Monday, January 30, 2006

What's in a Name?

Last weekend, my loving husband and I sat down to discuss names for baby #3. For us, this is one of the fun parts of waiting.

Since trying to conceive (February 2000), we have been talking about baby names. True to our analytical natures, we started by creating 2 lists of agreed-upon, acceptable names - one for boy names, and one for girl names. The lists were around 15 names each (I think that must be a record - most couples we know can barely come up with one name that both parties can accept). Every six months or so, we would individually rank the lists, and compare results to see if we were on the same page. Some names were always at the top of the list, while others never really made it (I guess we're never going to have a "Brennan" or a "Natalie," and poor Mark will never have his little girl "Cori").

When we were "matched" with an expectant mother for the first time (the spring before Abby arrived), we decided that we needed to hunker down and decide on the name of our baby. We ranked the names again, and chose the top 3 boy and girl names based on our ranking. We spoke every name with our last name. We spoke every name with the middle names. I looked up the meanings of the names (which Mark thinks is a dumb reason to choose a name, but I like to have as much information as possible when making a decision). "Ethan" came out as the obvious boy name. The girl name was a bit more difficult. We were debating between #1 name and #2 name; Mark preferred one and I preferred the other [they were derivations of the same root name]. After much discussion, and analyzing all three names again, we both chose the #3 name. So "Abigail" it was! I loved the meaning - "My Father Rejoices" - it sold me.

6 months later, Abby received her name. 9 months after that, we still loved "Ethan," so the decision was easy (and we knew he was a boy from the time we were matched, so we didn't have to come up with a second girl name). Simple!

Almost 2 years later, we are deciding again. Some of the names from before are still there, with a couple new ones. Our lists this time were only 9 names long. And our decision process only took a couple of hours. We lived with the decisions for a day, and still love the choices - and even tried them out with the kids (it's so cute to hear the names mispronounced by two toddlers - priceless.) It looks like Baby #3 has a name!

The middle name of Baby #3 will either be Jennifer or Paul, after his/her Godparents (good friends of ours for the last 5 years or so). Since baby #3 is most likely going to be the "baby" of our family, I will share with you some of the name choices that didn't make it. Maybe you'd like to click on the "comments" link and venture a guess as to the names we chose?

Girls
Kathryn (Katie): We both love it, but Katie is very popular. We would like something a little less popular.
Sarah: Love it for its classical simplicity, but just didn't sound right.
Bethany (Beth): Mark really doesn't prefer "Beth", and I have to have my nickname!
Deirdre: This is my middle name, and we love it for that. But it doesn't really "go with" Abby and Ethan.
Paige: We always liked "Paige," but it's too trendy for our more classical tastes.
Elizabeth (Libby): We absolutely LOVE "Libby," but I can't have an "Abby" and a "Libby" in the same house (sounds like twin names)

Boys
Gabriel (Gabe): We always liked it, but it didn't make the cut :)
Matthew (Matt): Mark prefers "Matthew," I prefer "Matt" (me likey my nicknames).
Justin: We always liked it, but it didn't make the cut :)
Judah (Jude): I like both forms, but Mark doesn't like Judah at all. Actually, he doesn't like Jude much either. It's obvious I control the list, isn't it?
Micah: I put it on the list because I like it and it's unusual, but Mark pretty much can't stand it. List-master gets shot down again!
Tristan: We both like it a lot, but I thought it might be a little too self-serving to name my son after me.

I hope this satisfies some of your curiosity (that means you, Jennifer Ann!) Up until now, we have never given even a hint of a clue as to our name choices. I guess I'm getting more lenient in my old age :)

9 comments:

Mark said...

I'm going to guess "Sven" for a boy and "Shanaynai" for a girl.

Oops.... I have revealed too much!

Grace said...

I like Noah for a boy and Sarah for a girl. Or, you can take the easy route and name it Lynn if it's a girl, or Lynn if it's a boy. :)

Or, my personal favorite, Alfred E. for either. :))

Anonymous said...

Though I'm REALLY partial to Shanaynai, how could both of you completely miss the vowel pattern you've already started?

It's gonna have to be Ian or Irene!

Anonymous said...

Who cares what the first name is...you gotta love those middle names!! I say we start a new tradition and use the middle name as the nickname.

Anonymous said...

We will love any name, as long as it's not a variation of auBREEanna, ERICk, or BOBbi! We already have enough of those.

Trista said...

Bobbi:

It's funny that you should say that! We debated [before Abby was born] about having an Eric/k. It would have definitely been our first choice - but as hard as I tried, I couldn't convince Mark to bring a third Eric/k into our immediate family. Sigh. He wouldn't even go for a new spelling ("Erick") to be different - he said "Erick" doesn't sound any different than "Eric" or "Erik". It was long debated, though!

Anonymous said...

Victor or Veronica! Now how great would those sound with VV? ;-)

Tracy said...

Deirdre does too "go with" Abby and Ethan! If you both love it, go for it (unless it's a boy, and then you want to think twice about Dierdre, I guess). Our girls ended up being Taylor and Carly -- since then, we've said all we need are two boys and we could have all four: James Taylor AND Carly Simon.

Anonymous said...

♥ I kinda like the name Larkin (for a boy). or Larkyn (for a girl). or Larken (for either)