As I've referenced before, picking out a name for our baby girl has proved harder than I expected. Ya know that part in The Neverending Story when Bastian has to save the dying princess in the make-believe world by giving her a name? I'm waiting for that to happen. One night, we'll be having an apocalyptic storm and the house will be shaking and falling apart and suddenly we'll hear some name yelled over the claps of thunder and that'll be the name of our baby and all will be quiet and still. [Although, as many times as I watched that movie as a kid, and as many times that we rewound that part, I still have no idea what name he yells out.]
The issue that I'm having is that I don't feel emotional about any names. There are plenty of names that I like and even love, but when I try to picture my beautiful little baby girl for the first time and calling her... [fill in the blank], nothing seems... IT. Plus, what if I regret the name we pick? My goal was to pick a name fairly early in the pregnancy and use it as much as possible so we would know how we liked it. Clearly that plan failed.
One thing I thought might make it easier is to narrow the pool of possibilities. I knew I didn't want something super common but also not something totally made-up and weird. Instead of reading through the Mother of All Baby Name Books with its 5 million names, I wanted to pick a theme. I thought it a good idea for our children's names to mean something. Not like "Irish for beautiful rainbows and sunshine on a spring morning". I wanted them to reflect parts of who Jericho and I are and things that are important to us. I'm fine using family names and we intend on using family names as we see fit but, no offense to any of my extended family, we have really, really boring family names.* They get the last name, that's a family name right?
These are some of the themes we've come up with and the possible names for each with boys and girls names. Some of these are serious considerations, some of them half-serious, and some of them not serious at all but are kind of funny [plus we don't want our kids to hate us]. Feel free to make any suggestions [serious or not]. But know that if you suggest Emma or Lily, I will not be taking it seriously.
Novels/Literature:
Holden
Sydney
Scout
Finn
Phoebe
Sawyer
Classic Rock:
Zeppelin
Stone
Vaughan
Jett
Jett
Vintage autos:
Shelby
Hudson
Austin
Studebaker ("Stu")
Saline
Zephyr
American History:
American History:
Quincy
Abigail
Abigail
Jackson
Tecumseh
Ulysses *Smith family fun fact: my paternal grandfather's name is Charles Norris Smith. He went by "Chuck".
*Belcher family fun fact: some woman in the family tree's last name is Rambo.
If we have twin boys, they will be Chuck Norris Belcher and Rambo Belcher. Ya know, because they're family names.
Zephyr should also be under rock because it is a Chili Peppers song. That might even be reason enough to use it.
ReplyDeleteOk, first off... does the purple/pink color mean anything? ie. Names you're considering vs. names you're joking about? That aside, I'm loving Holden. Really. Austin's cute too. That's my two cents.
ReplyDeleteI totally dig Zeppelin and Quincy. Those are AWESOME girl names!
ReplyDeletePhoebe for a girl, Phoebo for a boy! :)
ReplyDeleteI assume the Blue names are for boys and the pink are for girls.
ReplyDeleteTecumseh is an interesting name for sure, love the translations, but a bit difficult to say. As someone with what I thought was a fairly simple name to pronounce (first AND last) watch out for really difficult names to pronounce...your child will be annoyed by every teacher and classmate and supervisor at work they ever have except the one or two that actually say it correctly.
Out of your selection for girls I really like Abigail, Phoebe, and Shelby. Austin would be kinda cute as a girl's name as well as a boy's name. I have a list somewhere...of all the girl and boy names that I ever decided I liked since I was about 12...seems a bit useless since I went from wanting 12 kids as a child myself to wanting none as an adult. My favorite boy's name though is from the bible. Boaz :-) HAHA poor kid not to mention I want to mix it in one way or another with Ulysses.
Anyway, I'm praying you two have twin boys because I want to meet Chuck and Rambo one day!
No routine ultrasounds back in the day. If Jericho was not a Jericho, he was going to be Aria or Elena (Ah-lay-nah). Aren't you glad he turned out to be a Jericho James? I like the name Jane, because it's strong, but definitely a female name.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I have to say that we had Giovanna's name picked out three years before she was born: she had no say. So, we used it all throughout the pregnancy, and then the second she was born she was Giovanna. Truth be told, when she came out and looked exactly like an Eskimo child with a big puffy face and a fringe of black fur, I thought, "oooohhhh, hmmmm" but she has SO grown into her name! I often hear that people want to see their child and then name the name that their child looks like, but honestly, your child will not look in the first few hours or days like the beautiful little girl she will grow into. So wait, or choose now, but whatever you choose, you will raise a girl that fits her name. Promise.
ReplyDeleteMy putting my two cents in for Scout. I like Scout, as in To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout. I like her a lot. Though the true meaning for her name may get lost in all the Boy Scout stuff.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm waiting for Chuck and Rambo! They must be coming next...
Dani California is on my Rock 'N' Roll list. :)
ReplyDeleteWe put all the names we liked in an envelope and picked two out (a first and middle name) repeatedly, and just weeded them out one at a time on our 4 hour drive to get our baby. You feel like 9 months isn't enough time to pick out a name? Try a day. :) We narrowed it down to a couple and waited until we met her. I think it helps to meet the baby first.
Also, my sister Julie really wanted to name her baby girl Kensington. She was nervous that the baby would end up with the nickname Kensy and that's so confusing with all the sea of McKenzie's out there now. So her back up names were Olivia and Audrey. She liked Olivia better. But felt Audrey Olivia sounded better than Olivia Audrey. So her daughter's name is Audrey Olivia. And she doesn't like it. She wishes she would've stuck with Kensington. I never knew people could regret their children's names. But it is possible. Sad. Go with your gut.
P.S. Are you really thinking of naming Baby Bel after the Catcher In The Rye protagonist?
ReplyDeletePortia, not this baby but for a boy. The theme lists are for both boy and girl names...
ReplyDelete