Thread: Name Meaning

When you pick out a name for your child do you look at the meaning of the name as well? I am in love with the name Kennedy. DH and I have agreed that we will honor my Dad with the naming of this baby. His name is Kenneth. However, the meaning of the name Kennedy is "Ugly Head", "Armored Head", "Helmeted Head", etc. How can a such a pretty name have such an unattractive meaning? I am so frustrated because I don't want to name my child something that means "Ugly Head" but I cannot get past this name. What are your thoughts?

Wow, i love the name Kennedy too! For a boy or a girl! I have never thought about looking up meanings before... what a horrible meaning... where does that come from I wonder! When you say Kennedy, I think of the president of course... which for me is positive connotations. Now I want to look up the meanings of some of the names I like too.... :/

We look at the meaning. It's pretty important to us.

Originally Posted by sugspop

Wow, i love the name Kennedy too! For a boy or a girl! I have never thought about looking up meanings before... what a horrible meaning... where does that come from I wonder! When you say Kennedy, I think of the president of course... which for me is positive connotations. Now I want to look up the meanings of some of the names I like too.... :/

I love the name for a little girl. I mean I think it has more positive connotations especially given the Kennedy family and such but the meaning of the name is absolutely killing me. UGH.

With DS we looked up names by meaning, it was very important to us to have a strong meaning. Deacon (ds' name) means Servant (in a Biblical sense). We love that.

However, with this LO we really haven't talked about meanings at all. Actually, we haven't talked names much at all.

i had no idea kennedy meant that!!!! i wouldn't name my child that knowing the meaning.

i have no idea what Luke means. maybe i should look it up... but if its means something like Helmet Head i may wish i hadn't!

I love the name Deacon....

Anyway we find the meaning VERY important. We will not choose a name that does not have a strong meaning. We have turned down a ton of names because the meaning was strange or awful. I don't know what to tell you. Maybe try for a plan B and then decide later?!?!?

Originally Posted by joyjim

I love the name Deacon....

Anyway we find the meaning VERY important. We will not choose a name that does not have a strong meaning. We have turned down a ton of names because the meaning was strange or awful. I don't know what to tell you. Maybe try for a plan B and then decide later?!?!?

Thank you I still love the name as much today as I did when we picked it out.

I take a peek at the meanings when I look up names but it's most definitely not a deciding factor for me. That said, how about you look around at more websites with more meanings for the same name -- I find they're not all the same!

For instance, if you look up Kennedy on Wikipedia, sure, it talks about "ugly head" when looking at the Latin and Irish roots, but it also means fierce and pride in Scottish. It is unlikely it would EVER come up that someone would be all, "You know, your name little guy means 'uglyhead'." But, if it did, you can just say, "Nope, we're using the Scottish version of the same name."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_(given_name)

I definitely like the Scottish version better! LOL I may reference my book of baby names at home because I know it gives the different origin of the names and their meanings.