Madeline loves to name things. She named her handpicked pumpkin Elizabeth. She has a smorgasbord of imaginary friends (some are half-animal; others are simply little girls) that she thoughtfully branded as Feezy, Lassie, and Lucy (to name a few; I can’t keep up with all of her “friends.”). She’s also taken it upon herself to start brainstorming baby names for our little butterbean. (We have our 20-week ultrasound on November 21st, but we’re still undecided about whether we’re going to find out the sex or not.)
Here are her top pics if it’s a girl (she still thinks there’s a chance it’s boy, but she told me flat out that she doesn’t know any good boy names):
Glitter
Angel
Flower
Katherine
I’m thinking Hollywood parents would be all over Glitter.
What about you? Does anyone have a cool story of how you chose your bambino’s moniker? Dave and I had lots of ideas for the first two kiddos, but we’re drawing a name blank this go-around.
My DH and I decided to use our middle names for the first names of our first born son and/or daughter. We had our first child, a son in August. So his first name is my husband’s middle name. Which was the first names of both his grandfather and great-grandfather. Our son’s middle name is my grandfather’s first name. I hope this helps!
My daughter’s #1 pick was Flower, too! She was highly disappointed when it turned out to be a boy!
We’re all about the Biblical names…prophets, judges, and kings (reminds me of the rite of baptism when they are baptized prophet, priest, and king!). Since my husband has a philosophy degree, those names are also on our lists.
It depends mostly on your esthetic- do you like common names, or rare ones? Do you like to honor family members, or do you prefer to create something new? Will it bother you that your child is “Name #5” in her preschool? Or would it be more bothersome for him/her to have to spell the name every…single…time?
Go with something that speaks to you and your family’s culture (both tradition and religion). And I still think you should find out the sex! :) Blessings.
Ohhh Kate, this is one of my very favorite things! Talking about baby names!!! I don’t know if our stories are “cool,” but we gave our first son my father-in-law’s name as a first name, and my paternal grandfather’s name as a middle name.* Our second son got for a first name a name we both loved, and my husband’s first name for a middle. Our third son’s first-and-middle combo were my husband’s paternal grandfather’s first-and-middles. I love names that are obviously Catholic (saints, popes, etc.), and I love Biblical names.
* Actually, my first son’s name decision was kind of interesting … I really wanted my dad to be honored with the middle name, but his name really didn’t go with our chosen first name (which was important to my husband to keep, since his dad died when he was just six) … so I thought of three names that we’d like to choose between for my dad — his first, his middle, and his dad’s name — and then I left it up to him. It was actually really nice, because we were at our family’s plot in a cemetery in Ireland at the time, when I was seven months pregnant. I told Dad we really wanted to honor him with our baby’s middle name, if we had a boy, and what did he think of the three names? He himself didn’t seem too excited by either his first or middle, but when I said his dad’s name, he teared up and said, “That’s a very special name.” So that was it! Even though it’s not my dad’s name, I tell everyone that my son’s middle name is for my dad.
Kate —
all our boys have the same initials – JMC, because all the men in my husband’s family have the same initials. We used “J” names that we both liked for the first names and all of their middle names are “M” names from my side of the family, since their initials are from my husband’s side.
Once again, we are in very similar boats. I’ve been trying not to think too hard about names until the ultrasound (NOV 3), but hubby and I have talked about if it’s a boy, to make him “the third.” I guess in one more week I really start thinking about it!
Our name stories are quite boring but I’m going to leave this comment anyway.
My husband chose the first name Morgan for our daughter and I chose the middle name Elizabeth for a favorite great-aunt of mine.
When I was pregnant with our second daughter, we ran into my husband’s French professor in a local restaurant. He looked at his little daughter and said, “Madeleine, asseyez toi,” and some other string of words in French and I couldn’t get it out of my head. I kept this picture of a beautiful little Madeleine running around while my husband spoke to her in French. So she’s named Madeleine Grace. Aside: In the delivery room, she came out and the surgeon asked what her name is. We told him and he replied, “oh I have a daughter named Madeline.” The nurse said the same thing. *sigh*
We seem to agree on Old Testament names for our boys, we have a Noah Samuel. In the delivery room, he came out, (the same) surgeon asked what his name was, we told him, and he said, “Oh, I have a son named Noah.” Are you seeing a pattern here? (Surgeon’s got 9 kids)
With baby #4, I couldn’t get my husband to start thinking about names, so after our ultrasound, I just started calling him Joseph. That got Husband very interested in thinking about names because he didn’t want to use Joseph. We named him Isaiah. He was gracious enough to let me use Joseph for a middle name.
How’s that for long-winded!
Wish I could say that we read stories about saints and angels and chose the most holy and devout ones to name our children after, but we flipped through 100,000 Baby Names (a book) and hi-lited our choices, then made lists, compared, and narrowed it down.
Good luck!!
Kate — if you’re interested, there’s a web site I love called Nymbler (www.nymbler.com) … it’s maintained by Laura Wattenburg, who wrote my favorite baby name book: “The Baby Name Wizard.” The coolest feature is that you can type in names you like (your girls’ names, for example, and/or others that are your taste), and Nymbler will generate either boys’ or girls’ names (or both) that match your choices in style and feel, based on things like popularity, ethnicity, historical background, etc. It’s very cool!
i promise this won't be remotely helpful, but it is definitely fun: http://www.yeahbaby.com/celebrity-baby-names/generator.php?gender=girl&lastname=
my favorite so far: cranberry coriander;)