And true to form, the latest hood I'm playing (Ashville, a populated hood available on MTS) is having a baby boom and some truly "special" faces (think Ottomas and aliens). I've randomly named them things like Ugly Girl and Fishbreath.. maybe when they grow up I will find some redeeming quality to name them after... like Trollop.

Sometimes names just come naturally, but if not, I just get a baby name book from the 1980s I got at the thrift store (for this exact reason), go to the female or male section depending on the baby's gender, flip to a random page, and the best name on the page, I'll choose. I've had some strange names that way, but it's been a while, so I couldn't tell you which ones stood out off the top of my head.

My current neighborhood is set in the Stone Age (or at least I try it to be). I like etymology, so one day when I read about ancestor languages I found a theory that says that all languages alive today are, if you go back long enough, in the end just dialects of one single original human language. It's called Borean and it's supposed to be spoken in the Stone Age. Then I found a site about Borean, with even some (reconstructed) words. Now I use those as names. To make clear who is male and female, I added two prefixes, one for males and one for females. Now all their names start with the same gender specific three letters which is a bit confusing sometimes haha.

I've lately been using this random name generator to generate names based on combined versions of the parents' names. I don't always see the combos, tbh, but I like that the names have a family origin.

Some examples:
Buzz Grunt and Kristen Loste: Suze Grunt
Tank Grunt and Almeric Davis: Magnus and Turner Grunt
Johnny Smith and Ophelia Nigmos: Jeannie Nigmos (ok, that's mostly Johnny's name, but I think that's what he intended)
Mickey Dosser and Frances J Worthington III: Maria Worthington III
Crystal Vu and Erin Beaker: Clara Vu
Ajay Loner and Lola Curious: Jonah Loner

You can also generate names based on the meaning of the parents' names. I think (???) that's where I got Ailfrid Beaker from, although maybe I picked it because it just sounds like a Beaker name.

I think most people who recognize my name here know I can't resist a pun name.

The latest casual neighborhood, however, was conceived when I thought: "Adam and Eve and Pinchme Tite..." and from there it snowballed a bit. I started with four three-adult households in identical houses: Adam, Eve, and Pinchme Tite; Odin, Frigga, and Loki Aesir; Rabbit, Raven, and Coyote Trickster; and Medb, Eochaid, and Aillil Llyr. A married couple and a spare in all cases, but instead of a sibling to the head of household, Aillil was Medb's live-in side woohoo. That household all got permanent anti-jealousy potions. I made different "cultural rules" for each household, mostly involving gender roles and modes of generating food and income, allowed no birth control, and started experimenting.

Adam and Eve's children are Chava, Cain (the sweetest boy in the hood), Rachel, Leah, and Abel (he keeps getting into fights.) Odin and Frigga's children are Baldur, Thor, Frey, and Freya. Rabbit and Raven's are Antelope, Bear, Wolf, Corn Tassel, and Squash Blossom. Medb's children with Eochaid are Mairne and Bran; with Ailill are Cormac and Nest (the only girl and therefore the heir); with Odin is Niall; and with Loki is Oisin. Loki married Pinchme and their children are Hardur and Idun; finding out about Loki's affairs led to Pinchme having a revenge child, Salome, with Aillil. Coyote had Crow with Loki before marrying Aillil, who gave her Salmon and Bunting.

Now that the first-borns are adults, Chava and Bear have a boy named Heron, Antelope and Mairne have two girls named Otter and Egret, and I expect Nest to have her child by Wolf during today's play and will decide the name on the spot, but Wolf has already had his half-alien daughter, Moon Rabbit. I'm really pleased with the name Moon Rabbit.

I only do pun names/silly names in challenge hoods etc. For my realistic hood, I try to go for names I feel fit the parents, since they, after all, are naming the child!

I use a variety of baby name websites, books, real people, social media etc.

Sometimes I'll look to historical figures for inspiration e.g. famous scientists.

Sometimes I just pick something that sounds nice or seems to fit the other children in the family.

In my biggest hood because I keep everyone in a spreadsheet, I try not to repeat first names, and I can quickly check this by typing it into the spreadsheet and seeing if it's already been used. That doesn't prevent a townie or NPC from spawning with the same name and potentially getting married in, but that's OK. Once someone has died, their name is fair game to recycle.

I also have a big hood and like my sims to all have different names so I can keep them straight on stuff like Visitor Controller. I have a bunch of different themes for families to narrow it down.

The Mayers were one of my founding families
Gen 1 had T names- Tom and Tiffany
Gen 2 all P names- Porter, Preston, Parker, Penny, Paige, Patrick, Peter
Gen 3 all have L names- Liam, Landon, Lillian, Lorelei, Leighton, Logan, Lachlan, Lainey, Lottie, Langston, Lucian, Lindley, Lowell, Lola, Liza, Leila, Lacy, Lisette, Landry, Levi, London, Laken
Gen 4 M names- deep breath Mason, Myles, Maxwell, May, Monte, Maelie, Maya, Mariah, Mayer, Madison, McKinley, Madeline, Morgan, Myra, Mikayla, Melina, Monroe, Matthias, Mackenzie, Malcolm, Michael, Malone, Malia, Magnus, Meora, Marsden
Gen 5 J names- Juniper (just born!)
Sometimes it works out pretty cool, like Landry Mayer and Mayer Whitney both have their mother's maiden names and still stayed on trend. May London is named for her grandmother Mei, McKinley is named for her grandmother Kinley. Malcolm is the grandson of Malcolm Landgraab and became Malcolm Landgraab V.

The Wong family have 4 letter names- Theo, Kaia, Ruby, Ezra, Jude, Wren, Cora, Suri, Finn, Rumi, Lulu, Sage, Rowe, Opal

Some families have a tradition where the first born son takes their father's name and they get a suffix added to their name. I'm up to III and IV in a few of those families.

Rusewicz family- I started with A, B, C and continued with the grandkids and just reached Z

Dustin Doyle has kids named after rock stars Jagger, Lennon, Cherie, Bowie

Jagger Doyle's kids all have verb names- Rebel, Piper, Dash, Echo, Chase, Scout

Violeta Salvatore's first daughter was named Rosa, Rosa named her first daughter Dahlia, and Dahlia named her first daughter Azalea

Francisca Martinez named her daughter Stella, then had Aura, Nova, and Halo. Stella's kids are named Orion and Apollo

My cult commune gives their kids nature names

I usually only struggle when the family has a bunch of kids and I'm trying to find a name that flows well with the other siblings AND hasn't been used by another sim

My current play is a tropical island. I have a Polynesian namelist for townies. Playables are (so far) in three clans/tribes....
- Hunter clan gets names relating to animals and earth (Boar, Bunny, Bristle, Clay).
- Planter clan gets names relating to plants, water, seashells (Moss, Thorn, Ginger, Beach).
- Temple clan gets names relating to gemstones, metals, fire and air (Ruby, Steel, Zephyr). The head of Temple clan is theoretically the boss of everything, and their name becomes First Disciple.
One day there will be European castaways, or possibly an alien incursion. With different naming conventions.