Zook ultimately always leaves the naming decision up to me. He used to have strong opinions on the matter, but then he watched me suffer through childbirth with our first child and basically said, "Oh, sugar... you can name the baby whatever you want!" These days I have to pester him to figure out his opinion on the baby's name. "How do you REALLy feel about this name?" I find myself asking over and over. I guess secretly I'm just glad he lets me have my way. After all, the mom fills out the birth certificate and has the final say. That is, until the baby blessing where he could take that baby and bless her whatever tickles his fancy. Would that be binding? I've heard of people actually doing that. (Those people probably need couple therapy.)
Naming a baby is just too big of a responsibility! These little individuals should come with nametags! I mean think about it: there are currently 3 (almost 4) people on this earth who will forever be known as _____ just because I thought it would be a good idea. For the rest of their lives people will refer to them with ONE particular name - ALL THE TIME. They hear this name and their heads will turn to respond to it FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES! All of this... just because I made a flighty decision while sitting in a hospital bed - probably in shock from the entire ordeal, hormones all askew... and I went and made a life-long decision for this little person who had NO say on the matter? They will forever be associated with this name; this word. What gives ME the right? A professional should be asked to make these decisions.
Are you a professional? Can you help me? We have one particular name we've been thinking of since the very beginning of this pregnancy. I've told a lot of you what it is. But, before I throw it out there for the inevitable criticism, I would love to hear what YOU would name my baby girl.
So there you have it, friends.
Name my baby.
34 comments:
I don't know if I can give you many suggestions since I had the hardest time naming my little one and will have to name more someday. However, I will impart my rule of thumb in naming. I think you need to look past the baby stage in naming a child. Try really hard to think of them as being 20, 30, 50, etc. and being called the name you are thinking of. If it is a name that is good at any age, then you have a keeper. I guess you could call that a classic name.
You also have to think about the childs last name. I'm all about flow of a name. You have done a good job so far, so trust your feelings and pick what YOU like. You will know if it's right when you see her.
There's only one baby name for me theses days:
Shiloh Jolie
C'mon you know you want to use it.
;)
I say make a list of acceptable names and figure out which one fits. Although this never worked for me personally. :)
Some interesting (and unusual) girl names I have heard recently:
Hilde, Lyda (as is lie-duh) and also Lydia. I must say I also have a hard time coming up with names for my kids because I want them to have unusual names so that they don't end up in a class with four other kids with the same name. Such as 4 other Jennifers or Tiffanys or whatever (no offense to any who possess these names...)But one thing that is also important to me is that they have easy to spell and pronounce names-- unlike my name.
I really like the names you have picked for your other kids, so I am confident you will do fine and dandy. Wow, this is long-winded of me.
Oh, come on, just tell us! I hate suspense!
If I had had one more girl I would have named her Eliza. I also like the names Nora and Ella. I think it is a good idea to have two or three names ready that you like because you need to see who she is and what she looks like. It always seemed very clear what my children should be named after I saw them. I hope you all like your names, I still do!
Why, Emmeline Harris, of course.
Ah girl names.
I read on another blog somewhere out there, that Lucy was the favorite.
Yuck.
(I know, I am so unhip)
I like Nora and Ella too. I like Isabella, too.
I've named all my girls princess names. How tacky is that. Victoria and Aurora.
we'll see what the future brings.
Enjoy!
I have an Ella (the "original" (circa 1997)..before John Travolta, Ben Stiller...) and could NOT imagine her to be anyone else!
Next on my list would be Joy, and Lola...
Good Luck!
Wow- what a responsibility to pick out a name for someone ELSE's kid! Do we ever get to pick out our own names? Even nick-names usually get picked out by someone else. The great thing about naming your children is that it in some way makes them your own (even though we really all know we don't OWN them, right??) Kind of like how Adam had to name all the animals-- now THAT would have been difficult!! What if Eve didn't like her name and she was just being nice? Hmmmm. I actually have a friend whose father changed his name at the baby blessing-- I liked his name because I liked him. I am not sure if he ever really was happy about his name because of the circumstance in which is was given!! Anyway, enough of my blabbing-- you really made me think because I have am going to dub our first boy in a few months!! Whatever name you pick, I am sure it will be beautiful. Why not Sarah? :) (At LEAST for her middle name!!)
Naming kids is really hard. I love all sorts of names, but haven't kept to my "list" when the time came to name my daughter and son.
If we have another girl, I would love to use the name Amelia. But, see above, we would probably decide last minute on something else.
As for the people who love the name Ella, I love it too! Ella is my grandma's name (so she's even more of an orginal than those born before the celebs' kids) and we wanted to name our daughter that, but didn't think to mention it to anyone and a sister-in-law had a baby a few months before our daughter was born and named her Ella! Oh well!
Good luck!
Sorry, that above post was by me, Mary.
I hear ya! It's a big deal, and I am in the same boat... want to pick something good, something nice, but not what everyone else is doing. But also not so "out there" that my kid has to deal with a whacko name for the rest of his/her life.
I find the "Baby's Named a Bad Bad Thing" site very helpful (and entertaining!): http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/
I like Ella, but I would go with Eleanor. It's got nicknames, always vital, Ellie, Ella, but still a dignified name. I like Jacqueline. Both of those would go with the trend of your kids' names.
What happened to Alice?
The name game is so tough. My husband teaches third grade so every time I would toss out a name he would say, "I had her back in '95 and she was a pill!" Usually how it ended up was I would have a name in the very beginning and he'd hate it. So we'd go through the entire pregnancy thinking up names and not agreeing on anything. Then when the baby was born he's say, "How about [whatever name I'd picked from the start]?" Like it was his idea.
With my youngest I wanted a name other than the one everyone else (kids, hubby) preferred. It took me an entire year before I really felt he was the name on his birth certificate.
If I had another girl I would name her Katharine Elizabeth, after a friend. I would call her Kate. Kate is a good strong name for a girl.
Evelyn.
waverly jr!
I'm always reluctant to share my favorite names because my treasure may be your trash. My friend recently had a baby and almost named her Sadie which I thought was very cute. (the baby was named Jillian instead)
names I like
Kamber Rose but that's family names for us and since we didn't have a girl well you can have it.
I love the name Ella but my husband said if we ever used it people would say it was after Ella Fitzgerald who I really like. I also like Maggie Ann. Probably nothing on your list but hey there you have it. My neighbors children are named,
Victoria, Sebastian, Maximus, and Persiphanie(sp? greek goddess?) Totally not me though. :) Have fun
oohh...I've always liked Lydia, although I never thought about using it for my girls. I am quite content with Paige & Abby, though, thank heavens. :)
Amelia and Alice are quite wonderful, too.
I can't come up with anything original...thank heavens others came up with delightful name choices for me to give my opinion on.
Adam and I decided our baby's name by playing Rock Paper Scissor. Naming a kid seems like a big deal when you're sitting there with the huge baby name book but anything you name your baby will be sound totally normal after the first week. Seriously - just play "pick a hand" or something.
In real life I have a name that, upon hearing for the first time, people just feel the NEED to comment on and USUALLY make some kind of joke, followed by: "Is that your *real* name?" whereby I must reply: "yes".
I suggest that for both genders parents invision a head line which reads:
"________,head of state, went head to head with congress today on the issues concerning the U.S. international situation in Europe."
and also:
"_________, was arrested today after *alledgedly* proposistioning an officer outside of the *Gentleman's Club*, 3965 East Las Vegas Blvd."
Will your child's name fit better in the first sentence or the second? Will a newscaster be able to pronounce your child's name? Will children in your child's school mock them?(mock them, mock them, now we have to sock them!) Will their peer's parents fear inviting your child to a party because they won't be able to spell it correctly?
Names that sound like a child's pet, the village prince/princess from a foriegn country, or spelled "unique" do nothing for your child's future.
Trust me.
What ever you do will be great, but please for the love of EVERYTHING, don't give her a made up name.. :-)
We have named out kids w/ their other moms so we had input, but each of them are exactly what they should be. I am partial to Norah (wink). I also always wanted an Eliza but my hub said no.... and I have several friends called Ella (so, your mom has great taste...).
I like Alice...
I like Eliza, Ella, Alice, and Amelia. My sister-in-laws best friend is named Evalina (eva-leena) I think that's pretty too. I don't recommend Eunice, that's my middle name though most people don't have it and I do feel special with it now, as a child I got teased and feared the school bully would find out and that would be social suicide. ;) No pressure. :)
Believe me the dad can fill out the birth certificate! My DH filled it out with his first choice and submitted it while I was layed up in the hospital. Yes, we've had counseling;)
My brain is so not geared toward naming girls. Can't wait to hear what you've picked.
My vote is Eliza. It's a good name, I'm just saying.
I really want to know what S'mee's real name is. Can you arrange to get me that information, S?
Ok, can I be honest here? Just from reading this, I'm already sick of Ella. It's unfortunate bc I like Eleanor a lot. I don't care about people making fun. Only dumb people make fun of names. I like to think my kids could stand up to it anyway. I don't usually have a strong opinion on what someone else wants to name their kid--it's not my problem. It has to be pretty crazy for me to disapprove. (I know, that was so not what you asked for!) Good luck. My guess it it will be much like the other 3--at the last minute all previously mentioned names will go out the window, and you will announce something totally new--I can't wait to hear!
Emily, I actually like my name, it's just a name that begs questions and remarks (and is NEVER spelled like dear ol' ma spelled it). The important point is that making one's offspring "unique" in name or spelling just make's one's offspring a future target of some kind. Your kid will either hate you or get tough, perhaps both...i.e. "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash.
Okay, Suzie, the suspense is officially killing me. Please reveal!
p.s. S'mee-- I share Emily's curiosity about your name. I guess you aren't revealing either! ;)
I have been reading Smee for a long time and I have NO IDEA what her name is either. Maybe she will tell us if we each buy something from her three sisters shop...or give her a new Christmas tree...
Smee?
I love the name Katie or Kate or Emma. There you have it. If I ever conceive again, I'll just take the one you don't want.
How close is baby time?
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