiko, Yumi, etc. It's funny how they are flipped in Japan from what English speakers are used to!

I wonder what Sandra or Sandy means... hmmm... Haha. Love the definition of your name Libby! .

Here, I'll look it up for you... here it is! It means "Helper of Humanity" (according to http://www.name-meanings.com/ ). How nice!

thanks Fire Fairy! Woooow. Love it! Haha. How bout yours? What does it mean?

Going back to the name 'Ksenia' ('tis so pretty, yes) ... that is the name of our dental hygienist, except she spells it "Ksenija", the original form from a Yugoslavian background.

thanks Fire Fairy! Woooow. Love it! Haha. How bout yours? What does it mean?

My name's a combo name, so it actually has several meanings. There's "Fair and Pretty One", "Fair Phantom", "Pretty Lake", and "Paradise Lake". My favorite is "Paradise Lake". It sounds so serene and beautiful. (Sorry, I'm not telling you my actual name. It's unique enough that I don't like giving it out over the internet. ).

I think 'Alayne' (alternate spelling of 'Elaine') is very pretty. I found it in the back of the dictionary.

I would also name my daughter (if it would be a girl) Jane. Jane is from Jane Austen because I really like Jane Austen so much!

Let's see, favorite names....
I really like sort of strange, poetic names...and the kind that are hard to pronounce. I'm not quite sure why. I really should compile a list sometime of my favorites.

A few of my favorite "normal" names...
(Girls)
Laura
Jessica
Hope

(Boys)
Matthew
Marshall
Jesse

I'm starting to have a weakness for guy names used as girl names... Jordan, Danny, Noah, Sean, Payton, etc.

Other favorites... My brother's girlfriend's name is Jeribeth, and I really like that. It's so feminine.

For guys I like Tristan, Elijah, Ethan, Landon, Keith, and Blair, among others...

And speaking of hard-to-pronounce names-- CAOIMHE. It's Celtic and it's pronouced "Kee-va." Apparently, it's quite popular in Ireland.

I like it actually, though I wouldn't be so cruel as to name my kid that.
Maybe as a middle name.

AJoanna: I like Jeribeth, it's cute.

Haha I've just about named all my kids..despite the fact that I don't even have a boyfriend. But my friends have called me cruel for naming them that. I wanted LOTR based middle names like Nealan Mithrandir, Chloe Estel or even like Peter Elessar. I personally think its cute, not cruel. lol

As long as they're middle names, sillygoose, and not first names. That would be crossing the line into cruel.

Thats what I keep telling them, Fire Fairy. It's just they still insist it's cruel.