Firstly, I apologize that this blog does not appear to allow anonymous comments (i.e. have to have a Google or Blogger account). I'm not sure why this is, or why I cannot change it.
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This weekend we're trying to figure out one or a few girls' names that we can both agree on. I've had a book called something like 100,000 Baby Names for some time and I went through all the girls' names and picked ones that I liked or thought were okay. Darryl meant to do the same but only got to the Hs so far. I put all of those names into a list and each of us rated them (purely on sound, not spelling) on the scale: 0="I will never subject my kid to a name like that!", 1="don't really care for it", 3="meh... it's alright", 5="I really like it!".

Next, any names that either of us gave a 0 or 1 were eliminated from the list (unless the other person gave it a 5). So now we're on to round 2.

Here are the names that were eliminated in the first round:
(please don't laugh)

Aolani
Abeline
Addison
Adien
Adonia
Adora
Aida
Ailis
Akina
Alana
Alandria
Alexa
Alexandra
Alexandria
Amelie
Anabel
Angelina
Anjelica
Aria
Arista
Arleen
Ashanti
Aspen
Astrid
Aurelia
Austen

Badia
Bakari
Bashia
Bella
Blake
Blossom
Braeden

Calista
Cameron
Cara
Cedar
Celia
Celina
Celine
Christabel
Cian
Connor
Cordelia

Dagmara
Daphne
Darcy
Dawn
Deirdre
Delfina
Deva
Dhara
Dina
Dora
Dorian
Dylan

Eva

Faith
Faye
Felicia
Florence
Flora
Forrest
Freja

Gala
Geneva

Hailey/Halley

Ilana
India
Iris

Jaden
Jadzia
Jamani
Jana
Joelle
Juliet
Juno

Kaiya
Kalea
Kamea
Kasia
Keena
Kenya
Kiana
Kiara
Kody

Lea
Leif
Leslie
Linden
Logan
Lucelia
Lucia
Lydia

Mara
Margarita
Margot
Marika
Marla
Mattea
Mavis
Maeve
Meadow
Mika
Mila
Mira
Mirabel

Nadi'a
Naida
Naima
Natania
Nia
Nika
Niobe
Nova

Ocean

Pandora
Peregrine
Phaedra
Priya

Qadira
Qiana

Rashani
Reagan
Reia
River
Rosalee

Sabiya
Sadiya
Salima
Salvia
Sandrea
Sapphira
Saria
Sean/Shawn
Seda
Selena
Shadia
Shea

Tabitha
Tameka
Tahlia
Taryn
Taylor

Waverly
Wesley
Winnie

Xena

Yasmin

So now with these options gone, we are down to 196 potential names to choose from. Unless both partners have a few names in common that they really like from the get-go, I think choosing names can be very difficult. For one, it's very time-consuming to go through a book of 50,000 (approx.) girls' names. You start to lose objectivity after a while: all the names sound the same, or they sound great (when they're not), or they sound awful (when you may actually like them later). That's how "Aurelia" and "Delfina", among others, even got onto our list in the first place! And so it continues........