Ahhh, what a dilemma. We do plan on naming our child at some point, preferably before she greets the world, but I give you no promises.
Here's my criteria in naming our child:
- No gender neutral names (so all the suggestions on naming her "Taylor" after my maiden name are off the table)
- No unique spellings (because her name will always be misspelled)
- Not too common (I grew up with dozens of "Jennifers" and have personally been in two weddings where the bride's name was Jennifer Marie)
- No name that we don't liked shortened, because I know she will shorten it at one point (i.e. Katie for Kathryn)
- We will call her by her first name (how many of you know that Craig's first name is Jereld? Well, correspondence is difficult when you go by your middle name)
I really like the name Abigail, however, I recently discovered that it's like the 7th or 8th most common girl name for the past few years. I was kind of surprised to read this. I don't hang around 2-year-old children and had no idea the name was so common. Craig likes the name, too. He says it grew on him. We may be back to the drawing board on this one.
I also like Scarlett. Now, while I know that name isn't common, it doesn't doesn't exactly conjure up warm fuzzies for most people. Margaret Mitchell didn't really paint her leading lady with the best qualities. And then there's Nathaniel Hawthorne's Hester. While her name was not Scarlett (and the spelling is different), the name itself does remind people of adultery. Still, I think it's a beautiful name.
We do have a short list (that we keep adding to) at this point...but stay tuned, because we really don't have a name for her yet.
14 comments:
We have similar criteria in picking our names. I have another suggestion for you-once you pick it, keep it to yourself until it's on the birth certificate. We picked a girl's name right away, and I got tired of hearing people's reactions and commentary. But that's just me.
My husband and I are comletely stumped on a boy's name, especially since I like names he considers feminine-Dana for one-and he only likes two names, Jack and Henry. D'Artagnan, anyone??
Good luck!
Yep, we are the same way too! Except, we didn't realize just how popular "Noah" had become until after we had picked his name {and it was the only one we could agree on}. Ellie's name {Eleanor} had been one that I had picked out since my pregnancy with Noah and luckily, Ben likes it too.
It's so hard to choose names. Good luck and I can't wait to hear what you decide on - I'm sure it will fit her perfectly!
My mom and aunt both go by their middle names. It does help in quickly identifying telemarketers.
My current favorite name (for whatever it is worth) is Lia-but, alas it violates the weird spelling rule.
We were actually talking about y'all last night at dinner. My dad was saying how he has enjoyed reading your blog-especially the saga of the box springs. Then we got to talking about baby names and all the names my parents discussed when naming my sister.
I wanted her to be named Emily Elizabeth (after the protagonist in the Clifford books). That would have made her Emily Elizabeth Ehrhardt. Clearly 7 year olds don't know much about naming children.
Katie - I love the fact that your dad reads the blog! I often wonder who in the worlds reads it besides those who comment :-) I know general areas where hits occur, but I have no idea who those hits actually are!
Going to a birthday party in July for an Abigail (Abi). She's going to be 3. Older names do seem to be popular right now... Recently in our friends and family, then names have been (in no particular order)...
Abigail, Madeline, Rosalie, Sophia, Hannah and Lily.
And we still don't have a name. I'm at the point where if we do decide, I'm leaning towards not telling anyone.
Our Sunday School has been bursting with babies the past 2-3 years. Our school also seems to have something in the water. Current girl names:
Audrey, Sarabeth, Lily, Lauralyn, Blythe, Samantha, Ellie, Caroline, Kalea, Avery, Madalyn, Mackenzie and Payton.
I think that no matter what you pick, you will suddenly become aware of all the other people in the world who have that name-whether it is really that many or not.
I read your blog, too, Jennifer!
Yes, my sister and I have always gone by our middle names and while we both like those names it has always been a real pain. I determined before I was ever pregnant that my children would be called by their first names.
When we chose the name Katie, that was the name we wanted and planned to call her. We named her Kathryn to give her a more sophisticated option should she ever want it, and it's my sister's first name. We knew only one other Katie at the time, but like our Katie said above, once we named her that we met all sorts of little girls named Katie!
Maybe you could use Taylor as a middle name?
For what it's worth, my current favorite name is Addison, shortened to Addie, but that violates the gender neutral rule and the shortened rule!
Looking forward to your baby's arrival, whatever her name turns out to be!
Leigh Ehrhardt
we are four hours apart, my friend! Greg and I are jonesing for some Ikea, so we may make a weekend of it sometime after the 4th and also hit Six Flags...if we can do it, we'd love to squeeze you in!
Please don't give your girl a princessy name or an old lady name. Give her a name she can play soccer or join ROTC with!
I will tell you your best bet is just to look at her when she gets here. She can tell you best what her name will be ;)
Ok, I wasn't gonna chime in but now I have to. True: you will notice other little girls with the same name whether or not it really is that "common" or not. :-) Agree: keep it secret until it's on the birth certificate (or you know they're born - we still don't have our 4 year old's birth certificate, stupid paperwork)... with that said, my girl name was always and will always be Laelia Mae. BUT, as you know I had three boys and ended up with some uncommon names for them but still not gender neutral. I'm not saying you should go with that name at all, just putting it out there in commentland. Girly names in our circle of playgroup friends are pretty common: Katelyn, Audrey, Lauren, Matilyn, Braelyn, Jenna, Ella and not so common: Gracen, Ainsley, Grier, Evan (yes, for a girl) Addie (don't know what that's short for maybe Addison?)
If I had three girls, they'd likely have been Laelia Mae, Bronwyn Rebecca, and Gladys Aileen.
(meant to mention Gladys was my great-grandmother (so an old lady name!) but her nickname was Happy Butt which is why I'd have wanted that name)
I forgot to mention our friends in atlanta just named their daughter Harper.
Yay! Names! We have never officially decided on a girl's name. It wasn't that we couldn't agree- we could never pick one that was 'it!' Currently I like Audrey, Genevieve and Gywneth. And I don't know that I'd shorten those, despite my boys using their nicknames about 75% of the time. You know I've never shortened my name...lol. My only criteria for the nickname thing was that we had to really like the nickname and that they would be called by both names....since I often had to correct people and won't answer to anything other my full name. (Guess I wanted to keep things easy on my own kids.)
Some of the little girls I know.... Ellen, Sarah, Evelyn (Eva), Lydia, Addison (Addie), Jessica, Madison (this one is like, crazy popular...seriously...it has to be the new Jennifer!), Beatrice (Bea), Alice, Joelle (I like this one...but we want to use Joy as a middle name and I don't think I like the combo), Kallie, Kaylea, Lillian, Madeline, Mariella, Annika....
I like the suggestion of waiting until she's here to reveal the name. We did that, and while we might not with our adoption, I'm glad we kept it a surprise (and also avoided any unwanted criticism...no matter how subtle!)
didn't read all the comments, only wanted to chime in and say my favorite girl name is Lorelai Grace. Yes from gilmore girls, but I just LOVE how it sounds. Eric has ruled it out...but if I carry our 3rd child, and it's a girl, maybe I can wear him down :)
Hi Jen!!
Congratulations! Obviously, it's been a long time since I read your blog. I've been so off the radar lately.
I just wanted to tell you I'm so excited for you and Craig! That's going to be one lucky, beautiful little girl. Good luck naming her.
David and I already have names planned, even though it'll probably be another three to four years before we start trying.
One thing I have told my friends who are pregnant and struggling with names, check out this Web site: www.babynamewizard.com/voyager
If you have a name you really like, you can type it into the voyager, and it'll show you a chart of the name's popularity for both boys and girls over the last fifty or more years derived from census data.
When I was in school, every third girl was either Megan, Lauren or Crystal. Maybe this can help!
Good luck!
Emily (Ingram) Kaye
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