I have an interest in names - first names, last names, made up names, names from urban legends which may or may not actually exist (Abcde anyone?), and names with long histories. Butchered names, 'yoonique names.' Some I loathe, and some I love. I regularly keep an eye on behindthename.com for new names to be fascinated by, and the blog at the Baby Name Wizard is a great way to keep up with trends.

What makes a name a valid name for humans? What makes a valid name for pets? How far are you willing to stretch to accept a name - does it have to be traditional? or would a bouncing baby Abcde not bother you in the slightest? Are there any names that currently have your attention (and why)? Basically lets just talk about names names names and our feelings about them. :)

What inspired me to start this thread today was the name...Zoey. Or Zooey. Or Zoe. I only read one of those as Zoey - the others my brain recognizes as Zoo-ee and Zo, respectively. There are buckets of names out there like that but that one in particular bothers me the most because when I see the names written out I just cannot read 'Zoey' when it's spelled any other way, and I'm pretty liberal with language. We as a population define our language and all rules are more guidelines than anything else, subject to change at any time as the population changes. But I just cannot read those names any other way. My own shortcomings bug me more than the name itself, but it really got me thinking, well, just about talking about names and what make them weird or unique or classic or special to us. So please n.n Name lovers, let us chit chat!

I can see Zoey and Zoe as zoh-ee, but I can't see Zooey as anything other than Zoo-ee. It's almost Gooey. I guess just because we're accustomed to pronunciation of the word zoo. It's a common word. I'll throw in zoonotic as a wrench because it's actually not pronounced with the zoo sound but zoh. Language can be pretty neat. When you see a word you're unfamiliar with you can come up with a pronunciation based on your own experience with sounds and how other words are put together in your native language and others if you know them. Maybe it's right and maybe it's wrong.

I think people names are just whatever people want them to be. Beyonce named her kid Blue. Blue is an odd choice for a name. It doesn't sound like a name. It doesn't sound good as a name. There are probably other words for blue in other languages that would sound better. Other shades of blue too. But she didn't pick any of those. She picked Blue. Opposite that is Violet. Violet is just a color as well. A flower I guess too, but it doesn't sound odd to call someone Violet. It doesn't feel odd to think of it as a name. I think it's just that we're used to certain names and trends. Like Red vs Scarlet or Yellow vs Amber. There's also Hazel, Jade, and Marigold. They're all colors and things but sound normal as names. Even normal names can have crazy spelling as people really really reach to give their kids unique names. My real name is Kayla but I've met others who spell it Kaila and Kaela. I guess you could even name your kid Toaster Pastry if you wanted as I think the only laws that dictate names are social norms. Or Tohstur Paistre if that's your fancy.

I guess I like names that are more normal. Micheal, Jonah, and Sophia are my favorites. Sarah, Mischa, and Alexander are also nice. I've always thought Theodore was a neat name for a boy because it can be shortened and adapted to different parts of his life. Teddy when he's little, Theo as a teen, Ted as an adult, and Theodore as a senior. I probably wouldn't accept something like Abcde as a real name but I wouldn't give them grief about it either. I'd probably think to myself about how it's freaking stupid ask myself why such a thing ever came to be and then move on with my day. In my head I'm pronouncing that Ab-Ca-Dee.

As for pets I also think it's whatever goes. If I had a mastiff I would name him Earl. Technically it would be short for Ehrlichia, which is a bacteria dogs get from certain ticks, but I think it's a cool sounding word and mastiffs just look like Earls. With real life pets, and online ones too, it's just whatever feels right. My cat I named Coconut because she's white and had a brown patch on her head as a kitten. Coconut doesn't roll off the tongue very well so I always just called her Coco. When I say coco the first thing that pops into my head isn't coconut but cocoa beans so I started calling her cocoa bean. That turned into Bean which turned into Beany-Boo, then Beaners, and now she's just Boo-boo.

Another short tidbit I absolutely loved the name Asher when I was in junior high. It was just after I finished reading The Giver. It just sounded so so cool to me. While I still think it's a neat name it feels a bit unusual to imagine calling an actual person Asher, though it is Biblical. It feels more like a video game character's name.

My name when translated can mean "brother" or "warrior". I get irritated when its pronounced out of context, like using the hard "guh" or "jer". The only exception is my friend who calls me like the nearly identical GPS brand.

I love names. My husband gets creeped out when he sees me on a baby name website, but I like looking up the etymology behind names, and learning the history and meanings.
Personally for humans I prefer names that are less popular and maybe slightly unusual but still 'names'. They have to be spelled correctly, none of these 'yooneek' spellings, I HATE THOSE. I have a running list of names for future spawn on my phone. I like both very feminine names as well as unisex names for girls, and older, more traditional names for boys. I know when my husband and I decide to have kids it will be a lengthy discussion as to what we are naming them because we both have very strong ideas on names.
Pets are a different story. My cats are officially named Princess Raerae Cupcake Fluffybottom (Rae) and Sir Archduke Barnabas McNipplesworth (Archie). I like fun, serious names for pets, I just think it's funny. I also have a running list of pet names on my phone, because I am strange like that. x3
Here on Subeta my pet names have to be a 'real' name, but I will stretch the spelling rule a little to get a name close to what I want if I have to. Most of my pets here have first and middle names, as noted in their profiles.

I'm called Emmie which is a derivite from Emma which happens to be my baptised name. My parents always called me emmie though. 'ie' is a thing in dutch language, for real dutch words we never really use the 'y'. Both are pronounced as 'iiiiiiiiiii' sounds (the long one, hope this made sense). But with the globalization everyone decided that my nam is written with an y. Which bugs the crap out of me :P

My cats have fairly common names humans could also have. Though one would be more of a nickname then a real name. Puckje. Puck which means little in my language and the 'je' means it is small. (you add it to words. So huis means house and huisje means little house) So basically we call her little little, hahaha. And i admit she is compact, but she weighs quite a bit so that makes it even better :P

I see Zoe as "Zoey" and the "Zo" pronounciation really irritates me and I'm not sure why.

My name is Janah, spelled with an H, vs. the more common "Jana." It's not a big difference, clearly. But you wouldn't believe how many fucking teachers I've had not be able to pronounce my name. I went to school with a Jana, who happened to be right before me alphabetically in most classes we shared. It's like I just get this urge to scream at people "Dude, it's the same name you just said, fucking say it again." The most common is kinda like "John-a" but I've gotten straight up "Jonah" a few times. Like seriously it's not that hard. I do prefer my spelling though so there's that

"Yoonique" spellings also irritate me. That's a human being that's probably going to have to deal with that name as an adult someday. You don't have to have the only special snowflake baby with a name spelled like that, just pick a traditional spelling (obviously I'm talking extremes, like the "KVIIIlyn" (Kaitlyn) or whatever that was making the rounds on the internet).

For pets though, go nuts honestly. My family got a puppy last year and my sister and I really wanted the only boy from the litter, and we wanted to call him Thunder (not a really weird name but obviously not something you'd name a human, hopefully). Instead we got Bella, who we call Bella Bean/Beans/Mr. Beans/Beanie Weenie. Our last dog was named Rosie, but we all just called her Polie. It started out as Rollie Polie (because she was always rolling over for tummy scratches) and "Polie" just stuck

omg yooneek spellings. My given name is Katherine (though please never ever ever use that -.- I hate that name so much) and aside from the buckets of common spellings (Catherine, Kathryn, etc) there are some absolutely ridiculous spellings out there too...like Quathrin or weird ones like that. People pick odd spellings to make a kid seem unique but the name is still the same exact name, when the teacher is calling out for the eighth Katherine in class they're going to say it the same way. Or if the spelling is butchered bad enough its possible they'll stare at it before slowly saying out their guess at the pronunciation which may or may not correct. At least the kid will always know it's their turn to say here that way, but that's not necessarily a positive first impression to give, especially if the kid is shy. Some yooneek-ish spellings can be clever at times to create new trends in spelling (I imagine being unique is how Kathryn became more common) but it just gets so stupid sometimes.

sorrryyyy XD like I said, 'Zo' is just the first thing my brain sees no matter how hard I try to remind it 'no no no, that's ZoEEE you pronounce the E on it!' I know it has roots in the way I was taught to read and write and such, but I also know I have the deep held belief that language is what we make it so Zoe shouldn't cause me problems. Zoe and Schuyler (Skyler) - which is a city in New York but I bet it's someone's name out there too. Those are two names that I just can never read right the first time (Schuyler = Shoe-ler whenever I first read it).

This thread is so fascinating to see people talking about names n.n

I didn't mean anything by it! xD Like I said, I don't know why it irks me. Though I do see Zooey more like "Gooey" than "Zoey" lol. I know how that goes though, back when Harry Potter first came out my entire family had no idea how to pronounce Hermione and it was kind of weird once we had heard it the right way, to get into the habit of reading it differently.

Or like the pokemon Hydreigon. I read it as "Hydregion" at first and I probably still don't say it quite right but at least I spell it the right way now.

I honestly can't stand 'yoonique' spellings. Honestly, it even bothers me to spell unique like that. I don't like the look of it, lol. Certain unique spellings are fine though, as long as it's not something where it's just gone crazy. Like adding an 'h' on to the end of a name that would 'normally' end in a. I like the more traditional names as well, such as my own. Although I also have a liking for certain really different names, like my favorite girl name right now which is Paisley. As far as pets, I have two cats with traditional girl names (Holly and Emma), a fish named Zombie (totally not a human name lol), and a fish named Paca (could be a rn I guess, but it's a character from a book). I'm much more liberal with pet names than with names I would give a human.