People ask us what we're going to name our little boy and, well, we still have no idea. This is a problem because he could come in the next month sometime and we're really not much closer to picking a name we like than we were four months ago.
Some of you have heard of our joking names: Conan (like the Barbarian) or Jebediah Obadiah Zephaniah Taylor III. Some of you have heard of the real possibilities we have discussed: Caleb, Eli, and Noah, and most recently, Caelan. The first three stopped appealing to me so much when I ran into a friend whose wife is pregnant with their second baby boy. I asked if they knew what they were going to name the baby and this friend said, "Oh, we've tossed around names like Caleb . . . and Eli." Feeling that these names might be in vogue at the moment, we looked online and found that all three Biblical names were in the top-listed names of use for 2007.
The last name, Caelan, has lost some appeal since we met my mom's cousin at the family reunion. He is also named Calyn (spelled differently, pronounced the same), so Patrick asked him how he liked his name. We'd had people tell us it sounded too much like Kaitlyn, but it had more impact when he said he didn't care for it too much because his older brothers were always telling him it was a girl's name. I could have ignored everyone else's predictions more than I could ignore Calyn's personal experience. Patrick said our child will be the oldest so he wouldn't have anybody to say that to him, but I'm sure there will be plenty of people that would say that to him even if they aren't older brothers, so I'm leaning away from that name now.
So now we're stuck again. I asked Patrick if he thought it would be so hard if we were having a girl because there are quite a few girl's names we like, and he said he thought it would just be different hard. Here we have too few names we like, but with a girl we'd probably have trouble narrowing it down.
The problem is that we're pretty picky. Here are some of our hang-ups:
1. We like the idea of unique names that aren't too strange sounding. Somebody asked me if we meant "unique" like my name or like Patrick's name (which isn't strange at all, but isn't extremely common). I asked Patrick what he thought and I expected him to say like his name, but he said like my name instead.
2. Furthermore, I don't care very much for one-syllable names. Patrick has thrown the name Seth out there and I just shy away from such trite sounds.
3. I also worry about the "cuteness" of sound repetition, so I don't like names that start with "T" or that end with "R" because of our last name. So we talked about Schylar as a possibility, but Schylar Taylor is too sing-songy. Even with Caelan, I asked Patrick if it sounded funny to have the vowel sound repeated (the "a" sound), and he just looked at me like I was insane. I guess that's just my education going to work . . . or going to extremes.
4. Patrick doesn't like Book of Mormon names. We both like Bible names, but so do the rest of the parents of this generation apparently.
5. I like names that are meaningful because I always thought it was fun that my name meant "little fiery one" and my brothers' names mean "Exalted of the Lord" and "Gift from God." My mom could tell us that and we could feel that there was something significant to our names and perhaps to ourselves because of that. (I don't know that my brothers did, but the point is that they could have if they'd wanted to, and I know I certainly did even though my name is a pagan name and not religious at all.) Unfortunately, there are a lot of names that sound all right, but have really lame meanings, like "hillside" or "baker" or something equally unexciting.
6. Patrick doesn't like names that are androgynous: if it's a girl's name it should stay a girl's name, and vice versa. This last isn't really a problem for me, especially not for a son. I'd be more tempted to do that for a girl than for a boy (after all, Jo March is one of my all-time favorite characters).
So here we are without anything to speak of. My mom and others have said that we might know when we see the baby. However, we've also heard a few stories about children who were unnamed for awhile after birth and I hate the idea of taking a child home without a name. This means that I at least want to have some names to pick from that we know we like. The most embarrassing thing about this is that he's our first child. The first should not be so difficult I think, but perhaps after struggling so much with this child's name we'll be warmed up for any younger brothers. At least I hope so because it's ended up being slightly frustrating. Anybody have any ideas of names that meet all of our previous stipulations? Either way, thanks for reading this long rant by a person obsessed with names. (And may I just conclude that it's much easier to come up with names for fictional characters than for a real flesh and blood little child that will blame us if he gets a complex from his name.)
2 comments:
My friend just named her baby Bennett and I love that. Eli used to be on our list too, but became too popular for me to like anymore. Some names I hear lately but aren't too popular yet are Oliver and Henry. We're getting into old names again here it seems. I have a fabulous name for a boy, the only boy name I love, but I will not share it :)
i just read the comment before me, and oliver is soooo cute! i mean, it's cute for a little kid, but you can also see a grown up using it... perhaps that'll be my next baby name. hah. anyway... i know EXACTLY what you're going thru (are you sick of hearing me compare my pregnancy to yours yet???) anyway, my husband had some HORRIBLE names (his first son is named Gage -- yuck, and then he wanted to name this one Flint -- double yuck!) i can't even remember his other suggestions they were so awful. anyway, at first i wanted a name that couldn't have a nickname, like Joseph to Joe, that sorta thing... and also had much the same criteria that you have. so i got a book of names, i think there were 40,000 or so, and it was divided up really nicely, by origin. and i just went thru, and ANY name i could even imagine using, i wrote down, and just kept looking over the list over and over, and saying the names to myself in my head, over and over. Lucas was a name i'd always liked, and i like the name Luke too, so it worked out nicely. and that was actually a name we had picked out right from the beginning, and just kept trying to find something better. and finally about two weeks before he was born, we decided that Lucas it would be. i guess that doesn't help you too much, but it just felt right. i'm sure you'll find something, and you'll know when you find it. BUT here is my suggestion (finally!) have you looked into names from either your ancestors, or patricks? eric (my husband) is hungarian, and really wanted something traditional like that... however those names weren't too exciting. perhaps you've already tested that out, and found nothing... but it's worth a shot. just an idea... okay, i'm done now. :)
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