Friday, May 7, 2010

Show Us Your Life: Baby Names!


I don't typically participate in Kelly's (Kelly's Korner) weekly Show Us Your Life re-posts, but since this week's topic hit incredibly close to home, I figured I'd give it a whirl! This week is all about baby names and much to my dismay, Baby Boy M still remains nameless. Although, I will admit that I've already decided on his name and may or may not have used it outloud a few times, just to get a feel for it rolling off the tongue!



Hubs, however, still isn't quite as onboard the Baby Name Boat as I am. It's okay though. He's a man. And he doesn't have the awesome, albeit nameless reminder, kicking him in the ribcage 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. Hubs is pretty much a part of the camp that feels like, "Hey! we still have two and a half months until Baby gets here! What's the rush?" and therefore, isn't in as big of a hurry to get this little guy named. And I can sort of understand that. In a hurryupandlet'snamethislittleguytomorrow sort of way.



Don't get me wrong, this is certainly NOT a decision I've (we've) taken lightly. Naming your unborn baby is a HUGE life-changing decision. I mean, this kid is going to grow up with this name! He's going to learn to write it in kindergarten, sign it when he opens his first savings account, mercilessly write it atop countless college applications and as a successful mother, you hope that one day, it will be adorning the desk of his very own Fortune 500 company, right? Needless to say, it's a big deal.

Let's start with girl names. Why are girl names so much easier to come up with? Hubs and I had a list nearly a mile long when we first started discussing girl names and within a couple of weeks (we're talking major progress here, guys) we had narrowed it down to a couple of our favorites. Hopefully there will be a Baby Girl M in our future and we'll be able to bless her with one of these beautiful names:


Charlotte Allen: I've always loved the nickname "Charlie" for a little girl and who can forget one of the best childhood book's ever written, Charlotte's Web? Allen takes after my Dad but with the spelling changed up a bit, making it a little more feminine.


Kennedy Allen: Kennedy, a unique name and a reassurance that she'd be the ONLY Kennedy in her classes at school. Disclaimer: If we end up choosing to name our son the name I've settled on, Kennedy will be off the table, as it is also a President's name. Just like the boy's name we've (almost) chosen.


Sadie Allen: I just love, love, LOVE this name. Hubs vetoed it immediately stating that it's too close to "Satan." He makes me chuckle. I love Hubs. I've also learned that it's quite the popular pet name. Scratch that!


And just the other day, Hubs turns to me and says, "I really love the name Leigh for a girl." So I guess we'll add that to the running for future M babies. Potential middle name? Perhaps. However, Hubs? Let's focus on the unnamed baby that's currently tap dancing on my bladder, ok?


Whew. Boy names. Just the thought of them makes me sigh heavily and go weak at the knees. I can't tell you how many names I've rattled off to Hubs. In the car. In church. Over dinner. In the shower. Via text message. The list goes on and on. I've downloaded Baby Name Apps and purchased top-rated books. I've wrapped them up and gifted them to Hubs. I've rambled through hundreds of names via iPhone on long carrides to and from Maryland. And New Jersey. And Pennsylvania. One would think by now that ONE of those names would've stuck. Well, hopefully one has. But we'll see. Here's what's currently on (and off of) the table:


I'm a huge fan of family names. Well, wait. Let me clarify. Not so huge a fan as to continue the tradition of naming my son Hubs. L. the III. Thankfully Hubs, who is a Jr., isn't rallying for that or else I don't know what I'd do. Probably cry my eyes out. However, let it be known that I do love the idea of incorporating family history into the naming of our children.


Before I proceed any further, I'd like to point out that rattling off baby names with Hubs is like playing the word association game. I would throw a name out and he would immediately tell me the first thing that came to mind. You'll understand why I shared this with you the minute you begin reading some of my favorites:


Carter Joseph: Carter is my mother's maiden name. I LOVE this name. Years ago, I had figured it would be the name of a future daughter. However, the minute Hubs threw it out there, I was sold. Paired with Joseph (a family name on both sides of our families) I swooned over a little "C.J." I'm 99.9% sold on this name and ready to drive to the nearest craft store to buy the little wooden letters I plan to hang above Baby Boy's crib. Hubs? Well, he's about 89% sold.


Nathaniel Allen: Baby Nate. How much cuter could you possibly get? I just love it. However, Hubs? Not nearly as much.


Noah Carter: "What? Does he come with an ark? No. We're not naming him that."


Grayson Nathaniel: "Grayson is the name of a 40 year old African American lawyer. Our son is not 40. And as far as I know, he is not African American." Seriously. I LOVED the name Grayson and it was my NUMBER ONE pick for Baby Boy. Imagine my frustration when Hubs filled me in on his opinion! Silly husbands.

Here's a couple of names that I thought had a nice ring to them. Not to mention, they sounded pretty awesome in combination with our French-inspired last name:

Mac: "We are not on CSI. Next..."


Miles: "That's a dork name. We are not naming our son a dork name."


Like I said earlier, every day it's like we're playing that god-awful word association game. It's okay though. I gave Hubs a taste of his own medicine with the few names he threw out into the mix.


Jeffrey: "Makes me think of Jeff Gordon. And although we live below the Mason Dixon line, this is NOT acceptable."


Gerald: "Listen, I know you have a buddy from work named Gerald. And it might be cool to call him "Gerry." But we are NOT naming our son that. End of story."


David: "And Goliath? That is not a cool name for a kid. Plus, I used to get bullied by this kid named David on the bus growing up. Too many bad childhood memories."


So there you have it. Our favorite baby names. Wish us luck. Share your baby-naming drama. Let me know how you and your Hubs agreed on a name. Email Hubs and tell him it's not up to him. Whatever you do, just pray that Baby M has a name soon!


Happy Friday!





15 comments :

  1. Hahahaha...I rarely actually laugh out loud while reading blogs...but I definitely did on this post! I really like both Grayson and Carter. Very original without being too weird {like Apple}. Hope you can convince the Hubs to agree with you soon! And hopefully one day we can both have little Charlottes running around!!

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  2. Oooh I love Carter. So stinking cute! :) I'll come and rally hubs if I have too!

    Also... my cousin just named her baby Grayson and he is the CHUBBIEST baby ever! OH MY GOOD GOD! He is 25lbs at 6 months... I still think it is cute though :P

    Can't wait to hear what you two pick!!!

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  3. We have the opposite problem in my house - I have a ton of boy names I like and no girl names. Of course my very much Italian husband wants to name his son Anthony Salvatore. Our last name is a very Italian name complete with an "elli" at the end. Can you say future mob boss? No thanks.

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  4. Picking names is hard. We are 99% set on names but who knows if that could change. It's such a big decision. I want to have ours set when we find out the sex, in 2 months, so I can call it something other than it!

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  5. Oh my goodness! All the choices! We discussed some of your favorites too. This is one of the hardest decisions ever isn't it?

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  6. We played the exact same name association game when we were choosing. We eventually settled on Tristan (think Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall) and Vivienne (like Vivienne Leigh or Julie Roberts in Pretty Woman - though spelled differently). I definitely understand the urgency you're feeling to put a name to the nudges and I was lucky that we were settled on one of each by the time we had our ultrasound.

    BTW, I really liked Grayson too, but Hubs vetoed it because his cousin has an ex-husband named Grayson and he was an alcoholic.

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  7. HAHAHAHA!!! I totally laughed out lous at my desk at work reading this. I LOVE the name Grayson & Carter. Good luck convincing your hubbs on your awesome choices/suggestions ;)

    And I noticed you're 27 wks today. Um.... HELLO 3RD TRIMESTER?!?!?!

    We need a post on that STAT-including a belly shot plllease!! kthanks.

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  8. Oh my gosh we're married to the same man. Every name I threw out for Baby Girl got this type of reaction from Hubs. And he said the same thing about Noah- "does he have an ark?!". I was so frustrated!!

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  9. Haha typical guy! I love Carter...very cute :)

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  10. I was laughing out loud reading this post. We have similar debates in our house over our *futue, hypothetical* children. And I'm talking debates that end with an "agree to disagree"....I'm very worried for us :) I can't wait to hear what you all decide on!

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  11. I am glad my husband wasn't that way! I told him the boy name I liked and approved it instantly! However, one thing he hasn't caught on to was that it will be the same initials as my dad.. I am so sly! The girl name I liked included his grandma's name.. and he didn't like it! I was surprised.. luckily we are having a boy!

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  12. I feel your pain. My husband vetoed every last boy name I suggested...and the only one he came up with was Chuck. As in Norris. Umm....no. So when we found out we were having a boy I knew I was in for a battle. Thankfully we agreed on one...though some days I'm not so sure he's 100% on board. It's almost like he just gave in cause he was tired of talking about it. This is making me have a hard time fully embracing it. Who knew this would be so hard!

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  13. That sounds all too familiar! At Hubby's insistance, all of our children have family names. I tried to get out of having our first son be a "Jr", but I didn't succeed! As for the other two, one of our twins' names was easy (we both agreed with no doubts), but for the other I had to wear Hubby down. He LOVES it now, but it took time to grow on him.

    Good luck deciding!

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  14. Allen is my dad's middle name and our girl's middle name too!!

    We have several names that are options for our way-in-the-future child, but they're all family names. Some variation of people in our family. For us, it's harder to argue over a name if there is a person we love that future-baby could share that with.

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