Most of you know my love for all things English, but while traditionalism is the foundation of my style, I love modern elements and bold color. I think that’s why I’ve always been so drawn to David Hicks. This iconic, English designer of the mid-twentieth century created spaces for the rich and famous and royal and designed some very emblematic patterns for wallpaper the hicks hexagon being the most popular and carpet.
Through the world of social media I enjoy following his son, Ashley, and daughter, India. Ashley follows suit with his father’s style but brings even more geographic punch with his sculptures and custom furniture. And India, who splits her time between England and the Bahamas, designs beautiful beauty products and accessories. I’ll take the beetle bag, the backpack, and the weekender, please. India has four boys and one spunky little girl: Domino. Following along on Instagram, I’ve watched this cute little lady scuba dive and skateboard with her brothers and attend high-end events with her mother. She was named after the Bond girl in Thunderball.
When we got pregnant I started making a list. Since we didn’t find out the sex we needed to have an idea for both boy and girl names. Leonidas was our second choice for our first born almost eight years ago, and we both still liked that name calling him Nidas for short so that was an easy choice. But girl’s names have always been harder for us. With our first two pregnancies I ended up writing down lists of names and then giving that to Micah to go through on his own. He would cross off ones that were a no and circle ones he liked. Thinking about it on our own as opposed to together made it much less heated. Milly could have been about 100 other names but Camilla was the only one he really liked. This time around everyone just knew I was having a boy. I had a short list of girl names and had mentioned some of them to Micah, but we never really nailed anything down. Shortly after she was born we ran through the handful of names…Margaux, Rowena, Mavin, Blythe, Thisbe…but Domino was the one Micah loved the most well, he actually made faces at most of the other ones, ha.
We’ve certainly had some mixed reactions to her name, but I’ve never been one to go with the norm, so I expect that. In general, younger people love it and older people are a bit surprised, but get used to it. We think it suits her just perfectly.
How did you pick your child’s name(s)? Do you prefer traditional names or something a bit outside of the box?
Some images via Ashley Hicks.
Erin says
Like dog-naming, we emailed lists, crossing off ones we hated and adding ones we liked. When Will sent an email with “Darby,” traditionally an Irish boy name, I knew that was her name.
themakerista@gmail.com says
I love that! And I’ve always loved her name. 🙂
Kris says
I love hearing baby name stories! When I was prenant the first time and we didn’t know the sex, family inquired about names and when we shared, they seemed to want to offer their (negative) opinions. So, I learned early on to just keep it to yourself! The girl names that I liked at the time were Tatum (as in O’Neil) and DeLaney (Jimmy Buffet song). Well, we had a boy and named him Reece (21 yeas ago). My daughter is Regan (after a school friend and no, I never saw the movie The Exorcist!) and she is 18.I can’t imagine them with any other name and they are as unique and special as their names! Love your style and your kids’ unique names!
themakerista@gmail.com says
Thanks, Kris! You’re so right, everyone’s got their opinions!
Dianne says
Loved reading this. We are very “southern” so we gave our kids family names. That is very common in the south. My daughter’s fist name is my mother in law’s maiden name and my son is named after his father. It was easy for us because we loved these people and this tradition. Your baby is just precious!
themakerista@gmail.com says
I love that tradition, Dianne! Mae is after Domino’s very southern great-grandmother Johnnie Mae. 🙂
Brittany says
Love this story!!! Her perfect name was thoughtful and connects you to her in the best way.
themakerista@gmail.com says
Thanks, Brittany! I love your unique names too!
Rachelle says
– Lachlan is our first born (we also liked Angus). My husband is Scottish.
– Mahayla (pron. Mu-hay-la). I heard her name in my head long before having kids.
– Arabella (I had an old book I was given when I was 8yrs old & it was about a doll named Arabella). It was my favourite book when I was little. I had it rebound & gave it to Arabella for a birth present.
themakerista@gmail.com says
They’re all beautiful! And what a sweet gift!
Tara says
We (or I’ll say I chose and he agreed) to Isla after we found out we were having a girl when everyone and I thought it was a boy. We had two boy names picked that we loved so having two boys after our daughter were relatively easy knowing we already had two boy names. Everett and Easton are my boys and we tried to choose names that were different enough since our last name is so common ?
themakerista@gmail.com says
Great names, Tara!
Susan says
First, I love your style and have serious envy of how you have transformed your home. Oh, yes…Baby names and decision by committee. My husband vetoed all the names I loved for a boy. Finally, I just started reading off a list of names and when I got to “Arthur”, he said, “That’s it! I loved my Uncle Arthur.” We went with it since it was a bit different, but a name ‘people know how to spell’. Hah. My grandmother & aunt (a librarian!) consistently spelled it as Author! Then, our girl named Colleen Shae, same reasoning. Born a premie. Neo-doc kept referring to “Colon”and until finally, in full-blown anxiety, I asked what was wrong with her colon. Surprised, she was like ‘what? that’s her name, right?’
themakerista@gmail.com says
Thanks for following along, Susan! And Arthur is such a GREAT boy’s name! Strong and classic but not used much. Colleen is beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
Tricia Heliker says
My children were born in the early 70’s so name choices were a little different then. However, I picked a name for both my son and my daughter early in the pregnancy and then ended up changing both of them a few days before I gave birth. I feel like they chose their names and made it known to me at the last minute. My daughter is named Jodie and my son Scott. They are not family names and reference nothing in my life. They were just names that came to me and I knew they were exactly right.
themakerista@gmail.com says
Isn’t it funny how their names just kind of appear and then they end up fitting them?
Sr168 says
We went totally traditional – Alexandra and Edward – but strangely I have absolutely no memory at all of actually coming to a decision on either, they were just ‘there’!
themakerista@gmail.com says
That sounds like you didn’t stress over it, so that’s great! Both wonderful names!
Alicia says
I absolutely love Domino! We have two boys Arvid & Felan. Arvid was a family name (my husbands middle, his fathers first, so on) so that was a given. But with Felan I had a difficult time, we had settled on Lucas but I knew it wasn’t right. One week before he was born I came across Phelan but wanted my boys names to both have 5 letters (yes I’m a bit OCD, HA!) so I turned Ph into F and it was perfect!
themakerista@gmail.com says
Thanks, Alicia, and I love your unique names as well!
Julie Cyriacks says
She is adorbs!!! Love your blog, thank you for sharing your world. Sloan, Salem, and Sonny for my three girls and it took all 9 months each time to agree 🙂
themakerista@gmail.com says
Ha, glad we’re not alone, and your names are beautiful! Sonny, how cute!
Sarah Rojas says
Blending my husband’s Hispanic heritage and my southern roots wasn’t as difficult as I expected. We’ve always named the eldest son after the father so I just had to wrap my head around having the fourth Pedro (but we call him Tony after his middle name Antonio, and since Westside Story is my favorite movie it was the perfect compromise). Rosemary and Emmanuel came next and they were both family names that I love!! Emmanuel is about the same age as Domino, born November 3rd. I still can’t believe you did the ORC when you did! And it’s such a beautiful room too! Your pictures are always full of eye candy, thanks for sharing!
themakerista@gmail.com says
I love that, Sarah! Sometimes I can’t believe it either. 😉 Thank you for following along and all of the support, Sarah!
Ariel says
I love Margaux! We’re actually considering a different spelling (Margot).
I was familiar with India’s work, but not David’s (how on earth?!) so I’ve just spent 20 mins pinning the crap out of his work. Oh my goodness, there is so much colour and depth to his design.
themakerista@gmail.com says
If she would have been Margaux we probably would have called her Gaux. I saw a little French girl with that name and just thought it was so cute! Yes, his work is incredible!
Kathy Rohlfing says
We named our son Louis because he was born in Louisville, KY. We were going to call him Louie, but he was so big, he was more of a Lou. We have a difficult-to-spell last name so both of our children, Lou and Kay, have easy to spell first name.
themakerista@gmail.com says
I love that name and the story behind it!
Oksana | FOXYOXIE.com says
Such an interesting (and timely) read, as we’re expecting our first little one in July. My husband is Russian, and I’m Ukrainian, so finding a name with Slavic roots (yet one that is easy for Americans to pronounce – unlike mine, ha!) has been quite difficult… I do like the suggestion of giving the husband a list to cross off and circle in his own time, because it seems impossible to get a definite “yes” or “no” out of him in conversation.
Really cool to hear your thoughts on Leonidas. Leonid is a Russian name, and I’ve never seen the Leonidas version – which gives me hope that maybe there are American alternatives for my favorite Russian names as well!
themakerista@gmail.com says
That’s great to hear! And I love your name! I understand your desire for unique but something people can say and spell. I had thought about spelling Domino the french way, but knew that would make it more difficult. 😉
Geraldine says
I love the name Oksana too! What surprise me though, is that I am French and spelling “domino” just like you. What would be the other spelling? Just curious 🙂
themakerista@gmail.com says
I have seen it spelled Dominaux. But yes, Domino just makes it easier all around. 🙂
C.B. says
I don’t have children but my boyfriend has two. Him and his ex chose very traditional names. Their main concern was that the names should be pronounceable in both French and English (We’re in Canada and he’s what we call a Franco-Ontarian and his ex is from a French community in New-Brunswick so they both grew up speaking both languages). I’m from Québec and only spoke French growing up until I really immersed myself in English at 20 years old. Anyway, they chose William and Isaac (two boys) which are so mainstream it’s kinda painful 😉 Pretty much all the boys at their school are called the same two names. I’m more imaginative so if I have a child one day (I’m hoping for a girl), I would give her/him something more unique but also not crazy weird. I studied Japanese for years and I really like some of the names they have but I’d like it to be pronounceable in French and English as it’s my heritage.
themakerista@gmail.com says
I also like trying to give my kids names not everyone else has. Unfortunately, I had never heard of Xander…we call him that because he is Alexander but I have an Uncle Al and a brother Alex. We thought we were being original, but turns out there are lots of boys named that! And Camilla we call Milly. Again, didn’t know anyone with that name and now it’s popping up everywhere! I will be surprised if Domino makes it’s way to popularity though. 😉
Harmony says
I listed names while my husband said no….Until we came across ones that we instantly knew were right. Girls names were easier than boys!!
My husband has a European heritage (Dutch/German) so we wanted names to compliment that & our euro surname. They are actually both traditional French names but are completely out of the norm for here in Australia. Our eldest is Viené, (think of Vienna but no ‘a’ at the end) & our youngest is Anaïs (pronounced ah-na-ees). Both girls, both suit their names to perfection. If they were boys they would be Arden & Matthias….possibly…
themakerista@gmail.com says
Beautiful! I love the originality!
Karen says
We found out we were having a boy, then had a couple of conversations about names, & started a list. A few weeks later, wanting to revisit the conversation, I asked my husband ‘So what are we naming this kid?’
His reply: ‘Well I don’t know about you, but I’ve already decided.’
To which I said ‘Well were you going to let me know?!’
He says ‘Oh yeah, eventually.’
Me: ‘So what name then?’
Him: ‘Jonathan.’
Me: ‘Well you’re lucky then. That’s the one I’d decided on too!’
We did disagree on middle nme, I wanted Charlie, but in his mind, apparently it’s a man’s job to name his kids, so he vetoed with William. (I’m not opposed to William, but we weren’t going to do a family name. William is my late father’s first name, which not many people know since he went by his second name.)
Karen says
We found out we were having a boy, then had a couple of conversations about names, & started a list. A few weeks later, wanting to revisit the conversation, I asked my husband ‘So what are we naming this kid?’
His reply: ‘Well I don’t know about you, but I’ve already decided.’
To which I said ‘Well were you going to let me know?!’
He says ‘Oh yeah, eventually.’
Me: ‘So what name then?’
Him: ‘Jonathan.’
Me: ‘Well you’re lucky then. That’s the one I’d decided on too!’
We did disagree on middle name, I wanted Charlie, but in his mind, apparently it’s a man’s job to name his kids, so he vetoed with William. (I’m not opposed to William, but we weren’t going to do a family name. William was my late father’s first name, which not many people know since he went by his second name.)
themakerista@gmail.com says
That’s so great, Karen! I can’t say it’s ever been that easy for us, ha.
Haley says
I love story names! Domino is so fun and unique! I like older names and thought we’d name our first daughter Evelyn until I found the name Cora right before we found out she was a girl. When we found out we were going to have a second everyone assumed we’d name her Evelyn, but it never felt right for this baby. Before I ever found out I was pregnant Justina Blakeney commented on my blog and mentioned that she almost named their daughter Cora, but went with Ida instead… and that made me kind of think of the name Ida and I quietly added it to my names list. When we were naming our second daughter my man came to me one day and mentioned the name Ida (after his great aunt) so it was kind of meant to be because it was also on my list and the only name we ever agreed on.
Haley says
I meant I love name stories… 🙂
themakerista@gmail.com says
I love your names and the stories behind them too!