I like strong, but feminine female names. Names with long “a” sounds like Jane, and long “o” sounds like Lola evoke a confident air. I wanted my daughter’s name to sound like she should be taken seriously. (Would you vote for “Mindi” for president?)
Yet I also wanted her to possess a ladylike name. Women who have traditionally male names may run into problems when people can’t tell on paper if they’re male or female.
We had already used our favorite girl name on our first daughter, so it took a lot of consideration to come up with another girl name. Adding to the difficulty, I have many nieces. My siblings already used up many of the “good” names.
Drawing on family names can often yield a good idea, but I have only one aunt, and had already used a grandmother’s name as part of our other child’s name. I couldn’t even use the feminine form of a grandfather’s name since they had already been used by my siblings for their children.
After we tossed around many ideas, we decided on Naomi. The name is from the Bible’s Book of Ruth. She was Ruth’s mother-in-law and great-great-grandmother of King David. Naomi means “pleasant” which we liked. She has certainly lived up to her name with her sweet and friendly disposition.
Submitted by DJ
